Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
DOMINIC
M y bed is cold when I wake up, the sheets mussed from where Jasper slept next to me. I blow out a breath and duck my head back into the pillow, trying to remember how to breathe without him plastered to my side. The ache is getting worse even with the suppressor. The longer she’s here, the more thoroughly my body pines for hers, the need to feel her skin and taste her lips and smell her perfuming for me instead of Rylan and my lover.
I cut the thought short and push up from the bed, kneeling as I run my hands down my face.
Over two weeks since she moved in. Two weeks of catching small moments of her scent, of having Jasper marked by her mouth, of having him split time between three beds instead of two.
Not as much of me hates it as I want, and that pisses me the fuck off.
I grab my phone from the nightstand, reading the quick text from Jasper as I head into the bathroom and get ready for the day.
Gone for a run. Be back in time for our brunch date.
Ti amo.
I manage to get myself mostly together, my black slacks and button-up feeling like my own personal armor more so than they ever were in my parents’ estate. I resent the fuck out of her for making me feel like I need it at all in my own damn house.
My feet freeze the moment I’m in the main room, the desire to just keep walking right out the front door sitting on my chest like a damn freight train. And yet I can’t manage to move, my body caught up in the faint honeysuckle scent of her .
She leans over the counter, her hair draping over one shoulder, revealing a black hoodie with a band logo I don’t recognize. Even from here, I can smell the tang of Rylan’s scent all over it. She sets down the pen in her hand as I pause in the hallway, her hand covering a piece of paper I hadn’t noticed before. Her gaze is wary though not overtly hostile. I ignore the part of me that feels remorse over her being unsure around me.
I don’t want to deal with an Omega, the way they solicit for attention and touch and smell, how nothing you ever give them is good enough, how they crave babies like they need them to fucking breathe. And I absolutely don’t want to deal with the fact that my body is happy to be strung along on their little leash, regardless of if I’m even interested in them at all.
Cavolo .
I edge around her, forcing tension into my limbs as I grab a simple breakfast so I don’t respond to her nearness. Her breath hitches as I brush behind her, grabbing one of the pans hung above the stove and lighting a burner.
The honeysuckle grows stronger. Heat flashes down my spine and into my dick.
I eye the air purifier she tucked into the far corner of the large room when she first moved in, trying to decide if it’ll actually help when she’s less than three feet away from me. Probably not.
“The final paperwork is due to the Council in a few days,” she says. Her voice is quiet but not timid, no inflection at all in the simple statement. “Jasper asked me to wait until he was here to talk about it with you.”
I grab an egg and crack it into the pan. My voice is too low and angry, but I don’t apologize. “So why didn’t you?”
There’s a long pause, and I grab a second egg.
I’m reaching for the third when she says, even quieter, “Because I’m not a fucking coward.”
Tipping my head back, I let my eyes close, the carton of eggs forgotten on the counter. Jasper probably asked to be present because he’s worried over my reaction, not hers. Omegas are sensitive like that.
“So are you going to sign it?” she asks, a thread of steel in her voice now. “Rylan and Jasper already have. And I’ve been applying for graduate programs assuming I’ll be here.”
Graduate programs?
Curiosity gets the better of me.
“Why are you applying for graduate school? Aren’t Omegas more concerned with babies?”
She scoffs. I go back to breaking eggs into the pan and then stirring before they can burn.
“At the risk of sounding like a ‘pick me’ girl, absolutely not. I’m not built like that.” Her voice is louder now, more fire in it. I’ve seen her use that tone with Rylan before, seen the way her eyes flash and her lips curve into a smirk. And then seen how Rylan pushes her into whatever piece of furniture is closest and fucks her. If I’m being honest, there’s been a couple times I’ve wanted to join.
Another flash of heat shoots down my spine.
Porca puttana , I cannot do this right now.
“Why should I?” I ask, letting my voice drop into a growl. “I don’t want you here. I’ve only tolerated you for the sake of my lover.”
There’s a long stretch of silence. “You’re not the first person to only have me around for ulterior motives. If you think that’ll be enough to send me crying to my room, adjust your expectations.”
Those instincts in me perk up, the hurt in her voice pulling on that intrinsic need to protect. I set down the spoon and grab the counter so I don’t reach for her.
“Who?” This time my voice is threaded with lethal intent.
“I’m not asking for you to like me or fuck me,” she says, ignoring my question. “I’m well aware that most matches are without love. I’m asking that you sign the paperwork that lets me stay here permanently instead of throwing me to the wolves at the Council a second time.”
The growl rumbles through my chest, that need too great to ignore now. Who in the fuck taught an Omega that her pack would hate her? Certainly not the Council, though I can’t help but agree with her terming them wolves. The Council fawns all over Omegas, stuffing the information down their throats so they’ll consent to matching younger and younger.
“Tell me who, Sirena ,” I say, turning.
Her eyes are steady, her palms flat on the counter.
“Why do you care?” she asks.
I close the distance between us. She doesn’t shrink away. She doesn’t even focus on me as I move, dropping her gaze to the paperwork and reorganizing it all into a single stack. When she continues to ignore me, I grab her chin, forcing her to look up at me. Her throat ripples with her swallow, but her eyes are wary rather than scared.
I give the command again in a whisper.
She shakes her head as much as my grip will allow.
“No,” she says.
My grip tightens, the rage starting to overtake my common sense. Someone hurt her. Hurt her enough she won’t easily divulge the information to someone she’s naturally wired to want to make happy. Even if I were still on the highest dose suppressor, the information would be enough to override it. The fact I was forced to step down the dosage a couple weeks ago just makes the reaction worse.
I swear her honeysuckle scent grows stronger.
The last bit of common sense, of resenting my body’s reaction to her bleeds out from me.
Her words cut through the thundering of my pulse.
“You’ve done nothing to warrant that type of trust or intimacy. I am not a buffet for you to take what you want while avoiding the rest,” she says, that steel back in her voice. Like I’m not holding her within an inch of me, half ready to fuck some sense into her. Like we can’t both tell that she’s scenting for me and that she’s probably wet with her slick. The flint in her gaze has my dick straining at my slacks, the need to feel her so strong my hands are practically shaking.
Cazzo .
Kissing her is the last thing I should do. It’s hard enough to resist her, to remember why I resent her being here, with just her scent around me and her marks all over my lover. If I know what her cunt feels like around me? If I know I’m the one making her whimper as I fuck up into her?
I’ll be fucked for keeping this icy distance between us.
She runs her tongue over her lips, her gaze dropping to my mouth before her scent increases again.
“Fuck it,” I mutter, low and lethal.
And then I slam my lips to hers.