Page 43 of The Runaway

He pressed back one last time, and then suddenly his muscles relaxed and his body accepted the invasion. He sat back, his buttocks landing on Gabriel’s thighs. His cock was fully inside him now, but he was surprised to find that it actually didn’t hurt. Instead he felt warm, his penis twitching, faint tingles of pleasure coursing through him. He arched his back, and then his mouth fell open. A faint moan left him, and he rolled his hips again. Gabriel’s hands came up to support his shoulders. He liked this, being held, being so close to his alpha, feeling his warm skin against his own.

Instinctively, he rose up, feeling the smooth glide of the cock inside him. But he was setting his own pace. He was controlling this, instead of having someone else control him. He pressed himself down more firmly and moaned again as the thick length inside him pressed against something that sent sparks of pleasure shooting through his groin. Fuck, that was nice. He did it again, his hands coming up to support himself on Gabriel’s shoulders.

“Oh, God… That’s… Unghh.” He moved faster. His eyes slid closed as he concentrated on the steady push and pull inside him. His breath was coming quicker, and he could feel the hot puffs of Gabriel’s breath against his shoulder. “God, I want…” He wrapped his arms all the way around Gabriel’s neck, letting his head fall forward.Alpha. Pleasure. Mine. The ‘mine’ took him by surprise. He gave up thinking, letting his hips roll in Gabriel’s lap.

“Oh, God…” Gabriel muttered, his hands tightening on Connor’s skin. “That’s it. God, you feel good. Keep going. Just a little bit more…”

The encouragement was heartening. He was doing this well. His alpha was enjoying it. His strong, brave, kind alpha, who’d got in Simon’s face and told him to fuck off out of Connor’s life forever. “Oh God, I love you,” Connor blurted out, as a surge of pleasure shot through him. “I want to stay with you forever.” He shoved himself backwards, riding that magnificent cock, feeling it fill him like he’d been born for this. “Oh fuck, Gabriel… I want… I need you…”

“Fuck… Oh God! Fuck!” Gabriel let out a cry, then his hands clamped down on Connor’s hips, pulling him down firmly. “You’re so amazing. You’re so perfect. Oh God… Aahhh!” Gabriel’s hips rolled upwards in a firm thrust, his entire body tensing. And Connor felt the familiar spurt of wetness inside him that signalled his alpha’s climax. But this time, he felt no revulsion at the knowledge of it. It felt… right. He felt complete, in a way he never had before. Gabriel’s head fell back against the headboard, his hands still holding Connor tightly to him. The first swell of his knot made Connor’s passage stretch, but he still felt no pain. He spread his legs wider, sitting down hard to keep the knot inside him. It swelled further, locking them together, but Connor didn’t even consider trying to pull away. His alpha was perfect, their bodies built for each other, and there was nowhere else in the world he would rather be.

But the pressure was still building – not painfully, not feeling out of place, but like it was coming from another part of him. Connor panted, faint moans bursting out on every breath. He’d never felt anything like this before. The fullness felt right, for the first time in his life. “Oh God…” He couldn’t catch his breath, his heart racing like he’d just run a mile. “Oh God… Gabriel… I need…I need you to…” A moment later, his climax exploded out of him, coating Gabriel’s stomach with jets of white liquid.

???

Gabriel felt like he was floating. He considered opening his eyes, but couldn’t quite summon the energy. Instead, he stroked a hand gently through Connor’s hair, feeling a smile tug at his lips as the omega muttered a happy little trill. Perfect. His omega was perfect.

They were lying on the bed, facing each other, having tumbled sideways after Connor had climaxed. The tight pressure around Gabriel’s knot was sublime, a slow, rolling orgasm that would last a full ten minutes. The warm body in his arms was pliant and relaxed, Connor’s breathing slow and even. His inner alpha felt relieved. After Connor’s panic attack, he’d nearly panicked himself, dismayed by his omega’s distress and having no idea how he could soothe him. The fear wasn’t rejection, he’d known, despite his alpha instincts urging him to claim his omega, to prevent him from running away. Rather, Connor’s fear was a sign that he needed to work harder, to do better in earning his omega’s trust.

But in the end, his omega had accepted him. Gabriel had given him pleasure, without any pain. This first stage of the mating had gone well, which meant the promise of more pleasure to come.

He ran his hand through Connor’s hair again. The omega nuzzled against his hand, seeking more contact. Yes, this was what he’d been trying to achieve. This was what his alpha had been craving. A calm, satisfied omega, who would seek more of his touch, more of his attention.

An idle train of thought flickered through his mind, as he remembered his recent mating with Helen. He’d tried to do much the same with her, gentle touches and soft reassurances. But she had still responded with wary apprehension, not allowing him any closer than was absolutely necessary.

But for some odd reason, he hadn’t been nearly as concerned when she hadn’t shown any signs of approval. He’d had no desire to hurt her, no pressing need to make her submit, but when she’d reacted with faint annoyance to his attempts to woo her, he’d accepted the failure with a dull resignation. If she came out of the mating unharmed, that would be good enough.

Now, though, he had to repress a shudder at the idea of Connor reacting with the same disappointment. He wanted Connor’s hands on him. He wanted Connor panting with pleasure, moaning for more. Why was there such a difference?

Male, his inner alpha supplied.Omega. Male. Mine. Interesting. He hadn’t been anywhere near as possessive over the female omega and had reacted almost with indifference when she’d sighed and rolled her eyes at him.

Finally, Gabriel gathered himself enough to open his eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked Connor, peering down at him. He could only see the top of Connor’s head, but that was fine with him for now.

The omega mumbled a reply and snuggled closer, tucking his head in under Gabriel’s chin. “Warm,” he heard Connor mumble. “Comfy.”

That made him smile. “We can stay like this as long as you like,” he said, stroking his hand down Connor’s arm. That same arm tightened around his waist.

“You feel good,” Connor said.

Gabriel pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “You feel amazing.”

They lay in silence for long minutes, until Gabriel felt his knot begin to recede. He groaned, feeling a moment’s disappointment… until he remembered they were going to be doing this again in about half an hour’s time, and then again, after that, over and over until the twelve hours of Connor’s heat were over.

When his knot had finally gone down all the way, he carefully eased out of Connor’s body, untangling himself from the omega’s limbs. Connor rolled lazily onto his back, looking entirely worn out. He stretched, arms reaching above his head, legs long and straight as he worked the kinks out of stiff muscles… and Gabriel’s gaze was drawn to the full expanse of pale skin laid out before him.

But then his eager appreciation dimmed a bit. Scars littered Connor’s body, marks that Gabriel had failed to pay attention to before, while his alpha had been focused on wooing his timid omega. There was a long, red line across his abdomen. A small, pale scar on his wrist. A burn mark on his right arm. His thighs were covered in a faded, crisscross pattern, and Gabriel knew all too well what had caused that. It was the typical scarring pattern of someone who had been beaten with a short whip.

No wonder the poor kid had panicked. And the marks made Gabriel reassess his own confidence that he could make the rest of this mating as enjoyable as the first part had been. This was not a simple case of nerves that would ease off once Connor had seen that the mating wasn’t going to cause pain. It was a deeply ingrained reaction to a lifetime of habitual abuse.

Fucking hell. What had Gabriel got himself into? But even as the thought crossed his mind, he felt an odd sort of gratitude that he had been the one Connor chose. God knows how any other alpha would have reacted to his apparent rejection. Even the Lavignes, as gentle and patient as Antoine insisted they were, would have failed to understand just how deep Connor’s trauma ran. Gabriel himself only understood it because he’d seen it firsthand, dealt out on innumerable other omegas.

Are you paying attention?he asked his inner alpha, feeling the first renewed stirrings of the hormone-induced lust flicker back to life.He is terrified. And your job is to make him feel safe, to look after him, not to just focus on how to get your rocks off.

The inner voice seemed quiet, but alert, and Gabriel prayed that whatever instinct was driving him would remember the warning once he and Conner were both deep in the clutches of their raging desires.

The lust stirred again, and Gabriel felt his erection pulse back to life, at the same time as the threads of reason and logic began to fade out.Don’t fuck this up, he growled at himself.Or you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.

CHAPTER NINETEEN