I moved my hands up the sides of his arms and over his back, grabbing at it and reveling in his moans. It brought back all the memories that I’d tried to forget over the years. I’d spent so much time in my room waiting for his call or his letters that even thinking of him pained me. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life pining over a man I couldn’t have. Yet here I was, in his arms again, kissing him. Why couldn’t I listen to my head and let go?

All I had to do was tell him the real reason that we couldn’t be together. If he knew what I really was—what we really were—then he’d run. He’d leave and never come back. Part of me wanted that. I’d marry Faye, take over from my dad, and move on, but the real problem? Most of me wanted him. Almost every inch of me was on fire, and everywhere he touched burned with desire. I couldn’t let him go.

I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. They were full of love, sadness, and an urgency I remembered only too well.

We looked at each other, panting hard, and I looked away down at the floor, but he hooked a finger under my chin and lifted my face to look at his.

“Whatever you’re afraid of, we’ll see it through together. I promise.”

I tried to look away, but he lifted my face again.

“I’m serious, Lewis. If you don’t want me to leave, I’ll stay here with you, and we’ll fight everyone together. If they hate us, we’ll make them see how much we love each other. In the city, Alphas and Omegas get together all the time.”

“It’s not that simple,” I whispered, thinking of Faye. I thought of her wedding dress in her cupboard and all the wedding magazines that she thought I was oblivious to in the box under my bed. Could I really do that to her? Could I really put her through the humiliation of running away with an Omega? A man that sparked rumors though our town? I wasn’t the kind of person to hurt someone intentionally, but then, on the other hand, I thought about how we’d lay in bed kissing emptily, staring ahead as she touched me and having to tell her that I wanted to save myself for my wedding night. Any excuse to avoid sex so I didn’t have to explain why seeing her naked wasn’t enough to get me hard. She deserved better. She deserved an Alpha who was sexually attracted to her, and it wasn’t me.

I reached forwards and kissed him again, maneuvering him gently back towards the grim double bed. He sat down, and I pushed him back further and climbed on top of him, feeling his erection grow beneath, me causing my own to spring to life. He peeled the denim jacket from my shoulders and moaned as my hands slid up and under his T-shirt.

I freed myself and pulled away, panting.

“Tell me to stop,” I whispered, his face inches from mine. He shook his head, and I was glad, because stopping was the last thing I wanted him to do. I lifted his top up over his head and threw it onto the floor along with my jacket.

My fingers trembled over his smooth skin, so different from back when we were teenagers. Now, instead of slight pudginess, his muscles stretched and flexed beneath me with abs carved in the centre. How had he grown into such a man? How could I have missed it?

I bent my head down again and kissed him. There was no way I was going to stop. I could already feel that it was going to be the furthest we’d ever gone, and I felt a slight pang of excitement or nerves pulse through me.

He rolled me onto my back and pulled at my belt, undoing it with a snap and then pulling down my zipper.

I held my breath as I felt his hands clasp my growing cock. He held it firmly, massaging it, and I arched my back trying to throw my head back.

I missed his touch. I missed the intimacy that I’d had with him.

I closed my eyes as the ripples of pleasure filled my body, and I felt the stirring of the wolf inside me.

I pushed Max away quickly and sat up, heart beating wildly.

“What?” he asked, getting up off the bed and staring down at my half-naked body with his own erection trying to break free from his lounge pants.

I looked at the bulge and then back up at his face. He looked genuinely concerned for me, and I almost convinced myself to tell him. How would I start? He was the first and only person who had ever excited pleasure in me. Only ten years ago, the animal hadn’t matured. Now that I was older, life was different. My body had gone through changes he didn’t even know about, and sexual arousal wasn’t what it used to be. In fact, it was more intense than I’d remembered.

When Faye touched me, I felt nothing. I didn’t feel aroused, I didn’t ever come close to an orgasm, but now, now that it was Max in front of me, I felt the animal inside stir. I felt the twitch of transformation, and it was uncharted territory for me.

Do I continue? Should I stop and leave with a completely made up excuse?

“Lewis?” he asked, climbing back onto the bed and touching the side of my face. “Is this too soon?”

I shook my head.

“I want it.”

He looked into my eyes, and I knew he was trying to read me. He knew there was something different, but as much as I wanted to, telling him was a risk I wasn’t ready to take yet.

I pulled his face towards mine and kissed him, pulling him back onto me. He kissed down my neck, his fingers exploring my body again, and I bit my lip, trying so hard to contain myself and stop my body from trembling.

How the hell was an Omega able to reduce me to this?

He found my wilting erection again, and it sprung to life the moment his fingers touched it. I groaned, sliding my hands under the back of his lounge pants and cupping his ass. I squeezed as he massaged me, running his hands up and down my shaft, bringing me close to the edge. I moved my hips along with his rhythm as he brought his face back up to mine.

“Does she touch you like this?” he whispered into my ear, his lips brushing the side of my face and sending spirals of pleasure though me.

“Fuck,” I whispered as I almost came.

“Does she make you feel like this?” he asked again. “The way I make you feel?”

He kept his voice low, and I knew at that instant there was no one else I wanted to be with. I loved Max. I had done before, and now ten years later, I loved him as a man. I loved the extra crinkles around his eyes and grey flecks in his hair. I loved everything about him.

I rolled him onto his back with the new-found passion that pulsed through me. He was right. No one over the years had ever touched me the way he did. No one ever had the same effect on me.

I tugged at his pants, pulling them down with lust clouding my vision. He helped me pull them off, lying beneath me slightly stunned with anticipation brimming in his eyes.

“It’s always been you, Max,” I said before kissing my way down his chest and stomach. He held his breath when I got to his cock.

“Oh, God,” he moaned when I took him in my mouth. His body jerked, and I placed a hand on his stomach to steady him. We’d never gotten this far, ever, and it felt good. Better than good.

I swirled my tongue around him, turning myself on and fighting against the wolf. His taste was everything I’d ever imagined.

Every time he arched his back, it sent ripples of pleasure through me, but the knock at the door made me jump away, letting his member fall out of my mouth with a plop.

Max sat up sharply, confused, his erection bobbing between us.

“You expecting someone?” I asked, staring at him.

“Shit, no,” he sighed, covering his modesty with a pillow.

We both waited, hoping it was only housekeeping or someone similar. I thought of all the worst case scenarios it could be, and it all ended with one outcome—my community disowning me and my dad finding out that I was seeing Max when I should be planning my wedding with Faye. Faye. If it was her, I was dead. That was it, over. If she caught me in a sexual tryst with Max, there would be nothing I could do to stop her on her warpath. She couldn’t find out this way. Not now.