"Oh."

Oh, indeed.

Oh, I had claimed an omega with a body made for touch, with breasts that tasted like spun sugar and honey and beeswax, whose perfume was a secret only I knew, and who quaked and shuddered and cried my name as she came from me feasting on her breasts alone.

Oh, I had not even been inside her yet, and I was certain I would never be satisfied with another woman.

Oh, my rut was hours away, and I would spend every minute making Mairwen feel pleasure, just to know all the ways she might reach her peak.

I opened my eyes for one last dark and sacred look at her, all wet and rosy, dark curls soft and tight, and then I set upon her with an open, starving mouth and a long groan in my chest.

Her taste was insanity and salvation—sweet and tangy, as rich and heady as DeRoche's fine liquor. One lick, and I was both sated and insatiable. Mairwen's whimper was a siren call in my ear. She was too quiet. I liked her voice and I wanted it loud and often, calling my name, pleading and praising.

I burrowed my tongue inside of her and got a sharp curse instead, one that drew a laugh from me. Her hips bucked, and I held them tightly, stroking my tongue up between her folds, searching for⁠—

"Oh! Ronson! I-I⁠—"

I resisted my grin. Victory. I teased my tongue around her clit, cleaning and claiming her flavor. Every little inch of her was so subtly different. Mine to memorize.

Mine.

I snarled and sucked on the spot until Mairwen was thrashing in my grip and then took mercy on her. Her breath sobbed, and I lifted my head to find her with an arm thrown over her face.

"You're not watching," I said.

"I can't," she moaned. I frowned, but she continued before I could object, "It's too much. Too much to feel. I can't look too. Not yet."

She's inexperienced. This is new. My head cleared a little, and I rested my cheek against her stomach, purring as she stroked a trembling hand through my hair.

"Do you want me to stop?" Please say no.

Mairwen's breath hitched, and her tongue slipped out, wetting her lips. It wasn't fair that I couldn't have my mouth on every part of her all at once. My dragon would devour her if given the chance. I would have to try and keep my head on during the rut, or I might end up…I didn't know. I suffered some unnameable craving to sink my teeth into this woman and never release her.

Mairwen's hips lifted and nudged against my chin. "Don't stop," she whispered.

I grinned, and set to my work. I memorized her with kisses, acquainting her with my mouth, learning all her flavors, until she was soft and sighing, occasionally wiggling for more. I slid one hand around her thigh and dipped my finger inside of her. Tight and giving at the same time, squeezing my touch in eager greeting. So fucking hot and wet.

Mairwen moaned as I took her clit in a long, sloppy kiss, easing my finger inside of her slowly, patient when she tensed, stroking till she was sucking me in deeper.

"Did you ever put your fingers inside yourself, omega?" I called.

"N-no."

"Do you like mine in you?" I asked, plunging it in and out gently.

"Yes," she moaned, following the rhythm with a soft hitch of her hips.

"Do you want another? Want me to stretch you?" Please say yes. For both our sakes.

"Will-will you make me come?" she asked, voice trembling.

She was already starting to clench around my finger, and when I nipped a kiss on her clit she made a sweet sound, close to the edge.

"Always," I answered, lifting my head, delighted to find she was propped up on her elbows, watching me, eyes dark with arousal, cheeks and breasts flushed.

"Yes. I want more of you," she whispered.

I groaned and pressed my face between her legs, panting at the plea. I could tear open my trousers, thrust inside of her and give her everything. Take her mouth in a kiss and fuck her here on the old carpet until we were both limp and satisfied.

No. Not yet. Just another finger. To ready her. So she wouldn't be too surprised by how it felt when I was inside of her…when we finally⁠—

"Ronson?"

I clasped my lips around her clit before she could say anything else to drive me out of my mind, turned her gasp into a shout, and slowly worked in my second finger, pumping her steadily, stretching her with a little spreading gesture.

"Ronson! Oh! I—Alpha!"

My wings drummed in the air and I snarled, lashing my tongue across Mairwen's clit, moaning as her thighs clamped around my hands and face, a soft, muffling press around my ears that muted everything but her taste on my tongue and the clamp of her core on my fingers and the slightly faded sound of her calling my name, calling me alpha, crying out her release.

I kept at her, licking up every sweet drop of her, curling my fingers inside of her core, knowing the power I had over her, the same she had over me. Another, my dragon roared, and this time we'd have our way. Mairwen would come again. I would make her weak, destroy her with these touches, and I would cherish her in the wreckage.

I appreciated Mairwen's work on the nest more the second time I saw it, with her bundled in my arms, dressed in a rumpled chemise and my great coat. She was sleeping, or at least pretending, her thighs chafed from my beard, breasts still rosy and tender, lips swollen from hungry kisses.

"It really is perfect, omega," I whispered.

Her cheeks turned pink as I laid her on the mattress. She was awake after all. An insatiable maw in my chest roared back to life as I pulled my coat away, revealing her gentle shape on the bed beneath me. The sun was rising over the isle, a hazy sugared violet staining the sky around the coral-pink bud of morning, but I had no intention of greeting the day.

No more petty beta disputes. No more alpha politics.

I pulled the curtains of the nest shut and turned back to the lovely shadows beneath me.

"Lift your hips," I said, drawing Mairwen's chemise up her thighs.

She blinked drowsily up at me but obeyed. "We're not sleeping?"

"Not yet."

Mairwen sighed and remained limp as I carefully undressed her. "You're still fully dressed. Is it still your turn? You don't…you don't mean to have your turn all day, do you?"

"What a wonderful thought," I said, grinning.

"Because I only had a few hours that night. It wouldn't be fair. In fact, I think we're even and⁠—"

I shrugged out of my shirt, tossing it to the other side of the nest, and then dove down, muting Mairwen's speech with a firm kiss. She squirmed beneath me, not for escape but for closeness, tugging her legs out from under me to wrap around my waist, arching into my chest and nuzzling closer, parting her lips. I pulled my mouth from hers, digging my fingers into soft, cool sheets when she whined in complaint.

"No more turns, Mairwen. The rut is close. Tomorrow, I think." I grazed my mouth over her cheekbones, and she sighed. "All I want is for you and I to⁠—"

Knock, knock, knock.

Mairwen barked out a sudden bright trill of laughter at the interruption—such a delightful, genuine sound that it managed to distract me from the immediate rage that tried to storm through me. She covered her giggle with her hand as I sat up, and I groaned at the sight of her breasts bouncing.

"Ronson—"

"Fucking no, Niall," I snarled in answer.

"There's a fire spreading from one of the estates toward the village," Niall called through the door.