Disobedience and Devotion - Sneak Peek, Chapter 2

Lena awakened to find her body in an uncomfortable condition: a strong palpitating ache came from between her legs, where her clitoris was pink and swollen. Beneath her, the bedsheets felt drenched with her juices. It took her too long to remember she was still indecent from the night before.

 

A knock at the door startled her and she covered herself with the blankets when the servants came to check if she still breathed.

“Apologies, madam, but we need to get you up and ready.” A beta servant girl skittishly entered the room. She smiled with crooked teeth and bent to fill the fireplace with wood. 

Two other servants rushed in with a ceremonial gown, which they hung in Lena’s wardrobe. 

 

“I’m Nia,” said the servant girl, and she wiped her hand on an apron as Lena instantly held out her own in greeting. 

“Lena.” She stated her name awkwardly, as she was still concealed from view only by a blanket. 

While Clark seemed not to be threatened by betas, he would be angered if any of the servants privately viewed her body for any reason, unless she happened to be giving birth or ill. 

Some alphas even locked their omegas away in their bedrooms when they had to leave the house, or kept them in collars and chains. 

Lena hoped that Clark would not be so possessive, but holding onto any expectations would only result in misery. It would be much better to continue expecting the worst of the alpha, given Clark’s status in town and his strict demeanor. 

“Well, Lena, there will be quite a lot of people in town gathering to see you wed today,” Nia commented with a friendly smile, as if drawing a crowd or getting anyone’s attention might be of top importance to Lena. “I can tell why you have a reputation for being the most beautiful omega in these parts. You are lovely.”

 

Lena had heard talk among the alphas and betas about her appearances, but she historically paid little attention to it. After all, she never wanted to marry, and she often thought that she did not understand physical attraction in the way others did. At least she couldn’t understand the appeal of men. Her first heat proved her wrong on that account. She did find that Clark held a certain allure, as much as she also hated him. 

As she glanced at herself in her mirror, Lena noticed that her heat had also done something to her features: her lips were a bitten, bright red and her face naturally rosy. 

“There must be hundreds of people who have come to observe the marriage,” Nia declared excitedly and went to the window to pull back the curtain and let the daylight into the room. “I'll go now and see to your needs for later tonight. Mr. Danvers must have his room prepared to receive you. He also asked me to tell you that he’d be in to see you shortly and that he will ready you for the day. You’re to wait for him.”

Nia dashed off before Lena could complain or ask further questions, but Clark appeared at the door after she had gone and shut it firmly behind him. 

Clark’s eyes swept over her sheets until he met her gaze, and then he uttered dryly, “I trust you slept well last night.” It wasn’t a question, and he showed no signs of caring for an answer.
 

He inhaled, his head tipped back subtly and Lena knew he was taking in the scent of her. The heady musk filled the room and no doubt the hallway beyond, and yet perhaps by sheer willpower alone, Clark appeared to be unaffected as he walked to the bed. 

Lena couldn’t decide what to make of it as she clutched the sheets tighter.
 

“A bath awaits you.” Clark stated, and held his hand out in expectation of Lena taking it. “I can either accompany you, or you can bathe alone, but you mustn’t dawdle. There are precious few things that I can’t stand, and being pressed for time is one of them.”
 

Try as she might to show indifference, Lena noticed the most peculiar thing as she stared back at Clark. Her brow furrowed as she murmured, “You appear to be agitated. May I ask why?”

Clark sucked on his teeth and narrowed his eyes. “You’re mistaken. I’m merely impatient. Take my hand.” He insisted, and held it sternly before her until she had the good sense to accept it. He hoisted her out from under the sheets and his gaze traveled down over her nakedness. “Retrieve your nightgown and robe.” Clark husked after a moment. “You will not walk these halls in a state of indecency.”

Lena hurried to put her bedclothes on, if only to avoid his intense, hot stare. His touch tingled through her long after she dropped his hand. She dressed in her nightgown and lifted the straps onto her shoulders as they slipped down. Her skin was already dewy and her plush, white robe only raised her body temperature, but for the sake of modesty she wore it. 

Clark marched her down the hall to the bathing room and finally Lena’s curiosity got the better of her. 

“I want to know why you’re agitated,” Lena demanded. “What have I done to displease you already? Is it because of what we discussed last night? Because I made it clear I won’t be the obedient omega you’re hoping me to be?” 

It might have been well-timed on her part to take off her robe and gown while being confrontational. As far as distractions went, her breasts and cunt served nicely. She had a slender but curved figure—all porcelain skin with a few beauty marks. In the clear light of day, her alpha could properly admire her shape and the misty air in the bathing room only made her lovely scents stronger. 

It must have been the equivalent of standing in the midst of an opium den, because Clark’s pupils widened until his gaze looked pitch black and his nostrils flared. He stood his ground and let her pheromones cloud around him as his breath quickened imperceptibly. He was staring at her sex, and the nectar that drizzled down her inner thighs in rivulets that called to him.

“How highly you must think of yourself to assume that it is you that has me afflicted.” Clark’s voice was dangerously low and he appeared to be fighting his baser urges as he took a step back and pointed to the water, silently telling her to get into the bath. She had affected him, that much was obvious, but he commanded himself with dignity and kept his hands rigidly by his sides despite the way his trousers tented prominently.
 

“I’ve been informed that our marriage has brought a rather sizable crowd.” Clark spit the words and his upper lip curled in disgust. “I can think of nothing worse than a large crowd of lecherous alphas and betas in an environment where they will be prone to rowdy behavior. I don’t look forward to dealing with them.” 

“I would have thought a man like you would enjoy all of that attention,” Lena softly remarked. “Everyone will be coming out to congratulate you.” She glared at him as she ran her fingertips through her arousal, painting it over her thighs in long strokes. Her artistry commanded Clark’s attention, and she dabbed her forefinger between her pussy lips so that she could brush herself with a second coating of her own smooth, sticky lacquer.  

 

He growled in his throat as she refused to submerge herself in the bath, just to test his patience. For some reason, she was in a wicked mood that morning and raised an eyebrow at him while she played with the bubbles floating on the bathwater. 

“All of the alphas in this town want to be you, and every beta I’ve ever known has either been enamored with you, or wanted to follow in your footsteps,” Lena laughed, her voice rich but light. To the best of her ability, she tried to make it seem like she could not understand anyone’s obsession or downright worship of him. “Omegas fawn over you for some reason,” she added with a quiet scoff. “It’s because of your looks and strength, obviously. Not your personality.”

Clark snorted at her attempt to rile him, and chose that moment to use her previous taunts against her. “My looks? Didn’t you say yesterday that I have the face of a boy?” He didn’t move to force her into the water but she could see that he was growing tired of her petty defiance.

“Perhaps you’re not as smart as they say,” Clark drawled slowly, as though Lena were a simpleton that may require him to enunciate every word crisply. “One would think that, having been at the center of town in nothing but scraps of fabric for days, you would have been well acquainted with the more beastly traits of the people.” He regarded her with a barely restrained snarl and moved towards the tub.

“I suppose you might enjoy the rambunctiousness of a large gathering, with their violence and posturing, and crude displays of dominance.” He moved in a calculated manner, causing Lena to shift as he neared her, keeping the same distance apart but covertly walking her to where he desired.

“I dare say I might even be challenged for you before we set foot in the church,” Clark intoned seriously, his eyes piercing into hers. “Not to mention those who will likely use the crowd as an excuse to attempt to grope you as we push our way through.”
 

Lena’s legs hit the tub and Clark stepped closer until his nose was precariously close to her own. “How thrilling.” He mocked humorlessly, and with a speed she had not known him to possess, he lifted her swiftly and lowered her into the warm water far more gently than she expected.

Her eyelashes fluttered and she stared up at him almost dreamily, mouth open in want of a kiss. She cursed herself inwardly for her weakness and for gripping his forearm, keeping him close with his hand on her waist. 

Laughing at the absurdity of her attraction to him, Lena tried to make light of his remarks. “No one is going to challenge you,” she insisted. “Physically, I’m desired, but no one else in this town would take me for his wife. Marrying me is going to tarnish your perfect reputation, but I suppose that’s what you deserve.”

 

The slight tremble in her voice revealed more emotion and vulnerability than she was comfortable expressing with him. Seeing his face up close, Lena began to notice a gentleness in his eyes, and Clark even lifted the soap to wash her shoulders. “Do you think I care if anyone gropes me?” Lena asked. “That’s the least of my problems.”

Clark’s hand slipped through the suds on her chest and down over one of her sensitive nipples. She groaned from it, but put out her arm to protect herself, even as she gazed up at him imploringly for more. “That wasn’t an invitation,” she softly grunted. “My point is, I’ll be disrespected for the rest of my life after what I’ve done. Even if I become a model omega and the most obedient wife, every alpha in this town will still consider me a traitor. If you wanted a quiet life, you shouldn’t have chosen me. How many other omegas will now think they can break the law and still end up married, to someone like you, no less? Many of them will envy me, because they desire you. And I’m certain the alphas are going to continue to harass me and inflict punishment. If they don’t, all of their omegas will think it’s alright to step out of line.” 

If Clark believed her, he showed no outward signs as he dropped the sponge into the water and straightened up imperiously. “You trouble yourself with thoughts that you ought to avoid.” He concluded after a moment.
 

He dried his hands on a towel by the tub, his expression far more grim than it had been moments before. “When it comes to power and politics, you forget quite simply that the ones with the power control everyone else.” He gazed at her solemnly, and supplied regretfully, “Make no mistake, I will decide how your story is remembered.”

 

If that was a warning of things to come, then Lena didn’t have to wait long at all as Clark cleared his throat and leveled her with an intense stare. “The tale of how you ran off and disgraced your family will not be glorified by anyone, especially omegas. For it was a simple case of insanity brought on by your abnormally late heat.” He spoke so matter of fact that it sounded particularly convincing.
 

Lena balked at the claim, yet a small, nagging part of her wondered if there was a sliver of truth to be found in it.

Clark continued with confidence, his voice unwavering as he explained, “Yes, it caused you to become so unwell that you fled into the wild. You were touched by a delusion brought on by the fact that your heat never came and it will serve as a cautionary example. The story will have a purpose for the hierarchy. The cure, of course, will be to ensure that all omegas are joined with an alpha, for their own good, before they reach a point where they may become susceptible to this terrible madness.”
 

It sounded dreadfully callous, and a sense of horror washed over Lena as she blurted in outrage, “None of that is true!”