Page 117 of Heat Lightning

Exasperated, I sighed. “I’m not going to argue with you over our hypothetical children’s futures again. We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. And I don’t want normal. I want you. None of this changes that.”

Something predatory sparked in his eyes, as if I’d thrown a challenge flag he couldn’t resist accepting any longer. His alpha peered out at me, gobbling me up with his hungry gaze.

My omega sat up, alert.

He gripped my waist tight and pulled me up, so I straddled his hips. “You don’t want normal? What would you say if I told you the very first time I saw you, I nearly claimed you right then? The things I wanted to do to you…” He inhaled deeply. “All of a sudden, I wasn’t hunting Weber anymore. I was hunting you. And I felt more alive than I have my entire life, Max.”

My breath caught. Dark, forbidden desire coiled around me. All at once, I realized I wanted to be hunted by him, and the thought no longer horrified me.

It only made me slick.

He dragged his hands up and down my sides, lifting my shirt to expose my soft abdomen. His thumbs brushed the slight swell of my womb, still bloated from all the cum he’d spilled there.

Atlas must’ve remembered the same. His pupils dilated, slipping back into that feral state, and his cock hardened beneath me. My body responded instantly, softening beneath his touch.

“Don’t worry, sweet boy. I didn’t want to kill you. But I did—I do—want to devour you. Swallow you whole. Taste your lips and drink your scent until I choke. I tried to ignore it. I tried. I told myself I only followed you instead of Weber to protect you from him. I told myself I couldn’t have it on my conscience if he hurt you.”

Leaning forward, he whispered in my ear, his lips tickling and sending shivers down my spine. “But when I broke into your apartment the first time, I watched you sleep before sharing your phone location with mine. I told myself it was so you’d be easier to keep track of; so I’d know if you and Weber were in the same place. But that’s a lie. I still watch it, Max. I can’t sleep until I see your little dot tucked safely in your bed.”

I rolled my hips and gasped. “You—you were inside my apartment. I knew I scented you. I thought I was going crazy; I thought you were haunting me.”

He shook his head. “It’s the other way around, sweetheart.”

Pulled in by the alluring power of his pheromones, I nuzzled into the crook of his neck. “If that’s all you’ve been keeping from me, you’re an idiot.”

He chuckled, wry and dark. “You weren’t home when I broke in the second time. It was easier to justify that one. I was only there to fix your broken front door, after all. It didn’t take a professional like me to sneak into your nest. Anyone could’ve walked in and hurt you, and that was unacceptable. I was only helping.”

I found myself descending into that deep, omega headspace, the one only he brought out in me. Nodding along, my hips ground against his cock. “Only helping,” I echoed. “You help so good.”

He flashed his teeth. “Was I helping when I buried my face in your sheets? Hmm? Was I helping when I got hard from the smell of your day-old slick?”

I groaned. Oh, God. I’d never admit it, but Atlas was right. If he’d told me this at the start, I would’ve run for the hills screaming, even if I would’ve jerked off to it later. But now…

His midnight blue pheromones swirled and swirled around me, and I slipped into the darkness with delight.

“It made me jealous,” he snarled. “Who were you thinking of when you came? If it was anyone but me, I’d tear them to shreds. When I followed you to that club, I told myself it was because I knew Weber would try to hurt you. I told myself I only broke into that room so I could kill all the alphas who would hurt an innocent person. Because that was what I did, it was all I did. I certainly didn’t get hung up on pretty, innocent, little omegas and their glasses and freckles and sweet slick.”

I was fully hard, whining into his shoulder. My glasses fogged up from my hot breath against his skin.

“But none of that is true, is it, sweetheart?”

I shook my head. “No.”

He rumbled and dragged his teeth down my neck. “Can you guess why I was really there? Will you say it with me?”

All inhibition gone, I tipped my head back, offering my throat. I could only do as he asked; I only wanted to do as he asked.

“Me,” I gasped, breathless.

“You,” he said at the same time. His chuckle tickled my Adam’s apple. “Good omega. Good, good boy. That’s right. It’s because I wanted you. You were mine from the very first moment I saw you, and anyone else who touched you was going to die. Those men were always going to die. And then all I wanted to do was pin you down and fuck you in a pool of their blood, so you’d never forget who you belonged to.”

“Atlas,” I panted, rucking up his hoodie. “Atlas. I need to feel you. Need you closer.”

He tumbled forward, dropping me on my back with an oof while he hovered over me.

“Your arm! Be careful!” I warned, but he didn’t seem to care.

His eyes were wild. Feral. He was all predator, all alpha, and I was the prey he’d pinned. My hole grew wetter at the thought.