Bewitched, p.17
Bewitched, page 17
She didn’t have the words for it. ‘Fucking’ sounded so crude, and ‘mating’ wasn’t better. She didn’t know how to describe the heat of the moment, holding each other like they meant more than life itself.
“Having sex?” Kaiser supplied.
Layla grimaced but nodded. “I asked him to bite me. I asked, but I didn’t mean… I didn’t want… what did I do?”
Kaiser held her tighter and buried his nose in her hair like her father used to do.
“I’m still crying. Damnit.” She wiped at the tears on her cheeks, trying to dry them.
“Shhh,” Kaiser shushed and rocked her.
“You are doing very good, Layla. You’re helping so much,” Warren said.
She wasn’t. She wasn’t doing anything. It was all so confusing, and she needed it to stop. Layla lifted her head. “What happened to me?!”
She started sobbing harder, and that made her even more upset because she wasn’t even sad, just so overwhelmed and confused and exhausted.
Warren set his notebook aside and looked her in the eyes. It was a doctor’s look, not that of a fellow omega. “I’m not sure yet. Your medication failed to prevent a breakout heat. Your body attempted to produce enough hormones to override the suppressant and flooded your system, causing heat sickness and an aggressive reaction in the alphas around you.”
“Not all alphas reacted aggressively,” Kaiser said. “Bryson never… my father. Jaxon was never aggressive when I had a breakout. It was just Hera.”
Layla opened her eyes. “Rolland was nice to me. And so was Georgia. Raina was… off, but Garret was the first alpha to attack me.”
Warren stared at the ceiling for a moment. “It could be compatibility. If Harlow didn’t react to you, Kaiser, but he reacted to Layla, then there must be something within their physiology that calls to each other. And the alpha that reacted to you was your sister. Not many alphas are more compatible than those sharing biological markers. I am sorry.”
Kaiser rubbed his face. “I should have stopped that medication immediately.”
“Why didn’t you?” Warren asked.
“I didn’t want to,” Kaiser said with a near growl.
Layla curled into herself, and Kaiser cursed.
There was a soft knock at the door, and Nora stuck her head in. “Hello there, how is everyone?”
Warren stood up and began to pack his bag. “We’re good, Nora. It’s alright. I have everything I need, but Miss Layla, if you want to talk, I am always available. Or if you remember something that seems important. I do only want to help.”
His soft brown eyes were compassionate, but she was so tired. Layla looked away.
“Kaiser,” Warren said. “I don’t believe it would have mattered if you remained on Omerex or not. All it needed was the first heat to draw you two close. There was no escaping it afterward.”
Kaiser looked at the bedspread, deep in thought.
Warren whispered something to his partner, and Nora nodded.
Layla watched her pull a syringe and a vial of clear liquid out of her bag. Nora sat down on the bed. “We need to talk about a contraceptive.”
Layla’s stomach tightened. “Oh.” She laid a hand over her stomach and the slightly bloated swell. It wasn’t a pup yet, but it wanted to be. Did she want pups? Did she want pups with Jaxon?
She didn’t know. She couldn’t think. She wanted her Alpha. She didn’t want to think about any of this. More tears threatened.
“Miss Layla, we don’t know what will happen to a fetus under the influence of your medication. I don’t want to pressure you into a decision, but it is easier to stop this now rather than later,” Nora said.
Layla swallowed down the tears. No pups or maybe sick pups. “Hera’s pups were fine, weren’t they?”
“Hera Sorreto was an alpha; though she was the birth parent, she wasn’t under the same physical effects from the medication as you are,” Nora explained patiently.
She closed her eyes. “Fine, okay. Just do it.”
Kaiser curled over her and kept his hands close to her face, letting his honeysuckle scent soothe her as Nora worked quickly and efficiently at pulling up her sleeve and pressing the needle into her skin.
Layla kept her eyes closed and pressed her forehead into Kaiser’s neck as Nora finished up and pulled the blankets over her legs. She didn’t want to cry anymore. She was so damn tired.
Nora’s voice was low. “Thank you. You did so well.”
Layla nodded and curled up under the covers.
Nora patted her shoulder before leaving the room.
She just wanted to sleep again. Kaiser slid under the blankets with her and pulled Layla close.
She chewed on her lip and let Kaiser fuss over her, covering the scents of Warren, Nora, and Jaxon with his own. Compulsively parental, just like he probably was with all of his pups — all his pups with Hera.
She glanced up at Kaiser, worry eating at her. “What happened to Hera?”
Kaiser sucked in a long breath and stared at the wall over her head. The memory had to hurt. Just as it ached to think of Jaxon leaving her but she had to know. There were so many secrets about her, all the things everyone left unsaid.
“When we were caught, we were separated,” Kaiser said. “They tried to break our bond, and it worked, eventually. They put me on a different suppressant, and I didn’t have a breakout heat again, but it didn’t matter. I was hers, and she was mine. Hera was just so angry and enraged. She hated me, or she loved me. I don’t know. I really don’t. She still sought me out like it was a compulsion. She couldn’t stay away, and I didn’t want to make her.” He stopped talking and then pulled Layla tighter into his chest. “She killed herself.”
Layla gasped, and her heart ached for him.
“She left a letter — to Bryson and to me. She said she couldn’t stay away from me. She thought she was hurting me, forcing me into this relationship with her. She wasn’t. She was my Alpha. I don’t — I don’t know what she was thinking.”
Layla squeezed him tighter. She tried to imagine what it would be like to leave Jaxon. Just the thought of being separated from him made her heart clench and her stomach ache. But what if he no longer wanted her? What if her mother took her away?
Layla glanced up at him.
Tears shined in his eyes. “I love Georgia. She’s a wonderful person, a good alpha, but it isn’t the same. If I had a choice — if that choice hadn’t been taken from me. It would always be Hera.”
Chapter 18
Layla lifted her head as she heard a knock on the front door. Her nose was buried in Roan’s silky curls, breathing in his winter snow scent. He had bullied his way back into the room after Nora had left, and though he couldn’t purr, he sure could growl loud enough to keep Jaxon exiled to the living room.
Roan had put her and Kaiser to bed, covering them and curling up over the covers to keep them warm. Kaiser and Layla clung to each other deep in their own misery while Roan remained a warm sentinel over them.
Layla might have slept, but she wasn’t sure. Time was a messy, bloated thing that didn’t make much sense anymore. Logically, she knew that she had only been gone for a few days, that her dorm room was still packed with her things, and that Helena might be worried but wouldn’t be quite concerned yet. But it still felt like it had been forever since she had seen the omega dorms, and she felt like if she went back now, she would find her things rotted away to dust.
Her chest bloomed with anger, and Layla winced. Through the closed door, she heard Jaxon’s raised voice, and Roan growled.
There were more voices, higher pitched, louder.
Layla whimpered.
“That’s Georgia,” Kaiser said and quickly left the bed.
Layla shuddered. She didn’t want to go out there, not while Jaxon was angry, but the argument was about her. It was always about her now. She’d rather go back to being ignored and unimportant, living her small life going to school and thinking about parties but never actually attending them. She actually missed homework. At least homework was something normal, something she was used to and knew how to deal with.
Roan followed Kaiser, and Layla reluctantly got to her feet to follow them both.
They arrived at the living room to find a tense standoff between Georgia and Jaxon.
Georgia was standing tall in her blue suit. Her blazer was loose enough to hide a weapon like she had seen Mina wear so many times. It wasn’t a good sign.
“She’s not going anywhere,” Jaxon said.
Georgia stood straighter, attempting to look taller. “They aren’t taking her from you, but her father is demanding to see to her safety.”
Layla hugged herself. Her father was here. Her Alpha. Not that he really counted as her Alpha. Her mother had never allowed it. Any hint of omega instinct was stomped out quickly and redirected to a perfectly beta response.
She didn’t know what to do now, with every alpha releasing a heavy scent of aggression. She didn’t want another fight, but she didn’t have the energy to step into the middle and stop them again.
Layla whimpered.
Jaxon growled automatically and whipped his head around to look at her. She took a step back, disturbed by the aching rage in her chest, all of it coming from him. He shoved his way past Kaiser and Roan, grabbing her arm before she could retreat, and his rage immediately calmed at the contact.
Layla tensed, trying to process the emotional whiplash, but she sank into his embrace as he tugged her closer, giving in at an alarmingly quick speed. He sniffed at her hair and rumbled in a half-purr, half-growl. She couldn’t tell whether he was truly angry, and really, she was too exhausted to untangle it.
Jaxon wiped his wrist across her cheek, and she flicked out her tongue to taste him, bringing his cinnamon-spiced pheromones into her mouth. She felt like she had gone too long without.
Jaxon hummed in approval. “I don’t have to do anything,” he told Georgia.
Holden grunted in agreement and beckoned Roan closer to his side. Roan reluctantly slinked away from Layla and fell into place under Holden’s hand.
Kaiser remained resolutely between the two tense alphas.
“If you don’t see them, they threatened to call the police,” Georgia said.
“Call them!” Jaxon snapped, and Layla flinched. He turned back to her and rubbed the scent gland on her neck. “Shh, kitten.”
“They don’t know about your brother,” Clover said. He was leaning against the damaged front door. “Or Garret. What you did is within your rights, but that takes time to untangle, and you’ll sit in a cell until they do.”
Jaxon growled, and Layla felt sick. She didn’t want to be away from Jaxon. Not so soon, not now. Panic crawled up her throat, choking her. She tapped her fingers rapidly on Jaxon’s arm, and he brushed her hair back from her face. Even then, his soothing scent and touch weren’t working, the fear too great an obstacle.
Roan sighed. “I’ll go down. I smell like her enough that it should keep Dad calm for a while. I don’t know about Shera.”
“That won’t hold them for long,” Georgia said. “Shera Nash is threatening legal action anyway. I knew this would end badly.”
“Georgia,” Kaiser admonished.
Layla could feel her breath slipping away with each attempt to fill her lungs. Air stuck in her nostrils, barely getting further than her throat. They were going to take her away. Her father had every reason to act the alpha and demand her return. Her mother would see to it. Layla would never leave her house again, trapped under her mother’s authority as much as she was trapped under Jaxon’s.
She was barely allowed out into the world the first time. Shera had always been afraid that Layla would be stolen—that’s exactly what happened. Oh gods, she was stolen. Her mother had been right in the worst way. Layla could have remained with her parents and could have been safe at home all this time, and none of this would have happened. But she’d be miserable and lonely and slowly dying—
“Omega,” Jaxon whispered. “Breathe.”
There was a Command behind his words, and for once, she was grateful for it. With his permission, she could fill her lungs, and her head cleared to a low buzz instead of a screaming roar.
Georgia growled.
Jaxon patted Layla’s cheek, “Good girl.”
“It’ll never stick,” Kaiser interrupted. “No court would separate a mated pair.”
Jaxon tried to tip Layla’s head up to look into her face, but everything sort of swam in and out of focus. She tried to concentrate on the grey pools where his eyes should be, but everything kept getting fuzzy and seemed like a blur.
Georgia huffed. “It doesn’t matter what sticks. It’s the shitshow they are trying to stir anyway.”
Georgia was right. They were going to take her away. Shera wouldn’t stop until her daughter was separated from Jaxon. Layla’s stomach was still crawling up her throat, roiling unhappily. Layla squeezed her Alpha’s wrist. “I’m going to be sick.”
Jaxon grimaced, releasing her, and Layla ran for the bathroom.
She fell to her knees in front of the toilet and emptied her stomach.
Jaxon yelled at Georgia and Clover, cursing and growling, and Layla listened to the whole host of guests shuffle out of the apartment. She wished the omegas could have stayed, but she didn’t have any right to their time.
Layla slumped to the floor, laying her forehead against the cool tile. She was hot and weak, sweat beading on her forehead. She tried to shove down the fear, lock it away so she could concentrate, but she could only think of her father’s disappointment and her mother’s wild anger.
They would hate her so much for taking a mate like this, going into heat, being a whore. They probably already did.
Shera Nash was going to be a wild animal. The same way she always was when omegas did anything outside her worldview. Layla had learned to live within it, but she couldn’t any longer. Jaxon would never allow it.
The bathroom door swung open, and Jaxon stood before her. She turned slightly to see him fully, spreading herself out over the cool tile as she did. He looked tired, too. It was the first time she really looked at him like this, assessing more than his mood. There was bruising under his eyes from exhaustion and not Axel’s fists, but those had done a number on his health, too. The skin of his chest was mottled green, purple, and blue between his tattoos. This week had been stressful for him as well. He had spent the last several days caring for her with little sleep and less sustenance.
Layla had not helped in the least, and she was still unsure how she felt about that, about how this mating came to be, beginning in violence. She hoped it wouldn’t end that way.
Jaxon sat on the floor beside her, dropping heavily onto his butt. He felt her forehead with his palm. “You alright?”
She grimaced. “I don’t like bacon anymore.”
He chuckled, stroking her back.
She reached for his closest body part, touching his foot and wrapping her hand around his ankle when he didn’t protest. His skin was soft and thin under her fingers. “We have to go down there,” she said.
He ran his fingernails down her back, lightly scratching between her shoulder blades. She could feel his frustration in her chest, smell it in the air like burning rubber. “We can let them rot.”
“They’re my parents,” she argued.
“They’re nothing to me,” he said blandly, a statement of fact.
Layla cringed and looked away. She loved her parents. They had raised her and cared for her and loved her all these long years, and this is how she repaid them, by being stolen and wanting to remain stolen. She wanted to reject everything her parents raised her to be and live with the alpha who kidnapped her off the street and bred her — mated her.
She was awful.
Jaxon slid his hand to the back of her neck, squeezing lightly. “Whatever you are thinking, kitten, enough.”
Her lip trembled, and her eyes blurred with tears. She sat up and scooted closer to him, and Jaxon quickly scooped her into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her hard, exactly the way she liked, and she tucked her face into his vibrating chest.
He readily nuzzled at her exposed mating gland, still swollen and sore from his numerous bites. He was going to bite her again; she could feel it in the bond they shared and in the scent of arousal leaching into his natural smell.
Layla shivered. Arousal licked languidly along her nerves, stirring her blood. She wanted him to bite her, flood her body with want for him. Arousal and need and dripping wet desire. She wanted him to make her feel it.
Jaxon licked at her neck, teeth pressing into her skin, but never where she wanted him. His large hand slid under her shirt to stroke her bare skin, finding a breast to cup and squeeze. He rolled her nipple between his fingers softly until it peaked, and then he pinched.
She whimpered and opened her mouth against his chest, pressing her teeth into him through his shirt. He groaned and finally bit at her mating gland, forcing a flood of chemicals into her bloodstream.
Layla squealed and wiggled in his grasp. She was wet and dripping. Not the wet sliding slick of her heat, but the normal wetness that gathered when she touched herself at night, a light tingling that was familiar and comfortable.
Her nipples tingled, and her core ached, two dueling points of an itch she couldn’t quite scratch. She spread her legs wide around him and tried to grind down on his thick cock, but she couldn’t sit still enough to work her cunt against him. She needed more.
She pressed her forehead against his chest and lifted her hips. She reached for her core, sliding her hand under the waistband of her leggings and dipping into the wetness gathered between her legs. She touched her clit, swollen with blood and sore from days of stimulation, but she couldn’t stop now.
Jaxon growled in her ear. “Didn’t I tell you not to touch yourself?”
Her hand stilled. He had said that when her heat first began, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Disappointment clenched her chest, but she couldn’t tell where her emotions ended and Jaxon’s began. “I’m not in heat.”
