Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
KAELEN
The first hint of dawn pressed against my eyes, but it wasn’t the light that woke me from a dreamless sleep.
A warm pressure glided across my chest, moving lower.
I groaned, the sound sleep-roughened. The musky scent of arousal clouded my senses, mixing with overwhelming notes of honey and wildflowers.
With my eyes still closed, I slid my hands into Willow’s silken hair, urging her closer. A gasp brushed over my lips as her fingertips dipped into the waistband of my briefs. I licked my lips, lifting my arse as she slid the tight fabric down my thighs.
Tiny fingers encircled my shaft, making my head fall back into the pillows. The pad of her thumb stroked over the slit, catching the bead of pre-cum there and dragging it down my cock.
“Omega,” I moaned.
Instead of saying anything, she giggled a tantalizing sound that made me harder than stone.
Those velvety lips wrapped around my tip, and white-hot pleasure moved like molten liquid through my veins.
My nails scratched at the blankets, and I swore I saw God as she took me into the back of her throat.
She swallowed around me, and a string of Gaelic curses hissed through my teeth. My balls tightened, and too quickly I was emptying myself in her hot little mouth.
I finally opened my eyes, the muscles in my abdomen rolling as I emptied the last of my come. Her lips curved as she flicked her tongue over the head, making it twitch.
“Morning, Alpha,” she said seductively, her husky voice sending a coil of need slithering around my limbs.
Hair hung around her face as she hovered over me, her sapphire eyes twinkling in the morning light.
Her knees pinched on either side of my hips as she sat up, licking the remnants of my release from her swollen lips.
I wrapped a hand around her throat and took what I wanted.
The taste of me still clung to her lips.
I held her there, sliding my tongue along hers.
She gave in to me, letting me take more until I pulled away, both of us breathless.
“Come here,” I grunted, my voice still heavy.
My fingers dug into the supple skin on her thighs, rolling us over.
“What do you want this morning, mo chroí? My mouth or my fingers?”
I grinned, my touch making her squirm.
“Both?” she said, sucking on that plump bottom lip.
“Greedy omega,” I said, smirking as I palmed her cunt.
“Please,” she breathed, rocking off the bed.
“Only because my good girl begs so prettily.”
The mattress bounced under me as I dropped to my stomach, slipping my arms under her legs and pulling her until her wet pussy was only an inch away from my face. Fuck, she smelled like ambrosia.
Tiny tremors seized her muscles as I languidly licked through her slit, gently flicking her clit. I started slow, wanting her pleasure to build until it exploded from her like a dying star. She was all the stars in the sky.
All of mine.
Her core grew impossibly snug as I slid one finger in up to the knuckle, pulling out and adding a second. A desperate, whining sound trilled from her as she took me deeper. Her honey coated my face as I fucked her hard, tapping that sensitive spot that made her cry out.
“Kaelen. Alpha.”
“That’s my omega,” I crooned, rotating my wrist and making her sob as I sucked on her clit. “I want to feel it. Soak me with your delicious come.”
A long, wailing cry rumbled in her chest as sweat glistened on her sun-kissed skin, making her look like an angel as she came apart for me. Delicate fingers knotted in my loose, long hair, tugging me where she wanted me as she rode out her release on my face and fingers.
“Shit,” she panted, going limp as her drenched pussy finally stopped convulsing around my fingers.
Carefully, I crawled over her, holding myself up on my elbows and pushing the sweaty strands of hair off her face.
“Well done, wife,” I whispered, stealing a quick kiss. “Would you like to join me in the bath so I can clean you up?”
“Down boy, you insatiable creature,” she chuckled.
“Me? You’re the one that woke me up with your pretty pink lips on me.”
“Semantics. Besides, I have a meeting with Caroline about the new rescue in about an hour. If I take a bath with you, I will be late. So, no. You can stay here while I get ready.”
With another shove, she pushed me aside, and I fell backwards into her nest. The tip of my tongue pressed my teeth as I watched her cute arse walk toward the bathroom. I groaned a rattling moan, willing my half-hard cock to settle.
Reluctantly, I left her to get ready while I slipped into our ensuite in the bedroom after giving Shadow her obligatory side-eye at her sprawled out figure all but claiming our bed. Water dripped from my hair as I tugged out a pair of dark trousers.
Tiny hands slid over my bare waist, nails trailing deliciously over the lines of muscles on my abdomen.
“You’re a terrible tease.”
“You love it,” she giggled, her lips warm against my back.
Three words almost spilled from me. Instead of saying them, I shrugged on a white button-down.
From the moment Willow walked into my office, I knew she was my omega. What I hadn’t expected was to care so fucking much. To care beyond my alpha’s need to please and protect.
It wasn’t a biological imperative turning me soft.
It was Willow. Beautiful. Brilliant. Tenacious.
I controlled Boston with a snap of my fingers, yet Willow could have me on my knees with one look if she willed it.
And now that she realized it, I was utterly fucked.
Utterly devoted.
Utterly in love.
I loved Willow Finnegan, my wife.
I belonged to her.
“Bye, Alpha,” she said, pulling me back to the present with a kiss.
I wrapped my fingers around her hair, tugging enough to make her gasp, taking more of her. My hand cupped her bum, grinning at the shocked expression.
“Goodbye, Omega,” I said, letting my lips linger on the corner of her mouth.
Color appeared high on her cheeks as her delicate throat worked. She wavered slightly, giggling like a flustered schoolgirl as she left. I snorted, running a hand through her hair before adjusting my tight trousers.
Fuck.
I was going to be hard for hours, and it was entirely my fault.
Clouds rolled in, darkening the afternoon sun as I struggled to focus on the paperwork on my desk.
It was bureaucratic bullshite regarding permits and liquor licenses.
Usually, Aidan dealt with this nonsense, but I wanted to get my eyes on the legal side of business for once, already regretting my decision.
My fingers tapped on the polished glass in my hand, swirling around the early afternoon whisky when my phone rang. Robert’s name flashed across the screen. I hissed, taking a large sip before answering the call.
“Sweeney. I assume you have Isabelle Sterling’s results?”
After a brief pause, Robert’s calm, measured tone broke the silence.
“Mr. Finnegan,” he started, and I scrubbed a hand through my beard. “The results are concerning.”
My knuckles whitened as I gripped the phone. “How concerning?”
“The levels of suppressants in her system are dangerously high. Far beyond prescribed therapeutic doses to manage heats. It’s a sustained, aggressive regimen that’s poisoning her.”
The depravity made my blood run cold. Dead air echoed on the phone, Sweeney not daring to interject my thoughts. Only a few unmated omegas with unmanageable heats went on suppressants. I never heard of anyone being on them as the side effects were dangerous.
Every time I thought I had found out the most disgusting thing William Sterling had done, he proved me wrong. I repressed a snarl, digging my nails hard enough into the polished wood to scuff the surface.
“How long?” I asked, hissing again when he didn’t answer quickly enough. “How fucking long has this been going on?”
“Difficult to say precisely without an accurate baseline,” Sweeney said, his tone careful as he spoke each word.
“But given the accumulation, I’d estimate years.
At these levels, it mimics the pain of some late-stage cancers while keeping an omega compliant.
In essence, she is too weak to do anything but please her alpha. ”
A bitter taste flooded my mouth. Why? The only reason that made sense was that William Sterling wanted sympathy for his sick omega. And while he poisoned his wife, he tortured his daughter.
“What’s the prognosis? If she stops?”
“If the suppressants are immediately discontinued, she should begin to see improvement within a couple of weeks. Omegas are resilient,” he said with a fondness that settled my frantic alpha.
“Within a few months, she could be back to normal, provided there are no underlying conditions that have been exasperated.”
I worried the band of my ring as I contemplated what to do. It was never a question of what I would do for Willow. But after spending one evening with Isabelle, I was as committed to protecting her. The older omega had burrowed into a dark part of my heart that had been empty since my parents died.
“Mr. Finnegan?”
The silence lingered as I tried to plan out how to deal with William Sterling. Willow’s only stipulation before anything happened to him was that her mom was safe.
“And what about her bond with her alpha?”
“Isabelle Sterling’s omega isn’t just dulled, but their bond is weakened. While not common, we have seen an increasing amount of alphas managing their omegas through suppressants to make them more malleable. The suppressants have stripped the bond down to its final frayed threads.”
“Could she survive if the bond was severed?”
I heard the man swallow, the intent clear behind my words. Only one method existed to destroy a mate bond between an alpha and an omega.
Death.
“Once she’s off the suppressants. Yes. In fact, it would be safer and allow an easier recovery for her. While the physical effects can be addressed, the mental ones may linger. I can recommend someone who could help with that as well.”
Relief washed through me. I released a shaky breath, only half hearing what he said.
“Thank you, Sweeney. That will be all.”
I ended the call, my mind racing. The situation was delicate. I had to coordinate a series of meticulously timed steps, or William Sterling would be on the evening news accusing me of kidnapping his wife.
And while I trusted my attorney to get me out of sticky situations, I wasn’t confident there was any way out of that one. I texted Liam and Aidan to meet me in my office, settling into the oversized leather chair by the fireplace, running through scenarios while I waited for them.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived, their scents sharp.
Aidan’s eyes swept over the room, narrowing on me before sinking into the chair opposite me.
Liam stayed standing, leaning against the wall.
Between ourselves, I was confident that we could quietly intercept the deliveries of suppressants and swap them with placebos.
“Aidan. I need you to find out how William Sterling is receiving his omega suppressants,” I said.
My brother growled. His dark eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared, understanding the implications behind my words.
Aidan was a strategist, calm under pressure and calculating.
If something was hidden, he’d find it. The only other time I’d seen his alpha react was after the attack on Torin’s sister.
The man nearly ripped my head off when I ordered him to stay put while I took care of it. He was too emotional and would have done something stupid.
“When I find them, you want them replaced with fakes?” Aidan asked.
Nodding, I smirked as Aidan pulled out his phone, not wasting a second at getting to work. It only took twenty minutes with the senator for my brothers to hate him almost as much as I did. My eyes flicked to Liam.
He scratched his beard, unusually quiet. His gaze finally met mine, and an intensity blazed there, boding well for me and not so much so for Sterling.
For as playful and annoying as Liam was, he was bloody terrifying, taller than me and built like a stone house.
“Liam,” I said, my brother tipping his chin higher. “I want two men on him at all times. His house. His office. I want to know if he so much as sneezes. When he realizes Isabelle’s omega scent is returning, I suspect he’ll become erratic.”
Liam cracked his knuckles. “I’ll have me and Pat keep an eye on him.”
“Don’t let Sterling see either of you,” I said.
“You never let me have any fun.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, too tired to spit back.
What I wanted… was my omega. I checked my watch, contemplating texting Torin and telling him to get her cute arse back home. I wanted to worship every freckle on her skin with my tongue and drown away this day with her scent.
“And if the senator tries to get replacement medication when he pieces together it isn’t working anymore?” Aidan asked, not looking up from his phone.
“Intercept those too and notify Liam. If he attempts to harm Isabelle, I want you to intervene and notify me immediately. Secure Sterling until I arrive, and make sure Isabelle is safe.”
Aidan remained buried in his phone, pacing until there was a worn spot on the floor. Liam stood, watching the flames lick at the stone. Every piece had to move in sync with the others. If we pulled out Isabelle too soon, we risked not being able to sever her bond with Sterling.
If we waited too long, that piece of shite might do something rash, and my omega would be heartbroken.
A knot ached at the base of my neck. I needed her in my arms, in my bed, where I could show her how much I loved her.
At least until I figured out how to tell her.