Page 14 of Spark (Damselverse #2)

Chapter fourteen

Zara

I ’m just mopping the floor outside Xavier's art gallery when I stop in my tracks.

I don’t like going in there.

But a familiar face inside the room captures my attention. The door has been left ajar, and it appears Xavier forgot to lock it.

It's not like him, and perhaps he was distracted.

Still, I can’t help it when I sneak into the gallery, stalking toward the covered frame. Only a sliver of her face is visible, but I swear the girl on the canvas is familiar.

I reach a shaking hand up, pausing just before I reach the cover. No. This is wrong. This is an invasion of Xavier’s privacy.

But the girl on the canvas.

I just have to know.

Finally, I rip off the cover, gasping when I finally meet my perfect mirror image.

No, not a mirror image at all. This girl is far more beautiful than I could ever be, but she is me. The same sloped bridge of the nose, the dark hair, and the round, hazel eyes...

She's so life-like, I feel as if I can touch her very hair.

“What the hell?”

My heart jumps to my throat, then I spin around, finding that leather-clad Alpha at the threshold of the door. An unlit cigarette hangs from his full lips.

For a split second, I think I am looking at the Wolf as I shut my eyes, gathering my nerves, but then I remind myself that it isn’t him.

It's just Xavier. A lesser of two evils.

“I… I was…” I stammer, licking my lips.

Yeah, I was just creeping around your art gallery and looking at your paintings.

Xavier heaves a gritty sigh, then stomps over in his boots to cover up the painting again. Now he gives me the profile of his chiseled face, silver eyes glowing. “Why did you come in here?”

Loaded question.

Why did Alice go down the rabbit hole?

“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have—”

“No, you fucking shouldn’t.”

I stare at him frozen as he keeps his back to me, and I try to wonder what I did to deserve his wrath.

He has hated me ever since I arrived here, which I’d be fine with if he weren’t so aggravating about it. I get so many mixed messages from the Alpha that I'm starting to get whiplash.

He makes me a beautiful nest, comforts me during a nightmare, then paints me in secret… yet he is such a dick.

The penny finally drops, and then my face burns bright pink.

So, I guess my grandma was right about the little boy who used to kick me at recess after all.

But this is more than a crush…

“Xavier—”

“Just leave, Ruby. If that’s even your name.”

He turns around, meeting my eyes at last, and my head spins. What is he talking about?

My mouth dries. “Of… of course my name is Ruby...”

“Yeah, then explain this.”

The Alpha holds up a tiny pin, and my vision swims further when I lock eyes with the mocking figure of the black wolf.

“Where… where did you get that?”

That belongs to George, one of the Wolf’s Pigs.

“Never mind where I found it. Tell me, love, why were you in that burning garage in the first place?”

The Alpha’s eyes burn accusingly, and now I can barely think straight as my breath evades me. Now I inhale through a thin tube, lights sprinkling at the edges of my vision.

What the hell is happening to me?

“I… already told Dacre and the rest of the fire department. A bunch of kids—”

“Don’t lie to me, Ruby. Most of all, do not lie to my pack brothers... Whether I like it or not, they’re fucking taken with you. They at least deserve the truth before you drag them into your shit.”

It's all too much, his torrent of words, the accusing sour notes of his voice as the floor finally flies up before me.

I think I pass out.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, love. Get a hold of yourself.”

Arms scoop me up before I face plant the floor, and now I’m gazing up at the ceiling of Xavier’s art gallery. The first heat spike grips my stomach, wringing me dry as I coil up into a fetal position.

My moan echoes through the space, distorted and eerie in my semiconscious state, and then the next thing I know, I’m moving.

“You really are a thorn in my side,” Xavier says somewhere beside me, and then his purr vibrates beside my ear, soothing me.

We’re moving through the house, and it takes me a few moments to realize where he is taking me.

To the nest. The one he made for me…

Another cramp seizes my gut, and it’s just like being in the throes of a nightmare again. Except the only thunder now is the constant purring coming from Xavier’s hard wall of a chest.

I need him. All over me. Inside me.

Is this a… heat?

They never warned me it would be as painful as this, but when another cramp wrings my stomach like an old wet rag, I cry out.

“It’s all right, love… we’re almost there…”

I may be out of it, but I’m still conscious enough to stare up at him in confusion. It looks like nice Xavier has come out to play again, and I wish he would just make up his goddamn mind.

And he says I’m the thorn in his side.

Finally, he kicks my bedroom door open unceremoniously, then rushes me to my nest, nestling me down like one would place a newborn down in their crib.

Seriously, who is this Alpha?

“It’s okay, love, you’re in the nest now. Just relax.”

My spine arches as another spike hits me, and what the fuck. “It hurts!”

But Xavier is there in an instant, shushing me as his face swivels up before me. His eyes still glow, but not from anger…

This time, they burn with passion.

“It’s okay, Ruby. It’s just a phantom heat.”

A phantom heat? Holy shit… then how bad is the real one?

I don’t even want to know the answer to that question as another spike shudders through me, and it can’t be worse than this.

It just can’t.

For the first time, I’m grateful for all the suppressants the Wolf gave me. Because if I had ever been at his complete mercy like this, then I would have freaking died from neglect.

In fact, dying would have been preferable.

In my heat-induced state—no, scratch that—my phantom heat-induced state, Xavier couldn’t be any more different from the Wolf.

Despite the fact that they share a face.

No, Xavier’s face is a lot more rugged, his nose more hooked, as he purrs for me softly, pupils taking over his gray eyes as he hovers close.

With a shaking hand, I reach my fingers toward his jaw, running them over his shadowed stubble.

His mocha scent fills me now, and I breathe it all in.

The Alpha purrs louder. “That’s it, love. Touch me, do whatever you need to help make it better.”

What is with him? It’s like he’s some kind of Omega expert.

My vision swivels, and I’m pretty sure I’m about to pass out for real this time. My body is so numb now, I can no longer feel my toes.

Finally, Xavier unfastens his belt, the one with the skull pendant, as he tosses it to the side of the bed. Then he climbs out of his pants, freeing his cock.

My eyes expand when I get a look at him. He's extended towards me, and my Omega makes a needy sort of sound as she wants him inside her.

She needs to feel full.

The Alpha lines up with my entrance, and his cock is like a warm kiss as it presses against my sensitive lips, making me sigh in contentment.

My eyes roll back in my head.

Even that small amount of contact is enough to lull my Omega.

Xavier grips my hand, and it looks so small in his bigger one as he brushes my fingers down his chiseled chest, stopping at his heart.

It pounds beneath my palm.

His other hand brushes through my sweat-soaked hair as he doesn’t stop purring.

“It’s okay, love. It’s okay… I’m going to take the pain away.”

Meaning, he is going to knot me.

I look into his eyes, and they’re shining and soft for once. A small smile twists one side of his lips.

Maybe he isn’t so bad after all.

“It hurts,” I whisper, sounding so fragile and helpless.

His mouth tugs up further as he gives me a lopsided grin. “It won’t for long. I promise.”

Finally, he moves his hips as I fasten my legs around his waist, bracing myself.

And then he enters me at last.

My mind blanks, and then my Omega flops down onto the mattress. Now all I feel is total sweet bliss as he stretches me.

Holy fuck.