Chapter 28 28
RANDOM FACTS: After intimate contact with their fated Alpha, an Omega's senses remain heightened for up to 24 hours. Every touch, every look, every whispered word carries more weight than it should. This is by design as ig encourages bonding.
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When I wake up, my entire body feels like it’s going to fall apart in an instant. It feels so… wrong and heavy so naturally, my thoughts are foggy.
It’s probably why I don’t notice anyone else as I walk to my bathroom, piss and head back to the room with a toothbrush in my mouth before I see the man staring at me through the mirror reflection.
My entire body jerks awake as I turn around, clutching my chest. I take the toothbrush out of my mouth, swallowing the toothpaste as I snap, “You fucking— what are you doing here?”
Kael tilts his head. He looks like he hasn’t slept, like he doesn’t know he’s supposed to. He’s all predator moving his eyes over every inch of my body. “I wanted to watch you sleep.”
“That fucking creepy.” I say even though it’s with half the same vigor I used when I first saw him. “Get out. I’m awake now. So get out.”
“No.”
“No? No? You really can’t keep answering me like that when things aren’t going your way. You’re not eight.” I say. “Wait. How old are you?”
“I do not… know my age. A millennium?”
“W-why are you standing up? No. Wait. Sit, Kael. Sit—”
The rest of the words don’t leave my lips because I’m suddenly carried into the air, my legs wrapping around his waist as he pins me to the wall.
My hands dig into his shoulders, my head throwing itself back as I hear him growl softly into my neck. “I waited. I could have come into your dreams but I did not.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “K-Kael, I have school—”
“Saturday.”
Fuck.
The single word, rumbled against the sensitive skin of my throat, short-circuits my brain. Saturday.
It is Saturday.
My last coherent thought is swallowed by the feeling of his mouth, cold and impossibly soft, pressing just below my ear. My fingers, which were digging into his shoulders with the intent to push him away, are now curling into the fabric of his shirt, holding on.
“Kael,” I breathe, and it comes out less like a protest and more like a prayer. Which, apparently, is a dangerous thing to do around him.
He lifts his head just enough to look at me, his dark eyes consuming. There's something wild in them as he murmurs. “You never say my name in your dreams well.”
“I—” I don't get to finish. His mouth is on mine.
It's like it’s claiming me, and it steals the air from my lungs and the thoughts from my head. His tongue traces my lower lip, and I gasp, and that's all the invitation he needs.
My body, which felt so heavy and wrong upon waking, now feels impossibly light, like I'm floating.
The only solid things are his hands, one splayed across my lower back, the other tangled in my hair, holding me exactly where he wants me.
I could get used to this.
“Riven? Blue. Are you in there?”
Ah. Shit.
“Y-Yes—”
“Stay.”
The threatening growl from Kael keeps me in place, my thoughts spiraling again as I try not to think of how he’s slowly taking up my shirt and going under it, my breath catching slightly as I feel his cold breath on my skin.
“You okay, Blue?”
No. I’m not. But I also am. “Papa, I—”
Kael’s tongue darts out and touches my nipple. Just touches it, and that’s enough to make me bite my lip so hard I taste copper.
I hear my dad’s footsteps pause outside the door— fuck, he’s right there— and Kael does it again, slower this time, his breath huffing against my damp skin. “Tell him you're fine,” He murmurs, his teeth grazing my skin. "Say it."
“S-stay away, R-Rowan. I’m fine.” I choke out, voice cracking.
The lie feels thick on my tongue. Kael rewards me with a bite that’s just shy of painful, and I whimper, clenching around nothing.
My shirt’s bunched up under my arms now, and Kael’s palm slides up my spine, pressing me harder into the wall.
“That’s alright. I will be waiting for you at the table if it’s alright.”
“Y-Yes.” Even though it wasn’t alright. Even though i wanted Kael to shove himself inside me and fuck me till my eyes were rolling to the back of my head and I couldn’t breathe.
I hear Rowan retreating before I feel Kael place me back to the floor. I have a terrible hard on, my hearts beating too fast for me to comprehend what exactly is going on around me and I’m minutes away from going on my knees and begging him to stuff my face so the sensations running through my spine goes away.
Kael’s voice spreads through my body like wild fire. “You should go meet him.”
“What? Like… like this?”
“Yes.”
It takes all of me not to try shoving him away or throwing a tantrum, but I do as I’m told— even though he doesn’t let me change into something larger so my hard on doesn’t show.
It’s why the second I’m at the table, I’m pulling down my sweater to my thigh, trying my best to hide as much as I can even though my fucking shadow is suddenly crawling up my leg like vines.
It’s cold. It sends shivers up my body.
I can’t concentrate.
“You returned really late yesterday.”
“Which is none of your business, I’m sure.”
I don’t mean for the words to come out as sharp as they do, but for some reason, Rowan’s usual calm expression breaks slightly, like he’s shocked I said that which surprises me because he’s always acted so above it.
It takes all of me not to give an apology as I shrug instead, “I always come back late. Last night was just one of those days.”
“Mhm,” He sets the plates in his hands on the table, his eyes no longer meeting mine. “But are you alright, Blue?”
“When did you start calling me that?”
He stops. He looks taken aback but eventually, he speaks, “I… I thought after the last time… you called me Papa like you used to—”
“I didn't mean to.”
The words are out before I can stop them, and I watch the light in Rowan's eyes dim.
Something spreads through my chest like cold, my voice coming out smaller as I rake my hands through my hair, rising up from my chair. “Rowan, wait. I’m— I'm sorry. I'm just tired. I didn't sleep well.”
It's a pathetic excuse but Rowan buys it because he’s suddenly in front of me, his eyes wide with panic as he says, “Are you… are you alright, Riven? Have you been sleeping? Are you—?”
No. No. Too much.
I rise from the chair, unable to look at his face as I pick up the toast from the table. “I… I need to go see Claire.”
“Riven, please—”
But I’m already out of the house, hurrying as fast as I can because I don’t know how to handle deep conversation.
And all of a sudden, I want my best friend.
I stop only when I’m only a few inches away, then I turn around. Right on the second floor at my window is Kael.
He stares at me, his eyes green now and for a second, I wonder what he’s thinking but I don’t bother to think too long for it as I turn away, walking faster.