10. Acceptance
Chapter 10
Acceptance
T hey talked about everything from religion, to disaster relief procedures, to immigration, and of course, the innate rights and importance of an omega’s well-being within the semi-secret subculture of their non-shifter society. The conversation progressed from room to room as they talked over lunch, moved somewhere more comfortable, paced, settled, and repeated at random until it came time for dinner. Yet despite the weight—the significance —of the conversation, Brinley never felt truly agitated. Not with Lennox, at least. Nor did she feel any flares of his agitation were ever meant for her.
Somewhere after sunset, as the lengthy talk of necessary unpleasant things slowed, Brinley came to one other realization.
The entire time, in fact even before they arrived at his massively oversized secured property, she had continued to think of Lennox as hers. Her alpha. She’d caught herself with the thought since the first night, of course, but it was worse now. It was worse because it didn’t just feel like a giddy, maybe somewhat possessive, schoolgirl asserting a meaningless claim. It felt real.
She reached up without conscious thought and rubbed at the base of her neck, her fingers pressing into the faint bruise of the mark he’d left there. It didn’t hurt. The ache that followed came from somewhere deeper.
“Brinley?” Lennox rose from his seat across the coffee table and rounded to her in two quick strides, dropping to a crouch inside her personal space. He laid a hand over her nearest calf and slid his palm up to her knee. “Is something wrong?”
There was just one hard question she still needed to put to words.
Brinley drew a slow breath and stared again into his eyes. The brown had taken over the green for most of the day, and this moment was no exception. “Love is … a fairytale,” she said quietly. She dropped her hand back to her lap. “At least, it always has been for me. Growing up the way I did, no matter how cautious I thought I was or who I offered my trust to, in the end, I was always abandoned. Left behind, unwanted—unloved.” The word stuck in her throat and she had to swallow awkwardly.
Lennox frowned.
She plunged ahead before he could interrupt. “I thought I’d finally turned that hope off, but then … I met this man, this alpha, who actually bit me. Who says he wants me. Who might not be the monster I was warned most alphas are. And now I’m … scared.” Why was this so much harder to say than any one of the things that could easily have landed her kicked on her ass outside a gated suburb with no means to get herself home other than her phone? She willed back useless tears and kept pushing out the words. “I’m scared that I’m falling way too fast and I can’t imagine what I’ll do if—or when—my alpha pushes me away.”
He rumbled and his hands skimmed up, over her body, until he was cupping her face in his palms. Suddenly he had leaned forward, half-wedged between her knees, and his nose brushed against hers as his low, steady voice reached her ears. “Change and commitment can be frightening things. I understand. Especially when you’ve been betrayed in the past.” His fingers slipped into her hair. “But listen to me, Brinley. You are wanted.” He angled his head to tease her lips with his, just for a moment. As if adding physical punctuation to his words. He held her stare, and his position, as he quietly added, “You are loved.”
Her chest constricted, the breath seizing in her lungs.
Lennox leaned up enough to kiss her forehead with almost startling tenderness. “Forget the fucking fairytales. Most of those stories were originally nightmares, anyway.”
She choked on an unexpected, watery laugh. “They were.” Tears rushed her eyes again as she unfroze and reached up to glide her hands over his shoulders. “Lennox…”
He eased back enough to meet her gaze again.
Brinley twisted her fingers in the fabric of his shirt. She could overanalyze, nitpick, and let anxiety hold her back until the decision was taken from her. It wouldn’t be hard. But she didn’t want to. If she were honest with herself, she actually knew what she wanted. She knew which outcome would hurt her more. It was just a matter of admitting that internal awareness out loud. For that, she had to take one more stabilizing breath. “By chance, can I have your knot for dessert?”
Okay, so she could have been more straightforward about it.
His nostrils flared with a hard breath and Lennox replied, “You know the condition for that, omega.”
A thrill shot through her, both at the indication that he remembered his own previous words, and at the rougher tone of his voice. “Yes, alpha,” she said on a whisper.
One of his hands lowered to her throat. He squeezed gently, intentionally, and asked, “Is that something you’re ready for?”
She sucked in a breath. “Yes.” She tugged on his shirt. “I am yours—I want to be yours—but I also want to make you mine. I want … what you promised.”
Lennox growled low and pulled them swiftly up from the sofa. He didn’t say a word as he took her by the hand and strode from the sitting room, toward the nearest staircase, and ultimately into a larger bedroom than Brinley had ever seen. It certainly put what she had considered to be his luxurious hotel suite to shame. He guided her into the room and turned her so her back was to the wall-to-ceiling window panoramic view of beautiful, calm waters. “You have until your pretty dress hits the floor to change your mind,” he said in a rough tone that perfectly complimented the burning weight of his hands at her hips. “If you don’t, every fucking inch of you is mine.” He leaned closer and whispered into her ear. “ Forever .”
Brinley shivered as desire licked through her, hot and familiar. She smoothed her hands up his chest to begin popping the buttons of his shirt.
There was still that small voice in the back of her head that pleaded with her to wait, to reconsider, to flee. It was the voice of her paranoia, her anxiety. The part of her that would prefer to sit and ruminate until the clock ran out, then declare the expiring clock was a sign it hadn’t been meant to be. That voice would always tell her to wait, to reconsider, and to flee. It would always be frightened by the idea of embarking on the unknown. Oftentimes, Brinley heeded it. She considered it part of her survival instinct. But, occasionally, she dredged up her inner strength to remember that it did not control her and that she, in fact, needed to control it.
So, just as she had pushed herself to move forward with the masquerade plan, Brinley stomped down on that spark of anxiety and loosened Lennox’s belt. Because she had not lied to him. She wanted him, and everything he had offered her, more than she was capable of articulating.
He was the future she had scarcely dared dream of, and if she delayed, she would lose it. Lose him. The thought was unacceptable.
He stopped her working fingers before she could tug his unbuttoned shirt from the loosened waist of his slacks. With gentle squeezes at her wrists, Lennox said, “Strip for me, baby. Show me you really want this.”
A small whine escaped her as he took a single step back, giving her room. She didn’t want distance.
Brinley gave herself a mental shake and reached for the zipper at her back. She’d worn one of her nicer dresses that day, since she had known she would be seeing him. When she’d put it on that morning she’d felt a bit like an idiot at the choice. Now she was grateful.
She got an eyeful of his equally nude form for all of two seconds before he made a rumbling sound that filled the air and elevated her excitement to an inappropriate degree.
“Move to the window.”
Brinley blinked at him. “What?”
Lennox started forward, not waiting for her compliance, and hooked a hand over the back of her neck. He walked them toward the uncovered glass partition she’d barely glanced through previously. “I’m going to fuck you against this window before I give you my knot.” He leaned close to her ear, breath hot on her overheated skin. “Someday you’ll watch our kids playing in that yard from this window, probably still while I’m balls deep in your sweet pussy. Picture that future, baby.”
The breath lodged in her throat even as Lennox ran his hand down her spine, firmly pushing her shoulders forward until she had reflexively caught herself on the glass. She was far enough over that her breasts swung free and her ass stuck out, and for as odd as that should have been, or as aware as she should have been of him nudging her legs wider, Brinley couldn’t help but stare out at the partially glowing, sprawling property and water view beyond. The early evening darkness did little to detract from the sight. The view was beautiful, but blurred beneath the images Lennox had cast in her mind.
She had forgotten, for just a minute. She wasn’t on her suppressants. She hadn’t been for several days at this point. That meant she was also unprotected. A fact Lennox obviously also realized … and had no issue with.
Her fingers pressed into the glass, as if trying to dig in. I could really get pregnant tonight. There was a small chance she already was.
Lennox slid his fingers through her pussy and dropped a kiss to her back with a low groan. “So wet for me already, my omega.”
Her body clenched and she whimpered. “Lennox—alpha—please … fuck me. Knot me. Breed me.” She had no control over her tongue. The glimmer of a fantasy he’d whispered in her ear, combined with his touch and his promise of the most mysterious and coveted feeling of all, had her babbling all her wants at once. She was needy, achy, and she could smell him too close and too aroused to think of anything else.
His lips climbed up to her shoulder, one hand settled over her hip while the other worked two fingers inside her. “Glad to hear we’re on the same page.” He curled his fingers against her inner walls and paused, listening to her sharp, wet gasp. “I plan on making damn sure you’re full of my cum before my knot plugs you up.” His teeth teased her neck, just behind the mark.
Brinley tried rocking into the rhythm of his touch, but he took his hand away.
He straightened and she felt his cock push at her entrance. As soon as he was notched, both his hands latched onto her hips and he slammed deep inside.
She let her head fall back, let a scream tear from her, and offered no resistance whatsoever as Lennox immediately adapted a merciless pace. Her body welcomed him eagerly and she forgot all about the psychological exposure of the glass at her front. It became nothing more than an increasingly slippery surface barely keeping her upright. More so even when he stretched an arm up and around, taking almost rough hold of one of her breasts to play with the nipple.
It felt like no time at all before she was pleading with him to let her come.
He released her boob in favor of trailing those fingers down to her clit, his hips never faltering. “That’s it, baby. Clamp down on me. Take me with you.”
She rolled her hips backward as best she could and let out a staggered shout of bliss when the orgasm rolled through her. Her entire body shuddered and she gasped for breath. She distantly, absently, registered the twitching of his cock and the tell-tale warming sensation inside.
Lennox eased off her clit, out of her, and spun her around without stepping from the window. He crashed his hungry lips to hers and hauled her legs up to his hips, using the glass to hold her up and grinding his continued erection against her.
She could feel it. The beginning of the swelling of his knot.
Brinley curled her arms around his shoulders, her fingers tangling in his hair. Frankly, she could spend her life with this man just for the way he kissed. She was almost certain she could come from it with little other stimulation.
But he didn’t make her test that theory. He dragged his hands up her thighs, back to her hips, and surged into her once more.
Lennox grunted a curse against her lips as the kiss broke. “You feel so damn good, baby,” he said between breaths. He angled his head to kiss along her jaw. “You’re taking me so well.”
Brinley moaned and rocked her hips as best she could, her mind mostly lost to the sparking pleasure he was feeding her. But she knew she wanted more, so she held him tighter.
He shifted his hold to grab onto her ass, the subtle adjustment to the angle helping him sink a little deeper. The increased swell of his knot teased her with promise. He groaned as she fluttered. “ Fuck , Brinley.”
She pulled herself close enough to lick at the underside of his jaw, tasting his sweat and his warm skin. He continued pounding into her, his knot flirting with but never penetrating her, and she whined impatiently. It felt fantastic to be against him this way, to feel his almost bruising grip and the way her breasts slid against his chest, but she wanted more. She wanted everything. “Alpha,” she finally gasped. “ Please .”
Lennox growled, the sound almost a hum of approval, and hauled her legs away from his hips. He lifted them up, to the edges of his shoulders, and when he thrust into her again, he didn’t stop until his knot was inside. He was leaning bodily into her, one hand braced on the glass for his own support while the other returned to her ass, and he ground hard against her pelvis.
The tremor of the crashing orgasm threatened to tear another delightful scream from her, and Brinley barely recognized the need to fall forward instead. Her instinct kicked in at the proximity of his scent and she found herself screaming her release around a mouthful of Lennox’s taut, perfectly tanned skin. She felt him pour inside, felt his hand slide up to her shoulder and squeeze encouragingly even as his body trembled and he let out his own roar, and her teeth cracked flesh. She unlocked her jaw as soon as the first tang of copper hit her tongue, but before she could process it—or what it meant—another wave of ecstasy crashed over her. Over them.
She felt it from both sides.
Her body jolted, her hands tearing at his hair and his skin, her toes curling in air. Tears leaked from her eyes.
He jerked hard enough he had to catch his balance on the window, the arm at her shoulder moving wholly around her waist and gripping tight. She thought she felt him come again.
Her vision faded to white, then to a hazier, sparkling gray. By the time it cleared and Brinley had caught her breath, they were a heap on the floor in front of the window. She was mostly sprawled on top of him and they were covered in sweat. His knot was still lodged inside her, but she still felt sticky.
Lennox managed to smooth a hand down her surely wild hair. “Tomorrow,” he said, voice a bit tired, “we can talk about you leaving that apartment.”
Brinley bit back a smile and let her head rest on his shoulder. “One step at a time,” she teased. Mostly. It would feel like a bigger leap than it was.
He only chuckled and tilted to kiss the top of her head.
****
Lennox felt more tired than he was used to when he pried his eyes open early the following morning. Too early, in fact. He could tell by the still blacked-out windows that it wasn’t his internal alarm which had roused him. Nor was it the softly snoring bundle of dusty blonde tucked up against him.
The fog of sleep vanished from his mind and Lennox pushed, carefully, upright. He made sure not to let the comforter fall past his newly bonded mate’s shoulders even as he swept his gaze around the room. The light that had pulled him out of unconsciousness emanated from a bank of the overhead can lights—all of which he was certain he hadn’t ever bothered turning on the night before. He wasn’t searching long.
Another man sat in the reading chair Lennox usually reserved for early morning or late-night work calls. He twirled a sheathed dagger over one knee and had the audacity to look somewhat annoyed.
Rage sparked like wildfire in Lennox’s chest and he felt his lips curl before he managed to catch the growl. Though letting Brinley sleep through this would likely not be wise, either. “Who the—”
“Easy there, alpha boy,” the stranger said, his own lips lifting with a twist of something like soundless laughter. The overhead lights—between them—glinted off a pointed canine before his mouth resettled. It was that which made the rest of the man’s atypical appearance sink into Lennox’s brain. The male’s ears were covered by long-enough hair that was some shade of lavender, and the right side of his forehead was punctuated by two black, pointed horns. Neither were longer than a pinky finger, but the distinction of them was clear.
And Lennox was just educated enough to know what that meant. The stranger across from them was a demon.
He drew a hard breath and pushed the growl from his voice as best he could. “Why are you here, demon?” Just because he’d met a handful of demons over the years, and kept a few on payroll, didn’t mean he was comfortable with an invasion of this caliber.
The demon sighed audibly and waved his free hand in their direction, as if he were tossing something. A heartbeat later, a plain manila folder materialized out of thin air and dropped with a series of hapless flutters onto the bed, several papers spilling out. Including what looked like a printed photo. “I wouldn’t normally bother sharing this information with you,” he said, “but a very obnoxious someone insisted I linger and explain all this shit. So blame her. Both of them.”
Recognizing he would have to jostle Brinley in order to reach the file he was obviously expected to read, Lennox ignored the perplexing declaration and reached to his side. He curled a hand around her arm, beneath the comforter, and squeezed. “You’re going to need to wake up for this, baby.”
Brinley made a groggy sound of displeasure.
Lennox focused on her sense of drowsiness that lingered in the back of his mind thanks to their completed mating and pushed against it with a firm urgency. And, though it left a sour taste in his mouth, he let the alpha into his voice when he tried again. “Wake up.”
Brinley sucked in a startled breath, only staying mostly down because he kept a hand on her shoulder. “Lennox? What’s—”
He met her still-clearing gaze with a frown. “We have company. Sit up slowly.” He wanted to offer her more, but he still wasn’t sure if she even knew about demons as a concrete existence. This event would change that either in the moment or immediately after, regardless.
Brinley began to push up and froze again when she laid eyes on the figure still in the chair. “What … what the hell?”
The demon in the chair chuckled. “Almost positive I’m not royalty. Name’s Hiryū.”
Lennox felt his blood run cold. He’d heard of a demon named Hiryū before. And he couldn’t think of one single good damn reason why a being rumored to be the world’s top assassin would be sitting across from them.