17. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ishould have been watching Alexander Hamilton strut across the stage, discussing the founding of the United States of America.
But I wasn’t.
Instead, I was watching each shift and change in Ciara’s expression as she watched the musical, her brown eyes wide with delight as she mouthed some of the words to songs that she seemed to know by heart.
Drinking in each new expression, I committed them to memory. Each quirk of her lips or crinkle in the corner of her eyes as she smiled at the actors singing was like a drug to my already overwrought system.
Even just being enclosed inside of my car earlier tonight had nearly made my inner alpha lose his shit. Cinnamon laced with the delicate bergamot perfume she was wearing danced along my senses as she laughed at the joke Lafayette just made to the crowd.
I was so damned glad I had the sense to ask Nash and Dutch what she liked to do.
I’d wracked my brain about it for almost two weeks, trying to not only figure out a time to meet with her between my practices and hers, but also what to do that she would enjoy.
It was just supposed to be one date, but as I stared at her now, I already knew I’d be begging for another at the end of the night.
I wanted to be her boyfriend, which sounded juvenile even in my own mind, but I knew it would be hard to even get that title let alone what I really wanted from Ciara.
Scent match, scent match, scent match, my brain kept chanting to me to the beat of Satisfied as the Schuyler sisters danced on stage.
Ciara’s obvious commitment issues aside, there was also the pack that had been sniffing around her for the past couple of weeks.
Everyone in the entire damn Complex knew that Ciara had shifted from singles skating to being a part of a pair with Artem Kostyk.
There was a history there that I knew nothing about and even now I could smell a hint of orange on Ciara’s skin whenever she shifted in her seat. It was nice enough, but it didn’t make my mouth water the way hers did.
A nasty dash of possessiveness I had no business having filled my chest and I lifted her hand from the armrest and threaded our fingers together.
Ciara’s brown eyes shifted away from the stage for a moment, looking down at our joined hands and up at me.
I thought for sure she was about to pull away from me, but instead she offered me a shy smile before turning her attention back to the musical.
Two hours later, we were still holding hands as we exited the theater.
It was a warm night in Seattle and people were out and about enjoying the weather as we strolled together down to the waterfront.
Summer was in full swing now and tourists were flocking in from all over the world to experience the Emerald city when it wasn’t rainy, foggy, or just generally dreary all the time like it usually was.
The warm night didn’t matter much to me though as I thrived in the gloom.
When I moved to Kansas City to play hockey I missed the days of rain and how it made everything so green. It was insane that two such different places could exist in one country.
If given the choice between a warm day on the beach and cuddling up on the couch while it poured outside, I would choose the latter every time.
“Wiz?” Ciara’s voice brought my attention back to the present.
She’d pulled her curls back into a loose ponytail, exposing the long column of her neck to my hungry eyes. I could even see the thrum of her pulse just underneath the warm brown skin there.
Shoving down the urge to press my lips there while we were standing in the middle of a very crowded, very public place, I straightened and turned my face away to clear her cinnamon scent from my nose.
Pulling her away from the crowd so that we were both looking out at the sparkling water and the cheerfully lit Ferris wheel in the distance, I gave her my full attention.
Ciara’s normally confident demeanor, her shell I’d quickly realized once we’d met again after the Olympics, was down. It made her features softer as she seemed to be contemplating her next words.
“Why do you like me?” she finally said in one, long whoosh. “I don’t have any characteristics that make for a good partner. I’m selfish, brash, and I’ve got issues pouring out of my eyeballs.”
Her accent, which was usually an interesting mix between American Midwestern and Irish, became a little stronger as she spoke.
“Why wouldn’t I like you?” I countered, bumping my shoulder into hers. “You say you’re selfish, but I don’t see it that way. Selfish would mean you do things without thinking of anyone but yourself, and frankly, I think you think far too much of everyone else.”
Ciara blinked at me as if I’d solved a puzzle she’d been fussing over for her entire life. Her expression closed off, but I wasn’t letting her put her walls up again in order to shut me out.
Pulling her hand up to my chest, I pressed it over my heartbeat so she could feel the flutter underneath her palm. “I like you, Ciara, point-blank-period.”
“It’s just instincts…” she began, but I shook my head.
“Maybe it started out that way—not that there’s anything wrong with following your instincts when it comes to people like us—but I’ve been watching you since coming here. You are so loved by those around you because of who you are, why is it so surprising that I might feel the same?”
“You’ve been watching me?” she asked, sounding surprised.
Giving her a dry smile I shrugged. “In the least creepy way possible, yes. It’s really weird, but I almost always know when you’re nearby. My eyes naturally find you even in a crowded room, like I’m some kind of compass and you’re my true north.”
My mom had known the moment she laid eyes on my dad that he was it for her. The way she described it was like everything clicking into just the right place—finding her other half–and they were both betas who were free from the biological instincts that alphas and omegas possessed.
On some level, I’d known it since I couldn’t take my eyes off the TV when Ciara was skating during the Olympics. My obsession had only grown from there.
Ciara’s full lips pressed together and she shook her head. “But… I’m a mess. It’s not like being in a relationship will magically fix all of that, Wiz, you do realize that right?”
“Why would I want to fix you?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Everyone wants to fix me.”
“Not me.” I liked her just the way she was. I wanted to know more about the things that had hurt her so much that she refused any sort of commitment, but it didn’t matter to me either way.
Pale teeth worried at her bottom lip as her eyes finally lifted to meet mine fully for the first time since we’d stopped to talk. “What if I run away? I do have a nasty habit of doing that.”
I’d gotten that from the countless times she’d seen me at the Complex and quite literally ran in the other direction.
“Then I’ll run away with you.”
“And what if I also like someone else?”
There it was, what I’d been afraid of. “Is it that pack you’ve been with?”
She shrugged. “Maybe, would it bother you if it was?”
“Would you want me to join you? I’ve never been in a pack before, so I’m not sure I’d be very good at it.”
Ciara snorted. “I have a feeling you would love a pack, you’re very levelheaded, especially for an alpha.”
It sounded like she was on the verge of giving in, her earlier refusal almost a fading memory as her expression softened while she spoke.
Cupping her face, I tilted her chin up so we were looking directly at one another. “Just say yes, Ciara, I promise you won’t regret it.”
With her lips pinched together, her brown eyes searched my face. Searching for what? I wasn’t sure, but her next whispered words nearly broke my damn heart.
“I swore I’d never get into a romantic relationship because of what I lived with when I was small.”
I held my breath, afraid she was going to reject me after I’d laid my heart bare for her.
“But… you make me want to try.”
My shoulders sank with relief and I dropped my head into the crook of her shoulder for a minute, inhaling her scent deep into my lungs.
“Well, thank fuck for that,” I said, my lips moving against the skin of her collarbone.
Ciara’s laugh was bright and bubbly, like a bottle of freshly uncorked champagne.
There would still be a lot more than just a yes to make this thing work, but if Ciara was willing to try, then I’d go to the ends of the Earth just to be in her presence.
“This is nice,” I said between kisses as Ciara pushed me into her bedroom.
I never realized that she lived just two floors down from the team floors, a fact that I was now glad for because it meant she had no reservations about letting me inside of the apartment that she shared with her stepsister who was apparently out for the evening.
“Love the use of color.” My words were muffled by her lips and tongue, and a growl rumbled out of me when she pulled away to look at me.
“Wiz?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
I nodded, catching her drift. “Shutting up.”
Ciara seemed to like that, her swollen lips curling into a pleased smile.
Flattening her hand on my chest, she gave me a gentle shove—the same thing she’d done when we were back in Scotland—and I obligingly dropped, hitting the bed with an oomph.
The difference from then, though, was I wasn’t in nearly so many buttons tonight and my leather jacket had been abandoned somewhere in the living room. This allowed for her hands to almost immediately begin to slide underneath the hem of my shirt and up my bare stomach.
“I think there are actually more muscles now, if that’s even possible,” she teased with a shake of her head as she crawled over me, pushing the shirt up as she went.
“Your dads are a pair of demons when it comes to coaching,” I told her, earning myself a laugh.
Sitting up, I cupped my hands on her hips and dragged her over the bulge in my jeans.
Pulling the lacy camisole that she was wearing over her head, I cupped her bralette covered breasts in both hands.
“It’s been a minute,” I rumbled, slipping the fingers of one hand underneath the edge of the cup while the others peeled the straps down her shoulders.
“Since you’ve seen my breasts?” I could hear the smile in her voice.
Giving her nipple a little twist, Ciara’s grip tightened on my shoulders as she gasped.
“Since I’ve seen all of you.”
Yanking the bralette down, I reached back and unhooked it, tossing it into some unknown corner of the room.
“I’ve had dreams about you, Ciara Callaghan, you skate through them like you do on the fucking ice.”
My fingers dropped from her torso to the button on her jeans and I gestured for her to stand for a moment.
“You ingrained yourself in my very DNA that night, rewriting it completely.” Scent match aside, I firmly believed that had we lived in a world without dynamics, a world full of betas that had nothing but their wits to find their soulmates, that I would have found her anyway.
“How are you so sure about this? All of this?” Ciara’s teeth worried at her lower lip as she gestured between us.
I shrugged. “I take after my mom I guess, the McDonald clan wears their hearts on their sleeves. Drives my dad nuts sometimes.”
There were a million little reasons I could tell her, but at this moment I just wanted to show her.
Pushing at the waistband of her jeans, they pooled at her feet leaving her standing in a pair of panties that matched the bralette I’d just taken off.
The only light in the room—a dim light from an orb on her nightstand—backlit her entire form, making her skin glow as she stared down at me.
“And because who could take a look at you when you stand in front of them like this and not fall head over heels in love?”
As I said it, I was afraid I’d gone too far too fast and she was about to rebuild the fortress she used to keep herself safe.
But instead, Ciara’s hands were soft on my cheeks as she leaned down and pressed her lips to mine.
“Is it okay that I don’t say it back just yet?”
Her question was whispered so softly against my mouth that I almost missed it.
“Take all the time you need,” I assured her, my fingers tracing the line of her spine. “I’ve got all the time in the world.”
What happened next was a blur of my clothing being removed and Ciara’s panties joining her bralette on the floor.
Hovering over her body, I glanced down between us where my cock was almost achingly hard.
“You still on that birth control?”
Ciara nodded, her fingers curling in the hair at the nape of my neck. “Yes, why?”
“Because I need to feel every inch of you right now.”
Notching the head of my cock at her damp entrance, I thrust inside as slowly as my instincts would allow.
I could recognize the haze of a rut hovering just on the edges of my consciousness, but I shoved it away.
A rut was all my alpha taking over and it made it hard to recall specific details from my first night with Ciara.
I wanted to remember tonight. Every gasp, every moan, every tight clutch of her cunt on my cock as her lock, the mirror of my knot, twisted around it.
Ciara’s nails dug into my back, dragging down and probably leaving thin scratches that would definitely be seen by the rest of the guys at our next practice.
Good, my inner alpha purred, then they’ll all know I belong to Ciara Callaghan and she belongs to me.
Her hips rolled up to meet mine, her lips falling open in a moan that I quickly caught with my own mouth, our tongues entwining as we moved together.
Ciara gave my shoulder a tap. “Let me on top.”
I obliged, pulling her up into my lap until I was on my knees, her legs spreading to accommodate the width of the tops of my thighs.
This position brought her body completely flush with mine and I could feel every inch of her silky smooth skin as she slid all the way down on my cock, bringing me even deeper inside of her.
The edge of my knot butted against the entrance of her pussy and I could feel the flutter of it on the sensitive flesh as Ciara’s arms wrapped around my neck and she tucked her face just under my chin.
“That feels so—” she stuttered out, her hips lifting slightly before dropping back down. “Good.”
A laugh huffed out of me. “You’re very honest when I’m so deep inside of you.”
My fingers dug into the juncture where her torso and hips met and I lifted her, trusting her to use her legs to help me as we moved together much more slowly than before.
Whatever snappy reply Ciara was going to shoot back at me was lost to her as I let her drop more firmly onto my cock, this time her too-tight entrance spreading over my knot and very nearly slipping inside.
“Have you ever taken a knot before?” I asked, surprised that it was allowing me any entry at all.
After our first night, I’d done some research on it. During my special designation classes in school the old alpha that taught the class swore up and down that alphas weren’t supposed to knot or lock each other.
Then again, he also said that it was wrong for two alphas to be together without an omega between them.
My research had disproved his first claim, alphas could knot each other. It wasn’t as easy as it was between omegas and alphas, or even betas and alphas, but it could be done.
And as for his second claim?
I’d never felt the way I felt for Ciara for anyone else, let alone an omega. Even the scent of Kostyk, the omega that Ciara seemed to like, held nothing more than a passing interest for me.
“I have.” Ciara’s lips ghosted past mine as she watched me with pleasure laden eyes. “Once.”
“And did you like it?”
Ciara’s expression shifted into something more bashful, like she was embarrassed to admit it. “Probably more than I should have.”
That was exactly the answer I was looking for. I’d never knotted anyone before, but it felt like second nature to just let my inner alpha take over and do what needed to be done.
On the next roll of her hips, I pushed down even harder than before until my swollen knot began to slip past the impossibly tight clutch of her pussy’s entrance.
A garbled noise slipped out of Ciara as the bulk of it pushed inside and for just a breath, I wasn’t sure if it was going to fit.
“I think—I think maybe I should pull it out,” I managed around a moan, suddenly uncertain.
Ciara gripped the tops of my shoulders so tightly that it took my mind away from the hot twist of her cunt.
“Oh, no you don’t,” she growled into my ear before bearing down until my knot slipped fully inside and we were caught together inextricably.
The sensation of it was too much, and with a moan I spilled deep inside of her.
“Shit, I didn’t mean to do that,” I mumbled, hugging her body tightly to mine.
Ciara hadn’t come yet and a wave of embarrassment filled me. My knot was still swollen just inside of her, jammed in place and not moving in the way that it would have been able to had she been an omega.
“It’s all right, I don’t mind.” Ciara’s voice was breathless, as if she’d just run a mile.
But I did mind.
Dipping my head, I covered her nipple with my mouth and sucked until the soft flesh puckered and hardened.
Ciara sucked in a sharp breath, her fingers slipping up into my hair as she held me there.
Then I wiggled my hand in between our bodies and gave her clit a pinch, rolling it between my thumb and forefinger as her insides began to pulse.
“That’s it,” Ciara moaned, her hips rolling into mine, her lock twisting around my knot as if she was trying to pull my cock completely off. “I’m almost there!”
Pressing my thumb firmly on her swollen clit, I made little circles until I felt her insides flutter and she came with a sharp inhale.
The tops of Ciara’s thighs shook as she pulled me away from her breast and slammed her mouth into mine again, the only noise in the room the sound of our muffled, ragged breathing.
Flopping to the side, I gathered her into my arms and we shifted until our legs were comfortably tangled together.
“How long do you think you’ll stay knotted inside of me?” she asked with a yawn.
“I dunno,” I pressed my lips to her sweaty forehead, feeling completely content for what felt like the first time in my life. “I’ve never done it before.”
Ciara pulled back so she could get a look at my face, probably to see if I was messing with her. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
I was half-afraid it would make her freak out like telling her she’d given me my first rut had, but instead a pleased expression filled her face.
“You’re happy about that?” I asked, surprised.
Ciara tucked her nose just under my chin, another exhausted yawn slipping out of her as she nodded. “I think I’m starting to like taking all of your firsts, Wiz.”
Her body grew heavy with sleep after that and as I stared at her sleeping face, I silently vowed to give her every first of mine I could think of.
And as far as I was concerned, they all belonged to her anyway.