Page 56 of Beta Lies and Cursed Lives
“I love you, too,” she whispers. “So very much.”
I crush her in my arms again, swaying a bit to some romantic music in my head that I remember my parents playing in our house when I was little.
Mira’s arms wrap under my arms, her hands rest at my shoulder blades. “That’s a nice song,” she says, causing me to misstep. I hadn’t realized I’d been projecting the song into her mind.
“Don’t stop.”
So I don’t. I keep pulling on the memory of that song, playing it soft but clearly in my mind, sharing it with the woman I love as we dance in the sunbeams shining in through the windows.
When the song, or what I can remember of it, ends, I say aloud the thought I’d been holding back. “I can’t believe we made it out.”
She hugs me tighter, her face buried in my chest where she inhales me with a shuddering breath.
Her rose and myrrh scent invades my senses, overloading me in a way I’ve never known. Then that scent mixes with something new, something delectable that makes my mouth water, my teeth ache, and my cock stiffen.
A soft whine erupts from Mira’s chest, and she steps away from me, hand to her lips, eyes frightened. She winces in pain and grips her abdomen with another whine.
Oh no.
Oh shit.
She’s going into heat again.
I can barely get the words out, barely make my body move toward the door, that beast inside my chest growling and chomping, fighting my every move. “I...I’ll go get...Rai…”
My hand on the doorknob, she whines my name, reaches for me. “No…” she’s breathless. “I want you. Need you. Please...my Alpha…”
I’ve never moved so fast in my life, dashing toward my Omega, my beloved, and lifting her into my arms to carry her to the only bed in the room. A king-sized bed, I note.
I lay Mira on top of the dark red covers, her head leaning against a pillow, and I climb onto the bed like a predator, her silver eyes narrow at me with lust I can feel as much as my own.
“Hang on,” she says in a rush, and I blink as she begins to remove her clothes, fast. Unwanted flashes of Rai tearing her clothes off when they’d mated invade my mind, and I raise a brow at her after she tosses her shirt to the floor. “I don’t have spare clothes.”
Her expression is so innocent, I grin wickedly, though I’m a bit disappointed she has enough sense right now to be level-headed despite her heat.
That disappointment flies right out the window the moment her bra joins her shirt on the floor, and I’m greeted by two glorious pale globes of flesh that I want nothing more than to sink my teeth into. My mouth waters so much that I have to swallow my saliva so it doesn’t drip down my chin like an animal.
On her collarbone is a clean bite mark, still red but going pale around the edges.
I want my mark on her more than I ever imagined. Probably because I never imagined I’d have an Omega to mark—towantme to mark her. The damaged, institutionalized Alpha.
Shaking the thoughts from my head, my hands land on the waist of her pants, and she jolts. “I promise not to tear them off.” I smirk at her before she relaxes back on the bed. The scent of her slick further invades my senses as I unbutton and pull the zipper of her jeans down. Mira’s breathing is shallow and quick, her belly and chest rising and falling rapidly as she lifts her hips to help me pull the fabric from her legs. I find myself standing at the foot of the bed, flinging her pants to the floor and raking my gaze from her sock-clad feet to the black cotton panties on her hips, to those glorious breasts that rise and fall with her breaths.
I’m frozen in place, hypnotized by her beauty. When our gazes meet, she reaches for me again. Without another thought, I pull the blue long-sleeved Henley from my torso and throw it to the ground violently, and as I undo my belt to remove my pants, I catch her eyes roving over my arms, my obliques, my pecs. For a moment, that cocky grin settles on my face at the thought of being admired, before the haze of lust lifts like a rug being yanked from under me.
I’m frozen, again, realizing exactly what she’s looking at.
The lust is gone from her face, too, as if her heat is completely forgotten. The worry in her eyes too much to bear. I avert my gaze and dip down to retrieve my shirt, but Mira’s hands are on my skin, and I shiver with uncontrollable desire; that creature in my chest lets out a soft and gentle purr of delight.
Her hand grips my jaw and turns me to face her. “Who did this to you?”
I deflate like a balloon, my ass meeting the mattress and bouncing my body a couple of times. This was not a discussion I wanted to have right now. I didn’t want to have any discussions. I wanted to mate my Omega. But it seems the haze has been lifted, reality punching me in the gut yet again.
I look down at my arms, my chest, at the pale, raised skin, ghosts of self-inflicted pain. Smooth or jagged, short or long, the scars of my desperation will haunt me forever.
“I did.”
Her arms wrap around my shoulders from beside me, holding me tightly, her voice whispers against my shoulder. “I love you. Tell me.”
