Chapter 42
“It’s been too long. She’s stressing. Where is he?” I demanded.
It had been four days since we’d escaped Ace, and over a day since she’d woken, yet Zed wasn’t back. Glade was improving, albeit slowly.
This morning she’d woken up and slipped downstairs to get herself a glass of orange juice without either of us. We didn’t want to leave her for extended periods, but it was early evening, and she’d dozed off to a movie in the bedroom. I felt safe enough dragging Kyan out to ask him what the fuck was going on with our pack leader.
I wouldn’t do it in front of her since she didn’t need to stress out more. She was on suppressants around the clock, had physical wounds that were still healing, and the lingering after-effects of how touch-starved she’d been—whatever they were—made her hormones erratic as fuck.
She didn’t need to worry about Zed on top of that.
“He’s working things out.”
“I’m all for that, but she needs him, too.”
“He… told me not to tell.”
“Are you fucking joking?” I asked. “Our Omega nearly died. We don’t have room to hide shit!” My fist closed around his throat as I pinned Kyan to the wall. “You’re going to tell me.”
“He’ll be back soon?—”
“Kyan.” There was a snarl in my voice, primal instincts rising as they so often did with him. “Tell me what the fuck you know.”
“Or what?” There was a challenge in his voice, one that always baited my Alpha. My instinct rose, a sneer curving my lips. But then, with a jolt of shock, it all tumbled off the edge of a cliff and I released him.
Insecurity gripped me.
Were things the same now?
What was between Glade and Kyan was special.
I wasn’t sure.
Kyan’s eyes flashed, darting between mine, and by the look on his face I might as well have struck him. With a snarl, he took advantage of my hesitation, twisting in my grip.
Pain split my chin as his elbow caught it, and I staggered back, tasting the tang of iron. He was on me in a second, his weight enough to send us crashing to the floor.
Shit.
He was pissed—a storm of fury in the bond. Fury that masked something else.
That was… good. I thought.
It felt good.
I shoved him off hard enough that he went sprawling to the side. He was pushing himself up by his palms, blood dripping from a cut lip, when I launched at him, getting my knee on his back to use my weight to keep him down.
“Fuck you!” he spat, using his full body to shove back up against me. There was something desperate in those words, and he off-balanced me enough to slip free. He moved faster than I could react, his knee smashing up into my side. I let out a hiss of pain as he staggered to his feet, fist closing in his hair before he could turn.
He grunted with the force of it as I rammed him against the wall.
I felt the fury falter through the bond, revealing what was beneath. He was panicked.
Damn.
I was still catching my breath, hip and chin aching from his blows.
The foundation of our relationship had never been words, and maybe that was fucked up, but that was all he could manage.
It wasn’t like with Glade. He felt safe with her. He was the protector, playing the role he’d always been taught to.
That was the opposite of what we had.
Glade… She was his missing piece, but I realised she wasn’t going to offer him more sanity—and he could push that sanity until he tumbled off into the abyss. I was the pull back, and the only one who ever had been that for him.
Kyan had been raised a monster, taught to fight and kill without blinking. What he’d never learned was how to ask for help. Anything his father considered weakness was burned away, pieces of him left to rot.
“You’re going to get on your knees, Rat,” I snarled. “And hope you can finish me before I choke you out.”
I felt his flood of relief, my own nerves settling.
“Fucking make me.” He flashed a wild grin, head turned so his cheek was crushed to the wall, a growl on his lips, but he tried to throw me off. Then I caught the faintest trace of dark cardamom, a sharp spike of lust in it even as it faded.
I didn’t turn, a faint smile tugging at my lips as I leaned close. I tugged out the switchblade that hadn’t left my pocket since we arrived. I flipped it open and pressed it to his neck, speaking only for him. “You’re going to get on your knees and show our Omega how well you take me.”
He froze, chest heaving against me.
I shifted back, loosening my grip on his wrist without moving the knife. My fist was still in his hair, knife lingering on the upper right side of his neck. I tilted it enough that he’d feel the pressure.
He reached up, fingers deftly undoing my belt.
It was hard not to turn my head. She must be watching through the crack in the door from the bedroom. How fucking bad did I want to see those blown pupils of hers watching as I claimed him.
I wasn’t going to be nice about it, either.
Flipping the switch back, I tucked it into my pocket. I squeezed my swelling knot, pressing it between his lips without waiting for him to react to the missing weapon. He barely had a second to adjust before I’d driven my tip to the back of his tight throat.
Fuck.
The feeling of that tongue ring against my length was a sin. He was so hot, wild eyes fixed on mine as his fist balled in my jeans, his body seizing over my length as I choked him. I tilted his head so I had an even better angle, placed my forearm against the wall for balance, and fucked his bratty throat without mercy.
By the time I pulled back, his eyes were desperate.
I let him catch his breath for half a second before going again, knowing it would almost be worse for that. Again, I caught the edge of dark cream cardamom, a sharp edge of lust in the soft spice. I had to draw out again so I wouldn’t finish. Kyan’s pupils were blown, his eyes fixed on me, but I knew he could scent her too.
“Are you going to tell me where he went?”
He caught his lip in his teeth, but didn’t answer.
I hadn’t thought so.
This time I drove my shaft deeper, forcing him into just the right angle, so I could claim more of his throat. I held him there, feeling him shake, gritting my teeth at how good he felt. Finally, he seized, giving me the reward I was looking for. The low whine was desperate, something purely primal.
From the very first time I’d claimed him, that had been the sound that lit my veins. I’d felt him cave beneath me, an Alpha at my feet, pleading for air while I took my pleasure.
Another beat passed before I drew back, letting him gasp again, another whine slipping out.
“That’s better, Rat. I love it when you choke on me.”
I drove back in, and it didn’t take long as I pinned him to the wall and drove into him at a brutal pace. The cardamom spiked again, and it took everything in me not to look over this time. She was wet for us, the scent of her slick filling the air.
I groaned as I finished, holding my knot right to Kyan’s lips as I forced him to swallow every drop of me while our Omega watched.