“Drink it,” Er’it snapped, turning away from Ath’asho though he continued to chatter away about something inconsequential when compared to the Omega not paying attention.
She didn’t even look up. Shaking fingers kissed the cool silver before they slid right back to her lap, clutching the heavy folds and twisting them. Wringing the very life from the threads.
Ignored, Er’it’s temper snapped. Grabbing the back of her neck, he pulled the Omega to him. Goblet clutched so tight in his other hand he felt the metal groan under the strain, he pressed it against her quivering lips until they overflowed. Rich red staining her skin, tumbling in wild rivulets down her working throat to ruin her dress. It was far more intoxicating than any spirit Er’it knew of, so he did it again. Shrugged off Ath’asho’s quiet caution as he spilled more of the ruby redness between her lips and wished to all the many deities it was something far different she drank down with sputtering coughs and such miserable tears making her black eyes liquid.
Not until he drained the cup did he release her. Letting her tumble back into the seat, somehow even smaller as she curled in on herself and sniffled back those delectable tears. A curt flick of his fingers brought another server forward with the pitcher. Even wrapped up in her misery, so thick it coated the back of his throat with its bitter tang, she recoiled from the outstretched hand before the server scurried away much as the other.
If he’d thought a single glass of wine would relax her, he’d been so very wrong. If anything, it ratcheted up her tension to the point he worried she’d shatter in a gentle wind. The meal progressed, people milling and chattering around them, and she only became more terrified with every passing moment. Each server became a threat, something she flinched and cowered from, the clatter of plates enough to bring her hand up to smother her sounds of distress. The fabric of her gown became a craggy range of stiff peaks and crumpled valleys from where she wrung it in shaking fists. Tears seeped down her wan cheeks unfettered as Er’it slapped the silverware in her hand again and again to make her eat something.
It was only the third course before he lost the stranglehold on the frayed strands of his control. His chair stuttered across the stone, the quiet a palpable monster that sped through the room as the hollow echoes dwindled. They were all of them staring, but he didn’t care. Not even when Ath’asho reached for him and the growl rumbled through his chest, a grinding rockslide of fury and warning. Snatching up the Omega’s arm he paused only long enough to be sure he hadn’t caused actual damage at her piercing wail before he retraced their path out of the hall. Up the staircase with her sobs shattering against the unfeeling stone to the room that was hers and hers alone.
Now theirs. At least for tonight, perhaps tomorrow. There was a speech planned, one Ath’asho would give now that Er’it had bewildered, and no doubt concerned his people. Oh, many had abandoned him when he first chose this path of power, warnings of what it would bring upon his head spat into the dark of night as they fled. For those that remained, he took great care to keep what he’d become a private thing. He did not need them so aware of what his power had twisted him into, those that fell to his blade, the blood he consumed to take in that power. The pain he often administered to access even more of it. No, they didn’t need to know that, all of them content with their victories and no knowledge of how he accomplished it.
Cursing himself as much as the Omega, he tossed her to the floor. Letting her crumble to the ground, working her way to her knees to assume some posture of deference as watery apologies smeared past bruised lips. Shock registered for a moment as he saw the wet sheen of crimson there, thoughts racing as he tried to determine if he’d done that to her.
He didn’t want her to bleed for him. Not like this.
No, what Tor’en had helped him decipher was far different from a simple sacrifice.
“I am sorry! Please forgive me,” she finished, debasing herself over the cold floor. Arms outstretched, the fragile breadth of her hands splayed wide in supplication as she pressed her forehead against the smooth wood. Her entire body shook with the effort to contain her sobs, but she did. If not for the violent tremors of her gasping breaths, one would see her as little more than a well-dressed doll. The thought gave him an idea, one he relished. He could savor this, draw it out to its end. Taking these frustrations out on her soft flesh and obtaining the very thing he needed from her body.
“You dare to refuse my generosity. A place at my table, at my very side, given to you, and you behave this way,” Er’it snapped, the crushing weight of his boots endangering the quivering lines of her fingers.
Denial a low whine, she shook her head against the floor. Hair tumbling down around her shoulders to mask the crystalline sheen of her misery making her cheeks glisten. She tried to further lower herself, much of her upper body shoved against the floor.
It wasn’t enough to appease the molten rush of his anger, the blazing embers of it snapping through his veins as he set his boot to her spine. Easing his weight forward until she collapsed, legs spread awry in a tangle of rich silk and flesh to sprawl across the unforgiving wood. Pushing until her sobbing breath wheezed between gaping lips. It was when she squeezed her eyes shut that he lost what little control remained to him.
“Open your eyes.” The toe of his boot caught her in the ribs, flipping her over so he would fill her vision when she obeyed. Of course she did, the turbulent blackness offering him a view of a stormy sky filled to bursting with far away lights, each of them dancing, teasing him with a power just beyond his reach. It had nothing to do with conquering lands or rulers, and everything to do with destroying the female who gazed up at him with such patient terror.
On a slow exhale that churned into thunderous growl, he threw all caution and his plans to the wind.
“Undress.”
The command was unfair, and he didn’t give a damn. Watching with cool derision to hide his mounting frustration as she stumbled to her feet, the buttons and ties at her back meaning she had to twist and arch in painful angles to reach them. She tried so very hard to appease him, but it was no use. Shaking fingers fumbling, she managed only the first three closures before Er’it rushed her with his blade in hand.
The hiss of fabric splitting wide filled the chamber, unnatural in its loudness as her ragged breaths stopped. Frozen before him, not even shivering anymore. Scared he would cut her.
Er’it held his for much the same reason. Not for want of seeing her blood spill over his hands, but from distraction alone as he bared that tawny flesh to his gaze. The narrow hills and valleys of her spine, the dimples centered above her ass. Even the breadth of her small shoulders tried to entrance him as pure chaos trembled from her skin to his in sizzling arcs.
The knife tumbled across the floor with a high, ringing clatter. A pealing death knell to Er’it’s control as he hunched over the Omega to slide his tongue up the sweep of her neck. Tasting her warmth as he slid the roughness of his hands beneath the gown and began tearing it away. Cupping the weight of her breasts, mounding the soft flesh as the fabric hung in tattered strands from her arms and waist, he groaned against the delectable spot behind her ear where her scent was strongest.
Hated her for it as much as he wanted more.
One of the most powerful mages in the known lands, the victor of his people, brought down by one whimpering female. The woman-child who destroyed his chance of true victory.
With a snarl he shoved her against the bed. Ripping away the last of the gown to leave her back bare, the length of her legs naked to his hungry gaze. Pushing her shoulders flat to the mattress, burying her low whines into the lofty bedding, he kept her bent over and took his fill of her naked form once more. Somehow even better this way than it had been in the bath.
He’d had plenty of women in his bed over the years. Some of them unaccustomed to an Alpha’s needs. Once upon a time, he’d taken his time with them. Calming them, seeing their pleasure blossom before he took his. A careful dance to ease away any thought of discomfort as they took an Alpha for the first time. Something about the Omega sprawled before him refused any such care. Whether the warm scent of spring and the chill of snow raking down his spine, growing stronger the longer he stared at her or what she meant to him, he couldn’t say. All Er’it knew was that he would have her screaming on his knot by the end of this night.
Kicking her feet apart and sliding them wide enough she fell to the bed, the heady rush of her scent punched through his senses. Not a whisper, but a flood. One he tested with his fingers, driving her back down when she tried to rise with a breathless shriek. Smearing the thick run of slick across the tight seam of her lips, working it into the hot folds of her cunt. Setting his cheek against her back, he licked and sucked at her skin as his teasing touch wandered. A swift circle around the throbbing nub of her clit making her scream in anything but pain.
Omegas had no power of their own, and he’d be thrice damned if he let this one control him.
Not bothering to shuck his way out of the heavy clothes, Er’it tore at the fastenings of his trousers. Tugging them out of the way to slide the swollen crown of his cock against her. Bathing it in her slick before he pressed against the entrance that begged and denied in a single fluttering spasm.
It wasn’t his intention. He never planned to do it. Yet the thunderous call erupted from him, clawing through the air to sink its fangs deep into the female. Pulling her spine taut, presenting him with the ripeness of her dripping slit as she uttered a ragged cry. One that held no pain as Er’it forced his way inside of her, tearing away any shred of innocence as he continued to call to the writhing female. Making her want it, need it, destroying her one inch at a time. Praising her with his growls and rough hands when she keened and pushed back to take the very last of his cock.
Stars exploded behind his eyes. A pale copy of the glorious midnight sky turned to peer up at him over the roundness of her shoulder. Nothing compared to the sensation tangling up his spine when he ground into her depths, her shiver prickling his skin. Beyond her natural tightness, it felt as if she gripped him. Made just for him by the Hat’or to take his cock, and soon his knot.
