Faith & the Dead End Devils (Sweet Omegaverse, #8)(85)



Bear turned off his bike, the sudden silence a roar in my ears. He swung one leg over and scooped Faith up off her feet, into his arms.

"You're bleeding!" Her hands came back red from his jaw, and she struggled in his grip, searching for the wound.

"It's a scratch," Bear answered, marching over to me, a brutal scowl on his face.

"You good?" I asked.

"Fine. But I'm fucking done with this old lady nonsense," Bear snarled at me. Faith froze in his arms, her face slack and stricken in response until he continued. "She is my omega. Don't care what that means to you. It's just fact, and I'm not pretending otherwise."

"We need to talk to the—"

"I am taking Faith up to the nest. You'll see us tomorrow," Bear said to me, the words gritty—a warning.

I swallowed. I didn't want to have a church meeting anyway. I wanted to follow Bear, strip Faith down to nothing, and kiss every inch of her just to reassure myself she was safe. But he was marching past me, her face pressed to his throat.

The club is your life, I tried to remind myself. Your vow is to your brothers.

Bear's loyalty had shifted. I tried to drum up anger, but all I had was envy.





31. FAITH





I sighed, wiggling away from Bear's tiptoeing fingers on my side, my head falling back against the bathroom mirror as his tongue ran up the center of my throat.

"Quit distracting me," I said, but my voice was too breathy to be stern and my nipples were prodding sharply against Bear's palms in encouragement. "Just let me put the liquid stitches on, at least."

Bear wrapped his teeth around my throat, dragging them over my skin, and I moaned, my thighs falling open. Tricky alpha. He knew me too well now.

"Bear…did you mean what you said to King?" I rasped, scooting my hips forward on the counter until they pressed to his as he loomed over me.

"I did, Butterfly," he purred, lips kissing down from my throat, hands now busy lifting the hem of my shirt.

"You're sure?" I whispered.

He paused at last, standing straight and soothing his hands down to my waist. Every time I looked at this man, I marveled at the strength of him, the pure power illustrated in every inch of his body, and the way all that came with such incredible gentleness and care.

"I'm sure, Butterfly," Bear said, smiling softly. "Are you sure?"

I grabbed up the little tube of liquid stitches and Bear rolled his eyes as I leaned in, but he lifted his jaw for me. It was just a scratch, as he said, and I'd already managed to clean it, but I didn't want to take any chances. Bear saved all his gentleness for me and I needed—wanted—to be the one to do the same for him.

I thought over his question as I smeared the glue in place, but there was only one answer running through my head over and over again. I capped the tube, set it aside, and cupped Bear's face in my hands, blowing gently over the scratch.

Bear didn't look nervous as I leaned back again and stared up at those warm whiskey eyes. He knew my answer too.

"You are my alpha, Bear," I said, tracing my fingers up the back of his neck and then running them into his curls. "I'm absolutely certain of that."

His answering purr was rich and heady, hands scooping back to grip my ass and tug me closer. "No going back."

I thought of what King had said to me before Bear arrived, before he'd sweetened the cruel words with a hungry kiss. "There never was," I said, shrugging.

I dropped my hands to my hem and lifted my shirt off over my head. I was wearing a lacy bralette underneath and Bear licked his lips, studying me as I arched and reached back for the end of my braid. I liked his eyes on me, the little ways his purr changed as he stared at my mouth or breasts or bared sex, different notes of appreciation for every part of me.

He caught my hand before I could pull my hair free, and his fist wrapped around the end of the braid, tugging slightly. He grinned as I gasped.

"Leave it, you like it," he said.

I nodded and then Bear dove forward, hauling me off the counter and over his broad shoulder. I cackled as he carried me out of the bathroom, and even to my own ears the sound was a surprise. A wave of gratitude rushed over me for this alpha, Chance and King too, for what they'd found me as, and the ways they'd already transformed me. I kissed Bear's back and he grunted in surprise, stopping in front of the nest with me slung over his shoulder.

I was jostled lightly, the sound of a buckle coming undone, and I watched from my bird's eye view as Bear shucked his jeans and underwear off, the round globes of his ass especially delicious from this angle.

"Hey!" I cried as he yanked me back down in front of him. "I was admiring…" I trailed off as I realized he was standing naked before me. His hands reached out to my hips, and I danced back out of the way. "I am admiring you. I didn't get to do that enough at the beginning."

Bear was enormous, muscles thick, and there were infrequent scars decorating his frame, including one puckered round that I suspected was an old gunshot wound on his thigh. It made me ache, a confusing mixture of worry and sorrow and heat.

"You're okay?" I asked, my eyes traveling slowly back up, lingering on the softened planes of his chest while he was relaxed. They would turn to carved stone as he fucked me, flexing and straining into the need between us. He was built by biology and circumstance, beautiful in all the instances of flaws and perfection.

Kathryn Moon's Books