“My daughter will attend the season every year she remains unmated, like any other well-bred omega would. She is no academy brat, forced to go sniffing after an alpha or risk being ousted. Her designation does not offer many freedoms, but it does offer this.”
Dad’s voice was crisp, clear, and didn’t require a bark to get the message across at all. I smiled slightly as all the little baby alphas rolled over and presented their bellies to my father, hoping like hell they hadn’t fucked up their chances with me.
They had, but for quite a different reason.
When Theo stood, so did we, bowing to the rest of their table as they scrambled to their feet to mark our departure. My heels clicked along the marble floors of the foyer, right up until we reached the steps leading out of the house. Once the massive front door was closed, I kicked the bloody shoes off, bending down to grab them and throw them into the garden bed. I’d put on the combat boots I kept in Theo’s car for just that reason.
“Mm…” Tristan said, taking up position behind me, running a hand up my thigh and pushing my dress up a little to get to my bare skin. “You were dripping all over my fingers through half of dinner.”
“Don’t talk about my sister’s cunt in front of me,” Theo snapped, breezing past to pull out a set of car keys before pressing the button to turn off the alarm.
“I won’t talk about it,” Tristan whispered, his mouth pressed into my neck. “I intend to fuck it, knot it, have you sobbing for more…”
I spun around in his arms, ran my fingers over the crisp line of his shirt colla
r, then dared to dart forward, touching his lips to mine. He sucked in a breath, then moaned as soon as we touched, his hands hauling me up and against him.
When I was young, before I’d revealed, I’d read a million words about love, about sex, because what was human literature but a meditation on both? Romeo and Juliet, Guinevere and Lancelot. God, even Anais Nin and Henry Miller. But in all that language studied in class or at home, never did I find an approximation of the sensations I felt when Tristan was near. I’d never envied a writer’s ability to express themselves more than after the first time we’d kissed.
I don’t have the poetic words, but it felt like my heart was breaking, it beat and ached so bloody much, but the only salvation was to be found from more. His fingers had dug into my shoulders, the rasp of his breath and mine playing savage music in my ears. But him, him, him, that had been all I could think about, was all I’d ever think about. With one teenage fumbling kiss, he’d branded my heart with his name, and I his.
“Come on,” Theo said in irritation. “Dad and the alphas might not be out here, but staff pass by all the time. Save it for the car.”
“The car…” Tristan purred, pulling back only to grab my hand, drag me down the driveway, and open the door with a flourish. “If you knew what I was dreaming of doing to you during that bloody dinner…”
“The same that I was dreaming of doing to you, I’m sure,” I replied with a smile, but that faded as we stood in front of the open car door. I traced a finger down the bare skin of his collarbone, following the direction of his sternum.
Tristan didn’t look like an omega at all. He wasn’t small, slight, or soft, and we had a theory that that was why Dad had such a hard-on for matching him to Theo. The only problem was Tristan’s hard-on was for me and me only. I ran my hands along the broad sweep of his shoulders, raking my fingers through his hair.
“I need to see you take a knot tonight,” he said, burying his face into my palm. “Shit at the academy, it’s getting intense. I need to let loose, to—”
I stopped him with a kiss. He didn’t need to explain, never did, because inside me, I felt the exact same ache for something we would never be able to provide one another.
But we could make it work.
“We’ll find someone hot, someone who can give us both what we need,” I said, stroking the sharp planes of his cheeks. “I’m yours, Tris. Yours to do whatever you wish with.”
There it was—that bright, bright smile. One that lifted me up and out of this damn house and these damn clothes and where I needed to be—with him.
“C’mon, let’s go,” Theo said over the top of the roof of the car.
“Someone’s impatient,” Tristan said, ushering me inside. “Looks like you won’t be the only Greyson taking an alpha tonight.”
“Shut the fuck up, Tristan,” Theo snapped, but without any real heat. Half the reason why he was a willing conspirator was because my alpha brother had his own dark needs. “And keep your fucking fingers out of my sister in the car if you want a lift to Apothecary.”
“Apothecary…” I sighed the word, already seeing and feeling the vibe, the sounds, the screams of pleasure that filled the place. “Yes please. Drive as fast as the speed limit allows and then a little bit more.” I turned to Tristan, finding him there in the seat next to me, leaning in close. “We can’t promise to keep our hands off each other for long.”
“Fucking omegas…” Theo said as we began to kiss, throwing the car into gear and taking us out the front gate of Greyson Manor.
Tristan buckled me in tight, keeping my body pressed up against his as his mouth found my neck.
“Stay quiet,” he whispered. “Stay perfectly quiet and don’t let anyone know what I’m doing to you. Your cunt sucked at my fingers, drawing them in, wanting more.”
“So much more…” I hissed as he fluffed the fabric of my dress, his hand snaking underneath it. Theo spared us a momentary look before focussing on the road, zipping down the streets with considerable haste.
“Fuck, Kit…” Tristan devoured my mouth, sucking my bottom lip into his, his tiny fangs scoring the surface before letting it go. “He better drive fast. Need you.”
That was when the omega showed through—in the slight edge in Tristan’s voice. We couldn’t bark or demand with any real heat to it, we could only plead and beg. So Tristan pleaded with me the whole drive over, right up until we pulled up at the special members only carpark, except those pleas weren’t exactly supplicatory.