Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
RHETT
Carys shivers and whines as I pull into the parking spot she doesn’t use under her apartment building. Her eyes halfway open, unfocused and hazy. I twist in the seat so I can cup her face and dry the tracks of tears.
“Carys?” I ask in a whisper.
She shivers again, and then her scent flairs, orchids blanketing the entirety of the car. I swallow down a groan and force myself to stay focused. Clothes. Shower. Different clothes. Food. Then I can worry about just how insane this weekend is going to be.
“Baby girl, I need to grab something from the back. I’ll be right back, okay?”
She doesn’t respond, her glazed stare locked on me without really seeing anything at all. I ease my hand away, and she grabs it, her nails biting into my wrist.
“Stay,” she says. “Lemongrass. Warm.”
“I know, baby girl. I’ll get you warm, okay?” She whines, tears spilling over again as I break her hold on my wrist. With a sigh, I use that Alpha bark I keep tucked away for nasty nights on the ice. “Omega, stay.”
She freezes, her breath catching for several long seconds.
I don’t waste a second, pulling my bag from the trunk and grabbing another shirt, tossing it on so I’m not bringing extra attention.
Then, with a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that the stains will come out, I grab my hoodie.
I don’t have any blankets, so I’m making do.
I sling the bag over a shoulder and close the trunk’s hatch.
Carys is shaking again when I open her door and ease her into my arms. It takes me a minute to figure out the best way to cover her bare legs, and all the touching just makes her more sensitized.
“Sorry,” I whisper.
I keep her bleeding hip pressed against me. Carrying a practically naked woman through the halls where I don’t live is going to be memorable enough. Adding her bleeding to that will just make for a shitshow.
It feels wrong, but I dig through her purse until I find her keys.
Fuck, all of this feels bad and invasive and like conversations we should have had after Thanksgiving.
Keys in hand, I let her purse hang from my forearm then lock the car and head to the elevator, praying it’ll be empty like when I first came here.
And, because the universe truly has it out for me today, it’s not.
Four people walk toward the garage, their eyes widening as they see me.
I duck into the stairwell instead.
Four flights isn’t terrible all things considered.
By the second flight, Carys is fully asleep, her scent no longer pulsing every few minutes.
And by the time I enter her empty hallway on the fourth floor, her shaking has subsided, too.
I take a deep breath for the first time in what feels like hours. Some of the panic recedes.
I drop both bags just inside the door before kicking it closed.
Carys jolts in my arms. The purr is instinctual, rumbling through my chest. I don’t bother with the lock quite yet, crossing to the small bathroom and sitting on the edge of the tub.
I test the water and then leave it to fill, slowly stripping Carys out of my shirt.
I pull the hand towel from the ring beside the sink, wetting it before using it to clean her hip and her legs and her cunt.
She gasps awake even as I try to be as gentle as possible, her scent flaring from her.
“Baby girl?” I ask, tossing the towel into the sink. “You need me, or can I wash your hair first?”
She turns into me, setting her teeth against my shoulder. Her scent surges again, and I groan. My scent explodes around us, answering her call as my dick hardens. She shivers, and then her hands are under my shirt, scratching down my stomach.
“Warm,” she says in that dazed, hoarse voice. “Need.”
She bites me through the shirt, almost hard enough to break the skin, and I hiss in a breath. Her mewl echoes in the room as she rubs against me, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.
“Need,” she says again. Her shivering breaks up the words. “Lemong-g-grass.”
Toweled off will have to be good enough for right now.
“Need me. Okay, Omega, you’ve got me.”
I turn the faucet off and drain the tub, carrying her into her room.
It’s a complete disaster compared to when I’d first seen it a month ago.
My shirts are strewn everywhere, covering nearly every inch of available space.
Her bed has softer bedding than before, the delicate white lace comforter replaced with a high-thread count trio of quilts that glide against my arms as I lay her among her pillows.
It’s so clearly a fully formed nest, it shocks me a bit.
If I’d seen the state of her room this last week, I would have realized she was in her pre-heat and not simply touch-sensitive.
She whines as I pull away from her, her nails scratching hard enough to pull blood.
“Hey, baby girl, it’s okay,” I say, my voice roughening as another wave of her orchid perfume rushes from her.
She shakes her head, more tears falling down her cheeks.
My stomach clenches, but I don’t slow down my retreat, kicking my jeans and boxers off and tossing my bloodied shirt on the floor.
It only takes me a minute, but her eyes are already unfocused and glassy by the time I’m crawling over her on the bed.
I wedge my knees between hers, and she gasps, the sound way too excited given everything that’s happened today.
Slick already covers her inner thighs. Her scent pulses, more potent than even a moment before, and she grabs my hips, trying to bring me closer.
I swallow a groan, holding on to control by my damn fingertips.
Jesus. Heats really aren’t anything to joke about.
“Warm,” she says. “Knot.”
I lean over her, planting my hand next to her head, as I carefully ease into her. We’ve never knotted twice in one day before, and I don’t want to add to her pain. She whimpers, but her scent only gets stronger, blanketing over us both and slowly stealing my sanity.
Fuck.
She’s so tight, even with all of her slick, I have to clench my teeth.
A bolt of lightning streaks down my spine, and I shudder.
Her breathing quickens, short pants that press her breasts into my chest. She cants her hips when I don’t speed up, her nails digging into my hips before scratching all the way up my back.
The pain is enough to have my control crumbling away completely.
“Jesus Christ, baby girl,” I mutter.
Worries about hurting her slowly fade, and I let her mewls and whimpers and scratching nails drive me faster, harder, until I’m covered in a layer of sweat and the sounds of our bodies slapping together drown out all of her delicious noises.
“Bite,” she whispers.
Warning bells go off in my mind a heartbeat before her teeth settle against my wrist still next to her cheek.
I pull up onto my knees, not stopping my rhythm but tracing my hand down her body before she can break my skin.
One unintentional bond is enough. Her lips are so swollen, it exaggerates her desperate pout.
New tears drip down her face and into her hair. I softly wipe one away.
“I know, baby girl,” I say, keeping my voice warm even as the need to take her, to claim her, rushes through me. My pace picks up even more. “I’ll make you warm, though, okay? I’ll take the pain away so you don’t want to bite.”
Release gathers between my hips, and I flick her clit, making sure she goes over before me just like always.
She shatters after only a few seconds, her body strung so tight.
Her back bows as she screams, her voice breaking.
I follow only a heartbeat later, pulling her hips into me, wedging my knot as deep as her body will take me.
My entire vision blurs out as I come, the wave reaching all the way to my damn finger tips.
Carys screams again, her scent pulsing out from her.
As the sensation fades from my limbs, I ease an arm under her and carefully pull her into my chest. Just like the first time we knotted.
Just like I found her with my brother.
I shove the thought away before bile can rise in my throat again.
She trembles with aftershocks. I press my lips to her temple and run my hand through her hair, softly pulling apart some of the knots.
Sanity slowly returns. With it comes the terrifying reality that she’s in heat.
She’s in heat, and she’s now been knotted twice without any kind of protection.
Jesus, this day just becomes more and more of a clusterfuck the longer it goes on.
I take a deep breath, trying to shed some of the anxiety that’s spreading out from my stomach like a damn weed.
This isn’t impossible to work around, I remind myself.
I’ll just add the heat-specific morning after pill to the grocery delivery I’m going to put together as soon as she’s cleaned up and asleep next.
“Lemongrass,” she whispers.
She slowly traces my shoulder with her lips. Goosebumps follow her movement, and I tighten my hold on her waist as my dick twitches, already hardening again inside of her.
“You okay?” I press the words into her hair. She shivers. Her arms wrap around my waist, her palms pressed flat against my back.
“Good. Warm.”
Her breathing steadies as the minutes pass, relaxing into my chest more fully.
I carefully tuck her hair behind her ear and find her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted.
All the pain and despair is gone in her expression, nothing but peace now.
When my knot finally releases, I ease out of her bed.
After turning on the water in the bathtub again, I grab my phone and start on the food order, adding the medication before I might risk forgetting.
Then I return to Carys. She’s relaxed in a way she wasn’t on the way here.
Her heat’s sated for the time being. My eyes catch on the scabbed bite mark on her hip, and my stomach twists so hard it’s a miracle I don’t throw up all over her carefully constructed nest. I swallow down the roaring wave of emotion the same way I did in her shop.
My touch is as gentle as I can manage as I ease her limp body into my arms and into the bathroom, intent on getting her cleaned up fully this time.