by Jade Alters
Now that she’d confessed to being a virgin, I’d gotten attached to the idea that no other male had touched her.
She lifted her eyes to mine. “My law school classmates liked to talk. In great detail.” She let her mouth curve into a sexy smirk. “I may have read a few things here and there, just in case.” She licked her lips. “Good?”
“Perfect,” I said. “I like it that you haven’t practiced on anyone else.” I tugged on her arms. “Come up here.”
“Caveman,” she said. She straddled me. “I like it that I can sit on your lap,” she said.
“I like it too.” I really liked the way her curvaceous bottom rubbed against my erection, and the way her wet sex felt against me.
“Humans,” she said with a twist of her hips. “Are too small. I’d break them.”
I growled. “I don’t want you on a human’s lap.” My bear’s feelings on the topic were more along the lines of, I’ll rip the head off any human or shifter that touches you. “You’re the perfect size for me.”
“You always said that. Even when we were teenagers.”
“It’s true.”
She rolled her hips over mine. I was so close to losing it. I did not want to finish early. I lifted her, wrapping her legs around my waist. “You okay with taking this further?”
“One hundred percent.”
I pushed a finger inside her. She was dripping wet.
“I’m ready,” she moaned. “Get your cock in me.”
“You’re going to kill me.” I tipped my head back to take a long breath. “I am not going to rush this.”
“I just went down on you for the first time. You should cater to me.”
“How is that different from any other time?”
She didn’t get to formulate a snarky reply because I pushed a second finger inside her pussy. At the same time, I closed my mouth over her nipple. She circled her hips until I couldn’t take it anymore. “Okay, you’re getting your way.”
I lifted her up, and positioned her over my waiting cock. She threw her head back as she slid down, enveloping my cock in the warmest heat. This time, restraint was harder.
Her breasts were the perfect height for my mouth. “You feel so good,” I groaned as I hitched my hips and drove into her. We didn’t last long this time. She came with my mouth on her nipple, and my hand between her legs. I followed her immediately after.
Sated, we slumped together. I pulled her forward until her head lay on my shoulder. I loved being able to hold her like this. I didn’t say it though -- I didn’t want to spook her, and have her think she’d have to run again. It would suck, royally, but I would let her go.
Soon enough, my stomach growled. “What do you want for dinner?” I asked.
“As a human, or a bear?” She lifted her head to grin at me.
Again, I didn’t want to push her too hard, but I could tell she’d really enjoyed running as a bear on the way to Red Cliff. “You want to do a little hunting?” Hunting here was ideal, because there were so few humans.
When she smiled, it went all the way up to her pink cheeks.“I would love to.”
“I’m going to let my team know we’re here. A few of the MASK team members will be close by until this is over. I don’t want you to be startled if you see one or hear one of them.”
“I’d like to meet them sometime.”
“Oh, no. I can’t let them do that. They’d enjoy it too much.”
“They’d give you a hard time?”
“They’d never stop.”
“The sooner the better then!”
I caught her around the waist as we headed outside to hunt for wild game. “Let’s go.”
After we shifted, she caught a squirrel, and I caught a rabbit. While we shared our meals as bears, I noticed Eve’s honeyed scent, mixed with spruce was growing stronger.
Abruptly, she shifted back to human and I followed suit. She clutched at her stomach. “I feel really weird.”
Her cheeks, which were already rosy, turned a deep red. “How so?” I asked.
“Everything’s bright. Loud.”
I sniffed the air. “You smell different too.”
“Well I did just run around as a bear and eat raw meat.”
“Again, not a turn off for me. But no, you smell like you. Like honey and fresh spruce trees, but more so.”
Even through the flush her face paled. She blinked a few times. “I am a moron. I don’t know why I didn’t realize.”
“Realize what?” I asked. I had no clue what she meant.
Eve rubbed her hand over her mouth. “I’m going into heat.”
Eve
Clearly my body had fully rid itself of the suppressants. Now I was in heat. Supposedly, within twenty-four hours, I’d become mindless with lust. And I was out here in this cabin, surrounded by Owen’s military team, being hunted by a pack of criminals.
I’d never had a heat. Usually they happened sometime after an omega turned eighteen or nineteen. I’d been in Denver by then, drugging myself with as high a dose of suppressants as I could afford at the time. Ten years, and I’d never had a heat. An omega my age usually would have suffered through twenty of them.
I bent forward and rested my head against a tree trunk. Yesterday, I’d yelled at Owen that I didn’t trust him. Now, I was going to have to depend on him to protect me from other shifters during this hellscape, or else I needed to get the fuck away from him and lock myself in a concrete room.
“Eve?”
I lifted my head from the tree trunk and rubbed at the skin. I probably had a nice impression of tree bark etched into my face. “Yes?”
“I think we should get back inside.”
“Yes. Let’s do that.”
“Before this gets more intense, tell me what you want. I can restrain myself. I have handcuffs. I can lock myself up. Or we can lock you in the bedroom, and I can guard you. I have a taser you can use on me.”
It meant a lot to me that he was offering so many options, but none of them would be necessary, besides the most traditional. “I want to share my heat with you. If you’re interested.”
“I was not expecting you to say that,” he said. His voice was rough.
“Owen, listen. I know my leaving wasn’t easy for you. I think it must have sucked royally. I’ve only thought about it from my perspective. But when we were running, I had time to think. You were eighteen, you were doing what you were taught. And to take it further than that, I think the clan probably thought they were doing the right thing.”
“They wanted to protect you.”
“Yes. They saw me and all the other omegas as something precious, that needed to be protected. It wasn’t right, in fact it was very fucking wrong, but it wasn’t cruel, and it wasn’t evil.”
“You’re right. It could have been better, but everyone wanted what they thought was best for omegas.”
How many times was I going to have to explain this to him? If I had a magic spell, the first thing I’d do was make Owen an omega for a month. Then we’d see how he liked being bossed around. “Adult omegas need to make their own choices.”
“I know that now. And I know we haven’t seen eye to eye on the clan, but I’m trying. I have made some changes to the way things work.”
“Like what?”
“Like there haven’t been any arranged or forced marriages since you left.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“I didn’t get a chance.”
“You’re getting one now,” I bit out. I pushed my hands against my eyes. “Ow.”
“What’s wrong”
“Even my brain hurts.” I took a step forward, but my legs crumpled under me. I didn’t have time to hit the ground, for Owen was there instantly, holding me up. “It feels blurry.”
“I’ve heard that’s normal,” he said.
“I’ve always dreaded that I’d lose control like that. It made me resent being an omega. The other omegas would talk about it when we were teens
. They thought it was cool. They kept saying stuff like, I can’t wait for the day I’m overcome by passion, and I think it’s going to be so awesome to be driven insane with lust.” I made an exaggerated gagging motion. “It sounded awful to me.”
“How does it sound now?”
“It sounds tolerable.”
“Only tolerable?”
“If you consider that before today, it would have been a big hell no for me.” I didn’t want to descend into another argument, but I wanted him to know it wasn’t personal. Or rather, it was personal. If Owen wasn’t the one with me, then I wouldn’t share my heat at all.
I was grateful we’d already slept together at this point. If I’d been facing my first time happening during a heat, I don’t know that I’d have coped.
I wasn’t sure how well I was going to cope now.
Owen
For now, Eve was asleep. But as her scent became more honeyed, I knew it wouldn’t be long before she woke, craving more.
Satisfying Eve during her heat? Not a hardship. At one point, it was the thing I wanted most in the world. I still wanted it, but I was apprehensive.
I’d make sure her heat was as perfect as it could be, and then we’d part ways again.
Even if a relationship had been possible -- which I was sure Eve would reject -- I wasn’t ready to give up serving with my team in MASK. As long as I was physically able, I wanted to use my skills to protect both shifters and humans. Like me, Eve had busted her ass for her career. And even after this threat, I doubted she would want to give up her position at the District Attorney’s Office. She’d worked hard for it, and I wouldn’t ask her to give it up, not even if we were mated.
And given Eve’s opinions on our clan, I doubted she’d ever want to mate.
As the Alpha, could I have a partner who wasn’t my mate? Could I have a casual girlfriend? No one in our clan had ever had such a half-assed relationship, but I’d be willing to give it a shot for Eve.
I wouldn't walk away from my MASK team, but if our clan and my family couldn’t -- or wouldn’t -- change enough to accept Eve on her terms, then I could walk away from my role as Alpha.
If I ditched my clan, my family would flip out. They enjoyed having me in charge.
I’d chosen the clan over Eve before, even though I hadn’t fully realized it. I wouldn’t do that again, if she gave me the opportunity to try again.
Did I want Eve back? Yes. However, I knew now that I’d never really had her.
The anger I’d had over her leaving me had begun to fade as she explained how trapped she had been. I’d been too young and self-absorbed to comprehend that.
I must have absorbed parts of it though, because like I’d told her, I’d worked to introduce few changes over the years to improve life for the clan. From her perspective, I could see my changes had been sadly lacking.
I knew how much I valued my autonomy. I put myself in her shoes. I imagined that someone else -- even Eve -- had the power to deny my application to MASK. Or to keep me from joining the Army at all.
My stomach burned. I’d have run too.
She’d always had not one, but two feet out the door, while I lived in ignorant bliss. It was clear to me now, a decade later, that she had tried to signal to me that she wasn’t willing to accept the role of omega in our clan, but I’d ignored her messages.
Sharing her heat with her could easily backfire. But I wasn’t going to let that happen -- I was going to prove myself. Trusting an Alpha during her heat was monumental. As an Alpha, I couldn't imagine the lack of control. It was far different than just sleeping together normally.
Many unmated omegas chose to lock themselves in a room with bottled water and energy drinks. I vowed to make sure Eve didn’t regret sharing her heat with me.
Eve rolled over in bed. She’d worn one of my t-shirts to bed, and the creamy skin of her chest was visible.
I went from semi-hard to rock hard in an instant. My cock throbbed. Under the thin cotton fabric, Eve’s nipples hardened. I brushed my hand over her breast. Her back arched, pushing her breasts forward.
Still asleep, she moaned. She turned over suddenly, twisting the sheet as it turned with her. She kicked, throwing the covers off. She wore no underwear. Her round backside lifted and she pulled one knee to the side, exposing her wet pussy to me. The scent of honey rose, intoxicating me.
I put my mouth next to her ear. “Eve, you ready?”
Her eyes were still closed but she nodded her head. “Owen. Yes.”
I pushed her knees up under her body. I ran my hands from her head down to her ankles. She arched her back even more as I caressed her skin. I trailed one finger all the way down her spine, her backside, and over pulsing sex. She writhed against the bed, pressing her breasts into the mattress and her backside into the air. “Like this,” she said. “I need it.”
You need this too; don’t screw it up.
I pushed two fingers into her. She rocked back against me. “Owen! Please!”
I couldn’t deny her any longer. I grabbed a condom and put it on. Thankfully I’d had some stashed in the cabin. I got on my knees behind her upturned bottom, and I pushed my cock in to the hilt. Flush against her body, I bent over her. I brushed her hair from her neck, and bit the back of her neck.
She made a loud keening cry, and jerked against me. I got back upright and held onto her hips with my hands. The sight of her stretched out in front of me, on her knees, with my cock buried in her pussy with her sweet, honey scent filling my nose would be one that never left me.
I knew then, that even if Eve rejected me again, I’d never take another mate. She was it for me.
“More, Owen. More,” she begged. She made little rotating motions with her hips, back and forth, pushing me to the edge. I bit down on my tongue. I wasn’t going to come yet -- this was about more than just pleasing her. This was about making sure she got what she needed from her Alpha.
I wasn’t hers, though. I had to remember that.
My bear wasn’t happy. You could be hers, dumbass. And she could be yours.
Not helpful. I rolled my hips, thrusting into her, working to hit the spot omegas said felt the best.
“Yes!” she yelled. “There!”
I got one hand between her legs, where she was soaking with arousal. I rubbed small circles over her clit until she finished, her warm core tightening in waves around my cock. She collapsed, flat onto the bed, and I followed her down as I felt my own release pumping relentlessly into her body.
I love you, Eve.
No. I cared about her. It wasn’t love.
I had to remember that, even as I treasured the feel of her warm, pliant body against mine.
Forty-eight hours after she’d first noticed the symptoms, Eve stretched her arms above her head with a soft sigh. “It’s almost over,” she said.
“Happy to be rid of the mindless lust?” I suspected she was, because I was fucking relieved. As much as I had valued Eve choosing me to get her through her heat, and as much as I had loved getting to fuck her hour after hour until we were both spent, I was ready to watch out for Bull and his men myself, without having to rely on my team.
“I’m relieved to be able to think clearly again, but I did thoroughly enjoy this.”
I’d thought she felt that way, but it was nice to hear her say it out loud. “Me too.” I inhaled her scent. Our scents were now intertwined, mixed together after her heat. My bear really liked that.
“Now that I’m not incoherent, I need to check in with work. Do you have a burner phone?”
Back to the real world. “Yeah. I’ll get you one.” I didn’t stop myself from appreciating the view as she let the sheet slide down around her waist. I could look at her bare breasts forever.
“Thanks. Luckily, I have my boss’s cell memorized; I’ve dialed it from the office landline plenty of times.”
I pulled a new phone from the safe and handed it to Eve. All of my team kept three spare phones stored at all times, as we
ll as a packed ‘go bag’ and extra cash. Eve gave me one last kiss and pulled on one of my sweatshirts. While Eve stepped into the kitchen to call her boss, I stripped the sheets off the bed and picked up the pillows we’d managed to fling around the room.
Eve returned within minutes. She stood in the doorway. Her bright green eyes clouded over. Her mouth was in a flat line.
“Eve.” I grabbed her shoulders. “What is it?”
“I talked to my boss,” she said, with zero inflection.
What the hell had happened to make her lovely voice a monotone? “And?” I asked.
She rubbed both hands over her face a few times before speaking. “The bastards burned my house to the ground.”
Fuck. Bull had moved fast -- faster than I’d expected. He obviously was still calling the shots. Had he been trying to harm Eve with the fire, or just send her a message?
“He was supposed to be in isolation at the jail. No communication other than his attorney,” she said. She leaned against the doorframe and dropped her eyes to the floor.
“There are probably guards on the inside.” I wanted to head down there immediately and start interrogating witnesses. And by interrogate, I meant kill. “I’ll call the fire chief. See if they have any evidence.”
“Thank you.” She lifted her eyes back up to meet mine. They were still dull, lacking the bright green sparkle I had come to look for. “I saved up for that house. I bought it a year after I got my job.” She sighed. “My boss said it’s a total loss. Sounds twisted, but I want to see it. I want to see what they did to it.”
“You’re not going alone. I’ll take you as soon as I can.” I ducked my head and pulled her close until her forehead rested against mine. “We’ll figure this out.”
She must have really been rattled to not respond to my order that she wasn’t going alone.
“I hate the thought of people picking through my charred stuff while I’m not there,” she said.