Chapter 21

twenty-one

. . .

ALIL

"What is happening?!"

Addy laughed and scooped me up, making me squeal as he carried me into our new house.

Laughing in return, I wiggled until he set me down right in the middle of the living room.

"What do you think?" he asked. He looked so breathlessly excited for this next stage of our lives together but I didn't even know what to think.

I looked around the space, flabbergasted.

" What is happening ?!" I demanded.

I started to laugh again and looked at Addy, feeling almost hysterical.

"Addy! How are we in a house right now?!"

I knew I had been asking questions like this with growing frequency over the last two weeks. Why aren't you being punished yet? Why is everyone being so normal? What do you mean we're getting our own house?!

But nobody had any damn answers and I felt like I was losing my mind.

"This is all because of the baby, isn't it?" I asked. "It's because I'm pregnant and everyone feels bad for me.

"I don't know," Addy said, stepping up to me and holding me in a tight embrace. "But here we are, and everything is working out just fine. I think we should just accept it."

Something about the tone of his voice made my heart rate speed. I lifted my chin to meet his gaze and saw the small spark of heat in his eyes.

For two weeks of torture, I'd slept next to him and barely been able to touch him or have him touch me the way I wanted. All because Addy was worried that his parents would hear us. They absolutely would have since there were no real doors in his house, so I understood, but an omega had needs dammit, and one quick, rushed fuck while they were out of the house wasn't enough. And aside from that, having to hastily stop not once, but twice right when his mouth had been sucking my cock, was enough to drive me insane.

"I suppose I won't say no to some privacy," I murmured, pulling him into a deep kiss.

"Right here?" he asked, pressing his already hard cock against mine.

I moaned, nodding and rutting against him. That look alone had been enough to make me achingly hard.

"Fuck me right here," I whispered.

He groaned and suddenly hoisted me up and just like that, nothing else existed.

He stumbled until we hit the wall and pinned me to it, kissing me ravenously, his lips trailing onto my jaw, then my neck, everywhere he could reach while I moaned and rutted against him.

"Need you," I gasped, and he practically tore our robes out of the way.

He paused only long enough to meet my eyes before he was pushing his large tip into my eager, wet, hole.

I cried out and then remembered we were by the doorway opening and pressed my face into his shoulder, biting down while he started to fuck me. His long thrusts reached in deep, my weight pressing down to take every last, delicious inch.

It was immediately too much and not enough and I found myself arching, pulling back and pressing down, unsure what I wanted until we fell into the most incredible rhythm and Addy's hands tangled in my hair for grip pulled a little too roughly. My cock reacted at once, tightening with pleasure and I cried out, releasing between us.

I would have been disappointed to end it so soon, but my orgasm made Addy gasp and thrust harder as he came on my heels.

"Lili," he groaned. "You're so sexy."

His lips pressed to my neck, then up my jaw to my lips, in reverse of how it had started. For a long while we kissed each other deeply as we came back down, his knot thick inside me.

He had to carefully to set me on the floor, still buried inside, and then we held each other, relaxing.

"We could put a table there," he suggested after a long while. "I could see us eating meals in front of the window."

I smiled, still perplexed that I had been so afraid to return home, and yet, for the most part, we had been accepted back in with open arms, even given a house just like any other couple would be.

"But they said that you had a punishment coming," I repeated for the hundredth time.

Addy chuckled.

"Perhaps they're waiting for something."

"The baby?" I guessed again.

He shrugged.

"That would make sense. Maybe they don't want to give you any stress right now."

"Well if that's the case, they should have told us when this punishment is going to happen and how bad it will be. This guessing game is killing me."

Addy kissed my cheek and squeezed me in a quick embrace before relaxing again. His cock suddenly slid free, but he didn't pull away.

"Is there anything I can do to keep your mind off of it?" he asked.

"Anything?"

He stilled.

"Why did that sound so sinister?"

I bit my lip.

"Well you know over the last two weeks of sexless hell?—"

"We had sex?—"

" Once . That doesn't count."

He chuckled.

"Go on."

"In the last two weeks of sexless hell," I repeated, "I only had my memories to keep me warm at night?—"

"Hey, that's not fair! I was still there to hug and snuggle you."

"Stop interrupting me," I chastised.

I waited and glanced at him, seeing that his lips were pressed tightly shut despite the smile pulling at them.

"So, I only had my memories to keep me warm at night and it feels like forever since I, you know, was inside you."

Addy blinked while I waited with baited breath, stomach suddenly squirming with nerves.

"Did you not really like it?" I asked.

His eyes widened.

"What? I did, I promise. We did do it twice."

"Not since we first bonded," I pointed out and he shrugged bashfully.

"I've thought about it a few times," he admitted, not meeting my gaze. "I did like it at the time, but I having a functional cock completely distracted me, I suppose. I can't help but want to use the thing."

I chuckled.

"I understand all too well. It's hard not to use it when you have it."

He gave me a look.

"Well, that sounds very unfair to you, when you say it like that. Do you want to do it now?"

"I didn't mean immediately."

But he was already getting onto his knees and crawling over top of me.

My heart rate shot up, desire hitting me so hard you wouldn't have thought I had just been fucked silly, but my cock had been a bit ignored lately and I was hungry for what he had to offer.

I lay back, stroking his thighs as he straddled me.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

He nodded, his chest rising and falling fast now, his cock swiftly hardening in excitement.

At first, he sat back, directing my cock to his hole as though it would just slip in.

"Don't forget to get ready first," I laughed breathlessly, sitting up.

Using my slick, like last time, I stroked it over his entrance, marveling at how small and sweet it felt. The biggest marvel of all was still the fact that he would let me do this and seemed to be excited by it.

I slipped a finger into him and he gripped my shoulders, trying to remain still while I worked until his cock was leaking precome and he was gasping with each thrust of my hand.

"Okay," I said, shakily as I slicked my cock.

I gripped his hips and directed him down.

His cock kept twitching and his body was tightly strung as he sank back.

My cock wasn't as big as his, but helet out a ragged gasp as it pressed through the ring of his muscles, stretching him open and I had no doubt that he enjoyed the sensation of me entering him anyway.

"Oh," he moaned and squeezed his eyes shut, gripping my arms to steady him as he took me most of the way down.

My head fell back. It felt so good. I couldn't say which way I liked to have sex more, but the fact that Addy, an alpha, wouldallowhimself to be fucked, elevated this to the point that it made me crazy. His body was a miracle.

I watched him adjust, memorized every miniscule twitch on his face, the way his teeth grit and then jaw parted in slack pleasure, the way his thighs flexed when he started to move, the brush of his hair on my hands when I ran them up his pecs.

He seemed surprised by the sudden rise in his pleasure, gasping and frantically grabbing his cock to stroke it as he cried out. His thighs shook with his orgasm and his body clenched around me and that was all it took for me to come for a second time.

When he fell atop me, groaning, still clutching his cock, his fist tight around his swollen knot, I wrapped my arms around him and held him until the tremors stopped running through his body.

"I forgot how intense that feels," he moaned against my neck.

I nodded, stroking his back.

"Well, I'm willing to remind you any time you want."

He let out a satisfied sigh.

"I'll be remembering that..."

I tilted my head to press a kiss to his temple, too sleepy to do anything else.

I was still inside him, but it felt nice when we were connected like this. So comfortable and warm and I didn't want to move.

"Getting kidnapped was the best thing to ever happen to me," I mused.

He chuckled breathlessly, but I could tell he was already falling asleep.

I strolled through the streets of Diwan on my own for the first time in my life.

Ever since running off with Addy, I had experienced more firsts than I could count.

This was another one. One that felt more surreal than anything else that had happened.

No one stopped me, asked me where I was going or where my escorts were, but I still felt like they should. I wasn't used to being completely unprotected. But I was mated now and pregnant. I was no longer a prize. I had already been claimed.

It was so strange to think of it in those terms, but I couldn't imagine another way to do it.

Unconsciously, I dropped my hand onto my lower belly. There was no bump yet, but I could feel a small, hard spot inside me. Sometimes when I moved in the wrong way it felt like I was trying to stretch something that couldn't stretch. It was a strange feeling but it gave me a giddy sort of excitement.

Being in our house, just us, for days already, everything was starting to feel different. Like perhaps, I actually could get excited and enjoy this.

Starting with Addy's parents. His om-father was planning to spend the day with me, to walk me through some pregnancy traditions. It was a shame that my own om-mother wouldn't be doing it with me, but I could not bring myself to face her or my al-mother yet—if ever.

At least I could trust Addy's family and they had always felt like my own family anyway, so I was grateful to have them.

Until I arrived at their house and walked in to find Latif sitting in the living room and knew I had walked into a trap.

He looked just as shocked to see me as I was and we both looked at his om-father, who raised his hands in surrender.

"You both need to stop avoiding one another and finally talk."

I grimaced.

I had been avoiding seeing my best friend and Addy's brother. Latif had made that easy though. In the weeks since our arrival back in Diwan, I hadn't so much as seen or heard a word from him.

He pursed his lips but didn't look at me or say anything as his om-father left the room.

"Latif," I said simply, unsure what to say.

How could I explain in such a way that the rift between him and his brother would not get worse? That was what I was the most worried about.

He stood.

For a second, I thought he was going to leave but then he met my eyes, looking utterly broken and rushed to me, engulfing me in a big hug.

I returned it, stunned and relieved.

When he pulled back and I saw that look on his face again, I felt utterly retched for avoiding him all this time.

"I knew my brother hated omegas," he said, voice trembling. "But I never expected him to do this to you."

"Oh, Latif," I whispered. "Please don't be mad at him."

He shut his eyes.

"How could I ever forgive him? He stole you away and mated with you."

"Yes, but—I wanted him to."

It was beyond awkward to tell my friend this after a lifetime of keeping the feelings I harbored to myself.

He gave me an incredulous look and I nearly died from embarrassment, but I forced the words out.

"To be honest, I hid my feelings for him as best I could all these years."

He gaped and I went on, telling him all the things I had told the alpha council while he held my hands and listened, frowning.

"I was glad to be alone out there where it felt like I could make my own decisions... I know you understand."

He watched me for a long time, looking almost lost.

"This isn't what I expected," he finally said. "I've felt so guilty for allowing him to even be near you knowing how he was..."

I shook my head.

"Please, don't. Addy was in the wrong, but he is still the boy you grew up with. He made a mistake, and he sees that now."

He raised a dubious brow and shook his head.

"I find that hard to even imagine."

I smiled.

"Well come talk to him and see. He has been waiting for you."

"Has he said that?"

"Not outright, but he keeps asking about you, and he told me he wanted to apologize to you before we returned to Diwan."

His eyes widened.

For a minute I thought he was going to agree to come home with me right now but then he sighed.

"I don't think I am ready to face him yet. I'm still angry," he admitted.

Disappointed, I nodded.

"Then come to our new home whenever you are ready. You will always be welcome."

He nodded and then gave me another hug just as his om-father came out of the back room, looking touched, clearly having been listening.

"Good, you've made up! Now let's go to the market, and then for lunch."

He linked arms with both of us, leading the way so that there could be no room for protest.

"The market?" I asked.

"There are a lot of supplies you need for this pregnancy," he explained. "I'm going to help you stock up."

Latif groaned.

"My brother is having a baby with my best friend... why is that just hitting me now?"

I laughed and smacked his arm, feeling like I was walking on air.

Again, how was everything working out so well?!

I would just have to take Addy's advice and enjoy it until his inevitable punishment...