“She has been through a lot,” he says, trying to convince himself I’m right. “So…” He swallows as he looks up at me, “you don’t think she actually wants to reject us?”
“I think she’s overwhelmed,” I say. “And overwhelmedomegas say things they don’t mean because their instincts are screaming.” I pause, softening my voice. “It doesn’t mean she won’t stay. It doesn’t mean she won’t choose us.”
His shoulders ease a fraction.
“I promise you, Beck.” I lean in, looking hard into his eyes. “Tansy wants us as much as we want her.”
The lines between Beck’s brows ease up as he wraps his arms tight around my middle. He lets out a heavy sigh, and it’s like the last of his fear drains out of him all at once. His forehead presses into my shoulder, breath warm against my skin.
“Thank you,” he mumbles, sincerely.
I hold him, rubbing a hand up and down his back. From the outside, it probably looks like relief. Like I fixed it, but inside my head, I’m screaming.
Because I fucking lied to my mate.
While a pre-mark flight response is a real thing, it’s also a game. Omegas run so they can be chased. It’s a courtship ritual, a way to test a pack alpha’s strength and devotion. It’s fun. But what Beck described doesn’t feel like that at all.
It feels like a final decision by a terrified omega, and I’m terrified of what will happen if she actually rejects us.
“You’ll see,” I murmur. “Tansy wants us.”
Beck nods against me, trusting, and the fear in my gut tightens into something sharp and ugly.
If she runs, it won’t be a game.
And Cass can’t fucking chase her.
Getting Fucked
Tansy
I'm on my back,the world upside down.
My ass hangs off the edge of the bed, my legs draped over Cass's powerful forearms, my feet dangling in the cool air. He's standing over me, his body a solid wall of muscle and heat while he fucks me slowly.
Each thrust is deep, deliberate, a possessive stroke that fills me completely before pulling back, leaving me achingly empty for a split second before he fills me again.
It's a maddening, exquisite rhythm.
Cass’s dark eyes lock on mine, his face a mask of intense concentration. I watch his expression shift, his jaw tightening, then his breath hitches. With a final, deep shove, he buries himself to the hilt and stills. A low groan rumbles from his chest as he comes, and then I feel it.
His knot.
It swells inside me, a pressure that builds and builds,stretching me, claiming every inch of me until it locks us together. It balloons against my inner walls, a perfect, full pressure that hits a spot so deep inside me I see stars.
A sharp, blinding burst of pleasure explodes through my body, my back arching off the bed as a wild scream tears from my throat. It's so fucking good, an overwhelming, all-consuming wave of ecstasy that washes away every thought, every fear, until there is nothing left but the feeling ofhim, thick and impossibly present inside me.
Slowly, the blinding intensity fades, melting into a warm, golden afterglow.
My body relaxes, sinking back into the mattress, boneless and sated. His knot is still there, a heavy, comforting anchor holding me to my mate, and my body settles around it, a perfect, intimate fit. A tangible link of our new bond.
And I’m not sure how I feel about that.
The sensation is comforting in a way I didn’t expect, but it’s also terrifying.
I mean, logically, I'm trapped. Bound to an alpha that forced a bond on me, and that thought should terrify me, but I've never felt safer.
My body fully trusts this man.
