Vinnystilldidn’t seem to care, and now he was checking his nails.
“Violet, if you want him, just say so, you have two holes,” Benji joked.
And I glared.
He wants me, I signed.
Benji’s eyes flicked to Vinny’s. “That true?”
Vinny didn’t even look up at first. Just stretched his neck like he was bored out of his skull. Then, I saw the twitch in his jaw.
“She’s not wrong,” Vinny said eventually. “But wanting her doesn’t mean I’m playing this game.”
I narrowed my eyes and signed,It’s not a game.
“It is, and that’s fine,” Vinny yawned. “I want you happy, but I’m not letting a pint sized omega boss me around.”
I huffed, chest rising fast beneath Benji’s hands. I wanted to scream. To shove Vinny against the headboard and force him to see me. Totouchme. Tofeelhow much I was shaking. I wanted him to want those things as badly as I did.
But he was an old dinosaur who couldn’t be aroused, that or he knew I was just doing this to see how he’d react.
You don’t want me.I signed.
Vinny’s eyes snapped to mine. The look he gave me was cold enough to make me shiver.
“I didn’t say that,” he said.
You don’t like me.I continued.You want to control me. You want to own me. But you don’twantme.
My hands shook as I signed, and I hated it. Hated how my chest felt too tight and how the lump in my throat made it hard to breathe.
Benji’s hand stilled on my thigh, but he didn’t interrupt.
“You think I don’t want you?” Vinny asked quietly. “You think I force myself to sleep far away from you because I don’t want you?”
My hands moved before I could think.Yes. I think you’re mad I’m here, and that the rest of the pack likes me. I think you hate that I don’t give you what you want and that it’s me carrying your baby. I think you don’t–
His lips crashed onto mine, sending me deeper into the pillows than I thought possible.
I gasped against him and my heart slammed against my ribs. The kiss was messy and rough and warm, and unlike anything I’d experienced before. His hand fisted in the sheets beside my head, and I could feel him holding himself back even as he poured everything into that kiss.
My hands trembled between our bodies, caught between grabbing him and pushing him away. But I couldn’t find the strength to do either.
His mouth tore from mine, breath ragged as he stared down at me. His pupils were blown, and his scent, Gods, his scent, cinnamon and coffee, and heat, and unadulterated alpha musk.
“I don’t think you’ve ever had a fucking gentleman in your life,” he growled. “You’ve told me not to mark you, what do you expect?”
The words hit like an open palm to the face, leaving me to stare up at him. Logan marked me without consent. Logan fucked me without consent. Loganmarriedme without consent.
My lips tingled with the echo of his kiss. I wanted to sayeverything, that I didn’t know how to bewantedwithout beingtaken,that my last alpha didn’t care either way. But, that would result in me taking off my ring and admitting that I was the missing Stellar omega.
And, I didn’t see that going well.
My hands hovered uselessly between us, fingers curling and uncurling as they searched for a language that didn’t exist. Fear slid sideways in my chest, changing shape, mutating into something worse.
It wasn’t just fear of being owned by Vinny anymore.
It was the fear of letting him in, of opening myself up, only to be discarded when I stopped being convenient.