Finally.
Charlie’s voice cuts through the haze. “Stay back.” But he’s not talking to me.
Footsteps pause on the floorboards. Then a creak. One of them—Oli—gets too close.
I don’t think. Imove.
A snarl rips from my throat and I swipe out, fingers curled like claws. I don’t connect, but it’s close enough that Oli stumbles back, smacking into a nearby wall with a sharpthud.
I barely register it.
Pain tears through me, cramping so deep it makes my legs buckle. I collapse on the mattress, panting, forehead pressed into the soft mess of fabric. Hot tears stream down my face, wetting the blankets beneath me. But my hands keep moving.
Shape. Fold. Tuck. Fix.
It’snot done.
My breath is ragged. Every inhale feels like it slices through my chest. I want so badly to touch my swollen clit and ease some of my pain, but I can’t.
Shape. Fold. Tuck. Fix.
“Autry,” Rhett whispers, low and careful, like he’s talking to something sacred and dangerous. He kneels, but doesn’t cross into the nest. His voice is velvet-soft. “Let me help you.”
I freeze, breath caught.
“You’re in pain, omega,” he murmurs, like it hurtshimto say it. “Let me tend to you. Let me take it all away.”
A snarl rips from me, sharp and savage. I whip around to glare at him, baring my teeth. “No,” I growl, voice hoarse and cracking. “It’s not ready. You’ll ruin it!”
Rhett doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t even blink. His eyes are calm, steady—present.“Okay, sweetheart,” he says. “I’ll wait.” He stays on his knees. Silent. Still. Watching me with a kind of patience I didn’t think alphas could evenhave.
My body trembles again, another wave of cramping doubling me over, but I grit my teeth and keep going. Keep working. It has to beperfect.
Then, my body opens, and slick rushes forward.
A vicious cry rips out of me so loud it feels like it splits my chest open. Heat surges up from my belly and wraps around my spine like fire. My skin is too tight. My blood is lava and my thighs are wet.
Too wet.
Slick pours from me—humiliating, overwhelming. It soaks through my underwear, the sheets,everything.I can’t catch my breath. I can’t think. All I can do is burn.
I whimper, forehead pressed into the soft, warm center of the nest. It’s already wet with my fluids. Ruined. I’ve worked so hard to make it perfect, and it’s already starting to feel wrong again. Too hot. Too small.Too empty.
I need?—
“Alpha,” I sob, voice wrecked. “Please.” The word slips out in a high-pitched whine.
Rhett’s body tenses. I don’t see it, but Ifeelit—like a pulse in the air. “Invite me into your nest, omega.”
“Please,” I mumble as I push my hand into my soaked panties. My middle finger rubs circles around my sensitive slit and almost immediately a shallow orgasm shudders through me. It’s weak, making my pussy clench on nothing.So empty.“I need—Ineedyou—please.”
There’s no hesitation. Not even a breath.
Rhett’s on his feet and completely naked in the blink of an eye.
The mattress dips under his weight as he crawls in slowly, like I’m something wild that might still bite. But I don’t care anymore. I don’t want to bite. I want tocling.Towrap myself around him and let his scent drown out everything else.
Rhett’s hand touches my back, just barely, and I sob again—relief washing over me in a brutal wave.
