107. Chapter One-Hundred-Six
Chapter One-Hundred-Six
Xane
One kiss, and the illusions I’ve been clinging to break apart and burn to ashes in front of me.
How could I be so blind? I’ve been fumbling around in the dark for so long, thinking everything I was doing was only to protect my pack, but I was lying to myself the whole time.
I was so afraid to trust my own instincts, that I buried everything they showed me.
When they showed me Scarlett was made for us, I shrugged it off as false.
Even if I knew, deep down, they were right, I couldn’t let them be right.
I might never have been able to admit it.
If Scarlett hadn’t chased me down and forced me to feel it for myself, I would still be fumbling around in the dark, pretending I knew what I was doing.
That’s so fucked up. It’s damaged my pack already. And it could have split us apart.
We’re already so splintered. Riley is broken, Trick’s been on the edge of quitting, and Kian took to scheming behind my back because he knew it was the only way he had a chance of bringing Scarlett into our lives.
She shouldn’t want me.
I’m an asshole.
Stubborn.
Mean.
Rough.
Even with the Fates glowing over us, I couldn’t control the urge to take her hard against a damn tree. She cried out when she caught her breath, and her pussy squeezed a climax out of me, but I was rougher than I should have been.
Now, I’ve got my arm around her back, and I’m angled to protect her from the rain while I slowly thrust my knot deeper. Some part of me wants to fuck her until her perfume comes back, like it’s something that can be forced back out of sheer desire.
She was perfect, and I hurt her.
I can’t let that happen again.
I need to be the mate she deserves.
Kian and Trick got that part right from the start. I should have been setting the example for them.
“You know I’m not gonna break if you fuck me harder, right?” she asks, one hand on the soaked neck of my T-shirt, pulling me down a little more.
“Uh …” I laugh lightly, because I’m caught off guard.
“Unless you’re not into having your back scratched up …” she goes on.
“You want it rougher?” I ask.
“I mean, I wouldn’t complain …” she murmurs.
My knot swells, and she gasps.
“What was that?” she asks, her voice full of wonder.
“Arousal,” I admit, though I’m not sure how it made my knot even bigger.
It’s already big enough to keep me locked inside her.
Her pussy walls clench around me, and I let out a groan.
“What was that?” I ask, as she smiles back at me.
“Arousal,” she says, sweetly. “I kinda liked how wild you got before. Slow and gentle’s nice for a while, but I’d much rather feel every bit of your passion, especially since you’ve been such an asshole.”
“Tell me how much of an asshole I’ve been, and I’ll knot you so hard you’ll see stars.”
“Now that’s a challenge I can get behind.”
She straightens and looks me right in the eyes.
“I won’t let you hide from me again, Xane. You don’t get to run away when things get hard.”
“I’m not …” I start.
She shakes her head. “Prove it with your knot. Make me see those stars.”
Fucking hell. She really wants this.
She’s beyond perfect.
I slam my knot into her, and she cries out instantly.
Her hand on my shirt gets tighter, and the nails of her other hand rake down my back.
I groan at the feeling, loving the burn.
She gasps in a breath as I continue to fuck her hard against the tree, protecting her back with my arm so the only pain she’s feeling is from my cock, with a side of intense pleasure I can see in her eyes every time she takes me in.
Her legs tighten around my waist.
She rocks into me when I slam into her.
Over and over again, I feel how much she wants this.
How much she wants me.
It’s in every breath, every sigh, every moan.
Her eyes are full of desire.
I gaze at the marks on her throat while I get closer to a second climax, and my teeth tingle.
If I could mark her while I claimed her, I would.
Trick and Kian left space for me to mark her where a lead Alpha should, but it only makes me wish I’d been smart enough to do it before they got the chance.
If I’d been thinking clearly, I would have claimed her and marked her before we got the jet into the air. She felt something the instant she looked at me, and I felt that same connection. If only I’d leaned into it, invited her to sit on my lap, and kicked Kian out of the cockpit …
We could have been mated on that runway.
That’s how it should have happened.
“I didn’t claim you when I should have,” I tell her, reminding her she’s supposed to be cursing me out for being an asshole. “I’m an asshole for ignoring my instincts.”
I slow down to give her a chance to catch her breath.
She smiles. “You should have claimed me in your cockpit, the second after you met me. You’re an asshole for ignoring your instincts.”
I give her more of what she wants, knotting her so hard she cries out again, and again.
I feel it when she comes for me, clenching around my knot.
“You’re an asshole for slowing down,” she murmurs, when I slow to let her catch her breath. “Fuck me like you mean it, Xane. Give me everything you’ve got.”
I do exactly what she asks, knot swelling harder every single time she begs for more of me.
I lose myself in her, coming three times before my knot is finally ready to let her go.
Even when it starts to deflate, I want more.
It’s an odd feeling. I can’t explain it.
She presses her lips together and moans softly as I push my cock back into my pants.
This gorgeous, sexy-as-hell, wild-hearted blonde is my one true mate.
It feels impossible. It feels incredible.
“I don’t deserve you,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. “If you didn’t deserve me, I wouldn’t be here.”
I lift her up a little higher, and she wraps her arms around my neck.
“You lost your trust in your instincts,” she says softly. “But you’ve got them back.”
“I need you to keep me from doing that again.”
“No,” she says with a smile. “You don’t need that. Because you’re not losing them again.”
She sounds so certain, and I realize she’s right.
There’s no reason for me to doubt myself anymore.
I can trust my instincts again. I know what I’m doing.
It’s all thanks to her.
“I’m gonna mark you now.”
She takes her left hand and pulls her hair up, lifting it away from her throat at both sides.
“Mark me.”
I lean into her right side and run my tongue over the mark that’s already there.
She gasps and I move up, biting into her skin without hesitation.
Her heart is pounding as I make my mark on her throat.
When I move back, she looks at me, gaze full of longing.
“Okay. Now, it’s my turn,” she tells me.
“Huh?” I murmur, not understanding until she flashes her teeth at me, and I see that they’re sharp. “Oh.”
She wants to mark me. I can’t help but be a little stunned by the idea.
It’s not usual for Omegas to mark their mates, but I guess she’s not a typical Omega.
“If you’re not cool with it …” she starts.
“I am,” I cut in, before she can finish.
She smiles. “Good, ‘cause I was only gonna remind you what an asshole you’ve been if you weren’t.”
I laugh, and she joins in.
It feels a little weird to offer my throat to her, but my instincts are beyond reproach.
I want this. I want her.
The world should know we’re together.
She makes her mark low on the right side of my throat.
It barely tickles, but when she moves back, the golden glow that’s been surrounding us since we kissed fades away to nothing, revealing just how dark it’s gotten since she got out here and it started to rain.
The sky above us must be nothing but grey clouds. The rain hasn’t let up one little bit. Thunder rumbles in the near distance. Lightning could be close.
“We should head back to the jet. A storm is coming.”
She nods in agreement, unwinding her legs as I lift her away from the tree’s trunk.
I set her down and she stands in front of me in a torn-up skirt, red lace bra and white sneakers, my newly claimed and marked mate, drenched from the downpour in seconds.
I grab a shirt from my bag, wishing I had something waterproof to give her.
If there’s one thing Kian didn’t think about, it was inclement weather.
“Here,” I offer, passing her a blue shirt that’ll cover her ruined clothing.
She laughs as she takes it. “I don’t think this’ll do much against the rain, but thanks.”
Her skirt falls apart when she touches the waistband.
She laughs some more before she slips the T-shirt over her head, covering her slender body from view. I throw my backpack on and put the machete back into the sheath by my side.
We have at least a twenty-minute walk back to the jet, and the storm is only likely to get worse.
I offer her my hand, and we walk together, paces fast, as thunder rumbles above, threatening lighting.