Bewitched, p.10
Bewitched, page 10
She sobbed in frustration. “Let go. I have to fix it.”
Jaxon grabbed her neck and rubbed her scent gland, trying to force her into submission, but her anxiety was too high, too potent in her blood. “It’s fine. Your nest is very nice.”
Layla shook her head. She tugged against the flesh where they were joined. If she just worked hard enough. She could get him out. She could leave, hide, wait for Alpha to come back.
“Layla, stop.”
She bared her teeth at him. Omegas didn’t growl at alphas. It was dangerous, but she couldn’t stay here. He couldn’t make her.
“Let me go. Let me go. Let me go!” Layla screamed.
Jaxon cursed and reached for her neck again, but Layla was quicker, sinking her teeth into his palm. He yelped and jerked his hand away from her. Layla growled a pathetic and incomplete sound.
“Be still, now,” Jaxon snapped, his voice deep and uncompromising.
Layla stilled, every muscle stiff and unmoving. It was a Command. A real Command from an alpha. She had never been Commanded. It was forbidden. It was illegal. Alphas went to prison for using Commands. Not that it mattered. No one was there to stop him.
Every muscle hurt, straining to hold position. She wasn’t breathing. Why couldn’t she? Why? Why? Why? Please stop. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. The Command had stopped everything. He was killing her. She was going to suffocate because he told her to. Was that how Summer died?
“Fuck.” Jaxon shifted, tugging at her. “Relax,” he Commanded.
Layla slumped into the pillows, her strings cut, and she sucked in a tremulous breath. She was suddenly cold, and she couldn’t even tremble to warm her skin. She couldn’t even produce that involuntary movement.
Jaxon continued to curse to himself as he tugged them onto their sides, and he pulled her close to him, cradling her head on his arm.
“Shh,” he whispered close to the top of her head. “Don’t try to hurt yourself, and I won’t do that again. Fucking, stupid girl. You said I could take care of you. I was taking care of you, and now you worked yourself up.”
She was a bad omega. Just like he said. She felt shame, for her nakedness and her nest and her outburst and the fuzziness of her memory.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. It was the most she could say because the Command would still not allow her to scream.
He put his hand on her neck, using his thumb to push her chin up until she met his eyes. “You are safe. I will keep you that way, even if I have to make you.” His tone allowed no argument.
Jaxon, an alpha. Her Alpha… She had agreed, right? It was sort of a hazy memory, standing in his bedroom… standing in a forest.
Her eyes slid away from the intensity of his gaze, and he shook her slightly. Her eyes snapped back. His frown was deeper.
Her lip trembled. Tears in her throat. He was still inside her. Deep and pulsing and unforgiving.
Jaxon touched her face, wiping tears away and tracing over her lips. He watched her intently and touched her mating gland, making her core clench around him. He hummed appreciatively, a small smile on his face.
She lay quietly, and Jaxon purred soothingly as a growing discomfort in her insides made itself known. It wasn’t his cock or his knot that had been a constant minor ache. This was climbing and nauseating, producing soft cramping.
“I don’t feel good,” Layla said. She tried to cross her arms over her breasts and found she could move, albeit slowly.
Jaxon frowned and ran his hands over her. “Where?”
“My stomach. I think.”
He rubbed her belly, massaging over the nauseating fullness, and another sharper cramp seized her. “Hmm. You don’t know?”
She shook her head and looked down. Her belly may have looked a little swollen, with… him. Oh. His spend. His semen. She glanced up at him, horrified. Oh, God. It was filthy, embarrassing. Worse, he was watching her while she worked through her panic and disgust. Layla began to shiver and couldn’t stop.
Jaxon pulled a blanket over her and continued to pet her stomach. “The pain is probably your cervix dilating.”
Layla stared at him, uncomprehending.
Jaxon grunted unhappily. “To let in sperm. For pups.”
“Pups,” she whispered. She was going to be sick. She didn’t want pups. She didn’t want to be pregnant. She was in college. She wasn’t married. Her hips gave an involuntary jerk.
Jaxon grabbed her thigh, pulling her back into place. “Layla,” he said warningly.
She shook her head. Dizzy blackness on the edges of her vision. “I want my mom,” she moaned pitifully.
Jaxon pulled her close to him again, her chest pressed against his. “What can she do for you?”
Shera Nash could do nothing except be disappointed, but that didn’t stop Layla from wanting her. To curl up in her lap like when she was little, and her mom could drive back the scary world. Her mom promised. She promised Layla wouldn’t be like Roan.
“She promised.”
Jaxon hummed, displeased. “Ah, she’s the one that fucked you up. Filled your head with beta stories and lied about how the world works for people like us.”
Layla tried to withdraw, look away, but Jaxon didn’t let her.
“You’re in good company, kitten. You’re not the only one that’s been betrayed by their family.”
Layla shook her head. Her mom wouldn’t hurt her. “She didn’t—“
“No? Letting you run around like a beta is one thing. You don’t know a damn thing about being an omega. So deep down terrified of your own body. Afraid of your own fucking heat. I can smell it. Your parents failed you. And here I am, the worst person in the world to pick up your broken pieces.” He laughed, an unpleasant bitter sound. “You’re fucked, kitten.”
Layla let the tears fall. He wasn’t right, not completely, but he was right enough to hurt. “Please stop.”
Jaxon sighed and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “You’re too kind a girl for a bitter old dog like me. If I was a better man…”
Layla stared, waiting for him to continue, but he didn’t. He rubbed her stomach soothingly. Layla burrowed in close. She had nowhere else to go with them being attached so intimately. She closed her eyes and took in his scent. Cinnamon and sweat. Alpha and masculine. She hated herself a little for wanting him. She hated him for being right.
Jaxon wrapped her in his arms, and Layla let herself cry.
Chapter 11
Layla stared at the wall. She was tired, a little hungry. Her whole body ached. She could move but only slowly. She didn’t think Jaxon had Commanded her again, but she had lost time in there somewhere. She remembered his knot shrinking and the sudden rush of mess that flowed from her. There was an all-consuming hysteria, and she vomited.
Layla had come back to herself with her back against Jaxon’s chest. One of his hands held her wrists, and his other hand held a towel to her center. He had her head tipped back on his shoulder so she couldn’t see. Utterly mortified, Layla cried until she vomited again.
But exhaustion and Jaxon’s constant purring eventually won out, and he laid her down for a nap while he took away a load of filthy laundry.
His hand was bleeding. She thought she bit him. Good. She hoped it hurt. She hurt.
Layla was still leaking. She could feel it and smell it. Slick and cum. It wasn’t like the other time she’d had sex. Clean-up had been easier, and the scents had drifted away after a shower. Maybe that’s what she needed: another shower. It couldn’t hurt.
She stood on weak, shaking legs. She was dizzy, and for a moment, she didn’t recognize anything outside the closet. It was like stepping into a new world, like Narnia, only not so magical.
Jaxon’s den. Right. She wasn’t lost at all.
She pulled down one of Jaxon’s button-down shirts and put it on. It engulfed her, covering more skin than the dress she had worn to the party. Last night? Yesterday? When was she?
It didn’t matter right then. She was covered in sickening amounts of sweat, slime, and unidentified fluids. She needed a shower. At the very least, she needed to pee. Amid all the crying and puking, she hadn’t managed to piss herself, which was a miracle.
Layla used the facilities and brushed her teeth with a spare toothbrush she found in the medicine cabinet. She showered away the smells of vomit and Jaxon from her skin. She felt a little anxious at letting that last one swirl down the drain, but she dried off and put his shirt back on. Better. She smelled like him again.
Layla swallowed down a wave of nausea at the unhappy reappearance of slick between her legs. Couldn’t it just stop? Alpha had been inside her, knotted. Couldn’t that be enough for her stupid vagina? Obviously not.
She could only waste so much time puttering in a bathroom, so she shuffled to the living room. Nothing had changed. Couch. Table. Curio cabinet. She didn’t know what she expected.
Jaxon was in the small kitchen poking at his toaster, cell phone held to his ear. He was wearing gray sweatpants hung low on his hips. No shirt.
“She panics every time. I had to Command her so she wouldn’t hurt herself.” He wasn’t talking to her. He didn’t even notice her.
Jaxon paused, listening to someone on the other end of the call for a moment. “I know! She was trying to pull off my knot; you know the damage she could have done to herself. You were never like this.”
Layla glared. A dizzying swirl of anger bubbled up from somewhere deep and primal. He had knotted someone else. She knew it. And she was… not okay with it. Like the smell of other omegas on his clothes. She hated it. It was irrational. Jaxon shouldn’t mean anything to her.
He pulled out a fork and stabbed the toaster. “Way to stroke my ego, Kaiser. Do you tell Georgia that, too?”
Layla crept closer to the kitchen. Kaiser. Omega. Why was Jaxon talking to him? She hated him. She would kill him. Rip him apart. Jaxon was hers.
“I’m not leaving. I can’t.” He paused. “I haven’t.” Another pause. “For fucks sake, don’t tell your father. I don’t need that headache yet.”
Layla shuffled into the kitchen, the tile cool under her feet. She put a hand on the kitchen island, making sure she could stay standing. She was dizzy. She gave Jaxon her best glare, made sure he saw it.
Jaxon glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. “I have to go,” he said into the phone. “Go fuck yourself.”
Layla grinned, proud that she had gotten him to do something all by herself. She could make Alpha listen.
Jaxon stared down at her. He didn’t seem happy. Or mad. Or anything, really. That was annoying.
He looked her up and down, eyes lingering on his shirt. “Are you hungry? I’m making toast. You might be able to keep that down.”
She leaned against the island away from him and nodded. Maybe some food would do her good. She hadn’t eaten since… oh, since a granola bar in her dorm. A drink at the party. Did alcohol count as food?
The fluorescent lights buzzed unpleasantly in her ears. “How long have I been here?”
“About sixteen hours or so. It’s just past noon. Butter?”
She nodded. That was a long time. Wasn’t it? She couldn’t tell. Time wasn’t moving correctly. Every moment seemed like a small forever. The digital clock on the stove didn’t change.
Jaxon held the toast out to her, and she reached for it. He pulled it back with expectant raised brows.
Oh. He wanted to feed her. That was okay. Everyone liked being fed, even betas. She had seen it in a movie once. It was intimate.
Layla blushed, and when he brought the slice of bread forward again, she took a bite from his hand.
“Good girl.”
She ignored the thrill that went down her spine. She shouldn’t care. It was disconcerting. The whole thing was. She wanted it to be over. To get back to normal at her dorm and forget this whole interlude ever happened.
Slick trickled unpleasantly down her leg, tickling, reminding her of the itch deep inside. It would stop soon. It had to.
Jaxon narrowed his eyes and sniffed at the air. “You ready again?”
“No,” she said and shook her head. She didn’t want to go back in there with that heavy omega smell. She didn’t want to be pinned to the ground again, forced to accept him inside her again. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like how much she did like it.
“Layla,” he said warningly.
Layla cringed and wrapped her arms around herself. She was disappointing him again. That should feel normal by now. “Not yet,” she said. “I’m hungry. I’ll… I’ll say when I’m ready.”
Jaxon snorted like he didn’t believe her. “Alight, kitten. Don’t leave it too long; you’ll upset yourself again.”
He held out the toast again, and she took another bite. He took his own bite of bread and quietly chewed.
Layla looked away, and her eyes fell on the picture of her and Kaiser on the refrigerator. Kaiser. She wanted to bite him, and not in a good way.
“You slept with Kaiser Sorreto.”
Jaxon chewed slowly. He looked between the picture and Layla warily. “Aye. We went over this. It was a long time ago.”
Layla tamped down on the need to snarl. She wasn’t an animal. She could let her displeasure be known in a perfectly beta fashion. Not that she could think of any at that moment. “I don’t like him.”
Jaxon chuckled. “You liked him fine yesterday.”
Layla bit at her lower lip. Sure. That was yesterday before she knew Kaiser had lured her Alpha to his bed. No. Not her Alpha. Just Jaxon. He could sleep with whoever he wanted to, even omega whores like Kaiser. “Don’t let him touch you again.”
Jaxon grinned and leaned back against the counter. “Oh, making demands now? I could stay away from him, but who’s going to touch me instead?”
Layla frowned. That wasn’t what she meant. She didn’t want to touch him. Right? She stared into his eyes, steel gray. She couldn’t even see his scars as something frightening or separate from him anymore. He was just Jaxon. Maybe a little bit rude. Maybe a little bit alpha.
He took another bite of toast and just watched her. Waiting for her to make her decisions like he always did. Eventually, he would decide for her, but she didn’t want him to this time.
She extended a hand to touch his bare chest. Hair and scars. Rock hard muscle under soft skin. He was warm. Jaxon rumbled an encouraging purr.
It was pleasant, almost. It would have been if the shrill squawk of her mother’s voice wasn’t constantly in the back of her head. Beta’s didn’t act like this. Betas would be married. Courted. Not forced to couple and crave, but she was. Because she wasn’t a beta. She was an omega. A very broken omega with a tenuous connection to a very angry alpha.
She tipped her head back and looked at the bright fluorescent lights. She could hear them sizzle and pop. It flooded her ears until she could hear it in her skin.
Oh no, it was starting again. “I feel weird.”
“Kaiser said—“
Layla scrunched up her nose and closed her eyes. She didn’t need to hear what Kaiser said.
Jaxon chuckled. “He said that you would be confused and irrational throughout a lot of your heat.”
“Kaiser Sorreto is an asshole,” she said.
“No argument here, but he’s not wrong.”
She looked down and saw Jaxon again. Did he move? She looked around the strange room filled with boxy metal contraptions. She couldn’t remember what they were called. The big metal box began to hum, and she flinched. “Where am I?”
Jaxon’s hands came up and held her arms. The room stopped swaying. “You’re in my den.”
She stared at the alpha above her. He looked strange, like a funhouse mirror version of a friend. He was Alpha, but not. He was Jaxon, but not. She sniffed. He smelled like Alpha.
Worry crawled around her gut, but she pushed it away. Alpha said she would be confused. Maybe it was okay if she was confused. Would he get mad if she forgot who he was again?
The itch was slithering down her body, concentrating at her core. Her mouth itched. She was hungry. No, not hungry, but she wanted to sink her teeth into something. There had to be something in her nest for her to bite. Ooh, nest! Where did she leave that?
Layla tugged at Alpha’s hand and followed her nose toward her nest. It would be nice and dark, and the lights wouldn’t buzz, and everything would smell like Alpha, and he could scratch her itch and—
There was a thump outside the door. Alpha turned away from her. She didn’t like that. Layla tugged on his hand again.
Alpha stood still, rigid. He growled softly. Oh, not good.
Layla blinked rapidly and shook her head. She needed to stay present.
The thump came again, harder. “Jaxon,” a deep voice called. “Who do you have in there? I can smell her.”
Jaxon sucked in a gasp with an expression she had never seen on his face. Fear.
Something hit the door, and it rocked in the frame. “Boy! Let me in.”
Fear and adrenaline flooded Layla’s system, pushing back her arousal and clearing her mind. Everything came into sharp focus. There was a strange alpha attempting to break into Jaxon’s den.
Jaxon pushed at her, sending her swaying toward the bedroom. “Get in the back. Lock the door.”
Layla stumbled to the hall, but her knees were still wobbly and wouldn’t move fast enough. She fell against the wall and slowly slid down. “Jaxon,” she whispered, fear wrapping around her heart and nearly drowning her.
“Hide,” he growled.
Layla nodded, but she couldn’t get up.
The body hit the door again, and the door splintered from the frame. Jaxon cursed.
Layla clawed at the wall. She had to get up!
A huge alpha stepped into the apartment. He was taller than Jaxon. Wider. More heavily muscled. Axel Harlow. What was he doing there? Kaiser was supposed to keep alphas off their floor.
“What are you keeping to yourself, brother?” Axel asked, looking around the apartment. He didn’t seem concerned about Jaxon at all.
“You’re not supposed to be here. Kaiser quarantined the floor.”
He laughed, a sound so similar to his brother’s. “That bossy omega doesn’t command me. He said you found a needy little pet, and I had to see for myself.”
