Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ALFIE
I was sick with worry, not like I had much to worry about. I knew Luka would find our omega, knew to my very core that he would bring her home. Still, until I saw her limp body in his arms as she clung to his neck, I hadn’t realized how much my beta needed to see her to ease his doubts.
I had the sliding door to our back patio open in a blink, jogging out to meet them as they neared our yard. The closer I got, the more I could see the bruising and cuts on our omega’s skin. Fury filled me over what could have happened to her, over the reason she left to begin with. We didn’t want another omega. She was plenty enough for us, and I didn’t understand why our girl didn’t understand that.
“What happened?”
Instead of looking angry, Luka smirked. “I fucked her boneless.”
Our omega hummed as she nestled into his neck. “Boneless?”
“Yes, beta. I knotted our omega until she had no choice but to accept she was ours, right there in the middle of the woods.” He looked too damn proud of himself.
“Explains the leaves,” Felix mumbled as he got closer. “Fuck, look what you did to her.”
“She won’t run again, not after that punishment, will you, omega?” Luka cooed as he looked down at our woman.
“From the looks of it, our omega might run because of the punishment,” Felix observed.
The slightest curve of her lips was the response Felix got. A smirk that promised naughty moments under the stars and alluring taunts. Just looking at her had my cock already aching, desperate to be inside of her again, even though we spent the last few days with our bodies joined nonstop. This was it; this was the power of an omega we’d been missing the whole damn time.
I cleared my throat, fighting off the emotion having our own omega brought me, and spoke. “Felix will take our battered woman off your hands, and I’m going to run her a bath. I think she’s earned it.”
Felix reached for our omega and Luka reluctantly let go, though I knew he didn’t want to. But he had to have been carrying her for a while, and he’d been out for hours searching for her and following her scent. He needed rest too.
Felix smoothed down her hair and kissed her cheek as I stepped in front of them, leading the way into our home and through it until I reached our shared bathroom. I bent over the large tub, turning on the water before I searched around for the luscious vanilla bath salts our omega seemed to favor. The tub was half full by the time Felix entered with our omega.
“Sit her on the edge,” I ordered and Felix listened, a rarity in itself.
I dropped to my knees in front of our omega, kissing up her leg, giving every bruise and cut attention. It had nothing to do with mating her, and everything to do with caring for what was ours. She was ours to cherish, and she may have misbehaved, but we’d never leave her bleeding. When I was sure every mark on her skin had been tenderly lavished, I removed the rest of her clothing and lifted her up, gently placing her into the bathtub.
She hissed when the water touched her knees before she closed her eyes and relaxed. I had clipped her hair to her head, ensuring it wouldn’t get wet, then I searched for a candle and lit it, placing it by the sink to cast her in a gentle glow.
I leaned down, my fingers stroking her neck before I placed my lips against her, feeling the contentment. “Omega.”
She licked her lips, eying me hungrily, but this wasn’t about our hunger for each other. It was about me showing her we would take care of her. “Beta.”
“If you ever?—“
“I won’t,” she rushed out.
I rested my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. “We can’t lose you. You understand, don’t you?” When she nodded that she understood, I pulled back. “I’m making you food, omega. And after you’ve eaten, I’m giving you the spanking of a lifetime.”
Her eyes burned with my threat. “Okay.”
And two hours later, after my omega was fed and content, I did just that, showing her just what happened when she dared to scare her beta as she had, and our omega loved every damn second of it.