“Was my last punishment not enough?”

“It was.” Everything felt shrunken next to him; her body, her voice, her will. But she held his gaze, refusing to break it.

He jutted his chin toward the vast sands behind her. “Then was my last threat attractive to you? Maybe you think I won’t do it.”

Naya’s breath caught in her throat. When she last ran, he’d threatened to break her hip. “I know you will.”

“And yet you are having thoughts about evading me.” He leaned over, bracing his hands on the edge of the cart, his face dark.

“No. I misspoke. We made an agreement and I intend to honor it.”

That still didn’t please him. His anger carried on his scent, turning it acrid and harsh. Even though the wind blustered most of his scent away, he was so close that Naya couldn’t help but be impacted by it. An Alpha’s aggression always put others on edge, and as an Omega, the urge to appease was strong. Still, Naya had no intention of displaying any submissive behavior in front of him. He might be her Alpha physically, but nothing more. They couldn’t be more different.

“Good. You can prove your commitment to our agreement.” He leaned in to touch the front of the cart again. Her dome reappeared, but this time it covered a wider boundary and he was inside it.

Naya stiffened and pushed back as far as she could, every inch of her body on high alert that she was trapped inside with him. “What—“ She swallowed the question. “Tell me how I can do that.”

The dome retained his scent, but its sharp aggression had changed, turned richer, heavier, needier. It tugged on Naya’s instincts, hooking the urges she’d when she’d first scented him and tried to drag them to the surface.

“Sit against that wall.” Using his chin again, he gestured to the opposite wall of the cart.

Naya moved over, eager to do whatever he wanted so he would leave the dome. His rousing scent was already influencing her.

“Get that cushion and sit on it.”

Once she’d done that, he leaned over the edge of the cart again. “Open your legs.”

Her eyes widened. “What… I-I thought⁠—“

“Your other choice is a broken hip. And I won’t allow that to heal.”

Naya drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, clinging tight. He wasn’t giving her a choice at all. “You agreed you wouldn’t touch me.”

“You just broke that agreement. It doesn’t apply.”

Naya peered up at him. His eyes shone and the thickening arousal in his scent was a warning, but it was getting harder to think.

“Open your legs, Omega,” he ordered. “Let me see it.”

Naya held on for a moment longer, her desperation to find another way of making her hesitate. “What if I tell you about my dream?” That was what he had wanted to know in the first place.

He growled, harsh and demanding, making his displeasure clear, and on impulse she widened her legs to either side of her, pulling her dress above her hips. She wore nothing underneath it so he had a direct view of her slit.

Hunger transformed his face to something primal, his tone tight, accusing, gravelly. “You’re already wet.”

Mortified, Naya couldn’t say anything for a few moments. Her nipples were hardening too. “Please just go,” she said, breathier than she intended.

“You haven’t done anything for me yet.” His growl was soft but somehow that made it worse.

Naya panted the words out. “What do you want me to do?”

The gleam in his eyes smoldered into a deep intensity. “Show me how you come.”

His words slammed her into disarray. Her mouth worked wordlessly for a moment. “I can’t.” Thankfully, her response sounded firm.

He said nothing more, but watched her with the same glinting threat as before.

Naya breathed shallowly, sensing the fleeting nature of his patience. If he didn’t touch her, then would it matter if she did it? Her logical mind told her it did, but appeasing him felt like the safer option right now. Besides, she was getting wetter, her folds becoming swollen and ready right in front of him. She couldn’t deny that she was aroused. Still struggling to do what he wanted, she asked a last question. “Why?”

“I want to smell your cunt.”

Heat seared Naya’s neck, embarrassment and arousal at his bluntness making her toes curl. She reached down, and slid a finger into her folds and dragged them through, finding her clit. She rubbed, circular and slow, drenching her fingers in the slick gushing steadily.

Pleasure caught hold, but not the comforting familiar thrill she was used to. This was taut and molten, already charged from the Alpha’s presence.

She panted as it built, twisting into something potent, her head relaxing, her eyes closing⁠—

“No. You will look at me.” The demand jolted her attention back to him. His ravenous glare made her whimper, and he growled again, this time low and long, vibrating with his satisfaction.

Naya strummed her clit, the rapture spreading over her, and lifted her dress with her other hand to squeeze her nipple. The beast made a sound in the back of his throat, but it only spurred her on.

The glorious crescendo built, and she lowered her hand to ease two fingers into her drenched opening. Twisting her fingers, she worked them in and out, the succulence of her efforts obscenely loud between her and her Alpha. Her scent had filled the dome, and his nose remained flared, drawing it in. His eyes flitted between her cunt and her face, as though he needed to watch both at the same time.

Naya moaned, writing in the cart in front of his carnal gaze, his arousal as powerful as hers. She humped her hand, needing more, faster and harder until finally, her orgasm crashed in erupting waves. She cried out, her knees opening even wider, and she kept plunging her fingers into her clenching flesh frantically until her body stopped convulsing.

In the aftermath, there were no thoughts other than how magnificent her Alpha looked. He hadn’t moved an inch, but the stormy, tense desire on his face told her he wanted to climb into the cart and pin her down until he was sated. She kept expecting him to reach for her and wanted to see how long it would be until his control broke. That thought floated for a few long moments until the euphoria faded.

As it did, panic rose sharply, wrenching her away from the comfort of her withering orgasm. What was she thinking? This beast wasn’t someone to tease. She slowly withdrew her fingers and the Alpha’s eyes tracked them as she closed her legs. Naya’s instinct nudged her, and she stilled. Leaning forward, she tentatively smeared her cum and slick over his nose and mouth.

He closed his eyes at her touch and let her mark him, and then he grabbed her fingers and pulled them into his mouth, sucking them with a fury that made her flinch.

When he finished, he removed the dome and stepped back, holding her gaze as he re-enabled it. “Hhe rimarta shti, tmot zmia.” The words came deliberate and intense, carrying an ominous weight. Then he turned and walked away.

Naya curled in, her legs trembling as she watched him disappear into the darkness.

Smearing him with her fluids seemed like the right thing to do, and he’d been pleased by it. But now she wasn’t sure. He’d said those words when he’d finally subdued her after bringing her here, so whatever significance they had couldn’t be good.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The next day, irritation dominated Naya's mood.

Even though she'd had a powerful release, more overwhelming than any before, she’d resisted going back to sleep in case the nightmares returned. At home she had the forest to escape to, the vast night sky to watch, and the City of Athens with its reliable moods. Here, she couldn't even get out of the cart.

She was irritated at what the beast told her to do, irritated at how easy it was to do it for him, and irritated that the Alpha, who had so incredibly aroused her, had not touched her. Intellectually, she didn’t want him to, but instinctively, the need was powerful. When he passed her to mount his horse-creature, she couldn’t even look at him, and had to drink from the tmae to cool the warmth of embarrassment that heated her to the core.