Chapter Twenty-Six #2
Not thinking, just reacting.
Trusting, even when instincts ruled.
It shouldn’t have mattered, but clarity broke through the haze once more. I had taken away the future she’d planned, her home, everything she had been…
What if I wasn’t enough?
My jaw clenched and I pushed the thought away, letting myself slip back into nothing but sensations. I felt how close she was, how her body was begging for more, and I snarled as I tugged her down and thrust my tail into her further.
Her breathing stuttered, her body shifting restlessly between the two parts of me invading her as the wave of pleasure crested. I pulled her forehead to mine, wrapping my arm around her again as I released her wrists and joined her in the fall from the peak.
She gasped and writhed, crying out as her body squeezed me. The bond flooded with the feelings coursing through both of us, feeding one another, looping back to keep it going until neither of us could take anymore.
I was panting when her arms wrapped around my neck, sweat slicking where our skin met. She stroked a finger over one of my ridges, sending a shiver down my spine and making me lift my head to look at her.
I wasn’t prepared for her to lean forward and press her lips to mine the way she had once before, nor how hers parted and her tongue traced the seam of mine. Opening was automatic, and my heart stumbled when she licked into my mouth.
The bond pulsed again, flooding with my surprise before it shifted to something else. Desire filled us both, but it was different. Not driven by her heat, not instinct or physical need, but something more.
I rolled us over, still gripping her head and holding her to me as I mimicked her actions. When I pushed my tongue along hers and followed it into her mouth she sucked on it, and another wave of release poured into her womb.
I felt the pressure and discomfort of it even though she tried to hide her wince. Pulling back, I looked down at her, really looked, not just at the body beneath me, or the desire still lingering in her eyes.
At her.
Taryn.
My omega.
Stubborn, infuriating, strong…
All mine.
The word didn’t feel possessive anymore. It felt like responsibility. Like another weight added to my shoulders. Like something I could break, and that would break me if I did.
The blue of her irises showed around her pupils again, and her fingers tightened on the back of my neck where they rested. It was a small movement, but it anchored me more than anything else had.
“We will figure it out.”
Her voice was soft but roughened by exhaustion and heat, and her words made my chest ache.
Because she wasn’t saying it to herself.
She was saying it for me.
I exhaled slowly, tension bleeding from my shoulders as I released the worries. I hadn’t relaxed since before Shaira’s loss. Before the guilt shackled me and convinced me I was better off alone.
My thumb brushed over Taryn’s cheek, a small motion I hadn’t meant to make, but it soothed something in me. She shifted again, both of us gasping at the sensations it created, but when she pressed her lips to mine once more, it wasn’t as insistent as before.
It was slower.
Sweeter.
My knot finally softened enough to slip from her channel, a gust of fluid drenching the bed beneath her. She broke the kiss to grimace, but I hadn’t had enough of her mouth to stop.
Tipping her head back, I distracted her by exploring her with tongue and teeth, nipping her lips and then soothing them with a lick. She responded with the same, the heat growing between us more than biology.
My mind remained clear, anchored in the moment and the woman beneath me as I sank into her again. For the first time since the kennels, I wasn’t drowning in instincts that demanded I mount the omega and breed her.
I was in control.
Taryn’s eyes fluttered closed on a sigh, her grip loosening on my neck but not releasing. The bond settled into a steady, quiet pulse, less overwhelming and demanding than before, but still there. Still telling me how what I did to her made her feel.
It was… surprising. I knew she’d been struggling, but the depth of her loneliness equaled mine, and I realized why she hadn’t denied me when I’d chosen her.
She’d been as lost as I was.
I didn’t move, content to feel her warmth wrapped around me while I practiced kissing her. And when I felt her drifting off, I simply moved my attentions to her cheeks and jaw. Her neck and ears. Anywhere I could reach without putting distance between us.
Even as she slept, she sought me. Her arms stayed around my neck, her nose pressed to her mark on my chest, her thighs hugging my hips. Each time she whimpered or stirred in her sleep I would rock my hips and press my lips to her brow, reminding her I was there.
That I was hers.
I finally allowed myself to acknowledge the truth I had been avoiding. That she wasn’t just a duty, and I hadn’t claimed her because it was expected of me.
I wanted her.
But I still wasn’t sure I deserved her.
My gaze dropped to brush over her features again, her expression at peace despite everything we had just done. Despite all the changes I had forced upon her life.
Despite me.
My chest tightened again, but it wasn’t the same as before. It wasn’t guilt or fear threatening to smother me. It was something heavier, something I hadn’t thought I’d ever feel again. Something that refused to be forgotten or ignored no matter how hard I’d tried.
I swore I would not fail her. I couldn’t, because if I lost her the way I had Shaira, I wouldn’t survive it.