Chapter 129: Chapter 129

Aiden and Liam insisted on staying back and helping the guards find the killer. Meanwhile, the Pack Alpha asked my mother to keep me company. My breath was still coming out shaky, slight tremors going through my body, knees wobbly as I walked to my cabin.

Once inside, I showed my mother around, making sure to make a nice meal since we both were hungry.

"Thank you for letting me in, my dear."

"Mom! It's nothing. Besides, I have been thinking of asking you to come live with me anyway." I admitted, cheeks feeling hot, toes lazily tracing the carpeted floor. "Thank you for coming along."

"Anything for you." She placed a warm, comforting hand on top of mine, almost making me jerk at the abrupt touch. "Now, you should get some rest, Rose. I will sit here till your mate comes back, hmm?"

I opened my mouth to protest, ready to argue, but when she gave me a sharp look, I had no choice but to get up.

"Don't worry; I will clean this up."

"I can help," I said, hanging behind, my teeth sinking in the bottom lip.

"Rose. Go."

Shuffling inside the bedroom, I took in the sheets hanging off the bed, pillows stacked on one side. I made sure to gather Aiden's hoodies and sweaters from the wardrobe, rushing to build a nest in the middle. Once that was out of the day, I slipped into his hoodie and curled inside.

I cuddled another one of my mate's shirts, scenting it desperately and hoping the earthy and vanilla pheromones would quell the aching in my heart. My omega was wailing, entirely and utterly distressed all of a sudden.

The shift in my behaviour was unexpected and entirely out of the blue. It only took me a while to remember that sometimes pregnant omegas fall victim to loud levels of stress and drop. It's made worse by isolating, but I couldn't help as Aiden was still out in the woods.

The real panic arrived when I started trembling, little steady quivers that racked my entire body. I started shivering, too, despite being wrapped in dozens of clothes and blankets. My body felt clammy and feverish; eyelashes clumped together from tears and teeth chattering.

Everything around was loose and blurry, the body going numb in the same spot. The Alpha's scent faded to a ghost of what it was, a flimsy comfort against my cornered omega. I felt my throat tighten, lungs compressing and contracting in my chest as I struggled to breathe. Tears burned in my eyes, slowly rolling down my cheeks.

Terror rushed through me.

The door to my room creaked open, and a worried voice cut through the thick, suffocating silence. "Rose? Are you okay in there? I could sense your distress."

Mom. I said under my breath, blinking through the hazy vision, aware of her trying to talk. My mother's voice slowly raising from mildly concerned to overwhelmingly panicked.

"You are shaking!" She exclaimed, placing a hand over my forehead.

I laid entirely still, shivering under the covers. Bile was rising in my throat, nausea and sorrow intermingling and banding together as they clawed their way up. My fingers went numb, pale and cold as I clung desperately to Aiden's clothes.

"H-Help me, mom."

"You will be fine. Just close your eyes."

I did, and seconds after that, everything went blank.

***

The rough but gentle pad of the finger was a stark contrast to my soft tummy, a weird sensation curling inside. A barrage of pheromones surrounded me. My eyes fluttered, opening only to squeeze shut at the bright light. I mewled, nuzzling further into the pillow, realising seconds later why I felt so warm and secure.

There are two arms wrapped around me, tightly pulling me up against a firm chest and keeping me caged in. One with fingers stretched impossibly wide against my upper chest so that the tips of the fingers rested above my heartbeat—the other hand tracing patterns around my belly button, movements languid and careful.

There's a soft pair of lips pressed into my hair, a knee nudging the backs of the calves, and a leg slung over my thigh securely, bare skin against bare skin.

Every point of contact between us burned with tenderness and comfort, intense and grounding and safe. The movements eventually stopped, his hand falling flat against my stomach as Aiden let out a soft sigh, falling back asleep. Careful not to stir the alpha, I bit back a yawn and leaned into the embrace slowly, sighing in contentment.

I shivered when the movement jostled his head so that he was breathing into my neck, breath warm against my throat.

When did Aiden come back?

As if on cue, the Pack Alpha shifted slightly, snuffling in his sleep. His lips brushed over my hair gently, making me shiver at the feeling. I gently uncurled my fingers from one of his sweaters, flexing them with a wince. The Alpha gently roused from his sleep, tugging our linked hands and holding them up near his face.

Aiden hooked his head over my shoulder and pressed a soft kiss to the back of my hand.

I flushed, my omega preening at the show of tenderness.

"You scared me," The Alpha rasped out, turning to face me, voice gritty and deep.

He tightened his hold on me, releasing soothing pheromones and smoothing a hand over my head gently. Aiden started humming under his breath- the song sounded familiar, but I could not quite pinpoint which it was.

"I did?"

"Yes...When I came back, your mother told me she knocked you out because your omega was close to dropping."

My mouth flew open at his words, my hand immediately resting on the pudge of the tummy. The bump was still there, so I let out a sigh, relief sinking in my bones. I heard the worst things happening to the omegas who went into a drop during their pregnancy.

"When did you come over?" I whispered, afraid to break the cocoon of warmth surrounding us.

"An hour ago, I guess."

"Oh."

Blinking at him, I tried it sit up but got pulled back into his embrace. "Where is my mother? I need to talk to her."

"She's not there. I asked Beth to show your mother a spare room in the packhouse. She will be safe there."

"Yeah," I whined.

***

Silence settled over us before Aiden made a sound, his fingers tracing along my side, the touch causing my skin to break in goosebumps. I made a soft sound in the back of my throat, eyes fluttering.

"Rose..."

"Mhm?"

"I think I know a way to make your omega feel less threatened, baby."

My brows furrowed at that, eyes meeting his, lines marring my face. "Oh? What is it?"

"Trust me on this, baby." With that, the Alpha flipped over, pressed me into the bed with the weight of his tall body, wrapped around me in an instant.

I immediately wound my arms around him, reassurance flooding through me, forced to focus on the ceiling above, and his long, shallow breaths are fanning my face.

I nipped around his jaw with sharp teeth, thrust my hips into him, desperate for all pressure and friction. An unbearably joyful feeling flooded in my chest, all the play that I had forgotten earlier coming back to me.

"Please, Alpha." I whimpered, my fingers pulling at his hair, getting it close to the roots and squeezing a fist in it. Aiden made a startling noise, but he got harder against my thigh. My teeth left a ring on his jaw that I knew would fade, as bites did, but trailed sparks of want and lust in my body.

"Patience, baby." He said with a growl, eyes a little glassy, wrapping his hands around my forearms, his fingers going all the way around.

There was something different about it this time, something desperately sweet in how we touched each other, all deep pressure and warm mouths and sliding skin.

Aiden lingered over every dip and curve in my body, dropping kisses and touches over ticklish spots as he pulled the last clothes off my body. My breath stuttered in my chest, catching on both sensation and emotion as the Alpha held me in tight arms and whispered want into my ear, husky and slow.

I caged his head between my palms, stroked the broad brow with a thumb and tried to memorise his flawless face. For a long second, I felt lost in how the Alpha smelled heady, strong pine with strong hints of vanilla.

"I've got you, baby." Pulling back, Aiden said, almost murmur, and I made a face, peering at him through my thick lashes. "You're safe with me. Always."

I let out a quiet breath that was a little more on the shuddering side than I wanted it to be. Closing my eyes, I felt dampness in the corners, but all in all, it could've been worse. The Alpha smashed his lips against mine, wet and desperate, sending tiny tremors throughout my body. On instinct, my back arched into his touch, thighs digging into his groin.

I could feel my breath speeding up in his mouth and the tell-tale slick already spilling out and staining my panties.

My heart skipped a beat when the Alpha settled an arm around my ribcage, hand low on my back and finally smoothing over the curve of the round bottom.

His gentle presence also felt predatory and wild; the electricity of alpha instinct reaching out to surround me made me feel safe and enveloped. The primal part of my brain was too-aware that I was in a nest on his bed, drenched in his scent.

After that, it was a blur of events. Aiden rubbed the tip of his cock from the top to the wet folds, breaching me slowly just for the pleasure of feeling all the ways in which I opened for him. He paused for a second, eyes darkening, before he's easing out carefully.

The first push was painfully slow, and I felt every blessed inch of it, head lolling back in overwhelm. He continued the slower, controlled pace, going for depth rather than speed. My body could feel every single thrust down to a cellular level, pleasure rippling across me in a thousand tiny sparks.

It was intoxicating to trust this much, to feel like every detail of his movement was going to imprint on my body forever: the way Aiden's hair pulled back in the corners of his forehead, the lines of sweat working between them. He leaned over my body, bracing himself with forearms flat against the bed on either side of my head. The position made it, so my leg was pressed up high in the air, allowing him to ram in more profound than before.

The new angle made it so that he could also find my spot right away, body jolting up the mattress at the pressure where I was most sensitive. He maintained that angle, hitting my sweet spot on almost every thrust, my toes curling.

The Alpha was touching me everywhere, his hands frantic and wild, over my shoulders and the valley of the collarbone and into the bruises that he littered on my skin. I didn't have anything else to say, so mind-numbed with it all that I could only writhe in his touch, losing every last hesitation, flailing into Aiden's stronghold and the deep thrusts of his cock.

"Come for me," He said, pulling at my hair, clutching into the meat of my thigh. My toes curled into the bedsheets, heat coiling in my abdomen, feeling warm and wet around him, all muscle spasming as I let go, vision blurring.

He followed soon after.

I was surprised when in the end, Aiden buried his face in the crook of my neck, breathing in our scent. We laid like that, tied together and living in silence, until his knot fully went down.

***