Chapter Fourteen — Change

His.

Joseph couldn’t get that thought out of his head. She was his.

With this thought, he went to bed one night and woke up some time the next day. After her fever their sleep schedule would need a few days until it was back to normal. At least his would. When Joseph opened his eyes, he found the bed empty. Panic shot through him. Where was Maria? He was up on his feet within a second, ready to search the whole house for her. His intentions quickly flew out the window when he saw her standing in the door frame with two steaming mugs smelling of coffee and a more than shocked look on her beautiful face.

“Good morning,” she said with a smile tugging on her lips. “I didn’t know coffee would get you up so quickly.”

Joseph huffed a laugh and collapsed back onto the bed, rubbing his face and closing his eyes as the already low winter sun seeping in through the windows blinded him. He heard her coming closer and then the sound of ceramic on wood.

“What time is it?”

“Almost noon. Moose needed to go to the bathroom so I let him out. I made some coffee and stayed inside until he was done and let him in again.”

“We don’t want you to get sick again.”

The mattress dipped under her weight as she joined him on the bed and the light warming his face was blocked. Only then, he opened his eyes and looked straight up at her. She was a vision now that all her bruises were gone and that fear in her eyes only came out when he did something thoughtless. He was dying to touch her, ball his fist in her hair, and pull those smiling lips down to kiss them.

Maria’s skin looked so smooth, so soft. Something in her eyes told him it was okay to move forward, to give in.

“When… when I was asleep, I didn’t just have nightmares,” she whispered, feeling the tensions simmer between them too. “I had other dreams as well. Nicer ones.”

“With Moose, you already mentioned that.”

Did she know what he’d done?

“I remember one dream in particular. With you. You… you kissed me.”

A shiver ran down his back and he sat up again with a groan. He couldn’t look at her right now. He should have been stronger, suppressed his urges better. She had trusted him and he had acted just like any mindless Alpha. Possibly even like her husband would have. That thought made him want to throw up immediately.

“I’m sorry, Maria.”

“I’m not.”

What? Confusion tinted his scent. He frowned as he turned back to face her. She was still smiling at him with that sweetness that surrounded her like a halo. If he didn’t know any better, he would almost believe that she wanted it again. Did she or was he only seeing things he wanted to happen secretly? Hopefully not.

Maria placed her mug next to his on the nightstand and shuffled a little closer to him. Joseph swallowed thickly as her nervousness seeped into her scent along with the faintest trace of something he had already smelled during her fever. She was aroused and his body reacted. She licked her lips, her breath leaving her lungs in shallow puffs, as her eyes flicked down to his lips and then back up to his eyes.

He couldn’t be that wrong about all the signals she sent out, right?

“You aren’t?”

Maria swallowed and shook her head, inching even closer.

“I’m afraid I need to hear you say it, Omega. What do you want?” His voice was gruff with the heavy arousal coursing through his veins. If she backed out of this now, he would definitely need another very cold shower to get his head clear again.

Maria’s cheeks turned a deep shade of pink. She could no longer keep eye contact as she undoubtedly gathered up some courage to utter her next words, “I want to know if it had really just been a dream. Kiss me, Alpha.”

With the magic words out in the open, Joseph couldn’t hold himself back any longer. He brought his hands up to her cheeks and held her gently when he crushed his lips onto hers. Maria let out a little whimper when their lips moved with each other. Her nimble hands came up to wrap around his shoulders, pressing her body against his. Hot waves pulsed through him as he held her tighter, opening his mouth and requesting entry with his tongue. She gave it willingly. Within seconds they were kissing like teenagers with hands roaming over each other’s frames and already pulling on their clothes.

Before they could go any further though, Maria broke the kiss to catch some air. Her lips were red and swollen, her mouth splitting into a happy smile, while her forehead rested against his. Joseph wanted more, but he pulled himself together, resting his hand on her thigh and pressing his lips against the top of her head.

“I am… I don’t know what to say.” She breathed out a laugh. “I’ve never felt like this outside my heats.”

“You said, you can’t have heats,” he reminded her with a sympathetic frown.

Maria nodded. “And it doesn’t feel like I’m in heat. Just… that flutter in my… you know.” She loosely gestured down to her lap.

Pride welled in him when he finally put two and two together. That asshole of a husband didn’t get her turned on for the last two years and even before that he didn't seem to be the best lover in town. Well, Joseph would show her what a real Alpha did with his Omega. When he was done, she wouldn’t even remember that there had been anyone else in her life.

“Do you want to continue?” he asked, his voice low and vibrating. Her answer was a whispered “yes” against his lips as she tilted her head up for another kiss. This one was just as electrifying as the first one. Maria’s tiny hands found their way underneath his shirt, feathering over his abs and playing a little with his pleasure trail. She moaned into his mouth as he curled his fingers around the hem of her sweater to pull it off over her head.

Within moments they were naked.

Maria lay on the bed, using her hands to hide her pubic area and breasts with a deep blush on her face.

“Why are you hiding from me?” Joseph asked, not at all self-conscious about her eyes moving over every inch of his exposed skin.

“I’ve never done it with the lights on or even in the middle of the day.” Her eyes widened when they reached his semi-hard cock.

“Your sex life must have been very conservative.”

“I was married.”

Joseph let out a huffed laugh and leaned over her body, feasting his eyes on whatever she allowed him to see. “Marriages can get steamy too.”

“I’m still married,” she suddenly said, sounding a thousand miles away from him. Joseph saw the doubt clouding her face and placed his hand over hers which still covered her chest.

“If you don’t want to do this after all, just say the word. At any moment, Maria, and I will stop. No grudges, no hard feelings. This is a gift you are giving me, not a duty toward me.” He let out a sigh through his nose. “And after what you’ve told me and what I saw when I found you, you weren’t married to him. He kept you as a prisoner to abuse however he saw fit. You have no obligations toward him either. You owe him absolutely nothing.”

He hoped his words were soothing her, not to get her back into the mood for sex, but genuinely to calm her down and realize that she was her own master from now on. Nobody could tell her what to do with her body but herself. While he waited for her to come to a conclusion, Joseph couldn’t help but let his eyes savor her once again. Her bruises were all gone now, her skin glowing in the paleness that suited her innocent demeanor. Her curves were perfect in his eyes, although he wouldn’t mind her gaining a few pounds since her pelvic bone still poked out a tiny bit too much. He had no doubt that her abuser had regulated her meals to keep her thin and compliant. As soon as the streets were clear, he would get her a truckload of sweets and chocolates just to prove that from now on, there were no regulations regarding her eating habits. Not under his watch.

“I want this,” she eventually whispered.

With a low purr, Joseph began his mission to show her how beautiful she was in his eyes. He covered her body in gentle kisses, enjoying the immediate effect it had on her. Her hands loosened from her chest and pussy and began to slowly caress his shoulders as he worked his way down her neck. He moaned against her heated skin when her unadulterated scent from her scent gland by her neck filled his lungs to the brim. Who needed oxygen when you could dive headfirst into the scent of an aroused Omega? He needed to feel her, every inch. As he moved down her front, her erect nipples grazed against his coarse chest hair. He reveled in the shallow breaths and little whimpers he coaxed out of her just with his lips. The scent of her wetness was the purest aphrodisiac, turning him on more than any woman ever had. Her sweetness laced through with nervousness as he let his hands glide over her waist and down to the junction between her soft thighs.

“I bet you taste just as good as you smell,” he purred and moaned in the back of his throat before he licked her erect nipples one after the other. He smiled at her little gasp.

“You’re not going to bite me, are you?”

“Only if you want me to,” he answered against the softness of her bosom before he peppered more kisses down her exposed front.

Maria closed her eyes and opened her thighs a little wider, a silent invitation for him to continue. She lifted her hips and sucked her lower lip between her teeth. Joseph chuckled darkly when he saw how much she let go in his care. She trusted him fully at this moment. This knowledge in combination with everything she went through made him high. Joseph felt like he was on top of the world. He wanted her to be safe, to know her life didn’t have to be that way, that he would do anything for her.

The only other person he’d ever remotely felt the same way for was his little sister, but Alma should not be on his mind right now. The only woman to him momentarily was Maria. He ignored the pulling in his knee as he worked down her body, kissing over her silvery stretch marks left on her belly by her unsuccessful pregnancy. They didn’t dampen her beauty in any way, only making her more gorgeous.

Her breath hitched as he licked around her navel. Again, he chuckled darkly at her responsiveness, knowing it was probably the first time she’d ever felt like this.

Her aroma grew stronger and it was simply enticing, intoxicating, driving him mad with desire. Joseph spread her thighs wider and settled between them. Divine, he thought and moaned against her right inner thigh as he placed open mouth kisses over her sensitive skin.

“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly, showing him once again just how little her husband had cared to pleasure her.

“He never went down on you?”

She shook her head. “It was usually me… first thing in the morning. It made him—” She cut herself off. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t talk about him right now.”

Joseph kissed her thigh again, a little higher this time. “I will listen to whatever you want to tell me, Maria. But the most important question is: Do you want me to stop?”

She shook her head, blushing hard and biting her lip once again. Joseph had never seen someone as beautiful as her.

He inched closer to her opening, a trail of slick running down her folds. Joseph couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to taste her.

Her breathless gasp was music to his ears when he licked over her sensitive flesh, reveling in her reaction. Maria’s hands balled into tight fists around the sheets, her eyes screwed shut as her hips gyrated to seek more contact.

“Don’t stop,” she whispered.

“I wasn’t going to. Not until I made you come.”

Maria locked eyes with him when he continued to lick her pussy, moaning against her and sending her higher and higher with his ministrations. His tongue dipped into her opening before he returned to circle her clit with it, his hands coming up to rub over her hard nipples. She cried out when he pulled on them, covering his hands with her own. Her head fell back with a silent scream. A layer of sweat covered her from head to toe. He had never tasted someone so sweet. Her slick was delicious. Her asshole husband didn’t know what he had been missing out on.

Joseph wasn’t going to be able to fuck her though. As much as he was distracted by her, his knee was getting worse with every second. If she wanted more after this, she would have to do the work. Joseph smiled at the thought, lying back while he would gaze up at this vision of an Omega riding him. When he moaned at the image forming before his mental eye, Maria’s hands came down to grab his head.

“Oh my God,” she screeched and locked eyes with him again.

She was close. Joseph doubled his efforts, tweaking her nipples and tongue fucking her until she came with a full-body shudder, and his name on her lips. He licked her through it, intending for her orgasm to last as long as he could.

“Stop, please.” She let out a laugh and tried to close her thighs, but his head was still in the way. Joseph pulled back with a satisfied chuckle and ignored the protest in his knee one last time as he crawled up the bed to lie down beside her. As he watched her recover, he couldn’t help but fist his cock, sliding his hand up and down his shaft slowly. He didn’t want to jerk off although seeing her like this was definitely better than porn.

“That was amazing.”

“Thank you.”

Maria turned onto her side and looked at him, skin flushed and still glistening with sweat. “No, thank you. I-I didn’t know one could feel like this outside a heat.”

Her eyes followed the movement of his arm and watched him leisurely touch himself.

“Like what you see?” Joseph teased and laughed loudly at her caught expression.

“I want you to ride me, Omega,” he growled with a deep purr that made her shudder.

“I’ve never done that,” she admitted, blushing even harder.

“I’ll help you then.”

Joseph held out his hand and told her to straddle his thighs. His cock stood proudly, reaching just below her navel as she balanced her weight on her knees. She looked like a goddess, glowing ethereal in the afternoon sun shining in broken rays through the trees surrounding the house.

“Have you ever done horseback riding?”

Maria shook her head and chewed on her lower lip, a hungry look in her eyes. Her pupils were blown from desire, hardly recognizable as the pools of blue they usually were. He placed his hands on both sides of her wide hips and guided her gently into a gyrating motion, sliding over his hard cock and moaning lightly whenever she touched the sensitive spot right below the tip. She coated him in her wetness, echoing his lustful moans and grunts as she sped up the rhythm. Her hands came down to his chest to steady herself as she lost herself in the feeling.

The longer her movements the more often the tip of his cock caught at her opening. Only the slightest bit. Without needing to say anything, Maria brought one hand between them and guided him into her tight pussy. She scrunched her face for the first second.

“You’re so big,” she whispered and rubbed her clit to work through the sudden stretch.

“You’re very tight,” Joseph replied through clenched teeth. He needed all his self-control not to come immediately. It had been years since he had been with a woman and Maria was an Omega at that. Baseball, cooking shows, line-editing. He tried to think of the most boring or tedious things imaginable to keep himself in check. It worked, but mostly because Maria didn’t move over him all of a sudden.

Only then, he realized, he had squeezed his eyes shut and had closed his hands around her hips to keep her still.

“Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” he said with a laugh and looked up at her. “Quite the opposite.”

Joseph reached up and swiped her hair out of her face before pulling her gently down for a passionate kiss. Her muffled sigh was like music to his ears. Slowly, she started grinding down on him, eliciting another shared moan as they needed to break their kiss for oxygen.

She sat up and rode him in earnest now. Joseph’s hands came down to her hips again, this time only resting and not guiding.

“Am I doing it right?” she asked breathlessly as a bead of sweat ran down the valley between her swaying breasts.

He couldn’t speak. Joseph nodded and moaned when she suddenly squeezed the muscles in her pussy, making her passage even tighter. He couldn’t hold back anymore. Despite the pain it caused in his knee, he placed his feet onto the mattress for leverage and thrust up into her harder and harder. His knot was swelling at the base of his cock, giving her clit additional stimulation. She came only seconds later with a silent scream, milking his cock for all it was worth. He came with her, emptying his balls in her pussy and knotting her to him tightly.

Were she not infertile, she could get pregnant from this, Joseph thought once his head was back out of the orgasmic cloud. Part of him was sad about that fact and it made him wonder. He only met her a little over two weeks ago and his animalistic brain already told him he needed to procreate with her; make her heavy with his pups.

Maria collapsed onto his chest and he automatically pulled a blanket over their sweaty, exposed bodies. He needed to keep her safe and warm. It was his job as her… Alpha. He closed his arms around her and pressed his lips to the top of her head. Her scent was still enticing although she was coming down from her high. A wonderful change to the usual scent that surrounded her. Joseph let out an involuntary moan smelling her.

“Am I too heavy?” she murmured against his hair covered chest.

“No, you’re as light as a feather.”

“Okay, but tell me when I become too heavy.”

He hummed affirmatively and held her tighter. Joseph picked up on a subtle shift in her scent, something closer to her usual insecure fragrance.

“Maria, if something’s wrong, just tell me, okay? I’m not going to get mad or anything. I want you to be comfortable.”

Her fingers started playing with his chest hair before she whispered, “This is all just so new.”

“This?”

“All the things I am feeling right now. I’ve never been on top, never slept with anyone but Chad, never came outside my heat. All of this.”

He nodded and kissed the top of her head again. Joseph absentmindedly rubbed her back as he thought about his next words.

“Do you regret it?”

Maria lifted her head and scanned his face with a frown. “Do you?”

Joseph smirked, hoping to bring a bit of lightness back into their conversation. “I asked first. But no, I don’t.”

She let out a relieved sigh and a small smile tugged on her lips. “Me neither.”

Maria rested her head back on his chest and snuggled closer to him. Joseph couldn’t keep himself from smiling. She had been flinching away from his touch a week ago and now? Without meaning to, he let out a low purr which she answered with her own, much higher one.

It took fifteen minutes before his knot finally shrunk down again and Maria could slip off of him. She smiled as she searched the floor for her clothes. Just watching her in all her naked glory stirred new desire in him.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes,” Joseph answered and didn’t even try to hide the want in his gaze as he looked her up and down.

“For dinner, I mean.” She laughed and mock covered herself up, her cheeks blushing.

“Yes, that too.”

“I’ll be right back.” And with that, she was gone wearing nothing but his own sleeping shirt. He could definitely get used to that image. Post coital mussed up hair, a glow on her skin and his clothing on her body. What was there not to enjoy with that?

Soon the smell of delicious food traveled into the bedroom and Joseph had to accept that it was probably time to get up and put on some clothes himself. The second he sat up, his knee felt like someone twisted a hot knife between his bones. He clenched his jaws tightly as he breathed through the pain. It took longer to become bearable than usual and that meant he definitely needed to get into the tub and at least a couple of Tylenol had to find their way into him as well. Like this, he couldn’t even stand.

“Fuck,” he grunted and rubbed his probably inflamed knee. His mind was so preoccupied with his pain that he didn’t hear her return or even feel the mattress dip as she crawled up behind him.

“Dinner is almost—” Maria stopped herself when she picked up on his scent. “What do you need?”

“Painkillers,” Joseph pressed out and cursed himself for his weakness.

Maria returned after a second with a glass of water and the family sized Tylenol pack, handing him both with a comforting purr. The primal soothing sound helped, but it was only doing so much. While he took the pills, he heard water already filling the tub. Maria came back with a careful smile.

“Anything else?”

Joseph reached for her hand, grateful that she didn’t flinch this time. He shook his head and pulled her closer until he was able to circle his arms around her middle. As if they were an old couple, her hands naturally came up to rest on his shoulders, giving him the chance to kiss the insides of her wrists and suck in her calming scent. They stayed like this for a couple of minutes while Joseph waited for the pills to finally work.

“I think the bathtub is filled now,” Maria said, her low voice still overly loud in the silence surrounding them.

“What about dinner?”

“It’s just leftovers from yesterday. I can just reheat them again.”

She helped him up, making him feel even more of an invalid. The displeasure must have spiked in his scent, because she quickly apologized and pulled her hands back. Joseph let out a sigh.

“No, I am. It has nothing to do with you. I am glad you are here and that you help me.”

She dropped her gaze to the floor and twirled a thread by the hem of her shirt/dress. It was obvious she didn’t believe him. So Joseph did his best to make her. He reached for her hand and intertwined their fingers, bringing it up to his lips before he placed little kisses over her knuckles. “You’re my personal nurse. I am sure we can incorporate that somehow into the bedroom.”

She blushed hard at his wicked little grin and the wink he gave her before they moved into the bathroom. Since he was still naked, he could immediately climb into the tub while he watched Maria standing next to it a little awkwardly.

“Don’t you want to join me? If I did my job right you should feel at least a little dirty,” he said wiggling his eyebrows, the lightness between them slowly returning.

Maria undressed and joined him in the tub, sitting behind him to make sure she wouldn’t put any kind of strain or pressure on his knee.

Joseph relaxed against her soft bosom with closed eyes. Her fingers found their way back to his chest hair, drawing circles through it in the center of his chest. She wasn’t the only one going through some “firsts” today. He couldn’t remember any other time he had shared a bath with a woman he had slept with or trusting someone enough to let them in when he was in pain. Hell, he hadn’t even asked Dr. Fleet for painkillers the way he had just done with Maria. If he didn’t know better, he would start believing in the teen romance shit of true mates and soulmates. But he knew better. There was no such thing as true mates. They just grooved well together. Nothing more and nothing less.