Chapter 14 #2
Panic enters her eyes. She’s thinking about flight, although there’s nowhere to go. The door is locked with my palm print, and it’s the only one that will open the door.
My growl is low and primal. A warning. It says: you’re about to get fucked.
Her body responds, heedless of her fear, pumping out slick, saturating the nest with it.
I don’t want to frighten her, but I have to put my hands on her…
and this tree trunk inside her… I need her on board or I’m going to tear her in two.
If I don’t do this, the shits watching this will be quick to report my ass and mark me down for closer surveillance.
If they do, we’re never going to get off this ship.
I have to do this if I want to save her. Too deep down the rabbit hole. Couldn’t let any other fucker touch her. We’re both caught in the same net. I’m an actor, playing a role.
She’s an omega, vulnerable, on her knees.
Mine.
Yeah, that crazy son-of-a-bitch feral beast she’s woken up is still at the helm, telling me this is my mate.
I drop down behind her. My body dwarfs hers. She’s trembling, trying to be strong.
I’m sorry, baby.
She flinches when I touch her, my hand skimming over her shoulder. So fucking soft. I feel like the lowest form of scum noticing how her skin feels, while she’s braced for pain.
When my touch stays soft, she glances over her shoulder, her eyes wild, filled with confusion.
I brush my fingertips up the side of her vulnerable throat and carefully circle it.
Sweat breaks out across my skin. She softens. I apply just the slightest pressure, the way an Empire controller would, letting her feel my power, but also my care.
Esme
There was a brief moment when I thought I might have gotten to him, but then it passed, and he stripped down, revealing the terrifying man beneath the ugly, Uncorrupted uniform.
He’s a mountain. I swear Jord has grown even bigger somewhere between leaving the holding cell and entering the nesting chamber.
Ridiculous, right?
And his cock… I shudder. No wonder that omega ended up in a regeneration tank for a week. Just fitting it in would involve rearranging internal organs.
Only, as he kneels behind me and closes his fingers around my throat in a move all too reminiscent of Empire controllers, I’m off kilter. He’s not the crazed alpha Ashanti cautioned me about. Maybe the rehabilitation worked?
I can only pray.
For the moment I feel like we’re both poised at the edge of an impossible drop. Not a hint of emotion escapes him. He’s pure ice. But underneath? There’s a crack so small no one else would hear or see it. My instincts trip over each other.
This isn’t right.
This isn’t how Uncorrupted alphas behave.
Then again, what do I know?
My predicament is terrifying; my soul crawls into the corner of my mind, detaching me from proceedings, but nowhere near enough… The bottom line is I don’t want to die today.
His hand remains steady. Possessive, but also light.
I’m so confused.
But I’m also poised on the brink of something… understanding, the drop, the crash as I hit the bottom… as I wait for him to hurt me.
Zeb
Slow. Gentle. Never moving away nor giving her room. Heat radiates off of her. Her pulse flutters under my fingers.
I’m here, baby. I’ve got you. I’m going to take care of you. I’m going to get you out. Make sure no one ever hurts you again.
But I can’t say any of that. Not here. Not yet.
“You caused a lot of trouble, omega.”
She swallows. Goes to answer, maybe to offer some excuse or denial, then thinks better of it.
“That wasn’t a question. I’ll let you know when I want you to do something with your mouth. But here’s a hint. It won’t be talking… moaning in pleasure is fine. Expected. Are you going to purr for me?”
She snaps her mouth shut.
I almost want to smile. This isn’t playing out how she expected. Her eyes are still on mine, and the calculation is back. She’s wondering if she can manipulate me into stopping, maybe helping her to escape.
Oh, I’ll help you to escape. Our lives didn’t depend on me making the show good. But I’m already too deep into this, and I don’t know if I could hold back either way.
The thought of what might have happened to her if I hadn’t been here, if I hadn’t gotten on the ship, has a mask coming down over the gentleness in me.
She disobeyed me. That’s the bottom line. And I can’t have that. Omegas obey their controllers and their mates. She’s not my mate yet, but that’s about to change.
I’ve got a lot of rage to work through.
She needs to atone.
She needs to be punished.
It’s my duty, it’s a compulsion. She doesn’t know it yet, but I’ve already claimed her, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe… and make sure she never disobeys me again.
But first, I have to at least try to get through to her who I am. I can’t be the man who rapes her. I fucking can’t. Even this much, this light, almost touch must be horrifying her.
I drop my voice to a whisper too low for monitoring to hear.
“Stay here, I said. Don’t leave, no matter what you feel, I also said.
Disobey me, and I’m going to be giving you an ass fucking you won’t forget…
after I’ve brought a pretty pink blush to it under my belt.
Any of this familiar, Esme? Any of this ringing a bell? ”