PART 3
THE CORE
‘You cannot save people,
you can only love them.’
-Anais Nin
Zephyr
with him that night.
But he stayed the night. He stayed the night, just holding her, letting her cry, letting her hit him, but not letting her away from himself. She fell into an exhausted sleep and woke to his fingers gently stroking her back, her cheek on his chest as he lay awake, lost in some thought. And something shifted in their dynamic since that morning. Zephyr didn’t know if it was the fact that she’d begun to hold back, or the fact that he’d begun to give more, but things didn’t remain the same.
She stayed with her sister that night too, and he stayed with them, not leaving her side while she was awake, knowing she was vulnerable and letting her be. She emerged from her room with him in tow, to see Zen watching Criminal Minds, and plopped down beside her. Alpha took a seat on the other side of the couch, a silent conversation happening between her sister and him, and the three of them just watched one episode after another. When she fell asleep, he took her back to the bedroom and only left afterward.
The next morning, he was back not just with breakfast, but also the dogs, all leashed in one hand.
Bear, her special boy, saw her and his tail began to wag incessantly. The moment they were free, he attacked her with his love, pushing her on the floor and licking her hands as she hugged him.
“He was whining at home,” Alpha said wryly as he took a seat on the stool beside the kitchen counter. The other two dogs went around the apartment, investigating the new scents, Baron sniffing Zenith as she watched with amusement, Bandit giving her a customary lick.
Hector entered from the open door, checking Zen out before nodding at her.
“Yo, Zee. You doing good?”
She gave him a smile, petting Bear who put his head on her lap and began to make happy sounds like a rumbling motor.
“This was sneaky,” she told Alpha, hugging the dog. “You brought them to tempt me to come back.”
The unscarred side of his mouth twitched, his eye patch dashing in the morning sun.
Zen laughed from the side. “Well, as romantic as this is, I have to go.” She put on her silk scarf around her neck. “By the way, mama and papa want to talk to you. You better call them.” She looked at Alpha. “Brother-in-law.”
Alpha gave her a nod. “Sister-in-law.”
That was cute.
Zen left the apartment, and Hector followed, leaving them alone with the dogs.
“You should invite your parents for dinner,” Alpha suggested, a wicked gleam in his golden eye.
“You’re only saying that so I’ll come back.”
He didn’t reply, but he was right. She still didn’t feel ready though, so she stayed away.
He persisted. Earlier, she’d been the one to his work in the evenings, now he waited for her outside the salon when she got done, driving her from there to the apartment, leaving her at the door with a hard kiss. Each day the same, their new routine. He brought her breakfast and the dogs, dropped her at work, picked her up, and repeat. Each day he tried to get her to go home with him, and each time she refused he didn’t give up.
It was odd, this Alpha who doggedly refused to let her go, one who slowly let her in to this new heart of his. Day after day, to the point Zen told her to give him another chance. So she went home. It was the same, but it felt different. Maybe she felt different.
Leah was happy to see her, saying the house was too empty without her now. Nala was happy to see her, saying nobody appreciated her food as she did. And Alpha, he was happy to see her there, saying nothing but taking her bag to the master bedroom.
She called her parents and invited them for dinner over the weekend. She called Amara and gave her some updates. And then she went to her old room, and lay down in bed.
That was the thing about a depressive episode. She bounced back usually but sometimes, she didn’t. Sometimes, it changed her just enough for her to notice. Sometimes, she just wanted to stare at the wall and let everything pass by, no matter how good things seemed to be going.
A weight got on the bed with her.
Bear.
He whined softly, and lay by her side, and Zephyr smiled, petting his soft fur.
“You think we’ll be okay?” she asked him quietly.
He pressed his head to her stomach.
“I don’t know where I’ll go from here.”
Arms slid under her knees and neck, picking her up easily.
“For now, you’re going in our bedroom,” her husband declared gruffly, carrying her through the adjoining door and dropping her on the bed.
Zephyr bounced once before settling, watching him shut the doors and take off the loose vest he wore at home, watching his muscles ripple as he stripped and prowled to the bed. She backed up instinctively, never having seen this side of him, her eyes taking in his scars, his tattoos, his muscles, his everything.
He put his hands beside her head, his single eye focused on her. “You sleep here now.”
Zephyr swallowed. “You’re only doing this to lure me back in.”
“Damn right I am.”
Zephyr held his gaze, and slumped down. She was tired. Turning on her side, she looked out the tall glass doors that led to the balcony, listened to the sound of the gushing waterfall and animals, and felt him slide behind her.
She slept fitfully through the night, and he held her tight, not letting her out of the circle of his arms once, for once giving and giving and giving while she only took and replenished herself.
***
It was the heat that woke her up in the morning. Zephyr felt like a furnace, sweating, caged against a very hot, literally hot, body. She groaned, turning her neck to see and actually believe she was in the master bedroom where her husband had carried her (carried her!) after bringing her back home.
He was asleep.
She turned as gently as she could to not wake him, taking him in the early morning light.
He slept, his leather eye patch on the bedside table, the scarred side of his face still in the permanent scowl but the other side relaxed, eased, his brow not as severe as it was when he was awake. Zephyr leisurely clocked every detail of him, going down from his face, down his neck. The big scar extended down, over his right pec, ending just under his ribs where a larger clutter of tissue had healed together, almost as if someone had dragged a knife down and stuck it in his ribs. Tribal tattoos decorated around the scars, almost as though he’d seen them and decided to highlight them on his body. The tattoos didn’t have any particular shape or writing, just designs.
Other smaller scars littered his torso. Zephyr counted them. Nine. So many scars.
She touched the one beside his light abs tenderly, softening, wondering again at how hard it must have been for him to not only survive but survive alone while leading a tribe of his own. Even though she was mad at him, it was commendable.
“Your touch.” His voice, deep and grainy from sleep, startled her. She pulled her hand back but he snatched it with lightning-quick reflexes, placing it on the scar again. His golden eye opened drowsily, the other sealed shut by the mottled tissue, and she marveled again at the fact that he was letting her see under his skin.
“My touch?” she asked, urging him to complete the sentence.
One of his large hands came up, stroking the side of her cheek. “I didn’t realize how much I missed your touch. You gave a man starved a feast every day until he forgot what hunger felt like, and then took it away.”
God, he spoke like the boy she’d once known. Younger Alpha had said the most beautiful things to her, whispered them to her in private while he still remained a badass on the streets.
“I’m sorry I forgot you,” he told her quietly, and Zephyr soaked up the moment, his sincerity, his softness, his touch.
She patted his scar. “It’s not your fault.”
He leaned in, giving her a tender kiss. “We’ll make this work?”
It was the first time he asked, and not told her, to be back.
“If I say I want to leave?” she nuzzled his nose.
“I’ll just keep you in bed.”
A bubble of laughter escaped her chest. “And what will you do?”
He didn’t answer, just pulled her under him and caged her in his massive arms, his body hulking over her as he bent his head, kissing her neck softly, going down to the juncture of her shoulder where she was extra sensitive. “I will tempt you.”
Zephyr chuckled, holding his sides, tilting her neck back. “With your magic dick?”
She felt the left side of his mouth lift up.
Her phone buzzing from the side made her look over.
“It’s mama,” she told him, grabbing the phone and pushing him away, even though he didn’t budge.
“Zephyr,” her mama’s voice came through the speaker bright and early.
Alpha dipped his head, tugging her pajama top down with his teeth, cupping her breasts in his massive palms. What the hell was he doing?
“Good morning, mama,” Zephyr greeted her mother, her head hitting the pillow as he squeezed one breast, licking the nipple on the other with a flick of his tongue. His short scruff added to the sensation, rubbing against her sensitive skin. She pushed her fingers in his hair, keeping the phone in the other.
“Why did Mrs. Billie from your building call me and tell me you were with your sister this last week? Did you leave the husband of yours?” The hope in her mother’s voice was truly incredible. Zephyr wondered what her mother would say if she knew that husband of hers was currently feasting on her boobs like it was his sole purpose in life.
He tugged at her nipple with his teeth, and she bit her lip, keeping the sound rising in her throat trapped as she gathered a breath to answer her mother.
“No, mama,” she breathed out, trying to sound as normal as she could. “Zen just missed me. She’d not used to living alone—ah—so I decided to visit for a few days.”
“What was that?”
That was her husband, tormenting her, biting the flesh of her breasts, sucking her nipples deep into his mouth, doing wicked, wicked things with his tongue as she lay on the bed, wanton under him. Sex had always been something they’d been good at, even when he’d been holding himself back. She wondered what it would be like now when he gave it to her.
“Nothing,” she answered her mother. “Just walking the—um—dogs.”
Why were his hands going down and spreading her legs?
She stopped him, only to see a gleam in his eyes as he ripped her panties right from the center.
“Good,” her mother said, the sound of the microwave behind her. “At least you’re getting some exercise in.”
Zephyr stared up at the ceiling, her mood dampening.
“Mama, I’ll call you in a bit,” she disconnected, her jaw tight.
Alpha looked at her, his left eyebrow slashing in confusion.
Zephyr looked down at her thighs, thighs he held open, thighs with cellulite that her mother had very well-intentionally told her to tone. Usually, she didn’t let stuff like that get to her, but with the depressive, insecure episode she was rebounding from, it was easy to see the flaws and believe what everyone tried to feed her.
She tried to close her legs, only to have him hold them in place.
“Do you think I’m beautiful?” she asked him, genuinely curious about what he would say. She didn’t think she was by society’s standards, but she liked how she looked.
Alpha placed a kiss on her mound. “What happened?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I think,” he settled in comfortably, tilting her hips and opening her up, watching her with that golden stare. “You’re both my rainbow and my treasure at the end of it. And nothing—” bite “—will—” lick “—ever—” suck “—compare.”
He won.
“You’re the twisted beauty, I’m the beast, remember?” his hot breath washed over her. “Now let this beast eat you up.”
Alpha spread her wide, licking her from top to bottom, his tongue sinful as he lashed it against her flesh.
Zephyr lay on her back, her hands gripping his head, letting him make her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.
