"Ohhh, but you do," I purred, leaning down, swallowing the saliva that gathered as I pressed my lips across her bare shoulder. "A perfect, rich, drugging perfume. One I want to drown in, that makes me mad to touch you." I flexed my hips, and Mairwen gasped, a new flood of perfume bursting in the air and against my grazing mouth.

"But I-I never⁠—"

"I'm learning all the ways to draw it out, omega," I rumbled in her ear, grinning at her answering shiver. "I covet every note of your scent. I want it coating me, and I want to keep it a secret, never let any beta or another alpha get a whiff."

"Ronson," she breathed, eyes falling shut and body rocking back against me, slick core sucking at my knot and stiffening my cock.

"On your knees, Mairwen," I rasped, but I didn't give her a chance to obey, already gripping her hips, rolling her onto her belly and pulling her up. My wings brushed against the walls of the nest, not as wide as my dragon's but twice as broad as usual. Mairwen was fastened firmly to me, my knot lodged deep, and she cried out into the pillows as I thrust forward, digging and rubbing my knot inside of her.

"You smell sweetest as you come for your alpha, omega," I snarled, the haze rising again, the rut claiming my voice and mind. "I want my prize. I want to slake myself on your scent."

Mairwen's perfume bloomed, brighter and thicker than ever, her legs and hands sliding in the sheets of the nest, her voice high and pleading. Pleading for relief, release. For me. Her alpha.

"What day is it?"

"It's been… No, I lost track ages ago."

"I need⁠—"

"Yes. Yes, yes, yes."

"Closer, more."

"Alpha!"

I shuddered, my teeth clamped around my omega's shoulder, something like venom burning on my tongue.

Bite. Claim. Mine.

Mairwen whimpered, thrashing slightly in my grip.

"Hurts," she whispered.

Unclenching my jaw stung, as if my teeth had been bound closed with barbed wire I had to tear through in order to release the skin I'd tried to make a meal of.

Fang's fire, what is wrong with me?

I blinked, horrified and hungry in equal measure, staring at the imprint of my bite in Mairwen's smooth shoulder. I hadn't broken the skin, but it was a near thing, and already dark blue and purple blood vessels were bursting under her flesh.

A lie of a mark.

I shook myself and tried to pull away, realizing too late I was knotted in Mairwen. Her head tossed back and she shouted, and now her frantic movements were made of need, not nerves.

"So…so hot." Her hands slid over my chest, pushing me down into the mattress, and she rode me with that sweetly unpracticed urgency that made me buck in answer.

I reached for her cheek, drawing her gaze to mine and finding her stare glassy and absent. Her skin was burning under my touch, feverish, and I tried to sit up but was shoved firmly back in place. Her mouth hung open, breaths panting and whining.

"I need—I need⁠—"

The truth reached me slowly, my head foggy from lack of sleep and food and anything but Mairwen's touch.

I'd put my omega in heat.

Pride pushed aside any lingering guilt at her bruised skin and anxious movements. I growled and rocked up, and Mairwen trembled above me as pleasure seized her. A heat.

An alpha's rut came every decade, an echo of the first mating urge we'd feel not long after taking our place as lead dragon, but omega heats were rare blessings, an equally matched biological demand for breeding. My father had called in quack doctors and supposed wise men, searching for some kind of recipe, a set of instructions, to put his omegas into heat. The truth was, no one knew what it took other than an alpha's pheromones, and most of the time even that didn't work.

"You need my knot," I said to Mairwen, licking my lips and ignoring another insane urge to bite her as her breasts bounced with her movements.

"Yes!"

"My cock."

"More, I need—Oh, alpha!"

I gripped her hips, rolling her into the bed and bracing myself above her, giving into the ruthless thrusts I'd been craving. Mairwen's eyes widened, her hands and feet scrambling in the sheets as she arched to meet my body.

"Yes, yes, yes! More!"

A triumphant laugh broke through my snarl. If only the island could see us now, beastly needs and bruised, weak bodies, still striving for more. Mairwen was a perfect omega, lusty and lush and so, so sweet, and they'd all failed to see.

I dove down, suckling on her breasts, and her hands dove into my hair, clinging to hold me closer.

"More, alpha," she whined, locking her legs around my hips. "I need more."

I woke to the sound of knocking and snarled at the interruption, drawing Mairwen's body tight to my chest.

"Ronson, are you alive?" Niall's voice called through the wood.

"Leave," I called back, my voice rough and crackling.

His voice muttered something inaudible, but his steps retreated with a final parting shot of, "It's been three weeks."

I ought to have been startled by the news. Even my first rut hadn't lasted a full two weeks. But I was too tired to be anything at all. Anything but…

I skimmed my hand over Mairwen's side, sighing as I found her skin warm but not scorching. Her heat had broken. My rut had settled. We were free from the breeding urges at last.

After three weeks.

My lips curved, and the tired skin burned as they stretched. Mairwen wasn't the only one sporting the wear and tear of the rut now. Her heat had drained me of my last reserves. I'd fucked her until my cock refused to last, suckled at her clit until my jaw locked up, and then given her my fingers until my body could rouse once more.

Insatiable omega.

Mairwen was entirely limp in my hold, not stirring at Niall's call or my touch, and it took me a few minutes of her stillness for panic to creep into my head.

It wasn't unheard of for a delicate omega to not survive an alpha's appetites in a rut, but⁠—

I groaned as I sat up, every inch of my body protesting, and my breath froze in my chest at the picture of the woman on the bed. The wreckage of a woman. Mairwen was covered in love bites, some much closer to a bite than a kiss. I scowled at the marks, baffled and shamed at the recollection of how badly I'd wanted to really mark her, tear through her flesh. Her hair was a terrible mess, a little greasy but mostly snarled into impossible tangles. I picked up one slightly matted lock, ignoring the tired burn of my eyes, and set to work on repairing the mess I'd made of my omega.

If only I could quit smiling and feeling so damned pleased with myself at the same time.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Twenty-OneMAIRWEN

Iscreeched, jerking awake in a sudden shock of frigid water, splashing and flailing.

"Steady, steady. There you are."

My body shuddered and sagged reflexively at the purred words, settling back against a warm chest, thick arms banded around my waist, holding me upright in the churning sea.

"I was getting worried," Ronson said, leaning down and nuzzling against my cheek.