Chapter 14 #3
"How do you feel?" I asked, my voice rough, my hands still steadying her waist.
"I—" She blinked, trying to focus. Her eyes slowly found mine. "I feel... I feel like I'm yours." Something in my chest cracked open. Something raw and tender and terrifying.
"You are." I cupped her face in my hands, tilting it up until she had no choice but to look at me. "You're ours, Lily. You've been ours since the moment you gave Kaelan that pearl. And we are never letting you go."
"Tomorrow." She said softly, her voice still hazy but with a hint of something mischievous underneath. "Kaelan said tomorrow."
I went still again. "What?"
"Your kiss." A faint smile curved her lips despite her glazed eyes. Her fingers traced along my jaw, feather-light. "He said tomorrow, you could have your kiss. It's tomorrow now."
My heart stopped. Actually stopped, for one long, endless moment.
"You remember that?" my voice came out strangled.
"I remember everything." Her eyes were soft. Open. Trusting in a way that made me want to wrap her in my arms and never let go. "You said you would be gentle. That you would worship me."
"I would." The words came out ragged. Desperate. My hands tightened on her face. "I will. If you'll let me."
"I'm letting you." She leaned into my touch, her eyes fluttering half-closed.
I looked at Kaelan. Asking permission. Begging for it.
He held my gaze for a long moment, and I saw the struggle there—the possessive part of him that wanted to keep her kisses for himself, warring with the part that understood we were a pack, that she was ours, not just his.
Finally, he nodded, a single sharp motion.
I turned back to Lily. My hands were shaking—actually shaking, like a fledgling on his first hunt. I had killed countless humans. Had dragged ships to the bottom of the ocean. Had done things that would make her scream if she knew the details. And I was trembling at the thought of kissing her.
"I've never—" I stopped. Started again. "I've wanted this for so long. Wanted you for so long. I'm afraid I'll—"
"You won't hurt me." Her hand covered mine where it cupped her face, steadying it. Her eyes were clear now, focused, certain. "You could never hurt me."
"You don't know that." My voice cracked.
"I do." Simple. Certain. The same way I had said kill them yesterday. The same absolute conviction. "I know it the same way I know the sun will rise and the tide will turn. You could never hurt me, Riven. It's not in you."
I made a sound I didn't recognize. Something that had been locked inside me for centuries, finally breaking free.
And then I kissed her. I had meant to be gentle.
Had meant to worship her, like I'd promised.
But the moment my lips touched hers, something snapped.
Something primal and desperate and completely beyond my control.
I kissed her like I was drowning and she was air.
Like I had been starving for centuries and she was the first real food I'd ever tasted.
My hands fisted in her hair, tilting her head back, deepening the kiss until she whimpered against my mouth.
She tasted like salvation.
Like hope.
Like home.
"Mine," the word growled out of me, pressed against her lips between desperate kisses. "Say it. Say you're mine."
"Yours." No hesitation. No fear. Just pure, perfect submission. "I'm yours, Riven."
I groaned. Actually groaned, the sound vibrating through my chest and into hers.
My hands slid down to her waist, lifting her, pulling her closer until there was no space between us at all.
She wrapped her arms around my neck. Her legs wound around my waist. She kissed me back with a hunger that matched my own—desperate and needy and completely uninhibited.
I had dreamed of this. In the long, dark hours of watching and waiting, I had imagined what it would be like to hold her, kiss her, have her.
But nothing I had imagined came close to the reality.
Her mouth opened under mine, and I swept my tongue inside, tasting her, claiming her.
She moaned—a real moan, not the scared sounds she made on the ship but something raw and wanting and her fingers dug into my shoulders hard enough to leave marks.
Good, I thought savagely. Mark me. Claim me back.
Let me wear your bruises like badges of honor.
I kissed her deeper. Harder. Poured centuries of loneliness and hunger and desperate wanting into the press of my mouth against hers.
She took all of it. Met my intensity with her own.
Gave back as good as she got. This was what I had been waiting for.
What I had been made for. This omega in my arms, this perfect creature who looked at me and saw something worth loving instead of something to fear.
I broke the kiss only when I felt her lungs straining for air. Pressed my forehead to hers, breathing hard, trying to remember how to think.
"Good omega." The words came out rough. Wrecked. "Such a good omega. Kissing me so sweetly. Giving yourself to me so perfectly."
"More." Her voice was hoarse. Her eyes were still closed. "I want more."
"You'll have it." I pressed another kiss to her lips—softer this time, gentler. "You'll have everything. But not tonight. Tonight you rest."
"I don't want to rest." Her eyes opened, finding mine, dark with want.
"I want you." The sound that escaped me was barely human.
It took everything I had—every ounce of self-control I possessed—not to give her what she was asking for.
Not to lay her down right here in the water and worship every inch of her body until she forgot her own name.
"Soon." The word was a promise. A vow. "When you're ours completely. When there's no ship to go back to, no hiding, no fear. Then I'll give you everything you want and more."
She was crying. I pulled back, alarmed.
"Did I hurt you? Was I too rough? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" The words tumbled out, panic rising in my chest.
"No." She shook her head, tears streaming down her face, but she was smiling. "No, you didn't hurt me. I just—I've never—" She took a shaky breath, her fingers still tangled in my hair. "I've never felt wanted like this before. Never felt precious like this before."
Something in my chest shattered. I pulled her close, tucking her head under my chin, wrapping my arms around her like I could shield her from everything that had ever hurt her. From every human who had looked at her and seen property instead of a person. From every alpha who had made her afraid.
"You are precious." My voice broke on the words. "You are the most precious thing in any ocean, in any world. And we will spend the rest of our lives proving it to you."
The others moved closer. Kaelan at her back, his arms wrapping around both of us, his chest solid and warm against her spine.
Vale at her side, his hand finding hers and lacing their fingers together, his silver eyes soft.
Thane pressing close, his tail wrapping around her ankle, tears tracking silently down his gentle face.
Four alphas. One omega. A pack that would burn the world for her.
"Ours." I growled, holding her tighter. "Forever."
She relaxed into us. Let herself be held, be surrounded, be claimed.
And for the first time since I'd watched her dive off that ship and offer a pearl to a monster, I felt something like peace.
She couldn't stay. I knew that. Understood it, even if every instinct I had screamed against it.
She needed to go back to the ship, to maintain her cover, to survive until we could take her properly.
Watching her climb that ladder—watching her leave us again—was the hardest thing I'd ever done.
"I'll be careful." She said, pausing at the railing to look down at us. The shells in her hair caught the moonlight. She smelled like us now, so strongly that I could scent her even from here. "I'll stay away from Cort. I'll be smart."
"You'd better." My voice came out rough. I didn't try to soften it. "Because if anything happens to you, Lily—if anyone hurts you—there won't be a ship left. There won't be a crew. There won't be a port for them to dock at. Do you understand?"
"I understand." A small smile curved her lips, and she pressed her fingers to her mouth before extending them toward me—a blown kiss. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow." The word was a promise. A prayer. A threat to anyone who dared come between us. She climbed over the railing and disappeared onto the deck.
I stayed in the water, watching. Waiting. Counting the minutes until I could see her again.
If Cort so much as looked at her wrong in the meantime? I touched my claws, still stained faintly with my own blood from earlier.
Well. I had plans for him.
Very detailed plans.