Chapter 40
Forty
DOMINIC
“ J asper, where is she?” Johnathan asks, pushing the shorter man out of his way and taking a single step into the small room. “And why the hell did you guys come if she was on the cusp of her heat? My event isn’t that important.”
“She wasn’t.” Rylan’s words are a snarl, and Johnathan pauses just inside the room.
There’s too many people in here, the scents of the Alphas responding to Violet’s siren song overwhelming the small space. Jasper tightens his grip on me as my body coils tighter.
Fuck me, I need to get out of here before I actually start killing people, beginning with the asshole still on the ground.
The man behind Johnathan chokes on his breath, his eyes widening as he messes with the collar of his uniform. “I can’t have an Omega in heat here. Not in the open.”
“How do we get out of here?” I ask. “One of us needs to get the car.”
Jasper squeezes my hand and frowns. Violet’s father looks at me, his eyebrows low.
“Rylan, can you get the car?” I ask, frustrated at everyone’s lack of response.
“For the love of God, Dominic, please use English,” Rylan mutters.
I grind out a curse and sigh.
Johnathan takes another step into the room, reaching for Violet where she’s hidden behind Rylan’s form. “Come on, sweetheart. I’ll help you get out of here while your Alphas get everything ready downstairs.”
Violet sobs, pulling her hand away from her father. Even my heart clenches at the heartbreak in the sound and the shattered look that crosses Johnathan’s face.
“How long has she been on the cusp? She shouldn’t be this lost to it if it just surfaced.” He tucks his hands into his pockets, glancing over his shoulder like he’s perfectly calm, even as his words are full of devastation. A woman runs up beside the hotel employee, her brown eyes worried. Johnathan shakes his head once, and she nods, turning and walking back toward the event, motioning for another woman to do the same.
“Johnathan has it in hand,” she says, loud enough that we can hear her over Violet’s noises. “Let’s start the presentation. Margie will present instead of him.”
Violet whines, and her scent thickens. The man on the ground growls as his body coils tighter. I pin his leg with my foot to keep him from trying to stand, putting more pressure when the asshole inevitably fights me.
Johnathan looks down at the man and scowls. “What the hell is going on?”
Jasper shakes his head. “I’m not sure. But Rylan needs to get her home before we attract even more unwanted attention.”
Both men share a look that says a thousand words. Johnathan nods and turns to the hotel employee.
“I need a valet to grab Jasper Montegue’s car.”
Jasper voices a quick disagreement. “I drove the Maserati. There’s not enough room.”
Johnathan closes his eyes for a minute. “Right. I forgot…” He shakes his head, letting the thought trail off. “I need Dominic Montegue’s car. Is there any way it can be pulled around to the side entrance? The sooner we get her out of here, the sooner it’s no longer your concern.”
The man nods and pulls out his phone, sending off a text. “What else do you need, sir?”
While he sorts through how to get Violet out of here in one piece, I step over the asshole. Rylan moves in sync, guiding Violet out from behind him. Before she can protest, I pull her into my arms bridal style, one arm under her knees and the other tight across her back, breathing through the rush of possessive rage at her scent being so near to me. She shudders, another round of whimpers moving up her throat.
Rylan murmurs something too low for me to understand, the feel of his voice soothing even to me, as he strips out of his suit jacket. Violet relaxes as he drapes it over her, covering the worst of the torn dress.
“I’m having one of our security guards escort you,” the employee says as we step out of the small room. I scowl, and he swallows. “He’s a Beta, so he’s of no risk to your Omega.”
“Thank you,” Johnathan says, stepping between me and the other man.
Bold fucking move.
Rylan runs his hand over Violet’s cheek and then down her neck and shoulder, never once letting his touch stop.
“Jasper, I’ll need you to stay for a bit,” Johnathan murmurs as the hotel employee walks away, his head bent over his phone. “The officer will need a statement from someone who isn’t influenced by her perfuming.”
My lover nods once and shoves his hands into his pockets. “Whatever you need.”
They stand in the middle of the hallway, Jasper’s attention split between eyeing the event and the three of us. The elevator opens, and a formidable man in a black security uniform steps out, his blue eyes cold and calculating.
I start across the hotel, Rylan keeping pace. Jasper grabs my elbow before I can pass him, his eyes sad as he looks at me and then Violet. He palms her cheek, and she writhes under the touch.
“ Please ,” she begs in a broken whisper. “It hurts .”
Johnathan’s look is shattered again as we pass him, his hands clenched at his sides.
“I know, pretty Omega,” Rylan murmurs. “Give us just a few more minutes, and we’ll make it better.”
The elevator is even more tense than on the way to the event, but I have to admit the man has a spine of steel. His hands don’t shake, his mouth doesn’t quiver, his eyes don’t betray any fear at all. It helps keep all the possessive, territorial bullshit festering because of her perfuming from becoming unmanageable.
“This way,” he says the moment the doors open. “They have the hallway blocked off to keep others from crossing your path.”
The night is warm as we step onto the sidewalk outside the side entrance of the hotel. The blast of fresh air helps dull the ache in my body from Violet’s heat-soaked scent. The car is pulled to the curb, the engine already running and the keys tucked into the middle console. The security guard doesn’t utter a word before ducking back into the building.
Rylan opens the back door. Before I can slide into the seat, Violet writhes against me, dropping the jacket to the ground.
“I… I can’t hold it back anymore,” she says, her voice breaking. “It fucking burns .”
Her eyes glaze over as she shivers. Her scent doubles in strength, the core of it calling to me, and I force a swallow to keep from pouncing on her. My hands spasm and dig into her skin, and she whines.
“You… you don’t want this,” she mutters, trying to twist out of my hold.
Rylan runs his arms parallel to my own. “I’ve got you, Omega,” he murmurs.
She leans into him, her body shaking with a sob. I don’t lessen my grip, the need to have her too great. Not that I’m really fighting it. Rylan looks across her to me, his question burning hot between us, and I offer a single, small nod.
“You sure?” he asks.
I give him the look that question deserves. He’s not usually quite so dense. But then I notice the sweat on his forehead, the tight line of his jaw as he clenches his teeth, the careful stillness of his body that is almost never actually calm.
He’s holding it together by a fucking thread.
“ Mi dispiace ,” I murmur. “ Sí, sono sicuro, amico .”
“I’m assuming that’s you doubling down that you’re sure. Pretty sure I heard a yes in there somewhere,” he mutters, letting his arms drop to his sides.
Violet cries out, trying to follow him. I palm her cheek, forcing her to look at me as I settle into the back seat of the Alfa Romeo. Rylan closes the door and then slips into the driver seat, letting his hand brush across her cheek before throwing the car into gear and guiding it onto the streets.
“ Va tutto bene, Omega .”
I push so much comfort into the words, she collapses against me with a gasp, her eyes fluttering shut. Not even a full heartbeat later, she’s moving to straddle my hips as her hands scrabble at my belt and slacks. I shrug off my suit jacket and undo the top couple buttons of my shirt before rolling up the sleeves.
By the time the lights of the skyscrapers start to fade into the background, Violet’s whining, her hands slipping with her growing desperation.
“ Please ,” she begs. “ Make it stop .”
I ease her hands away, undoing my zipper and dropping my slacks low enough that my cock slips free into the small space between our bodies. She whines again, the sound full of an excitement that feels foreign to me, my entire focus on not losing my fucking control and accidentally dropping into a rut. She signed the annulment. She’s leaving. The last thing that can happen is I bond with her during this mess of a heat and force her into staying.
She pushes up on her knees. She palms my dick, lining the head up with her cunt, and slams down on me, not easing into it or going slowly in case she’s sore from me being an asshole yesterday.
Her head falls back on a desperate moan, her muscles clenching around my cock. I grunt, grabbing her thighs to keep from fucking up into her quite yet.
Suppose she’s ready enough, then.
Slick drenches her thighs. It occurs to me she hadn’t had to move her panties so she could fuck me. Rylan’s comment from earlier pushes through the building haze.
She would have worn scent blockers when she left the house. She doesn’t go anywhere without them.
Fury builds in my stomach, festering under my skin, the strength of her heat making it even worse. I want to fucking pummel that asshole we found her with until he realizes just exactly who he pissed off.
Violet trembles in my arms, her hips rocking against my own, and it steals my attention away from the ideas of violence. Her nipples are peaked and right at mouth level. She shakes as I pull the first one into my mouth, rolling it with my tongue before biting the tip of it.
“ Alpha ,” she moans as I move to the other and do the same thing.
Her thighs tremble, and her rhythm starts to break. I palm her knees and kiss under her ear, right where an Alpha would place a bond mark, letting my teeth graze her skin even though I know it’s fucking playing with fire. Her hips falter and her knees squeeze my hips as she orgasms with a soft cry.
“ Cazzo, sei bella .” I whisper the admission into the bruise I’ve left on her skin, low enough I’m nearly positive Rylan can’t hear me. Not that he would know what I’m saying. Probably.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if it’s the one thing he manages to understand after all these years?
“Alpha,” Violet moans again, writhing on my lap. “Knot me. Please.”
The car eases into the garage as I wrap my arms around her, my palms on her shoulders forcing her lower onto my cock as I fuck up into her, the deep strokes taking me closer to the edge with each passing moment. Even under the artificial yellow light, she’s fucking gorgeous, her cheeks rosy and her chest flushed. Rylan climbs into the backseat, shedding his shirt as he does and letting it fall to the floor.
As he settles in beside me, he runs his hands down her neck and across her collarbones, the touch soft and delicate. It reminds me of the way we fuck Jasper together sometimes. The thought has me racing for the edge, my dick pulsing. My knot swells as I come, and I pull her down harder as I surge into her, forcing my knot entirely inside. She screams, her head falling back and baring her throat. I clench my jaw, breathing through the blinding need to bite her truly and bond her so I can feel her within my chest the way she can feel my knot in her cunt.
“Good job, pretty Omega,” Rylan murmurs. She tilts to the side, falling into his hold. The movement pulls a low moan from my chest, and Violet shivers. “I’m so proud of you. Rest now.”
She nods, her eyes drifting closed. Her weight is oddly comforting as she settles against my chest, her cheek against my collarbone. Her breathing evens out into the cadence of sleep before my knot even releases. I grimace as it does, my cum and her slick mixing into a mess that ruins the suit pants before I have a chance to avoid it.
Rylan laughs.
“Just buy a new pair, Dom,” he says. “Not like you don’t have the funds.”
I roll my eyes but offer a small half-smile.
“We should probably get her inside while she’s out of it,” I say after a few minutes.
Rylan nods. “She’ll need to get out of this dress at the very least.”
He tucks Violet’s hair behind her ear before pulling out the remaining pins from her ruined updo, his gaze equal parts guarded and soft. Her breath hitches, and a corner of his mouth lifts for a heartbeat.
I’ve never been attracted to Rylan. But in this moment? I see exactly what Jasper must see. My chest tightens, my breath ragged.
“Let’s go,” I say, wrapping Violet into my arms and easing out of the car.