Chapter 21 #2
This wasn’t safe. She couldn’t depend on him like this, but it felt so good. Just to have him hold her, nuzzle her neck and shoulder. Even his less than chaste kisses bolstered her strength by leaps and bounds until Elena felt almost herself again.
When he placed her hands low on her belly and covered them with his, purring softly for her, she would have come undone if he hadn’t whispered for her to eat more. As it was she sniffled back her overwhelmed tears and chewed on the slice of roast beef he’d pushed between her lips.
“Are you tired, little one,” he asked in a quiet murmur, hands soft as they travelled the length of her arms in a soothing line.
“Yes,” Elena said, leaning back into the solid strength of him as he set the tray aside. She gave a gentle hum as he wrapped his arms around her before pulling her up the bed, settling her slight weight against the pillows she’d arranged to perfection.
He saw to every detail, making sure she was comfortable before he leaned over and kissed her again. Feather light and teasing, he didn’t seek out more before pulling away with a smile spreading his lips.
It was a smile she’d not seen from him before. Content and not at all sharp, she could imagine he was truly happy in that moment. It made something deep inside her chest writhe, sticky tendrils invading every inch of her until she was lax and purring for him.
Confusion had her sounds stuttering to a halt as he climbed from the bed, donning his pants and shirt with smooth precision. As if he’d wiped away the tenderness between one moment and the next, he was all cool efficiency now.
“Sleep now,” he said as he left without even looking back at her.
She knew she couldn’t trust him. Should never have allowed herself to get so lost in him.
He’d abandoned her as soon as his duties were done.
Elena tried to bolster her flagging spirits with the knowledge that at least she knew now.
She understood the game he’d played, using her as a pawn to get his own needs met while seeing to his pregnant Omega.
She was a fool to think he cared anything for her. Knew it would never be true.
“Stupid idiot,” she muttered thickly as a wave of tears rushed to stinging eyes. Burying herself under the thick layers of blankets, she muffled her quiet sobs further.
The days bled into weeks. A pattern emerged from the routine of her life that Elena despised and needed.
Leon would ignore her for a time, never to be found in the house. Abandoning her to read the stacks of books he’d acquired just for her and thumb through catalogs of things for the baby. It was too soon for such things, but he wanted her to begin decorating a nursery to occupy her time.
Then he would return, all smiles and doting affection to leave her devastated.
No matter how hard she fought to deny him, he would wrench such pleasure from her body.
Make her hum in delight, purr her contentment before he once again vanished to leave her to repeat the long, arduous task of collecting the shattered pieces of her soul.
She was little more than a plaything to him.
“I’d like to go out,” Elena mumbled over her scrambled eggs one morning. There was no one there to hear her, no one to talk to save Mrs. Jacobs and sometimes Helen, but they were busy with their duties. She was so alone and lonely in a way she’d never felt.
“I’ll get word to Mr. Marchetti, dear. Now eat up,” Mrs. Jacobs said as she bustled around the table to pour Elena more tea.
Elena couldn’t force more than another bite. Her appetite waning, he was due to return to her soon anyway. He’d wave away her requests, ignoring her pleas. Leon would launch his assault upon her, leaving her shattered and adrift when he was done and sated.
Whether by Mrs. Jacobs’ concern or rote didn’t matter. He returned that same night.
“I want to go out,” Elena whispered as she edged her way around the bed, one hand pressed against the soft swell of her belly to protect the tiny bundle of cells against whatever its father might do.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re far too fragile—”
“Because I am alone,” Elena cried, enacting a mincing retreat as he came closer. “I have nothing to do and no one to talk to.”
“You have your books.”
“They’re not a person!”
“You have your Alpha, and that is all you need,” Leon said on a quiet growl as he grabbed her arm, tugging Elena back towards the bed.
“You’re never here,” she mumbled even as she gave in, knowing it was a hopeless endeavor from the start. Jerking her arm free of his grip, she climbed into the bed, mechanical and stiff. Laid on the bed with her head turned aside, waiting for him to begin.
He would have her cries and moans soon enough, tease her pleading voice from her after he started. Until then, she would deny him as best she could.
“I am here when you need me,” he purred as he climbed in after her, seeing her actions as defeat and not the objection that it was.
“When it pleases you,” she muttered.
“I am not allowing you to traipse all over creation in your condition, Omega.” He covered her body with his, wrenching her legs open to fit them around his waist.
“That isn’t what I’m asking,” Elena said in a huff, turning her head to meet his gaze for a brief moment before she brought her focus to his chest. Showing submission despite the anger coursing through her veins white hot and trembling.
“It’s precisely what you think you should be allowed.”
“To go out for a meal, some shopping maybe? Meet with other Omegas. That is what you consider too much?”
“All you need is your Alpha.”
Elena took a breath to respond, but in the end she let it out on a gusty sigh and turned her head away once more.
He’d deny her on principle alone. He had no favor for her, didn’t see her as a human being even.
She was the thing to sate his needs, to incubate his child.
Whatever autonomy he’d been willing to offer her had been thrown out the window by her own actions that first day and now the pregnancy that plagued her with a desperate need for him.
She was a prisoner here.
Just as she knew he would, his careful touches and ravaging kisses made her lose herself for a time. Hours lost in him where she forgot how to be herself. Forgot that she hated this man. In the end it was his name on her lips as she cried out again and again.
When he was done, smiling and sated at last, Elena rolled to her side. Giving him her back as she curled her legs around the precious spark and closed her eyes.
Sleep came soon enough.
He was still there when she woke the next morning.
Lounging in the bed as if he had nowhere else to be, curling her hair around his fingers.
Far too intent to be called idle, his focus shifted to her face as if he knew the very moment her lashes fluttered open.
Meeting her drowsy eyes with bright determination.
“Get dressed,” he said.
It was all he said. Unwinding his fingers from her hair, he rose and went to shower, leaving Elena to follow his command in his absence.
She waited for all of a heartbeat before she rushed into motion, ignoring the crusty patches of his come caked to her skin.
Leon had done much the same when he’d taken her out of the house before.
Despite the fact she was mated and pregnant now and of no use to any other Alpha, she wouldn’t argue with his paranoia.
Pulling on a loose dress of deep navy that made her eyes all the brighter, Elena hurried into the bathroom to restore order to her hair, applying the lightest makeup as Leon went about his business with stolid slowness. Her excitement didn’t infect him in the least.
Elena practically bounced her way down the stairs, her spirits flagging only a little when he made her pause long enough to eat something before he guided her out of the doors to his waiting car.
His car. Not the SUV.
Brows sliding down, Elena began to suspect not all was as it seemed as he latched the belt at her waist and climbed in behind the wheel. Leon gave no hint of where they were going or what he had planned as he pulled out of the long drive.
Through the suburban homes, into the city, he took a course she didn’t recognize. Elena still had no clue where they were when he helped her from the sedan until they were almost inside the gleaming, glass front building.
A sign proclaiming a list of names and their specialties had her shoulders sagging. Chin dipping down, she followed along beside Leon, his hand at her back keeping her with him as he entered the office.
In no time at all she was enclosed in a room with him, a wizened old woman sitting beside a high bed with a wide smile.
“I’m Dr. Soriano,” she said, waving Elena behind a curtain where a gown hung from a hook. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”