Chapter 6 #2
His large hands came to the lapels of his heavy coat, gripping tightly as he spoke.
“The Followers overheard every word of your conversation with Corday, and nothing relevant towards our mission was even pursued. What is it you seek to accomplish in this game? You risk exposing your identity and purpose to chase the scent of my mate.”
“Mate,” she spat the word, revolted. “When I had originally heard of your toy, I figured it was some passing fancy to fill the hours you could not spend with me. Finding her pregnant was staggering enough, but I can hardly believe what that fool downstairs described. You pair-bonded with something so beneath you!”
“You have had many lovers to satisfy your body. I chose to have only one. I could not rightfully keep Claire without bonding. Accepting her as my mate keeps her in my power and in line with the Gods’ plan.
” Sucking in an angry breath, Shepherd took a step nearer.
“Furthermore, you should take care where you would point that finger. You attempted to produce an heir with Premier Callas!”
It was a rare thing for Svana to display surprise, but it crept into the corners of her expression.
Shepherd did not wait for her to speak. “Did you really believe I was unaware of your attempted conception? I smelled the effect of the drugs on your body. It did not go unnoticed by my Followers, either.”
“It was necessary, Shepherd,” she argued at once, fisting her hands in his shirt. “His genes house a treasure that cannot be lost—immunities, resistance to disease. Why should it have been wasted? What better revenge than to have Premier Callas’ child one day leading our people?”
Shepherd reached out to run his fingers through Svana’s hair, watching the brown slip right through his touch.
“You would have preferred to carry the offspring of the man responsible for the corruption of Thólos. He threw my mother into the Undercroft. I would never raise a child of that monster as my own. What crawled out of you would never rule.”
Svana’s expression twisted into one of disgust. “So you seeded a weakling out of spite? I feel both honored and disappointed that you would act out so from petty jealousy, my love.”
His own great anger fell back behind an alarmingly placid expression. “Was it not your explanation that our love transcended the physical? My desire for a corporeal mate should mean nothing to you.”
The woman circled Shepherd in the dark, calculating her next move.
Something seemed to register and Svana’s eyes grew warmly seductive; she licked her lower lip.
“It is not too late should you wish to breed me. Think of the greatness of our combined power. The necessary drugs could be found and we could begin at once.”
“Even as glorious as you are, the chances of an Alpha female conceiving with Alpha male sperm are very slim—carrying to term even more so.” Placing his great hands on her shoulders, Shepherd outlined what was unchangeable.
“Claire will bear my offspring and serve as my mate, and you will rule at my side once Thólos is in ruins and my army has delivered Greth Dome from those who usurped your family’s claim to the throne. ”
“The Omega is unsuitable. A foul creature of this city is unworthy of such an honor!”
Shepherd hissed, agitated that she would further question him on the matter. “Claire was untouched, her body pure and receptive. I was her first. That is only one example of how Thólos has not tainted her.”
Svana laughed, scoffing. “An Omega of her age… No, dearest, such a thing is not possible. You have been fooled.”
“Through the bond she can hide nothing from me.” Where the flawless cadence of the words came from, he did not know. Nor did he miss the tiny shift in Svana’s expression when he said, “I have absolute faith in Claire’s former celibacy and her current fidelity.”
“Fidelity. I see… you question my behavior.” Svana understood his deeper meaning. Composing her face into an expression of pain she asked, “Are you trying to hurt me?”
“No, beloved.” Shepherd bowed his forehead to hers, working to calm the torrent of anger before it swept him away.
Her body softened against his, conformed to his strength, seeking to mollify. “If you wish to keep a pet then I expect that you will share her with me.”
The concept turned his stomach, felt incredibly wrong. “I am certain, given your introduction, that she would be unwilling to mate with you if asked. It is impossible.”
Svana’s derisive snort preceded, “It would not take long for the Omega to learn her place… one which is below me. She may have fought my initial touch, but you are her Alpha; her opinion matters little. She is nothing but a physical vessel for your needs.”
“Initial touch?” It was like the spark of a forest fire, Corday’s accusation, sex offender, wrecking Shepherd’s last vestige of calm. It cost him a part of his soul to accuse, “You tried to touch her sexually and she resisted. That is why you struck her…”
Svana seemed unperturbed, shrugging. “She refused to spread so that I could taste… I merely wanted to confirm the scent of her pregnancy—which I did.”
A surge of violence almost overwhelmed his control.
He shook, felt the dagger of the link twist hideously in his chest. The female Alpha had dared to touch his mate inappropriately!
Svana had hurt Claire simply for being defensive and sexually obedient to only him.
Shepherd blinked, fighting not to reach out and break bone.
“That is unacceptable, Svana! Beyond your needless attack of a weak and pregnant woman, such behavior is so very against your nature that I question if you have lost yourself. How would you even consider what you have done as appropriate?”
Her eyes narrowed; she showed her teeth. “You keep her to fuck her. What is yours has always been mine.”
“I claimed her as a mate!” It was almost a roar but so soft it seemed strange that the windows shook with unseen force.
“And then unquestioningly fucked me right in front of her, proving she is nothing but a sorry replacement. Because I am the one you adore. The scrawny Omega is only a diversion you believe to be more important than she is because you foolishly pair-bonded in a moment of weakness.” A purr came from Svana’s chest. “I understand now that I have neglected you. The situation will be rectified, and from now on I will see to your physical needs. There need be no animosity between us.”
Shepherd blinked, jaw clenched as he looked down.
His beloved had reached out to lower his zipper, her elegant fingers pulling out the flaccid length of Shepherd’s cock.
Svana began to stroke. It was the anger that sent his blood pumping and made him stiffen in her grasp, the fury that pulled forth the low animal growl as he latched onto sensation to escape the unbearable realization of what his beloved had done.
Rubbing her thumb in smooth circles over the tip of his cock, she cooed and leveled him with a hungry stare.
Caught up in the grip, in the way Svana knew exactly how to earn a response, Shepherd tore at the fastenings of her pants, already rutting her hand in desperation to redirect so much wrongness into something right.
The apartment they were in was in shambles, the stained mattress he pressed her to as disgusting as the rotting chain in his chest. Gripping his staff in his fist, he met her eyes, lined up with the opening slit of Alpha pussy, and shoved in remorselessly hard.
The immediate sense of victory he saw in her shining eyes was appalling. Gripping her legs and turning his attention to look out the dark window over the city he’d conquered, he rammed hard and fast, just as he’d done on Claire’s nest to save the Omega’s life.
Just as before, Shepherd found less satisfaction in rutting a female who did not possess the smaller frame and the tighter cunt that would milk him when she came, that would draw out his essence until every last drop had been savored.
There was no musical voice sighing his name as if it were the most beautiful sound in the world.
Alpha females did not respond that way; they were built to mate with Omegas, to be dominant… they hardly even self-lubricated.
Shepherd felt no humming connection, no mental depth, just aggressive, angry sex…
and it was eating at him. Svana was performing well, making her calls and trills, spreading wide to show the beauty of her body.
It was not enough. His abject fury did not abate, it only distorted, it left him in ruins, and Shepherd began to feel the unsettling wrongness grow with every thrust.
He did the unthinkable and flipped Svana over, to mount his beloved from behind so he would no longer have to look at her.
She gasped, tilted her hips at his strength, and seemed to relish the rough handling.
To keep her head forward, Shepherd fisted her hair, immediately noticing the tactile wrongness of it.
It was not silky black, but a coarser brown, and his growl led to no surge of wetness that bathed his cock and beautifully scented the air.
The woman he rode was not his mate.
Even with his eyes closed, even thinking of another, all he could see was Svana…
altered, seemingly tainted by what she had done, by what he knew and could not forget.
Once she came, tugging at her clitoris in little flicks of her fingers, Shepherd could not continue for another moment.
Pulling out, he tucked away his already softening dick.
Spinning about, she gaped at him. “Dearest… everything will be as it was. Come, let me soothe you. I know what you need.”
Already she was reaching for his zipper again, leaning forward from the bed to take him into her mouth.