Chapter Twenty-Six
Rhydek
Taryn’s soft purr breathed against my chest as she slept was the only thing keeping me from diving into panic.
I hadn’t expected to lose myself so deeply in my rut, but there was a space after climbing into her nest that I couldn’t account for.
I remembered the draw of her scent, the sight of her leaning back and opening for me, and then the feel of her teeth cutting through my skin.
The memory made my skin shiver. As many times as I’d been cut and burned and injured by a variety of weapons, nothing came close to the way it felt when her teeth clenched on my flesh and punched through, followed by the lapping of her tongue.
My shaft flexed inside her, spilling more seed into her womb as I walked. She stirred and moaned, rocking her hips against me, but didn’t fully wake.
She was still sleeping when I carried her through the door into our home. Her purr vibrated into my chest, low and steady, a soft, continuous rhythm that shouldn’t have belonged to something as fierce as her.
She might have been limp in my arms, boneless with exhaustion, but the bond between us pulsed, alive and inescapable. I had claimed her, the link between us taking root the moment she tasted my blood.
Taryn was my korravai.
The word was tangled in too many emotions to express.
Guilt.
Fear.
Responsibility.
Desire.
Longing.
My grip on her tightened as I crossed the room, careful despite the way my instincts urged me to hurry. My knot still held us locked together, anchoring her to me, binding us physically the way the bond bound our souls.
Not that I wanted distance between us.
That realization was sudden and unwelcome. I had believed I could keep myself apart, that I could fulfill the obligation to claim her while remaining untouched by the bond. That I was strong enough to resist the ties and instincts that came with mating an omega.
A hollow, humorless laugh echoed around me as I passed through the doorway, my tail slapping the datapad to lock it.
I’d been a fool.
The connection between us was warm and insistent, threading through my chest and around my heart. I could feel her there, still faint and distant, but present.
She would always be present. I had claimed her and bound her to me irrevocably.
I lowered myself onto the nest she’d built before the Karzhari took her away, the silks shifting beneath me. Taryn’s limbs curled tighter, seeking contact, keeping me close, even in sleep.
My chest tightened.
She didn’t wake when I laid back and adjusted her atop me. My knot was still firm, still soothing the need her heat created, and she needed the rest.
The bond pulsed again, a tug beneath my ribs that made my jaw clench. She needed me now. Me. There were no other options with the bond in place.
The weight of it settled on me. I had done this. I had taken something already fragile, already displaced, and tied her to me in a way she couldn’t escape.
Part of me wanted that, wanted the little omega sleeping on me sealed to me in every way for the remainder of the breaths we took before Shaevrin blew out our flame.
But a flicker of memory cut through the satisfaction.
A memory of still, cold, silence.
The tightness in my chest threatened to suffocate me.
Shaira.
I had held her too. Carried her in my arms. But there had been no warmth then. No steady purr. No piece of her soul wrapped around my heart.
Only pain.
The contrast hit like a blow. My grip faltered as the old fears tried to intrude before I tightened my arms around Taryn again.
No.
It wouldn’t turn out the same this time. I would protect Taryn better. Keep her safe. Make sure Shaevrin never had the chance to snuff her out.
But the worry lingered, persistent and poisonous.
What if I was truly cursed and everything I touched was marked for death?
I dragged in a deep breath laced with the scent of sweet, tart fruit and musky slick, forcing the spiral to stop before it could take hold. The pheromones Taryn was releasing urged me to let go of thought and sink into instinct, so I did.
Taryn shifted against me again, a soft sound escaping as she pressed closer, rocking her hips. She was alive, in heat, and she had chosen me.
That mattered more than it should have. I’d never heard of an omega claiming an alpha, of biting first, and I didn’t know what others would think.
Would it make Humans seem stronger, that one had dared to claim me?
Or would it make them question whether she was a true omega?
Did it make me seem weak?
Could it hurt the alliance?
Taryn’s lashes fluttered, her breathing hitching as she stirred, pulled from sleep not because she was rested, but because her body urged her to take more. I felt the way her skin warmed, the subtle tightening of her belly, and the way my thoughts slipped away to be replaced with lust.
Another wave.
My body answered as it was designed to, the fragile thread of clarity snapping as instinct surged overtop everything. My kethra brightened, my shaft flexing within her, the knot that had started to ease swelling again.
Because Taryn was mine. There was nothing that could hold me back when her body called me. My control wasn’t strong enough.
Her eyes opened slowly, unfocused before locking onto mine. There was no hesitation in them, no uncertainty, only need.
She pressed her palms to my chest and sat up, my shaft shifting inside her and making us both groan. My hands slipped to her hips, but even I didn’t know if I was trying to hold her in place or make her move again.
The desire for her was still sharp and insistent, but it warred with the need to protect her, even from me. My knot had never receded, so she hadn’t gotten a break from it. My seed was still trapped inside her, and I wasn’t sure how much more she could take.
She shifted her hips, grinding against me, her fingers flexing on my chest as her lips parted to let out a gasp. Adjusting her knees, she lifted until we both felt the tug of my knot locked inside her before twisting and pressing down on me again.
A growl built low in my chest. Despite becoming an omega, Taryn still challenged me. Still took what she wanted. Even in the throes of her first heat with my mark on her neck and my knot in her core, she wasn’t weak. She wasn’t submitting.
Relief twisted with the rising tension she created as she used me for her pleasure. I’d never have expected to enjoy it, but watching her made me want her even more.
She wasn’t fragile. She wasn’t something that would break under pressure. She seemed to thrive with it.
My fingers tightened on her hips, sinking into her plush flesh. I didn’t try to control her movements, only to make them stronger. To grind her against me harder, then tug against my knot until we both trembled.
Her breasts swayed and I couldn’t resist leaning forward to catch one in my mouth. My tongue twirled around the pink tip, and I was rewarded with a flare of pleasure through the bond.
Mine.
The thought was clear. Possessive. The female atop me was mine, and her pleasure was mine.
Instinct surged forward again, burning through the last of my restraint. It was my responsibility to please her, and that meant knowing what she enjoyed.
My hands left her hips to take hold of her wrists, pulling them behind her as I sat up. Her eyes flashed as she tugged against my hold, her lips pulling back in something that wasn’t a smile, and a sharp laugh escaped me, low and rough.
“You don’t know what you’re asking for, tavehn.”
I shifted both of her wrists to one hand and brought the other up to cup her breast. Rocking her hips forward, she caught me off guard when she leaned back and thrust it towards my mouth.
“I don’t care.”
The surge of desire was raw, and I couldn’t tell if it began in her or me, and it didn’t matter. We both felt it. We both welcomed it.
Something inside me broke. Something I had been holding back since the moment I saw her toss back that poison at the gala with the air of someone too stubborn to accept defeat.
My grip tightened, anchoring her in place as I bucked my hips up to meet her next rock. I took her breast into my mouth again, letting her feel the pressure of my teeth as I sucked.
Her lips parted and her breath hitched, her hips stuttering, but she didn’t stop. If anything, she moved faster, grinding against me harder, and I felt her pleasure twisting tighter.
The growl surrounding us was unavoidable. She pushed, tested, demanded, and this time, I wasn’t going to back down.
The world narrowed again, the past and consequences both forgotten. Everything I did was focused. Intentional. Each movement deliberate, and every reaction noted.
Her channel clenching around my knot and shaft begged me to spill inside her again, but I ignored my own need. My goal was to find out what made her beg for relief.
My tail came up to where we joined, stroking her stretched flesh. The way her thighs trembled revealed how she liked it, and once my tip was soaked in her slick, I pressed it to her other opening.
Taryn’s eyes widened as she jolted up as far as my knot would allow, making a strangled noise, but I didn’t give her a chance to deny me. I felt the surge of pleasure just as I felt her uncertainty, and I wasn’t going to let her prevent something that might bring her more pleasure.
She twisted, trying to tuck herself and escape the pressure, not submitting even when my growl increased, and something primal stirred in response.
Not the urge to break her, but to show her. To prove she could trust me, even when she was uncertain. To show I wouldn’t hurt her.
She arched as my tail pressed harder, her breath catching when it pierced the tight ring of muscle. The fight faded from her limbs as I kept the movements slow and gentle, and the uncertainty inside her was replaced by need again, sharp and consuming.
I released her breast and my hand came up without thought, brushing along her jaw to cup the back of her skull. She leaned into it, accepting the comfort it offered.