Page 15 of Forbidden Bonds
“Oops,” he says darkly. “Look at that. I’ve marked you. Must be mine now.”
A jolt goes through me. My pussy spasms savagely.
He curses and strides off through a second door. The sound of water running ensues.
I inhale sharply, only realizing as I do that I’d stopped breathing for several heartbeats.
God, what was that? It’s like his cum on me woke up the predator in him.
My clothes are restrictive. I cannot bear them against my flesh, with heaving breaths and shaking fingers, I tear them from my body and toss them aside.
Chapter Eight
Rhett
The spray pounds against the back of my neck, hot enough to sting. I need the scalding distraction to keep me grounded because out there, kneeling in pain beside my bed, is an omega in heat.
And not just any omega, someone important. Her scent saturates the air, seeping into my lungs until I feel drunk on it. It’s maddening, creating a feral compulsion to tear the door off its hinges to get to her.
I brace my hands against the tiled wall and bow my head under the spray, dragging in air, wishing I could wash her scent off of me—no chance when it clings and burrows deep.
Lucian’s voice plays in my mind.“She’s yours. Don’t let her out of your suite.”
Mine.
I shouldn’t like the sound of that as much as I do.
I squeeze my eyes shut and try to focus on the faces of the betas I was fucking fifteen minutes ago. But they’re already gone. Erased from my memory. Even their scent has been drowned beneath hers.
No doubt about it, my mind is broken because I would swear I have scented her before…She’s not even pretty, not like the models who were in my bed.
Not pretty? Where the fuck did that idea come from?
It’s the pressure of this unexpected challenge, that's the only explanation for putting the betas above her because simply put, she is stunning… and that voice, pure honey, all soft and sexy with a little bit of bite when she was pissed at me.
I’ve never been with an omega and it’s fucking me up. They are just a fantasy. Thanks to my business mogul brother, betas have always been plentiful and available. What do I know about omegas?
What do I know about rutting one through her heat?
Absolutely nothing. All I have is this instinct that tells me it’s coming on too fast.
I should throw on my clothes, call Lucian, and hand her over to someone else before this gets any worse. But I don’t move to do that. Nor will I. It’s already too late. If any other fucker comes in here and tries to take her from me, I will lose my shit.
The moment I saw those sad eyes that looked like they’d seen too much, I was done.
I lean up, drag a hand down my face. I need to get it together. Alphas deal with omegas all the time; it’s natural. Or it should be.
A shameful memory inserts itself into my mind of the day Lucian’s mate was taken. Caught in the grip of my agoraphobia, I took too fucking long to stop her leaving. By the time I’d gotten the nerve enough to take the few measly steps out into the underground parking garage, they’d gotten her. Four of the bastards. They’d beaten me down and left me bleeding, and then she was gone.
Lucian got her back. I love his mate, Madelyn, like the sister I never had. But the guilt still racks me. If only I hadn’t been sucha loser, I could have stopped her, and in doing so, prevented them from taking her.
By rights, my brother should despise me for failing to protect his mate. But I see the side of him that most others don’t, the protective older brother that loves fiercely. Who took care of me after the government decided they needed more alphas for the war and released the virus over the skies of our backwater planet.
It didn’t distribute evenly. Some people got higher doses than others.
Lucian has always blamed the government for what happened to me. But I think the virus simply revealed what was inside me, like it always does. Sure, I was an alpha, but one with faulty wiring in my DNA.
The omega kneeling in my bedroom, hurting, is a stranger. I’m a fuck-up in every way. Whoever she is, she deserves better than me. I won’t bite her; wouldn’t, even without Lucian’s warning.
