Page 16 of Psycho Alphas: Part Two

What was beneath made my stomach turn.

It was poison. Terror and pain colliding in a swamp of toxicity.

I shifted my hand to her waist, paying close attention.

There was a shock of relief first—the heat, the part of her that was desperate for touch. But the anxiety that followed was like a spill of black ink, almost choking her.

She tensed, and I realised my purring had stuttered out as I felt what she felt. Her grip on me dug in, little fingers holding on in fear almost as much as I could feel her clinging to me in the bond. Now that it was open, it was as if she couldn’t let go.

I needed to figure this out, but I didn’t know if she knew what she wanted.

She’d been attacked, watched the Alpha she loved bite someone else under threat of death, almost been raped, and then been driven into a premature and vicious heat.

“I want you to talk to me,” I whispered, lifting my hand and cupping her cheek.

That touch drew out no fear. No ink spill.

I frowned. “Do you want me here?”

“Yes.” She spoke so fast, the word almost tripped on its way out.

I stroked her cheek, trying to parse out what was happening as she leaned into that touch with no issue. What was making her afraid?

“Do you want to touch me?” I asked.

She nodded.

Slowly, I lowered my hand from her cheek and brushed her waist. Again, I felt the spike of relief followed by a seething mass of anxiety.

Right… So, we weren’t doing this right now.

I would find another way to deal with her heat.

I drew my touch away. “Tell me what you’re feeling?”

“Uh…” She swallowed, then added a choked whisper. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“You can tell me anyway.”

“I like… when you touch me.”

“Okay.” I believed her. I’d felt that. But there was more to it. “And then?”

“I mean… it doesn’t… it doesn’t really matter.”

“It matters to me,” I said.

“I don’t know, I think then I get scared?”

“Of what?”

“Of—” She cut off, frowning as if she didn’t know why she’d been about to say whatever it was. “Well, that’s stupid.”

“Tell me?”

She forced a smile as if to shrug it off, but the tears swimming in her eyes sabotaged the act. I waited, thumb back to stroking her cheek again.

“I don’t know; it’s like if you do, then you’re going to want to have sex with me. But that’s dumb because I don’t not want to have sex.”