Chapter 14
Fourteen
WILLOW
The street lights muddled into a blur as we sped through the city. I barely registered the moment Kaelen pushed the door open, my mind a haze being pulled further under by the thickening cloud of our pheromones.
Without waiting for him, I surged forward, jumping into his arms and wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck.
A hand slid under my ass, holding me as he carried me through the grounds.
I hid my flushed face in his collar at the nod from the two men guarding the front door as he walked us inside.
“Needy omega,” he said, his teeth grazing my earlobe. “Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you. I’ll give you everything.”
“You,” I moaned, scratching his expensive suit jacket, wanting it out of my way.
“Oh, you have me. All of me, mo chroí.”
Something in my belly tightened at his declaration. To the world, I appeared as a sophisticated, spoiled rich girl who mooned over my senator father with pretty doe eyes. Only because that was what my dad wanted people to think.
In reality, I didn’t have much to call my own. All by his design.
The truth in Kaelen’s words stirred a passion inside me, igniting a spark that caught flame and consumed me like a dying phoenix.
He took the stairs two at a time, making me giggle with his urgency. We passed my room, instead moving through the door at the end of the hall. My mouth parted in a small O when we entered his bedroom.
A muted gray colored the walls, while everything else was adorned in forest greens and rich burgundies. Along the center of the far wall stood a grand four-poster bed, draped in shining silk sheets and heavy damask blankets.
My omega was desperate to burrow beneath the bedding and mark it with her scent.
Above the bed, a chandelier cast a glow, mimicking the flames sputtering from the unpolished stone fireplace.
Kaelen placed me on the bed, and I scrambled to my knees, the skirt of my sapphire gown pooling around my legs and exposing my thigh. He stood there, watching me, like a king surveying his kingdom.
I crawled around the bed, smiling as he followed my movements.
Silk slid under my fingertips as I splayed them in the sheets before rearranging the mountain of pillows.
They were too tidy and organized, too sterile.
I burrowed into one, lighting up at the scent of my alpha.
I turned, about to ask him for his shirt to add to it, pausing when his piercing stare pinned me to the spot.
“Are you nesting, little omega?” he asked, crossing his thick, tattooed forearms.
Something twinkled in his eyes, like the early morning sun bouncing off the maple leaves. The hint of a smirk appeared, slowly unweaving the tight coil of uncertainty in my belly.
Outside of my heat, I didn’t nest. Not really. Never had the instinct. I was a useless omega. Around this man, however, it became second nature to build the perfect place for us. A cozy spot drenched in our scents where he would knot me and make me his.
“Oh. Um. No. Maybe,” I added, freezing with a decorative pillow clutched between my greedy fingers.
Chuckling at my expense, he crawled onto the bed, the mattress sinking under his weight.
I licked my lips, slick pooling in my panties.
My pussy clenched, and I choked down a pathetic whine.
He gently tugged my abused lip free of my teeth.
My chest ached, each breath more painful than the last, with a stabbing need for this alpha to claim me.
A voice in the back of my head told me he didn’t want me. Why would he want a broken omega who didn’t even know how to build a proper nest?
“Go ahead, mo chroí. Make this place ours. So I can knot that tight cunt of yours until you’re screaming my name.”
I squeaked, my eyes so wide they watered. His filthy words stoked something primal in me. Shadows from the fire danced along his back, making him look like the devil shrouded in smoke. I would sin at his altar, lay myself bare as my confession until he drained every last drop of purity from me.
“Can I have your shirt?” I asked, already tugging at the collar.
He chuckled, the sound warming me like coffee on a winter morning. He spread his arms wide, like an offering. Taking it as permission, I yanked off his jacket, wiggling my ass as I threaded it into a spot between the wall of pillows.
Blood thundered in my ears as my fingers hovered over the buttons of his shirt. My nipples pebbled, straining against the thin material of my dress. Two knuckles slid under my chin, tilting my head back, his eyes almost black.
“Take it off, Omega,” he commanded, his velvety voice almost sinful in the orange glow of the fire.
“Yes, Alpha,” I said, unable to deny him anything when he looked at me like I was the reason for the moon and stars.
With shaky hands, I slowly exposed the expanse of muscled, tattooed skin, littered with scars. Some old. Some fresh.
Nesting now forgotten, I pushed the material off him, mesmerized by the stories woven into his skin. His hands rested on my arms, playing with the thin straps there.
“Let me see you,” he said, his demand raw and teetering on the verge of desperation.
My anxiety spiked, almost making me forget what hid underneath my pretty dress. No one had ever seen them. My fingers traced over the spot below my collarbone. I always wore shirts when I slept with anyone else, or insisted that the lights stayed off.
It wouldn’t help much in this case. Not with the firelight.
Best to get it over with. The quicker he realized I wasn’t what he thought, the better.
It meant less time for me to get attached to him.
I nodded, the motion jittery as his fingers found the zipper.
He dragged it down, each second more drawn out than the last, feeling like a condemned person on my walk to the gallows.
With the zipper down, he fisted the hem of the dress, pulling it over my head, exposing me to him. I hadn’t worn a bra, couldn’t with the material. All that was left between me and Kaelen was a pair of black lace panties.
For one hopeful second, I thought he might not notice, that he might claim my lips in a passionate kiss.
But no, I wasn’t so lucky.
All at once, the desire on his face twisted into something chilling as his nostrils flared and the vein in his neck throbbed. His fingers flexed, his knuckles turning white as he made to touch the marks below my clavicle.
I shrunk away at the motion, and he froze, the two of us suspended in this bleak reality. I couldn’t take it. My eyes focused on the blanket I was shredding between my fingers.
“Feel like you were defrauded?” I chuckled, so I wouldn’t cry. “Damaged goods. I’ll go back to my room.”
Making to leave, I covered my breasts, shame staining my freckled skin. Who was I kidding? How could an alpha like him ever want someone like me?
“No.” The weight of his words rattled the pictures on the walls, his bark curling around his words and rooting me to the spot. I froze, my eyes stinging. “Who did this to you?”
Acid burned my throat, the taste metallic on my tongue. My hand splayed over the scars and burn marks, trembling. Every time I tried to speak, nothing came out. I couldn’t say it. It didn’t matter. He knew the answer.
“Please. Don’t make me say it,” I whispered, guilt making my voice wobble.
Too gently, Kaelen forced my watery gaze to meet his. He brushed away my tears, his lips resting on my temple as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me snugly against him.
“Please, Omega, let me. He doesn’t deserve to live.”
Venom and authority clung to every word, his face etched into a beautiful mask of destruction.
My whole world froze as Kaelen Finnegan—The Butcher of Boston—begged for my permission. Deep down, I wanted to tell him yes, to ask him to do it tonight. Sometimes I worried I would never be free of my dad.
“You can’t,” I sniffed. “My mom, she’s too fragile. If my dad died. I don’t think she’d survive the severing of their bond. She’s too weak.”
A mate bond was a powerful thing. When an alpha or omega died, the surviving mate struggled, the bond growing cold in their chest like a phantom limb.
Some passed of heartache soon after the loss of their mate if they were older or ill, unable to push forward.
Most recovered, but I knew my mom wouldn’t be so lucky, not in the state she was in.
And selfishly, I needed my mom.
I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
I’d suffer my father if it meant I got to keep her.
His chest rattled with a divine purr, making me cry harder as I clung to him.
An alpha’s purr was a sacred thing, shared between mates.
When he’d done it after giving me the courting gift, I was too stunned to appreciate it.
But now, it made me feel special, treasured in a way I never thought I would be.
“Is that the only thing stopping you?” he asked, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.
I leaned back slightly, putting enough space between us so I could see his face. Strong hands moved over my arms in confident, soothing strokes. My eyes shifted back and forth as I processed his question. No matter how long I searched, there was no love left in me for William Sterling.
“Yes. But it’s a big thing, Kaelen. I won’t waver on that.”
“I understand, Willow,” he said, drawing patterns on my arm. “If I can find a way to help her, will you allow it?”
“You don’t strike me as someone who asks anyone for permission.”
“Only from you, Omega. I told you. You own me, mo chroí.”
Blood never bothered me. Pain was a spectrum, and I wasn’t afraid to give it as much as I got.
When I was younger, I thought making myself small and quiet would get my dad to leave me alone. I was wrong. So, as I got older, I pushed him, slapped him, spit on him, anything to remind him I hated him.