Chapter Nine

The alphas could all fuck themselves for what little Kara cared. Or each other. Or a rusty keyhole.

Really, she didn’t much care as long as they stayed away from her.

She’d used her humor and snark to mask her reaction when the doctor had blurted out the truth, the one she hadn’t had to actually hear in years, the one she’d only admitted once in her life, to Liam before he’d fucked her.

She was sterile.

After the attack as a teenager, after the doctors had patched her back up as best they could, the damage couldn’t be undone.

They’d had to take her uterus, though one functioning ovary was hanging in there.

Sort of.

The bitch would send signals to her body, wanting to breed, but given her lack of a womb, she never went into full heat. It meant she also never fully went out of heat. She lived her life in that halfway-there state, sated for short bits of time but never free of that clawing need.

She had yet to look the alphas in the face.

What do I care what they think? I’m not their mate, so they can fuck off if they have an opinion.

Repeating that to herself didn’t quite fix it, though.

She’d sat in the back seat of the car as the alphas spoke about the lab.

Damon hadn’t found any record of Grace. The doctor having talked about her so freely meant he likely wasn’t involved, especially because he’d seemed surprised to not find her file.

Someone at the lab was covering up Grace’s visit, but who? And why? Given that there hadn’t been any movement, any sign of Grace, the lab had to have grabbed her. If they’d sent people after Kara, she doubted the other omega could have kept off their radar.

Even as they’d talked, she’d stared out of the car window, not rising to offer more than a word or two, and only when forced.

No one addressed the huge fucking elephant sitting in the room, though.

Which, yet again, she told herself didn’t matter.

She didn’t want kids. She wasn’t the maternal type, and after her own upbringing? Fuck that noise. She wasn’t worth shit as a mate, either. If anything, this made it easier, right?

The alphas wouldn’t get any stupid ideas if they knew she was useless as an omega.

Broken.

The word carved gouges in her skull as it always did.

Reese and Cullen headed out after getting back to the hotel. Supplies, they’d said, but neither had tried to speak to her. She wasn’t an idiot. They were going to go gossip like fucking teenage girls.

It left Damon typing away on his laptop, which he’d set up on the desk in the living room. Normally, he worked in his own room, but she got the sense he didn’t want to leave her be.

Afraid I’ll bolt?

She wasn’t a coward. She didn’t run. Well, I do run, but not out of fear.

Frustration built inside her, twisting and writhing until it ate her up and she couldn’t breathe. She’d be the first to tell people life wasn’t fair, yet all of a sudden, the idea of it drove her mad.

Not only was she defective, as so many people had said in her life, but now the alphas all knew it. She wasn’t quirky and feisty and wild.

She was just broken. Damaged goods.

And while the idea of Cullen or Reese touching her turned her stomach right then, because they would take and she felt raw and empty with nothing left to give, the movement of Damon’s long, agile fingers on the keyboard tempted her. They sped over the keys, the constant clicking making her think about how those fingers could be put to better use.

He slowed, a quiet inhalation reminding her that she couldn’t exactly sneak up on an alpha, not when she struggled as she did with her body’s reaction.

No matter the problems in her life, sex had always been a quick and easy fix. Angry? Stressed? Sad? None of them were anything a good round with a stranger couldn’t resolve, or at the very least, distract her from. And right then? She needed that distraction. She needed to use Damon’s body until she forgot how broken her own was, until she felt right, just for a moment.

The clicking of the keyboard continued, though it slowed as if he wasn’t fully focused on his work anymore.

Kara rose from her spot on the couch, tossing down the magazine she’d been reading. She wore only the large shirt she’d picked up from the store to sleep in, boys suck written across the front. Her cunt was already drenched.

Even when she reached the desk, Damon didn’t lift his gaze. He smelled of aroused male, something that stroked along her desires like the sweetest of caresses. Still, he didn’t acknowledge her.

Did he not want her?

The thought might have doused the flames inside her if she’d been any other female, if they weren’t at least partly based on biology she couldn’t control.

“I can call Reese and Cullen,” Damon said, voice tight.

Kara leaned her hip against the desk, staring down at the young alpha, his firm lips pressed into a tight line. He wanted her, but what if that was just biology?

She’d done this before with a male who didn’t want her. She refused to do it again, especially after what had happened, after having her other secrets and flaws on display.

“I didn’t ask you to call them.”

He released a long sigh, then breathed in through his mouth as though that might lessen his reaction. “Don’t play games with me, Kara.”

Her name on his lips was far too sweet. He was far too sweet, really.

And it only made her want him more. She wanted his inexperience and his uncertainty. In fact, it was the reason she wanted him so badly right then, because those things made this safer for her.

“Have you ever been with an omega?”

He shook his head, a single quick jerk to the side that said he didn’t care for admitting such a thing.

Kara caught his chin and lifted his gaze to hers, an uncomfortable feeling because she didn’t tend to care for eye contact. It revealed too much. “Do you not want this? Because I’ll leave if that’s what you want.”

His eyes, so light brown they looked like warm honey, seemed the perfect mixture of hard and soft. They were expressive, begging for something he didn’t know how to ask for, and yet solid with want and magnified by his glasses. “I’m not Cullen. I’m not Reese,” he said, a waver in his voice.

And that was exactly why she wanted him right then. She slid her thumb against his bottom lip, softening her grasp even as her body nearly screamed at her with need.

She wanted to card her fingers through the short brown strands of his hair and force his head between her thighs, to feel his tongue against her, to let it take away that constant ache she never could quite quench. “I know who you are, and I’m still here. So, pup, do you want me to stay?”

His gulp went straight to her cunt, but damn if his nod didn’t nearly make her come.

Damon said nothing when Kara shut the lid to his laptop and tossed it onto the couch. He would have complained if anyone else had dared to treat his most prized possession with such carelessness, but the scent that rolled off Kara meant he’d forgive her anything.

Especially when she slid her ass onto the desk in front of him, spreading her legs so her bare feet rested on the outside edges of his chair. Still, he kept his gaze up, as though playing some game he didn’t quite know the rules of.

Though, really, he didn’t. He had no idea what to do beyond what instinct told him. That instinct screamed to touch Kara, to taste her, to fuck her until the delicious scent of her arousal reached a peak then died off, until his scent mixed with hers as the other alphas’ already had.

He ignored that instinct, though, and fought what he really wanted. The only thing he allowed himself was to lift his hands and wrap them around her calves, the hard muscles there proof she was no wallflower.

No, this omega had thorns and no problem using them to draw blood when she wanted.

She moved her fingers from his lip and slid them through his hair, grasping the short strands tight. Her voice came out like silk, deceptively soft but strong enough to bind a man. “You’re not a virgin, I’m sure.” She tugged his hair until he came forward, until he rose to his feet. A tsk of her tongue made him groan. “On your knees, pup. Show me what other skills you have.”

Damon’s knees hit the floor without thought or plan, as though she had a shortcut directly to his body, one that bypassed his brain. His cock ached, hard as stone against his slacks and desperate for her. He’d slept with women, but none of them had done this. None of them could have sent him to his knees with a few words, could have made him salivate for another order, another demand.

He didn’t think about his plans right then. He couldn’t care less about plans, not when he could smell Kara’s pussy, when only the thin fabric of her shirt dipped between her thighs to cover her from him.

She gave another soft yank to his hair, rewarded by a growl so feral it nearly frightened him. A shudder ran through her, dancing along her bare thighs, telling him it sure didn’t frighten her. “Come on, you can figure this out.”

Damon needed no more coaxing, no more orders. He used his grip on her calves to spread her legs wider, to open her for him, before he fell upon her drenched cunt. The position of her legs forced her shirt higher, revealed everything to him. Her slit was tight, perfect and pink. He took her plump labia between his lips, sliding his tongue along the folds, tracing each part of her cunt like a painting.

Her scent was so much stronger up close, maddening him, driving him crazy with need. His hands twitched against her legs with the strength of his longing to reach between his thighs and grasp his cock. He wanted to stroke himself until he spilled, lavishing attention on her until she couldn’t move, until she couldn’t make demands of him because he’d sated her so fully.

Her pussy spread for him as he stiffened his tongue and forced it as deep as he could, as though he could literally devour her.

Her fingers tightened in his hair, pulling him closer, and the loud moans that fell from her lips were a symphony he’d never forget. Her breath would hitch before a deep moan rattled from her, from one extreme to the other, low, then high, loud then tapering off to a whisper.

Damon drew each sound from her like an instrument, though the grip in his hair reminded him who was in charge.

And he wasn’t sure he’d ever been happier in any position than there, beneath her. All those unsatisfying encounters in his past had been missing this. He sunk into the moment, into the rightness as he moved his tongue to her clit.

The first stroke had her back arching, letting him look up her body. Hard nipples showed through the thin fabric of her top, the sway of her breasts telling him she’d worn no bra. He wanted to pay homage to the tight little peaks, but he refused to relinquish his prize, not yet. Her head was thrown back, one hand behind her for balance.

She was spread out like some fertility goddess, taking what she needed, and Damon was more than happy to give her everything.

He lashed her clit, driving her hard. She rolled her hips up toward him, a rhythm as if she actually rode his tongue.

Perhaps next time he’d lie down, have her seated above him, and just drown in her.

He could think of no better way to go.

Kara cried out, and her cunt pulsed around nothing, twitching as she came, as he drew out the waves by latching his lips around her hard little clit and sucking.

She pulled at his hair but he didn’t release her. He couldn’t. That instinct inside him snarled to keep going, especially when her scent said she still needed him.

Her complaint died in her throat when he scraped his teeth against her hardened bundle of nerves. Instead, whatever she was going to say turned into a gasp, then a groan. Her legs fell wide again, and Damon took that as his signal to move his hands higher. He grasped the inside of her thighs to keep her spread for him, then used his thumbs to pull the hood of her clit out of the way, so nothing hid her from his gaze.

She was flushed, the pink having darkened to a rosy color, and completely soaked, some from her wetness, some from his saliva, and it all sat on her like a claim.

Which was funny, since he still kneeled for her, since she still directed him with a grip in his hair, but it felt like possession.

So Damon feasted yet again. He didn’t try for technique, using the sounds she made and the rolling of her hips as his teacher, his guide. The second orgasm was brutal, tearing a cry from her throat so loud, he nearly stopped, her back bowing and her hand clamping down in his hair.

Once more, his mind screamed. Once more and they’d both be sated.

Only, he doubted he’d ever really be sated, not for more than a short while. Her taste sat on his lips and tongue and brain like a tattoo.

The third time he drove her to release was different. Her hips hardly moved, sweat covering her body, plastering her shirt to her. Her noises had turned breathless and labored, and each time he stroked her clit, she whined.

When she came that third time, it was a collapse, as though something inside her had broken—or maybe fixed? Hell if he knew.

He rose to his feet after one last lick up her entire pussy, finishing with a hard flick to her sore nub.

Kara slipped her hand behind his neck as he towered over her, a funny contrast since, despite his size and strength, there was no question who was in charge.

Her eyes remained closed, and he missed that bright blue. He wanted to see her sated and happy and tired from the pleasure he’d given her.

Instead, she hooked a heel around his hip. “You’re not done yet, pup.”

Pup. It went straight to his cock, and even if he might have turned her down—and he doubted he’d have had the strength to do it—that made it impossible.

Damon fumbled with the clasp of his slacks, undoing them in an uncoordinated rush, then pulled down his boxers far enough to palm his heavy erection.

He set his hand on the desk for balance, crouching slightly to line himself up, dragging the head of his dick against her tight, wet slit just to feel it.

She yanked with her foot, a reminder, a demand impossible to deny.

Damon slid in, taking his sweet time, enjoying the tight grasp of her inner walls on each inch of his cock.

She sighed, swore and moaned as he delved into her, as though each stroke of his cock against her sensitive pussy walls was too much and yet not nearly enough.

When his body pressed against hers, when he’d fed her every hard inch, he paused. The position left his lips just before hers, and he took the chance for a light kiss.

She jerked backward. Perhaps she didn’t care for the taste of herself? He hadn’t exactly been careful, and he was sure her wetness clung to his lips.

When he might have asked, she drove the questions from him with a lift of her hips and a tightening of her pussy.

Damon groaned and gave in—to instinct, to her, to the demands of both their bodies. He pulled back then thrust in, the slowness of that first advance forgotten.

Instead, he took with that wild side of himself, the one that peeked through his eyes, that hid inside him. He gave himself over to the need of that beast, fucking her with hard, deep thrusts. And for Kara’s part, she took each thrust, her legs tight around his waist so he never went far.

Damon’s lip pulled back to bare his teeth as the snug wetness of her cunt overcame him. He’d been so close already just from feasting on her that he had no hopes of lasting long. The ache at the base of his cock intensified, and he slammed home as it started to swell.

The sensation of taking her like that, of his knot growing to lock inside her, that impossible grip of her cunt as it stretched around him, overwhelmed him. Even more, though? The spark of pain when Kara bit down on his shoulder seared through it all, even as his cock jerked and rope after rope of cum filled her.

His snarl came out deep, a strange sense of belonging from the omega’s blunt little teeth buried in his skin. Even the trickle of blood didn’t bother him. Buried as deep inside her as he was, trapped now by her body and his, he doubted anything much could bother him.

Kara released him, pressing a kiss to the mark, then a lick to clear away the smudged blood. Her eyes had opened, though they didn’t lift to him. Instead, her eyebrows furrowed, and she stared at the bite mark as though it confused her.

Damon leaned down, nuzzling against the top of her head, the best he could think of since she hadn’t kissed him back.

She shook off the touch with the same reaction as when he’d tried to kiss her. Her words held a finely-honed edge when she said, “Don’t get any ideas, pup. This was just fun.”

Even as she snapped the denial, she burrowed closer, her skin tightening to goosebumps, her sweat having cooled once they’d slowed.

Damon didn’t bother trying to sort it out right then. Instead, he wrapped an arm behind her, pulling her against him tightly so he could lift her, even locked inside her as he was.

He took her to the couch and grabbed the throw blanket over the back. A few adjustments and he’d pulled it around her, trapping her between the heat of his chest and the soft fabric of the blanket.

She offered him a soft growl as she adjusted the best she could until she rested her cheek on his chest and tossed her arms around him, draping herself over him.

While sleep didn’t take him, Damon relaxed into the odd sense of belonging, the feeling of a sated, happy omega in his lap, her cunt still snug around his knot.

An amoral, sterile omega thief wasn’t in his plans, and neither was sharing her with two other alphas.

She huffed, a warm breath heating his chest as she snuggled closer.

It wasn’t part of his plans, but suddenly he wondered if it might not still be worth it.