I turn my head, my neck feeling like it’s made of lead, and find him standing at the end of the aisle. Jorak’s hair is a mess, his eyes are almost entirely black, pupils blown wide with a feral intensity that should terrify me. He moves toward me, and every step he takes feels like a thumb pressed against my pulse point.
"You," I whisper, the word a confession of every weakness I’ve tried to hide behind my academic titles.
Jorak reaches the table in three long strides. He ignores Mira entirely, his focus narrowed down to the way I’m shaking. He reaches out, his hand wrapping around my upper arm. The moment his skin touches mine, the library stops existing. The screaming lights go quiet.
"Asa," he says, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that I feel in my marrow. "Time to go."
"I can't—my books," I stammer, even as I lean into his heat. "Mira’s research—"
"I've got the books, Asa. Just go," Mira says, her voice tight with worry. She looks at Jorak, her jaw set. "If you let the ESA catch him like this, Thorn, I will find a way to end you. Do you understand?"
Jorak doesn't even blink. He just shifts his weight, sliding an arm around my waist and pulling me flush against his side. I should be embarrassed but all I can feel is the terrifying relief of being claimed. My head falls against his shoulder, my nose brushing the collar of his jacket, and I drink in his scent until the panic starts to blur into something much more dangerous.
"He’s mine," Jorak says. It’s not a boast. It’s a statement of fact, as immutable as gravity. "He’s not going back to the facility. Not like this."
He lifts me, my feet barely skimming the floor as he navigates us toward the emergency exit. The cold air of the stairwell hits me like a slap, but I barely feel it. I’m too busy trying to crawl inside his skin. My fingers fist in his shirt, pulling him closer, my breath hitching as the first real cramp of the heat claws through my abdomen.
"Easy," he mutters against my temple, his grip tightening as we reach the street. "I’ve got you. We’re going home. We’re going to your nest."
Jorak
The elevator ride to Asa’s apartment feels like a countdown to a detonation. Asa is leaning against me, his body vibrating with a heat that has nothing to do with the summer evening outside and everything to do with the way his blood is screaming for mine. The scent of pear and vanilla is thick, sweetened by the slick, heavy musk of an Omega in full bloom. It’s cloying, beautiful, and it’s making the Black Current in my marrow buzz with a territorial hunger that I can barely keep behind my teeth.
I get the door open and practically carry him inside. He’s clumsy, his coordination frayed by the fever. His fingers are fumbled into my shirt, gripping the fabric so hard I can hear the threads groaning.
"Nest," he rasps against my neck.
"I know," I say, my voice sounding like it’s been dragged over gravel. "I’ve got you, Asa. Just a few more steps."
I fumble around, trying to head to his bedroom even as Asa’s lips attach to my neck, his nose rubbing against where my scentis the thickest. When he stops walking on his feet, I gather him up in my arms and walk the rest of the way, toward the structured piles of blankets and pillows he’s spent the last week curating.
He collapses into the center of it, dragging a heavy wool throw over his shoulders even though his skin is burning. He looks up at me, eyes unfocused and dark with a need that is raw and terrifying.
"Jorak," he whimpers, reaching out. His hand tremors in the air, searching for the connection he’s been denied for too many days.
"I'm right here," I murmur, crawling into the nest with him. The shift in his expression is immediate. The panic recedes, replaced by a desperate, frantic focus. He practically climbs me, his mouth seeking mine with a hunger that’s almost violent.
I handle him like glass, even though every instinct I have is telling me to pin him down and claim every inch of him. I peel his sweat-soaked clothes away, my hands steady despite the roar of the Black Current under my skin. He’s flushed from his throat to his thighs, his skin slick with the first wave of heat-slick. He’s beautiful. He’s a goddamn miracle, and he’s mine.
I press my face into the crook of his neck, inhaling the scent of him until it’s the only thing in my lungs. I lick the scent gland there, tasting the concentrated essence of his Omega nature. He arches under me, a sharp sob breaking from his throat. He’s begging, though he hasn't found the words yet.
"Please," he chokes out, his legs wrapping around my waist, pulling me into the cradle of his hips. "Jorak, please. It hurts. Everything hurts."
"I've got you," I growl, my own control fraying. I line myself up, the head of my cock weeping pre-cum as it brushes against his entrance. I sink into him in one long, devastating stroke, and the world finally stops screaming. There’s only the slide of skinon skin and the way Asa’s ass clamps down on me like it’s trying to swallow me whole.
He screams my name into the quiet of the room, his head tossing back against the pillows. I don't stop. I can't. I find a rhythm that is relentless, a brutal, driving pace that matches the frantic beat of his heart. I want to be inside his thoughts. I want to be the only thing he can feel until the fever breaks.
"Look at me, baby," I command, my voice low and dark. "Look at me."
He opens his eyes, those brilliant, intelligent eyes now clouded with lust and surrender. He sees me. Not the weapon. Not the S-Class asset. He sees the man who would burn the city to the ground just to keep him warm. He reaches up, his fingers tracing the line of my jaw, his touch light as a prayer.
"You, Eni," he whispers. "Always you."
I lean down, fisting my hands in his hair, and fuck him until he’s nothing but a collection of gasps and shudders. I can feel the knot beginning to swell against his ass, the biological imperative taking over. I push deeper, seeking the very hilt of him, and as the knot locks us together, I feel his internal muscles seize in a rolling, violent orgasm.
He clings to me as the first wave of his heat peaks, his body vibrating with the intensity of the release, his cum coating my stomach. I spill into him, filling him with everything I am before dragging my nose along his cheeks and neck, my scent marking every inch of my territory.
“Mine,” I mutter over and over again. “All mine.”
