This was the most alive I’d felt in years.
EIGHTEEN
LEIGHTON
Watching Kiara come was hot even when I wasn’t the one making her.
I still couldn’t believe Dash had fucking done that. It was too far.
She was peeling off her leggings when I came into the bedroom behind her, only leaving a soaked thong behind. I stroked my hand along the curve of her ass and she jumped, peering over her shoulder at me.
“Um…” She didn’t know what to say.
“Did you want him doing that?” I asked.
“I didn’t exactly… not want it?”
“Is that why you didn’t tell me his foot was between your legs? I would have told him to fuck off, you know. Slicing him wasn’t necessary, even though he asked for it.”
Her cheeks were red and she sat on the edge of the bed, letting me take the pants off the rest of the way. This way I could make sure she didn’t displace her bandages.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
I sighed. “You don’t need to apologize. He does. Dash can’t just be doing things like that.”
“But I liked it.”
My eyebrow lifted. “The way he made you come?”
“The way I cut him.”
She worried her lip between her teeth and I sighed, settling on the bed beside her. I’d never imagined having an omega would be like this. I kind of just wanted to care for her. Know everything about her, no matter how small or potentially fucked up.
Clearing her throat, she tentatively touched the bruises on her neck. The knife was in her holster, a little bloody and smelling of spring rain and peaches from Dash.
“I ran from my father because he was planning on giving me over in an arranged mating. I don’t know to who. My father didn’t give me any details. Tobias liked to drop hints—he said they were going to dark bond me and I’d be forced to give them permission. If I was going to be bonded to strangers anyway, I decided I would escape and find someone to bond me.”
“Why a dark bond specifically?” I asked.
The question had been bothering me since the first time she’d asked me to bond her. A stunning omega like her could have gotten a normal bond. Not from me, because a lone alpha couldn’t claim an omega like that, only a pack could. I wasn’t Kiara’s only option, though. Unless Soren had made it seem like I was, and I wouldn’t put it past him.
“Getting a normal bond would have taken too long,” she said. “A pack would be taking more of a risk by giving me a normal bond. It’s for life, and they wouldn’t know anything about me. The dark bond offers less risk and more control.”
“You could have ended up with someone far worse than your arranged pack, dove. What if Soren hadn’t found you and sent you to me?”
She shrugged helplessly. My hand landed on her thigh, rubbing the bare skin in soothing circles. Her feelings were clear through the bond that neither of us knew how to turn off. A part of her was wallowing in a pit of despair over how shitty her options had been.
Thank fuck she’d ended up with me.
Even if I’d hated her, I would have rather had her safe as my bondmate.
And I certainly didn’t hate her. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten soft with her so fast, but some combination of instincts and my own loneliness had pushed me to this point.
“At least it would have been my choice,” she whispered. “I needed that.” She cleared her throat. “But my point… My point was that I didn’t get a chance to try and escape the way I meant to. Tobias decided I needed some lessons in…”
Her words stopped, but the meaning was clear nonetheless.
I could imagine what Tobias wanted for his sister.
