Resistance

Chapter 7

This wasn't how I'd imagined accepting your mate would feel like, but I never wanted it to stop. I wanted Eren to keep on touching me as though I were something dear to him, something he could never replace, no matter how much time passed. The places where his skin brushed against mine tingled with warmth that sent tremors down my spine. My entire body burned for his touch, my instincts surging up to make my lips part on a whine that was full of desperation. I needed my alpha to touch me in all the places that ached. So when his hands shot up to cup my face, I stood on tiptoes to rub our throats together almost violently, my need to claim him for my own causing me to behave in a reckless manner.

Mine. He was mine. No one else's.

Eren groaned deep in his throat as our scents mingled together and perfumed the air around us. It was such a heady scent, because it was us coming together, alpha to omega. Mate to mate.

His hands came to rest on my waist, and he lifted me up so that I was at eye level with him as he pressed my back against the locker behind me. When he leaned forward, lips skimming over my scent gland in a soft caress, fear paralyzed me. "Shh," he soothed, breath hot on my sensitive skin. "I'm not going to do anything that you're uncomfortable with. This is one of the ways I'm going to show you that I'm stronger than my instincts. I want you to come to understand that no matter how strong the urge to mark you is, I won't ever give in." He kissed my neck, pain tainting his scent. "One day I hope you can trust me completely."

"You're in pain," I said.

"Don't think anything of it. The alpha in me doesn't understand why you're submitting, but not letting me mark you." He looked me in the eye, thumb brushing over my lips. "But I understand, the part of me that isn't ruled by instincts, and I respect your decision."

Overwhelmed with an emotion I couldn't identify, I hugged him closer to me and buried my face against his neck. "I don't know if I'll ever be a good mate for you," I confessed in a whisper, the words causing a mixture of fear and anxiety to settle in the pit of my stomach. "I've been holding onto this hatred for so long that I'm not sure who I am without it, and I don't know if I'll ever stop looking for a reason to hate you. But, despite all of that, I can't give you up. I want you to be mine, even if I can't be yours." I bit down on my lip in an attempt to keep the rest in, but it spilled out of me anyway. "I know that's selfish. I know it is, but that's what I want."

"Hey, it's okay." He ran his fingers through my hair, turning his head so he could press his lips to my ear as he whispered, "You're the only person I've ever submitted to. I'm already yours, Levi. I've been yours since I saw you in the confinement chamber on the day I was brought here. I don't want anyone else."

"How could you know that? It's not like there are a lot of unmarked omegas here to choose from. It's just me."

"You don't think I came along unmarked omegas while I was out in human territory? I did. None of them appealed to me. They were all the same, willing to hand themselves over like they were nothing more than objects to possess. I don't want someone like that."

I opened my mouth to question him further, but someone knocked on the door, startling me into silence.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt, but we're ready to begin training, Captain Levi," Petra shouted. She hadn't opened the door and that didn't surprise me. The scent of alpha was overpowering in here. No doubt her instincts were telling her to steer clear of this area until Eren wasn't so worked up.

"Shit," I hissed under my breath. Then louder, so I could be heard, "I'll be there in a minute!"

"All right, sir. I'll tell the others."