38. Chapter 38
Rosalina
Ascent-match would explain everything. The magnetic attraction, the wanting to rip my clothes off every time I was around them. The fact that they were strangers, enemies, kidnappers—and I still wanted to fuck them all the time.
I swallowed the lump growing in my throat. I’d rather not have it confirmed, but I had to know. So, against my better judgement, I opened my big mouth and asked the question that could destroy my life.
I might as well rip the band-aid off. “You’re their omega, aren’t you?” There was no need to specify. Their pheromones were all over his nest.
Oliver carefully secured a bandage over the cut on my foot and gave me that sweet, dimpled grin that was really starting to grow on me. “Can you blame me?”
No.
I mean, yes. For so many reasons.
My fucking scent-matches kidnapped me. Not only that, but the Morenos killed my brother and the rest of my father’s pack.
They’d nearly killed me, too. My mother left us because of them.
Every fucked up thing in my life could be traced right back to Nico Moreno and his father.
I wasn’t going to tell their little pet, though.
Not yet. Did he even know who I was? He’d called me by my name earlier, a name I hadn’t given him, so he must.
I pulled my legs away from him and huddled on the edge of the bed, unsure what to do with that information.
Noticing my retreat, he closed the first-aid kit and took it to the bathroom. “Yeah, they’re definitely rough around the edges, but don’t blame me for their caveman tendencies. They came that way.”
When he returned, he crawled past me much closer than was necessary.
His scent fell across me like a translucent spiderweb, luring me to my death.
I closed my eyes to block out his cat-like prowl, but that only made it worse.
His features were burned into the inside of my eyelids, and his pheromones were branded into my core.
Could a pack even have two omegas? Did I care?
It didn’t matter. They were my enemies. Period.
I hated Nico and everything his family had done to mine. And I hated Cruz for taking advantage of me when I was desperate. But I was finding it very hard to be mad at the gorgeous omega that cooked me breakfast, brushed my hair, and bandaged my foot so carefully.
I forced my eyes open.
Ollie propped himself up with a mound of fuzzy blankets and was watching me with that dimpled grin of his. “You okay?”
“I’m just… I don’t know. No, probably not.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” He fluffed up a pillow and set it beside him.
That spot looked inviting, warmed by his body heat. “Not right now.”
He patted the plush sheets at his side. “You want to come sit next to me and finish this movie?”
With the way he was grinning at me, I had zero interest in the movie.
All my attention was on his soft, pink lips.
A cool bank of air shifted over my heated skin, and I shivered.
I narrowed my eyes at him as I crawled closer.
“Oliver,” I settled into the blankets beside him.
“Did you turn on the air conditioner when you got up?”
His eyes wandered over me in a lazy swipe before turning back to the movie. “Maybe.”
Oliver
Fuck yes, I turned on the AC. How else was I going to get her closer to me?
She’d been teetering on the edge of my nest as if she thought I was going to bite her.
And you know, that didn’t sound like such a bad idea.
Too bad I’d need to convince Nico to bite her to make it permanent, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
I was dying to know what she tasted like.
I’d never had a scent-match before, but so far, I was enjoying it. Her, less so. But that’s where I came in. All I had to do was show her how amazing I was. Then she’d be begging to pack up.
Mission accomplished.
As she eased into the pillow I’d fluffed for her, the intoxicating scent of Nico’s bourbon pheromones engulfed us. Her lips parted and her chest expanded. That’s right, babe, breathe him in. I leaned across her, grabbing the corner of a blanket and pulled Cruz’s spiced amber along with it.
Was I an asshole for drenching her in her scent-matches’ pheromones? Probably. Was it working a little bit? Seemed like it. Maybe a little too well.
Her lashes fluttered, her lids drooped, and she sank further into the faux fur throw I’d stolen off Cruz’s bed.
They were pricks, but they smelled good.
I was going to blame the omega instincts on this little habit I had—stealing stuff off their beds—but mixed with her scent, it was all coming together in an unavoidable realization.
She was meant to complete my pack. She was the missing piece.
We weren’t scent-matches without her, but with her, we’d be inseparable.
That concept had never been as enticing as it was right now.
I didn’t even like them most of the time, but they were pack.
With her, we could be a family. The family I’d longed for since my mother died of an overdose, leaving me alone on the street when I was still a child.
Addiction had numbed the pain for years until Nico dragged me out of the gutter and told me to make something of myself.
I was grateful for what he’d done, but we both knew if I hadn’t been a scrappy fighter and smarter than both my alphas combined, I’d be someone else’s problem. My pack was a means to an end for all of us, but deep down I knew this girl was about to change everything.
The AC kicked on again, and she tugged the blanket up to her throat.
“Still cold?” I asked, sliding closer.
She side-eyed me hard. I liked her. She wasn’t one to sit back and let me get away with my bullshit.
“I’m fine.” Her eyes went back to the TV screen.
She might say she was fine, but I wasn’t buying it.
She’d been inching her way toward me for the last few minutes.
Plus, I was freezing my balls off. She could give up her coy act any time she wanted.
Admittedly, I may have gone a little too far with the thermostat settings.
I could fix it of course, but then she wouldn’t need to snuggle up against me for warmth like in a survival scenario where we were lost in the wilderness with only our body heat to keep us alive.
As soon as she was near enough, I casually draped my arm around her shoulders, inviting her even closer. It was a bit of a douche move, but these were desperate times, and it was as much for her good as it was for mine.
She needed us, we needed her.
At least I thought that was how scent-matches worked.
She didn’t seem to mind because she scooted right up against my side.
Of course, she was a perfect fit, all soft curves and smoky roses and violets.
Nico and Cruz’s reaction to her made so much sense now.
Something about the way she arched her neck, using my arm as a pillow, made my teeth itch to sink into her flesh and mark her.
Even if it wouldn’t initiate a bond until Nico did it, I still craved it. I wondered what she’d do if I tried.
My dick throbbed painfully in my pants, encouraging me to do something stupid.
I ran the heel of my free hand down the growing ridge twitching under my sweats.
Was it my imagination, or was her pulse fluttering faster in her throat?
The urge to taste her was riding me hard.
I had to stop looking at her, or I really was going to do something stupid.
I turned my face, blinking the image of her soft skin away, but her fingers landed lightly on my jaw, coaxing me back to her.
The warm, soft petals of her lips pressed against mine, hesitantly at first, but growing bolder when I didn’t pull away.
Her scent shifted, deeper and sweeter than it was before, drenching me in an avalanche of pheromones. She smelled addictive and dangerous, but I didn’t care. She was mine.
I groaned in appreciation as her lips parted for me, and my tongue lapped along hers.
Finally, I was able to taste her like I’d been imagining all night.
Her kiss was sweet like raspberries and red wine.
She inhaled, and her breasts rose, pressing against my chest as I laid her back into the deep pillows.
Maybe this was going to get me shot by my own pack, but nothing about that mattered right now with her arching under me.
Her seeking hands tore at the bottom of my shirt, and I reluctantly broke away to pull it off.
Hers had ridden up, clinging to the bottom of her tits, showing off the soft skin of her stomach, and it had me desperate to see the rest. With my eyes glued to the widening expanse of bare skin, I pulled her shirt up over those juicy globes.
Her dusky nipples were swollen, begging to be sucked, and when I lowered my lips to them, she squirmed, pressing them deeper into my mouth.
My tongue went to work, flicking the hardening tip while I rolled the other one between my finger and thumb.
She rewarded me with a moan so sexy, I almost lost it right there.
Fuck that, I wasn’t going to blow it like some inexperienced teenager.
“Rosa, baby, I need to be inside you so bad.”
Rosalina
The chill of his breath on my damp nipple was doing things to me.
Things I was enjoying very much. My belly clenched again, and the warm flush of slick heated my skin.
I craved him like nothing I’d ever felt before.
I wanted him inside me in every possible way.
A needy whimper tore from my lips as I pushed my sweats down my thighs.
Ollie sat up, staring hard at my face. His brows pulled together in thought. “Rosa, when was your last heat?”
My seeking hands found the waist of his pants and slipped inside.
“Don’t know. A couple of years ago, maybe.
” My fingers closed around his solid shaft, and I moaned just thinking about him sliding that long, silky length inside me.
But I stopped, feeling something harder and slicker than skin rub against my fingers.