Page 41 of Protector (Alpha Ties)
EPILOGUE
JACOB
Two Weeks Later
An echo of discomfort stops him mid-swing, the otherwise smooth motion of his axe against wood coming to a halt.
Distracted, Jacob looks to the cabin’s upper floor where his mate’s supposed to be relaxing. The hospital’s cleared her for light activity, but when he carried her up to the bedroom of their rented little retreat less than half an hour ago, he gave her clear instructions to rest while he chopped some firewood and got everything set up.
Judging from the twinge in their bond, she’s not been an obedient girl. No surprise there.
Sighing, he leaves his plaid shirt and axe by the chopping block and walks back inside to make sure his mate stops whatever it is she’s doing that’s twinging her freshly-healed wound.
He finds her in the tiny bathroom, naked from the waist up as she twists to see the fresh, pink scar where the now very dead doctor stabbed her.
“Did you hurt yourself?” he asks, pushing through the door to inspect her wound for himself.
“No, it just pinched a… a bit.” She stutters as he lets his hand rest on her hip to gently press at her side with two fingers. Her skin moves, but her scar stays welded.
“What were you doing?” he asks, sliding his palm up to make sure there is no seepage. “And don’t tell me ‘nothing.’ I felt your pain.”
“Oh, my god, you are such an alpha stereotype. I was unpacking and twisted funny. There wasn’t pain, there was a pinch.”
He flicks his eyes up to meet hers in the mirror, brows drawing into a disapproving frown. “Why were you unpacking when you should be resting?”
She levels his reflection with a flat stare. “I’ve done nothing but lay in bed for the past two weeks—literally nothing, thanks to your overprotective ass insisting on carrying me to and from the toilet. Do you even care how much the nurses were laughing at you? The doctor said I’m good, I feel good—and I’m one hundred percent done being babied.”
“One hundred percent, huh?” he asks, raising a taunting eyebrow at his stubborn woman in the mirror—and catches sight of her bared breasts. He didn’t pay her half-naked state much mind before—he was too concerned for her well-being—but her flippant attitude, along with the sturdiness of her scar, does support her claims.
The relief of her successful healing is followed by a rapidly rising reminder that it’s been two long weeks since he showed her how an alpha is meant to worship his mate.
“Yes, one hundred percent,” she replies tartly, unaware of his shifting attentions. “So no, I’m not going back to bed. Don’t even try me.”
“Hmm,” he hums, stepping closer up behind her so he can slide his arm around her middle. “Not the bed? Where else would you like to spend the evening then, my mate?”
“Oh.” She stiffens in his grip, gray eyes darting up to his. The intent she sees there colors her chest, neck, and face a delicious shade of pink. “That’s not what I… meant.”
“No?” He slides his hand up her stomach to cup a breast, bracing her body against his own when the flick of a thumb over her nipple makes her jolt back against him. “Do you need to rest after all?”
The color in her cheeks deepens, and she fans her lashes down to break their eye contact. “No.” It’s not quite a whisper, but it’s close.
She’s still stiff against him, not entirely at ease with what comes next, but the flicker of anticipation in their bond betrays the stark difference to the woman who begged him for pain. Her lingering awkwardness is from unfamiliarity, not fear. Not the past.
Gently he rolls her nipple between his fingers, and she shivers in response, leaning back more heavily against his chest. Her body remembers the pleasure he gave her, not the pain she knew before.
“I will never hurt you,” he murmurs as he bends to brush a kiss to her temple, an echo of the promise he’s made before every other time they’ve been intimate.
“Mm,” she agrees, allowing her back to mold to his body as she relaxes in his grip. Trusting him.
It’s such a simple thing—barely even a gesture—but it makes his chest tight with emotion. His wounded little monster, finally healed enough to accept that they belong together in every way. Eager to be reunited, even if she won’t yet admit it out loud. Her body betrays the truth all the same, soft skin warming under his hands, the first touch of female arousal flirting with his nostrils.
“But if you don’t want to rest, little mate, you need to spread your pussy nice and wide. You spent three long years making me yearn. I’m not about to let you off easy. You never needed to force me to make me do your bidding—all you had to do was bend over and present that pretty little cunt, and I’d have given you anything and everything.
“But that’s not what you did, so here we are. And I’m gonna make your pussy work off every single minute of those three years.” His voice is a rich, sultry purr right in her ear.
She inhales sharply. “Jacob!” His name is meant as an admonishment, but it comes out as a breathy moan.
Once upon a time, his words would have terrified her. Deep down, she must have always known how she’d have to repent for what she’s done—he’s an alpha, and she’s his mate. There is only one way to restore the power balance between them. That’s why she asked for pain. Expected humiliation.
Now, though… Now the prospect of having her pussy take the punishment for every wicked thing she’s ever put him through makes her quiver in his grasp, and with something other than fear.
He groans as her scent grows thicker in the air, and dips the hand not busy on her breast into the front of her pants. She sucks in another sharp breath and jerks when he brushes his fingertips through her cleft, dipping them low to coat the pads with the liquid proof of how much she wants him to take what he’s owed.
“It’s not gonna hurt, Addie,” he rasps, his own desire graveling his voice as he finds her little bud and gently strokes.
“Oh, fuck!” she whines, head smacking back against his chest as her pelvis pushes into his fingers for more. In the mirror, her face is screwed up with tight anticipation, heat flushing her chest a rich shade of pink. Even in his most obscene fantasies, he could never have imagined her like this—so warm and utterly, undeniably willing.
“It’s not gonna hurt, but it is gonna continue until you beg for rest. And when you wake up again, still sore and used, I’m gonna spread your legs and have you again. Then we’ll eat, and I’ll take you again. And again.
“While you rest your little pussy, I’ll chop firewood and make sure you’ve got everything you need. I’ll bring you lunch, little goddess, cook you dinner and kneel by your feet to remind you of my devotion. But only when you beg.
“The rest of the time I’ll be inside you, teaching you every lesson you should have learned over the past three years.” He presses firmer on her clit and gets a mewl in response, her hands flailing for purchase before they land on the sink, bracing.
“Imagine that,” he growls, giving her nipple a sharp tug. “ The esteemed Doctor Adelaide Thompson, wet and ready to be mounted by… was it ‘a beast’ you called me, when you couldn’t quite explain away how hard your piece of machinery got from just your mere presence?”
“I’m—I’m sorry,” she gasps, a tremor passing over her beautiful, tortured features as he rubs her harshly, punishing her clit with the intensity of pleasure. “So, so sorry. Jacob?—”
“Don’t be,” he purrs against her ear, lowering his voice to a raspy whisper. “I’ll enjoy showing you exactly how a beast would have fucked your defenseless little hole until you come so hard you can’t even beg me to stop, even as your pussy screams for mercy.”
Her guttural moan is followed by a flood of moisture soaking through her panties, wetting his fingers to the knuckles.
“Seems like you’ll enjoy it too.” He releases her nipple and clit, chuckles as her eyelids fly open with a desperate, “No, don’t stop!”, and yanks her pants and panties down over her hips to pool around her ankles.
He has hazy plans about burying his tongue in her pussy until her climax fills his mouth, but before he can kneel behind her, his horny little mate leans over the sink and spreads her thighs as wide as she can within the confines of her pants trapping her ankles.
His gaze darts from her round ass to the mirror, catching gray eyes framed by black-rimmed glasses. Without breaking eye contact, she arcs her back in silent invitation.
Blood pounds in his ears as he takes in the mirrored reflection of his needy female submitting so prettily. There is no hint of hesitation or fear on her face this time; just a yearning deep enough to rival his own.
There will be no holding back this time, either. With fingers made stiff from desperation, he fumbles with his zipper and rips the damn thing when his cock springs free, hard and proud. He catches Addie’s eyes widening in the mirror, but quickly shifts his focus down to where her ass is popped up to display her beautiful cunt.
Groaning, he strokes a hand the full length along her dripping lower lips, then pulls back to spread her with two fingers.
“Oh, God, hurry up!” she mewls, pushing back against him as if to spear herself on his digits. “I need you inside me. Please, Jacob, please!”
Despite his promises to make it rough and unrelenting, he was always going to enter her gently. At least, that was the plan—a plan that crumbles to dust the second his name spills from her lips and she pleads for him, her keening voice yanking on everything that makes him alpha.
Roaring like the beast he promised he’d show her, he falls on top of her, one hand catching the bulk of his weight on the counter and the other grabbing for his cock. He finds her silken opening on instinct, the soft flesh catching around his tip as he spears into her, reluctant to surrender to the full girth of him. But everything is heat and that taunting, wet kiss of her innermost is madness itself. Without thought, without anything but the knowledge that if he doesn’t get inside her he’ll die, Jacob slams his hips to her ass, forcing his cock through her body’s resistance in one, rough push.
Addie screams, but the sound is muted by the thundering of his own heartbeat. For one long, glorious second, everything is dulled but the raw sensation of finally, finally being inside her. She grips every inch of him, silky soft flesh over tight muscle wrapping around him from all sides, pulling him deeper, deeper. Unthinkingly, he grabs her hips and forces her down from her tiptoes, groaning with nearly unbearable pleasure when his head brushes against her fluttering cervix. He is finally there, finally home.
“Addie.” His voice breaks on her name, and he can’t get enough of her—will never, ever get enough. “Addie!”
Her cries break through the cocoon of madness, bringing with it everything : the smell of sex, the wild look on her screwed-up face in the mirror, the warmth of her skin against his—the pulsing, throbbing, all-consuming ecstasy flowing through their wide-open bond.
This is all he’ll ever need. She is all he needs.
He grips her hips so tight she won’t ever escape—and then, he takes what’s his.
It’s nothing like either time he’s been inside her before. The first was guilt and horror mixed with exquisite pleasure. The second was beautiful, all-consuming relief of uniting with the woman born to be his and his alone.
This time, it’s raw, animal need.
Her pussy smacks a wet, continuous rhythm to underline his harsh grunts as he fucks her with everything he’s got. It’s a far more savage penetration than she has endured from him before, but though her wails fill the small bathroom and her nails scratch desperately at the wood beneath her, there is nothing but pleasure in their bond. This is what they both need.
“Fuck, Jacob, I’m gonna come!” Her high-pitched moan is followed by a flutter of her slick muscles all along his cock, and then a tight, near-painful squeeze. “Oh, my God!”
Growling at the maddening sensation of her pussy’s grip, he grabs her by the throat and pulls her straining body up with him, forcing her to arc as she comes so hard her eyes roll back in their sockets.
She’s a tight bowstring against him, barely conscious as her pussy milks him through her climax. And then, just as suddenly as it struck, every muscle in her body relaxes and she sags, entirely spent.
Unfortunately for her, he has yet to take his.
“Nnh.” His first thrust into her softened sheath has her face screwing up, but instead of protesting, she grabs for his hips, bracing.
“Good girl,” he groans into her messy hair. “You know how to come. You get one more, and then you’re gonna take the knot.”
Her moaned response is less than enthusiastic, but when he moves the hand not wrapped around her throat to her clit, she’s soon on her way to a second climax, all thoughts of what comes after forgotten.
But there is no delaying the inevitable. When her tight little cunt starts trembling on his thrusting cock again, his knot swells almost immediately, forcing her opening wider with his every harsh thrust.
“Shit!” Addie digs her nails into his hip as she tries to push away, but he gives her no respite. With rough, short pumps, he forces his female over the edge, shattering her resistance as her pussy clamps down and sends her flying.
“Fuck!” Jacob’s barely aware of the growled curse, all senses turning to the impossible sensation of his knot swelling hard in her straining opening. For a few blissful seconds, everything is a white, hazy bliss.
A sharp shriek of protest yanks him back, and he presses his thumb hard against her clit and forces his knot deeper, groaning at the divine sensation when it snaps into place behind her pelvic bone.
His climax comes on the heels of hers, sucked from his balls by the force of her pussy’s desperate fluttering. There is nothing but bliss as his semen fills her hallowed core, her syrupy mewls of pleasure ringing in his ears and deep into his soul.
Moaning, he buries his mouth in her shoulder, teeth sinking into the grooves of her scar. He keeps her locked in his bite through another orgasm forced by his thumb on her swollen bud, but when her pussy eases its tremors on his girth and he strums her clit again, determined to give her another high, she pushes his hand away.
“No more.” Her voice is rough from screaming, thick with endorphins. “Please. I want to feel it.”
It takes him a moment to understand, but when he does, he relents. Sliding both arms around her waist to keep her steady, he eases his bite to press gentle kisses to her neck and shoulder while she gasps and learns to take his knot without the distraction of clitoral stimulation.
It’s too soon to be purely pleasurable—he feels it in the tightness of her sheath as much as he sees it play across the fine tremor on her pretty features. And yet his mate relaxes back against him, accepting his tie and everything it represents.
“I love you.” The words are hoarse, pulled from his throat by the magnitude of her willingness to endure his knot without distraction. That he could find this, with her, of all people… It will never cease to amaze him that this is what was buried behind her wall of ice.
“I love you too,” she whispers.
He waits for a panicked retraction, but none follows.
Gently he tips her head up and to the side to catch her eyes. “You’re not going to take it back this time?”
The corner of her lip hikes up the smallest amount. “Nuh-uh. Too high on endorphins.”
Jacob grins and pecks her lips. “I’ll remember that.”
Her smile softens as she looks up at him, the love in her pretty eyes making his chest tighten. And then, much to his dismay, her expression cracks and tears spill down her cheeks.
“What can I do?” he rumbles, holding her closer, even as his knot releases much swifter than he’d hoped. Seems his mate’s tears have about the same effect as an icy shower.
“Nothing,” she sobs. “It’s not you, I?—”
“I know,” he murmurs. Because he does. The ache in their bond, and the hopelessness blending through their blissful respite, lets him know exactly what has his mate crying in his arms. However unexpectedly happy their ending, it’s not come without sacrifice and loss.
“I never realized how happy my mom must have been with my dad. I always thought… I thought there had to be some sort of Stockholm syndrome, for her to love him like she does. But it’s just that they are Fated too, isn’t it? I know what he is, and I know what he’s done—but he’s still my dad. And he loves my mom so, so much. But he’s going to be executed, and that will kill her too. God, if you—if you were on death row, I… I wouldn’t care what you’d done. I’d want to die with you.” She turns away from him and buries her face in her hands, her sobs making her shake in his arms.
His knot entirely deflated, he pulls out of her and spins her around so he can pull her into his chest.
“Addie.” He says her name like a command. Her head pops up on instinct, hardwired biology urging her to obey her alpha.
“You don’t have to grieve for them, mate. I will fix this.” He nudges her chin up with the crook of his finger, forcing her to take in the promise in his eyes. “I won’t see you hurt; not by this, not by anything.”
She shakes her head, tears still flowing freely. “There’s nothing you can do. Even if you broke into Ezban to free him, they’d come for you next. And I won’t risk you, not even for my parents. Never, ever you.”
“You won’t,” he simply says, cupping her cheek. “I promise. But I am going to fix this. Dry your tears, little mate, and trust that I will make everything okay. Can you do that?”
Sniffling, she nods, and despite her doubts, in her eyes he sees the unbreakable faith a woman should always have for her alpha.
“Good girl,” he murmurs, planting a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll make you an obedient mate yet.”
She snorts, gaze flashing up to the tilt of his lips. “If that’s truly what you wanted, you really should have picked another woman.”
“Fate picked—I did not.”
“Hmm,” she hums, one eyebrow arching. “Then perhaps trust that Fate better knows what kind of mate you need.”
“Perhaps,” he relents, grabbing her by the hips so he can lift her up on the vanity.
She huffs when her ass impacts with the wood, and again when he presses in between her thighs, forcing her to spread them wide. When she glances down between their bodies, her lips flatten to a disapproving line. “Really? It’s not even been five minutes.”
“I warned you what was gonna happen. If you want a break, you’re gonna have to beg.”
Her other eyebrow joins the first high on her forehead. “Fate didn’t give you the begging kind of mate, either.”
“We’ll have to see about that.”
Reaching down between them, Jacob brings his once-again hard cock to her still-open pussy. Before she can protest, he pushes up, hilting her smoothly in one, long stroke. Her responding groan makes a primal thrill run up his spine. Hopefully it’ll be a good long while before his stubborn mate swallows her pride enough to beg for a break.
NINE DAYS LATER
Moonlight streams in through the wispy curtains when Jacob gently extracts himself from his passed-out mate.
She’d tried her best to out-stubborn his rampant need to be inside her, but eventually, she did beg him for rest. True to his word, he allowed her respite while he prepared food for them both. Then he carried her down the stairs when she complained of how he’d rendered her unable to walk straight, and made sure she ate her fill in front of the open fireplace—where he’d then proceeded to mount her again. And again.
Her pleas for a break came faster that time, and once again, he’d relented. For a few hours.
She’d growled at him in the beginning, but despite her token protests, once she’d rested, she never told him no. Instead, during the past nine days, she’s let go of the guilt, the sorrow, and allowed him to become her alpha in every way.
“Hmm?” His mate’s sleepy murmur draws his attention back to her pretty face. Her mouth is half-open and a piece of hair sticks to her cheek. For all intents and purposes, she’s still fully knocked-out, but the separation of their bodies has disturbed her.
“I’m just getting some wood for the fireplace,” he murmurs, stroking a hand over her hip before pulling the blanket from the floor to cover her body. “I’ll be back shortly.”
“Mm,” she agrees, snuggling into the blanket before stilling again.
Moving quietly, Jacob pulls on his jeans and sneaks down the stairs. He takes a moment to pour two mugs of coffee from the thermos before he walks out into the night.
“I wouldn’t have taken Dr. Thompson for a screamer.”
The rumbling voice comes from the tree line. When Jacob spins toward it, a large, hulking figure steps out from behind an old oak.
“But then, she’s provided us a great many surprises since you mated her.” The man steps into the moonlight, accepting the mug Jacob offers him.
“You’ve waited long?”
AX1 chuffs, shrugging a shoulder. “Couple of hours. S’all right. One expects delays when dealing with a newly mated man. At least I find your mate significantly less distasteful than I did before I heard how well she takes a knot.”
Jacob levels him with a look.
The other alpha lifts his mug-free hand. “All right, enough jokes about the girl. She paid her dues, taking that knife for Jack.”
“Speaking of—he’s not here?” Jacob gives the surrounding trees a cursory glance, but he would’ve known if someone was out there. It’s just him and AX1 in the darkness.
“I made him stay back.” AX1 sighs and blows into his mug before taking a sip. “I’ve got an idea what you’re gonna ask, and I’m gonna be the one to do it. Had to tie the kid up, mind you. He’s determined to pay back your missus for saving him, but… yeah, don’t buy his bullshit that he’s got nothing to go home to.”
“A sister, was it?” Jacob says, remembering something Addie mentioned about the young alpha.
AX1 grins. “I fucking hope not, the way he’s pining. Anyway, whoever she is, he’s gonna want to be able to go back to her some day. And I take it, considering you didn’t ask any of the guys with families to come here, whoever does it won’t have that option.”
Jacob nods and glances at the other male. “If her dad’s executed, both her parents die. I can’t let that happen. Everything’s still too fresh. But what I’m asking goes beyond the bonds of brotherhood.”
“Nah. It doesn’t. Not the bonds forged in the place we were made.” AX1 takes another sip of coffee and looks up, locking his gaze with Jacob’s. “All I want is a quiet life far, far away from American shores. I want a name to call mine and a little cabin in the woods. A gun to hunt with and a boat to fish from. I want peace. If you can get me that, I can get your mate’s shitty dad out of Ezban. Mind, he might not enjoy where I drop him off, but he’ll be alive. And with his wife.”
“I don’t care where you take him, so long as they both live,” Jacob says. He wants them alive for his mate’s sake, but he hasn’t forgotten what she told him about the promotion the former general got in return for sacrificing his daughter to a superior’s monstrous son. “I can get you what you ask, and my eternal gratitude along with it. Are you sure that’s what you want? Because once Thompson’s out of Ezban, there’s no returning to U.S. soil.”
AX1 finishes his coffee and places the mug on the chopping block before he claps a hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “I’m sure. The others—they’ve got their memories intact. Their families. You’ve got your mate. I’ve got nothing but bitterness. I don’t have much gratitude to your mate for how she treated us while we were under her thumb, but she did right by us all in the end. And I acknowledge, had she not conducted her twisted little experiments, we’d have been dead long before this all played out. So I’m doing this one last thing, and then I’ll consider my debt paid. And I’ll be gone.”
“Then thank you, brother,” Jacob says softly, placing his hand on top of AX1’s for a brief moment.
“Give me a few weeks. I’ll need to make sure you and the others all have solid alibis, and from what I heard before, it’ll be a while before you two’ll be capable of doing anything but fucking.” AX1 gives him a small grin as he steps back into the shadows. “Enjoy your life, my kin. You’ve earned every scrap of goodness you’ve got, even if you seem to think it’s all found between your mate’s shapely thighs.”
Jacob barks a laugh and waves him off. He waits by the chopping block until he can no longer sense the other alpha’s presence among the trees. Then he turns back to the cabin to find peace with the woman he loves.
Author’s note:
Thank you for reading Protector! I hope you loved it—and that Addie eventually redeemed herself. It was such a treat to write a morally grey FMC, and to see her fall in love with her alpha cinnamon roll.
If you’ve already enjoyed book 1 and 2 ( Alpha and Feral ) in the series, then I’ve got another (extremely) steamy Omegaverse romance for you.
This one’s maybe got more of a psycho stalker MMC than a cinnamon roll, though…
He binds me in red ribbons and says my safe word is ‘mistletoe.’
On Christmas Eve, a masked Alpha breaks into my home.
He’s been stalking me, he says. Following my every move. He knows everything about me—how high my mortgage is, how little I earn at my soul-destroying customer service job. What kind of shameful secrets I keep in my nightstand.
How lonely I am.
So, he gives me an offer I can’t refuse:
Submit to him for one night, and he’ll pay off my home.
After all, what’s one night of painful pleasure for longterm financial security?
But I should have known never to trust an obsessed Alpha. Should have known that agreeing to his arrangement would only make him demand so much more than a single night of my reluctant submission.
He bought my body. He won’t stop until he claims my heart, too.
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