23. Opal
Chapter twenty-three
Opal
I ’m sitting on my bed in my room at the pack house, twiddling my thumbs around and around as anxiety gets the better of me.
Every time Zayden groans in deep pain, my heart shatters, and I end up dragging myself away from the bed to bury myself in my nest.
I can’t do this.
Listen to Zayden's pain.
Especially when it should be me in pain.
I don’t understand. Even Reed himself said that I was the one displaying all the signs, so why is Zayden suffering instead of me?
Trust me, I wish it was me in there crying for a knot rather than my sweet, sweet Zayden, and it’s all too much.
Zayden deserves better than a Rogue like me.
I’m a fool to think that I would ever have a place inside his nest.
So, the best I can hope for is to lay alone in my nest with no one to comfort me or keep me company.
I am destined to be alone.
Soon, the waterworks get the best of me, and I dab my tears with the heel of my hand.
I failed my mission. I didn’t kill the governor at the ball like I was supposed to.
I missed my chance.
No doubt the warden will be pissed.
No doubt he already knows…
But he has been radio silent on the other end of my strings.
Is he biding his time?
Deciding the best way to punish me for my insubordination?
Knowing him, he will prolong the torture.
There’s no hope for me.
Either way, I'm dead.
I am surrounded by enemies on all sides.
That’s when Belle’s and Ella’s faces flash up before me, and I recall how they stopped Reed when he attacked me.
I remember how Ella wanted to stab him with the pointy end of her knife; I didn’t even need to use my own secret claws on Reed because my fellow Rogues had me covered.
I was touched, and I don’t deserve them any more than I deserve Zayden and the pack.
Even Reed deserves better than me.
With me gone, at least he can sleep easier at night.
Being an Acute must take its toll on his senses, and I bet he gets sensory overload whenever I enter the room.
The Alpha is a brute, true, but I don’t think he was going to hurt me in that hallway.
I mean, he cradled the back of my skull when he tackled me to the floor, and I still recall how my little head fit snugly inside his massive palm.
One wrong move, and that Alpha could have crushed my head beneath his strong, callused fingers.
And that thought excites me…
Now, my Omega stirs as she thinks about that Alpha’s brutish hands, as well as Magnus’s and Levi’s.
I envision them all running their rough hands all over my body, and a helpless whine escapes my mouth as I press my face to the pillow.
My face is still covered in makeup, and now it stains my pillows.
But I’m too tired to move.
I still have on the golden dress, but it’s not like anyone was around to help me out of the bodice.
The pack was a little preoccupied with Zayden and getting him his knot.
Poor Zayden.
His heat just came out of nowhere, and again, I think back to the moments before.
Why was I the one getting spikes? Hot flushes?
At one moment, I couldn’t breathe in that ballroom, but I just put it down to how tightly my dress had been cinched.
God, I hope Zayden will be all right.
I honestly thought he was going to die at one point.
He was not himself.
Someone knocks on the door of my nest, and I drag the blankets from my head.
“Opal? Are you in there?”
My heart flutters when I hear Magnus’s golden tone, and automatically, I brush the hair out of my face, hoping my makeup is okay.
Of course he knows I'm in here. This nest smells like a bakery right now. One that bakes and sells lemon cupcakes, especially.
Ironic how my Omega scent is so sweet when I am far from well… sweet.
I’m a killer.
“Opal?”
Oh, fuck. Why didn’t I get a mirror installed in the nest?
No doubt my hair and face are a total mess.
My mascara and eyeliner have run too, and Magnús will know I have been crying.
“I’m… I’m in here. Hold on.”
Looks like I have no choice but to answer the door in my current state.
I hope it’s not Zayden, and that reason has me shooting out of my nest as if I've been struck by lightning.
When I open the door, I find Magnus’s handsome, golden visage on the other side, and why does he have to be so handsome?
Why do they all have to be?
Even Reed.
Yes, he is good-looking in his own, offbeat way. He has a scar bisecting his right face, and he’s blind in one eye, but damn he still wakes something deep inside me.
A dormant side of me.
A part of me wants to see how far that Alpha would go with me.
Would he try to kill me?
When he chased me, I came to life.
My blood ran hot through my body, and it had been one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.
Magnus smiles, and I blink at the golden freckles on his tanned skin, as well as that magnificent hair and beard, and he truly is a god.
I wonder if it hurt when he fell from Asgard.
I find no judgment or disgust in those light green eyes as Magnus raises his brows.
I sigh. “I’m fine. What is it? Is it Zayden?”
Magnus huffs a breath. “Yes. He summons you.”
Zayden summons me? Why?
What could I give him? It’s a knot his body needs.
Still, I can’t deny how my body is drawn to his, and perhaps we truly are mates.
Scent matches.
Belle and Ella have the same relationship with their Omegas, and maybe I can have that with Zayden, too.
No.
No matter what, I cannot go into that nest.
I am not worthy.
After all, I am deceiving this pack.
If only they knew the truth…
Magus folds his arms, shuffling his feet. “So, are you up for it? It’s your choice, Opal.”
My choice.
When has anything ever been my choice?
This is the first time I have been given complete autonomy.
Zayden will be very needy, and I'm terrified of what I will see.
He was so out of it in the car.
I close my eyes, weighing up my options.
A part of me wonders when the warden will step in and pull my strings, but he doesn’t make an appearance.
But I sense him.
I am never truly alone.
No doubt what he would have me do, anything that would cause me insurmountable pain, but I will convince myself that this was my choice.
Not his.
Even if I may have to leave this pack one day, I will seize my own fate for just once.
This was my choice…
I meet Magnus’s green eyes. “I will come.”
Magnus’s entire body deflates, and then he smiles, leading the way.
It seems it’s not just Zayden who requires my presence.
Magnus wants me, too, and the knowledge only hurts me further.
We reach Zayden’s nest, and I'm hit with a wave of sweet hazelnut as we wait outside the door.
It takes my breath away, and I have to compose myself for a few moments.
Magnus knocks, and Levi’s baritone responds. “Come in.”
Magnus peers my way before pushing the door open, and when I step inside after him, my heart jump-starts back to life.
Zayden is completely naked, and my eyes track every carved muscle up and down his chest.
My tongue darts out to lick at my lips, and then my core thumps as all I want to do is taste his skin.
Zayden is mine.
The Omega lifts his head from his pillow, eyes glazed until they find me.
They shine once they recognize me, and then he’s on his feet in seconds, rushing to my side.
“Opal,” he rasps, and before I take my next breath, he’s upon me, kissing me with wanton lips.
And I was totally unprepared.
Hazelnut explodes inside my mouth as the Omega takes my breath away. I’m frozen against the door of the nest as he grips my wrists, placing them over my head until I am at his mercy.
I’m a virgin. I have never been with a man, so never mind kissing.
This is all so new to me.
Pure and untainted. That’s how the Academy wants us to be.
Zayden doesn’t just kiss my lips. He caresses my jawbone with that sinful mouth, taking small nips of my skin between his teeth, and the pain shoots straight to my pussy.
My underwear grows wet, and fuck, it’s slick.
Zayden kisses a path down my neck, licking at my throat as a sweet Omega purr rumbles in his chest.
My lungs heave.
I can't go on anymore. If he keeps kissing me like this, then I will explode.
Somewhere in the nest, I feel Levi's and Magnus's eyes, but at that moment, it's just me and Zayden, and we truly are the only two people left in existence.
With a growl, Zayden spins me, pressing me flush to the door, and my cheek squashes against the wood as he yanks on the strings of my bodice.
My dress drops to my feet like a pool of liquid satin, and now I stand in nothing but my matching gold lingerie.
Zayden kisses up and down my spine, and what has gotten into him?
Is this really how Omegas get?
Yikes.
Yet I soak up every moment as he kisses every freckle and dimple, worshiping my body like I'm a goddess.
I need to touch him. But this is his heat.
And I will let him do what he sees fit with me.
My body is his to use.
“Fuck, your ass, Opal… I want to be inside this ass...”
Zayden brushes his fingers down the lips of my pussy, gathering up some slick as he slips a finger inside me.
A gasp leaves my mouth. “Zayden.”
“I want to be buried deep in your pussy, Opal. So fucking deep, you will see stars…”
Oh, fuck.
I’m gasping when the Omega runs his finger down my pussy lips, slipping them inside until he finds my clitoris.
He massages me with circular motions, then gives me a tight pinch, and my eyes slam shut as lights begin to flicker.
Then he grips my shoulders, spinning me around so we face each other again, and his pupils drown out the brown of his eyes.
Those eyes appraise me now as they track every feature of my face to memory, dropping from my eyes, nose, and then to my lips.
They settle on the latter, and then he dives in for another kiss.
Zayden tucks his hands beneath my knees, then carries me toward the heart of the nest in my lingerie.
I’m sure he knows how to take my underwear off.
When he throws me down onto the mattress of his nest, he crawls above me until he buries me under his weight, and I feel every carved muscle of his chest as it crushes my softer body.
The Omega runs his hands up and down my curves, and a groan escapes him.
“Fuck, this body. It was as if you were designed just for me.”
Maybe I was. Who knows.
But he can gladly own every curve, dimple, and freckle...
I'm all his.
My heart thumps for him at that moment, and I hope he can hear it.
The Omega leans down to sniff my neck, inhaling my scent into the back of his nostrils. Then he sighs, wetting my throat with his hot breath.
“You were definitely made for me, Opal.”
Has he finally realized what I've known from the moment we met?
That we are scent matches?
The thought escapes my mind when he brushes his hand down my body, stopping at my panties, then tears them off
Fuck. That is the single hottest thing I have ever seen.
Zayden brushes his hand over my pussy, fingers disappearing inside me yet again as he explores my clitoris, bringing his slick fingers back so he can suck them clean.
A moan escapes me when he looks me in the eyes the entire time he tastes me, and I’m pretty sure the Alphas have stopped breathing.
But I don’t look their way.
Zayden is all I can see at that moment.
He stills when he gets his taste of me, and then his eyes lose focus as I watch him strangely.
Someone moves on our right. “Zayden?”
Levi.
Something dark comes over Zayden as his eyes find me, and there’s only one word to describe him next.
Possessed.
Zayden is possessed by my taste.
“ Mine .”
Funny. That’s what I say about him.
Before I can blink, Zayden is on top of me, rolling his hips as he enters me slowly.
It’s tight at first on account of me being ‘unexplored,’ so to speak, but it takes Zayden no time at all until he's buried at the hilt.
I marvel at the sensation of him inside me.
Damn. Is this what feeling full feels like? Because I have never felt so complete.
The universe seems to crack and then rebuild, and then it suddenly all makes sense for the first time in my life.
This is where I was always supposed to be: with Zayden buried deep inside me.
Zayden snaps his hips, and those lights return when he brushes against my walls.
Holy shit.
Then he snaps again and again until we build up a rhythm, and soon the nest is filled with the sounds of our panting.
I’m about to come.
My eyes shut of their own accord, and then the lights blind me now as they take on strange shapes.
When Zayden rolls his hips again, the lights burn brighter and brighter until I'm completely blind.
My body shudders, and then I come for a second time.
“Mine,” Zayden gasps above as he reaches his own peak, and I meet his eyes.
He lowers his face to mine, biting at my lower lip. “You're mine, Opal…”
Finally, his body spasms, and then he jerks his hips as he releases his seed inside me.
Shit. We must be careful.
I can’t get pregnant now.
When Zayden finishes inside me, he collapses to one side, his cock buried deep inside me as he holds me close.
As we both drift off, I thread my fingers through his dark hair, admiring his tattoo of a golden skull, and I wonder if they all bear the tattoo.
And I wonder if I would ever have one, too.
Probably not.
Zayden kisses the slope of my neck where my throat and shoulder meet, and I finally close my eyes to the sound of his rasping voice.
“Mine."