Chapter Ten
Sol
This was not a hard mattress.
No, I’d fallen asleep on top of Rhys, with his cock deep inside me.
That would be fine if I hadn’t had a panicked breakdown right before that.
The emotional roller coaster from heat hormones going haywire was affecting me more than I’d expected.
The knot orgasm had been so intense it sent my entire body into bliss followed by relief.
I was looking forward to breeding, which was supposed to be even better.
What would happen during my future heats was uncertain, so I’d better make use of this one for my pleasure.
Unless Rhys changed his mind after my dramatic display.
With my cheek plastered to Rhys’s chest, I took stock of my body.
My hole was empty but not sore despite the knotting.
My heat lessons had mostly focused on how to please my future Alpha, but also delved into details about my body and its reaction.
I’d be horny and needy throughout the heat, but feel the consequences of knotting, breeding, and emotional strain only after it was over.
A soft blanket covered my back to the nape, but even the gentle fabric fueled discomfort on my skin. I tugged on it, but it stayed in place.
“I didn’t want you to get cold.” Rhys kissed my hair and pulled the blanket off me.
“Thanks. But my body has some weird ideas as to what’s okay and what’s not. Like, I don’t mind being stuck to you with my cum, but the touch of fabric is like sandpaper.” He was the one thing I needed right now and my body responded accordingly.
“I’ll remember that. How are you feeling?”
“Better, but empty.” I clenched my ass. The wetness was a reminder that I was full of cum. For the first time. “Not achingly so, but a shadow of incoming need is there, if that makes sense.”
Rhys caressed my side with a soothing touch. “How are you emotionally?”
“Good, I guess?” I rolled off him and covered my eyes with my forearm. “I’m sorry for overreacting. Must be the hormones.”
“Shh, it’s okay. Don’t apologize.” He stroked my hand with his fingertips.
Did he feel the same pull towards me? That need to touch him constantly as if it would physically hurt if he wasn’t near?
Rhys kissed my shoulder. “Whether it’s hormones or a bad experience, it’s none of my business, but if you wanna talk—”
“No. I don’t.” I propped myself on an arm and looked at him. His hair was disheveled, his chest scratched, and his throat bruised. Did I do that? Even so battered, his expression was kind. He was ready to listen to me, whatever I had to say.
After this week, I’d never see him again, so did it really matter if I told him more about me? “I don’t know what I want anymore.”
“Your secrets are safe with me if you change your mind.” He put his hands behind his head and crossed his legs at the ankle.
Pursing my lips, I danced my fingers over the ridges of his abs. “I was raised to serve Alphas, taught to bring them—you—pleasure even during my heat. So this…” Communication? Respect? I gestured between us. “Dynamic, is not what I was expecting.”
“I’ve never been in your position so I can’t pretend to understand, but I’ll try to do my best by you if you tell me what I shouldn’t do.
I haven’t serviced an omega in heat before, but I know the basics, like that your womb will open between the second and fourth wave, ready for breeding.
That you’d be horny most of the time during heat but will detest touch when it’s over.
The rest depends on the omega.” He pressed his lips into a flat line in an apologetic expression. “That’s the extent of my knowledge.”
“Because you’re supposed to fuck and breed. I’m the one who should know all about heat sex, and do the rest. So it’s not your fault. But you see how your behavior throws me off balance. In a good way.” I sighed. “At least my parents haven’t found me yet. That’s good.”
“Are you afraid of them?” Rhys sat up abruptly. “Do they know you’re in heat?”
“They don’t. But sometimes Dryden would take me away without telling them and I’d stay with him for a few days. Once Mother and Father realize I’m not with him, they’ll know something is up. They’ll look for me.”
“Who—” He shook his head. “That’s none of my business. Unless Dryden is your husband, who’d hunt me down when he finds out.”
“He wishes.” I released a dry chuckle. “I’m promised to him, but the deal hasn’t been finalized yet.”
Rhys frowned. “You make it sound like you’re being sold.”
“That’s exactly it. The plan was for him to take me away when I go into heat. Then, he’d marry me, paying my parents for the transfer of ownership.”
“So he wanted your first heat to himself?”
I rolled onto my stomach, banged my head on the pillow, then turned to Rhys.
“Yes and no. He didn’t want to fuck me and take care of me.
He told me that he would have a friend of his or someone from an agency deal with my heat.
While I’d be at the mercy of a strange Alpha, Dryden would watch us.
When my heat would be over, we’d get married during recovery and he’d fuck me then. ”
“That makes no sense.” Rhys scoffed, his complexion turning as pale as his naturally brown skin allowed. “You’d be in pain and miserable. Sex would hurt.”
I gave him a sardonic smile. “And that was his point.”
“Did you tell your parents that? They can’t marry you off to him.”
“Selling off. You see this body, hair and soft skin?” I gestured to myself. “It’s the effect of years of my workout, diet, strict regime as to how I walk, sit, and speak around Alphas. I was raised to be sold. And since Dryden is my dad’s wealthy, influential friend, he struck the deal early.”
Rhys balled his fists at the sides and closed his eyes.
On instinct, I shuffled away.
Was he angry with me? Or at my story?
Rhys released a breath and took my hand in his. “How early?”
I sat up and wrapped my arms around my bent legs. “My parents promised me to him when I hit puberty.” I frowned, recalling his first visits. “Well, he had access to me earlier than that…”
“What do you mean?” Rhys’s voice dropped dangerously low.
I shrugged. “He could do things to me for a long time now. My ass was supposed to stay virginal, but that was the only limit.” Bile rose up my throat at the memories, but I swallowed it down.
So many Alphas, cum, and humiliation. “I’d been taking shots to delay my first heat.
That’s why it came so late. My plan was to sell myself tonight and be ruined for him.
Now I’m realizing that right after the heat, he might still take me. I’m so stupid.”
“No you’re not. I’m glad you ran. It must be hard to make a plan with limited options.” Rhys took my hand.
It was so small in his big, calloused paw, but the touch sent a calming echo through my body. My shoulders relaxed, and I sagged into a comfortable cross-legged position. If only I could be so tiny as to curl up on his palm and stay safe forever. What a na?ve thought.
“Me too.” I shuffled around and sat with my back against his chest in the cradle of his legs. “Even if I almost got myself into trouble before you snatched me from the woods.”
Rhys wrapped his arms around me with a gentleness I’d never expect from a muscled Alpha.
“You’re very brave,” he said.
I snorted. “That’s new. I’m usually graceful, beautiful, fuckable. Or inferior, weak, only a breeding stock. I’ve been told I have the face of an angel, hair worth a princess, but an attitude like the devil himself.”
“The last part is definitely true.” He kissed the top of my head. “And I adore both the angel and the devil parts.” He was trying to make me smile, bless him.
It worked.
“You’re a very strange Alpha.” I rested my head against his pec, surprising myself how comfortable I was with him. The heat was doing weird stuff to me.
“All the ones you’ve met must have been incredibly stupid not to see your true value.”
“Oh, my parents know my monetary value. They’re planning to buy a new yacht and add a wing to their mansion for the money they’ll get for selling me to Dryden.”
“Whoa. That’s a lot of money.”
I scoffed, slapping his thigh. “Am I not worth it?”
“You’re worth much more than any sum I could imagine, but you shouldn’t be sold in the first place.” He pulled me closer to him. “Let me take care of you.”
“Shh. You can smell my heat and I’m hormone-crazy. We can’t make promises to each other. Service me this week, and that will be the best gift I’ve ever received.”
Rhys moved us around until he was facing me, then bowed his head as if I were royalty. “I will.” He took my hand and kissed the top of it.
The reverence in his movements threatened to break me. I cleared my tight throat. “We should clean up.”
He nodded. “Shower or wet towel?”
“Towel.”
“Okay. Stay here.”
Rhys made a trip to the bathroom and wiped us up. “Would you mind if I stayed naked to keep you company? If the soft blanket was uncomfortable, I don’t think I’d find better clothes for you.”
“I’d like that. And keep touching me. It’s…grounding.”
Rhys’s smile was a mix of happiness and mischief.
A doorbell rang, and he pressed a button on his watch. “Leave it by the door, thanks,” he said to the microphone, then turned to me. “It’s the package you ordered. Are you ready to eat?”
“I’ll try.” I wasn’t hungry, but having some nutrition would be smart.
Rhys gathered the bedsheets and towels, and led the way through the house to the laundry room down the corridor. He tossed the armload into the washing machine.
I’d never seen an Alpha do menial house chores before, but I was hoping the shock didn’t show on my face. He did it with such mindless ease, it was clear he wasn’t trying to impress me.
He steered us into the living room with an open-plan kitchen. “Make yourself at home, and I’ll get the box.”