His Isolated Omega Luna

Chapter Five

Axel could never be certain just how long he cradled Cassandra in his arms that first time he held her. It sure as hell didn’t feel like long enough.

Axel guessed it was only the force of the storm that had brought on the sudden shift in Cassandra's need to be so physically close to someone, but he wasn't gonna let go.

Cassandra's unsteady breaths finally settled back into a more normal rhythm, and her erratic heartbeat seemed to have stopped fluttering dangerously fast against Axel’s chest. She was still warm and damp from the subtle spread of sweat that had coated the surface of her skin with a delicate sheen.

When she eventually pulled back, Axel could see her pupils were blown wide and her lips were flushed and pink where they had been pressed up against the warmth of Axel’s body.

Cassandra made no attempt at all to pull away during those long beautiful minutes when she had wound her fingers tightly into the material of Axel’s shirt and held on to him as if her very life depended on it. She was perfectly still while Axel dared gentle touches up and down her back to try and ease her distress, and eventually, Cassandra felt safe enough to relax a little underneath the soft brush of searching fingertips. Axel imagined he even heard Cassandra making almost imperceptible little humming noises when she leaned against his shoulder.

The relentless fury of the rain finally subsided and the humid air was seamlessly broken by a calm cool breeze that suggested the gray clouds had moved away into the distance. At last Cassandra’s fear seemed to fade away and she seemed to be suddenly set free from the allure of another arms around her.

***

I pushed Axel away with more force than I really intended and stepped completely out of reach. My mouth was pressed into a rigid line while I was staring at the ground with a dark expression. I was ashamed I had forgotten myself for a moment.

I tried to say something but my mouth was unbearably dry and my desire for water was like a burning fire in my throat. I rubbed away the moisture that covered the back of my neck and blinked a few times in some futile attempt to erase the potent memory of the last few minutes when I had willingly submitted to the instinctive desire for the safety of Axel’s protection.

I was absolutely terrified by how easily I had let that need overtake me.

There was little point in denying I could have let myself drown in the blissful salvation of Axel’s caresses. At that moment a painful realization struck me hard.

I had been right all along.

Axel Harrison was dangerous, and I just couldn’t risk something like that ever happening again.

“Cas? You okay?” Axel asked hesitantly. He was watching me with concern.

Only minutes ago I had been inhaling deep, delicious breaths of his scent and it had stimulated a desire that had long been hidden away inside of me. Now I was silently shaking my head, continuing to study the pattern of tiles beneath my feet.

I knew in my heart Axel would only have to push my body close and whisper seductive promises against the pulse in my throat and I would freely abandon all sense of restraint and the cold prison of self–denial I had buried that part of myself in for as many years as I could remember.

The moment I learned what fate awaited me if my secret was ever discovered had shaped everything I was, and now that carefully crafted safety was being threatened by the pull of longing that had coursed through my veins when Axel smothered me with his intoxicating presence.

I jumped like a startled rabbit as soon as Axel moved one step closer, his hand stretching out in front of me.

“Cas.” Axel attempted again. “It’s alright. You don’t need to be afraid of me.”

I couldn’t look at him.

“Yes, I do,” I whispered quietly. My breathless response hadn't really been meant for Axel to hearーmore to try and convince myself to believe it.

***

Those three little words stirred Axel’s defensive pride, and he jerked his head back in surprise.

“You were the one who grabbed me, remember?” His voice was low, tainted by an edge of sudden mistrust. He wondered if Cassandra had somehow been deliberately playing with the unspoken promise of returning his affection, and Axel didn’t like the way that made his stomach tense.

The intimate exchange had left him feeling strangely vulnerable at how effortlessly Cassandra had drugged his senses and blocked out all else save an uncontrollable need to take more.

Axel was biting back the rejection, stern eyes fixed on the contours of Cassandra’s face.

Axel’s mouth was turned down, shoulders rising and falling in steady movements while he struggled to gain mastery of his building disappointment.

***

I held my breath, waiting for Axel to hurl resentful insults or venomously spit out his anger by calling me a f*****g c**k tease. Axel might even slam the door behind him just to prove a point as he stormed out of the apartment.

I already anticipated any or all of these inevitable outbursts of dominance, but nothing happened.

Instead, Axel’s whole body slumped.

He finally looked away and backed up until he was standing in the shadow of the doorway. He looked more subdued than anything else and I felt a sharp stab of regret catch in my chest when I watched Axel dip from view without another word passing between us.

I could hear his heavy footsteps disappear down the corridor before everything faded into uneasy silence.

I walked over to the door and closed it, leaning forward to rest my head against the barrier I had now put between us. The last thing I wanted to do was to throw anything back at Axel. He had been so understanding and patient and had made me feel a kind of safety I never felt before, but there was something else just under the surface that intimidated me.

If Axel really could be an alpha, then it was only a matter of time before even the suppressants failed to protect me from those keen canine senses. The pills might serve to control my heat, and I was eternally grateful to my brother for keeping me supplied, but they couldn’t change what I was.

Every time I thought about Axel, I could feel my body begging to respond. I could no longer trust in willpower alone to subdue every omega breeding instinct that was screaming to let Axel bewitch me and sink those powerful white teeth into my neck.

I set about straightening up the apartment and packing a few essentials into a little backpack.

***

Lucas turned when Axel quietly closed the door and shucked off his leather jacket with little care for where it landed. He didn’t hesitate to stroll through to grab another couple of beers before he practically threw himself full length across the couch and pulled a squashed cushion to his chest. He rested his chin on the edge and stared out the window.

The view of city lights was blurred by the refraction of settled raindrops. It made his gaze dip in and out of focus while he struggled to concentrate on anything but Cassandra.

Axel could still feel the satiny touch of Cassandra’s dark hair on his lips and the way she shivered against his hands. It was worse to know what that actually felt like, only to have it ripped away again.

Part of him wished he hadn't had it at all. Memory alone wasn't enough, and Axel stubbornly willed the lingering scent of Cassandra to fade away and stop tormenting him with a phantom promise.

Lucas was watching him patiently while he waited for an update, but when he failed to get a response from his demanding expression alone, he flicked Axel on the cheek and tugged at one corner of the pillow.

“Well?” Lucas prompted, with inquisitive eyes. Axel mumbled a restrained growl into the material next to his mouth and tried to turn over to get more comfortable.

“Axel?” His brother replied with another formless grunt, and Lucas knew he would just have to pester him until he gave in. “Was she alright?”

Still nothing.

“With the storm, I mean.” Lucas encouraged. “Cassandra. You said she didn’t like the rain.”

A few more seconds of silence passed, and Axel was now lying with his face pressed into the pillow he dragged underneath him.

Lucas sensed maybe things with Cassandra hadn't gone quite as well as anticipated, and Axel was mumbling almost incoherent curses into his arm. Lucas didn't have the patience or the inclination right then to have an entirely one-sided conversation so he decided to abandon the line of questioning he already prepared. He had every intention of leaving Axel to just get on with it and sulk in peace when he unexpectedly spoke again.

“I just don’t get it!” Axel suddenly blurted out. Lucas was startled by the amount of passion he seemed to put into that one single sentence. “I really thought I might actually be getting somewhere with her, as well...” Axel mused quietly. Lucas patted him supportively on the shoulder.

“Axel. You hardly know her, and you did kindly inform her she was only a bet earlier. Honestly, I’m surprised she even spoke to you at all.” Lucas sighed. He really wanted to lift Axel’s mood, but he had to admit he might be putting a lot of energy into pursuing someone who would never be interested in him in return.

“Oh,” Lucas added quickly, deliberately exaggerating several other reasonably legitimate reasons why Axel might have had to work so hard for Cassandra’s attention. “… and you said she’s generally a shivering mess, scared of her own shadow. She’s obviously very shy, and you tried to seduce her the first time you ever spoke to her. Plus, she probably thinks you’re not seriously interested 'cause you only want her so you can add another notch to your bedpost.”

Lucas hadn’t even paused to take a breath, but Axel stopped him before the list of his spectacular f**k ups to date got any longer.

“Yeah, I get it. Thank you.”

Lucas shrugged. He was only trying to be helpful.

Axel shook his head, slowly trying to process everything Lucas said.

When he put it like that, it really wasn’t that hard to see why Cassandra felt threatened by his less-than-subtle approach.

Lucas was starting to wonder why Axel seemed so focused on this woman he only just met. He wasn’t usually quite so desperate to impress a potential lay. Lucas suspected it was definitely something more than a passing attraction, and he wasn’t entirely certain Axel could explain it either.

“Why do you care, anyway?” Axel gave Lucas a sidelong glance, debating whether to tell his brother exactly what he sensed when Cassandra was pressed up close against him.

“Axel?” Lucas prompted. “What happened?”

“She just… I don’t know. Smelled… different.” Axel admitted at last.

Lucas frowned and tilted his head to one side. He needed to know what Axel was trying to say but he was too tired for cryptic innuendo, so he just went straight to the point.

“Like omega different?”

Axel didn’t dare to mention that his first instinct had been to run his tongue across Cassandra's damp skin and lick her clean.

“God, I hope so.” He answered through a tight breath, staring down at his hands. “I don’t know, Lucas. I’ve never seen one before.”

Lucas nodded thoughtfully.

“Well, you sure can’t seem to get her off your mind, so there must be something about her. I’ve never seen you look so pathetic.”

Axel was about to argue, but Lucas had a decent point so Axel just glared at him instead. He wasn’t exactly advertising his alpha status. It had been a long time since he even cared about using his social position to get what he wanted from someone.

Cassandra was different.

Special.

She deserved to be courted and won, not taken.

“Lucas.” Axel’s voice dropped at the unthinkable possibility Cassandra could really be the one he had searched for his entire life. “I don’t wanna get my hopes up.”

There was an empty sadness there when he thought about just how long he had waited. How many years he had dragged poor Lucas around with him, moving all over the country looking for that lost part of himself.

“To be a female omega, and to look like that.” Axel whistled low and long. “It’s too much to hope for. I don’t think I could take the disappointment.”

Lucas’s expression faded when a bitter memory stirred in some forgotten recess of his mind.

“I know, Axel.” He forced a smile. “I know.” Lucas pushed himself up from a very comfortable dip on the couch. They were out of beer, so Lucas grabbed his jacket and told Axel he was just going to make a quick trip to the store.

***

I was almost ready to leave.

I set my pack and wallet on the bed while I checked all the windows and turned off the bathroom light… but the thought of going outside on my own in the dark threatened to trigger another bout of nervous restlessness.

I could feel the familiar pull of nausea in my stomach when I pressed my face up against the glass to see if the storm had finally abated. The dark street below looked cold and cheerless.

I didn’t actually have to be at work until the following night but everything now felt heavy and oppressive, and I wanted to get away from the confines of my small apartment and the constant threat of virile temptation down the hall.

I patted myself down to check I had remembered to pocket my cell phone and key, and prepared to brave the corridor.

I half-expected Axel to suddenly materialize in front of me when I made my escape. He did seem to possess the uncanny ability of being able to appear as if by magic, just when I least expected it.

I struggled to slide the chain across again, my face lined with deep concentration. I let it dangle free and turned the handle. I was more than a little worried about being detected as I made my way out and closed it behind me.

When I managed to make it to the lift, I breathed a sigh of relief. I leaned my back up against one side and reached out an unsteady hand to press the button that would take me down to the lobby. The doors slid slowly across the gap and I tried to keep my heartbeat steady while I waited.

“Hold the doors, please!” I heard someone shout, just before a sizable hand was thrust between the divide and practically forced them apart.

I was staring in horror, as the largest man I had ever encountered came barreling through the opening and flashed me a huge grin.

His long hair was dangling in his eyes and he seemed to take up all the available space with his presence alone. I backed into a corner and deliberately stared at the ground, willing him to hurry up and just push something so he would go away as quickly as possible.

The man was facing the doors as they closed, but something must have clicked in his head when he swept his fringe from his face and glanced back at me over one shoulder. It looked like he was just double-checking to make sure he hadn’t made a mistake. I gave him a weak smile but I knew my heart was starting to race again.

The man suddenly turned around and looked down at me with his head dropped to one side like that somehow made it easier to study me.

I shifted uncomfortably when I caught the man’s piercing gaze. It was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

I ran my fingers nervously through several strands of hair and forced a cough. The man was still staring at me. I was suddenly beginning to feel much warmer than I had done a few minutes before.

“You’re Cassandra.” The man said with a smile. It was meant as a statement, not a question.

***

“I am,” Cassandra answered. Her blue eyes started to roam around as to search for the location of the emergency button, just in case she suddenly needed to push it.

The girl looked absolutely terrified, and her voice was quiet and soft. Lucas couldn’t resist a secret smile. He was starting to understand why Axel was so captivated by her.

“Sorry. Do I know you?”

“No. Well, not really but I know you.” Lucas laughed. “Axel hasn’t shut up about you all day.”

Cassandra swallowed.

“Axel?”

Lucas nodded.

“Yep. I’m his brother. I don’t know if he’s mentioned me at all.”

***

“Lucas?” I replied, the earlier conversation with Axel flooding back to me now that I could actually put a face to the name.

“That's right. I’ve heard a lot about you, Cas.” Lucas gave me a knowing look before he stooped to pick up my discarded pack and slung it across one shoulder without much effort.

“I think we should have a little talk.” Lucas continued seriously and I could see a shadow cross his face in the bright glare of the artificial spotlights that dotted the ceiling. “There’s something I really need to tell you.”