The Scent of Love

Chapter 8

So much for detachment. 

It somehow becomes a habit, the two of them like this. At one or the other’s place, whenever their schedules happen to line up. It really blows a hole into his foolproof plan. Sean— he hates it, whenever he’s not around her. He hates how much he enjoys being with her, how much he needs it, but then when he is around her, he can’t seem to help himself. 

Her heat was nothing short of a dream. He left her apartment feeling like he could run a marathon, and she kissed him goodbye with that glazed, sated, post-heat Omega look he’d only seen a few times before, from one other person. Her skin had been flushed and glowing, her eyes bright, her scent dangerously delicious and mixed with his. The alpha side of him purred with contentment at the thought. Possessive fucker. 

Yeah. Except Sean doesn’t have time to be a possessive Alpha right now. That’s not who he is. He doesn’t want a mate yet. 

He never spends the night at her place, when they hookup. He only asks her over in the morning, before one or both of them go to work, or do something else with their day. She always seems so busy, and he hates that he has to keep himself occupied to keep from thinking of her. 

There are little things, quirks of hers he can’t stop thinking about. She never seems to know what to do or say before one of them makes a move. After is sometimes just as bad. He wonders if she’s scared of him— which. Fair. He’s a giant, and an alpha. He gets it. 

Beth is unbelievably small. Sean forgets it every time, until she’s pressed into the center of his mattress and writhing underneath him, or tucked against him, as she is now. He forgets, always, how much bigger he is than her. How much stronger. 

“Alpha.” The word drags something out of him, something he doesn’t want to examine too closely. A clenching in his chest, a dizziness in his head. There’s just so much of her there, humming along under his skin. She only ever says it when she’s in her deepest Omega space, like during her heat, and his rut. She must be exhausted, to be saying it now.

Beth lifts her face against his neck to nuzzle his gland, and it’s just about his undoing. She’s emitting a slight purr that makes his barbaric Alpha hindbrain want to slaughter something for her, to provide for her, to f**k her and bite her and mate her—

Yeah. No.

But he can’t keep his hands off her, now. He has no excuse. He just can’t. 

Sean nuzzles the crown of her head, and she sighs, her breath ghosting across the gland on his neck. He has to grit his teeth to keep from just rolling her over and making a mess of her again. 

“Am I staying?” She asks, her voice thick with sleep. Her eyes aren’t even open. 

“Could you even drive home, if I said no?” He teases, making no move to release her. She’s warm and soft in his arms, heavy with sleep. 

Those gorgeous eyes of her pry open, barely a millimeter. “I’m fine,” she insists. She even makes to move, like his arm isn’t a dead weight pinning her in place. 

“Uh-huh,” he says calmly, tucking her head underneath his chin. “You’re staying.” 

She hums a little in her throat, and presses herself closer.

His entire hand spans most of her back. She’s not a child— not in any way— but the sheer size of her astounds him, the way he could wrap one hand most of the way around her skinny leg, her tiny waist. It makes it so much harder to tell that obnoxious Alpha part of himself that she’s not his exclusively to take care of. 

The thought leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. 

She stirs with a small, distressed noise, pressing her lips just under his gland. “Sean?”

His stupid scent. It’s a dead giveaway, whenever he starts getting possessive of her. Though his erection pressed against her hip probably tipped her off. 

“Just ignore it,” he says softly, sweeping his hand down her bare back. Every inch of her is bared for him, her scent filling his lungs with every breath, her slick entrance parted on his thigh. Their mixed scents practically drove him into rut the first time he smelled them, and it’s hardly any better now. 

“Hmm.” That soft purr of hers increases, just slightly. “What if I don’t want to?”

Sean’s head spins at her words. Or maybe it’s the shift in her scent, from sated to aroused, overpowering his rational mind. 

“Insatiable,” he says, pulling her closer. 

Really, she could have done this herself. Except there’s something deeply satisfying about being the one to move her, pressing her hips at just the right angle that he slips in. 

They both moan. 

Either from exhaustion, or the same dizzying mix of their scents affecting him, Beth seems to retreat into some sort of Omega space. Her purring gets a little louder, her eyes glassy. 

“Alpha.” Her voice. Saying that. She says it so rarely, and each time brings him a little closer to— something. Sean squeezes her hips even more tightly, moving her back and forth against him. “Please, Alpha.” 

He’s not sure what she’s begging him for, but the words go straight to his knot, already swelling inside her. “Please what, Omega?”

She moans, writhing against him. “Please— oh—“ she arches her back, and the sweetly scented glands at her neck bare to him, and—

God, he’s helpless, he thinks. And then he can’t think anymore, because he’s suckling on her neck, and she’s coming and coming and coming around him. 

“Gonna knot you,” He manages, his voice hoarse. He’s already swollen and throbbing inside her. Dangerously close. 

“Yes, Alpha, please—“

It whites out his vision when he finally comes, exquisite torture as he locks inside her and her orgasm starts all over again. She’s just this side of too tight, the taste of their partially mixed scents on his tongue doing wicked, impossible things to his mind. 

Mate her. She’ll like it. I’ll make sure she likes it—

Sean groans and rolls her on top of him, clutching her tightly as her body goes limp. She smells like a sated Omega, she smells like him, and for a brief, fleeting moment, there’s nothing in the world he wants for. 

This can’t continue. He’ll go mad. He has to get out of this, before it goes too far.