Chapter 22 Derrick
twenty-two
Derrick
She follows me with her head cast down, and I don’t dare look around either.
I can feel people’s eyes on us even if I don't lift my eyes from our destination. A small trail behind the township follows the path of the river. She’s out of breath as we make our way, two steps of hers to each one of mine, and I slow down.
Veda smiles, mouthing her thanks, and again I’m thrown off by her need to feel thankful for every smallest act.
Why is everyone such an asshole? I don’t have the answer, so I just show her the way.
We walk briskly beside the river, until it gets narrower and shallow, and it’s finally just a stream born from the side of the mountain.
Tension leaves my shoulders when we reach a clearance, far enough so no one can hear us.
“We are alone now,” I tell her, guiding her to sit on a small rock.
“Thank you.”
A hundred different things run through my mind. Is it her grandfather again? I haven’t seen her with a phone, so I don’t even know if she has someone to text. If that asshole is bothering her even this far? I’m going to fucking—
“Why are you crying?” I decide to cut my own murdering thoughts.
Veda sucks in a breath, her beautiful brown eyes look around the woods enclosing the stream, and she smiles softly; it’s a stab on an open wound. She looks so sad, so lost like this.
“Why wouldn’t I cry?” She lifts a shoulder. “I have a good reason.”
For the first time, I hear resentment in her tone. In a way, I’m happy for her. I don’t want her to be manageable. I don't want her sweet. She’s allowed to scream and curse. Actually, just thinking about it makes me hard. Damn, anything she does makes me hard.
Veda doesn’t scream or get angry. All she does is sigh as she stands from the rock I put her on.
“Your mom told me that I’m an Omega. Is that true?”
Her eyes are piercing, zeroed in on me when she asks the question. On the back of a bronco, I thought I was a brave man.
I’m obviously not. All the ways I imagined explaining things to Veda, I assumed I’d have Major and Jesse by my side. Major would give the facts while Jesse would smooth our edges. It seems like a job for the three of us together. One helping the other. Instead, it’s just me and the woods.
There’s no point in lying to her, especially if Mom already spilled the beans. I breathe out and nod.
“That’s true.”
A beat. A slow fucking beat as she sucks in a breath and holds my whole heart in her hands.
“Is this a joke?”
I wince at her tone, but I try to reach out for her, my voice going as soft as I know how. “I’m sorry, it's not a joke, darlin’.”
Veda steps away from me, her eyes wide and full of mistrust when her pet name slips between my lips. I know what she’s going to say before it’s even out.
“Don't call me that,” she rasps.
Fuck, if her rejection doesn’t hurt, but I know I don’t have the right to feel this hurt when she’s going through it all. My empty hands close in a fist.
“I don't know how this happened, Veda. I don't know how you end up here without knowing.”
That triggers a laugh from her, cold and sarcastic, nothing like her at all. “So now it’s my fault?”
“Of course not—”
“Did I miss something?” she continues as the words stumble out of her, and she looks everywhere but at me. “I didn’t even know this existed. I’m still not sure it’s even real.”
Fuck. The hardness in her eyes dissolves, giving place to the hurt.
I’m rooted at the spot, fucking at a loss for words like an idiot when she starts crying.
Fuck. Despite her rejection, I can’t hold myself back from putting my hands on her.
I can’t see her cry without trying to do something to stop the river of tears.
“No, no, no. Of course, it's not your fault.” My arms fold around her, and she thankfully lets me. The air comes out in one go, and I relax with her tucked right under my chin.
“I don’t even know what this means, Derrick.”
“Omegas are something rare and special.” I swallow the pet name, afraid she’ll walk away from me once again. “There’s so much about you that is a miracle. Not only to me, but to everyone.”
I’m so incredibly inept to tell her this story, but fuck, I’m all she has. I should have paid more attention to biology class, but it hurt too bad. What Alpha wants to sit around and talk about Omegas, knowing they will never really know what scent-matching feels like?
“Your mom said I’m biologically different.” She blinks at me. “Different how?”
Shit. I don’t even know where to start, but I swallow my fear. My hand finds the small of her back, and I anchor myself to the moment.
“Omegas are able to scent-match to a pack. And when they do, her body changes to receive her pack.”
Am I really telling this right? Probably not. Once the idea of Veda going through a heat is in my mind, I can barely think straight.
“What kind of changes?” She frowns.
Goddammit. I lick my lips, trying to keep the desire out of my impromptu bio class.
“When an Omega scent-matches with her pack, she’ll start her heat. It’s her body’s warning that they are meant to be, and she can get ready to receive them.”
Veda rolls her eyes. “What do you mean by ready?”
My eyes fall closed for just a moment before I gather the strength to talk about this to her.
“Alphas are…” I clear my throat. “Big. Taking three Alphas is a lot. The heat helps her body to accommodate all that power. She gets slick, relaxed. It’s a fever, and it’ll only go away after she gets knotted by her pack.”
The image of her going through heat is something out of my filthiest dreams. I try my hardest to hold together the threads of my rationality, but it’s hard when she’s watching me like this, all innocent and perfumed.
“Derrick?”
My eyes go to her lips and the way they move around my name. I want to see those lips around my cock. Fuck, I want that so bad.
“Yeah?” Throat dry, heart hammering.
“Is it stupid to ask what a knot is?”
Shit. I should put some distance between us, or she’ll see how hard she makes me. It’s not the fucking time or place, but my body doesn’t seem to care.
“The knot is a swell in the base of my—”
“Of your…?”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “My cock, darlin’.”
She blushes so pretty, and I groan, not missing the sweet perfume making me undone.
Jesus fucking Christ, I never had a chance to survive this woman, that much is fucking obvious.
Silence is thick between us, vibrating as it’s alive.
Suddenly, it feels like it was a very bad idea to drag her all the way here.
I don’t think I can be alone with her right now.
“And what does that do?” She licks her lips.
I sigh. Damn, what does she want me to say? That my knot will split her in two, will fill her up and not let a drop of cum out of her cunt? I can’t tell her that.
“It’ll tie the Alpha and the Omega together. Like one, you know?”
My hands shake, but I don’t let her go. I don’t know what to do if I let her go. My heart hurts with every torturous beat, and I feel weak and strong at the same time. Talking about this to her opened something inside me, something I thought was dormant for a long damn time.
“Derrick?”
“Yes?”
“Can I see yours?”
Nothing but burning flames courses through my veins, and I groan. Really, I should be saying no. I should tell her that the town hall has a bunch of biology textbooks issued by the Alpha-Omega Alliance. All very official. She can read to her heart’s content, but I don’t tell her that.
Instead, I take her chin between my fingers. “You want to see my cock, darlin’?”
“It’s just what you’re saying is impossible, right? But this would prove it.” She licks her lips and nods eagerly, agreeing with her own assessment. “Just so I understand what it is, you know? It’s only fair.”
There’s nothing fair about this, and she knows it.
She’s sweet, but I know she’s into mischief right now, asking to see my cock and licking her lips like she’s not breaking me in a thousand pieces.
There’s nothing I wouldn’t gladly give Veda if she asked.
She can ask for anything under the sun, and I’d deliver it to her on a silver platter, even if it’s my cock. Especially if it’s my cock.
It’s so fucking wrong, but I nod, taking my hands away and showing her back to the rock to sit. She doesn’t argue, but takes my hand in hers and only lets me go when I’m close enough to her sitting spot.
“Just for science, huh?” I ask, hands already on my belt.
“Right, yeah. Of course. It’s nothing but…”
She trails off as I dip my hand under the elastic band of my boxers, feeling myself before I take it out.
I’m painfully hard. I’ve been this way since the moment she arrived at the ranch.
I’ve never fucked my hand so much and so hard my whole life, so it’s instinct to stroke slowly, watching her reaction.
“Oh god.”
She practically moans, rubbing her thighs together and perfuming the whole goddamn woods. I’m all twisted for this woman, on my feet, but in my head, I’m on my knees for her.
I refrain from stroking again and show her the whole shaft. My knot is bulging at the base, begging for a tight grip, but I don't give it now.
“That’s your knot?”
“That’s my knot.”
Her eyes are glued on me, and it’s getting impossible not to do anything about this desire building inside.
It takes everything in me not to start rubbing.
Her gaze burns over my skin, her perfume grips me by the throat.
Every ticking second feels like I’m about to fall apart before she even has the chance to really look at my knot.
I'm a weak man, and I’m barely holding myself together, so I give myself a small relief and squeeze my knot hard.
“And that will fit in me?”
Fuck. Me.
“Yes.” I throw my head back. “It’ll fit you. It’ll fit you so good.”
I’m about to die at her feet, a ghost of who I was. I don’t correct her to say some other knot is on the horizon for her. Damn, that’s the truth, but it feels so fucking wrong I can’t bring myself to say it.
Veda bites down on her bottom lip, a pretty frown between her brows. “You can do it, you know. Rub if you need to.”
I groan. “Yeah, are you sure, darlin’? It’s not going to spook you watching this big cock work?”
She twists over the rock, nipples pebbling and pressing against the soft fabric of her shirt. “Of course not. It’s so hard, Derrick. It looks like you’re in pain.”
She’s a fucking vixen. Her hungry eyes devour me, and I start stroking, knowing damn well I’m only getting myself into trouble.
But it’s worth getting into trouble for this woman.
She’s worth every single thing. Veda watches me with intention, her teeth so deep into her bottom lip that I reach out with my thumb.
“You’re going to hurt yourself.”
The softness of her lips tears me apart.
I start stroking harder, faster, my eyes hard watching her every reaction.
Famished for it. Pleasure builds thick, and I know I’m about to fall apart.
The image of her covered with my cum is something out of my every dream, but I have good sense and angle to the other side, away from her.
Her tongue peeks out, and I watch the movement as she tastes my thumb still over her lips.
It’s all I need to let it go. Ropes of cum splash over the forest ground.
I groan, powerless. My head falls back once again, and I suck in thick air smelling like her arousal.
My cock twitches in my hand, and I squeeze my knot, taking pleasure in those last moments of my orgasm.
Moments tick by, and when my conscience returns to where it should be, I lower my head back, finding my Veda squirming over the rock, eyes so full of want, I drop to my knees in front of her.
“Are you okay?” I ask, my hands reaching for her waist. “Was that too much?”
“No.” Her voice is soft and breathy. It sounds so good that I start getting hard again.
“Do you need relief too?”
My question stuns her into action. She blinks at me like I’m insane and stands up quickly. “No. No.”
Something about this doesn’t make sense. It doesn't match what we just shared. I tuck myself back in my pants, but I prowl over to her. I can smell her arousal. I know she needs relief, and I don’t know why she won’t let me do it.
“I can make you feel good, darlin’. You don’t need to be scared.”
She scoffs and starts moving back to the trail, leaving me behind. “I’m not scared. I just… hmm, I don’t need you to bother with me.”
I laugh so loud she shoots me daggers over her shoulder. “If you think licking that pretty cunt is bothersome, you don’t know much about cowboys.”
She reacts to my crude words. I can smell it in the air like I’m a fucking cartoon dog after a roast chicken.
“Do you want me to beg?”