CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - Balthazar
The weather was fucking us over every which way. I’d thought ahead and put the chains on my tires, but there was no going around the eighteen-wheeler which had jack-knifed and blocked the main road. Then going west the long way around, one of the bridges was closed because it was too icy.
Mariska was sobbing as we pulled back up to the farmhouse because she couldn’t go see Eloise.
I wasn’t going to tell her that we’d likely be snowed in all weekend, and that the surprise I arranged for her had gone sideways.
I’d been texting with a few buddies in town to help out, and hopefully they could have the surprise brought out to us tomorrow if the storm stopped howling.
It would make her Christmas complete. And seeing my Omega in tears made me even more determined to make it happen. I would show her that I could take care of her, make her world perfect, in every single way.
I escorted her into the kitchen to warm her up with some homemade hot cocoa as she talked to Lyla. After she hung up, Mariska laid her head on her arms, wiping at her cheeks. “I’m such a bad friend.”
“You are not.” I made sure she was looking me in the eye when I said it. “You’re always putting others ahead of yourself. Besides, you can’t control the weather. I’m sure Lyla understands.”
“She says she’s fine, but she’s an extreme extrovert. She needs people around her. And to be alone around Christmas, that’s just extra cruel to her.” Mariska sniffled and reached beside her to pet Artemis who sat by her side with her head against Mariska’s leg.
I poured the steaming milk into mugs and slowly stirred in the melted chocolate.
Topping it off with a dollop of whipped cream and cinnamon sugar, I set the cocoa in front of my Omega and walked around the island to hug her.
“Lyla will be fine, and you’re going to be fine.
Is it such a bad thing to be cooped up with me all day?
” I kissed the sensitive spot behind her ear. “Whatever shall we do?”
It turned out that something was crying some more, checking the weather app every two minutes, and me purring her to sleep in the pack bed. I conked out with my Omega in my arms, dreaming of a life with her forever in my embrace and surrounded by all our beautiful babies in the bed.
When I woke a few hours later, it was to the sound of something scraping along the floor and the absence of Mariska beside me. I bolted into a sitting position and rubbed my eyes. “What the fuck?”
When my vision shed off the haziness of my dreams, I stared at my real life dream girl. She wore someone's thick black socks and my flannel shirt. That’s it.
And she was bent over positioning a chair at the other side of the room.
Holy fuck. I was hard in an instant.
“What are you doing, baby?”
Was that one of the recliners from the living room?
“I’m rearranging.” Mariska positioned the chair, stared at it for a few seconds, and then turned it to face the bed more. She was totally oblivious to her sexiness, which only made her hotter yet. “Making it more cozy in here.”
I peered around the room. The second recliner was here as well and a laptop was set up on a desk in the corner.
Where did that even come from? The mini fridge we kept beside the hot tub outside in the summers was plugged in beside the desk and snacks were piled on top of it.
A half-empty package of bottled water was pushed off near the dresser.
The big fern from the downstairs hallway and the juniper from the dining room sat in one corner, and the dwarf Alberta spruce Lucian had in his bedroom was in the corner closest to the bed.
Throw pillows from the couch and Jasper’s bed added pops of color along the top of the huge pack bed.
And there was Claws, the giant teddy bear I’d had since I was a toddler, sitting on the dresser near the window.
When had she done all this and how did I not even wake up? Actually, the sweet little thing she was, the bigger question was, “How did you do all this?”
“What?” She turned and put her hands on her hips. “You don’t think I can move furniture on my own?”
All the way up the stairs? Nope. I raised a skeptical brow at her.
She sighed and confessed, “Okay. Lucian helped carry stuff in here. He’s downstairs with Jasper now helping with dinner. I’m thinking of painting a forest on the walls so it feels like we’re surrounded by cozy woods.”
“I like that.” I grinned and motioned to her to join me on the bed.
My heart raced a little faster. Not just because I was horny as fuck, but she was redecorating a room that she claimed she’d only be in temporarily.
She was… I laughed out loud with our victory.
“Do you have everything you need for your nest? Make a list, and we’ll order anything you want. ”
Mariska surveyed the chairs once more before crawling onto the bed with me.
“I’m not nesting. This room had no personality.
I’m helping it…” She paused, freezing as her jaw dropped.
She then flopped backward on the bed. “I am nesting. How did I not even realize this was what it was when I was doing it?”
I couldn’t stop grinning. Gathering her to me, I held her on my lap and made no move to hide my arousal. I kissed her head. “Omega instincts, baby. It means you’re comfortable here and that you want to settle into the space and get ready to have babies.”
She gave a snorting laugh and wiggled against me. “Yes, I’m comfortable, but it doesn’t mean I want babies.” She ran her nails lightly over my bare chest and along my arms. “Though I do like the act of making them an awful lot.”
A shiver ran through me in the best of ways. Fucking hell, my Omega knew just how to tease me. “You and me both, sweetheart.” I growled and mashed my mouth against her in a claiming kiss. “But there will be babies. Lots of babies.”
Mariska rolled her eyes and pushed me backward, shimmying her hips as she straddled me proper. “I don’t know where you’re getting all those babies from, but it isn’t from me. I’m way too young and on birth control.”
I furrowed my brow and bit back a groan as she ground against me. My dick didn’t want to talk anymore, but I couldn’t let that last part go. I’d knotted her. So had Lucian. There would be babies. “What do you mean you’re on birth control? You were a virgin.”
She bent and kissed over my chest, nipping at my pecs. Her hips rolled against mine and wet my boxers with her slick. “I was, but Omegas’ periods can be really rough. The hormones from birth control injections help a lot.”
Running one hand through her silky hair, I groped one of her tits as her hungry mouth licked and nibbled on me.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t heard that some Omegas could have bad periods, and I didn’t want her to suffer every month.
But in my head, she was already pregnant.
We’d have a baby by the end of summer next year, and Christmas would be full of toys, little booties, and making a sibling for that kid.
There had never been an Omega who fit with our pack. She was the one and only. I’d looked for years, and fuck, I didn’t want to wait any longer to start a family.
Taking hold of the back of her neck and her tight ass, I rolled and flipped us.
Her hair fanned out behind her head and her legs cradled me perfectly.
Birth control wasn’t one hundred percent.
And if it didn’t happen during her heat, once she decided to stay as our mate, I’d convince her to stop the injections.
I pushed off my boxers and dipped my dick into her hot pussy. She tried to shrug my flannel shirt off and I stopped her with a kiss. “Keep it on. You look so sexy in my shirt.”
Mariska moaned as I pushed deeper into her and locked her legs around me. She trembled and tightened, and it felt as good as the first time I fucked her. No, it was even better. “So you don’t want me to wear lingerie, just your clothes.”
“Mm, I like that. All mine.” I thrust in all the way, my balls slapping against her. “Or be naked.”
She mewled as I pulled slowly out and slammed into her again.
Slow and slick, and then fast and hard. I would never get tired of the erotic little noises she made and the heat of her cunt.
Her scent was so thick and creamy with its feminine musk.
She even tasted of vanilla as I dominated her mouth with my kisses.
“So,” she gasped and groaned, vibrating her words. “I wouldn’t have to buy clothes. Ever. Good way to save money.”
I chuckled low in my throat and kissed down along her neck. “It works on all levels.”
Mariska ran her hands up and down my back and I picked up speed, hammering her into the mattress as my knot started to swell. Every instinct in me told me to bite, to make my mark, and declare her as mine.
I couldn’t ever lose her.
“Oh fuck! Balthazar!” Mariska clutched at me, her back arching.
She was mine. She had to know it deep in her bones.
Her body shuddered and she cried out. Her pussy spasmed around my cock. I had made her come. Me.
Every ounce of my blood felt like it filled my knot. It locked in her as my sac tightened.
Fuck, I loved her. I loved her from the second I saw her walking in the snow.
I roared as I came, filling her with my potent Alpha seed. With every hot jet, my brain could only think: mine, mine, mine.
Mariska sighed in a sweet, soft way and went limb under me.
Her legs fell to either side. Still fuzzy with my orgasmic high, I stretched out, leaning my weight to one side so I didn’t squish her.
I caressed her face, tracing each of her flushed features, memorizing her beauty.
How lucky was I to be compatible with this gorgeous Omega?
She needed to know how much she meant to me, to our pack.
“Mariska,” I breathed her name out with a kiss. “I…”
There were footsteps in the hall and the door swung open. Jasper leaned against the frame and grinned. “Dinner’s almost ready. You’ve got five minutes to detach and clean up.”