Chapter 2
Alexei
The ducal carriage jostled down the road, bringing my Pack and I through mushy, ice-pitted roads back home.
There were much faster ways to get across the countryside, of course, but Winter Haven was nothing if not stuck in tradition, and of course the Palace had sent a full golden carriage for me, the huge monstrosity dripping with intricately carved flowers and woodland creatures, the entire thing pulled with six pure white horses.
Nothing but the best for Duke Alexei Koval.
I’d been running for a long time, and now I was going to attempt to stay in one place.
But we never had. Oh, it was easy to form a Pack with my best friend Theo, the only friend I could ever trust who wasn’t out for the fame, money, and prestige of hanging around the Duke.
The man who’d been Duke ever since he was old enough to spell his name.
But we’d never sowed our wild oats. Two men who had every possible opportunity to? Never had. Maybe we were both just picky as hell. And finding an Omega we both liked? Impossible.
Theo seemed to have an endless list of perfections he required and so. . .the matter just rested there.
As for me? I knew exactly who I wanted.
But she was the one woman I could never have. . . so it was better this way.
Better that Theo and I never agreed, couldn’t find an Omega to tempt us away from our bachelor ways.
But now something was pulling me back to Winter Haven. From this distance, I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it had tugged at me with increasing urgency.
I felt fertility enflaming my loins, seed gathering deep in my balls, making the sac heavy and swollen, pendulous with baby-making matter. My gut was urging me to plant my seed. But there was only one place I wanted to plant it, only one pussy I fantasized about burying my face in.
“What do you plan to do when we get back?” Theo asked. “We’ve spent the last six months touring every art museum in the Summer Lands, and now you want to go back to Winter Haven when the snow’s still on the ground. It’s going to be cold as balls and gloomy as hell.”
“How about finally settling down with an Omega?” I suggested. “Besides, it’s spring now.”
Unlike me, who was always casual and rumpled, like the trappings of dukedom sat uncomfortably on my shoulders, Theo looked impeccable from the top of his head to the soles of his boots, somehow managing to give the impression of an immovable rock even in the rocking carriage.
He turned away. “I can’t think of anyone I’m interested in.”
“I know you feel it too,” I countered. “Swollen balls, dick hanging heavy. Our Alpha instincts are wanting us to procreate.”
To our Alpha instincts, it was time. Time to settle down with an Omega, find the person who was going to make us into a family.
But who? The thought of being with any Omega other than the forbidden woman I desired made me sick to my stomach.
I couldn’t. I could not force myself to choose someone else who would always be second best to me.
I’d been traveling abroad, forcing myself to investigate every Omega we scented.
Trying to forget her.
It hadn’t worked.
Not for one damn second.
“There are a lot of good scent matches,” Theo said neutrally. “A lot of Omegas could be a fit for us.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “That’s true.”
But he didn’t give any suggestions.
And none of the Omegas I’d seen ever changed my mind.
That there was only one Omega who could ever satisfy me.
“Theo, how do you feel about choosing just one?” I asked, stalling. “We’re a Pack. We both have to agree.”
“We should do our duty,” he said.
But he didn’t sound pleased.
“You do like women, don’t you?” I teased, but the bigger man only looked out the window.
“Yes,” he said in a low voice. “I do.”
I knew better than to push. But what the hell were we supposed to do?
Alphas were made to crave an Omega, crave their sweet tenderness and love. Without an Omega, we’d always be chasing that feeling our whole lives, trying everything to fill that hole in our hearts.
I shifted my heavy balls, trying to keep them from dragging across the hard leather seat.
Because I couldn't admit to anyone that the Omega who made my dick twitch, haunted my thoughts, and consumed my dreams. . .was taken.
And that seeing her every trip home was the most beautiful kind of torturous pain imaginable.
Finally we rolled into the capital city of Winter Haven, with its characteristic vibrant-colored buildings and intricate patterns, the neatly laid-out roads, and we pulled down the lane to Koval Manor.
The Manor looked as it had for generations–ascending floors of deep regal chestnut wood and stone, with elaborate golden embellishments, and a long deck extending to the river. The grounds gleamed with ice sculptures, their construction so thick and hardy that they wouldn’t fully melt until June.
“Maybe we should have sent notice,” Theo said thoughtfully. “Looks like they’re having a dinner party.”
“Why?” I asked, feeling that familiar, overpowering arousal creep over my skin. “After all, it’s my house.”
Irritable because now that I was back in town, I couldn’t take a deep breath without inhaling her scent into my lungs.
Jessabella
The maddeningly, mouth-wateringly beautiful Omega who belonged to the three Alpha guardians of my estate. The sole star of my every sexual fantasy. The woman who greeted my visits with cool, polite detachment, even though I was fucking desperate for her to notice me.
Why the hell was her scent this strong? It shouldn’t be this strong, Of course I should smell it as I always had, the sweet intoxicating sweet blackberry meadow freshness laced through with her Alpha’s claiming scents.
But now, it was making me feral.
I just need to get the first time over with, I reminded myself. That was the hardest part about coming back. Seeing her and knowing I was nothing to her, and not being able to do anything about it.
I both dreaded and craved that first sight of her, my cock throbbing in my pants, my balls shoved between my thighs to keep from revealing my arousal.
How could I take another Omega when, of all the inhabitants in Winter’s Haven, I could scent her so strongly?
I greeted all the Palace staff as quickly as I could, curtailing the customary greetings, and escaping to my quarters. I didn’t want to be rude, but the feelings coursing through my body were so urgent and dirty I couldn’t risk staying in public any longer.
The moment the door closed behind me, my hand was on my aching cock, her scent suffocating me.
My hand was frenetic, urgent.
Jessabella
Her name was a song on my tongue, and an ache in my gut. Coming home was both a pleasure and a penance, her scent pulling me under its waves the closer I came. But it had never been this strong before.
One release, ropes of cum spurting from my cock. Then the next.
Jessabella Jessabella Jessabella
My hands burned, hummed with energy as I imagined the cum landing on Jessabella’s perfect little face, soaking her hair, dripping down between breasts.
Filling her pussy, swelling her up big.
Knowing that was my baby in her.
Another release. Goddamn, I was practically rutting like a buck, humping my hips in the air as I imagined that curve of her belly, the way she looked ice-skating in the winter and swimming in the summer, the tight wet fabric clinging to her ass so I could see the curve of her cheeks like the dirty pervert I was.
When I finally stopped, shirt slick with sweat, I could still smell her.
God, I wanted her so badly.
What if she was pregnant this time? It was what I expected every single visit, that I’d come home and see her belly ripe and swollen with my guardian’s babies.
I took the hottest shower I could until my skin was beet-red.
Then I knocked on Theo’s room and we headed down to the dining area, feeling jittery knowing I’d see Jessabella soon.
“Someone’s been using my room,” Theo said in a neutral voice. “For visiting Omegas, maybe. Whole room smells like a hundred Glade plug-ins. Getting pretty comfortable here, aren’t they?
“They need to keep your room available,” I said shortly.
How Edgar, Penn, and Brand actually ran my estate was a question that had never actually occurred to me beyond the balance sheets I got every year.
I had always been too concerned with managing my emotions and trying to act normal around Jessabella to think of any other concerns.
Maybe that should change.
I walked into the dining room aching and anxious, dreading but still excited, always with that frisson of low, forbidden excitement coursing through me at the idea of seeing her again.
“My lord!”
Everyone bolted to their feet.
I was jittery with anticipation, my eyes automatically scanning the crowd around the big aged wood dining table, past all the other Alphas, Betas, and Omegas, all crowding in to talk to me, their scents jostling in my nose.
“Duke Alexei, we haven’t seen you here in so long!” a blonde woman enthused, but her scent was nauseating, vile in my nose.
Gertrude? Gwendolyn? Genevieve?
I could scent her arousal, but I couldn’t have been less interested.
Had never been interested.
My heart stuttered to a stop for a moment as I saw Edgar.
Jessabella must be very close by. Any moment now, I would see her.
Her scent was clinging to the Duke, and I felt wracked with jealousy.
He doesn’t appreciate her, I thought resentfully, even though I had to swallow my feelings and pretend like his Omega’s scent wasn’t making me feel feral.
He never has.
Her scent seemed to be coating my throat, clogging my lungs. Why was it so strong?
I couldn’t banish the forbidden thoughts from my head.
Jessabella with my knot in her, tying us together as she panted with desire underneath me. Her belly swelling, but with my baby. Not their Pack’s. Her stomach tensed with contractions. A baby in her arms, her face pink with labor. Her beautiful breasts leaking, dripping, spraying milk all over.
I felt dizzy with desire, flush with fertility.