Whether by Mrs. Jacobs’ concern or rote didn’t matter. He returned that same night.
“I want to go out,” Elena whispered as she edged her way around the bed, one hand pressed against the soft swell of her belly to protect the tiny bundle of cells against whatever its father might do.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re far too fragile?—”
“Because I am alone,” Elena cried, enacting a mincing retreat as he came closer. “I have nothing to do and no one to talk to.”
“You have your books.”
“They’re not a person!”
“You have your Alpha, and that is all you need,” Leon said on a quiet growl as he grabbed her arm, tugging Elena back towards the bed.
“You’re never here,” she mumbled even as she gave in, knowing it was a hopeless endeavor from the start. Jerking her arm free of his grip, she climbed into the bed, mechanical and stiff. Laid on the bed with her head turned aside, waiting for him to begin.
He would have her cries and moans soon enough, tease her pleading voice from her after he started. Until then, she would deny him as best she could.
“I am here when you need me,” he purred as he climbed in after her, seeing her actions as defeat and not the objection that it was.
“When it pleases you,” she muttered.
“I am not allowing you to traipse all over creation in your condition, Omega.” He covered her body with his, wrenching her legs open to fit them around his waist.
“That isn’t what I’m asking,” Elena said in a huff, turning her head to meet his gaze for a brief moment before she brought her focus to his chest. Showing submission despite the anger coursing through her veins white hot and trembling.
“It’s precisely what you think you should be allowed.”
“To go out for a meal, some shopping maybe? Meet with other Omegas. That is what you consider too much?”
“All you need is your Alpha.”
Elena took a breath to respond, but in the end she let it out on a gusty sigh and turned her head away once more. He’d deny her on principle alone. He had no favor for her, didn’t see her as a human being even. She was the thing to sate his needs, to incubate his child. Whatever autonomy he’d been willing to offer her had been thrown out the window by her own actions that first day and now the pregnancy that plagued her with a desperate need for him.
She was a prisoner here.
Just as she knew he would, his careful touches and ravaging kisses made her lose herself for a time. Hours lost in him where she forgot how to be herself. Forgot that she hated this man. In the end it was his name on her lips as she cried out again and again.
When he was done, smiling and sated at last, Elena rolled to her side. Giving him her back as she curled her legs around the precious spark and closed her eyes.
Sleep came soon enough.
He was still there when she woke the next morning. Lounging in the bed as if he had nowhere else to be, curling her hair around his fingers. Far too intent to be called idle, his focus shifted to her face as if he knew the very moment her lashes fluttered open. Meeting her drowsy eyes with bright determination.
“Get dressed,” he said.
It was all he said. Unwinding his fingers from her hair, he rose and went to shower, leaving Elena to follow his command in his absence. She waited for all of a heartbeat before she rushed into motion, ignoring the crusty patches of his come caked to her skin. Leon had done much the same when he’d taken her out of the house before. Despite the fact she was mated and pregnant now and of no use to any other Alpha, she wouldn’t argue with his paranoia.
Pulling on a loose dress of deep navy that made her eyes all the brighter, Elena hurried into the bathroom to restore order to her hair, applying the lightest makeup as Leon went about his business with stolid slowness. Her excitement didn’t infect him in the least.
Elena practically bounced her way down the stairs, her spirits flagging only a little when he made her pause long enough to eat something before he guided her out of the doors to his waiting car.
His car. Not the SUV.
Brows sliding down, Elena began to suspect not all was as it seemed as he latched the belt at her waist and climbed in behind the wheel. Leon gave no hint of where they were going or what he had planned as he pulled out of the long drive.
Through the suburban homes, into the city, he took a course she didn’t recognize. Elena still had no clue where they were when he helped her from the sedan until they were almost inside the gleaming, glass front building.
A sign proclaiming a list of names and their specialties had her shoulders sagging. Chin dipping down, she followed along beside Leon, his hand at her back keeping her with him as he entered the office.
