Chapter 30

I'm fairly sure if I don't set sights on my omega soon, it's going to get ugly. Bless talks me down during a heated phone call where I try to call in reinforcements to burn this place to the ground.

Tanner will be spared, but only because they have a bond. Losing a bonded mate is not only emotional torment, but it also causes extreme physical distress.

It's worse for an omega than an alpha.

Or that's what I've heard.

I've clearly never experienced either for myself.

Luckily, my cousin and her girlfriend talk sense into my addled mind.

I'm clearly teetering the line of going feral, but I've been here for hours…

I need a chance to speak to Laken one-on-one.

Stacia seemed to believe Laken feels embarrassed about calling me for a rescue, considering she's grown closer to her captors since then.

There's the added component that Laken still believes she's carrying Will's baby when it's actually mine.

Although, I keep her pregnancy to myself.

Firstly, because I don't like the idea anyone could actually think she's pregnant with Will's baby.

Secondly, it would make me sound bad when I have to explain that she doesn't necessarily remember the night in question… Let alone the nights that I snuck into her apartment.

Thirdly, it's no one's fucking business.

Dammit.

I need to ask for my own access to the dungeon, so I can relieve some of this never-ending stress.

My omega is carrying my child, and I can't hold or comfort her myself because she's trapped behind that fingerprint access door. In the pack bedroom, with not one but two other alphas.

It was incredibly thoughtful of Maverick and Gunner to inform me of that fact. Their dogs certainly don't like me any better than the men do, but the beasts are well trained. They didn't attack while I browsed for nutrition earlier.

Tonight might be pure shit, but tomorrow is a brand-new day.

It's another opportunity to start fresh.

I didn't leave my business in shambles to track down Laken for nothing.

If anything, this is a new beginning.

I've found allies who hate my family every bit as much as I do. They have a formidable group at their backs, which will offer both Laken and me protection.

Now I just have to determine how to win over the men who are only tolerating me for her sake and ensure that I gently ease her into remembering our night together.

Fuck me.

I need a drink.

My face wrinkles as I take a generous swig of the bourbon. It's nothing like the bottles I'm used to back home, but it was this or truly vile-sounding vodka.

"Help yourself." The cold, dead voice belongs to Ranger. It comes from behind me, near the doorway to the garage and also his torture dungeon.

I smirk, taking another long drink of the terrible liquor without bothering to turn and face him.

Dropping the glass on the countertop, I lick the remnants from my lips. "How is my omega?"

"My wife was sleeping as I crawled from bed next to her," he says smugly. "Unfortunately, I have an appointment to keep with our guests."

"Best of luck." I snatch up the glass, raising it above my head. "Braxton is a sneaky fucker. Don't let your guard down, or he will use it to his advantage."

"It sounds like you have experience with that firsthand."

"We were close as teenagers," I say, taking another small sip. "Far closer than I was to my own brothers. I made the mistake of confiding in him. I told him all about my plans for changes I intended to implement within the family business."

"He's why you were ousted as heir?" Ranger asks.

"Out on my ass with barely a dollar to my name." I snort, shaking my head. "It took ten years and a whole lot of hate, but I built my business from the ground up without taking a dime from human trafficking."

"And Will intended to erase all your progress by conspiring with your family. No wonder you want revenge."

"I want Laken more than I want retribution. If she hadn't been kidnapped, I had plans to walk away." I shrug, staring across the room. "I would have let Will run it into the ground."

Ranger hums. "Priorities have a way of changing."

"I'm tired," I admit, and it's clear the alcohol has loosened my tongue. "Being a one-man island holds no appeal to me, and it hasn't in a long time."

"Give it some time. You'll be able to see your family fall firsthand."

I scoff, but it's unintentional. "Bless has been working on that for at least the last twelve years. I wish you luck, but I won't be holding my breath. They deserve to pay for all they've done?—"

"They do," Ranger agrees. "I won't lie and say it'll be an overnight process, but Braxton is the first piece of deconstructing their puzzle." I can't see him disappear down the hallway, but I can hear his booted feet as they stomp toward the basement access doors.

My head hangs.

It's a lovely thought, but there's that old saying about counting chickens before they hatch.

"There you are." Laken's voice jolts me out of my half-drunk musings. "You weren't in the room Ranger told me you were staying in, and I panicked." She sounds so indignant that I chuckle.

I migrated to the breakfast nook a while ago.

I shove away my glass.

To be fair, it's been empty for quite some time. "Where's your bonded alpha?"

"Tanner is asleep. Ranger is…" She comes closer until she's standing at my side. "Doing whatever it is he does in the basement."

My eyes rake down each side of her throat until I spot the new bondmark.

My gut drops.

I hoped she was including him out of obligation, but apparently not.

"Exactly how much do you know about your husband?" I ask, flashing her a viciously cutting smile. "Have you seen the basement? There are actual cells. No one is joking when they call it a torture dungeon."

"Okay, well, no one is perfect," she says, grimacing. "Sorry, my bond with Ranger is fresh, and my instincts are very protective of that right now."

"So, are you here to dismiss me?"

"What? No." She plants her hands on her hips. "But I have a question."

My head tilts as I study her curvy frame in one of their T-shirts. I stretch back in the uncomfortable wooden kitchen chair, and my hair falls around my face. She's beautiful, there's no denying that, but she's now bonded a second alpha, and my feelings are officially hurt.

"All right, get on with it."

"Eww, I don't know if I want to now," she mutters.

I laugh, grabbing her hips. "You better stop. Ask me."

She climbs into my lap, and her face tilts up to mine.

She's so close.

I missed her sexy little ass more than I can explain.

Her hands land on my chest as she squints at me. "Why do I keep having extremely vivid sex dreams about you?"

I bark a laugh, obviously more intoxicated than I should be for this conversation.

"I'm serious, Locke," she grumbles. "You said we needed to talk about that night at Will's penthouse. I went to bed thinking about that and woke up dreaming you were fucking me against the kitchen wall."

"Mmm, is that right?" I muse, stretching to transfer the glass and bottle to one of the free chairs.

"What did you need to tell me about that night?" she counters, frowning as I lift her and lay her down on the table. "What are you doing?"

"Reminding you," I growl, crawling over her outstretched body. "You never should have forgotten the first time."

She blinks up at me, not pushing me away as I flatten over her soft form. "I feel like I did forget something and it was important."

"Oh, you definitely fucking did," I growl, capturing her mouth. She moans, clutching at my shoulders as I grind against her. This would be so much better if I was nude, but my cargo pants rub over her bare pussy as I grind against her mindlessly. I pull back, brushing my fingers over her cheek. "I promised your ass a righteous spanking the next morning. You have zero self-preservation skills, kitten. You don't mix anxiety meds and alcohol, let alone fucking wine."

"You smell so familiar," she whispers with wide eyes. Her pupils are blown, like huge round saucers. It leads me to believe she's not appalled by the thought of being with me. "Did we have sex that night?"

"More times than I could count." I chuckle darkly. "The fog got both of us, so there's a while I don't remember."

"Wow, okay. I don't know what to say."

"Don't worry. I've got plenty to get off my chest." I quirk an eyebrow. "I was not pleased. The shitty thing about prescription medication is there was no chance I'd smell it on your breath. You seemed pretty relaxed for finding out Will was cheating on you, but you definitely weren't out of it. You never gave me any indication that you weren't fully capable of being able to consent. Then we woke up in Will's bedroom. You had a little freak out?—"

"A panic attack," she corrects. "I vaguely remember promising to help you find a new job."

"Exactly, but then you went out and took another dose of your anxiety medication with a glass of wine."

"That was a bad idea," she says, her adorable little nose wrinkling. "If I wasn't with Will that night, then…"

"Then?" I probe, grinding against her core.

"You already know." Her damn puffy lips part, and I growl, shoving my tongue into her mouth again.

It's no wonder she and Tanner bonded in two seconds flat.

Her scent is so fucking enticing, it's trying to send me into rut, even though she's not in heat.

My hand clutches the top of her skull, and I tilt her face to the side, licking and sucking down her neck.

"Your scent is making me achy," she grunts, weaving her arms through mine. Once she's able to grip the front of my cargo pants, she starts working the button and zipper.

I'm always commando, and she seems to realize that about the time she slides her hand down the front of my pants.

"You have piercings!" she moans, long and loud. "I thought I conjured those in my dreams. For those two months between that night at Will's penthouse and the club, I'd wake up smelling your scent. I thought I was going crazy."

"Not even close," I growl, locking my muscles tight to keep from thrusting as she guides me through her lower lips. "I told you to be careful what type of permission you give a guy like me."

"You were in my apartment all those times?" Laken squeezes the hell out of my dick, running her thumb down my ladder piercings.

"Yup."

"Were you stalking me?"

"I was watching over what's mine," I correct, nipping at her ear.

"My instincts are completely in control because all I can think about is how romantic it was that you were protecting me."

"More like marking my claim." I chuckle like a dick. "Making sure you had hits of my pheromones and feeding you tastes of my cum?—"

"Locke," she groans, jerking me against her clit.

"Little did either of us know how much you needed it. No wonder your system went haywire when you no longer had it." I try to fight the urge to rut, but she moves me to her opening, and her entrance clenches around my tip. "Aww, fuck," I growl, thrusting deep. "You're carrying my baby. Maybe that's why my instincts were pushing me to be an absolute stalker. I've never had the urge to sneak into someone's bedroom late at night, but I couldn't help myself."

"More," she moans, scratching at my ass and pushing my pants farther down.

I lean up, pulling my T-shirt off over my head. I'd really like to see her fantastic tits, but watching them bounce under the material of that T-shirt will have to do.

Falling back on top of her, I nip at her lower lip and practice fucking into her. She's snug, and it makes my piercings tug, but the bite of pain only amps up my need.

"You get that I haven't fucked anyone since you," I growl, swirling my tongue around her lower lip. She's extremely slick, but her walls are so tight that I'm a little afraid of hurting her. "Right, kitten? You know that, as soon as I knew where you were, I was coming for you."

"Roll your pelvis against my clit," she moans, clutching my ass.

"You're a bossy little thing." I chuckle. She scratches deep enough that it feels like she may have drawn blood, and it only spurs me on. I begin to really use my feet as leverage on the floor and my hand over the top of her head to keep her in place with each rhythmic thrust. "Those nails are sharp, exactly like a feisty little kitten."

"Can you pull me up? The table isn't very forgiving."

"Mmm, of course. You also prefer that angle better, if my memory serves me right." I slide my hands between Laken and the table, pulling her with me as I back up a bit. Once her legs hang off the end, I give her luscious ass a squeeze and work a hand up to her lower back.

I pull her upright, and her hands land on my shoulders.

"Let's get rid of this." Tugging the T-shirt off her curvy frame gives me a full feast to appreciate. "I cannot fucking wait to watch your belly pop." I groan as my cock jumps at the thought.

"Oh, I do remember liking this angle." Her eyes fall shut as her inner walls clench.

"Hands behind you to keep yourself stabilized," I choke out, breathing through the urge to rut.

She complies, and watching her tits pull into teardrops does not help my composure.

Not. One. Fucking. Bit.

I growl, moving my hold back to her ass and lifting her so she falls down my throbbing length. The inches of my shaft she hasn't managed to take are still wet with all the slick she's dripping. Her feet wrap around my ass, digging in as I fuck her on my cock.

I'm torn between watching the faces she makes and stretching back as I stand to watch me disappear inside her. Her hair falls behind her as her tits sway. It's been a long fucking time. She clenches around my piercings, moaning loudly.

"Fuck, kitten," I groan. "Keep tightening your cunt just like that."

"You're so hard," she sobs. "More. Just like that, but more… The word I'm looking for is harder."

I would legitimately chuckle at how fucking cute she is, but her pussy convulses, and it sends me over the edge. Pulling her up, I drop her one final time before my entire body freezes as I snarl.

Luckily, Laken uses her feet on my ass to grind her tightening cunt over my jerking cock.

I stretch forward, and our tongues clash in the air. She bites my lower lip deep enough that it almost draws blood. It takes everything in me not to bite her back.

An omega biting an alpha is like the ultimate gauntlet being dropped.

However, she's still settling into two bonds. She's also carrying my baby, and that bonds us on a different level.

I can be patient.

At least for a little longer.

"The housekeepers were just here." Ranger's annoyed voice breaks through the haze of the moment as we struggle to catch our breaths. "You better sanitize that before breakfast."

Laken snorts, burying her face in my chest as she laughs.

"If you're coming, come along," Ranger says, spinning and walking toward the hallway that leads to the stairs. "I won't be extending the offer again."

I shrug, wrapping my arm around her lower back.

"Um, you better put me down. I don't want you to trip with your pants around your ankles." She laughs, patting my stomach.

I look down and laugh too.

Yeah, that might have been bad.

Huh, I wasn't expecting an invitation, but I'm not about to miss out on the chance to sleep snuggled up with Laken.