39. Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Gabriel
L eah presses her face tight into my neck, the soft shock of her breath and the hot, needy shudder of each exhale echoing inside my bones.
She’s so fucking small, like she’s been stripped down and carved out and poured back into this breakable body, all her strength spent just holding herself together.
My arms curve around her, instinct screaming to hide her away and cover every inch of her with my skin.
She curls against me, light as breath but with a gravity that drags every piece of me into her orbit.
Her fresh roses and pure Omega scent surrounds me but threaded with something deeper, home, longing, anguish. There’s nothing in the world like it. My muscles coil tight, nerves firing, skin prickling with the frantic urgency to shield her.
My cock is diamond hard, my balls throbbing with a head-pounding heartbeat. The urge to mark her, to make her mine, claws at my jaw. I fight every primitive instinct demanding I claim her, to bury my teeth in her skin and bond us together so her pain can be mine.
The door beyond the plastic screen opens with a hiss of hydraulics.
All my attention snaps from Leah’s suffering to the figure in full hazmat gear stepping through the doorway as though he owns the place.
My hackles rise instantly. He’s Beta-sized.
For a split second I convince myself to calm, but his attention locks straight onto Leah.
My grip tightens as I twist, shielding her with my body, turning so only my back is visible.
Jax is off the bed, a snarl already tearing up his throat. Ronan’s even faster, putting himself between me and the Beta, every muscle in his body a carved threat.
"Get your eyes off her and get the fuck out of here. You come another step closer, I’ll rip your fucking throat out." Ronan’s voice hits the room like a landslide.
The urge to tear the Beta’s head off roars through me.
If that Beta so much as breathes wrong, if he even thinks about stepping further into this room, we’ll annihilate him.
The air vibrates with the charge of three Alphas on the edge, every one of us riding the fine line between self-control and slaughter.
Why the hells Adrian would send a Beta in here now, when our Omega is nearly out of her mind with heat, I can’t fathom. It’s a senseless move I wouldn’t expect from an Alpha who knows better.
The Beta shakes, tray rattling in his hands. "I… I have the syringe. Adrian said you needed a draw—"
"Leave it on the table and fuck off." Ronan’s command cracks like a whip.
The Beta nods so frantically his visor fogs. "Yes, Alpha. Sorry." He sets the tray on a side table and stumbles out. The door closes behind him with a quiet hiss .
Leah’s whimper is a tiny, torn thing. Unbearable because her suffering is real and I can’t chase it away. My focus snaps back to her. She blinks up at me. Beneath the fever-glaze, for a moment, awareness sharpens her gaze.
"What’s happening?" Her voice is cracked. Vulnerable. Her Kitten claws stripped off her.
"A Beta just came in, Sweetheart. Gave us what we need to draw your blood. We have to make sure you’re okay." I want to tell her not to worry, but that’s not the world we live in. I must hurt her just a little to protect her so much more.
Her lips tremble and her forehead crumples. Her breath shakes in and out. She’s barely holding herself together. Hells, I know how much this affects her. Her small hands clench on my shoulders. "I’m scared, Gabriel."
The words tear me open. So raw and trusting, and it shatters me how vulnerable she is when she’s usually all spit and sizzle trying to protect herself.
I press my lips to her hairline, try to pour courage into her through touch.
"I know, Leah. I hate that you must do this. But I promise we’re not leaving you for a moment. "
Ronan and Jax climb onto the mattress and box her in. Jax kisses her shoulder and drapes his arm around her waist as he breaks out in a soothing purr. "We’re here, Sunshine. If they could use my blood, I’d let them drain me so you wouldn’t have to face another needle for the rest of your life."
Her eyes shut and she drags in a breath. "I know."
For one long, aching second I think she’ll shut down again and hide in that shell she built to survive, but then she lifts her gaze to me and gives the smallest nod.
Gods, that small movement destroys me. This battered Omega who has stared down hell more times than seems survivable is still here. Still saying yes to the hard things. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love her in this moment.
I glide my fingertips across her flushed cheek. "We’ll make it quick, then it’s done. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever seen. "
Ronan brings the tray over while Jax draws Leah against his chest and makes her as comfortable as he can. I ready the needle, hands steady despite the ache in my chest.
"Squeeze Jax’s hand as tight as you need." The sting as I pierce her flesh cuts through me, and I do the procedure as fast as I can. She’s so still, trusting, not moving once. I cap the vial and press a wad of cotton over the small wound.
Ronan takes the sample and moves to the wall speaker. "We’ve done the draw. Someone other than that Beta you sent can collect it."
There’s a brief, stunned silence across the speaker before Adrian speaks. "No one had my permission to enter your room." His tones turns to steel. "There’s a slot in the door. Put everything there and I’ll retrieve it myself. I’ll deal with whoever thought they could disobey my order."
Unease ripples through all of us but then Leah lets out a whimper. Her skin is blazing, her perfume tightening to a musky tang and when I peer back down at her, her eyes are glazed over. She burrows against me, "Please, Alpha."
Every protective urge riots in my chest. "I’ve got you, Sweetheart. We’ll take care of everything."
Leah turns her face up to mine, eyes gleaming. "Gabriel. Alpha," she breathes, and the sound is a broken plea. "Please. Kiss me. I need you. Need your cock, your knot. Please, Alpha, please—"
My body stutters, torn between hunger and reverence. She’s asking. Not just surrendering to heat but choosing me. Me. "You can have any part of me, Leah. Whatever you want. My mouth, my knot, my soul. You never have to ask what is freely given."
Leah’s answer is pure instinct and will.
With a delicate growl, she surges up, mouth smashing into mine, lips hot and insistent, tasting of desperation and salt and the sparkling edge of hope.
Her hands fist in my hair as she drinks me in, kiss deepening, tongue sliding over mine with such frantic longing I nearly forget the lines between gentleness and the hunger I swore I’d hold.
She makes little whimpers into my mouth, directing our kiss with desperate intensity.
She clambers onto my lap and plants herself over me, pinning me back against the headboard with surprising strength, keeping her lips locked on mine.
Her hips grind, slick scorching my thighs and abdomen as she straddles me.
The fever of her skin, the tremor in her limbs, the winnowing press of her body shatters any restraint left in my bones.
She breaks the kiss, forehead to mine, breath mingling.
"Need you, Alpha. Please, please, I need you. Gabriel, now…"
She rises, gripping my aching cock and guiding me to her entrance before sinking down in one fluid, devastating motion.
The silk-tight squeeze of her cunt is fucking sublime, pleasure and agony splintering through me.
Her heat, her want, the urgent clutch of her body lights me up from the inside, love and lust and gratitude coming apart in my chest and she sinks.
Rises. Sinks again. She’s glorious, and she’s mine, riding me like she was never meant for anything but this.
"Gods, Omega. Use me however you want," I groan, voice ragged as she grinds down on me.
I bracket Leah’s hips, fingertips denting her soft skin to help give her exactly what she craves.
What I hunger for, too. The fit is perfection.
Her body clings to me, greedy and wet. Slick gushes down my thighs with every bounce.
The scent of it hits me, so thick and ripe it’s narcotic—heady and sweet, overlaid by the unmistakable thrum of pure Omega in heat.
Her longing is so raw in the air it coats my tongue, makes my cock throb harder with every rise and fall of her around me.
She rides me in a frantic, broken rhythm, whimpers falling from her throat as my knot swells, throbbing every time her body drops down, teasing me. I want to last for her, chase her pleasure until she can’t remember anything but my name. I want to offer her everything my body and soul can provide.
Ronan teases her nipples to aching points until she gasps and arches, pressing her chest up into his touch as she works my cock. His mouth closes over one peaked nipple, sucking, biting, tongue flicking until she cries out.
Jax trails kisses along the nape of her neck. Then his arm snakes around her, hand finding her clit, circling gentle at first, then faster, matching the frantic roll of her hips. "That’s it, sweet Omega. Let go for us. We’ve got you. "
She clutches at my shoulders, her whole rhythm stuttering as hunger overtakes her.
Ronan rasps, "She wants more."
Ronan eases her off my cock. The loss is agony and relief, my slick-soaked shaft pulsing with a desperate urge to bury myself back inside her before he plants her on her hands and knees in the center of the bed.
"Gabriel, get behind her and give her what she's craving. Jax, feed her your cock."
Jax kneels before her. He cradles her jaw as he glides his cock head along her bottom lip. "Open up, Sunshine. Taste me. Suck on me as much as you want."
She parts her lips, and he eases inside her mouth as she releases a soft sigh.
He moans, head falling back as her cheeks hollow, sucking him hard.
I slide behind Leah, grip her hip and notch my cock against her entrance.
Her slick is everywhere, coating my length and shining down her pale thighs as I feed myself back into her welcoming body. The fit is obscene. Perfect. Sublime.
She moans around Jax’s cock as I drive into her with long, deep thrusts, moving her toward unrestrained, shuddering pleasure.
Her perfume floods my cock and thighs, swirling around me and clouding my mind.
Reason, caution, even language slip away until I’m drunk on her, every nerve and heartbeat aching for more.
Pressure builds in my knot, and I battle the insistent urge to lock myself inside her.
A shudder works through me as she milks me with frenzied, erratic clenches, her hips frantic and gorgeous in my grasp. The elation—Gods, the honor —of her choosing me, of her planting herself on my cock and taking what she needs, roots itself down in my marrow. I never want to forget this.
Leah wild, Leah wanton, Leah fucking mine. Mine.
Mine .
Leah’s moans shift into the desperate, sobbing cadence she makes when she’s right on the edge.
Her body clamps and flutters around me. The heat and pressure in my knot intensifies.
I press in, my hips flush to her ass and let my swollen knot push inside.
There’s a moment of perfect, agonizing resistance before I breach her.
My knot swells, wedged tight inside her as her walls convulse around me in a grip so fierce I groan through clenched teeth.
She screams, the sound muffled by the length of Jax’s cock in her mouth, her body caught between us, helpless in the riot of sensation we give her.
Jax groans, head falling back as he feeds his cum to her.
She gulps it down as best she can before he eases out of her mouth.
She sinks down, abdomen tightening as an orgasm ripples through her.
The world goes black around the edges as my release breaks free.
I fill her, surge after surge of cum spilling into her as her cunt spasms.
I lose myself to an animal urgency as my teeth find her shoulder, venom flooding my mouth but before I can sink my fangs into her skin, Ronan clamps my nape and yanks me up.
I let out a choking gasp, jaw snapping shut on empty air.
Gods, I almost lost myself. I understand how Ronan nearly went there too.
I force myself to climb back from that edge, grateful and strung out, still locked inside her.
My knot keeps us joined so tightly that every aftershock in her body vibrates into mine.
Leah collapses, boneless, completely undone.
I gather her in my arms and drape her over my body as I lean back against the headboard.
My eyes drift shut as I kiss her temple, every limb heavy and loose and spent.
I cradle her head to my neck, eyes drifting shut, every inch of me pulsing with aftershocks, bliss, relief.
My Omega, locked on my knot. My heart’s never been so full.