Chapter 13 #3
Waylon gave Julia his usual charming smile while he removed his hat and shoved a hand through his brown hair like he suddenly wished he’d actually run a brush through it this morning. “Didn’t know the Double T was taking on new hands.”
He was fishing for information, and a low growl started in the bottom of my chest.
Before the sound could leave my throat, Julia moved.
She didn’t shrink away from the strange Alphas, and she didn’t hide behind me.
She took a half-step sideways, closing the inches between me and her until her shoulder pressed firmly against my arm, calming me with her presence before I made a scene.
She laid her free hand casually over my forearm, claiming my space and my physical bulk as her own property.
“Trust me, if you’d seen my reaction to a chicken the other day, you’d know I’m not a ranch hand,” Julia commented.
Her voice was perfectly pleasant and conversational while her body language gave no illusion to who she was here with.
“I’m with the pack. We were just enjoying our morning together, getting some seedlings for our garden. ”
The way she said “our” made pride swell in my chest. She didn’t announce her designation. She didn’t explain her lack of scent. She just fired a warning shot wrapped in a polite smile.
The two Alphas absorbed her hand on my arm and the sheer possessiveness I was sure was shining in my eyes. The message was unmistakable. This Omega was mine.
The taller man swallowed hard, taking a deliberate step backward. “Right. Well. Good to see you, Boone. Tell Stetson we’ll see him at the auction next month.”
They turned and walked away rapidly, eager to be out of the invisible blast radius I was currently projecting.
I didn’t relax until they were out of the crowd. My pulse was still hammering as I looked down at the woman leaning against my side. She was unbothered, calmly taking another bite of her melting ice cream.
She had managed it perfectly, weaponizing my presence and using her sharp-witted charm.
“Thanks for taking me shopping, Boone,” she told me softly, turning to face me as we reached the truck.
My jaw locked. Hearing others call me Boone was standard. Hearing it from her mouth felt wrong. It sounded like distance I refused to maintain anymore.
“Don’t,” I demanded softly.
Julia paused, her brow furrowing. “Don’t what?”
I set the heavy canvas bag of supplies on the grass. I took the half-eaten ice cream cone from her hand and placed it on the hood of the truck. Then I stepped into her space, bringing my hands up to cup her jaw.
Julia gasped softly, her chin tipping up to meet my gaze.
“Don’t call me that,” I rasped. “The world calls me Boone because it’s my last name.
Because I’m big and I work hard and they don’t need to know anything else.
But you aren’t the world.” My thumbs stroked along the soft line of her jaw, feeling her pulse jump beneath her skin.
“You’re my world. You called me August the second you arrived.
You gave me my name back, and you’re the only one I want using it. ”
Her brown eyes blew wide, the dark pupils swallowing the color.
She stared up at me, reading the absolute truth in my expression.
The armor she wore so well shattered into a million pieces, leaving her exposed and vulnerable, looking at me like I was the only thing keeping her tethered to the earth.
“August,” she whispered, the sound soft and reverent.
My restraint snapped.
Grabbing the bag from where I’d deposited it in the grass, I yanked the passenger door open, dropped it onto the floorboards, and grabbed Julia by the waist. I lifted her clean off the ground, setting her firmly onto the edge of the cab’s seat.
She was at eye level now, grabbing the front of my shirt and pulling me into the V of her thighs.
I didn’t wait. I crashed my mouth against hers, devouring her lips with all the pent-up, starving hunger I had suppressed since the second she walked into my kitchen a week ago.
Julia let out a needy whine, eagerly opening her mouth to me.
I swept my tongue inside, tasting the sweet, tart explosion of huckleberry and the deeper, richer taste of the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life tending to.
I angled her head, kissing her deeper, harder, taking everything she had to offer and demanding more.
My hands spanned her ribs, pulling her flush against my chest until her breasts flattened against my sternum.
She kissed me back with equal violence, her fingers tangling in my hair, pulling my face closer, matching my desperate, feral energy beat for beat. The sterile smell of the lotion didn’t matter anymore. I didn’t need to smell her to know she wanted this. She was screaming it into my mouth.
I finally tore my lips away when we both needed air, resting my forehead heavily against hers. My chest heaved, my lungs burning, my cock was hard, and my heart was trying to escape my damn body.
Julia’s eyes were heavy, her lips swollen and shining from my mouth. She looked wrecked. Beautifully, perfectly wrecked by me.
“My kitchen,” I rasped, my voice barely recognizable as I listed the only things in this world that truly belonged to me. “My truck. My name. My pack.”
She smiled, a slow, devastating curve of her lips that made my blood run hot all over again. She brushed a stray piece of hair away from my forehead, her touch infinitely gentle.
“Your Omega,” she promised softly.
“Mine.”
I closed my eyes, the weight of a lifetime of waiting finally settling into the dirt. I had spent years making sure everyone else had what they needed, but looking at Julia, I finally understood what it meant to want something just for myself.