Chapter 62
chapter
sixty-two
I don’t know why I’m here.
Naked. Running.
Scrambling is maybe a better word.
I remember being in my bed with one of my alphas. The tall one who never lets me do anything for him. Except this time, he had to. Because this time, I didn’t give him a choice.
Is that why I feel so panicked? Was he mad? Did I stay there long enough to find out?
Nothing makes any sense at all, which is the very worst sign. That means everything—including the burning, terrifying pain —is about to start. I have t o get somewhere dark and safe. Maybe find a pillow and a blanket if Wally’s left one anywhere…
My mind doesn’t know what I’m doing, but my feet carry me to a room that’s perfect . Sumptuous dark fabrics, satin cushions, low light. Maybe, if we stay hidden here until our heat starts, Wally won’t come get us and make us go in the basement closet.
I huddle under the first blanket I find and say a little prayer, begging whoever is listening not to make me leave this room. It smells miraculous in here. Like summertime and thunderstorms and torched sugar and night jasmine. All of my favorite things.
“Omega?”
Oh God, is he coming? Did he find me already?!
It doesn’t sound like him. This voice is too quiet and echoey. When I hear it again, I jump, realizing it isn’t coming from outside my cocoon… but inside my body.
Serena? Can you hear me, sweet one?
I whine, so confused and hot and OH MY GOD, WHAT IS RUBBING AGAINST MY SKIN ?!
Is it a straitjacket made of nails that someone set on fire ???
“That’s Jonah’s shirt, baby,” the warm voice says out loud. “I can take it off for you. Would you like that?”
Another shrill noise blares up my throat, piercing my ears. I cover them with my palms, shrinking into my knees, trying to burrow away from the sound.
There are so many feelings in me. Fear and pain and desperate need—but there’s also euphoria and gratitude and…
Love?
What the hell is that doing in there?
I hear a soft chuckle. “That’s me, baby,” its owner says. Something inside me shifts, and then I hear the voice there, at my center. You completed our bond, Serena. I think it triggered your heat .
Oh no . That means it’s too late. There isn’t any way to escape. I have to brace for all th e pain and ? —
“Fuck,” he growls. “No, Serena. I won’t let you hurt, sweet baby. Just come out and let me help you.”
But he sounds angry. Angry alphas aren’t safe. Especially not now, when I’m like this.
A soft nudge inside of me accompanies a slow tide of adoration. I’m not angry, baby. Just worried about you.
There’s a beat of tight silence, then a thump of dark, heated excitement. When he speaks again, he sounds gravelly. “Do you want to come tend your bite?”
A bolt of white-hot want strikes my core like lightning, leaving frantic tingles in its wake. Slick and perfume gush out of me as everything below my navel pulses—empty squeezes that have me clawing my way out of whatever is covering me and launching myself at the swelling scent of orange blossoms.
I crash into a beautifully bare alpha chest, strong arms snapping me up immediately. I start to panic, a whine building in my chest, until my head falls back and I see?—
It’s him.
The one who saved me by accident and couldn’t forgive himself for not doing a better job.
My alpha.
He hears me think the words and his square, gorgeous face softens. “That’s right, my sweet little mate,” he rasps. “You need this knot. Let me give it to you, hmm? Take this shirt off. Have you tend this mark you made.”
He does all of it within seconds, stripping me bare and situating me over his big alpha cock. The second my gaze snags on the half-moons bitten into his neck, I moan and fall against his body.
“Good girl,” he murmurs, tilting his head to let me latch onto the mark. “God— good girl , Serena.”
Pleasure pours through him while I lick his skin, inhaling the fresh, rich smell of summer as it floods the nest along with my perfume. Strong hands grip my hips and pull me right down, sinking his cock and knot all the way inside me in one go.
And it—it doesn’t hurt .
It doesn’t hurt anymore .
Instead of the horrible emptiness, there’s his solid girth, rubbing at every sparkling nerve with heat and hardness.
“Beautiful baby, taking your alpha’s knot. So perfect.”
I love you, I love you, I love you.
Praises pant out of him and swirl inside our bond while our hips grind, bringing us both to the brink within seconds. His head falls back as my teeth scrape my claim. A screech echoes off the walls and he circles me on his knot even faster.
He growls as he comes, the heavy swell buried in my pussy expanding to fill every aching inch of me. My muscles clench and flutter, the ball of tension coiled in my middle popping as the warm lash of his release cools the flames climbing my insides.
“There,” he whispers. “Right there. I’ve got you, sweet one. You can let go now.”
The haze smothering the edges of my mind sweeps in. Only, for the first time, it doesn’t feel like I’ll drown in it. Because my lifeline is under me, holding me close, filling me in every way there is.
And I can finally drift instead of sinking.