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July 31 - August 18, 2024
His huge hand slides through my hair to the side of my face and his thumb roughly strokes the tears underneath my right eye. I shriek between my teeth and try to rip away. “Not here to command you. I’ll release you from the commands, for now, but I’m askin’ you to stay calm. Promise I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Okay, yeah, I REALLY hate alpha men who force a girl to be submissive (even if she’s kinda okay with it) as that kind of personality just turns me off and leaves me SO angry, but what he just said here? Yeah, that’s gonna change everything for me. He’s giving off commanding/controlling vibes for her protection/benefit, so I bet I’m gonna end up loving this guy when all is said and done…
I stare at her, blinking while she just watches me with those large, brown eyes that are impossible to fuckin’ read. The only time I can is when she’s a little bit vulnerable. I fucking ache for that vulnerability. Makes every instinct in my body come alive with a desire to tear the world down around her and lay it at her feet.
search for darts. I pluck out the remaining three. When I look up at his face, his eyes are slitted, but he sees me. He’s got a drunk little smile strung between his lips that I don’t like at all. “Good Omega.” “F-f-f-fuck you,” I whisper, but my heart picks up its pace and I feel stronger than I did just a second before. “Are yyyyyou on d-d-d-drugs?” He snickers at that and he’s so lazy and docile he almost looks…sweet. It’s revolting. What the fuck is going on? What the hell is in those darts and can I get some?
I blink and then shake my head and blink again, trying to make sense of this…this shaking. A dull quake, it follows a certain pattern. I inhale, try to focus my gaze, but it’s my ears that find understanding first. He’s rumbling. He’s rumbling for me. I don’t know where the idea comes from, but now that it’s arrived, I can’t shake it. He’s rumbling for me. He’s a Berserker trying to soothe his Omega.
Alphas, like Berserkers, can purr for their mates — it’s one of the only remarkable differences between Alphas and Betas, other than their slightly larger sizes, and is often used as the marker to distinguish them when the gleam of their eyes cannot. But Berserkers? Berserkers don’t just purr, they roar. The sound is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. It makes me feel like I’m not lonely — like I’ve never been lonely. Like I’m worthy.
He rubs his thumb beneath my eye and I stop moving, then lean further into his touch. He purrs even louder, roaring quietly for his Omega, drowning out my thoughts, erasing them.
“You taste like snow,” I tell him, voice cracking. “You taste like sin.”
I release a rumbling Berserker purr, a mating call. I purr for my Omega. I didn’t…I didn’t think I was even capable of it. I’m done for.
I press my fingers into her skin too hard, I know, but with her, I struggle for gentleness. She can take it. She’s a fucking savage.
I want her to submit to me fully because I want to submit to her fully and mark her with my cock in my venom’s absence. It’s her vulnerability. It wounds me. It makes me feel like I matter, but only because she needs me to make sure she’s always alright. “You taste like sin,” I lie, because she doesn’t. She tastes like redemption.
She’s nothin’ I expected and everythin’ I want. I’d expected an Omega who was meek and beautiful, grateful and obedient. Instead, I got rage dipped in honey, dragged through shards of glass. An Omega who’d rather kill herself than be mine, and right now she’s beggin’ me.
Damn Echo. I’ve never begged anybody for anythin’ and I only dare because I know she hasn’t either. But I’m not gonna let her use what I am as distance between us anymore. I want her to see me. For once, I want her to see me. So, while she begs me for somethin’, I’ll beg her for that.
Fuck me, what have I been doin’? I’ve been tryna break down a savage named Echo but, as a Berserker, I haven’t been carin’ for my Omega at all. I’ve completely abandoned her.
He chokes, struggling, and my heart squeezes. I hear a small strange rattling and, for a moment, I wonder if this is a new sound all his own until I realize that he’s not the one making it. I am. It’s like…I’m trying to purr like he does. Is that…is that even possible? He releases a breath and I don’t miss the way his hold tightens around me. He nuzzles the side of my neck
Please, Adam…” Fuck no. She can’t do this. So fuckin’ unfair. I wrench her forward by the neck and bend down, bringing her forehead to meet mine. “Fuck you, Echo.” I rub my cheek against hers and make her a horrible vow. “Take you to do whatever the fuck you want. Just gotta do one thing for me first, baby.” She smells so good. Like a magical garden separated from me by only this one blanket, like a veil to the next world that I could so easily snatch away and cast aside. Her eyelashes flutter. “What?” Her chin quivers. She’s holdin’ her breath. Her want makes me ravenous. “Put on a damn
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I’m going into Paradise Hole to find the man in the cave and I want you to come with me to investigate together, like we said we would.” And then she looks at me — really looks at me — and even though she’s blushin’ hard, her words release like artillery and every bullet finds its mark. “You’re my Berserker. It’s your job.” “You manipulating me?” I snarl. Would be a problem if she thinks she can, because it’s gonna work. It’s workin’ now. “Maybe?” Yeah, it’s definitely workin’.
She’s needy, my little Omega, and and even though her lips are slack with surprise, her hands are pullin’ harder and harder on my hair. She’s tryna move me back up her body, but I can’t have it. She moans, “Adam.” Alright, maybe, I can.
I can’t bear it another fuckin’ second. My fingers stab back into my hair again and again. The distance between us ends tonight. I’m not goin’ another moment without her body welded to mine. All the time. Short of Ward stitchin’ the two of us together, I want her as close to me as fuckin’ possible. Forever.
What Echo’s built here? It’s a mess. And her presentation? In just my tee shirt, with a bandage on her arm, lookin’ up at me with tears in her eyes and hope in her bated breath? A disaster. I slip off my shoes and step forward until the tips of my toes press against her nest’s outer edge. Then I lean forward, over the barrier made of pillows, crouch down and cup her cheek. “It’s the most beautiful nest I’ve ever seen.” Her lips twitch and when she blinks, a tear springs free of her left eye. With my thumb, I capture it and spread the glitter it creates over the rest of her high cheek, counting
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I realize I need somethin’ more from her than her acknowledgement. Need her trust. Even if it’s just a piece of it. A moment. A deep growl starts up in my chest, but I will it softer until it comes out as a rumbling purr. I soothe my Omega. And then I offer her a wounded truth. “I purred myself to sleep when they kept me in the cells,” I say out loud, though I don’t mean to. She blinks and her lips part. “I could purr, even as a Beta. Shouldn’ta been able to, but I could. Never done it for anyone else but you.”
“Wife,” I purr. Her eyes bulge, color flushes her cheeks, and she gasps, “Adam!” She yelps in a panic, hands flying to her crotch as her whole body bowls over. “Wife, turn around. On hands and knees, present for me.” She does what I command even though it clearly pains her and it pains me to watch her suffer. I don’t stop her, though.
His fangs jut out of his mouth like he’s lost control over them and he lunges for my neck. He bites down hard, mouth fully covering the place that he bit me that very first night, back when I was a scavenger and a stranger and he was nobody but an enemy to me. I scream in rapture, in absolute delight. He roars and curses and sniffles because my Berserker is a cupcake. A murderous cupcake. And that fills me with violent satisfaction that carries me all through the day and into the night. The entire time, flowers fall around us.
It’s Whiskey who I can count on to voice the group’s collective thoughts. “How much…” She swallows, her face gettin’ red before turning white as a sheet. “Did you fuck so hard you lost thirty pounds?” I glance down and fuck, she might be right. I look thinner than I remember feelin’.
Only things it didn’t heal were her scars.” And I hate every one. Tried askin’ her if she wanted Ward to take a look at ‘em, but she wouldn’t have it. Said she liked ‘em. Said she made it look more like — I choke up at the damn thought — she said it made it look more like we belonged together.
“What did it feel like, bondin’ an Omega?” Vi whispers. I don’t answer right away. My face gets hot, though. Like drinking nirvana. Like finding an elixir to defy death. Like everything I ever was exists now outside of my body. Exposing and frightening. Empowering and enlightening. Like swallowing the sun.
Want you chained to me so that way I can watch every single fucker who’s gonna look at you too long so I can remember whose convoy I need to ambush on their way back to wherever they came from. You’re mine to protect and mine to serve. I’m your Berserker…”
Holdin’ her just above the collar makes me feel less like I’m leadin’ her around like a pet — less like a piece of shit. Unworthy. “Sorry. I’m sorry,” I repeat, clearin’ my throat and strugglin’ to meet her gaze. When we’re equal… I fought so hard for my seat, I…wasn’t expectin’ to have to share it. But I need to make space. I need to learn. I need…her. Just her. And I want her to look at me like I’m somebody.
She lunges, crossing the distance between us until her breasts are crushed against my chest. While I flounder, she reaches between our bodies and grabs my erection through my pants so hard I go numb below the waist. I grab her wrist with my free hand, but she just squeezes tighter. “Fuck,” I hiss, drawin’ out the word. “Omega…” Her gaze flashes. She bites her front teeth together and pulls her dark reddish brown eyebrows together over her speckled nose. So many damn freckles. Wanna draw star maps across all of ‘em, creatin’ constellations meant for me alone. “If you let another Omega touch
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“And if an Omega touches you, I’ll take her down.” I shiver when the vines reach my knees and it takes all the willpower I got in me to keep standin’ as I fall so fuckin’ hard for her. “I’ll tear her to pieces.” My voice is thick when I speak, but I force myself not to twitch, not to let her know that I’m a little freaked and creeped out by her — and aroused more than both.
“I may hate the bastard, but make no mistake in thinking I won’t defend him, too. He’s my Berserker to hate and neither of us will have anything to do with you.”
“Don’t know how, don’t wanna know how, but I’m not fuckin’ givin’ you to them. They say I’m gonna die for you and that might be fuckin’ true — do it for you easy — but you’re not gonna die, too.”
Echo says I draw her gifts out of her…but she draws my strength out of me, too. I may be unworthy when I’m alone, but how can I be when we’re together? Because she may be made of many unsettlin’ and sinister things, but there ain’t a doubt in my mind that all of ‘em have worth. And if I make her stronger, maybe I got worth by proxy.
He traps my face between his hands and brings our noses and foreheads to touch. “Know you don’t believe me, but I’m gonna spend the rest a’ my life provin’ it. I’m a bastard, Echo, in more ways than one. In all the fuckin’ ways, but I love you with every bit a’ my black heart. That’s how I know this shit between us ain’t over.”