Chapter 30
Zenevieve
Istand just outside the rooms I once shared with Stesha, hesitating on the threshold, nervously playing with the sleeve of my dress.
What if I go through that door, and Stesha stares at me in surprise that I’m there?
Glowering in disapproval and dislike because I’m still not enough for him.
I’ll crumple up in shame and heartbreak.
I’ll want the floor to open up and swallow me whole, and I’ll probably cough up my insides from despair.
A wave of panic passes through me. I can’t go through all that pain again. I can’t.
My whole body tenses with the urge to run from the doorway, and far, far away from Stesha.
I take a few deep breaths and try to get a hold of myself.
Mother Linnea told me that my endless false heat is making it hard for me to think clearly, though she has no idea why I’m stuck in it rather than cycling through it in a day or two.
She listened with widening eyes to all I had to say about me and Stesha, and she was outraged at first. With him, not me.
Mother Linnea shed many tears for me when she thought I was going to die from lavish sickness.
She had trouble believing I was an Omega not a Beta, the words cruel Alpha were on her lips until she smoothed a special oil over the nape of my neck, and suddenly my Omega perfume filled the air.
The oil is still clinging to me, and as I walked through the castle, dozens of heads turned to stare at me in confusion.
All my doubts were screaming in my head.
How dare I smell like this when everyone knows I’m a Beta?
I dashed the rest of the way to Stesha’s rooms. The place he told me to go.
The home he said he’d welcome me into after all these years.
But what if he’s changed his mind again?
I whimper under my breath, willing myself to lift my hand and knock, but I can’t make my body obey.
I always felt frustrated with Mirelle when she acted like this, unable to move forward or go back, but I realize now it wasn’t an act.
She truly was terrified, and I feel so much sympathy for the long-dead princess as I stand here with tears in my eyes.
I think she felt like this every day of her life, whether she was in heat or not.
I wonder if I’ll ever be free of this horrible feeling.
There are heavy footsteps behind me. Stesha wraps his arms around me, embracing me with his strong muscles, his body heat, his scent. He buries his face in the back of my neck with a groan. He takes a deep breath of my scent and lifts me up off the ground. “Aash’lin, your scent,” he groans.
He turns me in his arms and takes my face in his hands, and his lips are descending toward mine when he freezes. “You’re crying? What has happened?”
“I didn’t know if…” is all I manage to say in a choked voice.
His brow creases in pain. “If I’d still want you? You’re my mate. I will never abandon you.” He sighs heavily and pulls me into a tight embrace. “I’m so sorry that I’ve made you not trust me. I will win back your trust. I promise.”
“I’m trying to trust you,” I whisper through my tears.
“You do not have to try and do anything. All the effort and responsibility is mine.” His voice grows thick as he buries his face in my throat. “Your scent. Is this Hratha’len oil on your mating gland? I feel like I’m going into a rut this instant.”
“Mother Linnea thought it might help us,” I gasp, as his lips seek my flesh and his dragines sink into me, and I cry out from pleasure and pain.
Stesha fumbles for the door handle, carries me inside, and slams the door behind us. He takes my face in his hands and presses his lips to mine, and I’ve never been kissed so desperately before.
“You’re still my mate?” I manage to say between swipes of his tongue and bites of his teeth. “I can still call you Alpha?”
“Yes. Yes. You’re mine. All mine. I’ll kill anyone who says otherwise.” His utterances are more growls than words.
“Then take me to bed, Alpha. Please.”
I half expect him to argue with me. Tell me no. Have some infuriating reason why we still can’t be together. So it comes as a shock when he lifts me in his arms, shoulders through the bedroom door, and drops me onto his bed. I look up at him in surprise as he’s braced over me.
He notices my expression and smiles down at me. “You thought I’d say no?”
I nod my head, my eyes very wide.
“Do you want me to say no? I can wait as long as you need. I will worship the ground upon which you walk until the day I die even if you never look at me again.” Stesha caresses my face, and says in a low voice, “Do you know what some people believe about Alphas and Omegas? They are two halves of the same soul, and they recognize each other as mates the moment they catch each other’s scent because the gods made them from one person a long time ago, and they are destined to live many lives together. ”
I touch his face, and whisper, “That’s beautiful. If it’s true, then I hope this is the hardest lifetime for us. I hope the lives that come after this one are easy and filled with happiness.”
“The gods are never easy on their favorites. They test their strength and courage, and their hearts. And how could you not be their favorite, aash’lin?”
I close my eyes and enjoy his soft caresses on my cheek.
I don’t think it’s me who’s favored, but I can understand Stesha being beloved by the dragon gods.
Their strongest Alpha, who cares for and protects all the dragons, who is clever, loyal, and handsome.
A dragon god might want to test his limits to prove how worthy he is.
“I care little of the favor of the gods. As long as I’m your favorite, that’s all that matters to me. Please kiss me, Alpha.”
Stesha slants his mouth over mine and kisses me hard. “You’re so sweet, Omega. Your pretty words go straight to my knot.”
His heavy body is on mine, and I arch against him, feeling the thick presence of his cock and his knot.
I tug at his shirt, pulling it up off his head and smoothing my hands up his muscular chest. I can feel my slick soaking through my clothes as Stesha strips them off my body and then takes care of his own clothes.
He sucks one of my nipples into his mouth and then the other while wrapping my thighs around his naked hips.
The heat coming off him is delicious. For once, I don’t feel anxious about the room being too large because his body is protecting me.
Grasping his cock, he eases the tip through my wetness, teasing my flesh with his until I’m begging him again. The plush head of his cock pushes into me, making me cry out. He moves slowly, and every time he sinks deeper by another inch, we both groan.
“That’s right. Who’s my good girl?” he whispers, brushing the pad of his thumb over my clit, his eyes locked on to the place where we’re joined. Then he lifts his eyes to mine and quirks his brow.
I run my lower lip through my teeth and realize he wants me to answer. “Me?” The pad of his thumb works me firmly. My head tips back, and I cry out, “Oh, gods, me.”
“Yes, you, Omega. You’re taking me almost to my knot. Does it make your slick come faster when I praise you? Alpha’s pretty girl who looks so good taking my cock.” He laughs softly to himself. “Well, look at that, it does.”
I feel a surge of wetness, allowing him deeper.
I want to look and see just how much of his cock is inside me, but the sensations are so overwhelming that all I can do is gasp for air with my head thrown back.
Every thrust is making my insides light up brighter and brighter, and I dig my nails into his wrists as I explode in heat and pleasure.
He picks up his pace as my climax rocks through me, and then his knot is slamming against me as he breathes raggedly, holding me tighter and tighter by the hips.
He groans from his own release. I feel the pressure inside me increase as he grinds his knot against me, and then he finally goes still.
“Gods, you are so beautiful, my mate,” he pants.
I’m able to open my eyes just as he withdraws, and I feel a gush of liquid between my legs.
He admires the shiny flood, drawing his fingers over my inner thighs. “It’s from both of us. When you are in heat, I will…” He trails off.
“You will what?”
“Nothing, aash’lin. Come here.”
He gathers me into his arms and holds me close, and I wonder what he was going to say and why he didn’t say it.
Does he doubt that I will ever have a proper heat?
A nagging voice is in my ear, whispering that Stesha will reject me yet again if I can’t be the mate he wants me to be.
What if I’m broken because of Emmeric? Things have never gone right for me, and there’s no reason to believe they’re going to start now.
Stesha closes his eyes, and his face relaxes into sleep, but it takes me a long time to follow him.
In the morning, I wake to the most delicious smell.
Stesha’s rutting scent is all around me, richer and more intoxicating than I’ve ever known it.
Stesha is already awake, his chest lifting and rising with deep breaths.
The heavy shaft of his cock is throbbing between us.
As soon as he sees I’m awake, he tries to say good morning, but the words are lost as his lips seek mine and he kisses me.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen again so soon,” he says, testing the flesh of my shoulder with his teeth. “You have pushed me into a rut, aash’lin.”
His cheeks are flushed with fever as he kisses and bites me all over. My Alpha looks magnificent with his white hair spilling around his shoulders and his hungry, adoring gaze on me.
“I have dreamed of this moment all my life. Am I biting you too much?” His dragines once again sink pleasurably into my flesh. They must be aching in his mouth. His scent is thick around me, and my core clenches with need.
“Please, I want more.”