Page 29
“I think I should shower,” I point out. “Things will be better once I’ve showered,” I say, trying to walk away.
“Raine,” Ferris snarls. “Do. Not. Move. If you walk away, I’m going to chase you. My control is hanging on by a fucking thread.”
My breath hitches as a thousand emotions flood through my veins. The gluttonous, starved part of me is thrilled. It makes me want to sprint into the compound as my heart syncs to the pounding beat of Ferris’s feet as he tries to catch me.
“Is this some kind of punishment?” he growls, gesturing to the slick drying on my shorts. “I can fucking smell him. Are you purposely torturing me?”
Now I’m seething. “This is about me moving on,” I snap. “You’ve made it abundantly clear that we are never going to be together, so I am finding a new path forward with someone who isn’t afraid to want me. Someone who may even come to love me and won’t be afraid to do it in the light.”
His jaw muscle flutters and his scent floods with a mix of anger and devastation.
Sternly, I say, “I want you to break this tether between us.”
“What?” he hisses, eyes sharpening dangerously.
“Reject me,” I demand. “End this so that we can both move on. I’m leaving with Dair in one day and I am never coming back. So, I am asking you to finally reject me.”
Ferris is dangerously quiet, but his eyes burn like embers. He moves closer, so close that one big breath would bring our chests together in a kiss. “You want to break our connection? How about you reject me?” he challenges.
His scent is the darkest it’s ever been, full of deep desire and alpha pheromones so thick they coat my tongue. I can almost see his body growing, muscles filling with blood and power. He’s a beast trapped in a flimsy cage. This is my Ferris. This is the wildness and dominance that he tries to keep under control. He’s fucking breathtaking.
“Reject me,” he demands, and my body sways as his scent deepens into rich, caressing tea. “Now,” he growls, but it doesn’t feel like he wants to be rejected at all. His voice softens into something pleading. “Raine. Gods, say it. I can’t do this, baby. How can I watch you leave when I can’t even stand the scent of him on you? I can’t, I can’t. Please,” he whimpers.
My omega perks up, stretching like a prowling cat. She likes the desperation in his voice, the whine of need that matches the feral want in his eyes. Still high on power and confidence from owning Dair, she urges me to finally take what we’ve always wanted.
Fuck it.
I launch myself at him, throwing myself into his muscular arms that grab hold of my thighs and hoist me into his chest. My mouth descends on him like a wildfire through brush, burning down the old to bring growth to the new. This kiss is nothing like the newness of kissing Dair or the wondrous anticipation that he left me with. This kiss is violent in its intensity. Raw. Primal in a way that I didn’t know I was capable of but feels so fucking right. It’s animal in a way I always knew Ferris was capable of but didn’t think I’d get to experience.
I devour him, lick at his lips, bite his jaw and chin, then card my fingers through his curls until I can grab a fistful and tug him exactly into the position I want. Our tongues lick each other’s, tangling and pushing. My scent, which barely softened after Dair’s ministrations, blooms again, drowning us in syrup so rich, sweet, and bold. My whole body aches for him.
He rips his mouth away from mine with a deep snarl. “Fuck, Raine.” Then he’s carrying me down the hall to my room, his giant palms gripping my ass the whole way. He kicks the door in and prowls to my small bed, where he dumps me into my messy nest.
My body ignites, fire burning through my veins, slick soaking through my shorts again. My body is completely locked into whatever madness has us under its control, but my mind is not so easily swayed.
What does this mean? Ferris is looking at me with a mixture of feral hunger and aching devotion. He wants to eat me alive, that much is clear, but what happens after? Am I expected to leave with Dair while Ferris’s cum soaks my insides?
“What do you want from this? What are we?” I demand.
He brushes some hair from my forehead and states, “Everything.”
“What happens after this? I wasn’t lying about leaving with Dair. He’s the first person to give me a choice, and Grand Prairie isn’t what I want for my future anymore . . .” I trail off.
Ferris’s growl starts again, low and menacing. His eyes flash with certainty. “Fuck Grand Prairie. I’m done trying to pretend that we aren’t inevitable.”
Relief and satisfaction are all I can feel for several long moments as I allow myself to bask in the tidal wave of arousal-soaked reassurance. For the first time, happy tears streak down my face. It’s been nearly four years since I emerged as an omega and realized that all my secret fantasies about Ferris meant something. I had been so ashamed of the feelings I harbored toward my brother’s packmate, even more guilty knowing that Ferris, at least somewhat, felt the same.
Then I emerged, my scent came in, and all the forbidden feelings I’d had finally made sense. Ferris is right; we are inevitable. We have been from the start. Hearing him finally admit it, finally allowing us to have this, feels euphoric.
My voice is watery when I ask, “You’re not going to let me go?”
“Never.” He leans over me and puts his lips back on mine, drinking from my mouth like the only thing that can sustain him is the taste of me. That’s how it feels in my gut, that I need his body on mine like this forever, his taste saturating my tongue.
My hands wander of their own accord, groping, rubbing over hard slabs of muscle and worn-soft clothes. They shake as I slip them under his shirt and press them into his bare skin for the first time. I moan into his mouth and melt into my nest.
I rub up toward his chest, fingers coasting over hair and hardened nipples. I squeeze his chest briefly, then stroke up so that my hands can clench into his shoulder muscles.
“Raine,” he pants my name into my mouth like a prayer. My hands retreat down his body, this time following the trail of hair that disappears under his waistband.
