Prologue
Ballyshannon, Ireland
1905
Bari
There are some days that one simply doesn’t live long enough to forget.
For me, September twenty-first in the year of nineteen-oh-five was one of those days. The weather was beautiful, warm enough despite the breeze that brought the crisp scent of rain as it drifted in from the River Erne. Several of my friends and I had played hooky from our responsibilities to attend the festivities as the first train ever pulled into the newly-opened Ballyshannon railway station on its trip from Donnegal.
“Ppfft, would you look atthem?” Colm snorted, oblivious to the tiny flame that flickered from his right nostril. I followed his gaze as he narrowed his eyes at the group of young Alphas arriving to begin the university year, openly carousing as they leaned out the open carriage on the second to last train car.
“What about them?” Brigid asked, flipping her long red curls over her shoulder as she dropped one hand to her hip and arched her back, pushing her chest out as she struck acome hitherpose.
“Yeknowwhat,” Colm huffed, shaking his head at Brigid’s antics. “The way they strut about as though they were banty cocks!”
Brigid’s eyes rolled heavenward. “Once ye’ve presented, then ye’ll understand. Isn’t that right, Bari?”
“Ah, I believe I’ll hold my piece,” I mumbled, forcing myself not to stare as the train pulled to a stop and Ahearn Walsh leapt over the gate without waiting for the conductor to open it. A stunning example of Alpha perfection, Ahearn dropped to the cobblestones lightly and landed without even his beautiful raven locks flopping out of place. “After all, I’m hardly likely to be courted, now, am I?”
“Oh!” Brigid clapped her hand over her mouth with an apologetic look at having forgotten my repudiated status. “Ofcourseye wouldn’t want to be a party to this nonsense,” she said firmly, relaxing into her natural stance. “Truly, it isn’t as though there’s much to recommend the thought of being taken by an Alpha, anyhow.”
Accepting her declaration as the apology she’d intended, I managed a small smile and turned back to watch the band marching down the track as the parade began.
~*~
I was already in bed that night, the candle extinguished and my hand beneath the light blanket for a sneaky diddle when the old wooden window frame gave a slight creak. Heat built in my belly as I stared silently at the shadow climbing through my window.
“What’s this?” Ahearn’s voice was low but thick with amusement as he unbuttoned the cloak he wore and dropped it carelessly to the floor before reaching for the placket of his shirt. “I know ye saw me arrive in town this after and still ye couldn’t wait?” One slender hand trailed down the front of his slacks, the long fingers cupping his root through the fabric.
I swallowed a gasp as my body responded to its master, the hot, wetness of my slick already teasing my puckered entrance. “I..I didn’t know ye would be wanting me.”
“Aye, ye did.” Ahearn all but purred as he verbally swatted my statement away. “The question, Son of Mikel, is do ye still want me?”
I nodded, knowing he could easily see me in the dark.
“Then ye know what to do, eh?”
I tossed the blanket aside and flipped over, dropping my face to the mattress and raising my arse up into the air, trembling when my slick began to leak from my hole and drip down my thighs.
“That’s good,” Ahearn muttered, dropping one hand on my arse cheek with a resounding slap that made me whimper. “Have ye missed me, Omega?”
I nodded, my cheek rubbing against the slightly rough sheet.
Ahearn tsked. “Use yer words, boy.”
I sucked in a breath as the slightest twinge of humiliation trickled through me, making my arousal that much sharper.
“I missed ye, Alpha. So much,” I mumbled, gasping for breath when he rewarded me by sliding his long, forked tongue through my crease. “Missed yer mouth. Missed yer fingers. Missed ye so much!”
“Just my mouth and fingers?” Ahearn was in a teasing mood. I felt him notch the bulbous head of his large rod against my fluttering hole. “Not this, then?” He began to draw it away and I cried out.
“No! Give it to me! Please!” When I felt the silk covered steel pressing against me again, I lurched backward, sucking his length into my body with a loud groan. “Oh, yes! I missed yer cock, Alpha!”
“Much better,” Ahearn grunted as he shoved himself deeper inside me. “Missed this sweet little hole so much.”
He began to move in earnest, the ridges of his incredible member striking every sensitive spot I had until I was trembling with the need to feel his cock swell and lock us together for the first time since he’d left me nearly three months earlier.
“Alpha, I want your knot! Please!” I moaned, gripping the bedsheet so tightly that I heard it tear. “I can’t wait. It’s been too long!”
“It has,” Ahearn grunted in my ear. “I’m going to find a way that we can be together, Bari. These stolen moments aren’t enough.” He thrust into me again, twisting in a way that left me gritting my teeth and seeing stars. “Come for me, a chroí!”
With a barely muffled wail, I did exactly as I was bid, unloading my fluids all over the sheet beneath us as Ahearn’s length throbbed within me. “Ye’re perfect, Bari. Mark my words, one of these days ye will be mine, Omega.”
Those words were all it took to send another wave of pleasure pulsing through my body. Realistic or not, there was strength in knowing that ruined as I was, I was enough for at least this one, perfect Alpha.
