“No, you listen,” Riley snarled into his cell phone, on the cusp of yelling.

I raised my eyebrows, pausing in the doorway with the baby monitor in my hand. I wasn’t sure what I had just walked into… but judging by the look on Riley’s face, I had no doubt that the people on the other end of the line were his parents. Frustration was evident in the set of his shoulders and the way he paced tight, tense circles in front of the apartment window.

He paused for a moment, opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, then paused again, scowl deepening. Riley didn’t seem to notice me standing in the doorway; I hesitated there, not certain if I should interrupt when thunderclouds were visibly gathering on my alpha’s face.

“No, I won’t. And if you don’t listen to me, then I’m hanging up.” There was a momentary pause. “Welp, bye.” Riley pulled the phone away from his ear and punched the end call button so hard it nearly knocked the phone out of his hand.

Suspecting from the look on his face that he was half a second away from hurling his phone at the nearest wall, I took a couple of steps into the room to get his attention.

“Hey,” I said softly to alert him to my presence.

Riley turned to me. “Hey,” he replied stiffly.

“Baby,” I reminded him. “Just got her down.”

“Sorry,” he grumbled.

I approached and reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder, opened my mouth to ask him what was going on… but before I could even touch him, his nostrils visibly flared.

Oh.

Though it was a tiny gesture from the alpha, it sent a shot of molten fire directly to my cock. I looked into Riley’s eyes just in time to see his pupils dilate, and I had to bite down hard on the inside of my lip to keep a whimper from escaping.

He could smell me.

It was still the first hours of my heat, and I’d all but doused myself in scent suppressant lotion. Charlotte had been in a mood all day, refusing to eat or sleep consistently and very cranky because of it. I was just as cranky as my daughter and had been taking it out on Riley all day, despite trying not to; I needed to eat and one of us needed to do laundry and there were a hundred other reasons Riley and I had agreed that morning to wait another day to have sex when I felt my heat coming on. We’d waited weeks already since I’d given birth to Charlotte; what was another day?

Take it slow. Make sure everything was perfect for our first time together—that’s what we’d agreed.

Clearly, my body hadn’t gotten the message.

The two of us had fooled around a little bit here and there, but Riley had been very sweet and not rushed me into anything before I was healed and ready, even though I knew he wanted me more than he admitted out loud. I wanted him, too, and for the first time in a long time, I’d been happy to feel my heat starting—if my body decided it was time for sex, then I was totally on board.

My eyes fluttered closed as I took a completely unintentional breath through my nose, drawing in the scent of him as my alpha’s body responded to my heat. I’d gotten to know Riley’s musk well over the past weeks, yet the note of raw lust that crept into it sent my heart racing like it was completely new.

“That your parents?” I asked, unsurprised when my voice came out as a throaty purr.

Between being in a failure of a relationship and being pregnant, it had been a long time since I’d had sex. My mouth practically watered as I looked at him, half tempted to tear his clothes right off.

Riley swallowed hard before answering. “M-hmm. My mother is still insistent that if I just leave you and go back to them, my father will… ah… Chris…”

I felt terrible about that, I really did; Riley’s father had fired him from the company and was threatening to cut him off entirely from his trust fund and inheritance, and no matter how many times Riley told me that it was his choice to walk away from them and he didn’t regret it for an instant, I still worried. But right now, when my brain was swamped by an insistence that I fasten my mouth over the sensitive scent glands on Riley’s neck just below his ear so I could see if he tasted exactly the way he smelled? Well, my alpha’s family was the last thing on my mind.

And as a matter of fact, Riley didn’t taste the way he smelled—he tasted better.

I sucked and nibbled greedily on Riley’s skin, not letting him twist away when he attempted to. Through the fabric of his shirt where I was touching his chest, I could feel the way his heartbeat picked up; the hitch in his breath when I gently bit his skin made my dick jump in my pants.

I’d wanted Riley since the moment I first laid eyes on him, standing there at the front door of the mansion.

Now I had him.

Falling asleep in his arms, waking up beside him in the morning, watching him interact with our daughter… it was wonderful, yes.

But I wanted more.

I needed more.

The baby monitor only barely missed my feet as I let it drop to the floor. I didn’t worry about it; Charlotte was safely asleep and it was still on, so if anything was amiss, we’d hear it. Instead, I pressed myself against Riley more fully, groping for his hands without pulling my mouth away from him. I caught one and roughly dragged his wrist across the scent glands on my own neck.

He had marked me like this a few times before, and it made my heart sing to walk around in public with him and know that every single alpha passing us smelled him on me and knew I belonged to him—and vice versa. But those sorts of marks, made by simply rubbing scent glands together, were temporary; they washed off or faded with time.

I wanted something more permanent; I wanted forever.

“Chris…” Riley said, and I didn’t miss the way the last letter of my name was drawn out into a quiet hiss.

I was no expert, but it may have had something to do with the way I nipped at his neck and thrust my hand between us to grab the bulge in his pants.

“Yes?” I asked innocently against his skin, not pulling away. I darted my tongue out immediately after, running it over the spot where his scent gland was before dragging it up to tease at his earlobe. He smelled and tasted so perfect, like earth and musk and alpha.

Riley groaned so quietly I almost didn’t hear it. “I thought we agreed to—”

“Take it slow,” I said in chorus with him, still pawing at him through his pants. At first glance, Riley was doing a fantastic job of remaining calm… but his body belied him. His cock had grown hard as a rock in the brief time that I’d been pressed against him, and though he protested, he wasn’t doing anything to pull away—if anything, he pressed himself against me with tiny, almost imperceptible thrusts of his hips.

My own cock throbbed again, and I felt a little tingle in my ass that spoke to my arousal being high enough for my body to produce its slick—and now that it had started, it wouldn’t stop until my heat was over. With the slick came another wave of scent, and I knew the exact moment Riley smelled it. He gasped, eyes widening; his entire body froze.

“Oh, fuck,” he breathed.

“Yes, please,” I said, finally pulling away so I could smirk at him.

Riley made a face at me, eyes dark with the same need I felt coursing through my own veins. He raked his gaze up and down me, and his expression was enough to make me shiver. Riley was the only one who had ever looked at me like that; he was the only one I ever wanted to look at me that way.

He wanted to grab me and have his way with me; I could see it as clear as day in the way he held himself so carefully still. Although Riley was the kindest, most patient man I’d ever met, he was still an alpha—and I was an omega in heat. Pheromones clouded the air around us as the most bestial parts of our bodies responded to each other until all I could think about was fucking him. But he was too good of a man to act without thinking of me first and foremost, hence his careful hesitation. I loved him for that… but I doubted he realized that throwing me to the floor and having his way with me was exactly what I wanted from him at that moment.

He opened his mouth to say something, doubtless to try and remind me that we’d agreed to wait for the next day, and I held up a hand to stop him. Of course, Charlotte would still be there; we’d both agreed that we didn’t want to get a sitter, not when she was so young, even if she interrupted us. But in between taking care of her, we had a whole plan, including a candlelit dinner delivered from a fancy restaurant nearby, a masseuse, a bath or two together in the massive tub in Riley’s bathroom…

As strange as it seemed to try and plan the first time we were going to have sex together down to the very last detail, I appreciated that Riley wanted to make sure that everything was perfect. After all, this wasn’t just sex—this was Riley marking me, officially claiming me as his.

All my life I’d been waiting for Riley, without realizing it. Looking back, every alpha I’d been attracted to and every relationship I’d ever had had been leading me here, to him. Even the disaster of a relationship I’d had with Ethan and all the pain and heartache and worry that had come with… without that, I wouldn’t have found Riley.

It wasn’t just the lust mounting within me from my heat that made me want to beg him to claim me. It was the way Riley had been there for me during the worst moments of my life without question, not asking for anything from me. It was the way he’d opened his heart to me so quickly—and to Charlotte. On the list of standout moments in my life, so many of them involved Riley: his face when he felt Charlotte move; the way he smiled when he held her for the first time, so happy and proud; the way he signed his name on the birth certificate without a second thought; how he looked when I’d walked into the room a week or so after we’d gotten to New York to find that Riley had fallen asleep with Charlotte, my tiny daughter safe and warm in his arms.

In the beginning, I’d secretly worried that some small part of Riley still resented the fact that Charlotte wasn’t actually his. But that was wrong and I knew it; all I had to do was look at him with her to see the truth.

Charlotte was his.

And so was I. Standing here, feeling my heat streak through my body and seeing the way it affected the man I loved, I didn’t want to go a single second longer without being his in heart and body both. I wanted him inside me, filling me, binding himself to me in the rawest and most primal way. I wanted to feel him spill into me, and for his knot to keep him locked there, as close as an alpha and omega could be.

“I’m tired of waiting,” I told him softly.

“But—”

“I know you want it to be perfect, and I’m tired and you’re pissed at your parents and Charlotte’s probably not going to be asleep long, but… this is perfect, Riley. Anything is perfect, so long as it’s with you.” I hesitated, then went in for the killing blow. “And I think Charlotte needs a brother, don’t you?” I asked coyly.

That did it. Whatever else Riley was about to say, I could see the words die on his lips as I added that last sentence. Something in his expression darkened in a way that made my knees go weak.

“Is that so?” Riley asked, deceptively casually.

I drew in a sharp breath as he looked me up and down again, his lips twitching and his hazel eyes hot with need.

“Y-yes,” I replied, shifting position, acutely aware of the throb in my groin and the slick dampening my underwear.

Riley leaned over me and very obviously took another whiff of the heat scent I was putting out, and he smirked when I swayed as his own musk rolled over me. “That eager to be pregnant again, hmm?” he asked, voice low and throaty.

A thrill ran through me from head to toe… and to cock. I balled my hands into fists at my sides, mentally telling myself not to reach into my pants and stroke myself. Moment by moment, I grew ever more desperate for touch—but it wasn’t my own hands I wanted on me.

“Yes,” I whispered roughly, anything witty I might have responded leaving me entirely when Riley ran a teasing hand down my waist and hip. As soon as I tried to lean into his touch, he pulled his hand away with a small tsk noise. I frowned at him, and Riley grinned deviously at me.

Well, two could play that game.

Eyes hooded, I snatched the baby monitor up off the floor and slowly started backing toward the doorway, leaving him to follow.

There was no doubt in my mind that in about ten seconds, he would.

“I want you to fuck me right now, and then again, and again and again until you put another baby inside me,” I told him. Forget teasing flirtation; I went straight for what I knew would drive Riley mad for me.

And oh, how it worked.

Riley made a small noise in the back of his throat, lips parting as he sucked in a sharp breath. I fought to keep from smiling, imagining the physical response my words were having on him. Then again, judging by the expression on his face as he stared at me, I didn’t have much to wonder about.

But I wasn’t done yet.

“Mark me,” I said, making no effort to keep the begging note out of my voice. “Make me your omega. I want to feel your knot inside me as you come, Riley. I—mmph!”

Anything else I had to say was lost as Riley crossed the room in an instant and pressed his mouth against mine with bruising force. He snaked an arm around my waist and dragged me against him; his cock was a rod of steel pressing against my thigh, obvious even through our clothing… and definitely bigger than I expected, even though I’d been pawing at it only a few moments before.

I whimpered into him as Riley thrust his tongue into my mouth, hot and demanding. It was me making Riley this needy; it was me making his cock throb. He was gorgeous and amazing and the sort of alpha most omegas only dreamed of finding, and he was mine.

We stumbled toward the bedroom still locked together and only stopped when Riley’s back collided with the bedroom door. We broke apart as both of us flinched and froze, listening for any sign that we might have accidentally woken Charlotte up. A few seconds ticked by in silence only interrupted by our heavy breathing, and both of us finally sagged in relief.

“Close one. Living room?” Riley asked, kneading my ass.

“Living room,” I confirmed, and we didn’t speak much after that. We changed course and headed the opposite way down the hallway instead, touching and kissing and gasping, and only let each other go when we reached our destination.

Riley stripped his clothes off without hesitation, though I paused in taking mine off so I could watch him. This was hardly the first time I’d seen him naked; even if we hadn’t been having sex, I’d still had my mouth in rather intimate places on his body, after all. But there was something different this time… or maybe it was just my heat making everything a thousand times hotter than normal. The desire that ripped through me at the sight of him made my head spin, and it was all I could do not to fall to my knees and bury my face in his groin just to smell the pure, unadulterated scent of him.

“What’s wrong?” Riley asked, noticing my stare.

I flushed, though it was probably impossible to tell with the way my cheeks were already warm with the heat of the lust roaring through me. His balls hung hot and heavy between his muscular thighs, full of promise; his erect cock appeared normal now, but my entire body throbbed as I imagined what it would look like when his knot swelled, creating that irresistible bulb near the base—the bulb I literally ached to have inside me. That knot was made to be buried in an omega, and I felt the muscles of my ass contract at the thought of Riley filling me like only an alpha could.

“Nothing,” I answered softly. I stripped the rest of my clothes off, then ran my hand down my stomach and abdomen. It was absolutely ridiculous that I suddenly felt a twinge of self-consciousness, despite the need roaring through me like an inferno. I couldn’t help it, though; Ethan had shown increasingly less sexual interest in me the more pregnant I was, and even though I wasn’t anywhere near the size I’d been when I met Riley, my body was still far from what it had been like before I’d gotten pregnant. There were stretch marks in places you both would and wouldn’t expect, the dark pregnancy line running vertically down my belly was still clearly visible, and there was definitely still extra weight on my normally lean frame.

I wasn’t exactly the picture of sexually attractive only a few weeks after giving birth… but Riley either didn’t notice or didn’t care. His expression didn’t change whatsoever when I stood naked before him… or rather, it somehow became lustier than it had been before, if that was even possible, and it snuffed out my insecurities in an instant. This wasn’t Riley just being nice or trying to keep from hurting my feelings; he wasn’t that good at controlling his expression. No, the expression on his face and the dark glint in his eyes made it clear that he wanted me—stretch marks and baby weight and all.

“Riley,” I begged… and, as always, Riley heard the meaning behind the words I said. I reached out for him, unable to stand not touching him for a single second longer; he pressed me down onto the sofa and then his mouth and hands were everywhere, exploring my body like he owned it, tasting, touching, exploring. The barest brush of his skin against mine sent a jolt through me, only he was touching me all over, everywhere, making my body sing. I squirmed in his arms, needing more, more, as slick seeped out of me and only heightened my arousal.

I ran my hands all over his body, too, touching him like this was the first time. And in a way, it was; I’d touched his skin before, felt the way he gasped when my fingers brushed over the ticklish spots on his sides or across one of the nipples on his broad chest, yet this was wholly new, too. Feeling the muscled planes of his back was one thing normally; when I was lost to my heat, it was entirely another. His strong frame seemed to be made for me and me alone; his weight pressed me down into the couch cushions in a way that normally might have made me squirm, only now, it was wholly welcome. I arched and writhed under his every touch, lungs and mind full of his musk as he teased me without giving me what I truly needed.

As amazing as it was to have the man I loved use his mouth to take his time in finding every single spot on my body that made me moan in pleasure, I couldn’t take it any longer. I pushed him back enough that I could turn over beneath him and reached back, spreading my ass cheeks so he could smell—and see—what he was doing to me.

“Fuck,” Riley swore from somewhere above me; I couldn’t crane my neck around enough to see him, but the tone of his voice still made my cock throb.

“Please, Riley. Make me yours. Take me—aah, yes!” I lost all coherent thought when Riley rubbed the head of his cock across the tight pucker of my hole, sliding easily to and fro thanks to the slick my body pumped out in preparation for him.

“I love you,” Riley murmured, pressing his cock teasingly against my entrance but not quite pushing himself in.

“I love you too, babe, but if you don’t fuck me right now—”

With a loud moan, he did.

I shuddered in pleasure from head to toe as he slid inside me, the slick my eager body produced making it easy. Still, Riley took it slow, careful, inch by thick inch pushing into me until all I could feel was him… and it was even better when he started to move. In and out, thrust after slow, deep thrust; Riley was tense and hard as a rock behind me, quivering with raw, barely suppressed need.

“Riley,” I moaned, the word a plea. I propped myself up on the couch cushions with my elbows so I could move with him, matching his rhythm and encouraging him to go faster, harder.

He hesitated at first, fingers digging into my hips as he tried to keep to his slow rhythm. Riley didn’t have to say it out loud; I knew he was thinking of me, trying not to push my body too far too fast. But his composure was hanging on by a thread and we both knew it.

My heat roared through me like an inferno in my veins, and the only thing that could douse the flames was him, Riley, my alpha. I craned my head around to look back at him, opening my mouth to beg him to go harder… but the moment our eyes met, I knew I didn’t need words.

“Chris,” he said, the word a throaty growl deep in his throat, and the way he said my name made my cock throb—and so did the way he pulled out of me and stood, hauled me off the sofa, then pushed me back down onto it on my back like he owned me—and he did. He was on me again in an instant, kissing me roughly enough to make me gasp, pressing my legs into the air, positioning me the way he wanted with dominant ease.

“I want to see your face,” he murmured, running a hand down my stomach and abdomen, so empty now—though, judging by the way Riley looked at me, he didn’t intend for it to stay that way for long. Then he sank inside me again with a pleased grunt.

“Ah, yes,” I moaned, struggling to be quiet when all I wanted to do was let the ceiling echo with the sounds only Riley could tear from my throat. And when I shifted position just a tiny bit and the head of Riley’s cock brushed against my prostate, I lost all sense of coherent speech. My cock throbbed, begging to be touched, but I made myself clap my hands over my mouth to stifle my cries instead. And all the while Riley thrust into me, filled me with his alpha cock, sent lightning bolts of pleasure shooting through me from head to toe until it was just us, alpha and omega, omega and alpha.

“Fuck… Chris,” Riley groaned, “I can’t… hold back… much longer…” He slowed his frenzied pace and let one of my thighs go so he could wrap his hand around my cock instead.

I gasped and arched my back, nearly losing control then and there. “M-me too,” I moaned, squirming under his touch.

“I love you,” he murmured, voice surprisingly tender considering the frenzied way he buried himself inside me again and again. He may have been thrusting into me slower now, but each stroke was long, deep, strong.

“I love you, too,” I gasped, feeling the telltale swell of my alpha’s knot forming near the base of his cock. It was still small enough that he could push himself in and out of me, but it wouldn’t be small for long; it swelled with each thrust. “Do it, Riley. Knot me. Mark me.”

Something between us shifted. Riley released my other leg and bent forward to press his lips to mine, though his hips didn’t stop. I wrapped my arms around him, moving with him, drowning in the pleasure he gave me. The rhythm built again; his knot continued to swell, more and more obvious each time he buried himself inside me. I shoved a hand down between us to stroke my cock in time with Riley’s thrusts, moaning greedily into his mouth, careening closer and closer to the edge.

Just as I thought I was going to come screaming Riley’s name into his mouth, he broke the kiss and nuzzled meaningfully at my throat. His thrusts became shallow; his knot pressed against my entrance, sealing him inside me.

I hadn’t ever been marked by an alpha before, but no one had to tell me what to do; it was as natural as breathing, as natural as falling in love with this amazing alpha taking me for his own. A moment later, there was a brilliant flash of pain as Riley bit down on my neck, directly over my scent gland—but it was the best pain I’d ever felt.

Nothing could stop the cry that escaped me. Filled by him, caught by him, marked by him; I was Riley’s, only Riley’s, and now the whole world would know it. I came harder than I ever had before, body tensing beneath him as I spilled into the space between us. Riley shuddered from head to toe, mouth locked on my neck, cock locked deep inside me. All I could do was moan as pleasure like nothing I’d ever felt crashed through me and Riley filled me with his seed.

When he was empty, when every last spurt of cum lay trapped within me, the two of us melted bonelessly down onto the couch cushions. Riley gently released my neck and pulled his head back, gazing fondly down at me. I smiled up at him as he brushed his thumb over my lips, then leaned in for another kiss.

Even gasping for breath, even with the throb of the bite mark on my neck and the cramp in my leg that I’d been far too far gone into pleasure a moment ago to notice, I couldn’t stop smiling.

Because Riley was mine—my heart, my partner, my alpha. The love of my life. The father of my child.

My family.

Forever.

And that was the best gift I could ever have asked for.