Chapter 10 Scorched
Scorched
Felix
He really didn’t get it. My self-control had been hanging by a thread for weeks now, and he kept pushing his damn luck every chance he got.
Monte stepped closer, his lithe body bathed in warm, inviting firelight. Built with the lean grace of an Omega, every inch of him was crafted to tempt. From the slender shoulders to the narrow hips, smooth skin stretched over subtle muscle. A body made to yield.
His scent drifted through the air to my nose. So sweet and wild, like crushed wildflowers warmed in the sun. No scent could’ve suited him better. It was so inherently him—soft enough to lure, wild enough to drive me insane.
I wanted nothing more than to run my fingers through his tawny hair, to grip it tight and force him to obey.
He had no idea how deeply I desired him.
If he did, he’d never dare get this close to me.
He would have run away the instant he’d found out, and he absolutely wouldn’t have called me in his moment of need.
If he actually knew what ran through my head every time I went to bed and woke up in the same room as him, he would have done everything in his power to avoid being trapped in this cottage with me.
“What are you doing?” I managed through my initial shock.
Monte didn’t answer. His lips parted temptingly, and something inside me went taut.
My gaze flitted to the way the firelight danced over the dip of his collarbone, down the smooth plane of his stomach, catching on the faint trail of hair leading lower to his cock, flushed and hard.
In its full length, it curved slightly to the left.
In a few steps, he was in front of me, the heat from his body hotter than the fire at my back. I could hear the faint tremor of every breath he took as he looked up at me. His eyes were glazed and his pupils dark and unfocused.
The scent of his arousal burned through my nose, the same hint I’d caught the second I opened the door of his car, saturated the room until it was all I could breathe.
“Oh, shit.” I blinked hard. “You’re in heat.”
“I am?” he asked absently, all his attention on my lips. I doubt he heard a word I said.
If an Omega’s heat was anything like an Alpha’s rut, then I understood the helplessness of it and the instinctive need driving him. Oh yes, I knew that ache for release all too well.
My hand was already rising when I caught myself.
I couldn’t take advantage of him, not when he was in this state.
I turned away, searching desperately for a distraction.
The window would have to do. It had always been drafty in here whenever I came to ride out my rut, so it was perfectly reasonable that I’d want to shut it tightly, with the storm howling outside.
Or better yet, open it wide and air out the room before my wolf went feral under the intoxicating pheromones Monte was releasing with his scent.
But as I struggled with the ill-fitting frame, his soft footsteps padded behind me.
The heat I could feel emanating off of him gave me just a fraction of a moment’s warning, then all thought was obliterated as his naked body pressed against mine.
He was so much smaller than me, so lithe, designed by the Goddess to be protected by a wolf like me, to be worshipped and cherished.
Damn Hunter. Damn him straight to hell. And beyond.
A growl built in my throat as I felt that familiar red haze.
So often, I found myself marveling at how perfect of a mate Monte was.
That inevitably led to thoughts of the day when I’d finally have to give him up to his rightful husband.
The search party I’d sent after Hunter had brought back no answers, but that didn’t change the inevitable truth.
One day, he would return. And when he did, Monte would no longer be mine to hold.
And yet, even as I growled, Monte pressed himself even tighter against me. It may have started as a hug, but it was now far closer to the frantic rubbing of an Omega that didn’t know any better.
If I closed my eyes and counted my breaths, I could resist. I had to believe in my own willpower, which had saved me so far.
It had kept me from grabbing him in the middle of the night and pinning his wrists to the bed.
It had prevented me from clearing the breakfast dishes with a swipe of my arm and bending Monte over the table so that I could feast on that sweet, enticing body.
But I realized now how weak I was. I had barely been able to resist Monte simply existing, so when he began to whimper and grind his naked body against me, I had no defense whatsoever. His incoherent moans were gasoline on the suppressed embers of my blazing lust.
“Don’t,” I gasped wildly, my voice straining hoarse. “Don’t try to manipulate me like this, Monte.”
“Please,” he begged, burying his face between the curve of my back. “Please, Felix. Please.”
I leaned my forehead against the cold glass of the window, hoping desperately that it would help clear my mind.
It did, but only until Monte grabbed at me, his fingers tracing and kneading as much flesh as they could find.
It almost felt like he desired me just as much as I desired him, but that was impossible.
Even disregarding his clear fear and distrust of me, there wasn’t a wolf in the world that wanted to rut as much as I did right now.
Ever since the wedding, I’d wanted to seize Monte and make him my own.
No, that was a lie, I admitted to myself as Monte’s teeth gently bit into the flesh of my back.
I had wanted him this badly ever since the Night of the Bloody Moon and a kiss I’d instantly known would never be surpassed.
It had been the most blissful agony to know that I’d already found the peak of pleasure, and it twisted into the bitterest regret when I realized that he was my brother’s betrothed.
And now I finally had the chance to take him for my own. All I had to do was disregard his clear inability to control himself.
“Can you… try to keep your pheromones in check?” I asked, my voice as low as I could go, halfway hoping that he wouldn’t hear.
But of course he heard. Monte always heard everything I said. I constantly caught him watching me, and even if he was just paying close attention out of fear, it still filled me with a deep, primal satisfaction to know that he had eyes only for me.
“Y-yes, I think so,” Monte whimpered. “It’s just…my heat… I’ve never felt it this intensely before.”
I clenched my eyes shut, but that immediately proved to be a mistake. It only made me excruciatingly aware of the sensations enveloping me as this little Omega rubbed against me even more furiously.
Goddess, Monte.
He needed release, and I was the only one here. It made sense for me to provide it. It was as simple as that.
But second and third thoughts grated against me, and I struggled to cling to my conscience. Under attack from all sides, I took refuge in snappy irritation once more.
“You are clearly untutored in the art of seduction,” I spat. “Is this what you do whenever you’re in heat? Cling onto the nearest Alpha you can find and beg him for a fuck?”
Did Monte understand? Did he realize that I was short with him because it was my only defense against his uncomplicated, beautiful innocence and impossibly good nature?
“I’m not promiscuous,” he whimpered, and the hurt in his voice was all it took to rip me out of my self-loathing whirlpool.
He was no longer moving against me, but simply clinging. His body fit perfectly against mine, as it always should’ve been. Here, I could protect him, now and forever.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” Monte murmured against my back. “Help me, please.”
No matter how I turned his words over in my head, they refused to make sense.
“What do you mean? How did you deal with heat before?”
“Alone.” Monte’s hands tightened around me. “Always alone. I just locked myself up and waited it out.”
I spun around without a second thought. Monte stumbled back, but my arms were around him before he hit the floor. With a swift ease that clearly startled him, I lifted him up and carried him over to the rugs laid out before the fireplace.
“Please help me,” he whimpered again. Even as I held him, his body began to writhe against me, as if he wanted to wrap himself around me completely and search for release however he could find it.
The closer we got to the fire, the clearer it became that our sweat and panting had nothing to do with burning logs and everything to do with our rampaging wolves.
“This is to help you. Understand?”
Monte gazed up in worship as I laid him down. He nodded, but his eyes—those soft, beautiful earthy brown eyes—were glazed over. He would have agreed to anything in the world if it meant I would give him relief.
If I were a better wolf, I would have turned around, walked away, and forced him to wait out his heat in solitude until his true husband returned.
But I’d been a good wolf for far too long, and I’d reached my breaking point. Tonight, the Goddess had aligned the stars for me, and I was going to take exactly what I wanted, drop by drop, until my precious husband had been wrung dry.
When I lowered my lips to his, I instantly knew that Monte had spoken true.
On the Night of the Bloody Moon, I’d been so overwhelmed by the beauty and perfection of the kiss that I’d just attributed all the glory to the Goddess’s will.
When I later learned the truth, I grew distrustful of my memories and came to believe that it had all been subtle manipulation, presenting me with a facade of innocence because he knew that that would tempt me most.
At the Knocking, I’d been sure that his kiss with Hunter was a disaster because Monte had simply been disappointed that he was being given a Beta instead of the Alpha that he coveted.
Then at the wedding, I’d thought that Monte was simply too canny to manipulate me with his skills in front of such a crowd.