Chapter 11
Eleven
KAELEN
In the days since I kissed Willow, I walked around with a constant hard-on. My alpha craved our sweet, strong omega. But I vowed to treat her like the queen she was. I hated the distance between us. I wanted nothing more than to carry her into my bed and never let her leave.
She needed time to adjust. I didn’t want to overwhelm her.
So I focused on work. Dimitri sent along a mountain of contracts, and Aidan finally uncovered Isabelle Sterling’s medical records.
On top of that, a contractor arrived to convert the additional room off the main suite that would serve as Willow’s nest. My omega would not spend another heat in anything less than luxury.
Regardless of whether she invited me to join her or not.
I assured her I wasn’t ignoring her. I didn’t want her to question what had happened between us. Our situation was delicate.
Instead, I asked her to join me at one of my casinos tonight. The way her eyes lit up when I confirmed it was a date made the dark place where my heart resided thaw.
Stacks of papers were strewn across my desk as I pulled open the top drawer, patting the velvet box. The first of many courting gifts I would lavish Willow with. I expected her to be difficult and try to refuse them.
Too bad that wasn’t an option.
Almost every day, Torin took her to that farm on the outskirts of the city. I peeked through my ajar door as she walked by every night, her delectable scent calling to me like a spider’s web to a moth.
Fuck.
I would let her trap and torture me for an eternity.
Muddy, form-fitting jeans hugged her curves with an oversized sweater tossed over her slender torso when she padded by my office. I wanted to peel her out of them, unwrapping her like the gift she was.
Part of me hoped she’d see the open door as an invitation to join me, being as bold as she had been after her heat.
A few times, she lingered outside, never daring to enter, unfortunately.
Every evening, Torin reported on her activities. Things had been quiet. No one paid any attention to her. Granted, she didn’t go anywhere public outside of that lunch with her friend. No one knew what she was to me, not yet.
That would change after tonight.
I kept my affairs private, rarely flashing my dalliances out in public. Oh, how I couldn’t wait to show off Willow, gorgeous vixen that she was.
She liked horses. Rescue animals. Abused ones, rehabilitating them. Apparently, she was quite fond of a black stallion. According to Torin, it was gentle and calm with her, but bristled whenever any alphas got too close. In the last five years, she had worked with more than a dozen horses.
Shaking away my wandering thoughts, I stared unseeing at the contracts from the Bratva, pushing them aside and perusing the surprisingly slim records of Isabelle Sterling.
I sent a copy of the medical findings to the head of internal medicine at Boston General.
Who also worked for me as my personal physician.
I couldn’t make head nor tail of most of it. However, for someone who had been sick for nearly a decade with no diagnosis, there was a disappointing lack of testing done. The most recent doctor dismissed most of Isabelle’s symptoms as anxiety.
As I dove in, it appeared she always saw the same two doctors, each as incompetent as the other.
After my eyes went cross-eyed staring at the documents, a questioning knock echoed on the door. My dick stirred.
It was her.
My men were gruffer. Rising from my desk, I placed my palms flat on the finished oak. A whiff of her sweet spring scent flittered into my office, and my nails dug into the wood, leaving indents in the custom lacquer.
“Come in.”
A swirl of sapphire material stepped over the threshold, and my entire body seized, pushing all the air from my lungs. My hands flexed, veins popping on the thin skin there.
Willow strode in, her white teeth burrowed in her lush lower lip, looking shy and uncertain.
That wouldn’t fucking do. My omega was a queen, and she would act as such.
The image of the bold omega in the haze of her heat flooded to the surface.
I would show her how to always be that. Confident and commanding.
My omega could be nothing else. I had seen flashes of it, and it wasn’t only her omega who was bold.
Willow stood toe to toe against her father, even me, the night she first arrived here.
I would tend to her like the strong flower she was, watering and helping her flourish into the gorgeous blossom that she tried to hide. Maybe it was a learned behavior, something she did to protect herself.
My sweet, sweet girl.
Soon, she would learn that she didn’t cower.
No, men would fear her, bow to her word.
As mine, the city of Boston would be hers to command.
My dick ached in my trousers, hard and desperate to be buried inside her. How could it not when the embodiment of Rhiannon stood before me? Willow, a goddess reborn, the essence of strength and resilience.
My goddess. My omega. My everything.
My instincts itched beneath the surface, driving me to provide and protect my precious omega.
The light from the setting sun illuminated her in a golden glow, highlighting the line of freckles that disappeared beneath the chiffon hanging off her shoulders.
Her dark hair bounced elegantly with each step she took, the ends brushing her collarbone and hinting at the cobalt highlights hiding underneath.
With the desk still between us, she stopped, the silver kitten heels poking out from the long slit that exposed the length of her tanned leg. I wanted to drop to my knees and run my tongue over it before sinking into that beautiful cunt of hers.
Keeping my eyes locked on hers, my lips twitched when she didn’t look away. I fiddled with the drawer, removing a narrow case wrapped in black velvet. Her gaze darted to the box as I closed in on her.
The alluring scent of hers invaded every fiber of my body. The corner of my mouth lifted, my tongue running along the points of my teeth. I leaned in, my hot breath sending a pretty flush over the tops of her breasts as I chuckled in her ear.
“You are stunning, mo chroí. If I hadn’t promised to take you to the casino, I would take you to my bed instead.”
A small sound rolled from her lips, and I couldn’t tell if it was a squeak or a moan, maybe both. Whatever it was, it spurred me on.
Silken strands of hair slid through my fingers as I palmed her head, marking her with my scent. She would know she was mine. And so would everyone else.
I nudged the gland on her neck, my dick rock hard as the source of her scent consumed me. I feathered a gentle kiss over her pulse, my arm banding around her waist to support her when her knees buckled.
“What—What does it mean? Mo chroí.”
I pulled back, cupping her cheek in my free hand. “My heart.”
Despite her attempt to school her features, I didn’t miss the slight parting of her lips or the subtle widening of her eyes. Oh, the power that Willow wielded over me was dangerous, if she ever realized it.
I tugged at the cuffs of my shirt, adjusting my suit jacket. The tip of her pink tongue darted out to wet her lips as she eyed the package in my hand, curiosity replacing the apprehension in her jeweled eyes.
“Turn around,” I whispered, the command no less imposing as I twirled my finger.
A defiant gleam twinkled in her eyes, and fuck if it didn’t make my already hard cock ache more. I wondered whether she would refuse me. Part of me wanted her to.
Pursing her lips, she huffed, reluctantly doing as she was told.
I crowded her back, towering over her. The backs of my knuckles brushed along her arm as I tucked her hair behind her ear. A thick wave of her scent clouded my senses as Willow perfumed. My lips rested against her temple.
“Good girl,” I cooed, relishing the keening noise she treated me with. “This is for you.”
The latch on the velvet box clicked as I opened it, removing the platinum necklace.
The morning after our kiss, after Willow confirmed she trusted me, I went out and bought the present, working with the same jeweler that my father used for decades.
I told my omega that I would court and worship her, and I did nothing in halves.
All omegas adored gifts, but I had a feeling my omega would be annoyingly stubborn, and she did not disappoint. I clipped the necklace around her slender neck, my fingers gliding over her creamy skin as I draped the brilliant sapphire stone at the hollow of her throat.
“You can’t give me this,” she shrieked, tracing over the glittering gem. “It’s obscene.”
Her face betrayed her words. While she tried to hide it, I didn’t miss the way her eyes sparkled. She struggled with the joy it brought her to receive a gift from me, nervous about what it implied.
“Do you think you can tell me what I can and can’t give you, Willow?”
“Yes,” she said, a furrow creasing between her brows as she glared at me.
Pride swelled within me as I kept my face stone-still, matching her glower. Warmth turned to desire, all my blood rushing south.
There she was. My queen.
Flames danced in her eyes as she crossed her arms, making her tits strain against the delicate material covering them.
Technically, she was not wrong.
Everyone believed omegas were beneath alphas, the weakest of the designations, but nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who had seen a true mated alpha and omega knew omegas had their alphas wrapped around their fingers.
A bonded alpha would level a city to protect their omega, would drop to their knees to please them.
Willow had never seen that type of devotion.
The only reference she had was her parents, and based on what I found, their relationship was abusive.
I didn’t know if she knew of any other mated pairs.
Probably not, given how skittish she was.
Not only around me, but all alphas, it seemed.
I wish my parents were still alive, so I could show her what it meant to be bonded to your mate.
Bracketing her hips, I spun her around to face me.
“It is a courting gift, Willow. Will you still deny it?”
I had a feeling she didn’t connect the two at first. While she didn’t admit it, I knew my Willow had never been courted before by an alpha.
Every instinct told her to brush away my gift, to refuse it.
But once I confirmed what she didn’t dare to expect, realization flittered across her features. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out.
“I will be so good for you. That is my promise to you. I will cherish you like you deserve. My scent calls to you, as yours does to me. Don’t withhold what you want because you are frightened. You said I didn’t scare you.”
If anyone found out about me begging an omega to accept me, I would bury them alive. A tiny, hollow laugh fell from her as hair spilled over her delicate collarbone. When her eyes found mine again, they glittered with a beautiful resolve that made my alpha roar with delight.
“I never said that,” she breathed, and I arched a brow.
She stepped forward, fusing our bodies together as she dug a finger into my chest.
“I said,” she paused, poking me, “what you did didn’t scare me. You, you terrify me. Your scent, your eyes, everything about you is intoxicating, and I’m afraid of what I feel, afraid of what this all means. Afraid of getting hurt.”
The last declaration was barely audible as she mumbled the words, her hand falling limp at her side. Tension hung in the air, her scent taking on a slight burned tinge. I tightened my hold on her waist to keep her from running. All the muscles in her body seized, and I did the only thing I could.
I purred.
Never once had I purred for an omega. Willow would be my first and my last. The rumble grew in my chest, my scent thickening.
After a beat, she relented, perfuming as her body went limp in my hold. I pressed my lips to the top of her head, closing my eyes and focusing on the lulling rumble that soothed my omega. Cold hands wrapped around my neck when she murmured into me.
“Okay.”
“Okay, what?” I asked, tipping her chin up with two knuckles.
“I’ll accept your courting gift.”
My hand slid to her throat, my fingers wrapping around it as I applied gentle, reassuring pressure. Nothing in her posture or features hinted at her not liking it. The pad of my thumb slid up to her chin.
“You understand what this means?” I asked.
“It means we’re dating.”
“Oh, my sweet omega. It is so much more than dating. The world will know you are mine. My enemies will see it and know that touching you is stirring a slumbering dragon. My men will see it and will follow your commands second only to my own. And you, mo chroí, you will feel it in the very beating of your heart—the devotion of an alpha who has chosen you.”
A bead of sweat trickled off her brow, her pulse pounding against the thin skin of her neck. A heady wave of her arousal cut through our scents, and my alpha demanded that I claim our omega.
Without waiting for a response, I fused my lips to hers, taking what I wanted. Gone was the gentleness from earlier. I demanded entrance, licking into her drinking down her tiny moans. My teeth nipped at her plush lips, leaving them swollen and red when I pulled away.
“Now, let me show off my omega.”
I ran my fingers through the silken strands of her hair before threading her fingers with mine. Her tiny hand fit beautifully in mine. As it should. We were made for each other. Our scents blended beautifully, and soon she would know how our bodies molded to one another.
The icy glaze around her eyes melted, leaving a twinkling brightness in its wake. A beaming smile looked up at me as she grasped my hand, following me out to the waiting car.
“Yes, Alpha,” she said in a velvety voice.
I was utterly fucked.