The Alpha Emperor’s Resurrection

26: Robin

The people who raised me - Saga and her family - were all mind readers. It was a skill that had been common in wolves when Aurelia was born, but it had disappeared from my bloodline a long time ago and it meant I had no idea what was going through Aurelia’s mind as we sat in silence and tried to ignore the fact things were serious.

I wrapped my arm around her waist, and was relieved that she relaxed rather than stiffening or trying to move away - she seemed exhausted, and distressed, and that was entirely my fault; but there was nothing I could do about that now, and she needed support rather than unhelpful commentary about how tired she looked.

“I’ve missed you,” Aurelia whispered, at last.

“Really?” I asked as I pulled her onto my lap.

I wanted to hold her close for my own selfish comfort, but she planted her knees firmly on either side of my hips and settled down with her hands against my chest and her forehead against my own.

I grasped her thighs softly over the pale grey sweatpants she was wearing, and slid my hands slowly up to her waistband as she kissed me, and as her tongue slipped past my lips, my hand moved up to rest on her waist.

For a moment, she stiffened at the feel of my hands on her skin, but then… then she melted against me.

It was too easy to lose track of things with Aurelia, but she deserved my undivided attention - I owed her that - and I would not let her distract me.

I pushed her from my lips, but she clung to my chest and whimpered.

“We shouldn’t be doing this, baby girl…” I whispered.

“In case you get me more pregnant?”

A question that was dripping with sarcasm but underpinned by insecurity.

At least she hadn’t called me out for using my affectionate pet name for her.

I brushed her hair over her shoulders and shook my head.

“No, but-“

She kissed me to silence me, but when she moved away, she seemed nervous.

“I’m sorry,” she stood up, and brushed herself down.

She thought she had just humiliated herself… that I didn’t want her anymore…

I tried to look up at her, but she turned away and avoided my gaze.

“Aurelia?” She walked over to the window; I wasn’t sure if she had even heard me.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I missed you more than I expected. I’m letting my feelings for you get in the way of reality. It won’t happen again.”

My chest tightened, and it dawned on me that she had been so focused on what other people might want, that she probably hadn’t had time to think about what was right for her.

I walked over to stand behind her, and rested my hands tentatively on her waist, watching her reflection as I kissed her neck. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she pressed her hands to the window ledge.

“I have missed you too, you know. Leaving was a mistake; I’m not back because I feel obliged to be here.”

She twisted around to look at me and I lifted her to sit on the window ledge; she wrapped her legs around me and rested her hands on my chest immediately.

I wanted to forget about everything for a while, and she was making it obvious enough that she was hoping to reignite that flame, but I stroked her hair and held her against me rather than taking advantage of her.

“I think I need to lie down,” she sighed.

That was a lie; I didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that.

She was exhausted, and she definitely needed to rest, but she was in denial about that and she didn't think she needed to rest. She had glanced at the door to the bedroom my things were in when she mentioned needing to lie down, because she was trying to work out what was going on between us - whether we would be sharing a bed or not.

I didn’t have an answer to that. Not yet.

“It’s not that I don’t want you,” I gave a weak attempt at a response, fully aware she deserved better.

“I guessed.”

Of course she had. It wasn’t exactly subtle, as she so frequently reminded me, and there was no need for her to call me out so blatantly for the fact I was responding to her physically.

“I’m sorry. I just… I’m not exactly well adjusted, Aurelia. I wasn’t planning on having children, and I really wasn’t expecting this to happen. It’s going to take a while to get my head around everything, and I think we need to talk properly before we do anything impulsive.”

“You’re talking as if I’m going to keep it,” she responded rather blankly.

“You’re acting as if you want to keep it,” I shrugged. “I don’t think it would be fair of me to make you feel guilty about that when it might be the only chance you have.”

There was the faintest hint of a smile on her lips for a moment before a noise behind me interrupted us. I turned to face the elevator and sighed.

“Room service.”

One of the women from the reception had brought the food up to us, which was probably not something she usually did; she was staring at my crotch, as if I was putting on a show for her. It was tedious and frustrating, but I didn’t want to cause a scene about something so mundane.

“You would regret it…” Aurelia stayed where she was; apparently she was responding to something the woman was thinking, because the receptionist blushed fiercely.

Thankfully, Aurelia’s comment wasn’t unsettling to her- it was obvious enough what was on her mind that she didn’t suspect she was in the presence of a mind reader.

Aurelia never usually used her powers that way, but the woman was frustrating her more than she would openly admit. I couldn’t blame her; I didn’t exactly enjoy strange human women assuming I would let them use me as a s*x toy.

I sighed and adjusted myself, because I was really not proud of the fact I was enjoying Aurelia’s more territorial side - her failure to suppress the wolfish instincts she usually kept well subdued made my own impulses harder to brush aside.

As if I needed my libido to make it any more obvious that it didn’t appreciate me ignoring her.

I didn’t even want the food I had ordered anymore; I had really only ordered it for her, and I was feeling the effects of jet lag too acutely to find much appetising, but the woman left it on the large glass-topped table for us and asked if we wanted to order any drinks before she finally left us alone.

“You should eat.”

Aurelia’s lips parted slightly, but she exhaled without arguing and sat down at the table.

“Are we going to talk, then?” she picked up a slice of pretentious looking pizza with a bunch of toppings that were entirely too fancy than they had any right to be.

I had only gone down to order it because I didn’t want any of the food from the menu, and I thought pizza was a simple enough request that it wouldn’t be possible for me to mess up. I hadn’t counted on the fact we were at a fancy Italian destination spa.

“Pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes aren’t exactly comfort food. I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. She really didn’t care; she was two thousand years old, she probably had a very different idea of ‘comfort food’ to me.

I should just have asked her what she wanted.

“That’s a no to talking, then?”

“I don’t know where to start. Believe it or not, I’ve never gotten the two thousand year old daughter of a reincarnated Roman Emperor pregnant before. You’re literally the only person I’ve finished in, and that was once in all the times we were together, so I wasn’t exactly expecting this to happen. I’m sure you have heard hundreds of men like me say that to women in your situation, but it’s the truth, and I can only apologize for putting you in this position.”

“It would help a lot if you just thought of me the same way you did before you left. Can you please pretend I’m like you for a few minutes so we can figure this out?”

I laughed dryly and shook my head as I took a seat beside her.

“That’s the thing: I can’t pretend you’re the same as me, Aurelia. And you shouldn’t pretend you’re not different, either. Have you thought about what you will do if you have to watch your own child age and die? And where do you think we should raise it? Because I’m not letting you raise my child without me, whatever happens between us.”

I felt guilty, but it needed to be said.

“I haven’t thought about things like that for a very long time. It hurt too much to think about it every time I fell in love… I told you, I didn’t think this could happen; I made peace with that generations ago and I don’t think I ever considered how to handle co-parenting, but I really don’t think my thoughts several hundred years ago would be valid now, even if I had thought about it back then.”

My chest tightened again - it would be so much easier if we could just pretend she wasn’t so special, and she made it easy to forget how much she had lived through most of the time.

She pushed her plate away and leaned back slightly in the chair.

“Are you sure your body can even do this? What if this wasn’t supposed to happen? Why did it happen now? Didn’t you realize things were different?”

“You’re panicking,” she sighed.

She was right, but I didn’t know how to calm myself down.

I noticed her brush her stomach briefly, and it seemed to comfort her, but I couldn’t exactly do the same thing.

“When we spoke before...” I sighed. “Aurelia, you told me that we don’t have any control over how we feel about each other - well, we have no say in how we feel about this, either. You know what you want.” That probably wasn’t comforting to hear, and it made me feel guilty again, so I tried to change the subject without it seeming awkward. “What was that woman thinking that bothered you so much, anyway? What would she have regretted?”

“Use your imagination.”

I looked at her closely for a moment before responding.

“I think you hated the idea of her propositioning me - you just couldn’t tell her I’m taken. She would have regretted it if she tried, though. “

“She had other ideas,” Aurelia smiled. “And it’s not like I’ve never done that before, but I doubt she could handle both of us, and I don’t think your instincts would let you waste your energy on human women at the moment.”

“I guess that depends whether I’m like my father. He’d f**k anything with a pulse and a p***y, with the exception of my step-mother, but he was faithful to my mother after he took her as a Mate. I liked seeing you get territorial, by the way. It might have been fun to see how you mark your territory.”

“I didn’t have anything to prove to either of you.”

I sighed - we both knew I wasn’t interested in a three-way with a human woman and there was no need for me to tease her like that.

“I only told you we shouldn’t do anything together because it feels like I’m taking advantage of you.”

“Robin, I think we are way past that. And you have no idea exactly how territorial that woman made me feel. I can be very primal when people don’t respect me.”

I wasn’t feeling primal myself - not in the way Aurelia claimed to be - but I stood up, and pulled her into my arms, carrying her over to the bed so she didn’t have to worry about where she was going to sleep anymore.

She was still nervous, and her insecurity made it easy to convince myself I wasn’t being selfish when I kissed her.

“Your primal side seems to be a bit shy,” I teased her, pulling her sweatpants and underwear off as she looked up at me.

“You won’t be saying that when I’m done with you,” she insisted, sitting up to strip off her top and bra.

I pushed her shoulder gently, so she lay down again, and moved her hips to the edge of the bed before pulling my clothes down.

She was panting already, and I pressed my hands to the back of her thighs to pin her down.

Her eyes were wide enough that she looked almost innocent, and my heart raced; I pressed a little harder on her thighs and brushed against her, slipping inside her to give her what she had called a taste of perfection on more than one occasion.

She whimpered, and I smiled.

Her primal side wasn’t expecting me to be quite so willing to tame it.

“If you want me, I’m yours,” I said, hoping that I sounded sincere and wishing I had been brave enough to tell her that in the first place, rather than abandoning her like a selfish i***t.

She moaned, and I pushed her thighs harder and let myself fill her.

“Use me…” she reached above her and grasped the bedsheets, arching her back.

She couldn’t possibly have said anything hotter than that, but she didn’t seem to realize it.

I pressed my hips closer to her rather than pulling back, and she moaned again.

Her primal side wasn’t wild, it was submissive; she wanted to give herself to me.

“Do you think you can cope?” I pushed her thighs again, and she closed her eyes. I didn’t need to ask; I knew she was physically capable. I just needed to know it was the right thing for her emotionally.

“I want you,” she whispered.

I looked down at her; she moaned again, and I felt myself twitch.

“Good girl…” I moved my hips slowly and watched her squirm.

Moving even slightly made her writhe, and it hit a nerve in me that I was entirely unprepared for.

I let go of her thighs and leaned over her, kissing her as I planted my hands beside her shoulders on the bed.

She slung her arms around my neck and I felt a fresh rush of adrenaline surge through me. Her body was warm and soft against mine, and her chest was heaving as she drew heavy breaths.

“Keep me full,” she whispered against me. I moved slowly, pressing deep into her so she was moaning beneath me. My blood was rushing, and I was fighting the urge to take her harder, which seemed to be what she was hoping for. I wanted to hold her and tell her I loved her instead. “f**k,” she groaned when she felt me throb impatiently at the thought that she was mine. “You are so f*****g close…”she tightened around me and grabbed my ass to pull me against her. “f**k…it feels like you’re about to explode inside me…”

She started to move, and I clenched my jaw.

When my muscles tightened again, I swore and pulled back.

“Aurelia,” I tried to catch my breath while she looked up at me. “I don’t have a condom, we can’t-“

She groaned and let go of my hips.

“Are you planning to go back so you can tell yourself that a couple of weeks ago? It’s a bit late now.”

I blushed, and she kissed me to stop me from feeling so stupid. I focused on her instead of making an excuse for my moment of supreme stupidity, and I was rewarded by her nails digging into my shoulder blades when she came.

As she caught her breath, I looked down at her with my hands on her thighs.

“I guess I can give you everything you want for the next few months, then.”

As if that was a good idea. It was already difficult enough to use protection when I needed to.

“You don’t seem excited by that.”

She squirmed again, and I pushed on her legs to get as deep as possible.

When she whimpered, I struggled to hold myself back.

“I just don’t think I should use the mother of my unborn child as a literal c*m dumpster. It feels disrespectful.”

“Leaving me waiting with your c**k pressed against my cervix because you’re contemplating whether finishing on my breasts is the chivalrous thing to do is also disrespectful.”

I thrust against her so she yelped in surprise, but her eyes were sparkling and she clearly didn’t mind me teasing her.

“It’s not too late for me to see if you’re right about that woman, you know. I’m sure she’d be happy to satisfy me.”

It definitely was too late for that, and she knew it. She also knew how entirely disinterested I was in anybody else, which was exactly why I had given in.

I wanted her, and only her, and she was confident about that now.

“Alright,” she squirmed away from me and I glanced down at my hard-on.

She seemed to find my frustration amusing, and she sat up to watch me suffer.

“Aurelia…”

“You don’t seem to be able to tame yourself, Alpha,” she feigned innocence as she watched me; I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down. She knew what it would do to me to call me that, and I was trying not to let her get to me.

She started to moan, and I wasn’t sure what game she was playing, but I opened my eyes and found she had positioned herself on her knees in front of me with her fingers brushing against her p***y, tantalizingly close to me.

“If you call me that again I–”

She spread herself with her fingers and groaned in frustration.

“–will you just get that big Alpha c**k back inside me so it can finish what it started? I don’t think it wants to be kept waiting, either.”

I couldn’t argue with her; I had instinctively positioned myself against her before she was finished speaking so I could show her what it felt like to have a big Alpha c**k willing to satisfy her whenever she needed it, and I was happy to stop thinking too much and let the only Alpha instinct I could unleash take over for a while, even if that was how we had ended up in this situation.

“Harder…” I grabbed her hips to pull her back against me. “If you’re going to insist you want an Alpha, you have to satisfy one.” I had been so close before that I could have finished in her immediately, but I enjoyed how intense her need to please me was. “Come on,” I pulled her back harder again several times and slapped her ass, “keep going.”

She was exhausted by the time we were both finished, but when we were lying together in bed, she seemed to have something on her mind.

It was stupid of me to assume she knew what I felt - she was vulnerable and insecure, and I needed to tell her rather than just expecting her to know.

“You need to stop telling yourself you’re wrong for wanting this. I may not have expected it, but I think fate has decided it’s time for me to settle down, and I’m really not mad about it. I don’t have any doubts about whether we will be happy together.”

I liked the idea of settling down with her- I just hadn’t considered it before.

She kissed my cheek, but she was still distracted and my comment sounded lame in retrospect.

“I don’t think you would have done that if you had any doubts.”

I probably would have.

“You’re not easy to resist,” I teased, brushing her hair from her face. “You know that, though.”

She must have known that - she clearly had enough experience with men like me to know what to say and how to act when she wanted to be tempting.

“I don’t think anyone will find me irresistible for a while,” she laughed, but I pulled her closer and kissed her softly.

“I don’t count, then?”

“You?” she sounded taken aback, and I realized that she still wasn’t convinced that I was going to stay with her.

“Sure,” I shrugged and tried to sound casual. “I told you I’m not going anywhere, Aurelia; if you still want me, I’m yours. Me and my big Alpha cock.”

Because being crude about it was the only way I could tell her I wanted to be in a relationship without it feeling strange or seeming insincere.

“I didn’t plan this… I wasn’t trying to trap you.”

I brushed my hand over her stomach - she blushed fiercely, and avoided looking at me.

“You need to stop worrying about that, baby girl. I told you I’m not upset, and I don’t think it will be good for the baby if you’re stressed all the time. Keeping you safe and comfortable is my priority now. I’m responsible for this, and it’s my job to look after you.”

“We’re really going to do this?”

I smiled. It was only just starting to sink in for her.

“You’re going to make an amazing mother,” I whispered, and kissed her neck softly. “If that is what you want.”

“Talia told me to get rid of it. She’s been hiding since my father came back, but she felt a need to tell me I shouldn’t have this baby in person.”

It didn’t surprise me to hear that; I hadn’t met her mother, but everything Aurelia said about her made her seem cold and calculating. It had explained why Caius thought Saga was good company.

“I’m glad you didn’t listen to her. It wasn’t her decision to make.”

Aurelia shook her head, as if I didn’t understand what she was saying.

“We’ve lived through a lot, Robin. She’s not as optimistic about things as I am, and she thought you had abandoned me.”

“She assumed I had abandoned you, because she doesn’t think I’m good enough for you. You made it clear enough that she wouldn’t approve of me. Our baby is going to be perfect, despite my genetic contribution - your mother should know that.”

“Self-deprecation doesn’t suit you.”

“I can’t help it,” I shrugged. “I’ve grown up with Saga reminding me I’m less than special.”

“You need to pay less attention to her.”

I laughed coolly - she didn’t have the best impression of my sister, but that wasn’t what I meant.

“It’s not like she says it, but she is what she is. I’m the son of an Omega and an Alpha who was thrown out of his own pack; I’m hardly anything noteworthy.”

Aurelia laughed, just as coolly as I had.

“You’re a famous musician. You get to travel the world because you’re so talented.”

“I guess those days are behind me.”

I hadn’t even thought about that. I hadn’t thought about it since I left with my sister, but I wasn’t upset - I had only really enjoyed it because it meant I didn’t feel guilty for avoiding relationships.

“I don’t want you to give everything up because of this.”

“Well, that’s my decision to make. I can do studio work, or teach, and it’s not as if I need the money. And if I ever miss that life, I can take it up again in a few years. You don’t need to worry about anything.”