Jorak
The elevator ride to Asa’s apartment feels like a countdown to a detonation.
Asa is leaning against me, his body vibrating with a heat that has nothing to do with the summer evening outside and everything to do with the way his blood is screaming for mine.
The scent of pear and vanilla is thick, sweetened by the slick, heavy musk of an Omega in full bloom.
It’s cloying, beautiful, and it’s making the Black Current in my marrow buzz with a territorial hunger that I can barely keep behind my teeth.
I get the door open and practically carry him inside. He’s clumsy, his coordination frayed by the fever. His fingers are fumbled into my shirt, gripping the fabric so hard I can hear the threads groaning.
"Nest," he rasps against my neck.
"I know," I say, my voice sounding like it’s been dragged over gravel. "I’ve got you, Asa. Just a few more steps."
I fumble around, trying to head to his bedroom even as Asa’s lips attach to my neck, his nose rubbing against where my scent is the thickest. When he stops walking on his feet, I gather him up in my arms and walk the rest of the way, toward the structured piles of blankets and pillows he’s spent the last week curating.
He collapses into the center of it, dragging a heavy wool throw over his shoulders even though his skin is burning. He looks up at me, eyes unfocused and dark with a need that is raw and terrifying.
"Jorak," he whimpers, reaching out. His hand tremors in the air, searching for the connection he’s been denied for too many days.
"I'm right here," I murmur, crawling into the nest with him. The shift in his expression is immediate. The panic recedes, replaced by a desperate, frantic focus. He practically climbs me, his mouth seeking mine with a hunger that’s almost violent.
I handle him like glass, even though every instinct I have is telling me to pin him down and claim every inch of him.
I peel his sweat-soaked clothes away, my hands steady despite the roar of the Black Current under my skin.
He’s flushed from his throat to his thighs, his skin slick with the first wave of heat-slick.
He’s beautiful. He’s a goddamn miracle, and he’s mine.
I press my face into the crook of his neck, inhaling the scent of him until it’s the only thing in my lungs.
I lick the scent gland there, tasting the concentrated essence of his Omega nature.
He arches under me, a sharp sob breaking from his throat.
He’s begging, though he hasn't found the words yet.
"Please," he chokes out, his legs wrapping around my waist, pulling me into the cradle of his hips. "Jorak, please. It hurts. Everything hurts."
"I've got you," I growl, my own control fraying. I line myself up, the head of my cock weeping pre-cum as it brushes against his entrance. I sink into him in one long, devastating stroke, and the world finally stops screaming. There’s only the slide of skin on skin and the way Asa’s ass clamps down on me like it’s trying to swallow me whole.
He screams my name into the quiet of the room, his head tossing back against the pillows.
I don't stop. I can't. I find a rhythm that is relentless, a brutal, driving pace that matches the frantic beat of his heart.
I want to be inside his thoughts. I want to be the only thing he can feel until the fever breaks.
"Look at me, baby," I command, my voice low and dark. "Look at me."
He opens his eyes, those brilliant, intelligent eyes now clouded with lust and surrender.
He sees me. Not the weapon. Not the S-Class asset.
He sees the man who would burn the city to the ground just to keep him warm.
He reaches up, his fingers tracing the line of my jaw, his touch light as a prayer.
"You, Eni," he whispers. "Always you."
I lean down, fisting my hands in his hair, and fuck him until he’s nothing but a collection of gasps and shudders.
I can feel the knot beginning to swell against his ass, the biological imperative taking over.
I push deeper, seeking the very hilt of him, and as the knot locks us together, I feel his internal muscles seize in a rolling, violent orgasm.
He clings to me as the first wave of his heat peaks, his body vibrating with the intensity of the release, his cum coating my stomach. I spill into him, filling him with everything I am before dragging my nose along his cheeks and neck, my scent marking every inch of my territory.
“Mine,” I mutter over and over again. “All mine.”
Minutes pass, or maybe hours. The room has darkened, the only light coming from the flickering streetlamps outside.
Asa is breathing softly, his head tucked under my chin.
He’s drifting, the immediate edge of the pain dulled by the knotting, but the heat is far from over.
I can feel the next wave building in the way his skin is still fever-hot, the way his fingers twitch against my arm.
I carefully disengage, despite the protest from my own body. He moans, his hand immediately searching for me in the dark. "Don't go."
"I'm just getting water, Asa. I'm not leaving you," I say, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "Stay in the nest."
I move through the condo, my naked skin cold against the air.
I grab a bottle of water and a clean cloth, my mind already calculating the time.
Mercer will notice I’m missing soon. The trackers in my skin are suppressed for now, but the ESA doesn't leave its primary assets unaccounted for long.
Especially not when those assets are bonded to the only person who can stop them from going nuclear.
I return to the bed and help him drink. He’s sluggish, his eyes half-closed as I wipe the sweat from his face and chest. I want him to know that he is cared for, not just used.
"You’re so quiet," he mumbles, his voice thick with sleep. "What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about how much I hate that I have to leave this room eventually," I say, pulling him back into my arms and letting the scent of vanilla and black cedar weave together until the air is a shield.
The second wave hits just before dawn. It’s more violent than the first, a sharp, spiking fever that has Asa arching off the blankets, his nails raking down my back as he begs for more. I roll over to find his ass perched in my face, those beautiful slick thighs calling me in.
Unable to help myself, I press my face forward, running my tongue along his skin before slipping into his hole. Asa lets out a yelp, his back arching further. “Knot, Eni. Knot.”
I chuckle at his inability to say more than that, even as his hips move back to meet my tongue.
He tastes sweet, like heaven, something I’m going to enjoy time and time again.
When he lets out a distressed whine, I decide to give him a reprieve and move to my knees to drive into him with one thrust.
I take him again, this time slower, more thorough. I want to memorize the way he sounds when he loses his mind. I want to feel every tremor of his muscles as I drive into him. He’s louder this time, his sarcasm stripped away until he’s nothing but raw, beautiful truth.
Eventually, the sun begins to bleed through the curtains, casting long, pale shadows across the nest. Asa is finally, truly asleep, his body limp and satisfied.
He’s tucked against my side, his hand curled into the hem of my discarded shirt.
He looks younger like this, the lines of worry and academic stress smoothed away by the exhaustion of the heat.
Asa's skin is still too warm, though. I reach out, my fingers tracing the delicate curve of his shoulder, feeling the way the heat thrums just beneath the surface like an underground river.
I can feel the next surge gathering, a low-frequency vibration in the bond that makes my own teeth ache with the need to bite, to mark, to claim him so deeply the ESA could never scrub my scent from his marrow.
"Jorak?" His voice is a ghost of a sound, barely more than a breath. He doesn't open his eyes, but his head rolls toward my touch, seeking the friction.
"I'm here, baby," I whisper, shifting so I can pull closer. "Go back to sleep, Asa. You need the rest."
"Can't. It's... thick. The air is too thick.
" He fumbles for my hand, interlacing our fingers over his stomach.
His palm is damp with fresh slick, the sweet, heavy scent of it blooming again.
My knot hasn't fully subsided from the last round, and the contact sends a fresh jolt of Black Current through my system, sparking like a live wire in a puddle.
I press my nose into the nape of his neck, the light mark I left there earlier angry and red, a beautiful brand that tells the world who he belongs to.
One day, it’ll be permanent. I lick over the bruised skin, my tongue catching on the salt of his sweat.
He lets out a low, melodic whine, the sound of an Omega who is finally, after a lifetime of hiding, allowing himself to be seen.
"Does it still hurt?" I ask, my voice vibrating against his spine.
"No," he murmurs, his breathing hitching as the fever spikes again. "It's just... more. I want more. Please, Jorak. Don't let me go yet. I feel like if you stop touching me, I'll just... fall apart. I'll turn back into that ghost in the library."
I hum against his skin, tugging at the bruise with my teeth, a silent question he doesn’t answer. “Rest a little. I’ll knot you again when the next wave comes, okay?”
He nods a little, his snores permeating the air in the next few seconds. I relax a little before feeling around my phone, grimacing at the message on the screen.
Inquiry: Asset 01-Thorn. Status required. Deploying retrieval unit in 30:00.
That was five minutes ago. Unfortunately, Mercer is just going to have to wait.