Page 24 of Nursing the Alpha

FLYNN

M y stomach buzzed as I tied the laces of my sneakers with shaking fingers. Was today the day? For two weeks, I’d been expectant, hopeful, but nothing. Although I was disappointed, not knowing when also stirred a peculiar kind of excitement.

The apartment felt too still, the tick of the clock loud in the quiet. Outside, the glow of the streetlight bled weakly through the curtains.

This early, the neighborhood was empty.

Good.

I tugged my sweatshirt over my hips and checked the lock on the door twice, then stepped out into the hall. I walked down the staircase, anxious for my morning run.

As I exited, the cold kissed my skin, sharp enough to raise goose bumps.

It was just a run.

Except it wasn’t.

Not when I knew who might be out there. Somewhere.

Watching .

I swallowed, my pulse quickening, and started down the street.

Seth hadn’t said where he’d be. Only that I should take my usual route. That I shouldn’t hold back. He wanted me sweaty, flushed, breathing hard when he caught up.

I’d laughed nervously when he’d said it.

The first stretch of my run was easy. Familiar. Streetlights passed overhead, pools of yellow giving way to shadow and back again.

But the closer I got to the park, the tighter my chest felt.

Was he already there?

Was he watching me now?

The thought made my skin prickle. Made heat curl low in my belly.

When I reached the park entrance, the path yawned ahead, narrow and lined with tall trees that swallowed what little light the streetlamps offered.

I hesitated.

This was the path I hated running alone.

This was also the path where he’d scared me that first time.

My sneakers crunched against damp leaves as I followed the path, quickening my pace.

The woods were silent except for the sound of my breathing and the slap-slap of my soles against the ground.

Snap .

I whipped my head around.

The sound had come from deeper in the trees, sharp in the stillness.

“Hello?” My voice was embarrassingly thin.

Nothing answered.

I stopped and turned back to the path, heart hammering .

It was him. It had to be him.

I’d told him to do this.

Hadn’t I? Why was I scared?

Another sound. Closer this time. A low, deliberate growl that made the hair on the back of my neck rise.

I stumbled forward, adrenaline spiking. My body screamed to run.

So I ran.

My feet pounded harder against the ground, breath coming fast now—too fast. The cold air burned my lungs, my chest rising and falling with frantic little hitches.

It’s him.

It has to be him.

Leaves crunched to my left. Closer.

I dared a glance over my shoulder. Shadows blended between the trees. Nothing.

“…Seth?”

My voice cracked. Pathetic.

No answer.

Fuck.

My pulse shot higher, a drumbeat in my ears.

“Is that you?” I called again, louder this time, trying to sound braver than I felt.

Still nothing.

Panic crawled up my spine. My logical brain whispered— it’s him, it’s a game, you asked for this . But another part, older and rawer, hissed— what if it’s not?

What if someone else had seen me? Followed me?

God, what would they do to me if it wasn’t Seth?

Another sound, this one behind me. Closer. Fast.

I bolted.

My sneakers skidded on damp leaves as I pushed harder, my muscles screaming in protest. Sweat slicked my back, my curls sticking damply to my forehead.

The woods blurred around me. Branches clawed at my sleeves, snagging the fabric. My milk-heavy chest ached with every jolt.

“Seth!” I shouted again, more desperate now. “Seth, please say something!”

Let me know it’s you.

Still nothing.

Was it him?

God, please let it be him.

The footsteps grew louder. Heavy. Measured.

They weren’t running.

They didn’t have to.

The path curved sharply, and I took it too fast, nearly losing my balance.

A hand—large, strong—snatched my wrist.

I yelped as I was wrenched back, my momentum yanked out from under me.

A weight crashed into me from behind, driving me to the ground with a thud that knocked the air from my lungs.

I hit the cold earth hard, leaves and dirt biting into my palms as I tried to catch my breath. Surely, if it was Seth, he wouldn’t have been so rough with me.

The body above me was solid. Warm. A wall of muscle pinning me down. Panic clawed its way up my throat in a scream that cut short.

A sharp scent hit my nose—cedar and spice, so familiar a shiver ran down my spine.

Seth.

He wore a mask. Black. Smooth. Featureless.

Not Seth’s face. Not his gentle eyes. But a predator’s blank stare pinning me in place .

My stomach twisted violently, heat coiling low in my belly.

I thrashed hard, clawing at the earth beneath me. “Let me go!” I cried, though even I heard the tremor in my voice, my cock strained against my sweat pants.

He didn’t let go.

A gloved hand caught my ankle as I kicked, and then I was being dragged backward, leaves and twigs scraping at my back, my arms flailing uselessly.

“No—please! Don’t!”

The words came out high, breathless, and my cock twitched shamefully at the sound of my voice.

This was a game. Just a game.

Still, panic gripped my ribs tight, and the air seemed to thicken around me.

He yanked me deeper into the trees, out of sight from the trail. A fist knotted in my sweatshirt and shoved me flat against the cold, damp ground.

My hands scrambled to push him off, but he was all solid weight and sharp strength, straddling my hips as if he belonged there.

He clamped his hand over my mouth.

I froze, my chest heaving under the crushing hold.

Even though I knew it was Seth, the way he was rough and that black mask sent a shiver of terror through me.

Oh god.

A hot, electric rush tore through my gut. It’d been two years since I’d experienced it, but I couldn’t mistake it for what it was.

Heat.

It slammed into me so fast my breath hitched and my thighs trembled.

Not now. Not—god, not now .

But my body didn’t care. I’d been warned that the first heat after a pregnancy could hit abruptly.

A sharp ache bloomed low in my belly, as well as a throbbing emptiness that screamed to be filled. My channel slicked fast, soaking through my underwear, spreading wetness.

My chest prickled from the milk pooling painfully in my glands. My nipples tightened to aching peaks as they pressed against the damp fabric.

No. No, no, no.

My first heat wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not while we were playing this dangerous game. My heat would make him even more feral. More primal. More animal.

But now, under him, bound in his weight, my traitorous body was lighting up like a fucking beacon.

The masked man above me growled low, a sound so wild my cock twitched violently in my sweatpants.

I whimpered into his palm, squeezing my thighs tight.

I should fight.

But the heat made it impossible.

Every brush of his gloved fingers over my skin left my nerve endings sparking. My back arched despite myself, a pathetic attempt to rub against the pressure between my thighs.

The mask stared back at me. Blank. Implacable.

Not Seth. Not my Seth.

This was a monster.

The kind from my filthiest alien romance novels. The ones who hunted down tiny omegas like me and bred them so full they couldn’t walk for days.

God help me, my cock throbbed at the thought.

“Please,” I whimpered, my voice muffled under his hand. “Please don’t?— ”

But I didn’t mean it.

Not really.

He tore at my sweatpants and underwear with rough hands, fabric splitting with a sharp rip that made my hole clench in anticipation.

I gasped into his palm as cool air licked at my soaked slit.

So wet. So embarrassingly ready.

He didn’t hesitate and plunged two thick fingers inside me, stretching me open fast. Too fast.

I jerked my hips.

A choked sound escaped me—half sob, half moan—as my body betrayed me completely.

Slick gushed around his fingers, coating them with wet heat. My channel fluttered pathetically, gripping him like it couldn’t stand to let him go.

He wrenched my wrists together with his free hand and tied a bandanna around them, binding me.

Then he was between my thighs, dragging my legs apart like he owned them.

“No, don’t. Please.”

I tried to squirm away, but the heat was burning hotter now, a fever in my blood. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Could only feel.

The masked man grunted and unzipped his pants.

The sound alone made my body clench in need.

With one thrust, he was inside me.

Thick. Relentless.

I screamed into his palm he’d slapped over my mouth as he bottomed out in a brutal thrust.

The pain, the stretch, the fucking fullness?—

It broke me.

My body arched off the forest floor, my chest heaving, milk leaking through my thin shirt .

He set a brutal rhythm, fucking me like an animal, each thrust jarring my tied hands, leaves and dirt sticking to my sweat-slick skin.

My body responded shamelessly despite my mind screaming to resist, spiraling into an abyss of pleasure I didn’t want to welcome but was powerless to deny. I bucked my hips against his, matching his rhythm instinctively, and heat surged through my veins.

The mask never looked away.

This wasn’t Seth. This was a beast. A mercenary alien from space, rutting his captive omega open on the cold forest floor.

I sobbed against his palm. “Stop—please, stop?—”

He growled low, pace snapping faster. My hole quivered helplessly around him, sucking him in deeper, as though my body couldn’t get enough.

The milk letdown hit hard. My pecs ached, and then his mouth—hot and hungry—latched onto my nipple, sucking deep.

“God, oh God—” I sobbed, my toes curling as pleasure racked my heat-hazed body.

My orgasm hit me like a truck, cock jerking uselessly between us as I came hard.

With a grunt, he pulled out, wrapping his hand around his erection and pumping hard. His seed spilled hot over my stomach, thick and potent, while my body convulsed beneath him, utterly spent.

Yet still craving more.