Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
KEIRA
The heat crept through me like a predator stalking prey, slow and deliberate, coiling in my belly with patient intent. Four bonds thrummed in my chest, the connection that dulled the desperate edge but couldn't extinguish the flames entirely. One thread was still missing. One bond still incomplete.
Alpha, my omega purred, the call different now. Not desperate. Demanding. Pack alpha. Ours. NEED.
"Jae-won." His name came out low, rough, a summons rather than a plea.
I pushed myself up on trembling arms, my eyes finding him at the edge of the nest where he'd been watching.
Waiting. His cedar-and-thunder scent was thick in the air, so potent I could taste it on my tongue — dark and commanding and barely leashed.
He looked wrecked.
His dark hair was disheveled, pushed back from his forehead like he'd been running his hands through it for hours.
His jaw was clenched so tight I could see the muscle jumping beneath his skin, tendons straining in his neck.
His dark eyes were nearly black, pupils blown wide, fixed on me with an intensity that made my breath catch.
Every line of his body was coiled tight, vibrating with barely contained tension.
He'd been watching. Through all four of them. Holding back. Waiting his turn while the others claimed me one by one.
The control it must have taken.
"Come here." I said, my voice stronger than it had been all night, my hand reaching toward him in invitation. The heat was still there, demanding, but something else had joined it — a need to see that iron control shatter. To make the pack alpha lose himself in me.
Jae-won moved toward me slowly, each step deliberate, controlled, like a predator approaching prey he wasn't sure he could resist devouring.
When he reached the edge of the nest, he stopped, his hands fisted at his sides so tightly his knuckles had gone white, his chest heaving with measured breaths that seemed to cost him everything.
"Keira." His voice was barely recognizable — rough gravel and distant thunder, scraped raw with restraint. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he looked down at me, his dark eyes blazing with hunger he was barely containing. "I need you to understand something before we start."
"What?" I reached for him, my fingers brushing against his thigh, but he caught my wrists, holding them gently but firmly, his grip trembling with the effort of staying gentle.
"I've been watching them touch you for hours.
" His dark eyes bore into mine, something dangerous flickering in their depths, his voice dropping to a low rasp that made my spine tingle.
"Watching them make you scream. Watching them knot you.
Claim you." A low growl rumbled through his chest, the sound vibrating through my bones, primal and possessive.
"And I've been holding back. But I don't know how much control I have left. "
"Then don't hold back." I pulled against his grip, testing it, feeling his fingers tighten automatically. His nostrils flared, drinking in my scent, and I watched his pupils dilate even further.
"You don't understand." His voice dropped lower, darker, a warning wrapped in velvet and thunder.
His whole body was trembling now, the restraint costing him visibly.
"If I let go— I won't be gentle. I can't be.
Not after—" Another growl, this one deeper, more primal, rumbling up from his chest. "I need you too badly. "
Something hot and liquid pooled in my core at his words, at the barely leashed hunger in his voice. I'd had gentle. I'd had teasing. I'd had tender and eager and desperate.
Now I wanted to be devoured.
"I don't want gentle." I leaned forward, close enough that my lips brushed his ear, my breath hot against his skin, and whispered: "I want my pack alpha to claim me like he means it."
The growl that tore from Jae-won's throat was almost feral — a sound that seemed to come from somewhere ancient and primal, vibrating through the air between us.
His control snapped. One moment he was kneeling at the edge of the nest, the next he had me pinned beneath him, my wrists captured in one large hand and pressed into the pillows above my head.
His body covered mine completely, his weight pressing me into the mattress, his hips grinding against mine with a desperation that stole my breath.
"You want to see what happens when I stop holding back?
" Jae-won snarled against my throat, his teeth grazing my pulse point hard enough to make me gasp.
His free hand fisted in my hair, tilting my head back, exposing my neck to him completely.
His breath was hot and ragged against my skin.
"You want the pack alpha? You'll get him. "
"Yes—" The word was barely out of my mouth before his lips crashed against mine.
The kiss was nothing like the others. It was claiming, conquering, his tongue sweeping into my mouth like he owned it.
His teeth caught my lower lip, biting hard enough to sting, and I moaned into his mouth at the sharp pleasure-pain.
He swallowed the sound, kissing me deeper, harder, until I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, could only feel.
"Mine." Jae-won growled against my lips, the word vibrating through me, his dark eyes blazing when they met mine. "Watched them touch what's mine. Heard you scream their names. Do you know what that did to me?"
"Tell me." I gasped, my hips rolling up against him, seeking friction, my body arching into his heat.
"Made me want to tear them away from you." His hand tightened in my hair, pulling my head back further, his lips dragging down my throat, teeth scraping skin. "Made me want to mount you right then. Show them all who you really belong to."
"Show me now." I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him closer, feeling the hard length of him pressing against my core. "Show me who I belong to, alpha."
The sound he made was barely human — a snarl that seemed to come from somewhere deep and primal, echoing off the walls.
His hand released my hair and tore at his own clothes, stripping them away with rough, jerky movements that spoke of desperation barely contained.
When he was finally bare above me, I could see how hard he was — thick and flushed and leaking, bigger than the others, the knot at his base already starting to swell.
"Hands stay where I put them." Jae-won commanded, pressing my wrists harder into the pillows, his dark eyes blazing down at me, wild and possessive. His voice brooked no argument, pure alpha authority. "Move them, and I stop. Understand?"
"Yes, alpha." My voice came out breathless, my core clenching with anticipation.
"Good girl." The words were a growl of approval, dark and pleased, and something in my omega preened at the praise.
He released my wrists, but I kept them where he'd placed them, fingers curling into the pillows above my head.
His eyes tracked the obedience, something satisfied and hungry flickering through them, before his hands found my thighs, spreading them wide with rough urgency.
"So wet." He groaned, his fingers sliding through my folds, gathering the slick that had pooled there. His voice was thick with want, his dark eyes fixed on where he was touching me. "Soaked for me. Even after four knots, you're still desperate for more."
"Need you—" I gasped as his fingers circled my entrance, my hips bucking toward his touch. "Need my pack alpha—"
"Going to have me." He positioned himself at my entrance, the blunt head of his cock pressing against me, hot and thick and demanding. His dark eyes locked onto mine, intense and possessive. "Going to have all of me."
He thrust inside in one brutal stroke. I screamed — the stretch overwhelming, the fullness absolute. He was bigger than the others, thicker, reaching places inside me that had never been touched. My back arched off the nest, my hands flying from the pillows to grip his shoulders—
Jae-won stopped moving instantly, his hand catching my wrists and slamming them back above my head.
"What did I say?" His voice was a dangerous growl, his dark eyes boring into mine, jaw tight with displeasure. He was buried to the hilt inside me, his cock throbbing against my walls, but he held perfectly still, not giving me an inch of movement. "Hands. Stay. Put."
"Please—" I writhed beneath him, trying to get him to move, but his hips were iron, unmoving. "Alpha, please—"
"Say you understand." His voice was command, pure and simple, leaving no room for argument.
"I understand— hands stay— please, Jae-won, please move—" The words tumbled out desperate and broken. He pulled back slowly — agonizingly slowly — until just the tip remained inside me. Then he slammed back in with enough force to make the nest shake, a grunt tearing from his throat.
I screamed again, pleasure exploding through me, my vision whiting out at the edges.
He set a punishing rhythm, each thrust hard and deep, his hips snapping against mine with a ferocity that stole my breath.
The wet sounds of our joining were obscene — slick and loud, punctuated by my broken cries and his guttural growls.
"This is what you wanted?" Jae-won snarled against my ear, his thrusts never slowing, his voice ragged and rough. "Wanted your pack alpha to take you like this? Fuck you like you're his?"
"Yes— yes— alpha— yours—" I was babbling, lost to sensation, my body jolting with each brutal thrust.
"That's right. Mine." He released my wrists to grip my hips instead, lifting them off the mattress to change the angle, his fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. The new position let him reach even deeper, hitting that spot inside me with devastating precision. "My omega. My mate. MINE."