18. Havoc #2
“But if you're willing to give me a try? If you’re asking what I want?”
She nods. And I let her see it.
All of it.
The fear. The longing. The possessiveness I'm barely keeping leashed.
The fucking hope.
“Then the answer is you. I want you to accept me. I want to be your mate. Your man. Your Alpha.”
Her breath shudders out.
“Not because you're my Omega,” I add. “Because you're you. And I want the chance to figure out what the hell this is with you and how far it goes.”
She stares at me for what feels like forever. Then her hand slides around the back of my neck.
“I think I'd like that too.”
Monster surges.
Mate.
My eyes close.
“Careful, Honey Girl.”
“Why?”
“Because my Wolf heard that.”
She smiles. And then she does something that destroys me completely.
She says my name.
“Rowan.”
Not Havoc. Never Havoc from her.
Just Rowan.
“I am saying yes. I want you to knot me. I want you to claim me. I choose you, Rowan.”
Everything inside me stops fighting. For the first time, Monster and I want exactly the same fucking thing.
Her.
Not taken. Not conquered. Not claimed just because the Fates decreed it.
Chosen.
And fuck me if that doesn't mean more than any mating instinct ever could.
And just like that—mind blown.
My cock twitches, and the knot at my base pulses wildly. Her sweet pussy squeezes my shaft, massaging it, and fuck—I think it’s growing even bigger inside of her.
Fuck. This really is it.
Knotting.
I feel a pop as I press deeper than ever before, locking us together in the most intimate embrace possible.
“Oh God, Rowan, I can feel you everywhere,” she whispers against my neck, her breath warming my skin.
Monster takes over, and I begin to move. One, two, three thrusts before I start to rut into her.
Gabby clutches at me—scratching the skin at my shoulders while I swallow her gasps and moans.
Fuck, she’s so hot.
Holding her is like holding on to a live wire. It’s electric. Fantastic. Extraordinary.
And underneath all that raw sensation, something else begins to move between us.
Magic.
I feel it gathering everywhere our bodies touch, warm and golden, washing over us like firelight.
It sinks beneath my skin and curls around my bones before reaching somewhere deeper. Somewhere I didn’t know another person could touch.
The matebond.
Fuck.
It’s really happening. My knot increases with every swivel and thrust, every clench of her sweet pussy.
I know I can’t stop this.
Truth is—I don’t want to.
“Oh God, Rowan, are you getting bigger?”
Her eyes are incredulous as her back arches, squashing her breasts against my chest. Her fingernails bite into my shoulders, drawing blood. But I don’t care about pain. I fucking like it.
Monster does too. The Wolf loves that she’s marking us.
Mate.
Mine.
The words thunder through me, but this time they don’t feel like demands.
They feel like recognition.
Like Monster and I have finally stopped fighting long enough to understand the same impossible truth.
Her.
The strange firelight of our bond flares brighter, surrounding us with a warmth I feel more than see. It rushes through me and pours into her, only to come roaring back twice as strong.
Gabby gasps, her eyes finding mine.
For one breathless second, neither of us looks away.
She feels it too. I fucking know she does.
After that, urgency drives me into her again and again. I feel her channel squeezing, tightening all around me. Then Gabby yells, her body shaking with the force of her orgasm.
I follow her over the edge. And I come with a roar that shakes the whole damn room. It goes on and on as the knot grows and grows—her pussy milking me for what feels like forever.
And through all of it, that magic keeps burning.
Not scorching.
Not consuming.
Binding.
Firelight seems to flicker behind my closed eyes as the mate bond settles around us, weaving together two separate threads of magic until I can’t quite tell where mine ends and hers begins.
Monster goes silent.
Not suppressed. Not beaten into submission.
Peaceful.
Holy fuck.
I’ve never felt him like this.
Then I feel her.
Not her body.
Gabby.
A whisper of emotion brushes against me through the newborn bond—wonder tangled with fear, vulnerability wrapped around something warm and hopeful.
And instinctively, something inside me reaches back.
I’m here.
I don’t know if she hears the words.
But the way her arms tighten around me makes me think maybe she feels them.
Afterward, when the frantic edge finally begins to fade, I keep her close.
I don’t know how long the knot will hold us together. I didn’t bite her. Didn’t give her my mark.
Not yet.
Not until she understands what she is to me.
And I don’t exactly know what the bond forming between us means. But I know what it feels like.
Peace.
Firelight.
Passion.
Affection.
Because the truth is, I care for this woman. I have feelings for her. And her son.
I want to fit in their world.
Gabriella is wrapped around places inside me I thought would always belong to Monster and me alone. And for the first time, letting someone that far inside doesn’t make me want to fucking run.
I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do when Monster realizes accepting me tonight doesn't mean Gabriella has agreed to every damn thing he already has planned for our future.
But I know this.
She knows what the knot means now. She knows what Omega means to me.
And when I gave her the chance to walk away from all of it, she looked straight at the monster I've spent my whole life running from and chose the male carrying him anyway.
Rowan.
Me.
And that might be the first time in my entire fucking life I've understood what it feels like to belong somewhere.
This is definitely something beyond lust.
Beyond Monster. Beyond whatever Alpha-and-Omega bullshit Fate might be working behind our backs.
Gabriella let me have her. And somehow, without realizing when the fuck it happened, I've let her have me too.
Maybe that's why I can't get close enough.
Because for the first time in my life, being wanted physically isn't enough. I want this woman to know me. And I want her to stay anyway.
I lie there with Gabriella tucked against me, her head over my heart, while my fingers move slowly through her dark hair.
Monster is silent.
Not gone. Content. For once in my entire fucking life, the bastard isn't clawing at me.
Gabby traces an absent pattern against my chest.
“Havoc?”
“Yeah, Honey Girl?”
She hesitates. I feel it immediately.
“What if you're wrong?”
My hand stills.
“About what?”
“Me being your Omega.”
I look down at her.
Vulnerability fills those amber eyes. And suddenly I understand the question beneath the question.
What if this isn't real?
I brush her hair away from her face.
“I'm not wrong.”
She frowns.
“That's it?”
“Yeah.”
“But—”
“Gabby, the Wolf knows you're my Omega.”
Monster growls his agreement.
I ignore him.
“But it wouldn’t matter because I'm here for one reason. And that’s because I’m yours.”
She exhales a shaky breath.
I keep going.
“I want you, Honey Girl. Only you.”
Her eyes search mine. I make sure she sees me.
Not the Wolf. Not the Alpha.
Me. Her Rowan.
“Whatever Fate says you are doesn't get to make that decision for me.”
Her breath catches.
“And it sure as fuck doesn't get to make it for you.”
Something in her expression changes.
The fear doesn't disappear. But she moves closer.
Her hand settles over my heart. And for the first time, I wonder if maybe this bond isn't about taking something from either of us.
Maybe it's about finally finding the one person we don't have to run from.