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Frowning and suddenly angry, I snap, “Are you going to force me to tell you again?”
“No. But I wanna know.”
“Maybe because I figured at least one person in this gross city wouldn’t want to see you dead.”
“That person you?”
“No.” I clear my throat and ignore the butterflies in my stomach. No. I dive in there with them and rip off all their wings. “Your wife might, though.”
“My wife.” He smiles again, slowly this time and it’s a haughty, cocky thing.
“Did you forget about your wife?”
“Course not. Couldn’t forget about her if I tried to cut her outta my thoughts with a knife.” His gaze is moving over my face lovingly, longingly, a tangible caress. It’s like he’s never seen anything more beautiful than me and I know that’s wrong. It’s wronger than wrong because we’re talking about his wife. Or are we? I…I don’t understand.
I blanche, flush, get hot and clammy all at once. And the way he’s smiling at me…I hate it. Makes me want to cry. Makes me want to jam my thumbs into his eye sockets. “She wouldn’t have liked seeing you get eaten.”
His face does something horrible then. Tragic. Wretched. Even my good friend Fear stands up from the tub and runs out of the door, naked and screaming. His expression gets allmushy. His eyes soften and light up, they evencrinkleat the corners. It’s awful. His smile gentles and he loses all of his cocky demeanor until he’s just…an attractive stranger covered in stitching and scars. A stranger who used to be a Beta, too. Once.Only, he isn’t really a stranger anymore.
“Guess not,” he exhalesdreamily.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He reaches for my hair again instead of answering and I block his touch. “She wouldn’t like you combing my hair, either.”
“Why not?”
“Because!” Because it’s too intimate. “Because if you were my husband, I wouldn’t want you touching another woman. An Omega, especially.” My thoughts flash to the Omega in the woods and I lose control of my tongue. “Like the one in the woods. She was more powerful than me.”
The expression on his face flickers. “She was. Her manipulation of the animals was…impressive.”
I burn with embarrassment.Meet me and the man in the cave.My thoughts flash to a place that’s cold and damp but strangely beautiful. I’ve been there before many times, but only in my dreams. “She was stronger than me.”
He nods. “Stronger scent than yours, too.”
I slap him. It comes out of nowhere. I hit him in the jaw-neck, like that’s normal.
He looks at me, shocked, and then he laughs so hard it scares me.
“You…your wife wouldn’t like you sniffing after another Omega, either! I mean, any Omega,” I shout, as if that’s a reasonable kind of explanation. Meanwhile, my cheeks flare in a blush I can feel all the way down to my toes.
“Nah,” he says, wiping his eyes with the back of his wet hand. “Guess not.”
He repositions me on his lap, lifting my right leg and spreading it around his hips so that I’m straddling him. His cock swipes across my opening and tantalizes my clit, but he doesn’t…come in.Because he has a wife. But he still holds me in a way he shouldn’t, kneading my bunched lower back muscles, abusing his power, or maybe just…using it.
I don’t imagine his Alpha or Beta wife or whatever she is has much say over where he sticks his cock. He’s a Berserker. One of the world’s only Berserkers. She probably expects it, or doesn’t care. I shouldn’t either. I shouldn’t…but the thought that his wife is another Omega makes me want to tear his heart out of his chest, shove it down her throat and strangle her with it.
“You shouldn’t…”
“That Omega in the woods doesn’t hold a candle to…my wife.” He grins, then tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. He rubs his thumb over my bottom lip and bites his own. I wonder if he realizes he’s even doing it. It makes it hard to concentrate on anything but not falling into heat. Like Heat is a thing standing outside the door, banging both fists on it, demanding entry. All I can do is hope that the cross beam holds.
“My wife is strong. The strongest woman I know. Her scent is thick enough to swim in. She’s more beautiful than the goddamn sun. She’s smart and brave and a fuckin’ ass hole in the best possible way. The Omega in the woods is a fuckin’ shadow compared to her because my wife…my wife is fuckin’everythingto me.” He starts to pull me in close, but I shove myself back, holding him to arm’s length.
“That’s…that’s why I shouldn’t be sittin’ — I mean,sitting— here. Like this. Your wife…she’s…” My voice is choppy. I’m scared. There’s something about his words, the way he’s looking at me, talking to me, even about his wife, that makes me think…no… I search helplessly for Fear in the corners of the room, but she’s not there. I don’t understand this or him or anything.
“Gonna deserve you, Omega,” he sighs, like he can’t feel my aggression and jealousy and rage at all. Or like he doesn’t care. I bet that’s it. He’s probably used to ignoring his wife’s, too. Yeah, that’s it. He’s talking about her like he loves her. So…so why is he saying this shit to me?
“Wh-what?”
“I’mgoingto deserve you.” He punctuates each word, enunciating carefully, before he shocks the hell out of me, leans in and presses a kiss to the tip of my nose. “One day, gonna deserve you. But for today, gonna start with this.”
