Her Alpha - Complete

Chapter 51

Three Years Later

"Rose? Can you get in there?"

Rose sighed, nodding at Meredith's frustrated expression as she exited the executive office. Only a day or two ahead of his rut, and her estrous, Dimitri was pissing everyone off, and no one more so than his Guardian Eddison Castile and by extension Rose's Guardian, Meredith Edwards. For the last week, he and Dimitri had been at Court, renewing and negotiating loan contracts with Moroi. Once Abe had noted how angsty his son-in-law became in the lead up to his yearly rut, he'd suggested scheduling annual visits to Court the week before to talk turkey with the Moroi who borrowed from the less reputable side of Mazur Industries.

Belikov, especially Belikov pre-rut and visiting Court without his wife, turned out to be a formidable negotiator. And while he was now back in New York, and more importantly with his mate, Rose's intensifying scent combined with Dimitri's upcoming time of need had the thirty-year-old Alpha in an almost constant state of anxiety and arousal.

"Please, Rose?" Eddie said, also emerging from the office looking exhausted. "You're the only one he'll listen to... I can't take anymore, and Meredith needs to study."

"Leave him to me," Rose replied with a roll of her eyes, taking off her cardigan which left her upper half clad only in a thin silk blouse. She'd only been gone from her nest in the office for a few minutes, and already her man was losing it.

"Terrorizing the help again?" Rose joked, walking into their office, closing the door behind her. With two large desks in the room, a conference table, and a more relaxed seating area with three sofas plus a coffee table, Rose and Dimitri usually occupied the space together. However, sometimes one of them worked in the larger open plan outer office occupied by Eddie, Meredith, and their other senior staff.

Dimitri growled—something which never failed to thrill Rose and make her panties moist. As she approached her man where he sat behind his massive burled walnut desk, a twin to her own, he reached out and pulled her onto his lap, wasting no time burying his face in her neck, shamelessly running his nose against her scent glands then nuzzling at the scar where he'd claimed her for the second time. Rose smiled, knowing it was only a matter of minutes before he'd be giving due attention to her first claim mark.

It was always this way leading up to his rut. Dimitri became more and more short-tempered. Well—with everyone except her. Recognizing his current tension, and her own, Rose suggested they move to her nest. An egg-shaped double sofa shell in a corner half-hidden by a screen, Rose's work nest comforted her whilst keeping her close to her mate. Situated beside enormous windows overlooking Central Park, the couple spent many hours in the quilts and duvets making love, talking, dreaming, and reading through the multitude of paperwork their jobs made necessary. Sometimes they'd spend the entire day ensconced in her nest, working together.

"I can't wait until Friday," Dimitri groaned, mentioning when they'd seclude themselves ahead of Saturday when they'd planned his rut to start. While it was impossible to control a rut completely, with mental fortitude an Alpha could delay the onset by up to a week. Dimitri tried to manage his rut to start on a weekend. As a mated Omega, they'd learned that when she stopped taking her suppressant medication, Dimitri's rut would trigger Rose's estrous. As his rut approached, her scent increased, which caused him to behave even more Alpha, which made her even more responsive. The week or two leading up to Dimitri's annual rut was hell for everyone who worked with them as he became ultra-Alpha—suspicious of almost any male his mate encountered.

"I can't wait either," Rose replied, sighing happily as Dimitri kissed her neck again and again. "Am I allowed to know any of the preparations?"

"No," Dimitri said, growling softly. In the past, out of respect for their Guardians and staff, the couple had booked the premier four-bedroom suite in the hotel below their apartment and offices for their estrous/rut. It was easy to schedule housekeeping to make up the three used bedrooms and restock the dining table with snacks, as they continued to worship each other in the fourth room before cycling through the beds again. With a small contingent of Dhampir housekeeping on staff at the hotel, they could be confident they would not question the frequent linen changes.