“Please,” Elena whispered, avoiding his searching gaze as shetried to make herself smaller. Everything hurt, and she did not think she could withstand it if he mounted her now.
“All right then, but hurry back.” He offered her a lop sided smile, letting Elena clamber down off of him to the floor.
Elena stumbled into the bathroom, coming to a crashing halt as she caught her reflection. Surveying the damage done to her body. Haunted hazel-green eyes, hair sticking up in every direction. Tears blurred her reflection in wavering lines until they spilled over her lashes. Clenching her teeth over the ugly sounds grinding in her throat, she rushed to turn the tap on full force at the sink.
Her first mating had left her in ruins.
Bruises and blood littered her body along with the crusty remains of his seed where he’d rubbed it into her skin. So much like what he’d done to her before, only during her heat she’d hummed while he did it, purred for him as he spread it in thick lines. It caked her from head to toe, hair a gnarled mass with the stuff where patches of flaking white drifted from the dark locks.
A sob slipped free as she rushed to the shower. Turning the knob, she bit back her shriek as the water pounded against the gauze taped to her shoulder. She hadn’t the stomach to look at how badly he savaged her, the breadth of her pain having visions of gory wounds dancing through her head. Snatching up the puff, she doused it in the first bottle that came to hand, scrubbing away the tacky remnants with vicious strokes. His scent enveloped her, rising up on the waves of steam. Another sob slipped free as she scoured her body all the harder, trying to rid herself of everything that was him.
She could still feel his mouth on her. His hands, his touch doing things to her she had no words for. The way she’d fallen apart again and again under his direction. Begged for it. Pleaded with him to give her what she needed.
Elena was shivering under the scalding spray, scratching at her scalp when she felt the prickling sensation shiver over herneck. She turned her head, eyes wide and showing too much white as she saw he stood there.
The relaxed posture of his hulking frame was a warning, the small smile a surgeon’s knife ready to lay waste to her very soul. He waited for her just beyond the steamed glass, a lazy predator homing in on his kill.
Then she felt it. A flutter, a spark, deep in her belly. Her gasp brought to her the subtle change in her scent, no longer buried beneath his.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered.
“I know,” Leon said, crossing his arms over the wide expanse of his chest as he continued to watch her.
EIGHTEEN
ELENA
He played the part of doting Alpha as he gathered her up into his arms, sopping wet and hysterically sobbing. He hushed her cries, voicing a purr so deep and rich that she had no choice but to melt beneath it as he arranged her back in the bed. Made her pliant and soft under his ministrations as he bandaged her shoulder up again.
Curling his body tight around hers, he continued to push that sound into her. Giving her no mercy as he stroked his hands over every inch of her, cupping her belly and breasts as if he could already envision what would happen in a few short months.
She was pregnant.
Elena would be wholly dependent upon him now, unable to even exist without his touch, his very nearness. A pregnant Omega couldn’t be without an Alpha, let alone her mate. She’d die without him. Her breaths tried to grow fast, chest heaving as the thought began to take form before he ushered it away with his fingers raking through her wet hair. With the utmost tenderness, he worked free every snarled knot, untangling it until it spread out around her head in a halo.
Leon was speaking to her in low tones. She didn’t hear a word of it. Too caught up in her panic, she withdrew deep inside of herself. Her hands fluttered over the spark tingling beneath her belly button. Smoothing her fingers over it to calm the sensation that had her at war within herself.
A child. Her child. His, too. She’d never allowed herself to dream of being a mother, of having this particular role in life. Now she was mated and pregnant. Elena should be happy, but she wasn’t.
This child washis. The man who had hurt her, raped her, then stolen her away to do all of this. It wasn’t right.
Tears welled, slipping down her cheeks unchecked though there were no distraught sounds to be heard. Not as he purred for her, wiping away the miserable wet streaks with firm fingers. Hushing her until finally he dragged her under his weight.
“No,” Elena shouted, legs clamping shut as she shoved at his chest.
For a long, breathless moment, he loomed over her. The rich chestnut of his eyes burned, scalding over her as he took in her panic. It promised pain and punishment both. Dark and malevolent, it seared through her, straight to her heart where it caused the steadfast muscle to trip and stutter.
Then he shuttered it away. Closing off whatever part of himself she’d seen as he stroked the hair at her temples. His arms came around her, holding her tight as he rolled, dragging her up on top of him. Purring loudly for her as he crushed her against his chest where she would feel the sound best.
Adrenaline began to fade, leaving her exhausted and jumpy. She flinched as he brought the covers high, whining low in her throat until he settled them up and over her head. Enclosing them both in the muted light, his hands kneading at her back under the heavy weight of the blankets.
Elena could no more hold out against it than she couldstop breathing. She drifted off to sleep with his scent thick in her every breath as she laid her cheek against his chest and dozed.
Alone when she woke, Elena breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t there to torment her with his caresses or the long looks that she couldn’t read.
Surfacing from her burrow, Elena looked around and felt unsettled. The idea that it could be his very absence was abhorrent to her, so she climbed out of the bed to don the closest thing she had to casual wear. She needed comfort now, not pretty clothes, and not for the first time she wished she had well-worn sweats and yoga pants in her wardrobe.
The nest was no longer right, his rough treatment of it ruining the perfect lines. She had no idea what to do with it. Alphas didn’t keep Omegas in their bed, let alone allow them to turn them into nests. Feeling guilty and somehow betrayed, she dragged the many covers off and stuffed them into the laundry basket just inside the closet door. She took the time to make the bed just so, every harsh angle and crisp fold grating against her nerves.
