“Do you do that often?” Adrien asked. “Breed omegas?”

“No, only twice before.”

“So you have children?”

“There was a miscarriage, and the other didn’t take from the start.” Heath grimaced. He didn’t like thinking about both failed attempts. One had been

taken on with the poorest of motivations, as revenge against one of Nathan’s betrayals—the bloody, awful miscarriage had seemed proper punishment for his pettiness. Luckily, the omega was still fertile and had delivered a healthy child to another alpha at his next heat. And the other breeding attempt had been instigated in his youth, a folly of infatuation with an omega he’d met just days before a heat. They’d both been lucky a child hadn’t ripened.

Good God, he was a romantic fool. His life was a series of passionate mistakes. This time, for once, he’d keep his heart out of it. Transactional.

He’d trade a soothing knot for the pain of growing a child and a pile of money for a piece of Nathan back in his arms.

Adrien drank more water and then whimpered, leaning back against the pillow and shuddering all over. Heath took the water glass from him and put it aside on the nightstand. It was clear Adrien had more questions, but the next heat wave was coming over him quickly.

“Don’t talk now. Save it for later. Rest and get ready.”

Adrien quivered and stared up at Heath with round, frightened eyes. “I don’t want it. It’s too much.”

Heath wrapped an arm around Adrien’s body, holding him in place, and then pushed down the blankets to expose his flushed body and already dripping cock. The scent of pre-cum floated up to Heath, and he licked his lips in anticipation.

“It only gets more intense from here on out,” Heath whispered. “Stop resisting, little one. Give in to the ride.”

Adrien cried out, his body jerking as he struggled against the rising tide of uncompromising lust. Heath kissed his throat, his cheek, his clavicles, and then sucked a nipple into his mouth.

Adrien squirmed and bucked, the understandable fear of an inexperienced omega trying to hold onto sanity during his first heat clearly gripping him.

Heath rolled on top of Adrien, firmly gripping his wrists and holding them above his head.

“Give in,” Heath barked. “Ride it. If you fight, it will only become monstrous.”

Adrien started to sob, tears running down his face, as he tried to escape the inevitability of what was to come. “Help me,” he whispered between gasping breaths. “Please. Make it stop.”

“It’s not going to stop,” Heath said firmly, using his own hips to push

Adrien’s slick-wet thighs apart. “Accept it. It won’t stop.”

Adrien shoved and kicked, trying to get away, but Heath knew it was really the heat he fought against.

Heath released one arm, enduring pummels as he pried the plug from Adrien’s ass and then positioned himself to shove inside. But before he did, he paused and said, “I’m ready to help you, little one, but you have to tell me you want my help.”

“Yes, please. Help me.”

“That means I fuck you. Understand? I fuck and knot you, and it helps.”

“Please,” Adrien begged, tears running down his face. “Just make it stop.”

“I can’t.” Heath tried again, finding it hard to reach the boy in his fear-soaked panic. “But I can make it better.”

“Make it better. Fuck me, please.”

Heath thrust inside, aiming to hit Adrien’s prostate, and was gratified by the immediate orgasm that shook Adrien’s body and spurted wetly between them.

“That’s the only way this gets better,” Heath said again, fucking into Adrien with long, hard strokes. “Submit to it. Learn to love it.” He growled with pleasure and added, “You’re an omega. It’s your lot in life.”

Adrien shuddered and came again, his eyes shining with tears and lust, the heat taking him over, body and soul.

“That’s a good boy.”

Chapter Six

ADRIEN CLIMAXED FOR what felt like the hundredth time. He shook with exhaustion as the bliss of orgasm fizzled out again. He was relieved to feel Heath’s knot growing inside him and relaxed as the bulbous bulge locked them together and stilled the thrusts against his prostate.

He shuddered and gulped in breaths, tears still sliding down his cheeks, as he finally calmed on Heath’s knot. It was almost peaceful, save for the soft orgasms that continued to wring him out as the knot pressed relentlessly against his prostate.

Heath murmured soft words of praise and hushed him. Adrien’s mind gelled slowly, coming back from the shattered space of lust and firing nerves that encompassed the rounds of heat.

Heath kissed Adrien’s neck and cheek, holding him still as their bodies subsided from the relentless drive. “You’re doing wonderfully,” he whispered. “Has anyone ever told you how handsome you are? How delicious?”

“I’ve never done any of this before,” Adrien reminded him, feeling pulpy, broken open, and vulnerable as all hell.

“I’m honored to be the first to see your pleasure and hold your pain.”

Heath sounded a little awed, and Adrien didn’t know what to make of that.

Moreover, he didn’t understand why heats had to be like this—so much pleasure that it bled into pain, and so much pain that it turned to pleasure—

but he knew that going through it with Heath wasn’t as bad as he’d secretly feared. For that, he was grateful.

“You’re handsome, too,” Adrien admitted, softly. “Strong. Firm.

Commanding.” Remembering how Heath had ordered him to ride the heat, to submit, sent a shiver through him that quickly became another orgasm.

“We’ll create a strong, well-made child together,” Heath declared.

His weight on Adrien’s was a calming balm; it locked him down in place, held him to the bed, and kept him from vanishing into the heat itself.

Heath twitched his hips, and Adrien dug his nails into Heath’s shoulders,

groaning as the movement shattered him again. He felt so raw, so exposed, and Heath’s eyes didn’t leave his face for a minute, gobbling up every expression and nuance of feeling. Adrien had never been so seen in his life.

“Your pleasure is beautiful,” Heath said, and it seemed like the words almost hurt him. He rested his head on the pillow beside to Adrien, his breath puffing against Adrien’s ear.

“Why did you choose me?” Adrien asked, finally, after they’d lain together for a few minutes in silent calm.

Heath hummed a non-answer.

“I’m not worth what you paid. There has to be another reason.”

Heath gripped Adrien harder, thrust into him a bit more, and, once Adrien had come back down from the resulting sharp-edged orgasm, he chuckled when Adrien accused him of distraction from the question.

“Why did you choose me?” Adrien insisted, still panting and sweating from the last catapult into bliss. “Tell me. Lie if you have to, but I deserve an answer.”

“Lies are a waste of everyone’s time,” Heath said darkly. “I chose you for personal reasons, and that’s all you need to know about that.”

Adrien would have liked to argue, but his skin started prickling and burning again. He went very still, fighting it.

“What did I tell you before?” Heath muttered.

“Don’t fight it.”

“That’s right.”

“But your knot’s not even down yet,” Adrien whined, squeezing around it in hopes that another orgasm might delay the oncoming round of heat. He shuddered and ached, but didn’t get relief. “How can it be here so soon?”

Heath grunted. “You’re going to have to trust me on this, but get on top so you can clench on my knot more easily.”

He rolled them until Adrien was on top, straddling his thighs, his knot still holding them tied together. “Squeeze and rock,” Heath said, as Adrien’s chest flushed and his cheeks glowed with renewed need. “Don’t fight it.

Welcome it. Make it your own.”

Adrien tipped his head back and groaned as he tried to do as Heath instructed. The rising heat didn’t seem so demanding this time, and he hoped it would stay manageable. Otherwise, he’d be a mess, pinned on Heath’s knotted cock and unable to reach satisfaction. He rocked on Heath, rotating