I can’t stop the surprised chuckle that cracks out of me. “Not only gorgeous, and a fighter, but also smart.” The compliments roll off my tongue so easily. I hear my own words and start.
Just a one-off, that's all it is.
I never waste time on words, definitely not before I fuck. Not ever. And certainly not to sing the praises of the omega who’s already in my grasp. I have no need to tell her what I think of her. Really not.
Her cheeks flush. “You going to say now that your approving talk will also ease your infiltration of my body?” She huffs out a breath.
“No, actually… I am deciding how to put that sharp tongue of yours to better use.” I gaze at her mouth, knowing that will only turn her on further. Somehow, my plan of taking her has turned into a full-blown seduction. It feels so right, and yet it’s not what I want. Is it? I need her to fear me, lay with me, fuck me back perhaps, just as I intend to worship her body, too.
Molten heat courses through my blood.
She must sense my thoughts, for her lips tremble. Her chest heaves. She curls her fingers into fists at her sides, and I know it’s because she’s stopping herself from touching me.
“You want me, admit it.” I run my hands over my chest.
“No.” Her gaze follows my actions as I slide my palm down to my thick cock and palm it at the base. Squeezing it down the length until a drop of precum oozes out.
She licks her lips. Oh, yeah, she wants me, wants my dick inside her all right. “Why are you fighting the inevitable?”
“Because… I have sworn to only lay with my mate.”
Her features freeze as if she can’t believe she’s blurted that out. I angle my head. Interesting. A strange warmth pools in my chest. I don’t want to examine it. Don’t care what it is. Nope. No way.
“So you haven’t been with any other alpha?”
She squares her shoulders. “Your ability to deduce the obvious is overwhelming.” She tries to sneer, but her voice trembles, spoiling the effect.
I don’t need her confirmation to reaffirm what I’ve already sensed. She’s held back from anyone else having her, and that knowledge shakes me to the core.
I want to shove her on her back, bury myself inside her, sheath my cock in the depths of that sweet omega essence right before I turn her over, then bend her and slam into her from behind, taking her in every conceivable position.
She must read the intention on my face, for she shakes her head. “No.”
I peel back my lips. “Yes.”
This is when she retreats, perhaps falls on her knees and submits to me—better still, lies back, opens her thighs, and stays that way. I growl low, anticipating that sweet taste of her coating my tongue, that complex, seductive omega scent rolling through my blood as I raise and lower her on my cock. I can literally feel her skin give under my fingers when she snarls and bows her head and comes at me.
For a second it is I who blinks and freezes. I stare as she charges at me.
Little hellion.
I almost admire her for her fighting instinct, for that need to not give up, to fight back until the last breath, that intuition that had kept me going all through my growing years. That had brought me here to this fine suite in the palace in the richest district of the city.
I sense a kindred spirit in her. Which is why I am going to have to break her. I almost feel remorseful at that. Almost. But I have no choice. I have my plans all laid out. I haven’t come all this way to let an omega derail me.
So what if she smells like sunshine and heat and that faint sugary taste of musk that hints at her arousal?
So what if she has the most beautiful, most desirable, most luscious body that I have ever encountered?
So what if given half a chance she will claw her way under my skin, rip out my heart, and trample all over it, even as she claims ownership of my soul…and I must put an end to this. To whatever spell she is casting over me. Her omega essence is clearly ensnaring me, making me lose my composure, and that I will not allow. No way.
When she rushes at me, I take the brunt of her hit. I don’t feel it. No, that’s a lie. The feel of her breasts sliding against my chest, the scrape of her knuckles as she smashes her fist into my side, all of it turns me on.
I don’t move. And it’s not the fear of hurting her that keeps me immobile. It’s just that I relish the splatter of her punches on my chest until the fight finally goes out of her.
She falls to her knees, head hanging forward, shoulders slumped.
She’s breathing heavily, her lips parted, her spine curved down. It’s a gesture of total submission, one I appreciate.
My cock twitches and I delight in every second of the tension building in my groin. The inevitable coupling is going to be so much sweeter. So satisfying, that bite of pure satisfaction that comes with having broken an omega completely and utterly.
Reaching down, I swipe her hair away from her face, then clamp my fingers around her neck.
Her body tenses, then she springs up and snaps her head forward.
8
Lucy
I rear up and smash my head into his chin. Shock waves ricochet down my neck, down my spine. Sparks of red flash behind my eyes.
It feels like I’ve run into a brick wall. The impact slices through my body.
I cry out and fall back on the bed. Tears run down my cheeks. I’d known I wasn’t going to be able to escape, knew it from the moment I’d agreed to this half-assed plan to assassinate the General, that this could go either way. But until that moment I’d not realized I’d held out a last sliver of hope that I’d be able to break out of the grasp of this alpha.
He’d given me a chance to escape, and I had failed.
Then he’d allowed me to go at him, and the one solid hit that I’d got in at him had laid me low. The physical pain from the impact rips through me. A dull pressure pushes against the back of my eyeballs. More than the fact that I am utterly and completely at his mercy, it is the humiliation that I can’t hold my own against him that frustrates me. I’ve honed my fighting skills against some of the most skilled warriors, and all of it is to no avail.
It’s strange that more than the possible rape of my body that this alpha no doubt intends, it is the rape of my pride that hurts me more.
The throbbing in my head increases in crescendo. My guts twist, and the band around my chest tightens.
Sweat drips down my back, down my forehead, creeping into the space between my eyelids, and they sting.
I squeeze my eyes shut and lie there waiting for whatever punishment he has in store for me. Knowing only to expect the worst. Every last nightmare version of what I have heard from other omegas of how alphas will take from you, tear into you to slake their thirst…all of those scenarios crowd in on my head. My shoulders hunch. Tears slide down my cheeks and dammit, but I can’t stop them.
I am aware of him swooping down on me.
The world tilts as he slides his body under me, stretching out and cradling me close to his chest. There’s a strange gentleness, an almost awkward reverence to how he holds me. He doesn’t soothe, doesn’t say anything. His arms are around me, bands of steel that tie me to him. To keep me prisoner, to stop me from escaping, no doubt. I should feel threatened…yet I am not.