Page 42 of Shattered Trinket
Jeremiah stands quietly behind me, his presence steady and reassuring, patient as he waits. Opening the door at last, I step inside, my hand still firmly held by his, and he gracefully climbs in after me, bending slightly to fit through the entrance. Once he’s fully inside, I stand in front of him nervously, my body tense and my hands fidgeting.
“You brought me into your nest,” he whispers, stunned, as he looks around us.
“Is that… Is this okay?”
“Silly Omega,” he whispers, repeating my words from a few moments ago back at me as he shakes his head with a soft smile, and I bite my thumb nail as I look up at him.
“Can we, um, maybe cuddle in here? I mean, we don’t have to. I just figured we’d be safe in here, and I just put it all together earlier, so I wanted to see if I… did it right. I don’t—” Jeremiah’s hand covers my lips, effectively cutting off my anxious rambling, and I glance up at him with wide eyes.
He’s smiling down at me, his grin so wide that I can’t help the way my heart flutters. I can’t get over how tranquil his features become when he smiles like this. So unburdened and relaxed.
“I would love nothing more than to cuddle with you in your nest, sweet girl. Anything you want, it’s yours if you ask.”
His hand falls away, and I smile happily up at him, my body relaxing as I eagerly lead him to the makeshift fort I constructed. Once he climbs in behind me and we’re seated, I steal a shy glance at him, but quickly bite my lip to hide the frown trying to form.
Something isn’t quite… right.
With his knees tucked up and arms casually draped on top, Jeremiah’s face lights up with an amused grin as his eyes seem to catch on to everything when it comes to me and what I’m feeling or thinking.
“Something on your mind, Dove?”
“I-I don’t know,” I mutter in frustration, balling my fists up in my lap and groaning.
The feeling of inadequacy tries to creep in as embarrassment at not knowing what it is that I need threatens to send me hiding to escape. Jeremiah hums before he inches closer to me, skillfully positioning himself so that I find myself nestled between his legs with my back resting against his chest. With a slight hunch to compensate for our height difference, he molds his body against mine as he rests his chin on my shoulder, wrapping his arms around me and holding me so tightly that it feels like we’re one entity.
“Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and pay attention to what your instincts are telling you,” he whispers in my ear before sweetly pecking me on the cheek, and I listen to him.
My eyes flutter shut, and I draw in a long breath, capturing the intoxicating fusion of his scent and mine swirling around us, adding to the already electrically charged atmosphere as I searchfor clarity. With my sight momentarily blacked out, everything else feels heightened, and my heart threatens to pound right out of my chest as the sensation of his breaths against my neck distracts me. Suddenly, all I can think about is what it’d feel like if he just moved a little closer and pressed his lips against the sensitive skin.
I clear my throat, mentally shaking those thoughts from my head, and remind myself I’m supposed to be figuring out what’s bothering me now that I have Jeremiah in my nest.
Shifting around, I attempt to get myself more comfortable. My brows furrow when I unintentionally brush against Jeremiah’s denim covered groin, hard and unyielding at my back, and I freeze, nearly swallowing my tongue. He lets out a groan in my ear that has my mind conjuring up so many dirty things—things I’ve never before thought about—and I can feel my entire body flush as I hastily squeeze my knees together when my panties become so wet they’re practically sticking to me. With my eyes squeezed tight, I fight to control my body as it threatens to send me into a perfuming tailspin, my lips tightening and my nose wrinkling in concentration.
Jeremiah’s chest shakes at my back, pulling me from my mental battle with my traitorous body, and my eyes pop open. Surprising not only him, but myself, I quickly whip my head around to glare at him. As he rolls his lips between his teeth, trying to stifle his laughter, a faint growl, reminiscent of a tiny feral kitten, escapes me. My eyes widen as my hand instinctively slaps over my lips, shocked.
What the heck wasthat?
Jeremiah’s eyes glint with a feral intensity that makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over for a split second before I find myself flat on my back, his commanding presence overpowering me as his fingers encircle my wrists. My mouth goes dry and my lips part as I stare up at him, his intense gaze causing a surge ofemotions to riot within me, and I can’t help but notice that his grip on my wrists is loose while he keeps his body hovering over mine instead of holding me down with his body weight like he so easily could. It’s calculated, and it gives me a sense of reassurance and the ability to free myself if necessary, only proving to me more that this man is nothing like what people perceive him to be. And I find that I don’t want to move, not even a little, because Iknowhe’ll never intentionally hurt me. I know that like I know, he’d remove himself from this world permanently if he ever did.
Lying here on my nest floor, this scarred and heavily tattooed alpha with eyes that remind me of a clear blue sky resting above me, seeingme, I’m feeling a lot of things. A lot of things I’ve never felt for another person but hoped I someday would. I can’t tear my gaze away from the intense blue of his eyes, which seem to hold me captive as they release me from the heavy chains of fear and trauma that have shackled me for so long.
In this alpha’s arms, in his presence, I can unburden my pain and mental turmoil because he has taken on so much of it already without complaint or asking for anything in return except for my happiness.
Time and time again, he has been there for me, wiping away my tears and banishing my sorrow.
In my moments of deepest shame, he saw the strength within me that even I couldn’t see and treated me with the dignity Victor denied me.
Despite how much I could see it hurt him, he has bathed the blood from my skin and tended to my physical wounds, promising me that I’d never bleed again once he freed me.
He has pulled me from Death’s door—more than once—and nursed me back to health as best he could, vowing I’d see the sky and feel the grass and dirt beneath my feet again no matter the cost.
To free me from a cage I never should have been imprisoned in, he fearlessly faced the Devil, showing no regard for his own well-being.
And as much as I wish he had been my savior that day, I would never have been able to forgive him or myself if Victor had killed him. If he had died that day, I know without a doubt it would have caused me irreparable damage. I don’t think Ripley would have ever gotten the chance to save me if I’d had to bear witness to him being taken from me permanently, because I doubt I would have survived it. The mere thought of him not being in this world—of us not getting this moment or any moment we may have in the future—is enough to send me into a complete meltdown.
Jeremiah is deeply ingrained in my soul. He delicately weaved fragments of his own heart into mine, meticulously repairing the wounds left behind by another’s cruel actions every time he was there to pick me back up off the cage floor. Now, as I gaze into those captivating blue eyes that have haunted my dreams for more than a year, one thought echoes through my mind, undeniably clear.
I never asked for this man, but he is mine.