32. Liam
CHAPTER 32
Liam
My omega had put on her mask of marble and it was fucking impossible to read her like this.
Somehow, I had to get her to open up.
“Let me get a look at you.” Unhooking her nails from my neck was harder than it should have been. She was so goddamn strong…but she didn’t have to be. Not anymore. “You’re covered in blood. Don’t you want me to help you wash it off?”
I settled her hands on my hips to give her something to hold on to without feeling abandoned and studied her with as much rationality as I could. At least until Lucy yanked me closer, pressing me right up against her.
All I could feel was the heat of her against my dick and it flexed against her stomach, protesting the fact that it wasn’t inside her already when the scent of her was begging for it.
This time, I couldn’t do the right thing.
I couldn’t wait for her verbal consent, not like this.
Yanking her sweater up and over her head as gently as I could, I licked my lips when I saw the blood had soaked into her skin as well as her lacy white bra. My bloody omega looked like she’d just eaten someone alive and it made her look so fucking…
“Pretty.” All I could do was admire her as every drop of her scent seeped into the air as well as my lungs.
She had me in a fucking trance and I couldn’t stop myself from rubbing my thumb over her chin and smearing the tacky blood like paint. It was thick and tart on the air, almost like some exotic fruit when it was mixed with the essence of her scent.
The way she stared up at me, lips slightly parted, pupils dilated with her breathing shallow…she wanted something from me and all I had to do was figure out what it was because I’d give her anything. Any fucking thing on this planet and I’d make it happen. She didn’t even have to ask.
Her lacy white bra was stained red with that asshole’s blood and I knew most people wouldn’t find this attractive, let alone mesmerizing, but that’s part of the reason why I’d avoided most omegas until now. They were all just a little too delicate and…tame.
But Lucy?
She’d done her very best to defend herself and this was what that looked like. My vicious little omega had shown that fucker her teeth and nearly took his hand as well as his eye…
A shame she hadn’t taken both.
Sliding my thumb along the sharp line of her jaw smeared more of his blood across her face and her breath caught when I trailed my fingers down the column of her neck.
“God, you’re gorgeous.” Her scent was making my head buzz like I was high off the best shit and nothing could keep me from indulging in this moment. “The blood of your enemies looks so fucking good on you, Lucy.”
She yanked me against her again and I gritted my teeth, grabbing her by the throat on instinct alone. “Don’t,” I warned.
For the first time since I’d put her in the car, she locked eyes with me and really saw me. “Liam?”
This was so fucking messed up. How the hell was I supposed to pull back now? She had to feel how hard I was if she couldn’t scent me through these useless fucking blockers. I ripped them off, feeling reckless and desperate even though she was the one in heat, not me.
Wrapping an arm around her back, I breathed her in even though I knew I shouldn’t. Then I lifted her up just enough and stripped off her skirt and tugged the tights down to her ankles before setting her back down. The scent of her desire increased a thousandfold and I sank to my knees before her.
How could she possibly understand what she was doing to me?
This wasn’t just an alpha reacting to an omega in heat. No, I had years and years of pent-up frustration and yearning. So many emotions mixed up in all this shit, and she was fucking clueless about all of them because I was a big, fat idiot.
“What are you doing?”
I ignored her question and gently untied her boots, keeping my eyes on the laces instead of the source of that deliciously intoxicating scent. My fucking mouth was watering and focusing every single brain cell on this one task was the only way to keep my hands off her until she shook off a bit more of her shock.
When she felt safer…maybe then.
It was strange how easy it was to kneel before her.
Normally, these psychotic legacy alpha instincts wouldn’t have let me do something so submissive, but they fucking purred in her presence. We were taking care of her and nothing else mattered, not even my stupid dick.
I would do anything for her.
Everything .
She had to know…had to know just how fucking desperate I was for her. It was obvious even to a blind man and maybe I’d feel embarrassed about it if I stopped to think about it for more than two seconds, but there was no world that existed where I didn’t belong to Lucy .
Ever since she ran into me, I’d been her alpha and she my omega.
Even if she never wanted me, I’d be here, on my knees, waiting for the day she changed her mind.
One day she’d understand, and if she didn’t…
Well, I’d still be here, showing the whole world what a pathetic asshole I was.
I looked up to see her watching me as I set her boots on the floor, gently tugging the bunched-up tights and skirt down until they pooled on the floor next to her sweater.
Keeping my eyes on hers, I kissed the side of her knee and pretended not to notice the way her breathing got faster…she was practically panting now and I’d barely touched her.
Lucy reached down then, surprising me when she slid her fingers through my hair just like she had earlier.
It felt too fucking good for something so simple.
Closing my eyes, I pressed my cheek against her thigh. It still felt like heaven to have her be the one to touch me first.
“It hurts,” she whispered.
The urge to sink my teeth into her thigh almost won as those words slithered into my hindbrain and I clenched my jaw to keep from doing just that when the thought of her in pain sent me into another rage spiral.
I shouldn’t have left him alive. I should have ripped his fucking jaw from his ugly-ass face. Then everyone in this goddamn city would know that Valor had declared war for the first time in over a century.
Nothing would be left untouched.
My mother could try to stop me, but even she wasn’t as strong as I was…even she wouldn’t dare stand in my way when it came to protecting my omega. Not again.
Never again.
“Please, Liam…”
Gripping the edge of the sink to keep from hurting her barely registered until the quartz cracked. I was at my limit. If she asked me…
Nothing could stop me from taking what was mine.
“It’s never felt like this.” A single finger pressed underneath my chin, forcing me to look up at her. “It hurts so much I could die.”
Staring into those stormy grey eyes, I kept my jaw clenched tight. I didn’t trust myself. Not when I’ve been searching for her for damn near two decades now and here she was, practically begging me for it.
She didn’t know who I was, but she remembered me.
Honestly, that was more than I’d dared to hope for, but she didn’t just remember me, she missed me.
To think every time she looked up at the cloudy sky, she wondered if I’d come back for her.
I desperately wanted to tell her I’d finally come back – that I’d spent every single fucking day for the last fifteen years looking for any trace of her.
She’d waited for me just as I’d asked, and keeping that from her for even a moment longer might actually kill me when I wanted to beg for her forgiveness and at the same time, thank her for never quite giving up.
I’d fallen hopelessly in love with her all those years ago, and now that she was finally right here in front of me…I’d somehow fallen in love with her all over again.
Lucy was my omega.
I was about to say just that, but she parted her thighs, instantly destroying any plan I might have had to speak human words.
“You’re a legacy alpha, Liam. Can’t you help me?”
It was suddenly difficult to breathe.
Did she have any fucking idea what she was asking of me?
I looked up to see her teeth sinking into the soft flesh of her lips, tearing through some of the skin .
“Don’t bite your lip like that, baby, please.” She was going to destroy me if she kept that shit up. I reached up and gently tugged her lip free from her teeth. Hopefully, she didn’t notice just how badly my hands were shaking – how close I was to snapping.
“Please…” Lucy’s pupils were so fucking dilated her eyes looked nearly black instead of grey. “All I can think about is how good you smell.”
Ah, fuck, I was a goner.