Owned by the Alphas: Winterborn

PEARL

“I need to see them. Right now!” I demanded, pushing Camilla’s hands away from my hair. I didn’t care about the dirt; I needed to see my children. It had been two days since I last saw them, and my heart ached more than ever before.

This pain was so intense it felt like what the older women in the village referred to as “a mother’s intuition.” I yearned for my children. They needed to nurse, and I needed to hold them.

“I’m sorry, Pearl. Mordechai’s orders. You need to heal properly before you can see them,” Camilla said in her condescending tone. I was tired of hearing it.

“I want to see my husband then,” I retorted, stepping out of the bath. Camilla helped me dry off and get dressed. I had to admit I was still weak. My body ached, and I felt tired at the most unexpected times.

Having Camilla around was probably for the best, but that didn’t mean I was too weak to see my children. Even if I could only look at them, see how much they had changed in the two days we had been apart.

“I’ll go get him and make you some tea, okay?” Camilla offered. It was the best offer she’d made yet.

“Please,” I replied.

She nodded, finishing tying my robe before leading me into the bedroom of my hut.

I had decorated it to be small and cozy, with comfortable furnishings and plants, ensuring everything had its place.

The bedroom had a simple wooden bed with a knitted quilt on it. It had taken me a while to make, but it brightened the entire room. The red flowers on it matched the curtains I’d hung. I climbed into bed, and Camilla smiled, picking up my empty teacup and leaving the room.

I picked up my plant diary and started reading. I had been studying the properties of different plants and herbs for a while now. The idea of plants and their life, bringing something extra to ours, excited me.

They were like magic, curing all kinds of ailments.

I was still reading when Mordechai walked in.

He looked flushed, probably from the snow outside, and he straightened his coat.

“Pearl,” he greeted, shaking off his knitted scarf and placing it on the dresser.

“We do have hooks by the door. I put them up last week for your winter gear when you visit,” I said with a smile.

He nodded once, not removing the scarf.

I hadn’t expected him to, though. We had been married for a while now, and I had come to understand a few things about my dear husband.

First, he was only married to me because of my status in the village.

Second, he was good with his words and not with his hands, both in and out of bed.

Third, he liked my breasts, my popularity among the village women, showing me off, but he did not like me.

I was a woman who the women of the village befriended. I was a woman who the men of his village desired.

I was a threat to him. I knew that, and so did he, which is why we were still married.

That and I was bound to him. My parents, after a long negotiation on my wedding night, had eventually been won over by his charm. So had I.

He had been two years older, not choosing a wife until I was of age. He had said it was a romantic gesture to show his dedication, but I knew that it was just because his parents needed the Valarian influence over the mayors and the people.

It had worked, and now he was general.

That was okay. I preferred him in the men’s village, but when he was here, I couldn’t help but hope for the better half of him who I had seen in our first years of marriage.

He had courted me well, made love to me, made me see the dream he saw.

And like the naive young girl I had been, I had fallen for it all.

I knew better now, that men were not the most well-mannered, were not even good at most things. That women were who kept things going. We did the nursing, the child-rearing, the cooking, the cleaning. We maintained everything for them so they could wait for a war that never happened.

But it was the way it was, and tradition was not something I intended to change anytime soon.

The only thing I wanted to change was my husband’s decision on being able to see our children. And that was going to take some convincing. Probably of a more seductive nature.

“Camilla said you wished to see me,” he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

I moved closer, my robe slipping so the soft swell of my breast was peering out the top of it. I subtly pushed it against him and leaned on his shoulder.

“I have missed you,” I sighed, making sure it was as lustful as I could make it.

I was nowhere near ready to have intercourse yet, but I knew other ways of pleasing a man.

Mordechai turned to me, his eyes glancing down to my breasts then back up to my face. “You are feeling better?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yes. Better enough.”

My hand trailed up his thigh, my fingernails tracing the seam to between his thighs.

He sucked in a breath, narrowing his eyes. “You still need time,” he tried, his voice catching as I rubbed him through his pants, making sure to get all the places I knew he enjoyed. Places I hadn’t touched in a long time.

He was a rough lover and not particularly good, but it was not something I enjoyed while carrying, which he had complained about relentlessly.

“If I was wanting pleasure for myself, yes. But this is for you, Mordechai. I want to thank you for being so patient with me, for taking care of me,” I said, his length coming to life beneath my teasing. His breaths were short as he tried to act like he was going to say no. But he never refused.

He took off his coat, laying it on the bed before leaning back on it. I undid his pants and knelt down in front of him, looking up to him. His gaze was full of angry fire, lustful and impatient. I licked my lips and kissed his abdomen, the muscles there pulling tautly as I teased him through his pants.

He gripped the back of my head and made me look at him.

“It’s been a while since you have had me in your mouth, Pearl. Are you sure you remember what you are doing?” he said.

I wasn’t sure if it was a dig or not. It felt like one, but I was determined to prove him wrong if it was. I knew what I was doing. I was a lady, not a prude. Well, actually, I kind of was. But I didn’t mind.

I wanted my sexual life private; the ladies of the village liked to gossip, and I had to admit, I did enjoy a tale or two, but the intimacies between lovers, to me, was too personal to spread. My husband thought that meant I couldn’t be the girl on her knees.

I could.

I would be whatever girl I needed to be to find out why my babies were being kept from me.

“Tell me if I’m doing it wrong,” I said, playing into the image he had of me. Innocent Pearl. The one who doesn’t swear. Who doesn’t kiss in public. Who doesn’t get dirty.

He narrowed his eyes on me, and that’s when I put my mouth on him.

I took him all, sliding him right to the back of my throat. I sucked as I pulled my mouth off him then drove back down as if my mouth was the slit between my thighs.

He groaned, his hands fisting in the bedding. I kept going, sucking and pulling fast, up and down his length, the veins pulsing with each pull. I took him as deep as I could, with as much enthusiasm as I could. I wet my mouth, moaning as I did.

He never corrected me.

He did vibrate the room with his noises, though.

I had to admit, those sounds did make it more enjoyable for me. My body responded with a light throb, remembering the little nub of nerves that only I could find that released me when he couldn’t.

It was a secret of mine that I wanted to keep that way.

I ignored my own needs and pleasured my husband to the best of my ability. He bucked his hips into me as I gripped his base, brushing my fingernails across his sac. As soon as I did, he groaned, the sound guttural and deep before he plunged his length down my throat and released himself.

He breathed hard, his chest and face flushed as he expelled the last of himself down my throat with a shudder.

“Fucking hell, Pearl. Where the hell did that come from?” he said, lifting my face to see him.

“Language,” I scolded, then smiled and stood up, climbing onto his lap. “I wanted to make you happy,” I said. And it was the truth. In a perfect world, we both would be.

But I was starting to get the feeling that my husband was one of those people that couldn’t be happy no matter how many blessings they were given.

“You did. You took me so well,” he praised, kissing my cheek. I smiled, blushing as I sat on him.

“Well, I was thinking that maybe we could see the twins together. Now you know how good I’m feeling and that I am obviously much better. I think it’s time,” I suggested.

He frowned, his brow instantly furrowed in a deep V.

“That’s not a good idea,” he said, extracting himself from me.

I didn’t understand. “How is it not a good idea? They need their mother, Mordechai,” I insisted.

He stood up, doing up his pants before turning to me with a somber look on his face. “Pearl. Listen,” he started, sinking down to sit on the bed again. He grabbed my hands and my heart pinched.

“What is it?” I demanded, tears already stinging in my eyes. He knew something. Something was wrong. I knew it.

“The twins. They were very underweight. They—”

“I need to see them.” I didn’t let him finish. I didn’t want to hear it.

“I don’t want you seeing them so sick, love. They are fighting hard, but they may not make it. So I need you to rest and then when they are better and you are, you will be strong enough to see them,” he said and my heart broke.

My babies were suffering and I wasn’t with them. I wasn’t there for them.

My suffering was nothing in comparison to how scared they must be. If they were miserable, it was even more of a reason for me to get to them.

“Mordechai, please, I need them. Even if they are sick,” I begged.

He turned away from me, thinking that he shielded me from the eye roll he gave, but I saw it and the alarm bells went off in my head.

He was frustrated with me. But that made no sense.

The door opened then and Camilla came in. “Sorry to interrupt, I have Pearl’s tea ready. Should I deliver it now?” she asked, blushing as she looked at our hands entwined.

She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

That was unusual.

Something more was going on and I was determined to find out what it was.

“Yes, please.” Mordechai got off the bed and grabbed his coat then scarf. Camilla handed me my tea, looking at my husband with a look I recognized. It was a permissive glance.

Not to say they had slept together but he was definitely instructing her and she was eager to please him.

That did not bode well for me.

I eyed my tea and she smiled widely.

“Drink. It’ll make you feel better.”

“Mhmm,” I said, taking a timid sip, pretending to swallow. When I did, both of them smiled like I was a child taking medicine. Which is why, as soon as they left the room together, I spat the tea out and tipped it out the window.

I would wait until nightfall and then I would find my children. Sick or not.