“Fuck, Omega.” I tear my mouth from hers.
“Not yet.” She twists her body, wrenches her wrists from my grip, and slides out from under me. This time she breaks free.
4
Lucy
The alpha of alphas had all but fucked me right here in the open, and I had let him.
Not that it should come as a surprise, him trying to take me right here in the open without finesse. It’s exactly what I’d expect of a brute like him.
But my response to him, the way I had opened my mouth, my legs…my heart…no, not that, not yet, but if I let him, he could get under my skin, and what am I thinking about?
He’s treating me like I am a caged animal. To him I am another omega he can drag off to his lair and rut and—my belly tightens—I want him to do it.
I want him to reach down and place his lips where his hand had been between my legs. I need to feel his tongue thrust inside me, feel that thick shaft whose length had throbbed against my waist, fill me, take me, knot me. “Fuck.” I scream more to hear the sound of my own voice, so I can try to shake off this sexual haze that has gripped me. This need that twists my insides, that makes me want to turn away and retrace my steps and throw myself at him.
“No. Fucking. Way.” I will not let him capture me.
I push my feet into the ground, focus my eyes on my goal. The wall, get to the wall.
My belly clenches; my skin heats.
The thud of his footsteps draws closer, as he chases after me. The scent of burned pinewood pours over me. His scent. So evocative, so potent. It’s laced with the tangy spoor of his arousal. It sinks into my blood, and my core clenches.
Goosebumps flare over my skin. “Keep going,” I swear to myself, then blink the sweat from my eyes. I hit the wall and clutch at it. My hands slip on the surface, and I almost scream out in frustration.
“Stop, Omega.” His voice is low, resonant, and it slides over my skin, incessant, incandescent.
It calls to me.
“No.” I shove my hand over the top of the wall, and this time find purchase. I haul my body over it, almost go over the side, then at the last second straighten myself to stand poised on the narrow length.
“Don’t do this.” His voice is soft, so tempting. So enticing. I hear the promises hidden in the tone and don’t dare turn. If I do, I’ll be lost.
I grip the surface with my boots, stand there balanced on the wall, trying not to stare at the churning mass of water far below. The wind blows over me, and I sway with it, trying to keep my balance.
The breeze cuts off, and I know he’s there behind me. His big body is shielding me from the elements. And it shouldn’t feel like he’s trying to protect me. But it does, and that doesn’t make sense.
“Turn around, Omega.”
I shake my head, glance at the other side of the river. Can I swim across? That’s assuming I survive the fall. I glance down at the water and mistake!—my knees quake. I lose my balance, doubling over all the way from my waist. My heart pounds, my leg muscles scream in protest, then I straighten again.
There’s silence behind me. I don’t see him, don’t hear him. His scent fades away, and I miss it already. I miss his presence. How bizarre is that?
How can you miss something you’ve never had?
I’ve never had anyone watch out for me, not until now. But he isn’t my protector. He’s an alpha who’d take me and rut me, and my heart stutters. The horrible thing is that I want him to.
I don’t want to die without knowing what it is like to have an alpha’s cock—not any alpha, this alpha. His shaft. I need it inside me, and what does that make me? Another omega who is driven by her needs. Yeah, that’s all I am. But maybe, if I take the plunge and dive into the water…I can redeem myself. Perhaps this is the way to prove to myself that I am not just a pussy driven to find fulfillment in the arms of an alpha. A man I hadn’t met until less than half an hour ago.
A low purr bleeds through the air. It loops around me, surrounds me, sinks into my blood. Warms me, enfolds me, caresses me.
How is it possible for one single consonant to carry so many complex notes, so much need?
I feel myself sway, feel my muscles relax, even as the still thinking part of my mind screams at me to fight. Fight. I half-turn, shuffling my feet, on the wall. Pieces of gravel slide off and over the side.
“Look at me.” His voice is soft and insistent, and yet there is a trace of steel running through it. “Now.”
The dominance in his tone cuts through the thoughts swirling around in my head, and slams into my chest. It pushes down on my shoulders, tugs at my nerves, forcing me to obey.
I lift my gaze to his.
Find myself drawn into those deep-blue eyes. So calm, so serene, so false, and yet so true. So intense. Deeper than the water behind me. Brighter than the skies above.
Standing on the wall, I am about level with that gaze.
Another low purr rumbles up his chest, his throat, pours out of his mouth, and I sway toward it. Toward that massive chest that can take my weight. A dense cloud of heat spools off his body and slams into me. I gasp.
My insides churn, my toes curl, everything in me insists I close the space between us, that I throw myself at him, rip off his clothes, feel his naked skin, lick the sweat that drips down his throat and ask him to take me. Right now.
This is insane.
There is a buzzing in my ears. I shake my head to clear it, then stagger back, taking a step away from him, and into space. I fling out my hand, and then there’s only the whine of the breeze.
5
Zeus
Her gaze widens, and then her body begins to fall. My heart slams against my rib cage. I leap across the distance that covers us and, leaning over, grab at her hand. I close my fingers around her wrist.
The weight of her body pulls me over the side. I hook my foot under the space at the bottom of the wall for leverage. She is not very heavy, yet my arm feels like it’s being pulled out of my socket. Sweat beads my forehead. Her body sways in the breeze. Her features tighten, and the color slides from her face. Still, she doesn’t scream, doesn’t panic. That surprises me and turns me on. She’s fucking strong, doesn’t scare easily, and I can’t wait to break her.
It’s even more important that I save her.
I strengthen my stance and then take a step back. Flexing my biceps, I heave her up. All the while, I hold her gaze. Those green eyes of hers stare at me; in their depths is a grim determination.
She actually thought she could have survived the fall and escaped, and perhaps she might have, but if I have my way, it will be a while before she sees any open space. Not until I have shown her who is her master. Not until I have taken her body and soul. Not until I own her thoughts, know her feelings, can second-guess her every move. Not until every part of her is mine. Only mine.
I don’t realize I have spoken the word aloud until her gaze widens. I can see the exact moment it sinks in about who is her rescuer. Her green pupils dilate. With fear? Arousal? Then, she kicks out her legs and pulls me over, almost all the way over the side.
Once again, I press my feet into the ground to find purchase. Then, hanging over the side of the parapet, I fling out my other arm to grab her shoulder.
“Let me go.” She snarls at me, holding my gaze.
“Never.” I bare my teeth, widen my stance, and yank her up.
The leverage pulls her up and over the side, and the weight of her body crashes into me. This time I am prepared. I heave her over my shoulder and then, swiveling around, I race up the lawns. I need to get her to where she is safe, where she can’t harm herself like that again.
She squirms in my hold and I sense her draw in a breath. All her muscles tense. Oh! No, she is not going to escape, not this time.
I tighten my hold and squeeze her thighs into my chest. Reaching the staircase, I race up the steps two at a time.
She begins to struggle harder, wriggling in my grasp. Each twitch o
f her hips only bleeds more of that omega scent of her arousal into the air. My cock hardens so much that it makes me stumble and almost fall, and fuck, I’ve had enough. Something inside me snaps. I slap her butt, once, twice, a third time. I intend to hurt. Intend to quieten her, need to feel that curved flesh give under my palm, feel that firmness resist. My fingers curl with the need to feel her naked skin slide against mine.
She stills.
I fling open the double doors to my suite and stride in. The sound of the bolt crashing home echoes around the space.
“No, no. No.” She punches a fist against my side.
Damn but she doesn't give in, does she? A part of me relishes the fact that she still resists me. It's going to make her submission so much sweeter.
She sinks her teeth into my back, and the sharp edges graze the skin through my vest. I feel it all the way to the tip of my cock.
Hell, I’ve been hard from the second I set eyes on her. She’d charged me, armed with nothing but that puny knife and had drawn blood. She’d taken me by surprise.
When was the last time anyone had managed to do that? Not since I had dueled with Ethan, and we’d been teenagers then. And Kayden had sent her. Had he anticipated that this omega would get through my defenses much easier than any alpha would?
A prickle of awareness tugs at my subconscious, and I push it aside. Not even Kayden could have expected this omega getting as far as she has.
It should piss me off really that she thinks she can go toe to toe with me, and yet it’s alluring. And exciting. She is wild, this one. She will not give in easily. Her audacity is an aphrodisiac that calls to me. And there is no way I am letting her out of this room, not for a long time.
She knows it, too.
And perhaps it is that which makes her struggle afresh.
She snarls and tries to knee me in the groin. I swerve, and her leg scrapes my waist, her inner thigh brushing my hardness. The scent of her arousal is heavy in the air. Honeyed, yet with a hint of something deeper… I have no doubt she will taste sweeter.
Desire tightens my groin.
She slams her fist into my back. The vibration shudders through me. I don’t stop the growl that escapes my throat and am rewarded with her body trembling against mine.
It’s cute that she thinks I will actually heed her cries, that I might consider setting her free. Not when she’d walked right into the den of the big bad alpha. I angle my head and sink my teeth in the curve of her butt.
She screams out. “You bit me?”
“You bit me first,” I growl. “I only returned the favor.”
She thrashes her legs, her body bucks, and she pounds her fists on my back.
“Behave.” I drag my arm down to below her hips and hold her there.
“You haul me away, capture me and bring me here, and you expect me to stay quiet?” Her voice is muffled, but I still hear her.
Her knees dig into my waist.
“I gave you a chance to escape, you failed. You are mine.” I snap my teeth.
She trembles.
A primitive surge of satisfaction tightens my groin. She’s afraid. Good. “It seems it’s finally sinking in you are in my control.” I sneer.
She brings down her joined fists on my back. The blow only sends another pulse of heat tearing through my veins.
“Have you lost touch with reality so much that you don’t know right from wrong anymore?”
There’s a touch of anguish in her voice and helplessness, and it tugs something inside me. Some long-forgotten, humane part of me that only one other woman has ever touched. What am I doing? I’d seen her and lost control. Had smelled that essence of ripe omega mixed with a dash of something forbidden, something so tangible that I had wanted to throw her down on the floor and rut her right there in the open.
It had blinded my senses to everything else. Except her. I am the hunter. She is my spoils. So why am I so hesitant? I cross the floor toward my bed.
She must realize that I am approaching my destination for she begins to struggle again. Arms and leg thrashing, she writhes in my grasp.
Another flare of her arousal hits me, and on cue, my cock thickens. What the fuck? I tighten my grip on her, “Keep that up and I won’t be responsible for what happens to you. I’ve been a gentleman so far.”
“You are kidding, right?” She yells, “If this is how you treat your guests—”
“That’s where you are mistaken.” I reach the bed. “You aren’t a guest. And I am not your host.”
I am a callous bastard who does not hesitate to plunder first and ask questions later, as she’s going to discover soon enough.
She knees me in the stomach, and the breath whooshes out of me. Another shudder of arousal tightens my belly.
“Let me go,” she pleads.
“You bet.” I throw her down on the mattress.
She bounces once, then springs up on her feet. Of course, she does. She’s already demonstrated that she knows how to fight, and she’d almost held her own…almost, even against someone as powerful as me. And that’s not ego, just a fact.
It's imperative that I make her a conquest. My dick throbs. The beat echoes the pulse thudding at my temples.
Swiveling around, I stomp to the table by the window and stab my finger at the tray of food there. “Eat.” I jerk my chin at the omega.
Her features grow pale. Her gaze drops to the tray, and she purses her lips. “I don’t want to eat, you fool.”
Her choice of insult is almost anticlimactic.
I snicker, and the skin at the corners of her eyes tightens.
Still holding her gaze, I kick off my boots. “In that case, let’s fuck.”
6
Lucy
Bastard! He knows that pronouncement while not exactly a surprise is only going to alarm me, and that is his intention: to frighten me so that I’ll submit to him like a nice docile omega. Well, he’s got that so wrong. I am not going down, not without a fight. The alpha-hole can go screw himself if he thinks I am going to make this easy on him.
He shrugs out of his vest, then places it over the chair near the bed.
The arrogance of the brute! He turns his back on me. I bare my lips, then lean low to charge him.
He tears off his tunic to reveal his naked back.
My breath catches, and my thigh muscles freeze.
Without his clothes, this alpha is overpowering.
I swallow, and my heart hammers.
Nothing has prepared me for those shoulders that seem hewn out of stone. His biceps flex, and I don’t need to touch them to know they’ll be hard and ungiving, like the rest of that body he is so casually baring to my gaze. Colored ink marks one side of his back and continues up and over his shoulder.
This is when I throw myself at him and catch him unawares. When he is the most vulnerable. I force my brain to connect my thoughts with action and place one trembling foot in front of the other.
He bends and pulls off his pants.
The scent of him, that earthy, woodsy, packed-with-need aroma intensifies. It’s laced with something deeper, the tang of his precum, all of which sinks into my blood and heads straight to my core.
My throat closes; my mouth goes dry. Moisture seeps out from between my thighs.
The muscles of his back ripple, the intricate tattoos on his skin undulate like the patterns on a rattlesnake.
The man is deadlier. He’ll hypnotize me, seduce me, take me, and I’ll not be able to protest. A shiver runs down my spine.
He drapes his fatigues over the seat, and all thought dribbles out of my head. His corded flanks are a thing of beauty that sweep down to meet the backs of those muscled thighs.
I must have made some noise, for he turns and gives me a full-frontal view of that sheer unleashed dominance of his physical self.
His chest is sculpted. There are tattoos colored across those angles and planes. His honeyed skin sweeps over a torso that has weathered many fights. A tattoo slashes diagonal
ly across the expanse, and I want to touch it. Trail my fingers over those pecs, down to where his concave stomach dips to meet his shaft. His fully aroused massive dick that stands up almost vertical with need.
Heat sweeps through my body, chased by chills. Goosebumps flare on my forearms. Every pore of my skin seems to open as if to absorb each nuance of his touch, the feel of him. My body is preparing for the invasion by this alpha that is bound to come. My stomach lurches. I want to look away but I can’t.
I want to move but my body feels too heavy.
A ripple of need pierces my core.
I want to taste him. Want to lap up the seed that drips from him and rub it all over myself.
I can almost feel that slithery moisture trickling over me. The sensations twist my insides. My thighs clench and a low, keening need rocks my belly.
His gaze narrows and those blue eyes seem to lighten into colorless mirrors that amplify my own desires before throwing them back at me.
My skin chafes with the need to go to him, to throw myself at him and rub my skin over his.
He holds his arms loosely at his sides, then widens his stance. I can see every last nook and hollow of that beautiful, delectable, hateful body.
The cords of his strong throat flex, the planes of his chest rippling as if there is an unseen force unfurling inside him.
The brute is preening for me, making sure I know exactly who is going to possess me. A powerful dominant alpha male who will take without mercy.
I should back away, scream, try to plot on how to get out of there. But that omega core of me insists I am exactly where I should be. The need to draw into myself, and make myself smaller is overwhelming. I will not do that. To do that will only give him an advantage. I jut out my chin and stay where I am.
His jaw firms. Then, he angles his head and studies me. His gaze is brooding, calculating, stained with lust and a strange cruelty.
Fated Mates: Paranormal Romance Series Starters Boxset Page 37
