Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Harriet had shared her pain with her alpha hopeful that he could help ease her suffering.
She hadn't expected that in the process, she would gain another child to nurse.
After Tom succeeded in alleviating the ache in her breasts, for the rest of the day and the evening, once Mae finished her meals, he used his velvet voice and smouldering stare to coerce Harriet into giving him her leftover milk.
At first, she had chuckled at her husband and lovingly stroked his dark hair.
However, once her nipples had become sore and Tom continued to look at her hungrily, Harriet had grown irritated, but still allowed him what he wanted.
Mae woke in the night, wailing and pitiful.
Harriet's green eyes snapped open as she rushed to her baby, changed her, cuddled her, and soothed her back into a deep, restful sleep.
With her eyes heavy and her head pounding from her own fatigue, Harriet silently crept back to her nest and laid down.
She had barely closed her eyes when she heard the covers rustle.
Like a snake waiting for its prey to turn its head, Tom passed a subtle wave of Legilimency back and forth through Harriet's mind, hoping to treat himself to another generous serving of his omega's milk the instant Harriet fell asleep.
"I'm very tired, Tom." She said without opening her eyes.
A scowl of annoyance marred his handsome face.
"...All of me is very tired and I'd appreciate it if you'd let me rest for a while." Harriet whispered.
"Of course, my love." Tom sweetly replied though he wore a hateful snarl, "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Just let me sleep." Harriet sighed before she drifted off in a drowsy haze.
The ugly sneer that twisted Tom's lips as he sat up in bed would have sent fear coursing through anyone who dared look upon him.
Harriet slept soundly while Tom lept from her nest to pace back and forth.
He had tasted Harriet hours ago, why wouldn't she let him have just another mouthful?
Their bedroom seemed incredibly hot as he traipsed over the fine carpets that covered the floor.
As Tom glanced over at his sleeping daughter, he willed himself to calm down.
He raised a hand and wiped away the perspiration that had started to bead on his forehead.
A grin curled his lips.
Had he truly allowed himself to become enraged over Harriet's refusal?
It startled Tom to know he had reacted so wildly.
He usually prided himself on having enviable control his emotions, though Harriet always had maintained a particularly special hold over him.
Determined to regain his senses, Tom silently laid back down beside his wife.
As the scent of her milk tormented him, he closed his eyes tightly and batted away the vicious fantasies that played through his mind.
He glorified himself about being such a kind, considerate alpha to his darling.
If Tom hadn't truly loved his mate, then there would have been nothing stopping him from pinning Harriet to the bed and selfishly using her for his own purposes.
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Baby Mae mercifully slept until after sunrise a few hours later.
Harriet woke to her daughter's soft coos as she blinked her eyes open and yawned.
The previous uninterrupted hours of slumber seemed like a luxury to Harriet as she sat up and prepared to tend her little girl.
She reached out to pat Tom, but when her hand fell on the sheets, she glanced over as she noticed she laid alone in her nest.
"...Tom?" Harriet asked as she pushed her glasses onto her face and looked around the room.
When she failed to find her alpha anywhere, she called again, "...Tom?"
Mae whimpered while Harriet's gaze flickered over to the closed bathroom door.
A deep groan sounded from behind the door.
Harriet's eyes widened as she stood, rushed over, and knocked on the wood, "Tom?...Tom, are you alright?! What's the matter?!"
"Don't come close to me, sweetling." Tom warned her in a pained sigh.
Harriet gasped as she listened to his ragged voice.
His smooth, confident tone had become haggard and raspy.
"Are you ill?" Harriet asked as her own voice tightened, "Tom, are you ill?!"
Fear gripped her heart.
She had never seen Tom sickened by anything before.
Harriet wondered if she should call a healer?
Should she-
"I'll be fine." He whispered. His voice trembled with misery as he warned Harriet again, "Whatever you do, sweetling, stay away from me."
"Tom, I'm going to open the door." Harriet stubbornly nodded as she prepared to disobey.
She hurried over to the nightstand, retrieved her wand, pointed it at the doorknob and cried, "Alohomora!"
"NO!...DON'T!" Tom shouted from inside the bathroom.
Mae whined as the door flew open before Harriet barged inside.
"TOM!" She cried as her eyes fell on her husband.
It filled her with anxiety to see her strong, stoic mate crouched in the floor, his skin an unhealthy grey colour, his dark curls matted to his face with sweat.
Harriet's eyes widened as her mouth fell open.
Tom turned his bloodshot eyes towards her, exhausted from his hours of lonely suffering.
"I…..I've got to call a healer!" Harriet stammered.
In a state of worried shock, she whirled around and rushed towards the bedroom, but her wand flew from her hand and escaped through the open door before it slammed shut.
Harriet gasped.
Sudden motion came from behind her while Tom pounced as soon as he knew his nonverbal spell had been successful.
As she turned around with her eyes wide, she found herself gazing into his face.
His expression was wild with want, driven to a primal state by his primitive need.
Harriet cried out as he pushed her against the bathroom wall with her hips in his hand.
"T-Tom!" She protested as he ripped her nightdress from her body.
It startled Harriet that a growl was his only response.
She flinched as her changed figure was placed on blatant display for her mate, self-conscious that she hadn't fully recovered yet, but the silky lines of her silvery stretch marks and her belly's lingering roundness seemed to excite her husband more, not disgust him.
"Tom!" Harriet gasped as he glowered at her, "Please!"
Harriet heaved for breath as his stare focused on her swollen breasts.
She watched as he licked his lips and bent forward.
Harriet realized her loving husband had vanished the instant he latched on.
His tongue was rough and his suction was brutal as he glutted himself on her milk.
Harriet cried out as he cupped her breast with one hand and cradled the other in his spare palm.
Trapped against the wall with her hungry alpha determined to fulfill his needs, Harriet glanced in the mirror and watched her husband empty her.
She recognized the need for help.
As she combed her fingers through Tom's dark hair while he nursed, she frowned as she counted the minutes until he would allow her to call a healer.
Harriet silently admitted to herself that she did guiltily delight in how good it felt to be needed.
She regretted that thought as she winced once Tom took a particularly hard pull.
Enveloped by his wife's scent, with her sweetness flowing into his mouth and her soft body pressed against him, Tom at last found a reprieve from his own self-induced suffering.
He clung to Harriet as desperately as baby Mae while he took his fill.
With the logical part of his mind temporarily disabled as primitive instinct overpowered his conscious thought, he let a hand slip from Harriet's breasts down to her belly.
The only thing that would have satisfied Tom more in that moment would have been to touch his omega's fleshy abdomen and know that she already carried their next pup.
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Harriet lost track of time as she massaged Tom's scalp until he finally sated himself.
She frowned as he released her breast at last with a shamed kiss.
Harriet watched him stand as he slowly passed a hand over his face.
"You look a bit better." She frowned as her eyes scanned over her alpha, relieved to see the sickly greyness had faded from his complexion.
Tom turned away from Harriet.
It bothered her to think he had become angry, but as he whispered his remorse, she realized her husband was burdened by guilt not rage as he implored her, "Forgive me, sweetling……."
Harriet didn't often hear Tom ask for anyone's pardon with true sincerity in his voice as he did in that moment, while they stood in the privacy offered by their bathroom, both healing and needing.
Tom struggled to find the courage to face Harriet after his embarrassing loss of control, but Harriet's nature was kind and merciful.
As he stared at the bathroom floor and steadied his breathing, she stepped forward and clasped his hand in hers.
"Let's finish this like we started it, Tom." Harriet smiled as he glanced up and met her gaze, "Together."
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An hour later, Harriet sat in her nest with Tom behind her as the healer they had summoned prepared to speak.
It hadn't been easy for Tom or Harriet to explain their predicament to a stranger, but in hopes of seeking help, they had given the healthcare worker accurate descriptions of what had happened.
"I beg you, Mr. and Mrs. Riddle, please don't look so melancholy." The healer smiled sympathetically at the couple, "This is a correctable issue, with a bit of dedication."
"It is?" Harriet blinked.
Tom frowned while the healer smiled and said, "Indeed, Mrs. Riddle. It's not entirely common, but it does happen. An alpha can become addicted to their mate's milk soon after a child's birth. It's a difficult period and the hormones that run rampant in the weeks afterwards can gain the attention of a new father, though perhaps not in the way you two had hoped." The healer chuckled as she added, "Honestly, you should both see this as a positive happening. This sort of occurrence isn't possible if a mating bond isn't remarkably strong."
Harriet and Tom exchanged glances as Tom slipped his hand into Harriet's.
"What shall we do, then?" He asked the healer, "I nearly lost myself today. Tell me how I can protect my mate."
"I wouldn't worry about hurting your wife, Mr. Riddle." The healer nodded at Tom, "Should you two allow this to persist, it will be a simple needs-met basis. Mr. Riddle, you will seek your wife out and she will most likely fulfill you. Mrs. Riddle, your body will compensate, although I'd recommend you increase your fluid intake to have enough for your babe and your husband."
Harriet blushed as she cleared her throat and nodded.
"However, if that is your choice, no harm should come to anyone as a result." The healer nodded, "Some couples allow this sort of thing to run its course naturally due to the challenges of upsetting the new pattern you two have now established."
"What do you mean?" Harriet asked.
"Mr. Riddle, to break your addiction….." The healer explained, "You'll need to spend five nights and five days away from your wife. You may not have anything close by with her scent, you may not speak to her, you may not see her face. Once you force yourself to establish complete independence again, you two may rejoin and no longer have to worry about this new……development."
Harriet and Tom glanced at each other in horror.
Five days and five nights apart seemed like a cruel punishment for having an enviably strong bond with one another.