I’m still comingdown from my intense climax when I notice Emma is weeping again.
Ulf help me, I don’t know what to do. I cannot bear to see her so sad, and feeling that sorrow through our bond is only making things worse.
Nor can I believe how fast she went from orgasm to tears. Her moods can change so quickly.
Still breathing heavily, trying to ignore the pounding in my loins and chest, I switch my growl back to a purr, and kiss her damp forehead. “Emma,” I whisper. “Please.”
I don’t know what I’m asking for. I just want her to be happy. For our bond to radiate joy and lust instead of sadness and resignation.
“What, Khan?” She has stopped sobbing, which I believe is due to my purring. She blinks, and more tears leak from the corners of her huge blue eyes when she does so. But she no longer seems to be weeping. Instead, she’s peering up at me, looking more directly into my eyes than she ever has. I wonder what she’s hoping to see there.
“I hate to see you sad,” I admit, though it pains me to talk about my feelings with anyone, let alone a female. “Tell me what you need.”
Her gaze is frank. Searching. And yet I cannot decipher her thoughts. For a long moment, I hold my breath, almost drowning in her beauty. My cock is softening inside her, the slippery warmth of my seed and her slick coating the area where we’re joined.
For a moment, I wonder whether today is the day when my seed will take root, then I force myself to concentrate. Now is not the time to fantasize about breeding my Omega.
“To start with, I need you to get off me,” she says at length.
As I extricate myself from her and settle down by her side, I wonder whether it’s her intent to humiliate me. Ulf knows that’s exactly how I feel right now. Humiliated. My mate—my queen—has just given me an order, and I have obeyed.
Like a slave.
I am an Alpha. An Ulfarri. A Brutal One. I am no slave.
What is it about this little pink and golden Hoo-man that enthralls me so? I was looking for an Omega to impregnate; a female with whom to breed more Alphas and Omegas.
I was not looking to… care about her this much. And yet I do. About her sadness, her happiness, her hopes and dreams.
She matters so much to me.
This realization is such a shock that I have to force myself to redirect my attention to what she is saying. She has a sweet, soft voice, even if the translator chip does give her a strange accent when she speaks Ulfarri. It’s endearing.
“…which is why I wanted more from life,” she’s saying. “There are enough people in the world, anyway. Well,” she lets out a little huff, “on Earth, in any case. I’ve spent my entire life working towards breaking free from those expectations. I worked so hard in England that I was able to land a sponsored job in Virginia, for god’s sake! At my age! And now I find out all that effort was for nothing. That promise to myself was for nothing—”
“What promise?” I missed the first part of what she was saying, and am struggling to follow.
She turns her head and looks at me. “The one I just mentioned. That I would never wind up barefoot and pregnant. That I would never give up my dreams just to raise kids. My mum did it, her sister, my grandmother, my sister… I wasn’t going to go down that road.”
Slowly, what she’s saying begins to sink in. “You do not desire children?” I can’t hide the incredulity from my tone.
“No! I don’t! Never have, never will.” She sounds so resolute. Every word is a stab in my chest.
“Females on Earth can make that choice? The males—”
“The males don’t get to tell the females whether or not to reproduce, no. In fact, that side of things is usually the woman’s responsibility from the get go. After all, we’re the ones who go through the pregnancy, the labor, the delivery. We’re the ones who do most of the childcare and, in most cases, still go out to work—either because we want to, or a single income isn’t enough, or the father does a runner.” She lets out a disdainful sigh.
“A runner?” The translation software is good but it isn’t flawless. I’m sure she doesn’t mean what I just heard.
“Yeah. They fuck off. Leave. Abandon the mother and their children.”
I can hardly believe my ears. “Leave? To fight?”
Emma gives a bitter laugh. “Fight? God, no! Usually, they leave to screw someone else. Or they’re bored. Or they’ve decided life is more fun without baby spew, dirty diapers, endless responsibility…”
“That would never happen on Ulfaria.”
She raises a slim, dark golden eyebrow. “No? I mean, I can’t imagine an Alpha leaving an Omega, since they’re so rare, but surely Betas do it?”
