by Sky Winters
“Get in the car,” he told her.
His voice was low, an underlying growl beneath his words. Whatever this was, he was feeling it too. She was bewildered and yet unable to think of anything but getting him alone and letting him do whatever he wanted to her. She settled into the car and closed her eyes, waiting.
CHAPTER SIX
Thad
They rode in silence toward her apartment, pulling into a parking space. He wanted to say the words, to tell her he knew what she was, that she had lied. Surely, she must know he knew, considering she was in full heat and his body was reacting. By the time they arrived at her place, he knew he would be in full rut and there would be no turning back for either of them. Should he walk her up and let things take their course, or should he leave her on the doorstep like a rejected dog in heat?
“Come up,” she said, as if reading his mind.
‘Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She didn’t wait. She opened her own door and made a beeline for the front of her building, only hesitating when she reached the door. She looked back to see if he was following. He was. They hurried to the elevator and pushed the button, thankful that the doors opened right away. Tumbling inside, Thad hammered at the button for her floor, his body crushing hers against the side wall as they ascended to her floor and fell back out, entangled in one another, tripping down the hallway to her apartment.
It was impossible to think clearly with the rut growing stronger inside him. Nothing existed but her and his need to be buried deep in her pussy, already dripping, ready for him to enter her. They were barely in the door and he was tearing at her clothes, her skin heated against his touch. He could hear her heartbeat as it thudded heavily in anticipation.
She pulled at his pants, stripping away his belt and slipping down his zipper. Her hands wasted no time in wrapping around his raging hard-on, stroking him as she moaned heavily against his ear. She whispered, a single word − “Please.” It was intoxicating, a heady mixture of lust and lack of control.
Cupping her ass, he pulled her upward, his cock slipping into the soft, wet crevice between her legs as he carried her toward her bed and pushed her down on it. There was no foreplay, no need for it. Instead, they got right down to what they both needed.
Positioning her over the edge of the bed, he buried his thick cock inside her slickness, enjoying the way her tight pussy wrapped around him, pulling him into her and trying to hold him there. His entire body felt like it had been strapped to a battery, energized at every nerve ending, sensitive to her every touch as she moved her hands to his face and pulled him to her.
His lips met hers, hungry, demanding. She tasted sweet, like the finest candy, and there was something more. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew he wanted it, right here and now and for the rest of his life. The way she smelled sent waves of excitement through him, overwhelming him. She was in heat and this was the rut that her condition had compelled. Despite his experience with women, this was new, something that only happened when a true mate was found.
She moaned loudly, reaching around him to pull him into her harder. She wanted him in the same way he wanted her, without reason or second thought. He could already feel the beginnings of a low knot rising through his powerful cock, pushing her apart as it formed inside her. She squealed as it filled her, tensing, and then settled on it as her body accepted the way it bulged against her tender pink walls.
A low growl rose from his center, his inner wolf taking over and announcing its presence. She had completely acquiesced to his dominance, allowing him full domain over her to do as he wished. It was the way of their kind; the way nature had intended things between Alphas and Omega since they had come into being. She was his now and she would always be his because nature demanded it.
He leaned in again, his tongue exploring her mouth, searching it, filling it, even as his considerable girth caused her to squirm and moan beneath him. She muttered into his mouth but he was able to make out the words.
“Fuck me. Fuck me harder.”
He was eager to oblige, his hips grinding into hers, pushing deeper with every stroke. He picked up the pace, slipping in and out of her, hard and fast, enjoying the sounds she made with each thrust. The knot began to get harder, filling her, pushing her apart as her thighs quivered against him. He could feel the vibrations in them as she weakened and gave in to the explosion escaping her center.
Her nails dug into his back as she released. She shattered into a thousand pieces against his cock and shuddering as he continued fucking her. The knot grew larger as his own orgasm built inside him. He shoved forward in one more powerful thrust, causing her to cry out as the knot locked in place, holding them together as he filled her with his hot, sticky fluids before collapsing against her.
They lay there, their breathing heavy against one another’s chest. His knot held them together as one. Propping up on his elbow, he bent down and kissed her again. Their mouths hot with the embers of the aftereffects of their mating.
Finally, the knot subsided enough for him to pull free of her. He rolled to one side and let out a deep breath. This had never happened to him before and now, would only ever happen with her. The knot was reserved for your true mate and would never form with another partner. It was like nothing he had ever experienced, even the best sex he had ever found paled in comparison to the heart, mind, and body becoming one during rut.
He’d never even suspected that she was an Omega. She seemed so forthright, not timid or demure in his presence. She was petite, but that wasn’t so unusual for a Beta. The effect she was having on him had quickly become clear the moment she went into heat, however. It had made every available sense tingle into action and there had been no stopping it.
Based on her reaction, he was guessing it had been completely out of control for her too and would be for a while now. They lay there for a time in the darkness, but soon, their instincts would take over again and they would spend the night repeating the coupling that neither of them could resist.
This wasn’t how he had expected the night to end but he certainly wasn’t complaining. It was the answer to his recent contemplations about whether he should stop screwing around and start a family. The universe had responded by sending him his natural mate and sending them both spiraling into a sexual frenzy that left no doubt as to what he was meant to do.
He was put here to love and protect this woman, and though he hardly knew her, he knew he would spend his life, from here on out, doing just that.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jaycee
Jaycee lay there in the darkness, gasping for breath. She was shredded and horrified. Not only had she just had sex with a stranger she met on a dating site but it had been unprotected − but it wasn’t him that was at fault. Her body had been more than willing to fuck him twelve ways to Sunday, but her heart and mind had been left out of it. She had been consumed by a physical need like she’d never experienced before. Only now, after the fact, were her faculties beginning to return.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, stirred awake by her beginning to fret beside him.
“I think you should go,” she mustered.
Thad sat up and smiled at her, reaching to touch her arm. He might as well have been outfitted with a hot poker on the end of his wrist. His imprint burned into her, stirring the fire that remained as embers, waiting for nothing more than a breath to reignite them. She stirred uncomfortably and stood, pulling away from him, but it was too late. Her thoughts were fogged over, consumed by passion again.
“Jaycee, has this ever happened to you before?” he asked, sounding much gentler than he’d been earlier.
“Sex? Yes. I wasn’t a virgin.”
“I don’t mean that. I mean, this . . . this intensity.”
“No,” she admitted, reaching for a nearby robe to cover her naked form from him, using it as a barrier between them, as if that were possible and he was the only one in this room who lacked any control.
>
“Me either.”
“Please, don’t feed me bullshit, Thad. I’m quite sure you’ve been with plenty of women that cranked your tractor.”
“Cranked my tractor?”
He laughed and scratched his head. The covers slipped away from his bare chest as he sat up in the bed and looked at her. God, he was stunning. The large tattoo she had noticed earlier was now more visible, a dark Kraken that covered his back, a single tentacle wrapping around his side and curling about his right pec. It was an odd choice for a wolf, but she had too many other things going on in her head right now to ask about it. She felt drawn to him, unable to pull away. A deeper part of her screamed for her to get him out of here, as if he would somehow consume her.
“Please just go,” she whispered.
Instead, he stood, his naked form approaching her in all its well-hung glory. Her mind swirled with confusion. Her feet seemed glued to the floor where she stood.
Fuck. Fuck me. Shit.
“You lied,” he said flatly.
“What? Lied about what?” she replied.
She truly didn’t know what he was talking about. Her mind couldn’t process anything more than his approaching perfection and what she wanted him to do to her, again.
“You’re not a Beta. You’re an Omega.”
She was speechless. How could he know that? She’d said nothing that would lead him to that conclusion. Could he somehow smell her? She’d never known anyone who could tell the difference like that. Perhaps, he was a different kind of wolf than she had grown up with in her own pack. There was certainly something different about him. No one had ever made her behave the way she had last night.
“I’m a Beta,” she pouted.
“No. You’re an Omega and you’re in heat.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it? What explanation do you have for what happened here last night? No foreplay. No innuendo. No invitation. We were just having dinner and you got so horny you practically ran out of the restaurant to get away from me.”
“You should have let me come in alone. If you knew this was happening to me and I couldn’t control it, you should have respected what I was going through and let me maintain my dignity.”
Thad laughed at this, putting both his hands on her shoulders and pushing the robe down so he was touching her bare skin again. The reaction was instantaneous and on steroids − an uncontrollable desire to push him to the floor and ride him like a drunk frat girl on the bucking bronco at a country bar. She’d do anything to have him knotted inside her again. He removed his hands and traced a single finger across her left breast, trailing it down and over her soft belly, then further down, reaching between her legs. His fingers slipped through the slickness that was already forming there. Her whole body tensed against him. Drawing his fingers back up and brushing her own juices across her lips, he looked her in the eyes.
“You don’t understand something, Jaycee. You belong to me now. You didn’t go into heat because of some timetable or moon phase. It happened in response to me. That’s the way it works. Did no one ever explain this to you?”
Jaycee considered this, all of it, though it was still hard to think with him so close to her. Her mother had always told her that she would know when she met her mate, that her body would tell her. She hadn’t told her it would cause her to behave like a feral dog with no self-control. She hadn’t told her the power her mate would suddenly hold over her. It explained a lot that she had never understood about her mother and father, though. She’d often wondered how her kind and loving mother could have ended up with a dick like her father, who looked down on Omegas as if they were a lesser being. Now, she knew. She was with him because she couldn’t not be.
“What if I don’t want to be your mate? What if I just enjoyed our one-night stand and don’t want to belong to you? I don’t want to belong to anyone. Why do you think I lied about being a Beta?”
“Ah, she admits it. Finally.”
“Just because you’re a great lay doesn’t mean I want to spend my life with you.”
“Ditto.”
“Well, there we go then. There is nothing that says we must become lifelong mates. This is good that this happened. As I understand it, there is only one true mate for our kind. Now, I know who that is. So, if I want to stay single, I just have to keep my distance from you.”
“Is that really what you want?”
“Yes.”
Her heart was beating out of her chest. This felt like breaking things off with someone she loved deeply and had spent a lifetime with already. How could she feel such a strong emotion about someone she’d only just met and not even had enough time to learn much more about than he was a bad driver and liked rare steak? All she knew beyond that was that he was the fucking best sex she’d ever had. That was hardly enough to base a relationship on, was it?
“All right,” he told her.
She could tell he wanted to say more. Perhaps, he was experiencing his own confusion or was no more ready for this than she had been. Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. She just wanted him as far away from her as possible, so she could think . . . think and stop leaking her sultry desire down her thighs.
“Thank you,” she managed.
He nodded and retrieved his clothes from where they were scattered across the floor, putting them on as he made a call on his cell. She pulled the robe back around her and turned to look out the window, her body screaming at her not to let him go and her brain doing its best to shut the noise out and maintain control.
“Hey. It’s me. Can I come over and crash on your couch for a few hours? You can take me back by the house before we go into the office, so I can shower and change,” he said to the person on the other end. After a brief silence, during which she assumed the person was responding, he added, “Great. What apartment number?” Another short silence and finally, “Okay. I’ll be right there.”
With that, he finished putting on his shoes and walked toward the door. It was only when he reached it that he turned back to her.
“Thanks for last night. Good luck to you.”
He opened her door and disappeared down the hallway as it closed behind him. She realized she had been holding her breath, and finally, let it go. Her body seemed to calm a bit after that but not completely. She could still feel a tug toward him. Was she going to stay this way? How long before she’d return to normal? She really needed to talk to her mother, but a quick review of her phone showed there was still no response to her earlier message. Instead, there were another half-dozen messages from the Alpha Meets Omega app.
Jaycee looked at them and considered why she had signed up for the site. She had wanted to find a partner, someone to love and who would love her back. She found her ideal mate right off the bat, but he was only ideal in some cosmic wolf fate sense. For all she knew, they had nothing in common. A part of her wanted to find out, but she was terrified of it all going badly and ending up with a man like her father just because that was how it was supposed to be. If nothing else, she could now date freely, without fear of this happening again.
Still, was that a good thing?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Thad
“Are you okay?” Barron asked as Thad came through his front door.
“Yeah. Just a crazy night. I’m sorry to barge in on you like this, but I didn’t feel like driving home.”
“I take it the date went well,” Barron said with a smile.
“I don’t know how to really answer that.”
Thad laughed and shook his head, spreading his hands out, palms flayed. Barron nodded and waved him to the sofa.
“I went ahead and folded it out. You got here quick. Let me get you some sheets.”
Unlike Jaycee’s apartment, Barron’s looked well lived in. It was not a studio like hers. It was a little larger, with a separate bedroom and an enclosed kitchen area. It seemed more functional than anything, a lone corner containing a fitness machine and hanging boxing
bag. Barron stayed in shape, despite driving a car around for a living. Of course, most wolves did, so it wasn’t really a surprise.
In another corner, a small area had been set aside with a collection of odd metals and clays. The table there contained a partial sculpture of a woman; her face, hair, and shoulders made up of wires. A welding torch lay beside her and various gears; screws and such were beginning to fill out her face. He walked over and looked at it a bit more closely before glancing around. There were no other sculptures like it to be seen, so this was either an impressive first attempt or it was something he made for others, not himself.
“You like her?” Barron said as he returned with a clean sheet, pillow, and blanket, putting them on the pullout bed.
“She seems to be coming along rather well. Have you been doing this long?”
“All my life, really.”
“But you have no others?”
“Some stayed with the wife. I’ve sold some others.”
“Ah, of course. This one. Is it a commission piece?”
“No. That one is mine. It’s my wife.”
“You miss her,” Thad replied.
“It’s torture,” Barron said.
Thad would not have understood how someone could feel so strongly about someone even as late as yesterday, but now, he understood much better. He felt like he had left a part of himself a few flights up. He’d never gone into rut like that. He’d always thought it could happen with anyone; despite being told it would only happen with his true mate. Still, he’d dated Omegas before and never experienced what had happened last night. He’d known in the restaurant, the moment she started responding to him, and he knew it was his rising pheromones that had sent her into heat. What happened after that was beyond either of their control. He could have no more said no to her than she could to him.
Even now, he wanted to go back up there and claim her again. He knew he could. No matter what she had said to him, he could have her any way he wanted. It must have taken everything she had to send him away. The fact that she had summoned that within herself instead of letting him stay and mate with her until they had to force themselves apart to go to work on Monday was all that was keeping him from marching back to her door and using his presence to keep her by his side. It wasn’t fair to either of them to mate just because their bodies said so. Still, choosing not to do so might mean neither of them would ever mate. Wolves mate once, for life. The rest of their lives would be spent trying to find that same sense of wild abandon with another wolf who was not a true mate.
