Page 25 of Perfectly Yours
Savin straightens up, blows out a breath, and keeps going. “You don’t understand that I don’t need your fucking approval. I don’t need you to accept me. I am Macon’s. He is mine. We swore that in an oath when he bonded me, and again on our wedding day.” His jaw pulls tight as he weathers a wave of pain before he continues. “You will not split us up. Macon is mine.” He growls out that last word and if we were back home, I’d fuck him so hard for the way he so easily claims me.
I press another kiss against his temple. “You did so well, baby.” He turns to me, a tight smile on his lips, his face flush from the effort. My mother has been quiet this entire time, cataloging the harsh words we’ve thrown at her, no doubt shocked that I let Savin speak to her that way. “Mom, house key please.”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “What?”
“You can’t have missed how I’ve slowly been taking your control from you, the things you manage and oversee returning to my hands. However, I let you continue to manage the house because it gave me a little more time to spend with my mate. But the disrespect? It’s getting worse.” I hold out my free hand, wiggling my fingers for the key. She also has the code but that can easily be changed.
She swallows carefully, waiting for me to tell her this is a joke. It’s not. “Macon, you’d let your Omega disrespect me like that?”
“That’s the first time you’ve acknowledged that he’s my Omega while also disrespecting me in the same breath. How does it feel to be brought back down? And yes, I would let him speak to you like that because he’s experienced so much worse when you’ve spoken to him. From now on, you aren’t to touch my affairs. You aren’t to talk on my behalf to anyone in the industry. You are not a contact point. For anything other than being my mother, you have no place here.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would. I am not part of an agenda, Mom.”
She hisses, leaning forward as she taps the table with manicured nails I’ve never liked. They remind me of claws more than a neat presence. “I made you,” my mother hisses.
I open my mouth to refute that when Savin speaks up. “When?” He spits. I can tell the toll this conversation is taking on him but he doesn’t want to be coddled so until he taps out, he can have the floor. “Tell me when you made my husband, my mate? He paid for his own schooling, worked his ass off, and got to where he was with you riding on his coattails. You have what you have because of him and if I had had my say, you wouldn’t have even been invited to the wedding.” He turns to me, those fierce eyes showing me the mixture of anger and weariness. “Macon, I don’t want to be here anymore.”
“He’s whiny and pushy-”
I cup his cheeks in my hands, nuzzling my nose against his. “No, he’s perfect. Let’s go home.” It’s not a surprise that my mother won’t hand over the keys but locks can easily be changed just as the code can, something I make a point to have happen in the next few hours.
Savin slips out of the booth. “I could go for some pancakes but at home.”
I chuckle, grabbing his hand in mine and leading him out of Oasis Eats. No doubt the photographer will spin my mother’s forlorn expression into something that we’ll have to deal with later. For now, my attention is fully on Savin. He pulls our hands to his chest, bowing his lips to my knuckles as we walk in silence. It isn’t until we’re pulling out of the parking lot that Savin speaks again.
“I think I want to take care of the house.”
My brows raise, intrigued at Savin’s request. He rarely leans into his Omega instincts so I’m surprised he wants to try something so domestic. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with Ellie, would it?” I didn’t manage to ask my mother who the new Beta maid was but I’m pretty sure we were right, that it’s her.
Savin’s scent sweetens as his cheeks flush. “No! Yes. I don’t know. Maybe a little? I just know that I need to do something and right now, this is the easiest to pick up.”
My heart breaks for him. “I don’t expect you to, Savin. We can hire-”
He shakes his head, eyes focused ahead as his hands settle in his lap. “No, it’s not about being an Omega. This is my home too. You’ve been very clear about that and I think I’ve been a little uncomfortable because your mother has been managing our affairs.” Savin leans back in the chair before throwing me a pained glance. “I think for a while I didn’t want to indulge some of my instincts because they made me feel lesser. No, Macon, it wasn’t you. This whole industry wants the sweetness of an Omega but none of the problems that come with being one. I just… I want to try. But fuck, I’m still not cooking.”
I laugh, the sound rumbling through my chest as I grab his hand in mine. “Baby, I’ll be more than happy to let you indulge. As for cooking, that’s an easy thing to pass off.” I know full well that plopping all of the house affairs in Savin's lap could be a disaster in the making. It's one reason I passed it off to my mother, the stress of keeping up the place too much to focus on. "How about this? I'll speak with Rhonda and see if she can't shoulder a few more responsibilities until you're ready, hmm?" Rhonda, a maid that's been with me since I was a kid, has offered a few times but I've never seen the need for it. Savin takes a moment and then nods, a comfortable silence settling between us, however, I'm not sure what we’re returning to with Savin on the cusp of his heat. His scent has evened out, much less potent than last night, but that doesn’t make me worry any less. “Will you be alright if I attend a meeting this afternoon? I can push it if we need to.”
“Yeah, I think there’s still some time before my heat. I’ve got ice cream, heat packs, and a huge fat cock to occupy me while you’re gone.” I raise an eyebrow, wondering what the fuck he’s talking about while trying not to laugh. He grins up at me. “The present you gave me for my birthday last year!”
This time it’s my cheeks feeling hot. I took him to a sex shop for his birthday last year, thinking he’d pick out a flogger or a blindfold. No, Savin was way more interested in the professional cast, one specifically meant to replicate an Alpha’s cock. Being measured was definitely one of the more embarrassing moments of my life but coming home every now and then, seeing that silicon stuffed up my mate’s ass makes it one of my more memorable presents.
“Well, leave some energy for when I get home. I’d hate for you to miss the real thing.”
Savin gifts me with his giggles, squeezing my hand. I nearly forget that he’s weathering his pain and if not for the way his scent fluctuates, I would forget entirely.
Chapter nineteen
ELLIE
Settled and stuffed with ice cream, I check the time, sighing as my alarm decides to go off at the same time. The butler said to show up around or after two and it's just past 1:45 pm so I dress in a pair of jeans and one of my big cotton shirts for comfort. I stretch, letting out a loud moan as my back pops, staring at myself in the hallway mirror as if I’m going to see a baby bump through my clothes. There’s nothing to show for it—why would there be—and yet the image of me cradling my stomach has my heart beating a little faster.
The added fantasy of Macon standing behind me as his hands rub the underside of my belly, Savin on his knees kissing my bare skin has me pressing my thighs together, my pussy aching for a good hard fuck. Running down the list of individuals I could call to satisfy that itch has me uneasy. Well, shit. I didn’t think that this mate thing would make it fucking impossible to go fuck someone else.
I pull out my phone, frantically doing some research about mate bonds, pregnancy, longing, and any other words I can think up, coming upon the realization that doing this without the Astors is going to be annoying.
Unless…