Chapter 12
Diego
“Diego. Holding. Now.”
Gage sounds exhausted. I glance at the clock and see that it’s not even twenty minutes into Emmett’s latest shift with Auryn. I’d put good money on the two of them being at each other's throats again.
“Roger,”
I chirp into the intercom before trotting down the hall. No doubt mi jefe needs help wrangling one or both of them.
Sure enough, when I get to holding, Emmett and Auryn are throwing down behind the locked door, and Gage is standing outside the cell, pinching the bridge of his nose like he’s lost all patience for this.
“Will you take over with her? I’ll haul him out myself.”
“You got it, boss.”
While Gage punches in his unlock code, I brace myself to dive in. With the way the fists are flying, I’m liable to get a fresh set of scratches for my trouble if I approach Auryn the wrong way here. Maybe even a black eye, or worse. I also don’t want to hurt her when I pull her off Em, so my plan is to tackle her, then tuck and roll with her towards the center of the room, putting space between her and Em and giving Gage a chance to yank the other alpha out of there.
The door creaks as it swings open, though it’s barely audible over Em’s growling and Auryn’s feral screeching. I dive low, Gage goes high, and we get the two of them separated with minimal injury to ourselves–at least, I hope Gage is okay. My shoulder slams into the floor a little too hard, and Auryn’s knee barely misses my groin when she lands on top of me. I’m grateful for that, but at the same time the resulting bruise in my hip–where her knee did not miss–is going to be uncomfortable, to say the least.
Auryn flails and snarls for a full two minutes … long after Gage and Emmett disappear. I do my best to hold her safely, grabbing arms and legs more to prevent the girl from hurting herself than to stop her from harming me. Finally, her limbs go limp, and she lies on top of my chest, panting for air.
“Are you done yet, princesa?”
She lifts her head and peers at me through a messy curtain of dark hair. “Oh. You’re not him.”
“No. I’m me. Have been all my life.”
Auryn giggles and rolls off me. “Did I hurt you?”
I try to stifle my groan as I sit up. “Maybe. But I’ll be okay. Are you okay?”
She nods. “He didn’t put a scratch on me.”
Her tone is bold, proud, and she preens as she shows me her unblemished, intact skin.
Well, unblemished save for those scars of hers.
“Good. Now, after a fight like that, I bet you’re hungry.”
One tiny shoulder rolls in a nonchalant shrug. “I guess.”
I extend a hand, careful to move slowly. “Would you like to go on a trip to the kitchen?”
It’s a risk, but I figure I can always ask Gage’s forgiveness later. This poor woman has been cooped up her whole time here, and she’s not going to trust us if we don’t extend the same courtesy. Besides, I’ll be with her the whole time.
Her dark eyes dart from my hand to my face and back, suspicion written in her pinched expression. “Handcuffs?”
“I won’t use them if you behave.”
“Why not?”
I blink in confusion. “Why would I handcuff you if you’re behaving?”
“Because you’re an alpha.”
The way she says it, so matter of fact, like she’s saying, “because you’re tall”
or “because you’re a stranger,”
is like a knife in my chest. How does an omega become so jaded towards alphas? I brush it off and force a grin. “Now, I think we’ve established that I’m not like other alphas, haven’t we? Come on, princess; let’s get you some real food.”
Auryn takes my hand and follows me down the hall, though she keeps casting sideways glances at me, like she suspects me to turn on her at any moment.
In the kitchen, I pull out a barstool for her and help her lift onto it. Her delicate feet hang when she sits, and it occurs to me that they might be cold. The floor in the cell has a few threadbare rugs on it, but the compound has mostly concrete flooring. I could grab some clean socks from the storeroom, but …
“Auryn, can I trust you to stay on this stool?”
She cocks her head inquisitively, but then she nods.
“Good. Be right back.”
Gage is going to strangle me for leaving her to her own devices, but I can’t stand the thought of her padding around on these frigid floors with no socks or shoes.
The smallest socks I can find are Olly’s size, but they’re better than nothing. I race back to the kitchen, hoping to find Auryn where I left her.
She looks up at me from the barstool with curiosity.
“What’s in your hand?”
Whew! As long as Gage didn’t pop in while I was gone, we’re good.
I kneel at Auryn’s feet and tug the socks on, rolling the tops down to keep them on better. “There. These old floors are too cold for my princesa to walk on. Now your feet should be nice and warm.”
Something warm and wet drips on my arm, and I look up to see Auryn in tears.
“What’s wrong?”
I surge to my feet and wrap her in my arms. My instincts scream at me to protect her, to soothe her, to comfort her. The only problem is, I have no idea what could have triggered this.
“I remember socks,”
she whispers, her shoulders shaking as she sobs. “My feet have been cold for so long … I had forgotten.”
Dear God, what did the Orions do to her?
“Hey, it’s okay.”
My lips brush the crown of her head in a soft, featherlight kiss. “It’s okay. Listen, I’m going to heat up something special for you, and then we’ll go back to your room to eat it together. Does that sound okay to you?”
She leans into my chest, sniffling. “It’s not my room. It’s a room, but it’s not mine.”
“Would you like your own room?”
What am I doing? Gage is already going to murder me for letting her out, and now I’m offering her one of our spare rooms to stay in like she’s a member of our pack? I must be suicidal.
Auryn looks up at me with a frown. “Omegas don’t get their own rooms.”
I don’t have a ready answer for that one.
Despite how nice it feels to have her pressed against me, I peel myself away from her to prepare the food. I happen to know there are some leftover tamales that I bought from a street vendor the other day hidden behind the lettuce. Em would never touch the lettuce to look for them, and Olly doesn’t like them. Gage is free to have them if he wants, but he rarely takes someone else’s food without asking.
Sixty seconds later, I have our dinner. I grab two plates and stuff some forks in my pocket. By the time we get back, the tamales should be cool enough to eat.
Back in the holding cell, I hand Auryn a plate and turn to activate the door lock. Suddenly, I hear a muffled exclamation of surprise and confusion.
When I wheel back around, Auryn has her tamale in her mouth–husk and all. Her pretty face is screwed up in a grimace as she tries to gnaw through the tough fiber.
“No!”
I make the mistake of reaching for the tamale and almost lose a finger in the process as she snaps at me.
“My food!”
“Princesa, sweetie, you don’t eat the outside.”
Pulling a fork from my pocket, I show her my tamale. “Watch me.”
Auryn’s eyes widen as I open my tamale’s husk and dig out a bite with my fork. She looks back and forth from her tamale to mine, and before my eyes her face lights up as I watch the understanding cross her pretty features. “See?”
I put the fork in my mouth and chew the spicy beef. Auryn licks her lips and picks at her husk.
“I don’t have the weapon,”
she says once she has the husk open. “How do I eat it without the weapon?”
“You can eat it with your hands if you want, but that’s a bit messy. I prefer a fork. Here.”
I hold out the other utensil, handle first, and she cautiously takes it from me.
It takes her a moment to work out the right grip, but soon she manages to get some meat on her fork and take a bite without stabbing herself in the face.
“Mm!”
Her eyes sparkle as she chews. “It tastes like you smell!”
she chirps, taking another bite.
That’s … interesting. “How do I smell?”
Auryn smacks her lips and taps the fork against her temple in thought. “Like … spice. This spice.”
She lifts her plate, gesturing to the food before stuffing another large bite in her mouth. Her eyes roll back in her head, and she moans. “And like Gage. You smell like spice and Gage. Like … mate, but not mate.”
“I smell like chili powder and Gage … Like …”
The blood drains from my face as I realize that, even after I’ve showered, Auryn can smell Gage on me.
And she can smell that we’ve been together.
“Why do you smell like him?”
she asks around another mouthful of food. Her tone is more one of idle curiosity than nosiness, like she truly doesn’t understand the concept of males having sex with each other.
Oh, no. How do I explain this?
“Uh, well, you see … Gage and I, well, the whole pack actually, we don’t have an omega of our own. A mate. Er, yet, anyway. But sometimes … Sometimes alphas need to, um … We need to relieve the tension. And since Gage and I get along, and we like each other, we help each other in … that way.”
The whole time I’m stammering, she’s eating. She gorges herself like she’s been starved–which I know she hasn’t, at least not since she got here–but somehow it’s the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a while. My brow starts to sweat, and I get a strong whiff of lemongrass and clean air, so strong it overpowers the chili powder in the tamales.
Auryn’s perfuming. At dinner. Barely an hour after receiving a second suppressant injection.
“Auryn, do you know what you’re doing right now?”
So much of what she’s said about alphas and omegas is just wrong, and I wonder if she’s even conscious of her actions. Does she know when she’s perfuming, when she’s signaling a potential mate? Does she even know that’s what perfuming is for?
Does she know what her aroma is doing to me?
Rather than answer me, Auryn busies herself with licking her husk clean of every last ounce of chili powder. I swallow hard and clear my throat.
“You, uh, liked it, then?”
She tosses the plate on the rug and nods, licking her soft, pink lips. “Mm-hm. I like … What did you call it? Chili powder?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes.”
Her expression changes, morphing from the satisfaction of a full tummy to something else. Something hungry. “I like chili powder. I think it might be my new favorite food.”
I don’t want to take advantage of Auryn. I really don’t. She’s sweet and damaged, fractured in a way that I’m only just beginning to understand. At the same time, though, I’m starting to suspect that she’s about to take advantage of me. The way her lids have hooded her eyes, the way she’s exuding pheromones, the dilated pupils, the drape of her t-shirt over her stiff nipples …
Oh, fuck. Gage is definitely going to murder me.
While I stand there like a horny idiot, Auryn advances. She pulls up the hem of her shirt, exposing her toned belly, which is lined with precise surgical scars. Exposing the curve of her breasts.
“Auryn–”
The plate I’d forgotten I was holding crashes against the wall as Auryn rips it from my hands and tosses it.
“You’re not like other alphas,”
she says, pressing her bare chest into me. “You’re … good. Kind. I like you.”
“I like you, too, Auryn, but–”
Her hand on my mouth cuts off my response. She traces my lips with her fingertips, her own lips parting as her tongue darts out to lick them. A soft whine emits from her throat, and she presses even closer. “I want to taste you.”
“Auryn, we shouldn’t.”
She shoves her other hand between us, cupping my cock in her palm. “Why not? You said you don’t have a mate. That you have needs. I have needs, too. I don’t–I don’t have a mate.”
Darkness flashes across her eyes, replaced almost instantly with an unbridled lust. “I want to mate. To mate you.”
Shit.
Before I can stop her, Auryn grips the hair at the nape of my neck and pulls me towards the bed. I stumble, and we both fall onto the mattress.
With Auryn’s slender legs now wrapped around me, my resolve weakens. I slide a hand behind her, slipping it just under the waistband of her sweats. “Auryn, please,”
I croak, barely able to restrain myself. “We can’t go back once we do this.”
“Good.”
She grinds her hips into me, and even through the thick material of both her pants and mine, I can tell she’s wet and ready. “I don’t want to go back. Ever.”
Nuzzling my nose to her neck, I finally give in to my instincts. My chest rumbles with a low purr, and I return the grinding, rubbing my strained cock over her soaked pussy. Auryn tugs at my clothes, and we separate just long enough to disrobe.
The sight of the thin, white surgical scars covering most of her body saddens me. She shouldn’t have those. Her skin should be pristine, immaculate. No one should ever hurt an omega that way.
As soon as my pants are down, Auryn shoves me on my back and climbs on top of me. I gasp and grip her round hips, stroking her soft skin with my thumbs. She’s aggressive for an omega, but I’m not complaining.
I expect her to ease onto me, so when she slides home in one swift movement, it takes my breath away. My back arches, and I lift my hips. She sighs and moans, leaning back and toying with her breasts. “More,”
she breathes. “Give me more.”
That’s when I lose it. I roll until I’m on top of her, thumbing her clit while I rut into her the way Gage rutted me just hours ago. Auryn gasps, moans, whines, screams as I slam into her, meeting each thrust of my hips with a frantic one of her own. I believe her when she says she needs this. Omegas in heat need this like air, like water, so really, there was no other choice.
She’s so warm. So wet, so enticing.
She’s perfect.
When Auryn’s pussy starts to spasm with the force of her screaming orgasm, I still balls-deep inside her, pumping her full. I didn’t knot her–even as feral as she makes me feel, I have enough sense to hold that back–but fuck. That was amazing.
I’m not sure what I expected to happen when we finished, but it certainly wasn’t for Auryn to wrap her arms around my waist and snuggle close, purring like a contented alpha.
“Mine,”
she murmurs before drifting off to sleep.