6. West
West
W ork had been one big slog, and I was so relieved to be back at the cottage I shared with Ember I almost cried.
I changed into some gray sweats and a light T-shirt, knowing my omega liked my biceps. I plopped down on the couch, and opened my laptop, hoping to catch up on work.
Computer programming was usually soothing. I could get lost in the strings of numbers, the mathematical equations that made programs work. But today was filled with a series of mistakes and mini emergencies, one after another, that utterly drained me.
I looked imposing on a good day, and most people didn’t bother to socialize with me. If my scowl didn’t turn them away, my short answers would drive the point home. But today that wasn’t enough; my coworkers were desperate for help.
Knowing Ember would want me to help our coworkers made it easier, but too much socialization had taken its toll. Ember only freelanced for Computer Solutions about once a month, but she made a lasting impression.
It still shocked me after all these years that someone as vibrant and outgoing as Ember loved me. But she did, and I tried every day to make sure I was worthy. Especially since she didn’t give her heart away easily.
The love of my life came through the door in a whirlwind of activity. After setting her purse and laptop bag down on the armchair, she curled up next to me. “How was your day? That annoying?”
I nodded, knowing I didn’t have to speak. Ember wouldn’t be offended. She rubbed her face along my shoulder, brushing her hand down my bicep like I secretly hoped she would.
I caught a small hint of scent on her, something smoky and woodsy. I turned my head, taking a deeper breath. The scent was faint, layered over her own sweet lemon vanilla. I pressed my face into her skin, breathing her in, her scent heightening every one of my senses until my cock grew hard.
She whimpered, and her lemon vanilla scent grew sweeter.
“What’s that smell?” I dragged my mouth up her shoulder, licking as I went.
“I had an alpha and an omega client today.” Her voice went breathless, her body relaxing into mine. I shifted so she could lie against my chest. She put my laptop on the coffee table. She crawled into my lap like she wasn’t sure if she wanted sex or comfort.
She could have both. I leaned back, so I was semi-reclined, and stroked my hands down her body. Some of the smoky woodsy scent rose, like a ghost, and my cock got harder.
“He smelled good. They both did.” She sounded so desolate at that.
I didn’t have to ask why.
She was tired of alphas playing games with us. They’d want her more, or sometimes me, depending on how our scents hit them.
Something would turn the alpha off. It would be my refusal to present and submit like a good little omega. Or Ember would get stubborn and they’d treat her like an idiot. It was always something.
We were broken. Broken and together, but not what the world seemed to want from omegas.
I didn’t care. If this was all my life had for me, I would call myself lucky. It was easy when this amazing, vivacious woman came home to me every day.
Ember rubbed her face on my chest, peeling my shirt up. “Nice choice on the sweats.”
“Wore them for you.” I groaned as she dragged her tongue over my bare skin.
“Someone trying to get laid?” She grinned, her face filled with pure joy.
I put my hand on her chin and tilted her face up so I could look directly in her eyes. “With you? Always.”
She leaned up and stole my mouth in a kiss. My tongue wound rubbed against hers, and she fought me for control. I wasn’t sure if she wanted the competition or the surrender.
I’d give her both. My omega deserved the heavens and more.
I moved my hands to the sides of her face, and I held her firmly, plunging my tongue inside her mouth. She squirmed, straddling my hips. I hissed when she pressed herself against me. I pushed up, grinding into her.
Knowing she wanted to stop kissing the second before it registered, I pulled away.
Her lips were red and swollen, her expression glazed over.
She pulled her shirt over her head, and I cupped her breasts before she could finish.
They were firm and heavy in my hands, and I couldn’t get enough of rolling my thumbs against the lacy fabric of her bra.
“West,” she whimpered. She grabbed for my pants, trying to move them down, but her hands kept jerking. Her lemon vanilla scent grew sweeter and sweeter until the room smelled like lemon and cream, and the urge to taste her was so strong.
Then her hands were inside my sweats, stroking my cock, and I gasped. My body lit on fire, heat boiling under my skin. She squeezed me, stroking the head, and then gently moved her hand down my shaft again. I arched into her touch.
I pulled her pants down, and she wiggled her butt, shimmying out of her clothes. She climbed back onto me and hovered over me.
I arched up into her as she slid onto my cock, and we both gasped. She was slick, wet heat. Pure bliss.
She pressed against my chest, rolling her hips in a slow grind. It was sweet torture, but I could make her climb higher. I dragged my teeth along her neck, nibbling the place right under her chin.
She whined, and I thrust up into her. She moaned, bracing on my shoulders, and I felt the moment she shifted from wanting to be in control to letting me take over.
So I did.
I gripped her hips hard enough for her to feel a slight sting and thrust up into her. She yelped, and I did it again, harder and harder until her thighs were shaking and she was holding on to me for dear life.
Her pussy was warm and clenched around me each time like she was trying to suck me in. I considered getting the inflatable knot toy, but I didn’t want to stop.
I bit her shoulder, avoiding a small knot of scar tissue that we’d found out the hard way hurt. I pressed her down as I moved up and she exploded, the orgasm making her squeeze me like a vise. I groaned, coming myself. Ember collapsed against my chest, her red hair a riot around her shoulders.
I stroked her shoulders softly, her body still quaking. I wasn’t sure if she wanted to go again, probably because she wasn’t sure herself.
She nuzzled my chest, shifting her weight so she was between me and the couch. I pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and covered both of us, holding her close.
She licked my shoulder, leaving little nuzzling kisses as she went. “I got to hold Poppy today.”
I grunted, acknowledging her statement.
“I know I’ll get used to it but seeing her makes me realize exactly how much our parents are missing out on.”
Ember’s fears, laid bare. She’d said something similar before, and I’d comforted her the best I could. I didn’t know what it was like to love your parents so much you still felt the loss ten years later. “They would be proud of you.”
“I know.” She sighed, pushing her face into my neck. My own honey and milk scent mingled with her lemon cake until they were one. She breathed deep. “I miss them anyway.”
I stroked my hand down her back. “No one expects you to not miss them.”
“It’s hard to talk about. Like I’m making my family sad.”
“It’s okay to be sad sometimes.” I kissed her shoulder.
When I’d met her all those years ago in the hospital, she was broken. But so was I.
I’d tried to give her space and time. But she kept visiting, kept asking me inane questions about my favorite music and books and bringing records into my room.
I hadn’t realized it at the time, but she gave me the light I needed to keep pushing forward when it felt like there was nothing good left in the world.
But she was sad, a deep well that seemed to go on forever.
She’d been badly injured in the plane crash that killed her parents, aunt, and uncles.
Her siblings and cousins were inconsolable, and her designation had flipped because of the stress.
It didn’t happen often, but a person undergoing an extreme amount of stress could have their designation come in earlier than normal.
We sat together in the dark and listened to music until it felt like lyrics pumped into our veins, stamping their mark on our hearts and making us whole again. We listened to Evermore West, Burns, Straylight Focus, and more, the songs carving their way into our souls.
Years later, that sorrow bloomed into something deeper. But I would never forget how deeply she had felt the loss.
I pulled her against me, holding her as tightly as I could. “It’s okay to be happy and sad at the same time.”
She sighed against me, rubbing her face against my skin, her tongue taking small darts, like she wanted my scent all over her.
“I love you.” She relaxed completely. “You liked how that alpha smelled?”
“I did.” I kissed her forehead, the change in subject not bothering me. “I love you too. You know if you want to jump him and or his omega, you’re allowed.”
She bit her lip. “Too much trouble. They smell so good, but Rian, the male omega? He’s got walls almost as high as yours. No point in trying to scale them only for it to all fall apart.”
I nipped her ear. “You do whatever you want.”
We didn’t start out our relationship with Ember vetting most of the alphas, but she was more outgoing. If she liked how they smelled, she made sure I liked their scent too, and then we attempted to make it work.
“Sunshine wants me to meet Alejandro.” Ember pointed at her bag. “Your lunch slash dinner is in there. It was delicious.”
“Too many potential choices in one day, huh?” No wonder she was upset and confused. It would be so much easier for her to keep Alejandro in the realm of maybe someday and never have to consider reality. Dreams were easier than harsh reality any day of the week.
Except the reality currently in my arms.
“You know how my mind works.” She gave me a happy smile.
If I could make her smile like that, maybe someday it would feel like enough, that I hadn’t stolen her. She came to me, over and over. Following me to my shitty foster home, kissed me first, initiated sex first, asked me to move in with her.
I could have told her no, but I couldn’t refuse her anything. She could have every jagged piece of me, even if I regretted that she cut herself on the sharp edges.
I tried not to think about the life she might have had, how much easier she would have had it with alphas if I wasn’t around, the final test none of them had passed.
Until then, it would be only the two of us.
She reached for me again. “Nest?”
Wordlessly, I picked her up and brought her to our nest, and for a while we forgot about anything else outside the safety of our nest.