“I think I have only one Omega, and that’s you.”
The words hit me like lightning, shorting out every rational thought. The red haze intensified, the mark on my neck burning hotter. I felt something shift inside my chest. The barrier I’d been holding onto cracked into a million pieces.
One Omega.That was what he’d said, and he’d meant it.
Mine, mine, mine,something in my hindbrain chanted as I continued to ride him.
The pleasure built like a storm gathering strength. It was inevitable, unstoppable, consuming everything in its path. Each movement sent shockwaves through my mind. He filled me so completely that there was no room for anything else.
I could feel myself climbing toward something devastating, my body chasing release like it was the only thing that mattered.
“Alexander—” His name broke on my lips, and I hated how it sounded like a prayer.
“I’ve got you,” he croaked out. “Let go, Andie. I’ve got you.”
The orgasm exploded over me, sudden and all-consuming. My body seized, clenching around him so tight it bordered on painful. Waves of pleasure crashed through me in rhythm with my racing pulse.
Alexander followed me over the edge with a guttural groan, his hips jerking up as he came inside me. And then I felt something else—an expansion, a swelling at the base of his cock that locked us together.
His knot.
The sensation of being stretched even fuller sent me spiraling into a second orgasm. It was too much, too intense. The pleasure was bleeding into something that felt like it might break me apart. My inner walls contracted around the knot, holding him deep as his release pulsed hot inside me.
I couldn’t breathe. Wave after wave of ecstasy rolled through me, each one stealing more of my consciousness.
The world faded to black around the edges. When awareness returned, the room had shifted.
We were lying on our sides now, still locked together by his knot. My back was pressed against his chest. One of his arms was wrapped around my waist, holding me close, while the other pillowed my head. I could feel his breath against my neck, warm and steady. The occasional aftershock made his cock twitch inside me.
The red haze had lifted, leaving behind a clarity that was somehow worse. I could remember everything I’d said. Everything I’d done. The accusations I’d hurled at Danae, at my mother, at Cassandra.
Drooling over my Alpha like a bitch in heat.
The words echoed in my mind, sharp with shame. Danae had been working to save me, and I’d called her a whore. I’d seen betrayal where there was only desperate friendship trying to find a solution.
“Alexander,” I whispered, tears burning in my eyes. “I think there’s something wrong with me.”
His arm tightened around my waist, pulling me impossibly closer. He didn’t say anything—didn’t offer false comfort or try to deny the truth we both knew.
My mother had been honest the whole time. There was something wrong with me. Something that made me see threats where none existed, that turned love into suspicion and friendship into betrayal.
The curse. Hera’s touch. The poison in my blood that Alexander had activated but couldn’t cure.
I lay there in his arms, still joined with him in the most intimate way possible, and let the tears come silently. Because for the first time since this nightmare began, I couldn’t lie to myself anymore about what was happening.
I was losing my mind, and I didn’t know how to stop it.
15
The Collar
Alexander
Sometimes, living on Samos felt like a dream. Like the things I’d said and done the day before were only a mirage, and the next morning, I’d start over. A ridiculous form of Groundhog Day.
It would have been an alarming existence for an Alpha, let alone one from House Zeus. But I accepted it. I was lucky Helena had even granted me access to her daughter. Each Groundhog Day was a privilege, not a curse.
Still, that didn’t make it any easier to see Andie’s eyes clear up one day, then go fuzzy another. It hurt, and every single time, I cursed the Olympian gods who’d led us into this nightmare.