Chapter 12
JUDGE
Diana stirs in her sleep, that beautiful blonde hair as soft as a fur pelt. Her exposed skin is smooth and supple, and I will know every mark, every scar. Just as she will know mine.
I pet her hair gently, able to process how dangerously close we were to everything going wrong.
Imagining another scenario where if I had been an hour too late, I pull my hand back when it’s filled with too much violence.
Diana will never experience that from me.
No, my hands will only provide affection and care for her.
I stare at her neck in a compulsion to control the rage.
At the spot where my bite would save her from everyone.
Well, not everyone.
I cannot bite her yet. The risk of a dark bond is too high.
And yet, I can’t imagine taking her to the Iron Castle with no mark.
What other choice do I have, though? No one can know of her, not until Titan is dealt with.
As that barbed wire sensation of fear fills me, I know I’ll take care of this.
Beast’s eagle had been with Diana the entire time, and I was never far.
Waiting for reinforcement was necessary because I could not take an omega in heat without protection.
She was always safe, even if I had to watch from afar and refrain from blowing my cover to skin Evans.
I’ll do the same with Titan and take care of it before it becomes a problem. For the meantime, I need to focus on enjoying her scent, the very thing that beckons me to behave in ways I’ve never contemplated. She deserves an alpha who is in tune with her, so I can better care for her.
“No,” she whispers groggily, eyes fully opening.
I purr as gently as I can, and that lulls her back into a stupor, and I gently smile.
She will be okay. My presence means she’s safe.
My purring serving as a sedative won’t last much longer; her body is still utterly exhausted from hardly sleeping.
If I can fuck her enough, my scent will grow with meaning to her until she’s possibly ready to bite me herself.
That is the state of mind I need her in, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get her there as fast as possible.
She won’t like what I’m considering in order to keep her hidden until the time is right, which means she will need to trust her alpha and let me do what’s necessary.
It’s as if this side of me is an old friend that’s finally being seen.
I gather Diana’s naked, perfect body into my arms and help her to the shower she wanted earlier.
We will leave today. She’s delirious and will need real food too, with fats and carbs.
That heat was far from perfect in terms of how I would have preferred it.
Diana was flawless, but we’ll make sure that for the next one, she’s properly fed and pampered.
Her safety was the only thing my instincts cared about when I knew how fucking dangerous that entire situation was.
There will be plenty of time to make up for it.
The shower is big enough for us both, and I turn it on to let the warm water flow while she shivers against my body.
She can spew whatever words she wants, but this basal side of her, the one nature made, is completely relaxed with just the two of us.
It’s what my scent was designed to do for her, and the way it fills my body with a new purpose is nearly rewriting my neural pathways.
Feeling protected with me is akin to how I crave an omega who will accept the entirety of me and need me. Worry for me. Purr for me.
When the water is ready, I get us both in.
I personally enjoy that she’s covered in my cum, but she won’t like it once she comes to.
I need to show her I can give her what she needs, in all forms. And right now, that’s cleanliness so she won’t be too stained with guilt—I also don’t like the idea of her cleaning my scent off of her.
I continue to purr, which keeps her sedated and resting her head against my chest.
She can sleep in the car on the way. Probably should give her a sedative once she’s refueled and dressed. It will give me time to think, as I need to be very careful about how the cards fall from here. Then, she can wake up in her new space.
Within my lands.
I clean her hair and then her cunt, something I will just fuck again to reimplement a fresh scent. Omegas have an exceptional ability to resist UTIs, which means she should never not smell of me.
I don’t know how this will work once back at Dominion, but my mind is already spinning with strategy. I know an answer will come.
Once finished, I return her to the bed that’s a mess, and slide her down underneath the covers with a clean blanket and place a towel underneath her damp, soft blonde hair, sliding a strand out of her eyes.
Underneath those lids are the most gorgeous brown eyes I’ve seen; they nearly glow with how warm they are.
They’re such a gentle detail, something so pleasing in knowing my mate’s eyes.
Dressing back into what I wore on the way here, the scent annoys me. It’s before Diana, smelling nothing like her. Which revs at an aggression to any notion that she isn’t mine, that she might not accept me after this.
No. She will understand how this was all for her. That everything I do from here on out will be for her.
Returning to the front door, I press the button while also lifting the handle to unlock it, the shutters remaining closed.
It’s easy, but anyone in a fucking hurry won’t think to do it if they don’t know it’s there.
I step outside and squint at the sunlight, something we haven’t seen in nearly three days.
Skinner struts forward as soon as he realizes I’m outside, leaving the cover of the makeshift tent for those on duty.
His limp is better, and he looks more formidable.
Kitty’s silver fox, as she likes to call him.
“Get some fresh food made, bring it here. We roll out soon after,” I say, eyeing the holster at his thigh, similar to the ones I use when not worrying about an omega accessing them.
“Make sure this thing is filled with gas.” I nod to the reclaimed jeep I drove Diana in.
“Sure thing,” Skinner says, nodding his head. None of my alphas are nearby, but they will ensure we’re ready. It’s the order that keeps us functioning. A pack, yet not one. We’re all a bunch of feral animals that realize we work well together.
If we don’t get too close.
Returning to the small house and locking the door again, it reeks of us fucking. What a magnificent scent. I inhale deeply, ready to get Diana to her new home.
I don’t like her being in someone else’s territory with a bare neck.
Diana stirs from the door shutting, looking over at me with her wet hair just barely drying, my gaze falling to her exposed breasts that make blood pool in my cock. She covers herself up, an awareness in her eyes that says she’ll fight the purring.
Spinning around in the bed, she grabs at her neck again as if ensuring it’s unmarked. “I swear you bit me… Did you bite me? Are you somehow covering it up?”
I sit on the couch near the bed, reaching for my boots. “You’d know if I bit you. I did graze my teeth, though.”
Relief. It’s so clear on her face, and it pisses off a part of me.
She doesn’t have to understand why I did what I did.
Rutting and fucking her is the bare necessity when presented with the fact that she’s my scent match.
Leaving her alone would have been genuine agony, perhaps harmful to her.
And there was never any option of anyone being in here that wasn’t me.
I ensured every demand of hers was fulfilled, and kept an unusually close eye on every minute change in her expression.
“Why did you do that to me?” she asks.
Take care of her, she means? “Do what? Make you scream in pleasure for three days?”
Her cheeks turn pink. “Just—never mind.”
“You’re predisposed to want me,” I say, gauging what she thinks of us. If she knows that we’re a scent match. I honestly think she doesn’t believe it.
“You’re an alpha. I’m predisposed to them in heat, yes.”
“And yet you quickly fall to my purring.”
Her eyes widen, giving me all the confirmation I need. She does sense something, but the confusion that follows in her gaze suggests she seriously has no idea. Or genuinely cannot believe it.
“You’re using me,” she states.
“Maybe I’m taking an interest in you.”
“You literally know nothing about me.”
“Time will fix that.”
She frowns and looks at me like I’m just confusing her more. Does she not know about scent matches, perhaps? Just that they exist, and nothing beyond that?
Darling Diana, you have so much to learn.