34. Chapter Thirty-Four #2
My fingers tangle into his hair, anchoring in his strength.
His breath hitches. I swing my leg over his hips, lodging the hardness caged in his jeans between my thighs where I throb in the sweetest way.
I press down, savoring the weight of his hands sliding down my back, tracing lightly over bare skin.
His touch sparks desire through me, burning hotter and brighter.
His bond whispers fierce tenderness and possessive devotion, drowning out the shadows of my past. I deepen our kiss, drinking him in, claiming each heartbeat, each ragged breath. This alpha— my alpha —gives everything freely, withholding nothing, asking only what I'm ready to give.
And I'm ready now.
His breath is uneven. “Emma,” he murmurs against my lips, my name a prayer, a plea .
I roll my hips, grinding down on the hard length trapped between us, reveling in the way his jaw clenches, the way his grip tightens not to control, but to savor.
This is different.
Not the desperate, starved passion I shared with Soren, nor the playful, wicked heat Phoenix drew from me. This is deliberate. A claiming. My palms slide down his chest, feeling the pound of his heart beneath my touch as I work to open the button on his jeans.
“Alpha, let me see you,” I whisper.
His dark eyes never leaving mine as I rise to run my touch over the dips and rises on his chest, over his pecs and down the raised muscles of his abdomen.
His skin is warm bronze and hard planes, scars mapping his history.
I trace them with my fingertips, my throat tightening at the way his breath catches when I brush over the oldest-looking scar, just above his heart.
“You’re beautiful,” I say, and mean it.
His hands rise to frame my face, his thumbs sweeping over my cheekbones. “And you’re everything.”
Then I lean down, sealing my mouth to his, kissing him like I have all the time in the world. Because I do. Because he’s mine, and this moment is ours to worship, not rush.
His hands feather down to my waist, helping me rise just enough to free him from his jeans. The first brush of my fingers over his cock wrings a groan from his throat.
“Can I touch you properly?” I whisper, my fingers hovering just above the hard length of him.
Asher’s chuckle is dark, rough with need. “You never need to ask me.” His voice is a gravel-edged caress, his hands dropping from my waist to brace against the mattress, fingers digging into the sheets. “Take what you want.”
I don’t hesitate.
My fingers wrap around him, and the moment my skin meets his, his body locks.
Every muscle draws tight. He’s hot silk over steel, thick and heavy in my palm, the velvety skin stretched taut over rigid arousal.
A bead of moisture glistens at his tip, and without thinking, I swipe my thumb over it, spreading the salt-sweet dampness in a slow circle.
“ Fuck !” The word tears from his throat, raw and shattered. His cock jerks in my grip, veins standing out along the length as his breath comes in ragged bursts.
I don’t stop.
I can’t.
The way he reacts, the way he comes apart under my touch, sends a rush of slick between my thighs, my need spiking hotter than ever. I need more. Need to taste him, to hear him groan like that again.
I lean down.
The first swipe of my tongue over his tip has his hips snapping off the bed, a guttural snarl ripping from his chest. “Omega!”
I don’t give him time to recover. My lips close around him, taking him deeper, savoring the way his thighs tremble as I hollow my cheeks. His taste floods my senses, musky and rich, uniquely alpha, uniquely Asher, and I moan around him, the vibration wringing another broken sound from his lips.
His hands fly to my hair, not pushing, not guiding. Just holding on, his fingers twisting in the strands as if he’s afraid I’ll stop. “Look at me,” he demands.
I do.
Our eyes lock as I take him deeper, my tongue pressing along the underside of his cock in slow, deliberate strokes. His gaze burns, black with need, his chest heaving as he watches me. Watches his omega claim him in the most primal way.
His thumb brushes my cheek. “Thank you, Omega. Thank you.”
He doesn’t have to thank me.
This is everything I want.
I tighten my grip around his swollen knot at the base of his cock, swirling my tongue over the head before sinking down again, losing myself in the salt-sweet taste of his skin, the way his breath shudders above me, the thick, velvety heat of him heavy on my tongue.
His groans fill the room, raw and unfiltered, music to my omega soul .
His light is golden and radiant, brighter than I’ve ever felt it. His essence thrums under my skin, humming with every pulse of his cock in my mouth, every ragged breath he takes. This —his pleasure, his surrender, is everything I need.
His fingers tighten in my hair, not forcing, but pleading. “Emma—” His voice is wrecked, trembling. “I can’t hold on. Need you on my cock.”
The command sends a flood of slick gushing from my core. Need him now. I release him with one last lick, my own breath coming in shallow gasps as I rise to my knees.
Asher sits up, his hands gripping my hips, his eyes wild, possessive. “Look at me, Omega,” he orders, and I do, my fingers curling over his shoulders as he helps lower me over his cock.
The first press of his hard-as-steel dick steals my breath.
“Take me slow, Moonbeam. Fuck yourself on me. Use me however you need to,” he growls, though his jaw is locked tight, his muscles trembling with restraint.
I sink down inch by agonizing inch, my body stretching, burning as he fills me. His grip on my hips is bruising, but his eyes—his eyes are soft, watching me take him like he’s memorizing every flutter of my lashes, every hitch of my breath.
Need his knot. Need it all.
“Oh!” I sink lower, feeling that delicious stretch as the thick crown of his knot begins to press against me. My body resists for half a heartbeat before giving way, accepting him deeper with a slick, molten glide that wrings a ragged moan from my throat.
His knot stretches me perfectly, claiming me in the most primal way an alpha can. My forehead drops to his, our panting breaths mingling. His chest heaves against me, every muscle in his powerful body trembling.
“Feel that?” he rasps, his voice thick with possession and awe. His hands slide down to cup my ass, holding me flush against him as his knot pulses inside me. “That's me. All of me. Yours. Sealed inside you where I belong.”
The fullness is maddening, perfect pressure against every sensitive inch, the slight burn of the stretch sending sparks through my nerve endings.
I roll my hips, and his groan vibrates through my chest where we're pressed together.
The knot tugs deliciously with the movement, the sensation pulling another breathy whimper from me.
“Fuck,” Asher chokes out, his fingers digging into my hips. “You take me so good, Omega. So fucking perfect.” His praise washes over me like sunlight, the bond between us thrumming with golden satisfaction as we remain joined, knotted, complete.
His eyes are black with need, his scent smoky and thick, but his touch remains gentle, his thumbs stroking circles into my skin as I begin to rock.
It’s slow. Torturous. Perfect.
I can’t move as high as I could if I’d just taken his cock, but I move as far as I can. He throbs inside me as I grind on his abdomen. His hands roam my body, kneading my thighs, skimming my ribs, cupping my breasts but always, always returning to my hips, anchoring us together.
“You feel—” He breaks off, his head falling back as I roll my hips. “Gods, Omega, you feel like home.”
The words unravel me.
My rhythm falters, my body tightening around him as pleasure builds, slow and sweet and inevitable. Asher senses it—of course he does—his hands sliding up to tangle in my hair, tilting my face down to his.
“Come for me,” he orders, his voice a dark caress. “Let me feel you splinter apart around me.”
My climax crests, spilling through me in warm waves, my muscles fluttering around him, my cry muffled against his lips. Asher follows moments later, his hips jerking as he spills into me, his groan vibrating through my chest where we’re pressed together.
“Alpha…. Need to…claim you.” The words don't just leave my lips. They erupt from some ancient, wordless place in my soul. My voice cracks on the plea, sounding foreign to my own ears. Guttural, omega-raw, stripped down to pure instinct.
My fingers convulse against his shoulders, my entire body trembling like a bowstring pulled too tight. This isn't mere want. This is marrow-deep necessity, primal and undeniable, a wildfire in my blood that scorches away every rational thought until only one truth remains: mine .
Asher's pupils swallow his irises, those whiskey-dark eyes flaring with shocked understanding even as his scent explodes between us, smoky bourbon igniting into something richer, headier, molten gold and burning leather. His rough palms cradle my face like I’m a sacred thing.
When he speaks, his voice is shattered glass and velvet, scraping low with reverence.
“Yes.” A shudder wracks his powerful frame as he bares his throat. “Gods, yes. Take what's yours, Omega. I've been yours to claim the moment I failed you.”
The last thread of restraint snaps. I surge forward, teeth finding that sacred juncture where neck meets shoulder. For one suspended heartbeat, I register the salt-sweat taste of his skin, the coppery anticipation flooding my tongue, the way his pulse thrums against my lips.
Then I bite down.
Hard.
The world detonates .
His essence—pure alpha, pure Asher—floods my mouth in a torrent, searing through me like liquid sunlight.
It's warmth and protection and homecoming, the bond between us blazing to life.
Every nerve sparks to life as his energy pours into me.
Rewriting me at the cellular level, fusing our souls with light that sears away every false bond until only us—only this—remains.
The mark on my own neck burns in sympathetic resonance, our bond weaving tighter, deeper, permanent.
“ Emma !” His broken cry is my name as prayer, as benediction.
He arches beneath me, his body surrendering completely to my claim.
Some distant part of me registers the hot spill of his release inside me again, but it's drowned by the all-consuming rightness of our bond singing in perfect harmony at last.
We collapse together gasping, the air between us thick with the mingled scents of honeysuckle and whiskey, storm and smoke. Inseparable now. His arms lock around me with desperate strength, his lips moving soundlessly against my hair as our bond thrums between us, bright and unbreakable.
Mine.
Yours.
Ours.