Olcan (Boston Bear Brothers 2)

He was an Alpha and she was an Omega. This was the way their world worked, even when they were thousands of miles away in a suburb full of humans. She hadn’t expected this and didn’t know how she was supposed to handle it now that it had happened. It would have been would thing if he had merely fucked her out of animal instinct, but it had been far more than that. He’d imprinted on her, and she now belonged to him, but it was his choice if he wanted to belong to her.

She took a cold shower and tried to not think about his hands on her skin, his lips on her breasts. It wasn’t working. She felt nothing but a pull to return to him. It was agonizing. Fuck this. Opening the cellar door, she made her way down to the basement to fetch a bottle of the wine she’d been cautioned not to touch. It wasn’t like she gave a damn about what happened when these two morons returned from their away time.

Niamh selected a couple of bottles of Chianti and returned upstairs, opening one and pouring herself a large glass, which she downed like an enormous shot. She poured another glass and made herself a bowl of stew, taking it over to the sofa she’d been cautioned not to eat on and kicking her feet up on the coffee table to enjoy her meal. She wasn’t sure how to feel right now. She’d either scored a major victory over her neighbor or she’d really fucked up.

Two bottles of wine and a full belly later, she didn’t care. She unlatched the dog door that led to the backyard and turned toward Thor to discuss the way things were going to be for the rest of the day.

“Here’s the craic, Thor. You’re not going for another walk today, big fella. I’m going to go hide beneath the bed covers, and you’re going to go shit in the backyard if you have to go. You’ll be no bother to me again until tomorrow, got it?”

Thor looked at her, his head tilted quizzically to one side. She reached out to scratch behind his ears for a moment before teetering off to bed. It was the last thing she remembered until later in the evening when she woke up to find Thor curled up in the bed next to her.

“You’ve got some neck on you, being in this bed where you know you’re not allowed, Thor,” she muttered, tossing her arm across him and drifting back off to sleep for a while longer. If nothing else, maybe she could sleep away the shame of the day.

It was nearly eight p.m. before she woke up again, this time with no Thor. She dragged herself out of bed and padded into the kitchen, feeling more like she was lurching than walking across the cold tile floors of this cold fucking house.

Her head was already roaring and she debated whether to stick with the hair of the dog or take some aspirin and rehydrate. The latter won out as she considered how she was going to feel tomorrow if she drank any more wine. Climbing out of the bed, she cleaned up her mess, finding a small stew stain on the previously pristine sofa. She flipped the cushion over and plopped down on it to watch television, losing herself in some mindless made-for-television movie.

As the effects of the wine continued to wear off, she could once again feel his presence pulling her across the street. She wanted to go back over there, letting her libido silence her dignity. She wanted him inside of her—every minute, every hour, every day. It was maddening thinking that he might not want that as much as she did. How could he not? How could he not feel this same urge that she did now that he’d imprinted on her?

She tried to imagine him over there pining for her touch in the same way she fixated on his, but she couldn’t do it. Did Alphas really feel this the same way an Omega did? When she and Sean had gotten married, it had been arranged. Sex had been a struggle and eventually non-existent due to his admission of his true feelings. It had never been intense like what she’d felt with Olcan, and she had no other frame of reference. She’d been a virgin when she married Sean and was not much less of one now.

Apparently, it had held no more excitement for him, which is why he got his jollies off fucking his way through a number of strangers behind her back. She’d thought he just preferred other women over her, but the truth had been much more complex. Of course, it had been his extramarital dalliances that had been his demise, and his father had seen it as a weakness, a reflection on himself. He’d needed someone to blame for his son’s death, so that person was the woman who’d been unable to satisfy his son.