Fragments Read online

  “Well,” Rachel said slowly. “I’ve got a movie sitting over there and I can make popcorn. It’ll be fun.”

  “I’m still really confused about what’s actually going on,” I said.

  “That happens with Alphas. If you’d like, we can sit and talk about that instead. We’ve got two hours.”

  “Sure, let’s do that.”

  “I’ve also got more wine,” she said as she claimed the other glass. “Morgan went and bought me a case of a wine that I said I liked. He’s watched Blane spoil Matt and Alex for years with good wines, so I think he’s trying to imitate that because he thinks its cute. Which, you know, who could argue with free wine?”

  “You’re going to tell me everything, right?”

  “I’m going to tell you everything that I know, yes.”

  We moved to the living room area and sat on the couch. While we drank our glasses of wine, and proceeded to split another bottle as Rachel filled me in on the missing two years of my life. She sugar coated some things, I knew she was doing it, but I didn’t call her on it. She wasn’t just doing it just for me, she was also doing it for herself.

  When she broke down into tears, I pulled her into my arms and held her while she cried, but I didn’t feel that urge myself.

  I had listened to the events in a numb sort of fashion, as if I were listening to the story of someone else’s life.

  She told me about Morgan and what little she knew of the Alpha. Of his odd heritage and how linked our lives had been even though we hadn’t known just how close we had been.

  Then she told me what she knew of Mothers and Daughters, which was very little. The Alphas were researching the titles and the genetics, but they weren’t overly forthcoming with the information. She hadn’t been able to get Gerrid and Blane to talk in terms that she could understand, and the ones looking into the history were Theo and Penelope.

  Theo wasn’t in the estate and Rachel had no idea how to contact him.

  Penelope was busy with preparing for breeding, and demanded privacy, which Rachel didn’t understand. What she did understand was that Daniella had threatened to break anyone’s legs who interfered with whatever it was that Penelope was doing.

  “So, Morgan went searching for you?” I asked at the end of it all.

  Morgan had unconsciously recognized Rachel’s name on a list of those Owen had submitted as lawbreakers. Squished in there, and not the name we had been registered under in the Alpha files because our father, Patrick, had adopted us officially after the marriage between him and our mother.

  “Seems like it,” she said.

  “You do realize, he probably wanted both of us, right?”

  “For Blane, though, recall,” Rachel said. “Morgan went out to collect me for Blane, and Blane gifted me to Morgan. But, yes, I can see your point. Morgan was probably hoping to bring home the mythical twin companions to Da, even if we weren’t the gender that Blane wants.”

  “Blane does need a new companion.”

  “He won’t even consider taking one on right now. Matt’s tried to convince him,” Rachel said. “And he and Penelope are going to try breeding soon, before she’s here long enough that his genetics are supressed. Or maybe they started that today, it’s hard to keep track.”

  “You said the female Alphas were interested in you, yet they haven’t come beating down the door yet to meet me,” I said.

  “Daniella headed out to her area. Blane’s demanded that the Doms do a cleaning of house, so to speak. He’s laying down the law. And Penelope is currently doing as an Alpha does with his breeder when it’s time. Whatever that means, because they didn’t tell me what it was that they do.”

  “I don’t recall,” I said.

  “I didn’t think you did, but it’s just so weird. I thought Alphas just, you know, climbed on and got off before they, well, got off, when it came to breeding.”

  “Ah, the old poke and hump.”

  “Exactly, but apparently there’s a whole ritual behind it. There are things they do all superstitiously. Like if they don’t do it, they won’t conceive an Alpha? It’s just so weird. Blane knows all about genetics and health sciences, but he’s still insisting it happens.”

  “But won’t share it?” I asked. “Wouldn’t he want to share that with you? Because at some point, you and Morgan are probably going to have a child, you know that, right?”

  “Right? But he says Morgan and I don’t have a breeding relationship. Like, does that mean he doesn’t think we’re going somewhere? Or that our relationship is different from that an Alpha has with his breeder because we, you know, care for one another? I just, I don’t know, I’ve been so confused since I got here and they all think I know it all even though I don’t. They wanted me to give you some kind of orientation. I barely know my way to my rooms from anywhere in the estate.”

  “Great, so I’m not alone in that confused feeling,” I said.

  “Goodness no, Morgan was the best one at explaining, but he’s off in the area, doing his thing,” Rachel said. “Now I have no explanation for anything. That there, with them all doing that? That was the closest to an explanation I’ve gotten since Morgan left. Even that wasn’t much of anything.”

  I made a little sound as there was a knock on the door.

  “Let’s see if I can do this,” I said, handing her my wine glass.

  I went to the door and opened it, leaning on it with my left shoulder. Gerrid looked me over, then shook his head.

  “No, nice try, but no,” he said.

  “No, what?” I asked.

  “You’re Rebecca,” he said, then pointed into the room, to Rachel on the couch. “That’s Rachel.”

  “How do you know?” I asked as I pushed off the door.

  “My awkward boner came back,” Gerrid said with a little smile. “Rachel doesn’t do that because she’s made herself clear. It’s a wonderful little consent hormone that carriers of G14 give off. See, from the outside perspective, Alphas are all up in companions’ faces, ignoring their right to consent. From the inside, an Alpha can actually detect when a companion removes consent. Some of us ignore it, and a few of the worse off ones—including Owen actually—can’t detect it at all, or confuse it with fear.”

  “How do you know that about Owen?” I asked.

  “I donated his body to science,” Rachel said.

  “She,” Gerrid gave a little shrug, “said I could do experiments on him as long as I didn’t kill him. There’s a whole thing with killing him, we can discuss it later. Right now, I believe I’m to take you to bed.”

  I made a little sound at the back of my throat.

  “How much wine did you two get into?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “A bottle? I haven’t had anything to drink in years.”

  “Little Miss Wino, got it,” he said. “Let’s put you to bed before you go running into Robin’s area and I get strung up and ridden by him because you claimed his man.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “Being ridden by Robin? That part isn’t so bad, it’s the cropping my genitals would take before and after that’s the painful part. I’m going to take your hand here, and hold on tight. Because I don’t want my tender parts cropped for someone else’s amusement, okay?”

  “Okay, but I’m not that drunk.”

  “You can say that, but I’ve heard about Rachel’s drunken stumble through the estate and I don’t want to take that risk.”

  Chapter Seven

  I awoke the next morning curled against Gerrid’s side, using him as a body pillow, or giant teddy bear. Whichever description of that you’d enjoy best.

  He was warm and smelled delightful, breathing slowly and relaxed against me.

  We had gone to bed in nothing more than our underwear. My room had clothing in it, and I could have worn a set of pyjamas or a nightie if I had wanted to, but Gerrid still would have been in his underwear. Somehow, we had decided that was a compromise, us both sleeping almost naked.

  I
didn’t have much of a complaint about that decision. The sheets were cool and yet silken at the same time. It was a joy to stretch my ankles and toes under the blankets.

  Being pressed against Gerrid’s almost naked body was a wonderful way to wake up.

  He was oh so warm and I was so comfortable that I buried my face in his neck and breathed in his scent. The smell of unwashed male. It was strange, how comfortable I felt at that smell. There was nothing sickly about it, nothing dirty even. It was just the smell of a man who hadn’t showered the day before, and for some reason I liked that.

  The scent made my tongue feel like sparkles were dancing over it, then down my throat. I darted out my tongue, trying to rub the sparkles away on my lips and teeth, but inadvertently licked Gerrid’s neck.

  He grumbled something and rolled, pinning me against the bedsheets with his body. His eyes were closed and he draped himself over me in a similar manner as I had been draped over him, even yawning against my shoulder as he adjusted.

  “Five more minutes,” he grumbled, setting his head on my breast.

  I breathed in and felt him do the same. He went stiff, all down his body, and ever so slowly, he grew hard against my leg. Gerrid lifted his head and blinked his eyes blearily. Then he smiled a sleepy sort of thing at me.

  “Hello, beautiful,” he said.

  “Did you think I was one of your many women?” I asked.

  “I do usually wake to one of them, when I share my bed,” he said. “I’m quite pleased it is you, and last night wasn’t just a dream.”

  An Alpha pleased his night didn’t end in sex?

  I made a little sound at the back of my throat. That made him smile more, even as he reached up and wiped the side of his neck.

  “Did you lick me?” he asked.

  “My mouth tastes like sparkles,” I said.

  “And you licked me to get rid of it?”

  “It was an accident,” I said.

  I rubbed at the side of my face, then reached up with my other hand and gave my whole face a good, hard rub. Sleep was, for some reason, hard to shake.

  “I’d say we’re well past the safety time for your little fix up,” Gerrid said.

  “I think that’s a safe thing to say,” I responded.

  “Good,” he said, sitting up slightly.

  He reached between us and pulled my underwear down, tossing it to the side. His hands roamed up and down my hips, then moved to my inner thighs, leaving trails of cold in their wake. The tips of his fingers were just a little rougher than my own. The feel of them over the soft skin of my inner thighs made me shudder.

  My hips moved with his hands, trying to chase after the feeling of his fingers, wanting more.

  Gerrid pressed down against me, pinning me once more with his hot body. His briefs were made of cotton, they rubbed against my thighs as he rocked against me, imitating as if in promise. He braced himself with one hand, putting weight on his elbow as he reached between us. His fingers slipped down my stomach, eyes locked on my face as they slipped past my bellybutton.

  When I gasped and tried to rise up, away from the sensation, he moved with me, keeping me against the bed as his fingers delved deeper. With each thrust of his fingers, the palm of his hand rubbed against me, sending a shudder through me.

  Pleasure roiled through my limbs, heating my blood. Gerrid continued on mercilessly driving me forward and closer to that edge.

  “Please,” I begged.

  Gerrid bent down and captured my lips. His fingers moved faster as his tongue began to probe my mouth. I moaned, trying to protest, to make my need be known, but he held me still. He was relentless.

  There was a fiery sort of pleasure washing through me. A feeling that wasn’t quite nameable. It filled me to brimming and then spilled over. My body seized, I bit Gerrid’s tongue as it happened. He made a gruff, annoyed sound and pulled away.

  My orgasm hit me like a bus. I wasn’t prepared for it, didn’t expect it to feel quite like that.

  Even before, it hadn’t felt quite like that.

  Had Blane done something to make things more sensitive?

  I struggled to get back to reality, to move through that wondrously foggy feeling and reach for Gerrid. He took my hand in his, then the other as well. I gasped out as he lowered himself, slipping into me. My hands were pinned to the bed as he thrust.

  “What are you doing?” I gasped out as he did it again.

  “Claiming my prize,” he rumbled out.

  I moaned and tried to ease the tension in my legs before they seized up on me.

  When I tried to move, Gerrid held me still.

  He took up a lazy pace, sending that roiling pre-orgasmic feeling through me with each motion. I couldn’t tell where one orgasm ended and another began.

  Gerrid just kept going, as if it didn’t bother him in the least. He even smiled down at me as he continued moving. He leaned down and chuckled as he moved faster.

  “See?” he whispered breathily in my ear. “Nothing short about me.”

  He released my hands as he adjusted his own hands and weight, using them to brace himself instead. His pace quickened. As it did, I wrapped my legs around him, reaching up with my hands and setting them on his chest.

  He moved a little faster, a little harder, arching upward as he slammed into me and stilled.

  Gerrid made a little sound, and then lowered his head. In the moments that followed, only one thought persisted as I lay there panting.

  I’m just thankful the pleasure stopped.

  It was difficult to wrap my head around it, because it had never happened before. But Gerrid had balanced me on that point of orgasm and then held me there.

  Either that, or I had about fifteen orgasms, but that wasn’t possible.

  I thought.

  Multiple orgasms were a myth, right?

  I trembled and whimpered as he withdrew and settled to my side. His forehead pressed against my shoulder, arm draped across my belly, and a leg hooked over mine. We were both breathing heavily. I stared up at the ceiling, trying to get in the breath to be able to talk.

  “Show off,” I managed finally, but barely.

  Gerrid chuckled again.

  “That wasn’t showing off, that was proving a point. If I was showing off, I would have started last night and tormented you even in your sleep.”

  I was pretty certain an Alpha couldn’t do that, at least, I hoped he couldn’t do that. Anyone could plant a thought in someone else’s head and cause a dream of one sort or another, but I didn’t think they could do it on purpose.

  I must admit, I was tempted to bait Gerrid and see if it was possible.

  “Could we not do that again for a while?” I asked.

  “Sex?” Gerrid asked.

  “No, I mean one orgasm is enough,” I said. “I don’t need… whatever that was.”

  “Sixteen by my count,” Gerrid murmured with a sleepy little smile. “Like I said, I was proving a point. If you’d like to do that again, then we can. But I think I could settle for a little slower and a little more balance to the orgasms. Though, I think I’ve sufficiently repaid the oral, no?”

  “Uh, if that’s what you do anytime a woman gives you oral, I might have to seriously re-consider my love of cocks in my mouth. That wore me out.”

  “Damn, I was hoping for sex all day,” Gerrid said, sitting up. “Guess you’ll just have to sleep it off while I head to the lab.”

  “Oh, you clever man, you.”

  Gerrid chuckled as he walked to the bathroom. I rolled onto my side and watched the bathroom door close.

  Closing my eyes for just a moment, I wondered what I would do with myself that day.

  He would be in the lab all day, and probably hoped that his little sex romp had worn me out enough to make me stay in bed.

  I slipped out and headed for the bathroom.

  He was already in the shower. I went straight for it and slipped in as he ducked his head under the water.

  “Walkin
g in unannounced is a bad idea,” Gerrid said with his head still in the stream and eyes closed. “Instinct is to hit first. I don’t want to hit you by accident. Please tell me when you’re coming in next time.”

  “I can do that,” I said, standing before him.

  He wiped at his face and finally opened his eyes, looking me over. Gerrid seemed to consider something, I saw him weighing it all.

  He reached out and took my shoulder in his hand. He turned and pushed me against the back wall of the shower, sinking to his knees as he did so. He pushed my legs apart and moved immediately, before I thought of anything at all.

  His tongue dashed out, so hot against my flesh. I didn’t think a man’s tongue could feel like that. My body reacted instinctively, arching back and tensing as he made an eager sound.

  The arch caused my head to bounce off the wall. Spots bloomed across my vision, but I wasn’t certain if that was from the crack to my skull, or how expertly Gerrid worked my over.

  I reached down and tangled my hands in his hair, holding him in place as he continued on. When I moaned, he made a sound that almost imitated it, pressing closer and emboldened by the sounds I was making.

  Walking into the shower, I was already on that edge, or still there. The first slip of his tongue, and I was roiling with heat. It did not take long for my body to seize, my breath stolen from me as the pleasure slammed through me, stripping all thought and sense from me.

  When I regained control of myself, I felt the pain of a pulled muscle.

  Gerrids fingers were digging painfully into my hip and his head was turned to the side, gasping out.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I was warned that the lock of a woman’s legs when you find the spot was worse than a gator with a death grip, but oh my,” he said, dragging in a very long breath before he looked up at me. “You could break bone with those thighs, you know that?”

  Embarrassed, I flushed and looked away. Gerrid stood with a small chuckle. He wiped at his bottom lip.