Leave

Sigh chapter 3

“No… my mate won’t like it—” The words broke off in a sharp, stuttered gasp when Jason gave her soaked cunt a firm, open-handed slap, not hard enough to hurt truly, but sharp enough to send a jolt of raw sensation straight through her swollen folds and clit. Her hips jerked, a fresh rush of slick spilling against his palm.

“Enough about my stepbrother.” His fingers immediately softened again, soothing the sting with slow, careful strokes, rubbing the wet heat of her pussy in gentle circles as if apologizing and claiming at the same time.

“Let me take care of you,” he murmured, voice low and rough. “That idiot doesn’t deserve you.”

His words hit her like a quiet shock. The gentleness in his tone offered an unexpected comfort. She had spent years believing he looked down on her, but the sharp, focused concern in his gaze made her question everything.

“Jason…” she whispered, eyes glossy with heat and unshed tears. “Where do you think he is?”

Jason’s jaw clenched. His fingers, still cupped against her soaked cunt, went still. The slow circles stopped. The pressure remained, warm and solid, but he no longer moved.

For two years he had watched from the shadows as Sincere dismantled this woman piece by piece, picking at her insecurities, feeding her scraps of affection only when it suited him, reminding her that a heavy-set, quiet female was lucky to have a future Alpha at all. Jason had forced himself to stay silent, bound by the sacred laws of the mate bond. An Alpha did not interfere in another wolf’s claim. An Alpha respected the Moon Goddess’s design.

But tonight, with her heat saturating the air and her mate nowhere to be found, those laws felt thinner than ever. Watching her writhe in pain while Sincere lay in another woman’s bed had burned through the last of his restraint.

“He’s with your sister,” he said. “Lyra. In the guest cottage. I saw him less than an hour ago.” He had tried to keep this from her. He had told himself it wasn’t his place. But with her cunt still wet against his palm and the scent of her neglected heat thick between them, the truth refused to stay buried.

Sierra froze beneath him.

“That’s nonsense.” The words came out sharp, defensive. “Sincere would never—he promised me. He marked me. He would never cheat on me with my own sister.”

“He’s outside right now with her,” Jason repeated, his hand still resting heavily between her thighs, unmoving. “You know it. I know it. The entire pack can smell what he’s doing. He left you like this. Alone. Burning. Soaking and touching yourself because he’s too selfish to care.”

“He’s my mate!” she snapped, voice cracking with grief and sudden defiance. “The Goddess chose him for me! You don’t understand how it feels… the bond is pulling at me, screaming for him, and he isn’t here!”

Jason’s hand left her shoulder. He lifted it to cup her face, his large palm spanning from her jaw to her temple, warm against her fevered cheek. His other hand stayed firmly between her thighs, still cupped over her soaked cunt, holding the heat of her without moving.

“That idiot doesn’t deserve the title,” he said quietly. “I’ve watched him fail you for months. I’ve stayed away because you chose him. Because you loved him. But I am done watching you hurt yourself for a man who treats you like an afterthought.”

His thumb stroked her cheekbone once. The gentleness in the touch offered an unexpected comfort. She had always believed he looked down on her the same way the rest of the pack did, the soft, oversized girl Sincere had taken out of pity. But the way he was looking at her now was nothing like pity. It was hunger held on a very short leash. And something older that had been waiting.

“Let me help you through this,” Jason murmured, voice low and rough. “Nothing more if that’s all you want. Just let me give your body what it’s been screaming for.”

Sierra hesitated. Her breath came uneven, eyes searching his face, the heat still clawing at her from the inside. For a moment she didn’t answer, caught between the pull of the mate bond and the solid, steady presence of the Alpha currently hovering over her with one hand still cupped between her thighs.

Jason saw the war in her expression.

“Please…” he whispered again, his sincerity cutting through her remaining defenses. “Let me help you.”

Hearing the Alpha ask, almost beg, destroyed her last restraint.

Her wolf took over and surged forward so hard Sierra’s vision blurred. The wolf didn’t care about politics, stepbrothers, or the mess waiting outside these walls. She only cared that the man leaning over them smelled like power, want, and safety all at once.

Driven by grief for her mate’s betrayal and the overwhelming demands of her heat, Sierra closed the distance between them, giving in to the only rescue that had come, and kissed him.

Jason made a low, startled sound against her mouth, half groan, half relief, then answered with devastating thoroughness. His hand slid into her hair, tilting her head so he could deepen the kiss. His tongue stroked against hers in slow, deliberate sweeps that made her thighs fall open without conscious thought. He tasted clean and dark, nothing like Sincere’s hurried, distracted kisses. He kissed like a man who had starved and was finally allowed to feast.

Sierra tried to anchor herself to reality even as she kissed him back, tears slipping down her temples. ‘All men are the same,’ she warned herself, fighting the fog in her mind. ‘He’ll still leave after this too. This is to get through the heat… nothing more. He probably didn’t mean any of it.’