Chapter 36 Lucien
LUCIEN
I had never tended an omega through a heat before.
I’d heard it described abstractly, of course, or unwillingly learned about it when people overshared. Lewd. Transcendent. A memory blotted out by the pheromone high. Weird comparisons, too, like slogging through a marathon or being in the trenches of war.
No one had ever mentioned anything like this.
Summer was clearly in pain, curled up tightly at the top corner of the hotel bed. My jacket was her blanket, and her hair was half undone. She was still in her dress, the zipper gaping open. “N-Not yet.” Trembling hands pushed me away when I offered to help her out of it.
She wasn’t insatiable, wanton, and clawing at me.
Even though the room was quickly thickening with the pheromones from her heat-induced arousal, her scent was bitter with distress.
It stirred my caretaking instincts instead of my alpha rut.
The bedside table was already stacked with anything she might need from the meager offerings of the hotel suite.
A wet face towel, bottled water, and the overpriced packet of nuts from the mini-bar.
I paced, hoping the next lap would give me an answer on how to care for her.
“You’re going to leave me.”
Her fragile words had me rushing over.
“No. Darling, no. I would never.”
“You will.”
“I won’t,” I vowed. “I can’t.” I moved closer.
Gradually and tentatively narrowing the distance between our bodies without scaring her.
“Let me make this better for you. It’s all I want.
” I risked a kiss on her lips. Too warm.
I dabbed away the sweat beading her forehead with the towel.
“You want your nest? You want Mercer and Jae, too?
Summer perfumed, the first bloom of real sweetness.
“I’ve got you,” I promised. “Let me get this dress off you and get you as comfortable as possible first.”
She let me strip her down to her underwear. I could see reddened indents along her stomach and under her breasts from the boning, and I kissed and massaged them gently until they faded.
I was far from immune to the sight of slick soaking all the way through her panties and sticky on her thighs.
But I tamped down the harsh voice telling me she needed a knot because all her other signals were saying otherwise.
Instead, I very carefully extracted bobby pins from her hair until it fell in a wave over her shoulder.
I brought her all the extra pillows and sheets I could find and switched off the overhead lights, leaving only the glow of the bedside lamp.
“Do you want to build a temporary nest? I’ll just be in the next room making some calls.”
Summer drew the sheet up to her chin and nodded before biting her lip, looking disgruntled.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I want your shirt,” she blurted out.
Well, that was easy. “Here.” I unbuttoned it quickly and stripped down to my boxer briefs for good measure, hoping she would ignore that I was hard. I laid a kiss on her lips as I handed over my clothes. “I’m here. Whenever you’re ready for me. Not going anywhere,” I assured her again.
I shut the door of the bedroom behind me and immediately stumbled toward the balcony. Gulping the fresh air cleared my head somewhat and pushed back the rutting instinct that kept bashing insistently against my sternum. I had to line up everything Summer needed before I lost myself.
I found Lina’s number in Summer’s phone and dialed. She answered after one ring. “What’s wrong?”
That big-sister instinct was strong.
“Lina, it’s Lucien.”
“Where’s Summer?” she asked urgently.
“She’s fine.” I paused. “She’s safe,” I corrected myself. “She’s in heat,” I admitted reluctantly.
Lina inhaled sharply. “What?! Is it just you with her?”
“I’m going to call Mercer and Jae. Let your family and her friends know we won’t be back for a while, please.”
“Of course,” she said haltingly. I could sense her trepidation.
“I promise we’ll care for her the way she deserves, Lina.”
“You better.” She released a resigned sigh. Guess that was the closest thing to acceptance I was going to get. “Text me the hotel and room number. I know somewhere local that does heat-replenishment meals. She’ll need comfort food that she’s used to for the next week, not room service.”
“That isn’t necessary. We—”
“Do not tell me I can’t help look after my baby sister when she’s in heat away from her nest in another city, Lucien. Text me ,” she said waspishly before hanging up.
Guess we were getting some food deliveries. I called Mercer next.
“Wow, your fancy party thing must really suck.”
I didn’t have time nor energy to play insult tennis with him. “Summer’s in heat.”
“Oh Jesus fuck.” There was a crackle, then hurried footsteps. Funny how I recognized the exact echo of the hallway floorboards. “Jae!” I heard him yell. “Get the fuck down here, we have to go to Boston now . Summer’s in heat and she needs us.”
I only just caught Jae’s response. “Summer’s in what ?”
“You have to bring what you can of her nest, too,” I urged Mercer.
“On it. Anything else?” He was in the kitchen now and there was a rustle of paper. “Did you print out your hotel confirmation and leave it on the counter so we would know where you were? That’s so precious and geriatric of you.”
I sighed heavily. It was not the time and place to argue that someone who was actually geriatric would likely not know how to use a printer.
“Well, you should be glad because now you have the info you need,” I said tersely.
“I’ve extended our stay already but…I don’t know what state I’ll be in when you get here so I made sure that reception can let you up. ”
“Go take care Summer, Lucien. I’ll handle the rest and we’ll see you soon.”
I returned to the bedroom and knocked lightly. “Summer?” I called through the crack in the door.
“Lucien? I—I’m done.”
I couldn’t forget my manners even as I got another wave of her scent. There it was. A lush paradise beckoning me closer. She was content now, bordering on needy. I found myself pitching forward, wanting more. “Can I come into your nest, omega?”
“Hurry, please.”
Summer had piled all the pillows along the headboard, and I could see she had tried to arrange the sheets she had the way her nest was at home. “It’s not exactly right but it hurts,” she whimpered. I slid in with her, her body searing against my wind-chilled skin.
“You’ve done a beautiful job.” A kiss at her throat turned into a lick and a light suck of her pounding pulse.
She already smelled like mine from all my scent-marking earlier yet I couldn’t stop myself.
“Jae and Mercer are on their way and bringing what they can of your nest so you can make it even better.”
“Really?”
“Of course, darling. You think any of us could leave you like this?”
Her legs hooked around my hips, slick dampening the front of my boxers as my cock pressed against her core.
Summer writhed against me, nails scraping down my shoulder blades as her need grew more urgent.
I wanted to please her. Worship her. Whatever it took to ease the uncontrolled wildfire burning through her veins.
I eased off the last barriers between us until we were skin to skin. Summer gasped as I sank two fingers into her. I withdrew, letting her see the way her arousal coated me before tasting her sweetness. “Look at that. I knew you’d be ready for my knot.”
“Then fuck me. Please .”
I pressed myself inside her slowly. Savoring the unbelievably warm and wet grip of her pussy as she parted her legs wider and wider to take me. Summer whined as I pulled out nearly all the way. Her back arched as I slammed back in. Filling, stretching, fucking her the way she craved.
“More,” she begged with a low sob.
The anxious, restless need remained in her tremulous gaze, even with my steady strokes.
I began to pepper her skin with kisses. Occasionally I gave in to the urge to nip.
Affectionate lips and possessive teeth. Her heart skipped several beats, pressed against my chest. I carded my fingers through the lovely, undone tangle of her hair.
She was beautiful and I told her so as I carefully fished out the last of the bobby pins I had missed earlier.
“Alpha,” she murmured, nuzzling her nose against my neck. Her omega was sweet, almost timid. An unfamiliar ache grew and lingered as I witnessed her trust in me.
“You’re perfect.”
You’re mine .
The more I kissed her, praised her, and promised to take care of her, the more she bloomed beneath my touch. And with it came the rut. Growing inside me, taking hold with fangs and claws. Demanding. Single-minded. All for her. All to give her everything she needed.
When I finally knotted her, the hotel suite had long faded away. There was only us, and nothing else mattered.