Page 18 of The Dragon's Omega
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 and a 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?”