Page 54 of Daughter of Garnet

My Beta.

An ugly swirl of jealousy rolls through me when I think about anyone else trying to claim him. What is stopping them from trying? How are they going to know he's mine? He said I'm stuck with him forever, and he needs to know that it goes both ways.

Everyone needs to know.

Cliff is in my arms before I can blink, and then my teeth are at his throat, pressing against the soft flesh as gently as possible until I break the skin. He squirms, but isn't trying to get away from me. A soft moan escapes his parted lips as I can feel that part of me that was empty fill with him.

I pull away with the taste of copper on my tongue, and my teeth shift back. He rubs his chest, eyes fuzzy and dazed for a moment until he looks up at me with reverence. "It's gone. That extra piece… It's gone."

"It's mine." I hardly recognize my voice as the quiet words roll out of me. "You're mine."

"Yours." He repeats the word to himself a dozen times before wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me close to him. "You have some explaining to do, don't you?"

I duck my head to avoid his probing eyes. "Yeah, I suppose I do. Where do you want me to start?"

CHAPTER 27

Zoe

Cliff takes the news of me being an Omega well, but after I bit him and claimed him, it couldn't have been too much of a surprise.

What has surprised him, though, is who Blessed me.

"Ilota?" His voice is pitched low, and even though we're in a private study room, he looks around like we'll be overheard. "She doesn't bestow her Blessing."

"And yet here I am."

"I'm not saying I don't believe you. I'm just flabbergasted. And you didn't shift at your ceremony?"

I tap the side of my head. "She spoke to me and told me to pretend that nothing had happened. I didn't believe it at first. I thought that it was my mind playing tricks on me."

"I probably would have too." He feeds his fingers through mine and holds me close. "What made you realize it was actually happening?"

"My teeth changed in front of a mirror."

"That was kind of terrifying, not gonna lie."

"You're telling me."

Cliff fiddles with my fingers, quietly contemplating something. It's only a minute before he steels himself and asks what's on his mind. "What do you shift into?"

I knew this was coming, but will he believe me when I say I shift into something that never existed? I want to avoid the question for a minute longer, so I lobby my own.

"Have you heard the story about how Ilota buried a town in ash from a volcanic eruption?"

"Of course. She gave one of her followers a healthy child and protected them from the devastation."

"Right. And then the story ends with the follower dying, and her daughter carrying her down a path of garnets that Ilota had made for them, never to return. She ripped up the garnets and swore not to Bless anyone until the Daughter of Garnet was ready to tread the path again." I fiddle with the garnet pendant my mother gave me, the one passed from woman to woman in my family for generations. "She's never confirmed it, but I'm pretty sure that story is true."

"What makes you think that?"

I pull my pendant out of my shirt and show it to him. "'Remember who's daughter you are'. That's what my mom said to me when she gave it to me right after my ceremony. All the women in my family have kept their last names and passed this necklace on to their daughters. I never saw my mom wear it. Ilota has never given me the title, but the coincidence of this necklace traveling between the women in my family and then she chose me to Bless, makes me think that I am the daughter."

"Does Warren know?"

"No, and I would prefer he not. I don't like the person he's becoming."

We sit in silence for a moment on the floor of the study room, our backs against the wall and our hands clasped together, before Cliff takes my face in his free hand and strokes his thumb over my cheekbone.