6. Marco
CHAPTER 6
MARCO
Gianna fell into the heat haze with a restless, riotous surrender. Luckily her unquenchable need was easy enough to manage while she was trapped on my knot. A vibrating wand provided by one of the staff was enough to keep her on a steady pattern of falling apart until my knot had come down enough that I could take over.
I hadn’t had to manage an omega in heat in years and had forgotten how much fucking work it was. Gianna was still young and could probably still count her heats on one hand. I wasn’t in bad shape by any means, but I was definitely cursing my lack of preparation.
I used the wand more than my pride was willing to admit, but heats had nothing to do with pride. Getting Gianna to the other side of the heat haze was my only priority.
By the time she emerged from it nearly two days later, I was exhausted and wrung out, feeling rather like a hollowed-out husk. I had waited to bond her. I could’ve done it a thousand times during the haze, but some idiotic twisted part of me wanted her to do it on her own. There would be days still for us to complete the bond, so doing it immediately wasn’t necessary. Bianca might be forcing me into this but I could still do it in my own way.
Gianna was my omega. My mate.
Bianca controlled a lot of things, but the moment Gianna and I bonded, that was something Bianca would never be able to touch. I hadn’t had anything that was mine alone before, and the idea of it had pleasant warmth filling my chest.
Did she know that the second my mark was on Gianna, my loyalties would be irreparably shifted? Was that why it had taken this long for her to consider allowing one of us to have an omega? I knew I was on the bottom of the totem pole with her inner circle in terms of personal preference. I trained her soldiers, Elio had the extensive network and charm, Enzo crushed her enemies under his boot, and Santo practically lived up her ass. Maybe I was the test. If I failed it, maybe none of them would ever get an omega if Bianca had anything to say about it.
I didn’t want to screw any of the others out of having an omega. I had to play this the right way when we got back to the compound.
My knot went down and Gianna moved languidly away from me, rolling over to stare at me with those baby blues. She gave an exhausted groan and stretched luxuriously, flexing every muscle before curling up and burying her face against the sheets.
“There’s too much light in here,” she complained.
I peeled myself off the bed, flicked on one of the wall mounted bedside lights, and turned off the overhead. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“You’re being remarkably pleasant.”
“Too fucking exhausted for anything else.”
Her stomach growled and I reached for the phone, putting in an order for us that arrived a few minutes later. She inhaled the beef and barley soup, gulping it down from the cup they brought it in before moving on to the club sandwich. I ate more sedately and chugged down water from the bottles they had included in the order, making sure she did the same. When every dish had been cleaned, she sank back against the bed and resumed her staring.
“What?”
“No bonding?” she asked.
“We’ll get to it.”
Her expression turned pensive and soft. “Thanks, I guess.”
“It’s just a delay. You’re not getting out of it.”
“I know. How long have you worked for Bianca?”
Too long. “About twenty years, though part of that was when her father was in control.”
“Is she better or worse than her father?”
I shrugged. “Same snake, different skin. You disrespect either and you end up dead.”
“You don’t sound like you like her.”
“I respect her authority and the empire she managed to keep when her father stepped down. Her strength has always been admirable. Are you asking me all these things because you’re feeling sentimental now that I’ve dicked you down?”
Her nose wrinkled. “Way to ruin a fucking moment.”
“The next heat spike will bring it back.”
“You’re an ass. You know that, right?”
“So I’ve been told.”
I stretched out next to her, exhaustion deep in my bones. We both needed to rest before the next spike hit. Gianna closed her eyes and stretched out one leg, the tips of her toes brushing my skin.
“You can get closer,” I pointed out.
“I’m not giving you the ego boost.”
Instead of replying, I reached out and dragged her close until she was pressed up against the length of me, wiggling indignantly. I held her too tightly for her to go anywhere.
“Relax,” I ordered. “No sense wasting your strength.”
“Fuck—” She yawned. “—you.”
Despite her protest, she did actually relax, snippets of a broken purr sneaking out as she drifted closer and closer to sleep.
The blissful silence only lasted a couple of hours before her squirming next to me dragged me back to wakefulness. I rolled over right onto her and settled between her thighs. Gianna stared up at me with unfocused eyes, her legs wrapping around my waist, her arms locking around my neck, an impatient whine filling the quiet between us.
The fight had melted out of her. Now she needed me, and fuck if I didn’t love being needed. In the haze she’d wanted me, was desperate for me in a way she would never let herself be outside these walls. If I took advantage of that, well, who could blame me? Even the most gallant alpha in the world would be hard-pressed to refuse an omega who was begging and wrapped around them.
I sank into every softness she offered. Other omegas I had played with in the past couldn’t even begin to compare to the beauty spread out beneath me. They had been an experience, a brief interlude, but this omega was mine . If she ever came to terms with that, she could bring me what omegas always brought to their alphas. Peace. Beneath the sex and desire and instincts, that was what I’d always wondered if I could have. Their scents, purrs, and touch could soothe even the most riled alpha, and I think on some level I had always craved that, craved knowing what peace actually felt like. She deserved that in return, though I was doubtful I was even capable of giving it to her.
Gianna sang for me. Her breathy moans and begging cries were a perfect symphony. My little omega was a soprano singing for her salvation. The writhe of her soft curves and lean muscles was a temptation too delicious to resist, so I didn’t. I’d never tasted a sweetness like hers before, never felt a body yield to me in a way that called to every primal instinct I possessed.
“That’s it, omega.” Her core burned around my cock, her heat simmering her blood. She was so fucking wet. Slick dripped from her cunt, easing every thrust.
Her blonde hair was a halo around her, a pink flush ever-present on her heated skin. Every puff of her warm breath against my skin, every delicate sound of desire was like adrenaline into my blood to keep me going, keep me giving her everything she was asking for.
“Come on, kitten,” I soothed. “You know what you’ve got to do.”
Her teeth sank into my skin and I came instantly in a surge of pleasure, bucking hard into her and dropping my weight to my forearms while her little nails dug into my back.
“Fuck,” I breathed, panting as she released her grip and slid her tongue over the claiming bite she’d put on my throat.
I curled one of my hands beneath her head to support it, half-drunk on her sweet peach tea scent, every bit of me shivering.
Gianna settled back down, her eyes still glassy, and red tinting her lips. I groaned when she tipped her head back, offering me her throat on instinct, her hands pulling insistently until I gave in, sinking my teeth into her flesh.
Pleasure kicked me in the chest a half second before the bond roared to life, all of her need and pain and fury pouring into me. There was so much rage simmering in the back of her mind and it was all served up on a platter for me to view. We were kindred spirits in that regard. Some days my own rage was the only thing that propelled me forward.
The clarity lasted for only a moment before the bond dragged me into a rut and I sank into my own haze.