Page 23 of Knotty New Year

The fight I’d been waging against my inner nature was lost in an instant. Within a minute, I was in my Range Rover, the snow tires slowing me down slightly. Her parent’s home was over an hour away on a clear day. It took an hour and four minutes for me to get there, and another minute to cross the lawn and race through the house.

The place smelled like lasagna and garlic, with undertones of burned custard and mildew, tuna fish, vanilla, and mint. It made me want to vomit. I held still, unsure where they were.

Then I heard her voice, but it was strained. Raspy, as if she’d been crying for hours. Her words came out slowly, hesitantly. “I’m so honored. It’s every omega’s dream to marry an alpha like you.”

Fuck.Was I too late?

I ran toward her voice, down a hallway that led to a dining room filled with a dozen people. Exquisite in a pale pink and gold gown, Candy stood in front of a kneeling alpha who could only be Andreas, holding a ring box in her hand, staring at the gaudy ring inside.

“It’s not your dream, princess.” My voice was raw as I saw her fingers twitch toward the ring, though her eyes flew to me.

In three steps, I had crossed the room, tipped the alpha onto his back like a turtle, and thrown my omega over my shoulder, to the shouts of everyone at the table. Everyone except for a young woman with a phone lifted in one hand—recording a video, I assumed. She gave me a thumbs up, and I suddenly recognized her from my cyber-stalking.

“Thank you, Rain.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?” the sniveling alpha whined. While he demanded I put his fiancée down, I turned to face the only others in the room that mattered. A slight, gray-haired beta couple, who appeared equal parts angry and confused. I’d known they were in their early seventies, but they seemed older.

Her father obviously knew who I was, and what I’d done, because he stepped forward. “You haven’t hurt her enough?”

“Mr. Kane, I will never forgive myself for sending Candy back to you, even if I thought she could do better than me.” We both glanced at the sputtering alpha on the floor. “But I made that mistake already. I won’t make it again. I am your daughter’s true mate, Nicholas Paxson, and I would love to have you all over to meet my family soon.”

“It’s hard for a dead man to throw a party,” my omega spat in my ear. I realized then that she’d been beating at my back with her little fists.

I squeezed her tighter, and nodded to the group. “I’m sorry to do this, but I need to apologize to Candy in private. And then spend the rest of my life making it up to her, and taking care of her.”

Rain called, “Her room’s the second one on the left, just up the stairs!”

“RAIN!” Candy yelled, but we were already in the hall. When I dumped her on her bed, she was still cursing, but her perfume had soaked into me like heated nectar. I knew she was angry, but she was also turned on. Kneeling at the edge of her bed as she sat up, I pushed her legs open.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, but didn’t close her legs. I pushed her dress up, revealing a scrap of pink lace covering her mound.

“I’m apologizing,” I explained, burying my nose in her cleft, pulling in great lungfuls of her scent. For the first time since yesterday, I stopped trembling.

“You can’t just apologize with sex.”

“With orgasms,” I corrected, pulling the panties down. “Hundreds of orgasms.”

She tried to pull her thighs closed, but I growled, and she stopped. “Why?” she asked, her voice filled with pain. I flinched; I’d done that. I’d injured this sweet-hearted young woman.

“I wanted you to have choices,” I rasped. “I didn’t want to be the reason your dreams were taken away. Not when I could give them to you.”

“Even if it meant you lost your only true mate?” she whispered. My eyes flew to her. She’d known all along, of course. She pressed a hand to her sternum and continued. “When you told me to leave, it felt like my heart was ripped. Physically torn, deep inside. I thought I would die. I almost wanted to.”

Her tears might as well have been acid, burning my soul. “I’m so sorry. You deserve a better man than me.”

The corners of her lips lifted, even as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Do I? Where would I find one, hm? A man who sacrificed his own youth so that his sisters and brothers could have theirs? Who works himself to the bone to make sure they’re provided for, who cooks and cleans and knows how to change a diaper in the dark? One who’s so handsome that I can’t even look at him without wanting him?”

I swallowed. “I thought… you wanted a choice. I didn’t see until it was almost too late that I’d taken your choice away.” Her eyes fluttered shut, and my heart skipped a beat. “Forgive me, princess. Claim me, and let me claim you.”

Her small fingers covered my mouth as she shook her head. I held my breath. Was she saying no?

She let out a shaky breath. “It wasn’t all your fault. I could have told you that I wanted you. You’re mine, Pax. And I forgive you.”

My heart soared. “You do?”

“Of course.” She chewed at her lip. “Though if you still want to give me a few of those ‘hundreds of orgasms’ you were bragging about, I suppose I can— Ah!” She stopped talking as I drew a thick stripe from her ass to her clit with my tongue. The room was so heady with her perfume now, it coated my lungs with each breath.

“Bragging?” I growled. “I’ll show you bragging.”

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