The cool night air did nothing to ease the fire as I burst out onto the terrace, searching for the Omega. She hadn’t been in her room, but it was easy to track her down by her scent. My pulse was pumping, and my cock was still hard from her stunt in my room.
At the other end of the terrace, she stood with her back to me, hair blowing off her face and her thin nightdress fluttering around her legs. She was holding onto the railing and staring into the night. She didn’t turn at my approach. Seeing her like this brought back the filthy images from my dream and the things I longed to do to her.
“The stars are so bright up here. I once read that the stars of the Little Dipper might have once formed the wings of the sky’s powerful dragon, Draco. According to mythology, the Greeks clipped his wings after some sailors showed that the seven stars of the Little Dipper were better used for their navigational purposes.”
“I didn’t know you were into stargazing, but maybe I should have since you seem to enjoy seeing them from my room.”
She twisted around to face me, the moonlight glinting from her eyes. Under its silvery haze, her beauty shone, which was the opposite of what I should have been thinking.
My gaze dipped from her surprised face to the thin nightdress, which revealed the darkness of those perky tits and the small patch of hair between her legs. I sucked in a raspy breath, my head cloudy with a need to rut her.
“Wh-What are you talking about?” she gasped.
Bursting out laughing, I paused in front of her and threw my cardinal rule of not fucking another Omega out the window. She had me so riled up, I was going mad, and if she needed me to claim her, oh, I’d give her the fuck of a lifetime she’d never forget.
Sliding my hand to her chin, I lifted it so she looked me right in the eyes. My balls tightened with a hunger to finally taste her.
“I know you were in my room today.”
Her cheeks paled as she blinked at me, confused, then I witnessed her expression transform into someone confident, and she grinned.
“Did you enjoy yourself with my gift?” She rushed her words, and it was clear I’d caught her off-guard. Good.
My hand slid down her arm, holding her to ensure she didn’t get too far.
“If it’s games you like to play, I am the fucking king of games.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she tugged away from me.
“Well, lucky then, my present wasn’t meant for you, but Shadow. I must have mixed up the rooms. But you want to know the truth?” she said, color spreading over her cheeks and fire in her eyes. “I’m glad you got a small taste of what I’d been going through the last couple of days. I get it. You don’t want me here. I don’t want to be here, either, but I’m making do.”
I blinked at her, hurt she’d intended to torture Shadow instead of me, but could I blame her when I’d been a dick to her?
“I knew you’d leave us the moment you got over your heat.”
“You’re doing my head in,” she huffed. “Why would you even care? You’ve made your intentions clear.” Shoving my arm, she pushed past me.
Madness catapulted through me at the emotions and arousal she brought out of me. I snapped my arm out and grabbed her because I sure as hell wasn’t finished. She moved too fast, though, and my fingers caught the thin strap of her nightgown. The abrupt rip of material from my force to drag her back to me bled into the night.
She gasped and grasped her flimsy pajamas that cascaded halfway across her back, revealing scars on her skin. Zigzag wounds crossed her lower back across milky white flesh, and my gut tightened.
Who the fuck did that to her?
My fingers released the fabric, and she quickly covered herself. She twisted toward me, and anger and vulnerability drowned in her blue eyes. Clutching the material over a breast, her cheeks were dusty pink with her blush.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Her hand flew toward me, and her open palm slapped me across the cheek.
It stung, but I couldn’t get the scars out of my mind. My heart constricted, squeezing until I couldn’t take a breath, but with it, fury unleashed that someone dared harm her.
“Who hurt you, Trinity? Who the fuck did that to your back?”
Her chin trembled, and she lowered her gaze. Her knuckles were white from tightly grasping the fabric to keep herself covered.
“He’s a nobody. A fucking monster who prayed on girls at the Institute, and no matter how much I’ve wished Jack would just leave us alone, he was getting worse, hurting us more.”
A desperate need to lift her into my arms and tell her no one would ever touch her again slammed into me. The furious need to protect her came at me fast. The only other time I’d felt such intensity was with Lillian, my little red-haired Omega, who still haunted my thoughts, who, even today, I hadn’t worked out how to say farewell to.
The past sank its teeth into me, the grief of her death breaking me over and over. I winced, and before I knew it, I had Trinity in my arms, hugging her, my own agony shattering me.
Hatred flared at how weak I’d become that I still crumbled from the past, yet when I closed my eyes, the color of her pale hazel eyes came to me, along with the last time we’d been together and argued over a fucking stupid shirt I wore that she hated. I’d relieved that argument hundreds of times, wishing I’d just taken her into my arms, kissed away the anger, and told her she wasn’t driving anywhere without me.
“Hey, are you okay?” Trinity whispered. Tender fingers trailed across my cheek, lifting me out of the grief that dragged me deeper.
Opening my eyes, I embraced Trinity, scared I’d lose her. She fit well with me, and instead of escaping, she melted against me. Warmth radiated from her soft, warm body, and it felt like I couldn’t stop touching her, couldn’t let her go, and was unsure how to stop myself.
Shaking off the ache tearing through me, I rasped, “I’m fine.” I stared down at the gorgeous girl I’d been pushing away because I knew it’d be unbearable to resist her once I began.
She watched me with softness in her eyes and didn’t back away. The small gesture of her hand reaching up to mine kindled a spark of hope in the darkness of my mind.
“You just started shaking, and you scared me.”
The sincerity of her words affected me. For those few moments, her sweet gaze never left mine.
On the inside, I felt like shit, and a wave of guilt crashed over me that I’d been an asshole to her since she’d arrived at our home. But seeing the marks on her back touched something inside me I hadn’t expected.
From that moment we’d rushed her into our car at the Glass Slipper Ball, I told myself I didn’t owe her anything. I didn’t want my life tied to hers unless there was some way to exploit it for the pack’s benefit. Things should have remained that way. After losing one Omega, I didn’t have it in me to risk falling apart again. If I had to go through that again, it would kill me, but ignoring the Omega was no longer an option. I realized that the moment I saw her scars.
“We all have skeletons in our past.” I motioned with my chin to the night, to the world beyond the guarded walls of our compound. “We don’t live in a nice world, and I suspect everyone has a horrible story to tell.”
“That doesn’t excuse the monsters out there.”
“No, it doesn’t, sweetheart. Now, how about you tell me what part of the Institute Jack works in, or better yet, do you know where he lives?”
She half-laughed as my thumb caressed her arm where I held her.
“That’s really cute.”
“I’m completely sincere. By sunrise, I’ll gut the fucker where he sleeps.” The anger pouring over me felt familiar, a sensation I was comfortable with, and I embraced it quickly to cover my sappy emotions.
“I fucking hate the guy, but I could never wish death on anyone.” She slid out of my arms, her warmth replaced by coldness, and it took all my strength to bring her back against me again.
She was grasping the thin fabric to keep herself covered, so I removed my shirt and handed it to her.
“Put this on.”
Accepting it, she turned away from me and let her nightgown cascade down her body. She quickly pulled my shirt over her body, but not before I stared at her gorgeous bare ass and the full impact of the marks on her back. They extended the width of her back in lines as if someone had whipped her. The shirt fell to her knees, and she turned toward me once more with a lopsided grin.
“Thank you.”
My hands twitched with fury I hadn’t felt in a long time while my insides crumbled.
“I’ll take you back to your room,” I suggested.
“No, please. It’s so hot in there, and I hate being alone. Out here, I have all the stars to keep me company.”
Taking her arm, I walked to the outdoor couches, and we sat on the largest one that easily sat six people. She tucked her bent legs beneath, pulling the fabric of my shirt to cover her knees.
“I’m sorry he hurt you and left those scars… and I’m sorry I’ve been acting like a fucking jerk. You might laugh at me, but this is the first time I’ve apologized in a very long time.”
“Do you have an aversion to it?” she asked, mirth behind her words, staring at me from behind her eyelashes.
“Apparently so.” I chuckled, still trying to get hold of my out-of-control emotions. The hunger to rut the Omega grew inside me, as did the idea of carrying her into my room and locking us up together for a week, keeping her to myself.
“Who hurt you, Viper?” Her voice danced on the light breeze, drawing my attention.
Not too many things surprised me, but when it came to this Omega, she specialized in it.
“Considering we’re talking about asshole people and all that,” she continued. “I saw an anguish in your eyes that only comes from pain.”
Staring out into the darkness around the compound, I couldn’t recall the last time I talked about my tragedy.
“I wish I could say my story resulted from physical pain.” My heart hammered with grief and confusion the more I let my thoughts linger in the past.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” She leaned closer. “We can just look up at the stars and try to find more constellations.”
Before I could respond, she shuffled to lie back on her half of the couch, her knees hanging off the edge of the couch, my shirt riding up mid-thigh, grabbing my attention to her creamy white flesh.
I wasn’t one to miss out, so I laid back across the rest of the couch so the tops of our heads were touching. I wasn’t exactly a small guy, so my ass was squished up against the arm of the sofa, and my legs dangled awkwardly.
We lay there, looking at the canopy glinting with stars while silence swept between us.
“Thelma once told me I was on my way to becoming a villain,” I admitted.
“Are you serious?” She burst out laughing and shifted around to look down at me, flashing me a grin. “Why?” Then she flipped back down onto her back, shaking the whole couch.
“I’ve held on to the grief for so long, it’s made me cranky and dark. She insists villains are born out of tragedy and that I was doing an excellent job of ending up as one. She’s always had a wild imagination.”
“If it’s any consolation, I don’t see you as a villain, even if you’ve been an asshole to me.”
“Ouch.” I reached a hand up and over my head, accidentally placing my palm on her face, which left her giggling and pushing me away. Intentionally, I tenderly ran my fingers along her cheek. “I won’t argue with you. You’re right. I am a certified moron to let the loss of one Omega block me from seeing a potential new one.”
“You lost an Omega?”
Studying the sky, I spoke freely. Not seeing her facial expression, it was easier to pretend she wouldn’t judge me.
“Lillian and I were together for eleven months. We were bound together, and she was going to be mine forever. Shadow had Daniel, and Aspen was still on the lookout for his Omega, though even back then, he was making noise about us finding one for him and Shadow to share.”
“How did you and Lillian meet?” she urged.
“Believe it or not, it was a blind date. When we first got together, she had shown no signs of becoming an Omega, but I fell head over heels for her, regardless. Then a week into her showing her first signs of becoming one, her hair turning a pale violet, and we had a stupid argument. She took off angrily in her car and got into a traffic accident.” My words came out robotically while I suffocated on the emotions I barely kept down.
“I’m very sorry, Viper.”
“You know what the hardest part was? That she didn’t pass right away, and I couldn’t even tell myself that she went quickly. That stuff fucks up with your head.”
“Viper, God, I’m so sorry…”
Flashes of the past pulsed over me, blinking like a blinding light in the back of my eyes, then I was suddenly there.
“Where is she?” I croaked, pouring out of the car like liquid. I’d lost all feeling in my body the moment I received the call about Lillian. She didn’t have long and kept asking for me. I choked on tears, every step frantic, every breath like blades slicing me apart. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was breaking apart like glass shattering.
The cop took me to the part of the street that had been partitioned off by bright police tape attached to two trees. I ducked under it, flashes of car lights and voices around me, but I desperately swept the street at night for any sign of Lillian.
Her white sedan came into view, jacked up on the side of the curb and on its side, but there were three other cars smashed up. The carnage of twisted metal, the broken glass, and the throbbing light of the paramedics were playing with my head.
When the policeman stepped aside from in front of me, I saw her slumped forward from her waist over the front of the hood, pinned between the car and a tree behind her.
A painful grunt spilled from my throat.
I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first because my tears were falling so fast. A quick glance at her car showed no broken window or windshield. She would have had to get out of the driver’s seat, then another car lost control and slammed into her. I tried my best to use my logical mind to make sense of what happened to avoid dealing with the devastation in front of me.
My legs stopped moving, my body shaking so heavily, my knees were about to give out.
“She doesn’t have long,” the policeman murmured in my ear. “She’s asking for you. Go, son, before it’s too late.”
On quick feet, I moved to her side, my throat choking up, tears burning my eyes, and selfishly, all I could think about was how I was supposed to say goodbye. I wasn’t sure I could do that.
I startled out of my memory, gasping, my eyes damp, and something warm curling up against my chest.
Trinity was kneeling beside the couch, her arms wrapped around me, her cheek pressed to my chest.
“You know it’s not your fault.” The quietness of her voice comforted me.
Opening my mouth to respond, my throat constricted, and I choked out a small, muffled cry. I clamped my eyes closed to hold back any damn tears, loathing myself for not saving Lillian, for not being strong enough after all these years.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that or when she crawled on top of me and cradled against me, both of us holding each other, but when I finally opened my eyes, the first threads of sunlight spread across the sky.
My eyes stung. I must have passed out from exhaustion. My sweetheart breathed deeply as she lay asleep, curled up on top of me. Her warm breaths rushed across my neck, and while the old part of me insisted I removed her from my life before she trickled into my soul, I suspected it was already too late.
