7. Rolly
Rolly
The sound of her screaming is one I can’t ignore. I slip into the forest, unnoticed, seeing everything and nothing. When I find them, Sage is holding her, and her fingers are white with how hard she is holding his jacket.
“You’re safe now,” Sage says over and over.
I just watch, the sound tears me apart, messing with my head until I feel like I’m going crazy. I walk away.
There’s no other choice. I pull out my phone and call a number I stole from Pix when he wasn’t looking.
“Hello,” the cautious female voice says.
“Sariah Spring?”
She’s quiet for two seconds and then humphs.
“Rolly Aster. Twenty-seven years old. Heir to a great fortune, diagnosed with conflicting mental illnesses that are all swept under the rug and buried by that said fortune. No sign of violence or death attached to you, but you are an Aster, which means you are probably a killer just because.”
I smile grimly, wondering just how much I need to worry about this mysterious omega.”
“Pix is mine.”
She’s silent; I think I’ve surprised her. “Pix has an alpha.”
“Pix has five,” I correct.
“Huh. Well, that is interesting. You should tell him to drop in occasionally and say hello to his friends when he remembers he has them.” The bite of hurt in her voice surprises me.
“We think it’s interesting. Regardless, we need a drop.”
She barks a laugh. “And you think I’m going to be your carry bitch?”
I wait for her to stop. “Pix and…” I don’t say her name, “are going into heat together. Which means we’re moving deep and fast to a place that Bonnie knows. We don’t have nesting supplies.”
I can almost feel her annoyance.
“Didn’t prep this expedition very well, did you?”
I grind my teeth. “There is a certain someone watching our movements. We need to be off-grid long enough to-” I bite off my words, agitated and ready to kill this bitch. “Father is looking for her.”
Sariah’s silence gets sharp. “Who needs to move?”
“Everyone. Keep moving. Disappear, but bring me those supplies first.”
Sariah starts walking; I can hear it. “There’s a spot close by on the outer rim where I often leave things for Pix. He will know where it is. Drop in thirty-six hours.”
The phone cuts out, and when I dial it back, the number is disconnected.
I guess I’ll have to trust her.
“Rolly?”
I turn with a smile that just makes Pix frown harder. “Hello, my love.”
He swings at me, but I duck and come up behind him, my arm wrapped around his chest.
“I love it when you get violent with me,” I whisper in his ear.
“You won’t when you’re bleeding from all your orifices.”
“Are you sure? I am crazy, don’t you know?”
Pix goes still, and then his hand closes over mine, grinding the bones together, twisting me until I’m standing in front of him staring at his cold mask.
“You aren’t crazy. You’re perfect.”
My heart slams against my rib cage. I lean in closer to him and catch the strong scent that is always so tightly wrapped around him.
“Pix,” I murmur.
“Don’t read too much into it, Alpha. You are mine. You aren’t crazy, or if you are, it’s the perfect amount. I don’t give a shit what anyone else says.”
“So, you’re claiming me now?”
Pix sighs. “It would seem that we are all bound one way or another. There’s no guarantee we will survive this, so we may as well face facts. Biologically, you are my perfect match. I would like to keep Roseland. If you help me do that, I want you, too.”
“You are obsessed with Roseland. I’m jealous.”
“He continues to resist me; I find it vexing.”
“I find you vexing. And attractive. And altogether far too mysterious. You drive me insane,” I say in a seductive murmur, leaning in and catching his scent, dragging it deep into my lungs.
We’re standing close now, my breath on his lips.
He’s only a fraction shorter than me, we’re almost the same size, and the power rolling off him is something that could intimidate the hell out of a lesser alpha.
Not me, though; I want to get him mad, I want to see him lose control.
I want all those sick smiles of violence and the whispered promises of pain.
“Pix…” I close the distance, flicking my tongue out to taste his bottom lip. He doesn’t pull back, but he doesn’t let me any closer either.
“Would you beg me?” Pix snarls warily.
I smile, my eyes crinkling, watching the confused and heated anger turn his skin flush.
“Of course. I have no shame when it comes to you or her.”
His eyes flicker back and forth as if he’s trying to read the truth from me, but I’m an open book. For him.
For them.
I see the moment he believes me, I feel the fight go out of his body, his fingers loosen on mine, all the blood returns in a painful rush, but I ignore it, watching the cocky arrogance turn into something colder, lonelier. He’s waiting for me to reject him, I can see it clear as day, but why?
Because he’s so uncertain of how I feel, I close the distance, wrapping my arms around him, kissing him. Taking and giving. Claiming. I’m not walking away from this omega, this is my declaration, and he is mine to keep, mine to hold, mine to protect.
Even from his own demons.
“Why do you think I’m going to walk away?” I whisper against his lips. “Why are you defeated before we even begin?”
He stiffens, but I don’t allow him to pull away. We’re too tightly wrapped together now, and though he struggles, I refuse to let go. My teeth graze his jaw, and I give him a warning bite, which drags him into stillness.
“Who didn’t want you?” I ask in deadly silence.
He trembles. “My family. My dad. I was a tool, a weapon to be trained. To steal, to bring in money, to deceive. Every time I went back to the Sanderson’s, he’d wait and then come get me. I’d stay, living like shit, getting beaten, starving, until Yvonne would find his new hideout and come get me.”
“They saved you.” I stroke his hair and close my hand on the back of his neck, holding him still.
“How did you get away?”
“He died in a ridiculous argument when I was seventeen.”
“You saw it?”
He trembles, just slightly. No one would ever know unless they were pressed up against him as close as I am.
“You killed him.” It’s not a question, and he doesn’t answer me. I hum and lick his cheek. “Regardless, we are not him, and I am never going to hurt you unless, of course, you ask me to. But…you will not leave me now, Pix. I can’t let go. I don’t know how.”
He huffs a husky laugh that goes straight to my balls.
I get this flash of the future in my mind. We’re all stabbing a corpse, the blood is going everywhere, and we’re wearing white ruffled shirts, laughing gaily as we’re soaked in blood.
I really want that happy future.
“Favourite weapon?” I say urgently.
“Depends, but when I’m doing damage, I like my machete.”
I swoon in his arms, surprising a laugh out of him. “Favourite time of day?”
“The hours between three am and five, when the whole world seems like it’s asleep.”
“Be still my dead heart, you are perfect,” I say proudly.
This is a turning point, I know it because once I decide something’s mine, I get obsessed, and I can’t let it go; I can’t give it up. I won’t ever walk from this omega now, but I need to know everything.
“Fav food?”
He growls. “Cock.”
I blink, startled, but he slides down my body, yanking my pants open. I’m already hard. When did I get hard? His fingers, so capable of so much violence, slide around my thick shaft with a gentleness that makes me shiver.
When he looks up at me, I don’t see the threat I was seeing before or the strange omega who was pulling my pack apart; I see mine.
I grab his thick black hair as I trace my gaze down his tattoos that vanish beneath his T-shirt.
I know what they look like, but I need to know what they look like now because it’s like a flip has been switched, like everything in me has turned on, and he’s not the same omega he was ten minutes ago.
“Daega,” I whisper. “Tell me who you belong to.”
He shudders when I use his name, inhaling sharply. “You, I belong to you.”
“Good boy,” I breathe. “Now, choke on my cock.”
Pix stares at me and then starts laughing. He falls onto his back, giggling and wiping tears from his eyes. I feign outrage, putting my hands on my hips and stomping my foot, but my omega just loses it even more.
He really is pretty when he laughs.
Pix rolls to his feet and before I can speak, he’s wrapped around me, hugging me hard. The air is scorching. Raspberry jam that’s turned liquid and boiling.
I reach up, stroking his cheek, searching his face. “What’s going on?”
He shudders and then gulps. “I need…”
I slide my hands up under his T-shirt, rubbing my thumbs across the spot on his hips that I want to put my mouth on. He shudders and drags himself closer. I slide my hand up his back, following the path of his spine.
He turns his face to mine, his hot breath slipping past my lips, where I draw it down into my lungs. The taste of him is enough to make me drunk.
I tug him closer. He tilts his jaw and leans in, his lips capturing my bottom lip and sucking lightly.
“Pix,” I moan.
He grabs my wrist and drags it up, pinning to a tree that he’s walked me to and pinning it there. With his free hand, he reaches down and grabs my cock, squeezing me to the point of delicious pain.
“Alpha,” he moans.
I grab his face and kiss him hard. “Soon.”
He stares at me, rapidly trying to blink the hunger away.
“Let’s get everyone safe, and then, I’ll let you tie me up and do whatever you want.”
“You’ll do that?” Pix asks, shocked.
I shrug. “Of course. It will be hot and fun.”
Pix moans and squeezes my cock.
“You have to let go, Omega.”
He does so reluctantly and leads us back to the group. We don’t say anything, but his hot looks scorch my skin and leave me daydreaming of what’s coming.