Chapter 31
31
Rhett
Hazel was incredible, and I didn’t deserve her.
She suffered through that miserable lunch, smiling and keeping up with the conversation like she’d been born into the role. She managed to navigate the landmines my family kept dropping when they alluded to her kidnapping and made pointed jibes at our pack.
They made remarks about Kellan and his predisposition for violence, but Hazel shut them down and told them how sweet he was.
When they tried to start in on Jude, she was quick to defend our beta and made sure my family knew that her role as omega changed nothing in the dynamic I shared with Jude.
The only thing they could keep finding fault with was that Crew was the pack leader and I wasn’t.
My eldest brother, Sterling, was the leader of his pack. The pompous prick was almost a decade older than me and had established his own pack in boarding school. They’d found their omega, Jessa, a few years later and she’d already given birth to two sons and was pregnant with a daughter. And their pack didn’t have a beta in it.
Thane wasn’t the leader of his pack, but it was acceptable because Kyland was their leader. And Kyland was the President’s son, and already on his way to being the youngest senator on record. It was easy to see that Kyland would follow in his father’s footsteps straight to the Oval office.
But me? I was the failure. The youngest son who’d snubbed the family by choosing his own path. I’d long ago accepted my shortcomings in their eyes, but it rankled to have it all flaunted in front of Hazel.
Hazel, who endured their inquisition during, and impromptu photoshoot after, the meal with more grace than my father the Duke had in his pinky finger.
Now, driving back toward home, I felt her relax beside me as her stress melted away with each mile we put between us and my family.
Taking her hand, I marveled at how perfect she was. “Thank you for today.”
We’d been silent since getting into the car, but now she turned to face me with a full scowl. “Your family sucks, Rhett. I wanted to slap the smirks off all their faces.” She paused. “Except Thane. What did he say to you before the lunch?”
After he’d made a crack about Jude that had my temper soaring, I’d all but put him through the wall. But it was only then that Thane dropped his guard. I’d stiffened when I’d felt his fingers slip inside my suit jacket and shove something in the pocket.
Patting my chest, I withdrew the flash drive and held it up. “He gave me this. Said to be careful who I shared the information with.”
Hazel plucked it from my fingers. “Any idea what it is?”
“None,” I admitted. “Thane and I aren’t exactly close.”
She hummed softly as she handed the drive back. “He seems to be on our side now. Do you think we can trust him?”
If she would’ve asked me this morning, my answer would have been a resounding no. But after today? God, I wanted to think I could.
Growing up, Thane and I had been close. Only two years apart in age, Sterling had always tried bossing us around, which led to the two of us always finding ways to knock our brother down a peg or two. But as we’d gotten older, we’d been pulled apart.
Some packs, like the Duttons, acted as a family unit. It didn’t matter whose biological father was whose, every parent loved the children as if they were their own.
My family wasn’t that way. Each of us had been a calculated decision on our parents’ part. With the aristocratic bloodlines and duchy on the line, Henry had gone first to ensure Sterling was the first born son and heir. He’d been raised to be a duke, and he had the ego to go alongside it.
Thane had been raised in the senator’s image. He’d been polished and prepped within an inch of his life. Molded into the perfect clone of William Coulson.
My father had little to do with me post-conception. Too consumed with his legal practice and golf times, he’d left my mother to do most of the child rearing. And my mother, in turn, had foisted me off on an endless supply of nannies who somehow found their way into the beds of my fathers.
When I’d been old enough to understand why I went through nannies like shit through a goose, I’d felt furious for my mother.
Until I realized some of the nannies would occasionally find their way into her bed as well.
It was around that age that I’d been sent to my first boarding school, and, having realized my family were a bunch of wankers, I’d become determined to chart my own course. By the time my father finally showed an interest in me—in my final years of school—I’d decided I didn’t give a fuck what he thought or wanted.
It had caused a rift between me and my family, ultimately souring what was left of the relationship I shared with Thane. By that point, Thane was finding his own footing in American politics and was poised to join the younger Anders pack.
“Thane and I were close once,” I admitted to Hazel as the car left the city limits.
“But not anymore,” she deduced, her full lips pulling down.
“I’m not sure. Today gave me hope that we might still have some goals that align,” I replied, not wanting to give voice to that little boy deep inside who wanted his big brother’s approval.
But Hazel could read me in a way few others could. She leaned her head against my shoulder. “It’s okay to want a relationship with your brother, Rhett.”
“I shouldn’t,” I murmured. “Not after some of the comments he’s made about Jude.”
“And I will happily kick his ass with you,” she assured me, “but people can change.”
I snorted. “Tell that to my parents. They’re the exact same as they’ve always been, albeit a bit more meddlesome now that we’re adults.”
She traced a vein on the back of my hand. “I wish you could’ve met my parents. They were the best.”
“Tell me about them,” I encouraged, resting my head on hers.
“Mom loved to entertain,” she confessed. “She loved parties, and every party had to have a theme. My favorite was my tenth birthday party. It was a circus theme with clowns, animals, and even a trapeze artist that had this whole crazy set up in the backyard.”
I smiled, picturing a young Hazel with a wild grin. “I can only imagine.”
“We have pictures of it somewhere.” She sighed. “I guess I should go through it all at some point. I know Elizabeth saved it all when she cleaned out the house. But the idea of facing it… It’s overwhelming.”
Feeling the fine tremor ripple through her, I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her to my chest. “You’ll face it when you’re ready, love, and we’ll be right there by your side.”
Her lips tipped up. “Perks of having a pack, huh?”
“No, the perks of having people who love you and want the best for you,” I corrected gently.
Her hand splayed over my chest, over my heart. “I love you, Rhett Dutton. Thank you for not being an asshole like your parents.”
Chuckling, I tipped her head back so I could kiss her. I took the time to savor her taste as she heated under my touch, pressing her legs together as her scent swirled in the air. When I pulled back, her irises were eclipsed by her pupils, only a thin ring of greenish gold hugging the dark centers.
Without glancing up, I reached for the switch that triggered the divider between the backseat and the driver. It lifted with a soft whir.
Hazel’s chest heaved, her pink tongue darting out to sweep across her lips.
Too tempted to resist, I dipped my head and let my own tongue trace the same path hers had before sliding into her mouth. Fuck, her taste was addictive. The most sinfully delicious dessert imaginable.
Panting, she whispered against my mouth. “Here?”
“Yes, now,” I replied with a hint of bark. I arched a brow. “Unless you’re denying your alpha?”
“No, alpha,” she replied swiftly, shaking her head emphatically. The stiff cotton of her blouse couldn’t hide the sharp points of her breasts, begging for attention. Heat radiated from her core, scant inches away from my fingertips.
Her wide eyes darted to the tinted divider. Uncertainty warred in her eyes.
While the driver likely suspected what was going on, I knew the service my parents used demanded each employee sign an NDA. I also knew we were in no danger of the driver sneaking a peek; I would never risk Hazel that way. “No one will see or hear your pleasure except me.”
Her body was for me and my pack. No one else would ever witness the way her pale skin turned a ripe shade of berry. How her nipples pebbled into tight little peaks. The soft whimpers that escaped her lips like breaths.
A low growl started in my chest, the primal side of my alpha demanding to make my omega submit. To have her shattering under my touch, writhing through waves of pleasure.
As if sensing my thoughts, her legs spread as much as the skirt would allow, the invitation blatant.
“Can you be quiet, pet?” I teased, nipping at her bottom lip. “I’d hate for our driver to hear you come. To hear the sounds you make. Those beautiful noises belong to your pack.” This car would likely be outfitted to absorb all sounds made in the backseat, not only to hide sounds of pleasure but of corporate greed and government secrets.
But my sweet little dove didn’t need to know that.
All she needed to know was that her alpha wanted her silence. Wanted to watch her squirm as she swallowed the sounds of her release when I deigned to give it to her.
My cock thickened in my trousers, digging into the metal of the zipper and making me clench my jaw.
Her head bobbed in agreement. “Yes, alpha.”
It wasn’t lost on me that she addressed me the same way Jude did, with the same inflection of love and respect on my title. It made my chest swell with pride and my cock throb with desire.
My eyes drank their fill of her face, but snagged on the outline of her mouth. The red lipstick she’d worn to lunch was mostly just a residual stain now, but it made my mind twist in a wicked way.
“Where’s your purse?”
My question caught her off guard, and it took Hazel a moment to respond. “Next to me.”
“Find your lipstick and reapply it,” I ordered.
Frowning, she fumbled with the small clutch and withdrew the tube with shaking hands. The small, bullet shaped object gleamed in the lighting, and I watched as she uncapped it and effortlessly applied a layer of crimson to her lips.
Smiling at her obedience, I ran my fingers over her soft hair. “Such a good girl, pet. Let’s see if you can keep following directions.”
Her breath caught as she tossed the lipstick back into her purse and let it fall to the floor. I had her full attention now.
Tilting my head toward my lap, I issued my next demand. “Take my cock out.”
A soft whine caught in her throat as her greedy hands dove for my pants, unbuckling my belt and tugging the button open and zipper down. I hissed as her small hand reached inside and pulled me free.
The mouth-watering aroma of fragrant chocolate filled my nose, and I knew if I buried my face between her thighs, she’d taste just as decadent. The only thing better than Hazel’s slick was after Jude’s release spilled inside her.
I could have feasted on their combined flavors without end for the rest of my life.
Hazel’s nails raked gently over the swell of my knot and had my hips punching into the air, desperate for her.
I sucked a breath through my teeth as the little vixen grinned.
“Think that’s funny, do you?” I rasped. “Teasing your alpha? Making me so hard that I could pulverize stone with my cock alone?”
Her lashes swept up, her gaze locking with mine. She wisely stayed silent.
Reaching behind her, I wrapped my fist around the knot she’d twisted her hair into. “If you can get me off before we arrive home, I’ll fuck you with our beta until you’re begging for us to stop. Until Kellan and Crew can’t help but fall into your nest, craving you from your cries of pleasure.”
Her breath caught. “Yes, alpha.”
I glanced at the passing scenery, figuring out where we were and how long she had. “That only gives you seven minutes.”
“Seven minutes in heaven,” she quipped as she licked her lips.
“I want to see how deep you can take me, little omega,” I rumbled, swiping my thumb along the edge of her bottom lip and watching it come away stained red. “I want the outline of your mouth ringed around my cock so I can show our beta what a good girl you are.”
“Yes, please,” she whispered, close to begging as she eyed my shaft like an ice cream cone.
My fingers tightened, pulling her hair until she corrected herself.
“Yes, please, alpha ,” she breathed, her submission enough to crack my heart wide open and have my control unraveling.
Guiding her down, I watched her mouth open around the broad head of my weeping cock. Stared, transfixed, as she let me guide her head lower, lower…
I stopped pushing her, not wanting to go too far too fast, but she kept going until her nose brushed my knot. My tip prodded the back of her throat as I groaned obscenely. When she swallowed, her tight throat squeezing around me, I almost came embarrassingly fast.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to release her hair and lean back in my seat. I folded my arms behind my head, willing to let her take complete control of the moment as I enjoyed the ride.
Literally.
“Fuck me,” I hissed as she used one hand to tease my knot while her tongue traced the pulsing vein running under my shaft. Her fingers brushed the small patch of skin between my knot and my balls, and I saw fucking stars.
Balling my hands into fists to keep from grabbing her head and fucking her throat raw, I tried to hide how she was undoing me.
But it was useless.
She sucked me deeply into the hot cavern of her mouth once more, her lips pressing against the outer swell of my knot as she squeezed my balls. But it was the way she clamped her thighs together, rocking her hips in a blatant attempt at relief, that had electricity shooting down my spine and gathering in my knot.
With a guttural cry, I broke. My hips jerked as I came, spilling my seed down her throat in deep jets that left my knot clenching and aching to fill her pretty cunt.
The car pulled to a stop outside the house as Hazel lifted herself off my cock with an audible pop . She sat back on her haunches, looking a little dazed and a lot smug as she licked her lips.
That red lipstick was smeared across her lips, and glancing down, I saw my cock was just as messy.
“Did I earn my reward, alpha?” she purred, practically glowing as she used her fingers to wipe the area around her mouth so the lipstick wasn’t everywhere.
I chuckled, the sound low and full of promise as I saw Kellan and Jude spilling out the front door to greet us.
Savoring this moment with just the two of us, I leaned in and brushed my lips over the shell of her ear. “Oh, pet. You always earn your reward.”