Page 20

Gideon

T here was no doubt that Bethany was rapidly going into heat. When she opened the bathroom door, the smell of slick and arousal hit me in the face so strongly, I was amazed I managed to keep control of myself.

The fact she was calling herself a chore also probably had something to do with my restraint. The idea that Bethany could consider herself a task to be done was baffling. How did she fail to see herself clearly?

As Jensen disappeared down the hallway to check on our daughter, I wrapped my arm around Bethany’s waist and dragged her in the opposite direction.

To my bedroom.

I could have taken her to any of the rooms in the house for a little privacy, but my alpha was in control of that decision.

With her smelling as good as she did, I needed her in my space.

I wanted her scent in my room. Was it the responsible thing to do?

No, but I still did it. It was hard to maintain any semblance of control when I had Bethany throwing herself at me, smelling like pure sex.

“Bethany?” I pulled back to look her in the eye, but she was determined to stay glued to me.

Fuck.

Every curve of her body was amazing, pressed up against me.

I wanted to run my hands over her, to touch every inch.

Usually I had the answers. I was a levelheaded alpha, and I trusted my gut.

Only, I had no idea what to do in this situation.

Was Bethany lucid enough to consent? According to Joey, they’d been having a conversation only minutes earlier, which would insinuate that she wasn’t too lost in the heat haze yet, but judging by the smell, she was barreling straight into a deep heat.

It wasn’t unheard of for a heat to come on suddenly without any warning, especially in a situation like Bethany’s, when she’d never had a heat before.

“Bethany, we need to discuss this,” I said, my voice firm.

She shook her head, plastering her face against my neck.

Part of me considered locking her in a room and leaving her to ride it out, but that would just be cruel.

Omegas could go through their heat solo if they were medicated and had been through a few before, but if it wasn’t treated carefully, an omega going through a heat alone would end up with a host of health issues.

An adorable growl escaped Bethany, and she spoke, her face still pressed against my neck.

“Is this sensible? No, I am aware enough to know that. But my fucking god, this hurts, Gideon, and you have the ability to make it stop. If you don’t want to knot me, just leave me alone. But don’t stay here and torture me.”

Her voice broke at the end, and with it, my last thread of resolve was destroyed.

We were in this now.

There was no way I could let her suffer.

My hands tangled in her blonde mane of hair, tugging her face away from my neck so we were nose to nose.

Her breath smelled just like her—sweet, crisp apple.

Our lips crashed together in a frenzied movement. I wanted to take my time with Bethany, but she clearly had other ideas as she wrapped her legs around my waist, pressing her denim-covered pussy against my length.

“Please, don’t go slow,” she whined against my lips.

I didn’t want slow. I wanted fast, hard. Control was something I craved, but it wasn’t the time. Bethany wasn’t used to being in heat, so she needed to be treated gently.

I was about to form a response when a pained cry left her lips, a high-pitched, visceral sound of pain.

The heat.

It was physically hurting her.

Her jeans were drenched in sweet, musky slick. I had never known an omega to produce so much, but I wasn’t going to complain.

Fuck slow.

She needed a knot, and she needed it now.

Mere minutes ago, I had been driving home, excited to see her and maybe share dinner with her and my pack mates, and now I was about to fuck her against the wall of my bedroom while Jensen looked after Joey and Cullen no doubt rushed home.

Small hands tugged at my clothing. Our shirts were easy enough to remove, her plain black bra far more alluring than anything I had seen before, mainly because of the omega wearing it.

“So beautiful,” I cooed as I trailed kisses along her shoulder, relishing in the salty-sweet taste of her skin as she ground against me.

The friction was maddening in the best way.

If I let my alpha take the lead, I would have had her bent over the nearest surface, plunging my knot deep into her until she could think of nothing other than my cock.

“We are going to have to get those jeans off if you want to get knotted,” I muttered against her lips.

At my words, Bethany reared back, her eyes wide. Without a word, she unwrapped her legs, letting me place her back on the floor for a second as she reached for the clasp of my suit pants.

I had intended to get her naked first, but fuck me, she was a determined little thing. Before I could even blink, she was on her knees, my pants open, cock bobbing free. She beamed up at me before opening her mouth and swallowing my length.

Fucking fuck fuck.

She took every inch of me down her throat like a pro, and I wasn’t small, by any means.

“Holy fuck…” I cursed, my hand tangling in her hair as she bobbed up and down, humming gleefully.

I was supposed to be knotting her; she needed that, but I didn’t think I could stop her. My body was frozen in pure bliss.

It had been a while—out of all my pack mates, I dated the least—so I was already close to finishing, and I refused to embarrass myself like some young dumb alpha.

Any ounce of self-restraint I had left me the moment her lips touched my cock.

She stood, grinning brightly at me as she undid her jeans, and my hands automatically reached to help her get out of them.

Our movements were frenzied, a blur of tangled limbs, as we made our way across the room, desperately kissing, groping, and reaching for each other.

Somehow we ended up on the bed, with me over Bethany as she ground her hips toward me while wearing nothing but that tiny bra and matching black underwear.

“Knot!” Bethany growled, lurching forward and nipping at my shoulder. My head swam with the scent of her slick. It was overwhelming, but I was fucking obsessed with it.

Her underwear was gone seconds later, thrown across the room. My lips found hers as I lined myself up.

“Fucking drenched,” I groaned, as the warmth of her wetness coated the head of my cock. The part of me that craved control wanted to drag the moment out, to make her beg sweetly to be filled and knotted.

Only, she was in pain and I didn’t like that one bit.

Slowly at first, I inched forward. I didn’t know what her experience was. If I thrust forward with no preamble, I could have hurt her.

Her pussy gave no resistance, though. My cock slid into her warmth with ease, which was surprising, given just how beautifully her walls strangled my cock.

“Fuck!” Bethany dug her fingernails into my shoulders as I started thrusting, shallow at first, but slowly building up to something stronger. With each push, her walls tightened, and it was obvious she was already getting close.

“Now, you’re going to be a good girl and come for me before I give you my knot,” I growled lightly, nipping at the skin under her ear.

“Please,” she whined, thrashing underneath me.

Grabbing the flesh of her upper leg as leverage, I opened her wider, my thrusts increasing to an almost frantic pace. I was already close to the edge, but I needed her to topple over that cliff before me.

Thankfully, she didn’t make me wait. Her walls fluttered around me, trying to milk my cock for everything it had. My vision blurred and the overwhelming urge to bite her hit me.

I had knotted omegas before—I wasn’t new to that—but never had I felt such an overwhelming urge to sink my teeth into them.

Bethany was dangerous, but as my cock expanded, I had to exert considerable effort to avoid biting her. I couldn’t do that. It would be cruel and taking advantage. Bonding was something to be discussed together and mutually agreed upon.

Then again, if we were bonded, she couldn’t leave.

My logic was screwed up. Yes, I had been abandoned before by Joey’s mother, and the idea of biting Bethany so she couldn’t leave us definitely held its appeal, but that would be unfair to her. I was an asshole. I wasn’t a monster.

Shaking the thought out of my mind, I opted to focus on the omega currently locked on my knot.

Her pupils were blown as she looked up at me in amazement. Some of the haze was clearing from her vision, and her breathing was becoming more even.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” I asked gently.

“A-a little clearer,” she muttered.

Well, she wasn’t running and screaming for the hills. So that was a good thing.

“How are you feeling about what’s happening right now? Do you want us to take you home?”

Her gaze turned from confusion to anger. “Do you want me to leave?”

I thrust my hips forward. Even though she was already locked on my knot, I could still nudge it slightly deeper inside her. Her walls clamped down and her eyes rolled into the back of her head for a moment at the sensation.

“Motherfucker!” she hissed, making me chuckle.

“If I have it my way, you’re not going anywhere. But you weren’t exactly lucid when we started this conversation, and now that you’re having a moment of clarity, we’re going to discuss it.”

Bethany bit her lip. “Look, I didn’t intend to jump your bones, but it hurts a lot, and I don’t like the idea of going home and dealing with that pain on my own.”

“Then don’t,” I said simply.

“This changes nothing, though,” she said, nodding more to herself than to me.

I said nothing.

No way were we going to support her through a heat and not have it change everything. There was no point in saying that and stressing her out, though. She was already in a vulnerable position.

“Are you in any pain?”

She shook her head. “No, the cramps have stopped. It’s still there, but it’s not painful, if you know what I mean?”

I nodded. “Sounds about right. Usually at the start, there are moments of lucidity and less pain before it really amps up.”

Her eyes widened. “It’s going to get worse?”

Gently, I brushed a wayward strand of hair away from her face, looking her in the eye as I spoke. “I don’t know. To be fair, that first wave seemed pretty intense. They may all be like that. They may be less; they may be more.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “It’s very bizarre that you know more about heats than I do. Don’t get me wrong—I know the mechanics, I know what happens, and I’ve heard my friends talk about them—but I hadn’t really thought about the sticky logistics.”

I chuckled. “Just wait until you’re three days in and you refuse to shower.”

“Nope.” She grimaced. “I refuse. I will be showering.”

“It’s kind of hard to shower when you’re locked on a knot,” I pointed out.

She huffed. “I know how knots work. I’m new to heats, Gideon, not to the concept of knotting,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Who?” I growled, my grip on her ass tightening, making her wiggle against my knot.

“That’s not important,” she muttered, kissing along my shoulder.

“I beg to differ.”

“Would you rather keep fucking me or discuss my past endeavors?” she asked snarkily.

Brat.

“I can do both,” I assured her, grinding my knot into her, making her moan.

She kissed my neck, panting breathlessly, basking in the afterglow.

The reprieve wouldn’t last long, but fuck, I was going to enjoy it.