26. Max
Chapter 26
Max
The fear radiating through my claiming bond with Ava is almost unbearable right now.
The dull, persistent ache in my chest is throbbing in time with my heartbeat. But much worse than the physical discomfort is feeling her emotional torment.
I can handle feeling her anger when it’s aimed at me; but not her distress, her sadness, especially not her fear when she tries to keep it to herself.
I kidnapped her, but it doesn’t make me a monster. And tonight, her fear is gripping me so tightly, it’s like an iron bar is crushing my lungs and making it hard to breathe.
My mind keeps replaying the scene at the dining table tonight.
Everything went well.
We laughed for the first time. She smiled at me like she liked me.
At Silas too.
There were moments when my eyes locked with Ava’s and I saw her for the first time. The omega who wanted me. But now she’s scared, and I don’t know why.
Is she scared of her growing feelings?
She’s in so much silent torment, and I hate myself sometimes for not being a good alpha. I don’t know what it is about her that makes me blow hot and cold and then fills me with self-loathing when I do nothing about the emotions flying through the bond.
But fear is different.
I’m supposed to be her alpha, her protector, yet I’ve become the source of her misery. I don’t want her being scared of me.
I can’t take it anymore. I need to talk to her to make things right. Come to some solution without turning into a crazed alpha. Because I know how that’ll turn out.
I stride down the hallway to her room. And even though this is my home, I want to respect her space. At least when she’s awake.
Outside her bedroom door, I hesitate for one moment before I knock.
There’s no answer.
I knock again.
Still no answer.
I crack open the door. The sound of running water reaches my ears. She’s in the shower.
For a moment, I consider leaving, coming back later. But no, I need to do this now. I step inside and sit on the edge of the bed, my hands clasped tightly in my lap as I wait.
The minutes tick by slowly, filled with the sound of falling water and my own tumultuous thoughts.
What will I say to her? It’s time to make amends.
But how can I even begin to fix what I’ve done wrong?
The claiming bond pulses with her emotions, a connection I’ve tainted with my actions.
Fear still lingers. Then pain shoots into my heart. I can’t bear it anymore.
My spine straightens as I stare at the closed bathroom door.
And then need fires through the bond.
Is she sending me a message?
My heart rate picks up as I hear moaning in the bathroom as lust fires through the bond.
My cock stirs.
“Please,” I hear her moan.
Does she know I’m here? Is she begging me to touch her?
I stride to the door, pressing my palm on the door as I stall for a moment before pushing ahead.
Her eyes are rolling into the back of her head.
“Ava,” I whisper as I step into the shower. Unbothered by the water soaking my clothes.
She blinks away the water on her lashes and glances at me. “I need to come. I can’t do this anymore.”
“Shush, baby. I’m here.” I know she’s going to hurt me one day. I know this beautiful woman won't want me forever. But, I’ll deal with that the day it happens. Now it’s time to make everything right.
My eyes roam until they stop between her open thighs, and I watch as she pinches her clit between her fingers, squeezing, then rubbing.
I growl. I can’t seem to stop the rough sound from leaving my throat as I watch her fingers.
“Do you need your alpha?” I want her to tell me she wants me. That she needs me. But she doesn't.
While I unbuckle my belt, her fingers pick up speed as she tries to get there by herself.
She still doesn’t answer me.
She’s still a stubborn omega.
She slides two fingers inside her pussy as she stares at my hands as they frantically unzip my pants, and push them and my boxers down my hips.
Ava’s omega comes on strong. Her tongue darts out, licking along her bottom lip as she stares at me and says. “I hate I want you.”
She wants me. “No, you don’t. You can’t fight your instincts.”
Outside of her heat, I’ve never seen her like this before. It’s as though she can’t stop it. Her instinct is to fuck her alpha … Me . And I’m more than that—I am her scented mate.
I palm my cock and stroke, taking it slow at first to help ease her mind.
She wants me and there’s no going back.
Her fingers pick up speed, stroking over her clit while she rocks onto the two fingers of her other hand that are inside her.
“You’re doing really well, omega. Tell me when you need me.” I quicken the pace over my cock, sliding along the full length before squeezing my knot at the base.
She cries out in frustration. I know she wants me to take her, but I’m not doing anything until she begs me.
“Touch me.”
“Are you sure you want me?” I lower and nuzzle my nose against her breast, breathing in her perfume, which has been muted by the still flowing waterfall above us.
“I’ve never been surer.” She moans, rocking her hips against her hand.
Her pussy glistens and I take a moment to smell it. So sensual and perfect.
“Please,” she whines. “I need you to knot me.”
I smile. “That’s my girl, say it louder.” I tease her with the tip of my cock, sliding it along her slit before dipping just inside.
She looks fucking perfect, and I feel feral, desperately wanting to plunge my dick inside her. I want to knot her here on this tiled floor.
But I can’t.
I pull away to her exaggerated moan.
I can’t take her like this. It feels like it was when she was in her heat and couldn’t say no. And despite how much I want her, the next time I knot her, I want her to not have to fight her instincts, but to want me as her mate.
“You’re doing so well, Ava. Keep playing with yourself.”
I push back on my heels and palm my cock again, sliding my hand up and down as I listen to her delicate moans.
Large blue eyes stare back at me. I’m not sure what I see, surprise, no doubt, but there’s something else mixed with that.
“Open your legs wider for me. Let me see all your slickness.”
She whimpers, but obeys. Her pink pussy glistens not only with the water cascading down her body, but with the sheer amount of wetness.
I take her leg with one hand. My fingers gripping her ankle as I lift it to my mouth and kiss her skin.
I want to kiss every part of her body until my head is between her thighs. “I want to taste you. Can I?”
I’m supposed to be fighting this, but seeing her slick, smelling her perfume and feeling the arousal seeping from the end of my cock, is getting too much.
“Please.” Her hips snap upward. Her sexy perfume fills the air, coating every cell in my body.
Leaning down, I lick along her slit. She tastes like my favorite spiced rum.
Much better than that— she tastes like mine.
“Alpha.”
I smile, loving she’s acknowledging who I am. But I also know it’s a whimper of need for more.
I savor her clit before sucking it between my lips. She bends her back, and I remove her fingers, lick them clean and thrust them back inside her.
My knot is aching to be there and not her fingers, but I fight my urge to fuck her. My desperation to knot my omega.
I have to prove to her this is more than the baby she’s carrying. I just don’t know why I waited for her to want me.
Her fingers are speeding up, so I suck harder on her clit before gently biting. I need her to come so I can hold her in her glorious state.
My fingers grip around my cock and I stroke it faster, as her moans and her perfume permeate the air.
“Come for me, Ava.”
“Alpha!”
“You’re gonna come for me.” I circle the tip of my tongue over her clit. “I’m gonna keep licking this sweet little clit, and then I might let you come on my dick.”
“And knot me.” She gasps so hard it’s like she finds it hard to breathe.
“You hate me, remember?” I say. “Tomorrow you’ll realize this is the worst moment of your life. The moment you want your alpha.”
Her hips snap upward. “I won’t.”
“Shush, you can do this.” I suck her clit again and her slick covers my chin and mouth, but I don’t stop sucking.
Her back arches, and she rides her fingers again.
“Good girl.”
She screams. “Alpha.”
It seems my omega likes a little praise, because that’s all it seems to take.
Her breasts are bouncing as her body convulses underneath me.
“That’s it, omega. Come for your alpha.” I press my thumb over her clit and rub, not stopping as her climax goes on and on. And I won't stop it. “Keep coming for me. Imagine my knot taking you right at this moment and filling you up.”
“Oh my God,” she cries out.
I groan and my cock pulses.
“Max.”
And I let out a low moan when she calls out my name.
Not alpha— Max . Just like the moment before I claimed her during her heat.
I smile.
Her acknowledging me is making my knot desperately ache to be inside her. I ignore it once again and watch as she settles her back on the tiles, unbothered by the water.
I rest on my haunches, watching her watching me as I continue to pump my cock.
When her tongue licks over her bottom lip, I groan. I’m getting so close to coming.
Her eyes are on mine for a moment before roaming down my body and my hand as it quickens with her gaze.
My entire body stiffens as my orgasm peaks.
“Open your legs. Let me see my pussy.”
Ava stares into my eyes, obeying.
I press one hand on the tile beside her hip and continue pumping my cock with the other. I need to be quick because my inner alpha is roaring to be inside her.
I stare at her glistening pussy.
“Fuck!”
My knot inflates. My balls tighten as I shoot hot liquid over her pussy, marking her like a beast.
The same as I do this time every morning, I unwrap my arms from her body, slowly stroking my palm over my growing baby in her belly.
She’ll never know. At least, until she’s ready.
After pushing myself off the bed, I inhale her perfume one last time. Then I sneak away from her bedroom before she wakes.
She’ll hate to find me there, but after cleaning her last night, I found it so hard to leave her. And last night we turned a corner. She pushed against me as she slept.
It was also different because it was the first night she had never tossed and turned in her sleep. She slept soundly in my arms.
I purred into her hair for most of the night, and my heart thumped so hard, like it was trying to break out of my rib cage.
Since I claimed her, I’ve felt every one of her emotions as it seeped through our bond, and surprisingly last night, for the time ever, hate wasn’t one of them and I managed to remove the fear that took me to her room.
I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I’m warming to the omega. And I like that she’s fighting me at every turn. It surprises even me that I don’t want her to lose her spark.
I’m not an evil alpha. Yes, I took her under the guise of a contract, but Ava is mine. I wanted her to find out about that on her own. Too many alphas have taken from her.
She doesn’t know it, but I gave her everything.
I smile as I look at her one last time. “I hate I want you too,” I murmur in her ear.
She rejected me but it’s like Ava Darling is learning that she is mine, and I wish I could give her the freedom she craves, the freedom I once gave her.
But how can I do that now?
I can’t let her go again.