Chapter 14
fourteen
Luther
Luther stares blankly out the window as the snow continues to fall. He can see the ink blob that is one of his pack mates in the distance.
He has been in a near catatonic state for over a month now. He can’t change it.
Wren and Pierce guessed everything that happened was taking its toll. And it was.
But there was more to it than that.
He gets up from the recliner, dragging a blanket with him. He had already done his circuit around the barn, checked that the cows were warm enough and had plenty of food and water. Made sure their pregnant heifer, Ruth, was eating enough.
Charles was usually on top of it, but he wasn’t here any longer.
Another stab hits Luther in the gut.
Guilt.
Charles.
Their Good Luck Chuck.
Luther is the one who pushed Charles to join First Chapter Clinic.
Luther is the reason Charles was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Why Charles saw Rossi shoot the nurse.
Why the Rossis put a target on him.
Why Charles is—he doesn’t let the thought land.
The front door whips open, and in the doorway is his half-soaked, shivering, idiotic, angry pack mate.
Luther wraps the blanket over Wren’s shoulders, leading him further into the cabin, closer to the heater.
They built this house about five years back for Charles to grow into, but it wasn’t exactly equipped for snow. There wasn’t a fireplace, and the heater only worked to warm one single corner of the living area.
Wren tugs the blanket tighter around him. “The fucking snow! The goddamn cold! I thought we stayed in Florida to keep away from this bullshit.” Wren lets out a string of expletives, before leveling Luther with an intense stare.
Luther appraises Wren, circling to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.
The man had been the first to join him, the first to agree that Charles would be raised by them.
The first to step up into the father role.
He had done so much for Luther, sacrificed a normal life, and all he had in return was this farm.
“Stop giving me that look. I chose this life,” Wren snaps out.
Luther pours a cup of coffee and walks it to Wren, handing it to him.
Wren chugs it, squeezing the mug in his hands. He screws his eyes shut as he opens his mouth again. “There’s an omega trapped in our house. She can’t leave due to the snow. We need to hole her up in here. She’s going into heat.”
Luther does not expect that. He doesn’t know how to react. “Why is she here? Who is she? Heat?”
“She came looking for Charles. She’s mated to a Rossi. Her name is Xenia.”
Luther freezes.
The coffee pot in his hand falls to the ground, shattering around him, the liquid barely missing his boots.
He can hear Wren shouting but it is as if it’s through water. The words are bleary and gurgle, never making their way to Luther.
Luther is throwing open the door to the cabin before he can recognize what he’s doing.
He is desperate. Anxious. He doesn’t even feel the cold as he runs all the way to the house, only to see the front door open. He continues his way out there.
He is frenzied, his entire body vibrating with unused energy as he searches for her.
Three steps into the front and he finds her, half-naked and curled up in the snow.
Xenia Rossi.
His cock pulsates as he pushes the rest of the way into his Little Omega below him. Nia moans as she arches upwards further into him. Suctioning him in an addictive way.
When he agreed to take Charles’s place here he never expected this. He had almost said no, but the urgency of the nurse’s tone when they called had changed his mind.
He had been vetted a decade back, his records were still valid, he just needed to do a quick physical and high-tail it to the clinic.
He hadn’t told his pack mates, he knew to ask for forgiveness—not permission.
“Alpha,” Nia mewls, her fingertips digging into his shoulder blades in an addictive manner. Her voice is a sultry lilt as it fills the space.
He wants more than anything to rip the blindfold off, to look at her face, but instead he relies on his other senses. Feeling her soft skin against his, her slick that enables him to slide all of the way into her, the addictive hushed moans.
“You’re perfect, Sweetheart.” He pumps into her a few times, testing her. Finding where she pulls, where she pushes back. The spots she seems to enjoy, the ones to avoid.
He presses his lips into hers again as he rocks up and further into her. His knot is begging to be inside of her. Throbbing as he hits it against her over and over again. He opens his mouth attempting to consume the omega.
He wants her more than he should. His pack had given up on searching for an Omega years ago, choosing to prioritize raising Charles.
He had accepted they would never find one, and yet, Nia was quickly forcing him towards a point of no return.
If not for the medication he took, he imagines he would be in a rut, mindless and desperately attempting to breed her. Over and over again.
Make her his forever and always.
Releasing her lips, he shakes his head to clear his thoughts. He moves his mouth to her neck, the side that isn’t marked. He licks up and down the sensitive skin, his tongue lashing out.
It takes everything in him to not leave his own mark.
But he would never do that to her.
“Alpha! Your knot!” she cries from beneath him. Her body pulsates and writhes as her nails break skin.
He growls at the sensation. He wants her marks all across him.
But it is the wrong thing to do.
She freezes, releasing her hold, and he pauses his thrusts. “Nia.”
“I’m sorry, Alpha, please don’t hurt me. I promise to be good. To be yours to use.” While it is Nia’s voice, the words are empty. The tone is dead.
She isn’t speaking to me. Her brain is muddled. This is trauma.
He controls his rage, the knowledge of why she would be like this. Of what could cause her to say this. Even in her state she has the wherewithal to beg not to be hurt.
Because she has been hurt before during her heats.
Luther wants more than anything to destroy those who have caused her pain. Except, Nia said her mate is dead.
I can’t fight a ghost. I can only help her now.
He begins to purr, attempting to sooth her. To sooth himself.
And it works. It isn’t long before she wraps her arms around him again. Pulls him to her. And he allows it. He wants her to have control.
Even as everything in him urges him to push his knot into her. To fuck her hard and fast into this nest. To wash off the scent-blockers and cover her in him.
He doesn’t act on those instincts.
“Alpha,” she slurs. “Your knot. Please, it hurts. I’m so empty. Please.”
“Yes, Little Omega.” He reaches between them, lifting one of her legs onto his shoulder. This makes it easier for him to push further into her. Stretching her even more. His free hand finds her clit, pinching it.
She clenches around him, and he swallows down a groan.
His knot is aching. Pulsating with a need he isn’t accustomed to. But as he presses into her, pure electric ecstasy shoots out across his nerves.
He physically can’t stop himself from pushing his knot the rest of the way into her, his fingers not letting up on her clit. Even as she screams and shakes around him. Even as he fills her and she continues to milk his cock. Taking as much of him as he has to offer.
She is everything that he never knew he wanted.
He is lost to his desire, to her, to this moment. She has altered the course of his future. She has dug up his unused instincts and urges.
He is hers. In this moment. In the future. Forevermore.
After this, he may let her go, but he will never truly release her.
I will find out who you are.
Carefully releasing her leg, he rolls them until she is on top of him. His knot still locking them together, ensuring his cum doesn’t escape her.
He knows it isn’t possible, but he wants more than anything for her to swell with his child. For them to be connected for life.
“Alpha?” she murmurs groggily.
He wraps his arms around her much smaller frame. “I know you aren’t. But right now, you just feel like you are mine.”
“Mmmmm.”
“Go to sleep. I have you, Nia. You are safe with me.” The lie flows from his lips as he realizes how dangerous this has become. How quickly his obsession has formed.
He promises himself then and there. He will let her go.
But if she returns to him?
He will never let her go again.