Chapter 46
forty-six
I see the exact moment Ryker’s Alpha wins.
His hazel irises disappear, swallowed by yawning black pupils and feral hunger. The tension in his body changes, shifting from straining back to snapping forward. Closer.
His lungs stop heaving, but the purr doesn’t end. Instead, it drops lower and roughens, blurring with a snarl.
A shiver races across my skin, pooling in my navel. Leaving goosebumps in its wake as it sinks into my trembling core. I hitch a sharp inhale, tasting his dark vanilla perfection. Purring back at him, much smoother and gentler.
“Please,” I breathe, doing everything I can to sweeten my ragged voice. “I want you, alpha. Please give me your knot?”
I’m actually surprised he hasn’t already. His Alpha isn’t hesitating, exactly—it’s more like he’s… looking. Absorbing. Running his hazy gaze over my entire body.
Almost as if he can’t quite believe I’m real.
Or, maybe, can’t believe he’s here, at the surface, with me.
Both notions strike me as unbearably romantic, given how wild and dangerous this Alpha is supposed to be. My fingers carefully trace over his torso, down toward the dripping, purple erection jutting forward.
When he shudders, wariness flashes in his eyes. He gives another serrated growl, flashing his teeth.
But that isn’t menace in his eyes, I realize. It’s fear.
Just like all those times in the tank. The mean, ferocious Alpha is afraid.
It makes sense in the most horrible way. Of course, the notion of snapping into a rut must horrify Ryker, too, but what about his poor Alpha? The one who was forced to endure all of them.
Tears slide down my temples as I whisper, “It’s okay, Alpha. You don’t have to do anything, okay? I’m here just for you. Whatever you want.”
The wordless beast blinking back at me doesn’t seem to understand. My heart fractures, trying to envision a scenario where he ever would have been given any sort of choice.
I doubt there have been. He went from the facility’s cages to Ryker’s mental ones.
Is this why he hasn’t let him speak? Was it fear all along? His way of begging Ryker to help him?
I’ll have to worry about that later, because my big lion begins leaning into the palm I placed against his cheek. He scent-marks carefully at first, keeping his dark, wounded eyes on mine. When more tears flow over my cheeks, his defenses collapse.
The alpha’s big body covers mine, his forehead dropping into his favorite hiding spot. Finn left it conveniently bare, weaving my hair well out of the way. Now, Ryker rubs his face into my neck. His next growl is almost a whimper.
“Here,” I say, my voice cracking as I repeat one of his constant vows. “I’m here, lion.”
He seems to like the way I stroke his back, so I continue. “Whatever you want,” I repeat, smoothing caresses along his sides. “I’m here, and I’m yours.”
That word reverberates through him in a shuddering roll. “Mine,” he husks, all Alpha. “My omega. My mate.”
I find myself smiling through stinging sorrow, my wet eyes spilling more as the lanterns above us warm the twilight. “That’s right. Your mate. You knew it all along, didn’t you? Such a strong, clever Alpha. Brave, protective lion.”
His temperature rises, heat searing my skin. The rumbling purrs pressed into my breasts sharpen. Stoking the flames between my hips.
His teeth graze my tender throat, pressing with the rough insistence of a feral Alpha. Perfume pours out of me. Slick dampens my panties beyond repair.
Ryker groans, rubbing his knot into the soaked fabric. Sensation zips down my legs, twitching my thighs closed around his hips. Vanilla warmth swells to fill every breath, sending tingles to my hard nipples.
When I moan, he gets rougher, pawing at my panties until the ribbons unravel. He lifts himself and looks down, watching his hard heat kick against my softer, slick core.
Wild need flares in his black eyes. He cants his hips back, taking aim, preparing to shove me full—finally, please—
I only realize I’ve said it out loud when he roars, the animalistic sound echoing over our meadow as he drives himself into my clutching depths.
Thick, throbbing perfection fills me, pushing at the aching inner muscles on all sides. Rubbing them with the perfect bite of friction when he suddenly rips himself out and immediately plunges back in.
The strokes are rough and mindless. Shouting his need. His helpless desperation. His trust.
First, my lion let go of his Alpha’s reins. Now, his Alpha is letting go altogether. Rutting me harder and faster, the sloppy thrusts echoing his uneven growls and grunts.
My body rises to meet each one, arching against him. Craving more, harder, deeper. I whine as my pussy starts to flutter around his length. The slippery, stretchy ring just past my entrance screams for a knot, buzzing in time with my pounding clit.
“Ryker,” I cry. “I need—I need—”
The heavy swell at the base of his cock grinds against my opening, teasing me with plunges that push the top third of him into me before he tears away.
My body frantically clamps around his girth, trying to tug him deeper.
The slick spasms draw him halfway in before he suddenly finishes the job, bucking hard enough to pop himself into the squelching emptiness.
Perfect fullness blooms wide, pressing warm, delicious weight into every nerve. They sing, vibrating around the pressure as it continues to expand. My core snaps. Electric waves of bliss sparkle into my belly, releasing every bit of tension coiled there.
While I beg and keen, sailing over the edge of a second climax, Ryker bellows one final groan. Spurts of heat bathe my insides as his knot suddenly doubles—ruthlessly claiming every last bit of me. Locking us together. Pushing another languid roll of pleasure through my blood.
My big alpha topples onto me, serrated breaths exploding from his lungs. I gather him into my arms, guiding him to his favorite position. Letting him hide there until his panting calms and his skin cools.
For a long time, he barely moves, except for the occasional attempt to burrow closer. The knot inside me stays fully engaged as I stroke his back, whispering every comforting word I can think of.
He doesn’t reply, but I feel the brush of his lips every few minutes. I’m not sure if his rut is totally over, so I don’t know whether I’m speaking to Ryker or his Alpha. It doesn’t matter as much as I thought it would. They both need to hear the same things.
I’m okay. You didn’t hurt me at all. You took such good care of me, just like always.
And the most important one. The one that I need to hear as much as he does.
“We never have to go back there,” I murmur, ducking my face into his windswept hair. “Never.”
Ryker freezes. For a moment, I worry I’ve said the wrong thing, instead of the right one. But then he lifts his head, showing me his serene expression. Locking our gazes the same way he’s locked our bodies.
“I know,” he rasps. “I burned it down.”