AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Beside me, Spencer has gone unnaturally still, his chest barely even rising on shallow breaths. When I meet his eyes, they’re dark oceans. I suddenly feel like I’m in a confessional… but I know I need to finish the story. To have it all out there, once and for all.
“When my heats came,” I whisper, “he would put me in a room with food and water and leave me there for the week. Alone. I still don’t know what my Omega did or why, but every time I woke up, I had new injuries.”
His brows pinch, and his hand rises from my shoulder. He holds it near my face for a beat before setting it on the crown of my head, sifting my hair back.
“I’m sorry,” he roughs out, snapping those never-ending eyes to mine. “For many things. But especially that you ever felt pain like that.”
I don’t know how I can tell what he isn’t saying. It’s a murky instinct, indistinct and halting, but I feel so sure.
He knows what it’s like to have someone he trusted hurt him, too. And he knows what it’s like when you hurt yourself.
“My father wanted alpha sons,” Spencer tells me, turning for the washcloth again. He carefully picks up my other arm, sending a rush of tingles to my fingertips.
“Only alpha sons. He came from a long line of them, in a family with a lot of money and no regard for omegas whatsoever. They were breeding vessels to the Thornes and nothing more.
“When I was young, though, my personality concerned him. I was quiet, and I preferred hiding in my room to being around others. When he began to suspect I might be an omega, he was horrified. Once Tris left for college, he spent the next four years bringing in omegas to try to entice my Alpha out of hiding… and, when that didn’t work, attempting to beat the weakness out of me.”
A terribly wry smile curves his mouth. “I still hate that it worked.”
When I make a face, his expression smooths back into its usual mask. “Not really, of course. Environment has no bearing on our designations—a fact my research has all but proven—but he still got what he wanted when I designated as an alpha after all. And that’s always rankled me.”
Of course Spencer felt drawn to studying designations after enduring all of that. And he set out to prove that what his father attempted to do to him couldn’t be done. Probably in the hope that his research might prevent others from repeating those sins.
For a moment, I try to come up with something to say back. But my Omega makes one of her rare appearances, peeking out at him. She nudges me, showing me what we should do, projecting calm certainty that seeps into my center.
So, I don’t speak. Instead, I lift a wet hand out of the bathwater and carefully skim my fingers over his forearm, looking into his eyes.
I’m sorry, I tell him silently. There was never anything wrong with you.
The intensity shifting in his depths sparkles while the rest of his face falls slack. Awe and a dark flame ignite in his irises. His other hand flies up, long fingers wrapping around my elbow.
My Omega may be sure, but I’m not. I’m thinking he’ll toss me back into the water and storm out.
But, instead, he growls, “Serena.”
Then hauls me up, bubbles and all, into a kiss.
chapter
thirty-five
Kissing Serena feels like drowning and hyperventilating at the same time.
I think I can’t breathe, then I think I’ll never need to again. Because I can taste her on my tongue, feel her softness pressed into my sternness. And this—this?—
This is the one type of chemistry I haven’t studied.
Her skin is wet and soft as I feel parts of her that I haven’t even let myself look at. My cock kicks, my thoughts spiral.
Lavender soap is no match for the lush perfection of her scent. And even though I managed not to look while I got her in the tub earlier… I have a feeling I won’t get away that easily this time.
My body is in chaos.
Arousal courses through my veins, racing through my extremities. But the fear welling in my middle has teeth. It snaps, vicious. Demanding tribute.
That doesn’t surprise me. I expected to hate this. What I didn’t anticipate was the want underneath. It’s rooted deep—maybe even deeper than the fear. And while the two sensations battle it out, Serena whimpers against my mouth.
Fucking hell.
