Chapter Six
ALPHA
The Next Day
The headboard slams against the wall with a violent crack that echoes through our bedroom like gunfire.
I thrust into her, the pleasure rolling through me like a damn tidal wave.
A deep growl escapes me as Haven’s nails rake down my back, leaving burning trails that make me hiss through clenched teeth before I drive into her with desperate, punishing force.
The entire bed frame groans beneath us, protesting our frantic need to lose ourselves in each other.
“Fuck, Alpha!” Haven cries out, her voice raw and broken as she arches beneath me, taking everything I’m giving her but demanding more. Her legs lock around my waist, the black heels I insisted she leave on digging into my ass as she pulls me deeper. “Don’t stop. Don’t you fucking stop.”
I can’t stop.
I don’t want to stop.
This is the only thing keeping me sane right now. The feel of her tight pussy wrapped around me, the sound of her moans drowning out the chaos in my head, the way she looks at me like I’m her entire world, even when mine is falling apart.
Another violent thrust and the headboard cracks completely, wood splintering and falling to the floor.
Haven’s response is to bite down hard on my shoulder.
Her teeth break the skin, and blood trickles down my arm onto the white sheet while she muffles her scream against my flesh.
The pain shoots straight to my cock, making me slam into her even harder.
“Jesus Christ, Little Lamb,” I growl against her ear, my voice barely human. “You’re gonna be the death of me.”
Her answering laugh is breathless and wild. “Good thing we’re both already half dead then.”
The mattress beneath us shifts dangerously as one of the bed legs finally gives out completely, dropping us at an angle, which makes me thrust deeper.
We don’t stop.
We can’t stop.
This is more than sex. It’s survival, it’s claiming, it’s the desperate need to feel alive when everything else feels like it’s perishing around us.
Haven’s hands fist in my hair, pulling hard as she meets me thrust for thrust. Sweat drips between us, our bodies sliding together in a rhythm that’s become as natural as breathing.
Her breathing begins to hitch, her back arches off the bed, and I know she’s close.
Her pussy clamps around my cock, and I bring up my hand, clenching my fingers around her throat, pressing hard and tight.
Her eyes widen with delight as she begins to choke.
She gasps, her hips buck harder, her pussy tightening around me, making my balls tense, and a tingle shoots down my spine as I groan along with her.
Her hips rock with me as she gasps for breath.
Her eyes bulge out of her face as I choke her to the point of almost asphyxiation.
Her eyes begin to roll into the back of her head, and I know that’s when I have her.
I thrust deep, letting go of her throat, and lean down, pressing my lips to hers in an all-consuming kiss.
With a strangled cry that sounds like my name, her entire body trembles, her nails dig into my back, her heels press into my ass as she comes hard around my cock.
The feeling of her clamping down around me is all I need as I thrust once more, my balls pull up, that surge of adrenaline hits, and I groan so fucking loud as I empty myself inside her with a growl that leaves my throat raw.
“Fuuuck!” I thunder, slamming my fist into the shattered headboard, my knuckles shoving right through it.
The bed collapses completely, the remaining three wooden legs giving out, and we crash to the floor in a tangle of limbs and broken furniture, both of us breathing like we’ve just run a marathon.
For a moment, we simply lie there among the wreckage, panting for breath, staring up at the ceiling as reality slowly seeps back in.
Haven is the first to break the silence, her voice soft but steady. “You know, when we rebuild this bed, we should probably invest in reinforced steel. This is what? The sixth wooden bed we’ve broken now?”
I let out a hoarse chuckle despite everything. “At this rate, we’re going to need to reinforce the entire fucking clubhouse.”
She turns on her side to face me, her fingers tracing lazy patterns on my chest where her nails have left their mark. The tenderness in her touch is such a contrast to the violence of what we just shared that it makes my chest tight.
“Alpha…” she says quietly, her brown eyes searching mine. “With everything going on… Livvy, the war, planning all this shit, if you want to delay talking about the wedding—”
“No.” The word comes out sharper than I intended, and I roll to face her fully, my hand cupping her cheek. “Haven, no. Our wedding is the only good thing we have going for us right now. It’s the only thing keeping me from losing my goddamn mind completely.”
Her eyes soften, and I see the relief there. She needed to hear this as much as I needed to say it.
“If I make it through this war…” I continue, my thumb stroking across her cheekbone, “… we’re getting married as fast as fucking possible.
I don’t wanna wait another day, another hour if I don’t have to.
Life is unpredictable, and I wanna spend every minute I have left showing you how much I love you. ”
A smile spreads across her face, the first real smile I’ve seen from her since Livvy died.
She leans in, pressing her lips to mine in a kiss that’s soft and sweet and nothing like the desperate claiming we just shared.
“I love you too. More than I ever thought I could love anyone,” she whispers against my mouth.
Just as I’m about to deepen the kiss, our bedroom door flies open with a thud that makes us both jump, and before either of us can react, a blur of blonde curls and determined energy barrels into the room.
“Daddy! Haven! I’ve been thinking, and I have some very important things to—”
“Poppy!” Haven and I both scramble for the sheet, yanking it up to cover ourselves just as my eight-year-old daughter launches herself onto what’s left of our destroyed bed.
She lands right between us with the graceless enthusiasm that only kids possess, completely oblivious to the fact that we’re both naked underneath this thin sheet.
Her blue eyes are bright with excitement, and she’s already talking a mile a minute.
“I want to tell you about why I should be part of this fight. See, I’ve been making a list, and I think you’ll find my arguments very compelling.
” She pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket, completely focused on her mission.
“First, I’m eight now, which means I’m basically an adult.
Second, I’ve been training with Haven and Nighthawk, so I know how to fight. Third…”
“Poppy,” I try to interrupt, but she’s on a roll.
“… I’m small, which means I can get into places you can’t, like a stealthy miniature ninja. Fourth, I already know about all the bad stuff anyway, so it’s not like you’re protecting my innocence or whatever. Fifth…”
“Poppy.” I try to gain her attention, but she still continues her rambling.
“… I’ve already been kidnapped by these assholes once, so I know their tricks, and I can outmaneuver them. Sixth, you’re going to need all the help you can get because—”
“Poppy!” I yell, more forcefully this time.
It finally stops her mid-sentence, and she looks up at me with those big, beautiful eyes that are so much like Livvy’s, it makes my chest ache.
But the determination in them?
That’s all her own.
I take a deep breath, trying to find the right words. This kid has been through more than any child should have to endure, and she’s still fighting. Still trying to protect the people she loves, even when it means putting herself in danger.
“Baby girl…” I say more gently, “… the answer is no.”
Her face falls, her defiant little arms crossing over her chest like she’s ready for a counterattack, but before she can launch into another argument, she shifts on the broken bed, and her knee comes down hard right on my cock.
I let out a strangled yelp, my whole body curling in on itself as white-hot pain shoots through me.
Haven bursts out laughing, actually laughing, for the first time since this nightmare started. The sound is so beautiful and unexpected that even through the agony in my balls, I can’t help but smile.
“Oh, shit! Sorry, Daddy!” Poppy scrambles off the sensitive area, but doesn’t seem deterred from her mission. “But did you hear my list? I think if you really consider all the points…”
I sit up carefully, pulling her into my arms, and look directly into her eyes. “Princess…” I groan, the laughter dies as the weight of what I need to say settles on my shoulders. “I just lost your mom. Do you understand that? Livvy is gone, and she’s never coming back.”
Poppy’s face crumples slightly, but she nods.
“I’m going into this fight, and so is Haven.
And that’s already dangerous enough. I already lost you twice, Poppy.
Once, when I thought you were dead because of the Cartel, and then I got you back, but your mom took you away from me…
” I can’t help it as my bottom lip quivers a little with the memory of it all, and Poppy’s face drops seeing me hurting.
“I-I couldn’t stand it if I lost you again.
Especially when I had the chance to stop it.
” My voice breaks slightly. “Especially when the Cartel just took Livvy from both of us. I can’t lose you, too, baby girl. I just can’t.”
The fight goes out of her all at once. Her small body slumps against mine, and she nods once, slowly cuddling into me with every ounce of strength she has, which for an eight-year-old is so much more than she should have.
“Okay, Daddy. I understand. I’ll go to the safehouse with Ingrid and the others. ”