Chapter 27
Iscooped her up and carted her to my room, dropping her onto the bed, peeling off her shirt, and savoring the sight of her breasts wrapped in black lace before I removed that too.
“Who gave you permission to be this beautiful?”
“The same people who gave you permission to be this fucking hot,” she said with a satisfied grin.
“Oh, no one gave me permission. I’m breaking several international laws looking like I do.”
“Hmm, I guess we’ll both have to be punished, then.” She bit her lip and drew me closer.
I hovered over her, and the ginger in her scent thrived with the weight of me spreading her thighs. Her eyes went dark and unfocused as she squirmed beneath me.
Perfection.
She was so soft and willing, so eager to please and to be pleased. I rocked my hips against her and kissed her, smiling against her mouth at her contented sigh that flickered into a moan. If I had my way, I would drown in her forever.
Soon enough the gentle teasing turned to her bucking against me with a whine that unlocked some deep primal part of me. I let her stoke those buried embers. Her nails bit into my scalp. She shook and panted, thrusting up against me.
I growled, low and deep and powerful. She stilled beneath me with a ragged breath.
“Sidney,” she murmured.
I dipped down and licked at the scent gland on her throat, nipping at it until she filled my every sense and was an incoherent mess. Instinct wanted me to bite down, to pin her down and claim her, to thrust into her wet heat until neither of us knew our own names. As still as she was, she kept shivering, trying so hard to not move. Curiosity prodded at me. What did she see in me as I sunk deeper into my alpha state than I’d ever allowed myself to go? Did it pull her omega instincts to the surface?
The scent of her shifted. The honeysuckle and ginger still saturated everything, but her arousal permeated the air now too. I let instinct guide me, sliding down her body.
She whimpered and rocked against me. I took my time, stroking her clit firmly with my thumb as I kissed and nipped my way from ankle to thigh on one leg, then the other. I pulled her to the edge of the bed and draped her thighs over my shoulders before diving my tongue into her cunt.
Allie cried out, arching upwards. One hand gripped the sheets and the other threaded through my hair. I flicked her clit, suckling the bud until she was writhing in my arms. I held her hips down and drank my fill.
Nothing else existed.
She bucked against my face, cursing and squirming. Her body tensed, muscles seizing as I took her to the edge and pushed her over it. Before she stopped shaking, I pushed one finger inside, then another, and another while she squeezed around them. I thrust them slowly and kept up my focus on her clit. She came again, her muscles milking my fingers. Relentless, I continued until she begged me to pause.
I wiped my face on the edge of the blanket. Allie was spread out, eyes unfocused, and hair tousled. I slid onto the bed and nuzzled her breast, taking one stiff peak into my mouth. She bowed and flexed in my grasp.
Her scent exploded, and a wave of dizziness made me unsteady, sinking down against her. This was different. I pushed through the haze that clouded my mind. Why was it so hard to think?
Allie grew wild and restless beneath me, muttering pleas and grinding against me. Her skin was so warm. Warm…heat…oh.
I fought against the rising tide of the alpha hormones that saturated my blood in response to her. She was in heat. But how? I took a deep breath, trying to focus, but that had me taking in more of the scent that hit me like a drug.
My head swam.
The only thing I wanted was her.
“Please,” she whined.
My omega needed me. That was all that mattered. My craving for her consumed me, stealing my thoughts, centering even my perception of touch around what on my body made contact with her.
Her nails dug into my ass, and she rolled her hips until the tip of my cock found where it could bring us together. She dug in harder, and I moved away from the sharp pain and into the slick, waiting heat.
A shuddering growl climbed out of me as I pinned her down.
I fucked into her, setting a brutal pace, listening to her pant in my ear, to the gasps and little cries as I drove our bodies together. That was what I needed, what my instincts demanded. Those sounds needed to go on forever.
She seized under me, voice pitched and body shuddering. I kept moving. The alpha hormones kept me energized and hard, letting me carry her forward without the need for rest. All my mind kept repeating was more. I needed to give her whatever she asked for and more, until her mind, body, and soul broke and were remade in the aftermath of the heat.
I let myself be pulled under.
Sweetness and pressure built, my gut tensing as I drove into her. I was so close. Allie clung to me, crying out in my ear before falling limp. Finally, my body let me join her, letting her drag me over the peak of pleasure until I melted, pouring out inside her.
Clarity flooded back in, and I sat up sharply. Allie was sprawled out, blissful and sleepy-eyed, but I wasn’t the slightest bit calm. There were bruises on her wrists and hips in the shape of my fingers, and there was a fresh bondbite on her throat.
Fucking fuck.
That bite on her skin was exactly what I’d been worried about from the start with her. I wasn’t strong enough to fight the tide of hormones that came when I was around her. I’d been right to protect her from me, and it had all come down to nothing because I’d been too excited to see her again to consider I might still be a danger.
I stared at my hands. I’d never lost control before, never sunk so deep into an alpha state that I couldn’t think.
She shivered. “I feel weird.”
I looked her up and down. “Weird how?”
Awareness of her was like a shadow sweeping through the back of my mind. Her confusion twisted there, flickers of desire and discomfort vying for my attention.
“Like I’m in heat, but I’m not due for months.” Allie stretched and sighed. “It’s not as intense, though. Like a baby heat.”
Did that mean we were actually bonded? Fucking hell. I’d wanted to keep her so badly and the universe had granted my wish. But how? Spontaneous heats were so rare I’d never dealt with one in my career and hadn’t heard about any coming into the clinic.
“I…don’t know what would cause that.”
“Are you okay? You look kinda wigged out.”
“I am wigged out.”
She sat up and scooted over. “Talk to me.”
“I lost myself with you. I hurt you.” I traced over the bruises on her hip.
“I can’t even feel those. It’s fine.”
I put a hand over hers. “I’m so used to being in control. It scares me that I wasn’t.”
“I’m totally okay, and I trust you. You don’t have to be in control all the time.”
“I still need to know what caused it.” I turned my face to hers, dropping a soft kiss to her lips. I glanced at the clock on the wall. “How did three hours pass?”
“Very enjoyably,” Allie said, laughing. “Do you want me to sleep over?”
“Absolutely.” I had wanted her to already, but there was no way I was sending her away before I figured things out. “Let me make a call.”
“Okay,” Allie said, getting comfortable in the blankets. “I’ll be here.”
I located my phone and poked at the contact for my boss. She answered on the second ring.
“Hey, Dr. J, it’s Sidney.” I wandered out of the room so I could also check on the puppies, keeping one hand on the wall to steady myself as I went.
“I can see on the call display,” she said, her tone light. “What’s up?”
“I had something weird happen.”
“Oh?” The lightness in her voice shifted.
“So, I’ve never gone into a rut before since I’m not bonded, but that’s the only thing I can think of that I’ve ever heard with similar symptoms. Is there anything like that?” I opened the nursery to find all the pups sleeping in a pile.
“I can look into it,” said Dr. James. “I’m not sure off the top of my head. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, I think. It was just unexpected.”
“Were you with someone when it happened?”
“Uh, yeah, actually. Allison Carmichael.”
“Oh, Sidney.”
We hadn’t talked about Allie for years, but she’d helped us stay apart for this very reason. Was she disappointed in me?
“Is it the same as when she was a client of yours?”
“Not quite the same, no. I think it helped that I was in a work headspace the first time. I, um, I wasn’t this time.”
I heard keyboard taps over the line.
“It’s still as intense even with all that time apart?”
“Yeah, um, until now? I hadn’t really stopped thinking about her. She mentioned she had the same experience from when she saw me as a heat helper, and just now she said that it felt similar to being in heat.”
“Come by the clinic tomorrow, and I’ll have a look. In the meantime, stay safe.”
We ended the call with no answers, but I hoped some would be forthcoming soon enough. I’d been away from Allie for too long, and my instincts screamed at me to return.
I stepped back into my bedroom and found Allie curled up under the blankets, eyes closed. I slid in next to her and tucked in. She squirmed closer to me and rolled over so I could spoon her. It was exactly what I needed.
My instincts grew quiet.
“I don’t know why I’m so tired,” she murmured.
“We did have sex for three hours, apparently.”
Allie giggled. “Okay, fair.”
“Sleep while you can. I’ll have to get up early for the puppies and who knows what the hell our hormones are doing in the meantime. We’ll go see Dr. J after breakfast and get everything figured out.”
I fell asleep to her warmth and honeysuckle scent.