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Her delicate omega fingers closed around my wrist. “Don’t.” Her breathing picked up, the beautiful scent flooding the room with fear as her eyes darted between me and the phone.
I sighed, setting it down. “Alright, Gem. You did take my knot so well tonight.”
She shivered against me at those words, and I wrapped my arms around her, letting my purr rumble to life again as I held her close. She was so, so perfect.
At my purr, her scent calmed by a fraction, but not completely. I held her in my arms, trapped against me, completely vulnerable when vulnerability wasn’t what she’d offered. I knew that feeling, knew how it would fracture a person or make them. I’d stolen from her, taken something she’d never wanted to give, but she was strong. One day we would lay like this and it would be free of fear or worry or pain.
I knew it, because it was my dream, not just for her, but for all of my pack.
By the time my knot released her, she’d changed, all her fight had drained away. I fetched a cloth to take care of her; it was an instinct etched into every pathway in my brain. Then I gave her a bathrobe to tug around herself.
The cloth was warm against my palm, wrapped neatly as I drew it down her cheek.
When I was done, I lifted a pillow to her, and she stared at it with blank eyes. “Mark it for him.”
I wouldn’t keep her scent to myself, no matter how much she was afraid of Umbra catching it. Her eyes slid to me, but she didn’t argue, pressing it to her neck and filling the air with her dark perfume.
When she stood, she winced. The result of the fuck, or the smarting bruise I’d left on her flesh, I wasn’t sure.
“Next time, behave better and it will only be good, Gem.”
She just looked at me, more hollow than ever. “Give me my nest.”
I cocked my head, digesting her expression, which was much too neutral for what I’d come to expect of her. At my hesitation, she cracked.
“I did what you asked,” she whispered. “You took everything.” Her breathing came ragged all of a sudden and her fist closed in my shirt, fresh tears spilling down her face. “You took everything, so just give me my nest!”
Good.
That was good.
She needed to get this out now, and I would take that blame if it would soften the devastation to come. She was angry. Grief for filth that didn’t deserveit, but she would have to, one way or another. Better a piece at a time now, because here, with me, she was strong even if she didn’t realise.
Ignoring her flinch, I took her hand in mine. Then I led her from the room and across the hall to the door of the nest.
I tugged my key from my pocket and unlocked the door. When I opened it she stepped inside, and her scent shifted at last with a breath of relief. Until she turned and saw me following.
“No,” she snarled.“No.It’s fucking mine. You said it was mine. You said you wouldn’t come in.”
“It is, but tonight I’m going to give it to you.”
“What does that mean?”
I would be quick. But one more time tonight, I would cause her pain. I’d seen the level of dissonance she was capable of. If she never saw me in this nest, if there wasn’t even the slightest trace of my pack, how far back could she slide, even in just a night?
I took another step, ignoring her hiss of rage, ignoring the tears that clouded her eyes once more.
“I hate you,” she snarled again as I led her to the walk-in closet. I don’t know why it lit a fire in my chest when she spat those words, doing the opposite that they were supposed to, but I stifled my cold smile tonight. Instead, I opened a drawer and pulled out a nightdress before holding it out to her.
She just stared at it, then at me, and I saw the first true darkness in her eyes.
“If you would like me to leave sooner…?” I supplied.
She grabbed it and I leaned against the wall, watching her shrug off the dressing gown and pull it over her head as fast as she could manage.
Angry, sad, jealous? I didn’t really care. I could stare at her forever. Especially in a pretty silk nightdress that barely covered her thighs.
It was chosen by me. Everything in here was. Would she care to unpack the clothes in that suitcase of hers? I’d already sifted through it and realised quickly that it wasn’t hers at all. There was nothing, not even a few trinkets or items like most omegas might have.
