Page 31 of Knotty Pumpkin

“I knew you’d come around one day, Omega,” he purrs, and I breathe a quiet sigh of relief. He really thinks that highly of himself. Truly believes I’d want him. “On your feet.”

Scrambling to my feet, I comply, wanting to keep him sweet. I just need to steer the conversation towards a confession. Trick him into admitting he planned to mark me by force.

“I just needed time.”

“I just needed time, Alpha,” he corrects with a snarl, and I curse inwardly.

“Forgive me, Alpha,” I plead as he circles me, his hand gripping my hair and tugging my head back, exposing my neck. Stepping in close to my body, he inhales deeply, scenting me.

“You smell like another alpha, you slut,” he roars, tugging me towards the bed by my hair and throwing me down on it. “Like those two who keep getting in my way. You let them touch you, didn’t you?”

A whimper escapes me, my scalp burning as some of my hair is torn out. I smother the sound quickly, lying as still as possible where I land.

Holy shit. This has gone sideways fast. I know from experience that once Luke is angry, not much will calm him down. Sudden movements set off his violent side. But if I stay still, play the part of a meek, submissive omega, perhaps I can still get what I came here for tonight.

Watching as he paces back and forth at the end of the bed, I try to ignore the way his burnt, week-old sock scent is filling the space. There’s not a chance I’ll ever stay in this room again. Even with a professional deep clean.

“Your fear is fresh. Youareafraid of me,” he states as he continues pacing agitatedly.

“You’ve hurt me in the past, Alpha,” I say, trying to stay as small as possible, knowing my words are likely going to anger him further. “I needed time then to realise how good of a match we are. And it will take time now, to trust you won’t hurt me again.”

He stops pacing, standing at the foot of the bed and towering above me. His eyes are wild, the pupils dilated as his gaze stops where my dress has ridden up my thighs, exposing my lace underwear.

“Everything I did was to show you how well we fit together, Omega. To prove to you how good it would be. Didn’t my lessons feel good?”

He licks his lips, his eyes not straying from the spot between my thighs. I swallow hard, trying not to squirm, trying to push back the barrage of memories threatening to flood me.

For a moment, I’m right back in the basement he kept me in, my wrists raw and bloody from weeks of trying to escape the cuffs he used to chain me to the bed. Instead of my soft mattress beneath me, it’s the dank, dirty one, stained with his cum, my blood and pools of slick he’d forced from me.

I can feel the goosebumps peppering my naked, cold skin, as if I never escaped him. He never gave me clothes,and the chill seeped into my bones, causing an ache so ferocious I’ll never forget it.

The fear I used to feel about going into heat, and Luke bonding me to him, floods me as I recall his lessons. Hours of physical abuse were preferable to the times he tried to force my body into a heat by constant sexual stimulation. The way my body betrayed me… For years, I hated my designation. Loathed the way many in society viewed an omega.

Luke’s sentencing didn’t help the feeling. Although I was relieved he’d been locked away, he really only received a slap on the wrist. This right here, right now, is proof the time he served was nothing but an inconvenience to him.

My pulse quickens as a hot, primal rage flushes through me. How dare he have treated me the way he did? How dare he get away with a slap on the wrist only to return to my life just as I find a pack I feel safe with? How. Dare. He.

All logical thought flies out the window, together with my plan to play sweet and gain a confession. My rage takes over, and I let it fly, propping up on my elbows as I shout at him.

“Your lessons never felt good, you sick fuck! My body might have responded, butINEVER enjoyed it. Remember those times I vomited? That wasn’t from overstimulationlike you convinced yourself. It was disgust. Pure and simple. You’re a foul, nauseating alpha—ooof.”

Hist fist collides with my cheek, a sudden eruption of red-hot pain shooting through my jaw and temple. Stars burst across my vision as I fall backwards onto the bed.

“Stupid bitch. You loved it, you slicked for me repeatedly. Don’t try to convince yourself otherwise.” He’s on top of me in the blink of an eye, pinning my arms by my sides, his face swimming in and out of focus as I blink rapidly, trying to regain control of myself.

“You. Are. Mine. And if takes locking you up again and continuing those lessons you enjoyed so much, then that’s what I’ll fucking do. You won’t escape me this time.”

Using his larger body weight and strength, he flips me beneath him, holding my wrists together at the base of my spine with one hand, the other grasping the back of my skull and pushing my face into the mattress. Fighting against his hold a little, I turn my head sideways and suck in a breath as pain lances through my injured cheek.

This hasn’t gone the way I expected, but maybe I still have a chance…

“And what are you going to do, asshole? Lock me away forever until I die of hypothermia or starvation? I will never choose you…”

Angering him further is a risk, but surely the guys aren’t too far away… Or maybe the guard heard me shouting at Luke…

His grip tightens on the back of my head, twisting and smooshing my face directly into the mattress beneath us.

“You think I won’t make you?” he growls, my body thrashing beneath him as I try to lift my face and take a breath. “You’ll be mine in a few months, Saylor. This dripping wet cunt will long for me and only me. I’ll make sure of it.”

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