Sinful Affairs (MM Erotica collection)

ALPHA GREGORY's POV.

The cry cut through the wind like a plea. It was thin, repeated, and fragile.

"Help...please help..."

It lodged itself under my ribs. They were three words pulling at something I had plastered over years ago. My control. Order. And the cold logic of an Alpha who was always on top.

I should have ignored it. I should have let Mateo follow the sound and stayed with the war plans, the maps, and the council that wanted a leader who wasn't weak.

Instead I rose.,

Mateo's ears twitched. He looked at me for a heartbeat before answering the pull in his own way. He shifted into his Wolf form. I watched him in his ash-grey wolf form vanish toward the cliff and the hollow beyond it.

After that, the forest seemed to hold its breath but the voice came again, smaller, as if something in the trees had learned how to sound like pleading.

My Wolf stirred beneath my skin and paced. The scent came after the sound-warm iron, wet earth, and under it a softer, sweeter thing that tightened my chest: fear braided with something untamed.

My legs moved as I ran into the woods. Branches slapped slightly at my face. The forest condensed to my pounding heart and the pull of that scent. As I passed a big tree, I caught a glimpse of her on the right side.

She crouched there like a broken thing, her hands over her head, long hair matted with blood. When I dropped to my knees, she flinched, shrinking inward as if the world would close over her.

I kept my hands open. "Easy," I said. My voice was a low thing I didn't entirely recognize. "I won't hurt you."

She whimpered. The sound was animal and human all at once. She pushed herself upright, her hands trembling, and for one heavy heartbeat, my jaw dropped.

His jaw, his Adam's apple, the way his shoulders fitted beneath skin, corrected me like a slap. He was a man. A wolfless male Omega.

"You?"

I breathed, because sighting him violated the tidy rules I had built around my life. I had sworn out loud, in the hush of the pack's older years that I would never claim again. The last claim had been a blade at my throat; the memory was an ache I hid beneath stone discipline.

But now, looking closely at his body, even in his current state, my knees nearly wobble and my heart skips a bit.

He looked at me with damp lashes, his brown pupils blown wide with panic. "Please...save me." The plea came out thin and ragged, and his body slumped as if the sound had taken the last of his strength.

I caught him before he fell. He was light and jagged in my arms, not the weight of anyone I had known to belong to us. His scent filled my nose-salt and copper and the faint, irresistible tang of something feral I couldn't name.

My Wolf pressed, insistent and ancient, and something in me answered. Not with the fury of a predator, but with the startled tenderness I had thought was gone from me.

My finger ran across his face gently. His skin was soft and almost flawless. My Wolf stirred. I cleared my throat and stopped what I was dragging myself into.

Carrying the Omega in my arms, I walked back to the main field where we were before. And just then, Mateo returned in his human form, breathing heavily. He paused when he saw what was in my arms, his eyes narrowing with concern and calculation.

"We have to take him," he said before thinking, shaking his head.

"And I was thinking not to." I pouted.

"But he's already in your arms. And he looks quite irresistible too." He joked, his eyes on mine.

The walk back to the palace felt short and long at once. The Omega was limp against my chest, his small hands fisted at my shirt. His breath came shallow; each inhale trembled through the fabric against my sternum. Either way, it worked through me like heat.

Inside the palace, the guards parted with the respect a leader required, not the curiosity I secretly invited. But deep inside the palace, there was noise and I saw some guards and maids running around.

"What's going on?" Mateo stopped and asked one of them.

"The left wing caught fire." The maid replied, breathing heavily.

"That means... the infirmary too?" He asked.

"Y-yes. I need to go help the others." She trembled and dashed away.

"Alpha, I need to go help the others before it expands to the other sides of the palace." Mateo said, the urgency of his voice not waiting for approval.

I nodded my head gently.

I was left with the Omega all alone in my arms. There was nowhere I was taking him to than my room. Else, I would drop him at the maid's quarters. After all, he is an Omega.

But, I couldn't just bring myself to do that. Maybe, because of his health?

"Stop lying to yourself. Just take him to your room." My Wolf encouraged me. I knew one day he would push me into a world of fire.

ALPHA GREGORY's POV.

I laid him on the bed in my room, his hands clumsy as I searched for the worst of his wounds.

Since there was no doctor at the moment, I decided to tend to his wound myself. I stared at him closely to observe where he was hurt.

There was a cut along his temple, bleeding not too much. Bruises kissed his ribs as I took off his clothes. I swallowed hard as I tried not to stare but it was too difficult.

I composed myself then, I went into the bathroom, brought out a clean white cloth, and, filled a small bowl with water.

He's an Omega and he's wolfless. Which means, he's tender. I can't bring harm while trying to help him. That's the best thing.

I sat beside him and moved my right hand carefully, practicing cleaning his wounds as if I had done this before.

When the last bandage was secure, he lay back, and for a moment, the lines of pain smoothed from his face. Sleep took him like a tide. In the hush, I found myself watching the slow rise and fall of his chest, the clench of his jaw, the way his lashes cast shadows on his pale skin.

I told myself I was being practical. He needed shelter, food, safety, and the Moon Whisper Pack pressed at our borders; I had responsibility beyond this single vulnerable life. Still, my Wolf moved beneath my skin, restless and expectant. I felt it like an ache I had forgotten I had the right to feel.

I remembered the oath-never to claim again. The memory tasted of iron and old vows. But here, in the soft lamplight, with a stranger sleeping beneath my roof and my hand resting piecewise on the bed's rough edge as if that were enough, I felt the rules unspool.

How I wish I could see it as a favor to a wounded person.

Yet the thought of leaving him, of walking away from the scent that had already rooted itself in my lungs, felt impossible.

Hours later, Mateo finally stumbled in waking me from my sleep.

He glanced at me, a single raised brow asking the question we both knew but had not spoken. I flexed my fingers and felt the pulse of something alive beneath my skin.

"I was just helping," I said finally, breaking the silence. My voice was quiet. He looked at me, not convinced. "For now."

I did not know how long "for now" would last. But the Wolf in me prowled with a patience I hadn't allowed in years, and a new, dangerous hope breathed through that restraint.

"I don't mind, Gregory." Mateo called me by name for the first time in years. He went on his knees and brushed his fingers across my thighs. "You have to let the past stay in the past."

"But I don't know him. That was how it started the first time." I said.

"There's always a chance for something great and different." He said, his voice gentle. "I can see how you've cared for him. If not love, at least, it's glad to see your old self coming back again."

Mateo brushed a smile and he went ahead to get some food. As I ate, I still couldn't take my eyes off the Omega on the bed. He looked so handsome and breathtakingly hot that my eyes burned from staring.

I finished eating and Mateo packed the plates, wishing me "good night" in a teasing voice. I rolled my eyes before I started taking off my clothes gradually, backing the Omega.

When I was done, I glanced over my shoulder to see him still in the same position. I walked into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and opened it.

The water struck like winter rain, a thousand needles waking every inch of my skin. For a moment, I allowed it. I needed the cold. It kept my Wolf quiet. It kept my thoughts from circling back to the figure lying unconscious in the other room.

Steam climbed the stone walls, turning the air heavy. I leaned both hands on the tile, head bowed, and closed my eyes. The sound of water swallowed everything except the rhythm of my own breathing that was steady, then stopped as my thought drifted back to the Omega.

I should have been thinking about the council, about war, about anything but him. Yet behind my eyelids I saw again the pale curve of his neck, the way his pulse had fluttered when I had carried him in. The memory pressed against my mind, soft and dangerous.

My Wolf stirred. "Touch him," he whispered. "Make sure to do that. I want him."

I drew a sharp breath and forced the thought away, but it lingered like heat that refused to fade. The cold water wasn't helping anymore; it traced down my spine in slow rivers, and each drop felt like a reminder that I was still made of need.

When had I last wanted something this simple-to reach, to feel, to be seen? Control had always been easier than wanting something. Not after you've been hurt. But the moment I had caught his scent, the armor I've built over years had begun to crack.

I turned off the shower. For a heartbeat, silence filled the room. My Wolf inside me paced, restless, for the sound of another heartbeat.

Out in the chamber beyond the door, I could hear his faint breathing.

I dried my hair, dragging air into my lungs until it steadied. The mirror caught my reflection: water on my shoulders, the tired lines around my mouth, the eyes of a man who hadn't truly rested in years. And beneath all that, a spark of something new. Not lust, but a kind of gravity pulling me toward the strange Omega.

I clenched my jaw, turned from the mirror, and let the last drops fall from my fingers. "You don't need this," I muttered to the empty room.

But as I stepped back into the cool air of the room, the strong scent of the Omega filled my nose. My nose flared. My breath hitched. And my... My cock twitched.

Damn.

I looked at the bed. He wasn't there. He was gone. My heart skipped a beat as I wondered where he disappeared to.

Narrowing my eyes to the glass window side, I saw him standing there, staring into the night. My eyes rolled below, landing on his ass. It measured the bubble butt as every piece of restraint in me trembled.

THEO's POV.

My eyes opened slowly and landed on the wall. Everything was hazy at first until the blur cleared. I lifted trembling hands to my head and sat up, squeezing my eyes shut against the sharp pain that throbbed through my skull.

When it finally dulled, I blinked again and let my gaze wander. A faint rush of water echoed from somewhere nearby. I was lying in a richly polished chamber with stone floors gleaming, soft drapes whispering with the wind. Never had I seen such a place.

Back in my own Pack, Moon Whisper. I was nothing. I was seen as a useless Wolf. A shadow among every other living thing. No one ever cared about me. No one ever considered me as their own. Even the ones who sired me. My siblings were adored and preferred; I was forgotten.

Why?

Because I was the first male Omega. The very first in the Pack. And not just that alone. The very first in the royal bloodline. I was seen as an abomination. As a curse. As nothing that would bring nothing to the Pack but destruction.

When war loomed with the neighboring Shadow Moon Pack, the elders of the council instigated my father to execute me. My own birth father didn't think for an hour before he passed the order.

The only person that cared about me, Maid Mithra, reached me before they did. I chose not to believe. I knew my father hated me but I couldn't bring myself to believe that he would kill me.

I chose not to believe her, finding my way towards my father until I met the palace guards. They tried to capture me but Maid Mithra grabbed my hands, dragging me to the secret passageway behind the palace.

We were about to escape when my younger sister, who was a Luna but was born with the strength of an Alpha, crossed us and launched an attack.

A wolfless me couldn't do anything. I was scared to the brim as I stepped back cowardly. Maid Mithra protected me before she transformed into her Wolf form and confronted my sister.

But she couldn't last long. She couldn't. But she managed to reach me and pushed me into the opening. I didn't know what happened to her next but I found myself out of the palace with an army of guards behind me.

I had no choice but to run. To keep running. And days passed without food. I couldn't continue. I've never been left on my own. I had wounds already. I couldn't keep on moving. I sat and covered my head with my hands, tears flowing out of my eyes.

Until he found me. I couldn't recall his voice clearly or the look in his eyes but I remembered the warmth of his arms, the quiet steadiness of his touch. He didn't stay away. He didn't call or assume I was a curse.

And now, I've found myself in this room.

My gaze drifted and I saw a picture frame at the edge of the table. My eyes lingered on it longer than I meant to.

He was carved from quiet storms-broad shoulders beneath a dark coat, the hint of a smirk playing on lips that looked far too cruel to be kind, yet far too soft to forget. His eyes, an icy shade of blue, stared through the glass like they could see right into me. It was dangerously calm.

Every line of his face spoke of discipline and dominance; the kind of man who didn't have to raise his voice to own a room. Even in stillness, there was something wild about him. More like a power he carried like breath itself.

And yet... behind that cold perfection, I could almost see the ache he tried to hide, the loneliness that came with being confident.

Intriguing.

I got off the bed and reached where the frame was. I was about to touch the perfection on the frame when the rush of water stopped in the bathroom.

Quickly, I moved to the window side, staring into the peaceful night. Whoever was inside the bathroom would be out soon. But for the first time in my entire life, I felt peaceful. I wasn't scared. I wasn't trembling about what might happen next.

The soft creak of the door sent a small shiver down my spine. The sound shouldn't have made me nervous, yet it did. I could smell it before I turned around. It was the thick, musky scent that filled the air and wrapped around my lungs like smoke. It was impossibly warm.

I turned.

He stood there, water tracing paths down his skin, droplets sliding from his hair to his shoulders before falling away. A towel hung low around his hips, and light from the window caught the sheen of his body like gold. He looked different but powerful enough to mistake for anything ordinary.

Our eyes met.

For a heartbeat, the room fell silent. I could hear my own pulse, the soft patter of water still dripping from his hair, the whisper of his breath. His gaze swept over me slowly, and the air between us thickened until I forgot how to breathe.

He didn't speak, and neither did I. But there was something in his eyes-a question, a pull, and a kind of hunger that mirrored the restless ache rising in my chest.

My throat went dry. And-

Something deep within me stirred. A warmth I hadn't felt before, sharp and wild, unfurled beneath my skin. It wasn't fear. It wasn't painful. It was something older, something primal. My body knew it even if I didn't.

It wasn't supposed to exist inside me. I had lived my whole life being told I was born without one. But now, it was there-awake, restless, pressing against my ribs.

My fingers trembled as I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself. I tried to look away, to stop staring at him, but I couldn't. Every breath he took seemed to pull me closer, invisible strings drawing tight between us.