6. Lianna

In my recent past, I had only ever seen life leave the ones I loved. From first diagnosis to death rattle, I watched my mom waste away. The light died in my dad's eyes that day, and alcohol sapped whatever he had left.

And then Louis, going from his bed in the room next to mine to an ER gurney, then a long-term care ward. I watched his comatose physio sessions, read all about his daily feeding and hygiene regime. I saw my little brother fade, his complexion weak as a waning moon.

This was the first time I had ever experienced life flowing back into someone who made my heart dance—and it was… healing.

The second that thimble crowned his pinkie, Vidar changed. His nasty bruise healed. His skin tone settled from warm ivory to a rose beige. His tattoos didn't multiply or anything, but they seemed darker in the torchlight, more prominent and set.

His body was already big, but now it seemed… bigger? I scoped every limb, every muscular ridge, every defined line. No, not bigger, per se, but thicker, more sculpted.

His cock soared to its full height and girth, hard and firm and thick, and my body burned white-hot making eye contact with the velvety head. Clearing my throat, sweating all over, I chose a safer spot and went for his face—only to find him looking at me. His hunter green was richer, brighter, fiercer. Jaw set, determined, Vidar suddenly sported long, luscious brown hair that had a healthy, glossy sheen. Even his beard seemed softer. He still had a wild look about him, like he belonged in the highlands in nothing but a kilt, but the wildest thing yet…

Before, Vidar had felt more alpha than any of the human kind I'd met, but now his presence hammered me so fiercely that it finally cut me off at the knees. I buckled and collapsed with a humiliating keening sound, bracing both hands on the cobblestone. He was everywhere, all around me, surrounding me, caging me, claiming me. His presence, his dominance, his attention fell like the might of a thousand suns across my body.

And I liked it.

Like the weighted blanket I saved for my worst days, the pressure felt good.

Smother me, Alpha. I can take it.

Wait. I winced. No, too much?—

"I've never brought anyone to my hoard before." Even his voice sounded richer, luxe and otherworldly, his lilting accent more prominent. Hints of Scandinavia, maybe? I wasn't exactly worldly or well-traveled, but California collected all kinds.

I slowly lifted my heavy head, cocking it. "Oh yeah?"

"A hoard is a dragon's most sacred space," Vidar rumbled. "More than claimed territory. More than a nest. It's a piece of his very being, his soul."

He sat up properly now, effortlessly, and leaned forward, his hard-on nudging his taut torso as he eyed me from beneath his brow. Desperate as I was for alpha attention in this fucking flash heat, the weight of his suddenly tickled my hackles.

I huffed a laugh. "We c-came here to heal you." Every omega instinct in me wailed, like how dare I push back. Something about his intensity—it triggered a ridiculous need to break his focus, throw a wrench in whatever he was doing to my body. This dragon played it so effortlessly, and that coaxed my hackles higher. Another cramp hit as I tucked my hair behind my ear, on my knees, precariously balanced on one hand now. This time, the pain was gentle, but it unleashed so much slick that it came weeping out of me, heavy and obvious. "You brought me here out of n-necessity, I think."

Vidar lunged and prowled toward me. Shoulders rippling, muscles working, he was physical perfection, the most graceful apex predator. He belonged in the Greek pantheon with the other gods, but the storm in his eyes had me thinking Viking now—all those tattoos, his long hair, the wild in his smile.

He stopped too close and not close enough, capturing my chin in his palm. I whimpered at the pressure, the way his fingers pressed into my cheeks.

"I brought you here because we are fated, matched, written in the stars." He snarled the declaration, branded it forever on my heart. "Because you are mine, Lianna." Vidar tugged me closer, forcing me to hold his gaze when I wanted to duck and bow and curl in on myself. Hide. Bask. It was a mess inside. "My omega. The only omega for me, as I am the only alpha for you."

I held my breath as he scented me, dragging his nose along my face, across my temple and over my hair. When he came back, his pupils were blown, hunter green replaced with endless black.

"What's mine is yours," he whispered roughly, "and I take very good care of what is mine."

My elbow wobbled, and if he wasn't holding me, cradling my chin, I would have face-planted. Alphas had always been pretty words and purple prose. They talked in circles, always just missing the point.

Not Vidar. There was no gray with him. No need to read between the lines. Mine. My omega.

I swallowed hard, but the lump in my throat refused to budge. "It's not just m-me feeling this way?—"

"No." He didn't shout or bark, but his voice rippled around us, echoing, bouncing off the walls, low and raspy and delicious. "I feel it. I crave it. You." He stroked my lower lip with his thumb. "You pulled me from the dark, little omega. Tended to me in my lowest hour. Cared for me at my weakest. Faced a dragon without fear."

A weak laugh bubbled up my throat. "Uh, I was a bit scared—a lot, at first, for the sake of full transparency."

Vidar rumbled, his grin pure sunshine as he nuzzled his nose to mine, then pressed our foreheads together.

"But you faced your fear." He drew a deep breath, then let it out with another rumble from deep in his chest, the sound affectionate but laced with something else. Something darker. Something that called to the rebel in me, to the monster desperately devouring the compliments that followed. "Brave girl. Fearless omega. Valkyrie. Goddess. Mine."

The clench in my core was pure pleasure this time. Omegas as a designation had a serious praise kink, but I'd always pushed back against it—until now. Now, as slick dribbled down to my knees, I whined freely and let go, melting into a needy omega puddle who would only survive on his praise.

"And I will tend to you as you tended to me." Vidar removed his hand from my chin, using it instead to brush my hair aside. "Precious treasure. Revered omega." His words dipped into the gravelly husk. "Let go. I'm here now."

I closed my eyes against the sting of tears and drew a shuddering breath. He hadn't barked, hadn't forced his will on me, but I swore years of tension suddenly softened. My anxiety scattered. Even if it was just a few moments of relief, it was bliss.

"As long as those boys don't have your heart."

My eyes snapped open. "Fuck those Synn cowards."

Surprise colored Vidar's expression, his eyebrows shooting up and his smile startled. I just scowled and swiped the sweat from my neck.

"Please don't tell me you think omegas are too delicate to swear." Idiots far and wide declared that omegas ought to be prim and proper. Them, I could ignore. But if my scent match had the same opinion—fuck.

"No." He snagged my chin on a single fingertip and tipped my head back. "It's that hearing fuck from your sweet lips…" The alpha grumbled, sounding more dragon than man. "My cock can only get so hard, Lianna. Have mercy."

I bit down on my back teeth, smothering an unabashed squeal. Good. I had always considered myself an atheist, but fuck it—thank whatever deities were actually out there for giving me a sane alpha.

"This dress"—his intensity slithered down my throat to my chest—"is ready for retirement, I think."

"Yeah," I whispered, the flutter of my lashes uncharacteristic as I dropped my gaze to the floor. Usually, I had no qualms looking anyone in the eye, alpha or not. But Vidar almost made me… shy. And hot. Fire plumed in my cheeks as he prowled around me, and, sinking back on my heels, I never imagined feeling safe with a circling hunter.

But more invisible weight slipped from my shoulders as his big hands worked on the ties I had laced back in my bedroom, a million miles away and a thousand years ago, it seemed.

"Why do you allow those insipid gnats to court you?" While I couldn't see his expression, I heard the stony incredulity as he loosened the top. "They are beneath you."

"My family has a lot of bills." I tipped my head to the side and closed my eyes as my dress parted open one rung at a time. It wasn't a real corset or anything, just styled to look like one. Still, it cut a decent figure with the bodice pulled tight. As Vidar worked, breath came easier, like he was dismantling the bricks on the wall I had built high around myself, the truth I kept from everyone else falling free.

"Lots of medical expenses." I counted them off on my hand. "My mom had cancer and she passed a few years ago. Dad drank to cope. He needs and wants rehab, but the good ones cost a fortune. My younger brother had a car accident—hit by a drunk driver on the way to get Dad from a bar, believe it or not. He's still in a coma. Decent p-prognosis—" A sudden burst of emotion had my tongue stuttering. "But h-he's been in a bed and the ward is expensive.

"My parents never demanded that I take a pack. After the academy, I chose college instead. I-I'm twenty-eight and all those Cedar Cove jagweeds call me a fucking spinster now, but I don't care. I don't care what they say about me. Dad and Louis are the only ones that matter, and the Synns offered to pay all our bills if I?—"

His snarl made me jump. Vidar had been dead silent this whole time, working diligently, brushing my exposed back with his fingers. Now, he snagged my chin again and turned my head to the side, steering me into the storm.

"No longer, Lianna." Still not a bark, but the depth of his command cut to my marrow. His words ricocheted around the cavern again, whispering a beat after he spoke them. Impossibly deep, primal, wild, Vidar addressed me as an alpha anda dragon. "Three paintings from this collection alone will cover years of medical care. Pull your name from the lists. This is not a sacrifice you need to make."

"These are your treasures." A microscopic part of me pushed back against the idea of an alpha, any alpha, doing that for my sake. "You don't have to?—"

"Yes, I do," Vidar growled. It was a statement, a matter of fact—no room for pushback. "I protect what's mine. Cherish what's mine." He nodded toward the mountains of gold and jewels and pearls. "It all pales compared to my mate. A mere placeholder. I would sell every last piece to give you and your family the life you deserve, do you understand?"

"Vidar—"

"I would pluck all my scales and auction them to the highest bidders." He crawled back around and crouched in front of me, my dress sagging, the last of the ties open. "Fate is forever. You, Lianna, are my forever now."

He gathered my face in both hands, guiding me into a tall kneel. I tucked my elbows in to keep my dress from slinking down, the built-in bra barely clinging to my breasts. Vidar, however, was so deep in my eyes he probably wouldn't have noticed if it fell.

"Lianna, every piece of you speaks to the heart of me. To sell my hoards, to give and give and give again, until there's nothing left, is an honor, not a loss."

Lightheaded, I glanced down to where the head of his thick cock nudged my belly. Still hard as a rock. In fact, the base had some swelling, like talk of fate and forever had triggered a knot.

I'd never had a knot just for me before. I'd never… with an alpha…

Betas, sure. Betas were safe and simple and satisfying enough. Vidar was anything but.

I stroked the undersides of his wrists, body awash with renewed need, and then pressed both hands to where his bruise used to sit. He was an inferno, my fated mate, a mountain of fire in human form. While my pulse thrummed like a drumline, his beat slow and steady, sure and steadfast.

"My mate will accept who I am," I whispered. His nostrils flared as he angled one ear ever so slightly my way, like he was struggling to hear. And fair enough, because suddenly, I could barely get the words out. "I know I'm not a traditional omega, the kind so many alphas seem to want, but I-I…" Squaring my shoulders, I lifted my chin higher. "I'm not a project to fix, either."

He frowned. "How… would one fix perfection?"

Liquid gold coursed my veins. Cramps fading, suddenly there was all the space in the world for heat and desire and want instead. Still, I couldn't help myself; I snorted right in his face. Perfection. What perfection?

"That was so cheesy."

"But true." He smirked and plucked at my lower lip. "I enjoy the sound of your laugh, the sunlight in your smile." Vidar then took another deep breath, nostrils wide, scenting me deeply. "I have no intention of taming my mate." His dark gaze drifted down my torso, stopping where the slick was thickest. "A submissive mate has no place beside a dragon."

I took a shaky breath, eyes burning with tears. Vidar caught the first drop on his thumb before it trickled down my cheek.

"Now," he rasped, "let me worship you, Lianna." One hand plummeted to my bodice and tugged, jerking me forward and wrenching a groan from the fabric. "Let me worship as you deserve to be worshipped…"