Chapter 24
Cassius
The food did me good. I was still shaky but growing more and more relaxed as long as Malin stayed next to me.
The next big thing to weather was my oncoming heat. How had I not felt it? Until Malin said he scented it, I hadn’t thought about it. Did Bish and the other alphas scent it and go crazy?
I was still looking for reasons to blame myself for what had happened.
Malin still had only a blanket covering him.
His chest was bare. I’d seen him once without a shirt at Bish’s party when he jumped into the pool.
He had kept his jeans on but when he’d emerged dripping from the water it was like looking at some myth coming into reality.
Even then I’d noticed his alpha beauty. And the strength of his muscles.
When I’d watched him shift out the window of my bedroom, it was dark. I couldn’t see much. But now….
Now he was so close to me I could feel his hip against mine.
He had brought me food. He had tucked the blanket around me four or five times.
It was odd behavior. If my heat was affecting him, I needed to isolate.
But then I remembered he was acting this way before he sniffed the air to confirm my so-called honey scent.
The biggest thing was when he admitted not-not liking me.
Still coming off of the shock to my mind and body, those words were like magic. Instantly, I knew I was safe.
And what an incredible beast he had. The image of Malinekan rushing toward me with wings spread and front arms stretched out to grab me kept replaying in my mind.
Malinekan was the most gorgeous dragon I’d ever seen.
I hadn’t seen any dragons in person, but I’d looked at pictures online and seen them in movies.
Malinekan had armor like an aurora crystal.
It reflected light in prisms of all colors.
Now I understood Malin’s glass hoard. All the colors.
All the shapes and figures. His hoard was like a mirror to his beast within.
He’d told me his dragon had gone silent for many years.
I wondered if the hoard was a way of calling him back.
Calmer now, with food in my belly, my old self returned.
Tons of emotions lined up to be examined.
One was outrage. I couldn’t believe this had happened to me.
Another was sadness. While I usually directed that feeling inward, this time it encompassed more.
Malin was part of it. His life had been privileged but not emotionally stable.
He might’ve come across as a dick alpha with attitude at first, but I’d learned a lot about him, and a few times I saw the boy he used to be before his father died emerge.
Once he’d been a sweet child allegedly taken from his egg too soon.
He’d been vulnerable but protected. When he lost that, he forgot how to be himself.
That was the story I was telling myself, my reason for unreasonably liking him.
Something clicked into place inside me. I made no secret about staring at him now. His gaze caught mine. He leaned in, peering at my face.
“Does it still hurt?”
I brought my hand out from under the blanket and lifted it to my eye, feeling the slight bruising and swelling. “No.”
“Malin….”
“Cassius.”
We both started to speak at once. Then we both simultaneously said, “You first.”
He laughed softly, like a wave of release. I took that momentary pause to speak.
“Well, I finally got to meet Malinekan. He’s incredible. I think I love—” Him. I gulped. That wasn’t what I meant to say.
“He wants me to tell you again he went out of control because he got scared.” Malin’s voice rumbled through me. “Scared for you.”
“I couldn’t see it in the moment. Stuff was coming at me from all sides. I panicked. I—I thought I was going to die.”
“He would never allow that.”
My throat was dry and I picked up my water and took a sip. “And you?”
“I would never allow that, either.”
“I’m safe now.”
“I truly thought you were safe before now. I wouldn’t have left you alone if I had known.”
I leaned back against the couch. “It’s my fault. I went outside.”
“I told you you could use the pool any time. No. It was my fault for having such crappy friends.”
“But then you never would have met me,” I offered.
One dark, sleek eyebrow rose. “True.”
“I ran. I know better than to run away from alphas. It spurs the chase.”
“Unfortunately, yes. But they surrounded you, yes?”
I nodded. “And said bad nasty things.”
Pain flickered deep in his eyes. “They shame our dragon culture.” Then he whispered, “I know I do.”
I reached out. His hands were in his lap. I covered them with my own. “You’re not like them. Not at all.”
“You wouldn’t know.” He started to move his hands away.
“I do know.” My voice went deep and I gripped his hands to keep them in place. “I can tell.”
“Little wolf, you—”
“I can tell,” I interrupted, repeating my words louder. “The moment you walked into the dressing room at Bish’s party and told Klonis to leave me alone.”
“Yeah, right. Bursting in with my shoulders back and my fists up… that’s how I solve problems.”
My smile started along my spine, a kind of hot sensation invading my neck, my jaw, my lips. “It was amazing.”
Malin frowned at me. “What?”
“You were amazing,” I repeated.
His frown deepened. “You were scared to death.”
“I agree. I was. And also, in complete surprise that someone powerful would do that for me.”
His eyes crinkled and he began to laugh. “You saw me as powerful when I was just being a dick?”
“Yeah. I did.”
He pulled one of his hands out from under my palm and gently cupped my cheek where the eye was swollen.
His thumb brushed over the worst spot and I almost flinched.
But it didn’t hurt. Instead, it felt good, like a healing.
He bent his head toward mine. I stayed very still as he drew close enough for me to feel his warm breath.
Then his lips pressed mine, a kiss that set off an explosion of rockets inside my head, my chest, my stomach and lower.
Reality fell away as his hand slipped from my cheek to the back of my neck and the kiss deepened.
He didn’t need to hold me in place. I wasn’t running now. But I loved it. An embrace entwined with a kiss. I’d never done anything like this before.
Malin pulled back with a sudden jerk of his body. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“You didn’t mean to kiss me?” The kiss had emboldened me. I wanted it again.
“You need to rest. Recover from today. That was me being inappropriate. Without question.” He threw his head back. His chest gleamed in the TV glow and firelight.
“No. It was you giving me what I needed.” I grasped his hand, still feeling the electric rush throughout my body. “What I want.”
“You’re in heat and I’m a jackass.”
“I meant to say it’s what I’ve been wanting before any heat symptoms.”
His lips parted. “You couldn’t possibly. Stop being polite.”
I gathered all my bravery, what little there was, and leaned over him until our chests met and this time I kissed him. The position was awkward, catching me off balance, and I grabbed his bare shoulder to keep myself in place. I pressed in, opening my mouth.
He murmured my name against my lips. It sounded like a rumble.
Another language. Then his arms came around me to hold me tighter and his mouth opened to match mine.
My blanket fell behind me. His dropped to his waist. The kiss, my hand on his warm skin, my chest pressing into his, his arms around me…
all of it created a circuit between us. The room scintillated.
When I shut my eyes I still saw light. All I could think was, hold me, hold me and don’t ever let go.
Was it the heat talking? It all felt so real. It had to be real. He hadn’t scented me until later, after all the rescue stuff. He kissed me because when all was said and done he wasn’t really the jackass he thought he was.
When I turned my head for air I said, “You aren’t a jackass. Not even the first night I met you.”
“You woke the alpha in me.”
“I’m not sorry.”
His lips sealed to mine again. I pressed my hands behind him, scraping the couch back with my fingernails. Somehow I ended up in his lap. Through the material of blanket covering him a hardness pressed into me. Instantly my body reacted. My hole became slick with need.
I wanted him. Would it hurt? I didn’t care. What worried me was when my heat came on fully. That would hurt.
As if reading my mind, Malin turned his head. “You have to tell me. Before… before anything more happens between us.”
I nodded, willing to do anything for him.
“How do your heats hurt you? Other than cramps?”
“Mainly it’s just terrible cramps. The kind that makes it hard for me to breathe.”
“What helps?”
“Heating pads. Hot baths. Rest.”
“Okay. Thank you for being honest. I’m going to make sure you have everything you need to be comfortable.”
I never dreamed an alpha would want to take care of me. Not set omega me. And not a person who goes through difficult heats and can’t satisfy his partner properly.
“You’re not disappointed in me?”
He frowned at me, tracing the non-bruised side of my face with his forefinger. “Why would I be?”
“I guess I thought—”
He interrupted. “I’ve never been with an omega before but the Cassius I’ve come to know can’t disappoint me. Nothing about you is a disappointment. Do you understand?”
“I’m flawed in every way. Including the ability to have kids.”
“I don’t see the problem. Life is like that sometimes. But you, Cassius… you’re perfect the way you are.”
I lowered my chin until I was staring at the strong curves of his pecs. “I don’t know if I can believe that.”
His finger went from my jaw to my chin and pressed up to get me to look at him. “I guess trust is something we’ll be working on.”