Page 17 of Omega on the Rocks
I curled in on myself, digging my fingers into the wood floor, gasping as my spine arched with another wave of unbearable heat.
“I need him,” I keened, voice shattering. “Jules—I need his teeth in my neck—I need his knot in me—I can’t—Ican’tdo this without him.”
My bodyknewhe wasn’t here. It punished me for it. My slick turned to a flood. My pulse thundered. My vision flickered with black stars. My core ached so violently I couldn’t tell where the pain ended and I began.
“I’m gonna die,” I choked. “It hurts—ithurts—”
Jules dropped to her knees beside me, her hands hovering helplessly, terrified to touch me, afraid it might make thingsworse. And she was right. Nothing helped. Only him. OnlyKeiran.I was unraveling. I was beingripped apartfrom the inside out.
“He’s my mate,” I whispered brokenly, voice gone hoarse from screaming. “He’s my fated. And I—I thought he’d know—I thought he’d feel it—”
Then I screamed again—sharp, feral,ruined.
Chapter Eight
The door slammed open with a thunderous crack.
“Preacher!”
His voice cut through the haze, low and wild—less man, more beast. My head jerked up. I saw him in the doorway, chest heaving, shoulders shaking, eyes glowing with that dangerous burn that only ever came from an alpha pushed to the edge of his control.
Keiran.
He was soaked in sweat, like he’d run the whole damn mountain, and his eyes locked on me—crumpled on the cabin floor, shaking, wet with slick and snot and tears, destroyed by the force of what we were. Of what he was to me.
“Preacher,” he growled again, this time a plea, a command, a broken prayer.
I sobbed, curling in tighter, my arms wrapped around my stomach like I could somehow hold myself together. But I couldn’t. Not anymore. My body was tearing at the seams.
“I didn’t know,” I gasped, throat raw. “I didn’t know it would feel like this.”
Keiran was already crossing the space between us. I barely registered Jules stepping out of his way, tears streaking her cheeks as she whispered something I couldn’t hear. All I knew was him—his scent flooding the air, grounding and wild and utterly consuming. My wolf howled inside me, clawing and writhing with need.
He dropped to his knees beside me and grabbed me—hands firm, reverent, angry, shaking. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he snarled, eyes frantic as they searched my face, his thumb wipingaway the salt on my cheek. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you were going into heat?”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Only his touch, his scent, the heat and fire and ache between us.
“You didn’t offer your knot,” I croaked, words slurred with exhaustion and arousal. “You didn’t claim me. I thought—maybe it wouldn’t come.” His whole body went still. And then—he roared.
The sound tore from his throat like a beast mourning its mate. He pulled me into his arms, lifting me like I weighed nothing, clutching me against his chest as if trying to press our bones together, to make us one.
“You’re mine,” he growled, voice dark and thick and brimming with fury. “You’re my mate. My fated.”
I trembled in his hold, clutching at his shirt with bloodless fingers. “Ineedto be hurt,” I whispered. “I need you to fill me until I break—I need your knot inside me, Keiran, or I’lldie.I can’t breathe without it. Please—please—”
He growled again, burying his face in my neck, scenting me, licking the sweat from my skin. “You’re burning up,” he rasped. “Fuck, I can smell how slick you are—Preacher, why did you run from me?”
“Because the world only wants the version of me thatisn’tthis,” I choked, my voice cracking wide open. “Not the freak, not the hidden wolf. Not the boy who got thrown out of his pack for loving the wrong way. But you—Keiran, you made me feelseen, and I couldn’t take it.”
His whole body trembled, shaking with guilt and something primal and terrifying.
“I didn’t know,” he whispered, voice splintering. “Gods, I didn’tknow.”
Another contraction tore through me—violent, unbearable. My back arched and I screamed, clawing at his arms, my legs spreading without permission, my body begging to be taken.
“Please, Keiran—please—I can’t—I need to be bred—I need your knot—claim me,” I sobbed. “If you love me, you’ll claim me.”
His eyes went wide.
