Page 20 of Omega's Virtue: Part Two (The Hartwell Sisters Saga 3)

The silence was deafening. I rarely confessed the impossibility of my looking at another omega but tonight, and in front of a complete stranger, I laid it bare.

“I should retire. We march in the morning, and I must be up before dawn if I want first chance at coffee before another officer downs the pot. Hate to be late for inspection.”

The general guffawed at my abrupt, frankly rude, speech as if it the greatest joke he’d ever heard. I bowed and, without a backwards glance, left.

“Colonel.” I grit my teeth, not wanting to speak to Paxton. “A moment of your time?” “What?”

“Do you ever fuck?”

I nearly choked on air. “What?”

The silver alpha glared at me. “Do you fuck? Or are you celibate after the death of your mate?”

“That is not your concern.”

“Please, humour me.”

“Most who know me, would warn you I humour none but myself and speaking so familiarly with me results in a broken nose.”

“I meant no offence. I’m curious. You perplex me. A Scotsman refusing promotion. The general’s clear plans to advance you and have you mate one of his children.”

“The logic being you must know if I fuck? To inquire as to my celibacy?” The question threw me. I could not remember the last time I’d fucked. To my shame, I’d not been… faithful. I didn’t find the betas fulfilling. More like a visit to a barber. No, perfunctorily, brief, and meaningless. I ran a hand over my face.

“Let’s fuck a beta together.”

If I’d been thrown before, this was a slap in the face. I responded without thinking. “You want a look at my cock, alpha?”

“I want to… Let’s go.” He cocked his head to the side.

Present

Why had I gone with him? The question had ceased to follow me. Or at least the details of that very moment that our fates became knotted together—leading us to this very moment. Yet they came roaring back. A sense he could help me forget, mitigate the shame I felt. Five years on, knowing my mate had been helped through her heats with a beta, the question of “why” seemed immaterial.

I loved this man and the woman in his arms in a manner beyond their understanding. In the future, they’d trick me into confessing those feelings. Some little action, and my heart would be at their feet. To whisper in my Trix’s ear that I loved her was one thing—words mattered—but to kiss the ground upon where she walked in full light of day, for society to see? Ten years of dancing around society and its curiosity. Now I would find myself thrust into its midst.

“You look serious, Jack.” Pax caught my attention.

I snuck a glance over my shoulder at the large copper tub and the steaming water. The soaps and oils and towels all neatly presented. I swallowed. “Do you want to take a bath?” I asked again.

“Of course,” Beatrice said. “Help me up.”

She raised her hands up like a small child—flapping them a little—, and I only resisted for a moment before moving into the nest and helped her to her feet. I buried my face in her hair. “Fragrant.”

“I smell.”

“We all smell,” Pax grumbled. “We smell of sex and each other. I do not understand why you would want to change that.”

Beatrice turned in my arms, ensuring my hands remained on her shoulders. “Pax… Will you always drag your feet if things do not go your way?”

“Yes,” he said, with eyes glinting and a wicked smile that became almost boyish when he rolled up on to his knees and reached for her hips, placing kisses all along the soft swell of her stomach. “I will always want to have my way. But you will always lead me down whatever path you wish, and I shall not complain.”

“Then…” She slipped under my arm and flaunted her beautiful body as she walked towards the bath. “Come join me in the bath. I want to smell human again.”

I looked down at Pax, who’d remained on his knees. I ran a hand through his long hair, gripping the silver strands so that I could tilt his face up to me. “Are you happy?” I asked him quietly.

He licked his bottom lip. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “Yes.”

“Do you want to suck my cock?”

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