Chapter Eleven

The sun beat down on Bryce’s shoulders through his shirt, and he turned a snarl toward it. He hated the sun, hated the heat, hated the unease he carried.

Claire had gone to work that day after he’d put their numbers in her phone and taken a look around her shop. Joshua had ordered the supplies needed to properly secure her place of business and Kaidan had headed to her home to look there. He hoped she’d choose to remain at their home, meaning little would need to be done at her place.

It left Bryce responsible for checking in with Kieran.

He knew they intended to meet in a few days to finalize the arrangements, since Kieran had been upfront about their communications.

If it had been anyone else, Bryce might have felt uncomfortable with an alpha so near his omega. He knew Kieran, though, had for years. He often helped with the rescue cases, giving technical expertise Bryce and his brothers lacked.

Besides, Bryce had to remember that if he pushed too far, Claire would bolt. She needed freedom, and that included space, privacy. She had a life and he couldn’t not allow her to take a meeting with a trusted friend just because that friend happened to be an alpha as well.

Still, Bryce didn’t care for the idea.

Kieran lifted an eyebrow as he looked at Bryce. “You look terrible. I thoughts omegas were supposed to make you feel good.”

Bryce moved away from the large window. “Yeah, turns out they’re a little more work than that.”

“So it seems from what I found on her. You know, I spotted her as an omega the second she walked in here.”

Bryce’s lip curled up, flashing his teeth.

Kieran huffed an unimpressed laugh. “Stop it. I have no interest in her, not before I knew she was yours and certainly not now.”

Bryce straightened, pulling back. It took a moment to get himself under control, but he managed it. “Sorry.”

“I’m not a fan of damaged goods, and she is more than a little damaged.”

Another deep breath and Bryce lowered himself into the chair. “Yeah, I know.”

“She didn’t want any alphas in her shop. I’m surprised she let one, let alone three, anywhere near her.”

“That hasn’t gone easily. Please tell me you found something else on her?”

“I did. You sure you want it all?”

“I can’t keep doing this blind, and she’s as tight-lipped as they come.”

“It wasn’t easy. Whoever set her up with that identity did a good job, and she’s covered her tracks. Not a single call back to her hometown that I’ve found.”

That had Bryce’s attention. Kieran had found her information, found who she really was?

Kieran kept going. “Her real name is Cathryn Todd. She’s actually thirty-three, though she goes by twenty-nine now. She has an official mating document for only a week after she turned eighteen, signed by her parents.”

“Her parents agreed to the mating?” Despite her story, the idea the people who should have cared for her hadn’t done so had frustration mounting in Bryce.

“There was a large money transfer just before. It’s not uncommon for alphas to pay off parents for omegas to get them young, and it helps explain how she managed to not contact them in all these years.”

Bryce ground his molars, and for a moment, he considered a visit to those parents. They deserved some payback for what she’d suffered, and he was in a position to ensure it happened. To distract himself, Bryce asked, “She said she was with him for two years. What happened?”

“Two years after the mating, the alpha was found dead, a few bullet holes in his chest. Official record says a home invasion gone wrong, and the omega went missing. They assumed an alpha killed him to steal her. She’s still listed as missing.”

Missing? The options swirled through Bryce’s mind. Had someone attacked her as well? Had she used that as a way to escape? Had the person who attacked the alpha saved her? Had the home invasion been a set-up from the start, and the ring who she helped set it up? Maybe she’d made friends with someone who—

“You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out,” Kieran offered, breaking the train of thought. “From what I can tell, no one has any leads. I don’t think anyone but that girl can tell us what happened. What I can tell you is that whatever it is still haunts her. I saw it in her eyes when came in here, and I know I’ll sleep easier knowing the asshole who hurt her is dead.”

Bryce rubbed his fingers against his eyes. He’d gotten answers, but damn, he wasn’t sure they helped at all.

* * * *

Joshua watched Claire move around her shop and couldn’t fight his smile. She walked with a contentment and confidence he rarely saw in her. When alone in the store, among her books, she relaxed.

Would she ever relax like that around him? Could he picture her, cuddled on the couch, her legs thrown over his lap as she read? He’d walk his fingers up her legs, teasing her while she tried to focus on her book.

Could he settle into that life? Could he allow himself to need someone again? The last time he’d done so, when he’d mapped out a future that included a loving mate and children, having it stolen away had destroyed him.

He remembered when he’d found out. He hadn’t answered his phone, on a job with Kaidan. His mate hadn’t been due for another few weeks, so neither had worried. First babies always came late. He’d kissed her goodbye when he’d left and stroked his hands over her belly. He’d crouched and pressed a kiss to her belly, whispered to his unborn daughter.

Kaidan had gotten the call when Joshua had ignored his phone. He’d seen the truth in the tight lines of his friend’s face. He’d assumed his mate had lost the child, a sad reality at times. He hadn’t expected Kaidan to sit him down and explain his mate had bled out as well.

In moments, Joshua had gone from mate and expectant father to widower.

Could he do that again? Could he risk it again?

Then Claire leaned up on her toes, reaching for a book near the top, angled precariously and wavering, and he knew the answer. He’d already made the choice to risk it again.

The door signaled his entry into the shop, but Claire didn’t react with startled fear. She inhaled, as if her instincts had finally started to wake. “I can’t reach it.” She pointed at a large green book near the top.

Joshua moved to just behind her and reached above her. His body pressed against hers, dwarfing her, reminding him of their size difference. He slid his hand up her arm as he reached for the book, pulled it down then handed it off to her. Still, he didn’t move away.

“You’re a bit close,” she whispered.

“Not close enough, sweetheart.” He set a hand on her hip and crept his fingers beneath the hem of her shirt.

“I don’t think you know what close enough means.”

He slipped his hand to the front of her pants, toying with the button in a tease. “I can keep going and see if we can figure it out. Maybe you can teach me? I’d love a good lesson from you.”

She shuddered and leaned against him for a heartbeat, for a spark of trust that burrowed beneath any of his defenses. As quickly as it happened, she brought an elbow back into his side. “I’m sure you didn’t come by for that.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head then stepped back. “I could have. It would have been worth it.”

Claire turned and set the book on the counter, then gave him a look of exasperation that made him want to kiss the annoyance from her face.

Instead, Joshua picked up the food he’d left on the counter. “I figured you hadn’t eaten and thought we’d have lunch.”

“What is it with you guys? You’re always trying to make me eat.”

Joshua reached into the bag and pulled out the two wrapped sandwiches, setting one before her and one before him. “I worry about you.”

“Why? You don’t even know me.”

He pointed at the chair on the other side, then took his own seat. “I don’t need to. You’ve ignored your instincts for so long you’ve forgotten what they feel like. You know that sensation in the back of her neck, near your skull, when an alpha orders you to do something?”

Her gaze dropped to her food as she unwrapped it, frowning. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve told me to do things all the time.”

“Not with any sort of command, any pressure. I’ve been careful not to do anything like that with you.”

She tugged at the thin strip of masking tape. “I don’t think that affects me anymore.”

“Eyes up here,” Joshua said, command dropping his voice low with the force behind it.

Her gaze snapped up to his in a heartbeat, her pupils widening.

Joshua looked away first, giving her a chance to regain her footing. “That feeling? That’s instinct. It’s something programmed inside you deep down, and it’s in everyone. Yours tells you to respond to my voice, and mine tells me to ensure you’re fed, that you’re warm, that you aren’t hurt.”

“Only because I’m an omega?”

“Partly.”

“Kaidan told me you hadn’t had many relationships. Is this just how you treat all women? You keep telling me you’re not just any alpha, but I’m not just any omega, either.”

Joshua shifted in his seat, stretching his back at the answers to the questions she wasn’t directly asking. Still, she deserved to know, didn’t she? “I haven’t had any sort of real relationship since my mate.”

“When was that?”

“Around fifteen years ago.”

“What happened?”

Ah, there it was. The real question, the one he’d ignored. It reached out and slashed across his cheek, the answer sticking in his throat.

But how could he ask her to trust him if he wouldn’t even tell her the truth? So Joshua took a deep breath and offered the story. “My mate, Sandra, was an omega. She was pregnant with our first, and we were expecting a little girl. While I was out on a job, she started to bleed. She called an ambulance, and they took her to the hospital, but she had a placental abruption. She died, and the baby died.” The words came out flat, low, dead.

A warmth on his hand. Claire had reached out and set hers over his. “I’m sorry.”

Joshua turned his hand and laced his fingers with hers. “After that, I decided it wasn’t a risk I wanted to take again, so I kept relationships casual. I didn’t service omegas in heat. I didn’t sleep with the same woman twice. I did everything I could to make sure I wouldn’t bond again, that I wouldn’t risk having another mate.”

“So what are you doing here? I don’t want to force you to—”

Joshua squeezed her hand to silence her. “You’re not forcing anything, sweetheart. I hadn’t planned on this and I won’t say I’m not nervous as hell about it, but I’m here for a reason. So, no, you’re not just any omega. Every other omega, I’ve sent on their way, and you? You, I keep chasing.”

She stared at him, both of them silent as if trying to figure out what that all meant. Did they believe one another? Claire leaned up in the chair and over the counter to touch her lips to his, the counter too wide to allow for much contact. Still, she seemed determined to steal the sweet kiss.

So Joshua gave in and leaned forward. He slid a hand behind her neck and deepened the kiss. He tasted her, the action causing his body to demand more. Who was he kidding? Clearly he’d bonded already, given how he hardened so fast, given how he needed to have her.

He broke the kiss enough to move around the counter, the food forgotten. He’d make her eat afterward, after fulfilling the other need that danced in her eyes. He reached down, cupping her ass before lifting her.

The automatic wrapping of her thighs around his waist was his reward. The tightness of them, the way she slid her arms around his shoulders—it all had a possessive growl rumbling from his chest.

“Stockroom,” he demanded.

Claire nodded to the door behind them, though she took his lips in a desperate kiss again as soon as she’d done it. She slipped her tongue past his lips, delving into his mouth as if she could devour him.

Damn it. How had he thought he might not want to go through this again? He kicked the door to her stockroom shut behind them, the clatter when it slammed distant as he set her ass on a pallet. A grunt from her said he’d done it hard, but the civility he wore had grown thin.

He pulled her forward until she perched on the edge of the boxes, until her clothed cunt pressed tight against his straining erection. The growl that rattled from his chest increased at the friction and pressure.

“Can I have you?” He asked it against her lips, ready to drop to his knees and beg her. He wanted to feel her wrapped around him, to slide deep into her.

Her body tensed, a clearer no than her voice.

He grappled his own need, the wants that plagued him and demanded he have her.

“Okay,” she whispered, but he knew better.

Joshua shook his head as he tightened and released his fingers on her hips. “No. You’re not ready.”

She opened her mouth, and he could see the denial on her lips. She wanted to tell him she was because she wanted to be ready. He knew what it was about, though. Without her heat rushing through her, without that mindless lust, she wasn’t ready for sex.

Fine. He could enjoy her body without it.

He silenced her by nipping her bottom lip. “You’re not ready, sweetheart. I’ve got another idea though. Trust me?”

Even though she wasn’t ready to let him fuck her, the look in her eyes said she still believed he wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want. That gave him the strength to leash his own demands.

He unhooked her pants, taking them down along with her underwear when she lifted her ass. As soon as the clothing slid down, he got a whiff of her arousal.

He’d never tire of that smell.

Joshua pulled her to her feet, then bent her over it. He stroked a warm hand down her clothed back and grasped her ass in a tight grip. “Do you have any idea how good you look like this?” He released her, then landed a slap to her ass just to watch it shake.

She tossed a glare over her shoulder, but the sparkle there defied her denials.

Joshua only gave her a smirk before undoing his own pants. “Relax, sweetheart. I won’t fuck you.”

She took a deep breath before resting her forearms on the crate, and the trust required to turn away stole his breath.

He swore she’d never regret that trust.

Joshua wrapped a hand around his dick and stroked it, savoring the tightness of his palm, the moment he stared at…my mate? He tested the name, not on his lips yet but in his mind. Can I see her as my mate? Can I say that title again?

He let himself think about it, to see her as that in the safety of his own thoughts. He shifted forward, running his cock along her cunt without pressing, then fit it between her thighs. “Press those thighs together tight, sweetheart,” he demanded. “I’d normally need lube to do this, but you’re so wet, you’re dripping.” He waited after he said it, tested how she’d react.

Some women loved some light humiliation, some hated it.

A gasp, the tightening of her thighs then another rush of scent that said she enjoyed his words. His lips tipped up at that. Good. He loved words, loved taking apart his partner with his voice as much as with his hands and his dick.

With her thighs surrounding his eager length, nestled up against her mound so it pressed against her swollen clit, Joshua grasped her hips and rocked forward.

She let out the sweetest moan, hips angling for better contact.

“Good girl,” he praised as he slid into the tight space between her thighs slowly. “See? I told you I could take care of you even without fucking you. You’re so soft, so wet. When you’re ready, I’ll do this again, push you forward over something and fuck you. I’ll kick those feet of yours apart wide and slide into you. Will you be wet for me?”

She moaned wordlessly, her forehead against her folded arms.

Joshua paused, holding her rounded hips still so she couldn’t seek any pleasure on her own. “I want to hear your voice. I want to hear you say it. When I do that, when I fuck you, will you be wet for me? Say it, sweetheart.”

Her head turned so her cheek rested against surface of the boxes, her eyes shut tight. “Yes, damn it.”

“Yes what? You’ll get nothing until you tell me.”

“Yes, I’ll be wet for you.”

The filthy words from her, how foreign they sounded stumbling from her sweet lips, made his shaft kick in response, pre-cum escaping. Fuck, he might not last long if she talked like that.

He rewarded her by thrusting against her, lowering himself to ensure he ground hard against her waiting clit. Her hips shoved back at the same time, and the sight, the sensation, made him want to slide into her cunt.

But…her trust meant more than that, and he’d said he wouldn’t. Even though he knew damned well he could fuck her, and she’d enjoy it, it would erode some of the ground they’d worked so hard to gain.

So instead, he contented himself with her luscious body, with the softness around her hips, with the warmth and tightness of her thighs, with the way her pussy dripped and let him glide against her.

Her hips rotated, her nails digging into the pallet. Good. He wanted her out of her mind with desperation. But, since he’d not gotten to fuck her, since that part of him still roared to possess her, he pushed just a bit. He couldn’t get inside her, so he wanted something else. He needed something else.

“Tell me you want me,” he demanded of her. “Tell me you’re mine.”

He expected resistance. He expected coaxing to be needed, to pull the words from her.

Instead, on a voice so soft it could have been a purr, Claire whispered, “I’m yours,” before reaching back and digging her sharp little nails into his hip. “And you’re mine, too.”

That did it. He couldn’t have hoped to hold off after that. He fucked harder between her thighs like he could get inside her snug body with just that. When he neared his release, he pulled from that tightness, using a hand on her back to keep her bent forward, flushed and dripping cunt on display. He stroked his cock, spreading her wetness over his shaft until he came, aiming so he spilled across her folds.

That claim eased him, marking her, knowing she’d carry his scent. Even so, it wasn’t enough, not quite, not when she rested there a panting, shaking, disheveled mess.

So he kept the hand on her back and ran his fingers over her flooded entrance. He gathered his cum on his fingers, then pushed it into her. “You might not be ready for my cock, but this should hold you over,” he whispered into her ear, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck before fucking her with his thick fingers.

She came apart on his fingers, so fast he knew she’d been on the line already. She arched up, but his hand kept her flat, kept her still as he forced her orgasm to last, as he wrung each aftershock from her until she whined softly and shivered, unable to do anything else.

Finally, he pulled his drenched fingers from her, bringing them to his lips to lick clean.

Yeah, maybe he could think of her as his mate. This was a life that might just be worth having.