Alpha & Omega Page 7

  “Food looks good on you, Twiggy.” He winks.

  My body responds to his words, but I attempt to ignore his compliment. I’ve made the decision to in some way explain myself to him, so he won’t distract me now that I’ve begun.

  “This was my first one. I was eighteen. How fucking appropriate.” I laugh, but it’s hollow.

  He drops to his knees in front of me and strokes the words on my hip bone.

  Death is only the beginning.

  Black eyes fly to mine in question.

  I shrug. “So I thought.”

  That night, when the needle pierced my ivory flesh, I knew. I simply knew that every part of my life would be documented in some way on my skin. I knew that, no matter what I couldn’t say, my skin would tell the story.

  And oh what a beautiful story it was.

  Was.

  “What’s this one?” he questions, pointing to a pink bow near my belly button.

  Tears fill my eyes as I push his finger away. “Not yet.” I turn away from him and crawl onto the bed.

  The eighteenth is so incredibly exhausting for me. As I lie down on my back on top of the covers, I watch the beautiful man in my room. When he rips his shirt off, I get a glimpse of the angel wings on his back. He truly does look like some badass angel. I swallow as he unbuckles his belt and sheds his body of his jeans. This would be the second time I’ve seen him in only his boxers.

  And oh what a glorious sight it is.

  The bed sinks down as he crawls in next to me. His heavy hand finds the words of my first tattoo, and he traces them with his strong finger.

  “I’m ready for more,” he urges me. He props up on his elbow so he can see my face, his dark eyes hiding the mysteries that are him. Will I ever find them out?

  I trace my finger along the knuckle he’s using to skim over my tattoo. Then he slides it down to the inside of my thigh. More words.

  Smiles are evil.

  He scoots down along the bed so he can look at it. His hot breath tickles the small patch of hair just under the lace of my panties.

  “Smiles are evil.” He looks over at me and gives me the goofiest lopsided grin he can muster. And holy shit—it is the very reason I got this tattoo. “You’re a weird one, Lark.”

  I swat at him and he chuckles. Smiles are evil, but that laugh is the devil.

  “You’re weirder, Alpha.”

  Alpha.

  “What does it mean?” he questions. This time when his finger traces the flesh near the most sensitive part of my entire body, I nearly buck right off the bed.

  “Stop,” I murmur even though my body begs him not to.

  His tracing stops, but he doesn’t move his finger.

  “I met a boy,” I admit. “And when he smiled, my life began.”

  He turns his head to me and grins again. “I like this story.”

  A tear rolls out, and I look toward the top shelf of my closet. “I don’t.” My silence stretches between us, but he doesn’t push. Finally, I sigh and swallow my tears. “He made me forget. With one smile, he became my whole world. Always by my side. He was my best friend. My only friend. My reason for living.”

  A bitter thought creeps deep into my soul. Just like Alpha.

  “I’m glad you had him,” he says.

  I’m glad I had him too.

  Too bad it didn’t last.

  “What happened?”

  A sob escapes me. “One day, it happened. We fell madly in love, and it was terrible.”

  Would I do it all over again? Of course I would.

  “Terrible? How? Was he mean to you? Did he hurt you?” he growls menacingly as his black eyes meet mine.

  In this moment, I know deep down in my soul that Alpha would protect me with his life. He came out of nowhere, but he somehow claimed me as his own.

  For three months. Less now, actually.

  Time is ticking.

  “He hurt me. He left me. And he never came back.”

  Alpha’s fingers trail up my body, circle my belly button, and skim over my ribs just under my breasts. My breath hitches.

  “If you were mine, I’d never leave you,” he murmurs as he traces the curve.

  I slide my hand down to cover his. “I’ll never be yours. Or anyone’s for that matter. Besides, it wasn’t his fault.”

  His large hand splays across my ribs, and he kisses one of the stars between my breasts. Star number one to be exact. A never-ending ache that only hides from time to time slices through my heart.

  “What’s this one?” His question is mostly breath against flesh. Against the star that protects my heart.

  “One year after. I got this star one year after my world turned upside down. I was his star, he said. I fell right from the sky and into his life.”

  You’re a star, Lar.

  “Then why’d he leave you?” he asks, this time pressing his lips against my skin.

  My body shivers at his touch. It feels wrong—being here with this man, talking about another.

  “He was stolen from me. But before he left, he gave me a gift. And, Alpha, it was perfect,” I whimper. The tears silently slide down my cheeks while the hysterics stay lodged in my throat.

  Awareness hits him as he trails his finger to the pink bow on my belly. “This was your gift.” He doesn’t ask. He figured it out on his own.

  “Yep. So beautiful. My favorite gift,” I tell him sadly.

  “What happened, Lark?”

  Dog tags. Folded flag. Oorah. Shower. Blood. Gone.

  “They took my heart, Al. My little black rock inside my body had become something because of him. And when he left me, I had her. Then she left me too. Together, they left this fucking life that I only lived for them. Together, they went to some happy place. Without me,” I sob. “Goddammit, Alpha, I want to see them again.”

  My tears become a snotty mess as I cry for my sweet husband. As I cry for our daughter who came too early and was gone just as quickly. I cry for the woman I never got to be, for the woman I have become.

  His warmth covers me as he places kisses all over me as if to kiss the holes in my soul. “I’m so sorry, Lark. You’re just a sad girl. Broken. You don’t deserve this.”

  I whimper when his lips find my neck, and my legs wrap around his waist. This man on top of me has found a way into my heart. There might only be a tiny sliver left, but with each corn dog and smile, he found a way in.

  He’ll leave too. Time’s ticking, Lark.

  My thoughts dissipate when I feel his erection pressing against the part of me that throbs to be touched. A part of me that hasn’t been touched since him.

  “You’re the biggest fucking temptation I’ve ever encountered, sweet Lark,” he whispers against my neck.

  His hands are tangled in my hair, but he doesn’t slow the thrusting of his body against mine. Only the small scrap of my panties and the cotton of his boxers separate the heat of each of our bodies.

  “Alpha, you distract me too,” I admit.

  I’d nearly forgotten the eighteenth—the day my husband was blown to smithereens by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Two months later, to the exact date, I began hemorrhaging in the shower—the day I lost my baby and nearly my uterus in the process.

  The eighteenth is significant. The eighteenth is gutting. The eighteenth is unforgettable.

  “You need to live, honey,” Mom says as she sips her coffee.

  The noises in the coffee shop grate on my nerves. Her words grate on my nerves.

  “I think that ship has sailed,” I snarl as I push my cooling coffee away from me. The smell suddenly disgusts me.

  “Lark, I think you need to go back and see Dr. Walsh. You’re not well. Your father and I are worried about you. It’s almost been a year,” she whispers as if she’s afraid to remind me.

  Too late.

  “Mom, this isn’t something I can just forget. I lost my husband. My baby!” I shriek.

  She holds her hands up in a comforting move, but I am not fucking
comforted. I’m furious.

  “What’s the big deal? Why are you so hell-bent on making me forget? They were my life! I am dead now! Dead,” I hiss. My chest heaves wildly.

  “Honey—”

  “Don’t. Just leave me the fuck alone, Mom.”

  “Lark?” Alpha questions, tearing me from my thoughts.

  My eyes find his dark ones, which are now staring at me as he attempts to climb right into my head and figure me out.

  “What?”

  “I want you,” he grumbles as if the very thought annoys him.

  He pushes hard against my pussy, and I cry out against his lips, which are hovering over mine. My body wants him too. Whimpers spill out of my trembling lips as he presses his dick against me in just the right way that makes my head dizzy.

  “I haven’t been touched in so long,” I admit. “Since him.”

  His lips press against mine for the second time tonight. This kiss has the same effect, and I lose my mind. My fingers find his unruly hair and grab two handfuls. With a sudden need, I pull him deeper into my kiss.

  And then it happens.

  His tongue enters my mouth and I lose all sense of reality.

  Alpha.

  ALPHA. LARK. ALPHA. Lark. Alpha. Lark.

  This is bad.

  But oh so good.

  The first kiss we shared was a glimpse into her soul. Her past. Her pain.

  This kiss is yet another glimpse into her soul. This time, fire and heat. And me.

  “Make love to me,” she begs between kisses.

  One of the biggest rules flashes like crazy in my head.

  Thou shalt not fornicate with final assignment. If Minder fornicates with final assignment, they will be terminated from the program and banished from HEA Corp property. HEL will become administrator over failed Minder, whom shalt now be called Reaper.

  Fuck!

  “Make love to me.” This time more of a command.

  My dick begs, too. I’m only holding on to one tiny shred of sanity. What we’re doing is so wrong. She’s my job, not my girlfriend. In just over two months, she’ll be gone. They’ll take her—to Hell.

  The thought of her in eternal, torturous agony sends rage swirling in my veins. She can’t die. She can’t go to fucking Hell. It doesn’t make sense. Then a dark thought enters my mind.

  I’ll protect her.

  Forever.

  “Alpha, please,” she whimpers.

  Shit, I’ll never be able to tell her no.

  I untangle one of my hands from her hair and dive in for more of her mouth. My hand finds her panties, and we have to break momentarily for me to rip them from her body. They’re made of lace and nothing, so they disappear in an instant.

  “Lark,” I groan against her mouth as I reach into my boxers and pull my dick out. “This changes everything.”

  “I’m sorry,” she says. I’m not sure if she’s telling me or her dead husband.

  “I’m not.” I make that final decision. The decision that burns a mark so black on my soul that I almost cry out from the pain of it.

  With one hard thrust, I plunge deep inside my sweet Lark.

  Everything else around me disappears. The only thing that exists is her. This perfect, beautiful, dark angel belongs to me. I know I’ve just broken a serious law. And I’m unsure what the repercussions will be.

  Right now, though, I don’t care. Right now, all that matters is her. Her tight, hot body hugs my cock with each thrust into her. Fingernails claw at the wings they can’t take away from me. As I push myself as deep as I can into her, our souls bind together.

  Connor.

  The thought unlocks some tiny mystery in my head. A single memory. My name.

  “Alpha!” she shrieks as her body shudders beneath me. Her pussy clenches around my dick so fiercely that it pulls the orgasm right out of me. I come deep inside her, and it’s perfect.

  We’re perfect together.

  This is my destiny.

  Lark Miller.

  Not a job. Mine.

  I collapse onto her tiny frame and lose myself in her neck. She now smells sweeter. Her skin feels softer. I’ll never let her go.

  As her delicate fingers stroke my wings, my heart soars. My job doesn’t matter. My destiny doesn’t matter. Only Lark matters.

  “Let’s run away,” I murmur against the shell of her ear.

  Her pussy clenches around my soft cock, and it twitches back to life.

  “And leave this grand life behind, Al?” she giggles.

  Smiles are evil. Her laugh is heavenly.

  I begin pumping into her again. Her body is so perfect that I want to live here forever. Surely we can exist like this, neither of us needing anything but the taste of the other.

  “What are you doing to me?” she pants out as I plunge into her.

  “I’m making you mine forever,” I answer and devour her lips.

  Her moans and whimpers are fuel, and I don’t stop. I can’t stop.

  “Oh, God!” she screams with another orgasm.

  I growl and suck her lip into my mouth as I release inside her once again. My heart and soul pour into her until I’ve given it all to her.

  “I think my real name is Connor,” I confess against her mouth. The name feels foreign on my tongue, but I feel connected to it nonetheless.

  Suddenly, the warm, squirming body beneath me goes cold. Her finally relaxed body becomes rigid.

  Time freezes for one long moment before she explodes.

  “Get off me!” she seethes, her tone so filled with hate.

  I scramble off her like a fucking pussy. What did I do wrong?

  Naked and her arms flailing, she rolls out of the bed and turns to face me. “I should kill you. Get out of my house and don’t ever come back!”

  I stare at her in confusion. Thoughts of the file hit me.

  Unstable.

  Drug addict.

  Evil.

  “Lark,” I say in an attempt to calm her.

  Her full tits bounce as she storms over to my clothes on the floor. Then she bends over and starts heaving them at me. When she throws my shoes, I pounce out of the bed toward her.

  “Don’t you fucking touch me, asshole. Get out!” Her eyes are wild and lost.

  The woman I just gave my soul to is insane.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did, Lark. Don’t push me away. You don’t understand what I’ve given up for you.”

  When crazed eyes meet mine, I know there’s no negotiation. So I dress quickly and storm out of her apartment without a glance in her direction. Then I sleep propped up against the door of her apartment in the scummy hallway.

  “Wake up, Al.”

  My stiff neck aches when I blink open my eyes and attempt to follow the source of the kicking against my thigh. Steel-toed boots. Omega.

  “I fucked up, man,” I confess with a dry, raspy voice.

  His brown eyes peer down at me under his girly-looking lashes. “Is she dead?”

  Anger blasts through my body. “What? Fuck that! No, she isn’t dead, and she won’t die on my watch,” I snarl. My body has come back to life, so I climb to my feet and glare at him.

  He folds his muscular arms across his chest and watches me. “Then how did you fuck up, Al?”

  I run a hand through my inky hair and push thoughts of my soul mate from my head. Leaning forward, I whisper, “I slept with her. Twice.”

  Now it’s Omega’s turn to get angry. And he fucking detonates. “What the fuck, man? Are you kidding me right now? Do you even understand what will happen to you if they find out? They will know. They always know, Alpha.”

  I groan because I know. Their sources are everywhere.

  “What do I do?” I question as pussy tears sting my eyes. I don’t want to be away from her for one second. I can’t.

  “We have to tell Pallas.”

  Pallas.

  Fuck.

  “No, Omega. Please. Maybe I can figure this out. Besides, she hates me no
w anyway. Maybe they won’t find out.”

  “Don’t be stupid, man. They will find out. Maybe they’ll just put you back into training. They would be lucky to have you as an SG, but maybe you need a little more time. It will be better to come clean and take a lesser punishment. I need you, brother.”

  And I need him too.

  But Lark?

  I can’t fucking breathe without her. She infected my very being, and I’ll waste away into the Earth without her. I would be nothing.

  “What’s going on, boys?” a sultry voice asks. Lovenia.

  Omega spins on his foot and faces the dark-haired demon who’s sauntering toward us. Her lips are painted bright red, an amused, brunette brow is raised, and a smirk plays on her lips as she approaches.

  “Nothing,” I spit out quickly.

  Her laughter is like jingling bells. So sweet. Too bad I know her kind. They are not sweet.

  “Alpha, don’t lie. It’s not becoming of your kind.” She smiles as she steps around Omega.

  His hand slides around her middle and he possessively pulls her back to his chest. When neither of us responds, she grins at me.

  “I can keep a secret. In fact, I could probably help you. As long as the girl in there didn’t die, your secret stays here. I’m their link, you know. I’ve been assigned to you both.”

  I sense deception, but I feel lulled into her charms. Just like Omega has been.

  “I’ll bite. What do I need to do?”

  Her smile spreads beautifully across her face. “Meet my boss.”

  Omega and I exchange glances.

  “Love?” he questions her.

  She raises a slender arm and threads her fingers into his hair. “Yes, baby?”

  “Don’t betray me or my brother. If you do, that will end us,” he warns.

  When her eyes flash to mine, I see the briefest flash of something. But she quickly schools it away before I can figure out her intentions.

  “Just meet your boss? That’s all you want? You’ll keep this little tidbit of information from our superiors?” I’m mystified. Lovenia has always been a friend, even though we’re destined to be enemies, but this seems huge.

  “Of course, darling. Just a meeting, Alpha. But both of you. He wants to meet the famous Alpha and Omega.” She bats her lashes at me.

  I raise a brow in question to Omega, and he nods. He would do anything for me.