CHAPTER 184: CHAPTER 184: GIVING EVERYTHING.

One of Victor’s large hands began to move. It traced a path down his side, over the dip of his waist, a slow, possessive slide that made Elias’s skin prickle with renewed awareness. The journey ended at his hip, fingers splaying across the bone, thumb stroking the tense muscle of his thigh.

Elias let out a shaky breath, his body humming with a new kind of anticipation. The deep, internal pleasure of being knotted was one thing, a steady, throbbing constant. But this... this was a new thread of sensation being drawn taut.

Victor’s hand slid further inward, fingers brushing through the damp, dark curls at the base of Elias’s belly. Elias’s heart hammered against his ribs. He was still so sensitive; every nerve ending felt like it had been lit up and left exposed.

The first touch was feather-light. Victor’s fingers only brushed the length of his cock, revealing full feeling deep within and the expert tease of Victor’s touch. A broken sound escaped Elias’s lips, half-protest, half-plea.

"You’re still so hard for me," Victor murmured, his own voice thick with a feral sort of pride. "Your body doesn’t want this to end either, does it?"

Elias could only shake his head, words beyond him. His hips gave a tiny, involuntary jerk, seeking more pressure.

Victor denied him, his touch remaining agonizingly light, tracing the veins, circling the slick head where a fresh bead of moisture had gathered. The contrast was maddening: the overwhelming. Elias felt stretched between two poles of sensation, his breath coming in short, sharp pants.

"Please," he finally begged, the word a raw scrape of sound.

"What do you need, omega?" Victor asked, though his knowing tone made it clear he already knew. He was drawing the moment out, savoring Elias’s desperation.

"You. Touch me. Please, Victor."

A low, satisfied sound rumbled from Victor’s chest, a sound that vibrated through Elias’s own body, amplified by their intimate connection. "Since you asked so nicely."

His fingers finally closed around Elias’s length, and Elias cried out. The grip was firm, sure, and slick with Elias’s own arousal. It was exactly what he needed and almost too much to bear. Victor’s thumb swept over the head on each upstroke, spreading the wetness, creating a smooth friction.

Elias’s head fell back against the pillows, a moan tearing from his throat. His world narrowed to two points of blistering contact: the incredible, unmoving fullness inside him and the devastatingly moving hand working his cock. Each stroke of Victor’s hand sent a corresponding shockwave through his core, making his inner muscles flutter and clamp down on the knot buried within him. The feeling pulled a guttural groan from Victor.

"Gods, Elias... the way you clench..." Victor’s rhythm on his cock didn’t falter, but his voice was strained, his own control tested by Elias’s involuntary contractions around his sensitive knot.

The dual sensations began to spiral, coiling tighter and tighter in Elias’s gut. The pleasure was a live wire, sparking from Victor’s hand to his core and back again, a vicious cycle of mounting ecstasy. He was moaning openly now, little fractured sounds with every stroke, every pulse of Victor’s knot. His hands scrabbled at the sheets, then flew to Victor’s back, nails digging into the hard muscle there.

"That’s it," Victor urged, his breath hot against Elias’s ear. "Come for me again. Let me feel it. Let me feel you fall apart around me while I’m still deep inside you."

The command, growled against his skin, was the final catalyst. The coiling tension snapped.

Elias’s back arched off the bed as a climax, different from the first, ripped through him. It was a sharper, more concentrated wave of pleasure, focused intensely on where Victor’s hand worked him and where his body was utterly possessed. He cried out, a wordless sound of surrender, as his release spilled on his stomach in warm stripes.

Inside, his body went taut, then convulsed, a series of rhythmic, milking contractions around Victor’s shaft and knot that were utterly beyond his control. The sensation wrenched a hoarse shout from Victor above him, his hand stilling on Elias’s oversensitive cock as his own hips gave a final, helpless thrust, held fast by Elias’s gripping heat.

For a long moment, there was only the sound of their ragged breathing and the aftershocks trembling through Elias’s frame.

Slowly, gently, Victor released Elias’s spent flesh, his hand coming to rest on Elias’s trembling stomach. He lowered his head, pressing his forehead against Elias’s, his crimson eyes glinting in the dark.

"Look at that," he whispered, his voice rough with awe and possession. "Even after that, you’re still holding on. You’re not ready to let me go."

Elias gave a faint, broken laugh, eyes half-lidded. "You’re... impossible," he managed.

Victor’s mouth curved faintly at the corner, but there was no mockery in it. He brushed a thumb over Elias’s damp temple, then over the swollen mark at his nape, slow and careful, as if soothing it back to calm. "Stay," he said softly. "Don’t move yet."

After a while that felt like hours to Elias, Victor shifted his weight little by little, easing himself out of him without hurry. Every movement was measured, more a withdrawal of heat and power than of flesh. He caught Elias’s soft exhale with another kiss, light as a feather, and stayed close until he felt the omega’s muscles loosen again.

"Breathe," Victor murmured against his temple, the words almost a vibration rather than a sound. "That’s it."

Elias let out a small, shaky laugh, his eyelids heavy. "Bossy even now," he muttered, but there was no real bite to it.

Victor only hummed, low in his chest. He reached for the blanket with one hand and drew it over them, wrapping Elias up before rolling him gently onto his side. One large palm moved in slow arcs down his spine, not arousing but soothing, until the tremor under his skin began to fade.

"Stay," Victor said softly, his mouth brushing the mark at his nape. "Don’t try to get up yet."

"I’m not going anywhere," Elias murmured, the words slurred with exhaustion. "I can’t feel my legs."

Victor’s thumb stroked another slow circle over his hip. "That’s because you gave everything," he said quietly. "Let me give back now."

He shifted just enough to sit up and reach for the water and a damp cloth from the nightstand. The little domestic gestures looked strange in hands that had signed contracts and held divine power, but he moved with the same patience, wiping Elias’s skin clean, pressing the glass of water to his lips until he drank.

When he finally settled back, Victor drew Elias against his chest again, chin resting on the crown of his hair, scent thick around them like a protective ward. "Better?" he asked quietly.

Elias made a small sound, not quite a word, and let his head fall against the warm line of Victor’s throat. "Tired," he whispered. "But better."

Victor kissed the top of his hair, thumb still tracing lazy circles over the mark at his nape. "Sleep, then," he said softly. "I’ve got you."

Wrapped in that scent and heat, Elias didn’t argue. He simply let his eyes close and let the heaviness of exhaustion pull him under.