"Bed, Hermione. Now."
A pair of strong hands at her waist lifted her from the counter and set her down gently on the floor. The smooth, cool stone beneath her feet provided only a second's relief from the fever that coursed through her body and left her breathless.
But it wasn't enough.
Her hands grappled for purchase as they slid around his frame to grasp the fabric at the back of his shirt. She pressed her cheek against his chest, nose nuzzling against the scratchy fabric that was probably normally very soft when her entire skin didn't feel like it was stretched too tight. When she breathed in him, it briefly soothed the fire, like a balm to a wound; it settled her—grounded her, but she needed more.
But then she forced herself to let go and make her way towards the bedroom, even though she didn't make it far. When she stopped, staring at their reflection in the mirror, Severus collided with her back and his hands lingered at her waist. Soft lips pressed open-mouthed kisses against her shoulder and Hermione nearly vibrated out of her skin when his lips touched her mating gland through the thin fabric of the shirt.
She was transfixed by him. The feeling of his hands at her waist. The way his hair cloaked his face from her view when he moved just so, or the way his eyes darkened when he caught her staring.
His lips pulled soft whimpers from hers as they kissed the spot just behind her ear before tracing the helix with his tongue. Two fingers slid around one of the buttons holding her shirt closed to stroke the warm skin of her abdomen.
It only served to increase the flames burning within her. There was a throbbing ache that seemed to pulse through her entire body that only he could ease.
And she knew he would.
She'd forced herself to go through the motions of her life and when her heat started and she knew, she knew, where to catch any semblance of his scent, the pull was immediate and all-consuming. And now, with it surrounding her with every breath, every touch, and every taste of his mouth on her skin, every nerve ending in her entire body was alight and she burned in an entirely different way.
She burned only for him.
For Severus Snape.
A man she never imagined she would be connected to. One she never gave another thought to apart from the respect she felt for him as one of her professors. He was a man she mourned as his body grew cold beneath her hand and again when she saw his body interred in the grounds of Hogwarts as a hero, despite the mark on his arm.
Her mind begged for answers. She needed to know how he was here and why he was alive and whether or not he had access to anti-aging potions, but she couldn't think; she was so consumed by him as her heat consumed her.
It was frustrating and wonderful and though she needed answers, she needed him more.
"Are you ready to take my knot, Omega?" His voice was low and dark and she wanted to bathe in the sound of it. She wanted to feel the vibration of each syllable on her inner thigh, and the whispers of praise against her center before he worshipped every inch of her body.
Severus Snape was not a man who rushed. She'd seen the slow, steady strides as he stalked the corridors and the way he took his time to discuss things quietly with his Slytherins. He took full enjoyment in sipping his morning coffee and was usually the last one to leave the professor's table in the Great Hall before classes began.
Perhaps she'd paid more attention to him than she previously thought. But there was one thing she knew for certain, Severus Snape was a man who savored any pleasures he could take from life.
He would make her wait while he explored every inch of her body until she was writhing, and messy, and over-stimulated to the point of begging for release. And it would be the sweetest torture she had ever experienced.
The affirmation slipped out on a breathy moan from between her lips. "Yes, Alpha."
He chuckled darkly, his teeth nipping just over her pulse point. "I think not, little Omega."
She stiffened. Was Alpha not pleased with her? Had she done something wrong? Her lip started to quiver, but he stilled it with a press of his thumb.
"Shh," he cooed in that wonderful, dark baritone that she wanted to get lost in. "Perfect girl."
Hermione's head dropped back against his chest, and when he slipped his thumb into her mouth, she moaned as his other fingers threaded around the side of her throat. She felt the swell of his cock at her back when the hand on her abdomen pressed her against his chest. The pad of his thumb pressed against her tongue and as she hollowed her cheeks and circled it with her tongue. And when a dangerous growl snarled up from his chest, she nearly came apart at the sound of it.
She had done that and it made her feel powerful that she could pull such a carnal response from a man so composed as her Alpha.
He turned her quickly and lifted her, large hands cupping her thighs until she wrapped her legs around his waist. She could almost feel the pulse of blood through his cock as she ground her center against him while he carried her to the bedroom. He dropped her in the middle of her makeshift nest and covered her body with his own.
….
The way she spread herself for him was breathtaking. Her arms fell to the sides near her head and her legs parted, revealing her slick thighs and soaked knickers. She looked beautiful wearing what she claimed to be his shirt and only her knickers, but he wanted her bared before him. He intended to touch and taste every inch of this beautiful woman.
Pale fingers threaded buttons through holes with practiced ease and her shirt parted, revealing tanned skin and soft rounded breasts bisected by a dark, jagged scar that ran the length of her torso.
Severus stilled.
A frisson of rage flared in his chest at the sight of the curse scar. Someone had cursed his Omega and he'd not been there to protect her. It made him want to tear them to pieces and drop them at her feet, trophies representative of his loyalty to her and a warning to all others of what might happen if anyone else dared to point their wand in her direction.
He traced the line of the curse scar with a gentle touch when her scent changed. She was hesitant, nervous. "Who did this to you?"
"Dolohov," she said, shivering with each brush of his fingers over her warm skin.
"When?" Severus lowered his head to place a kiss where the scar skipped over her heart.
"Just over two years ago."
His spine went rigid once more, lips still grazing her skin. He'd known Dolohov two years ago. The man had been completing his Charms Mastery at the same time he'd been completing his own Mastery in Potions. He knew little of the Russian wizard, only that he was skilled in dark magic and was currently amongst the Dark Lord's favored, but the mention of his name on his Omega's lips pushed him to the front of the queue of those Severus intended to harm.
No one would hurt his Omega.
"Tell me what happened," Severus commanded quietly, knowing the strain was evident in his voice as he struggled to maintain his control. He pulled his ragged shields around him like a blanket as he gently probed her for answers. Large hands slipped beneath the fabric of her shirt, skating over her curves until his palms rested along her ribcage, just below her breasts.
He needed to feel that she was safe, that she was here with him.
It was unfathomable.
Hours ago, the thought that his Omega was out there somewhere was barely a passing thought. And yet, when she'd materialized almost at his feet, he was done for. He could never have predicted his feelings would be this strong, this fast.
Mine.
"There was a prophecy." She arched into him, the cool air of his chambers causing her nipples to pebble into dusky peaks. "In the Department of Mysteries. Harry had a-a vision."
His mouth closed over her one of her breasts, tongue teasing the sensitive nipple. His control wavered. She just smelled so damned sweet that he couldn't resist the pull to taste her. His instincts had slowly been crumbling any attempts he made at maintaining his shields and it was becoming more difficult to resist the pull of his biology.
She moaned, "Do-Dolohov was there with… with other Death Eaters." She was writhing beneath him now as he sucked and nipped at the taught bud. "Tried to s-save, oh fuck, Harry's godfather. Went through the nnnn veil." Severus released her breast with a pop and moved to the other one, teasing the hardened peak with his teeth. "Silenced him as he cursed me."
The scent rolling off of her was heady and thick and it was clouding his mind. He heard her words and he would find out more about exactly where and when she came from later, but his entire body was screaming at him to take her.
To bring her to the peak of pleasure.
To knot her.
To bite her.
To mate her.
No.
He refused to consider binding her to him without first giving her the choice, no matter how much he wanted to scent himself on her with every inhale, to know that it was his teeth that left the sweetest scar upon her shoulder. To know that she was eternally and irrevocably his.
If he did, he would be no better than his father who'd claimed his mother, an unmated Omega who wasn't even his sire's mate, without her consent. The thought of it was something Severus could not live with.
No. Hermione would have a choice. And his Omega would choose him.
"Good girl," he crooned, smirking up at her from between her breasts as her entire body flushed. "Look at you, my sweet Omega. I wonder just how wet you are."
"So wet." Her voice was breathy and taut with the winding tension. He'd play her like a harp, plucking this string and that until she was perfectly in tune and playing a song that was just for him. "For you, Severus."
His fingers crept between her parted thighs to press against her cotton-covered center and came away slick from just a brush of his fingers. Rocking back onto his knees, Severus studied her with dark eyes. Her skin was flushed with desire and the amber of her eyes was nearly clouded by the black of her pupils. The shirt pooled around her sides, leaving only her arms covered in dark fabric, unlike the white cotton of her knickers.
"Messy girl," he teased, drawing a finger through the slick coating her thighs. He could only imagine how much he would find when he finally claimed his prize.
Her fingers dug into her hair and she arched towards him, begging for his touch with each movement and the soft, breathy sounds that left her mouth. Slipping his fingers beneath the waistband, he slowly peeled her knickers away from her hips, smirking when he noticed them trying to cling to her cunt.
He dropped them on the floor not a moment later and pulled her leg over his shoulder. Severus laved open-mouthed kisses along the curve of her calf, his thumb pressing against the scent gland at the back of her knee as he drew his tongue through the slick gathered along her thigh.
He was painfully hard against the seam of his trousers, but he pushed her leg forward and parted her folds with his nose, growling with rapture against her center. With a flattened tongue, he licked from her core to her clit, coating his tongue in her and pulled sounds from her that were rhapsodic.
His name was babbled amongst a string of syllables he couldn't identify and he smirked against her cunt. Nimble fingers worked over the buttons of his shirt and trousers and he managed to shed them without leaving his Omega wanting. With just a few more deft flicks of his tongue, Hermione crested below him and Severus gripped his cock in his hand, pulling long strokes over his length and he worked her through each wave. Her body shuddered beneath him, one of his hands pressing against her abdomen to keep her still as he teased her, prolonging her pleasure as slick pooled from her core.
Withdrawing his mouth from her sweet center, Severus kissed the soft, sticky skin of each of her thighs. He took in the serene expression and the soft smile before gathering her in his arms. His hands slipped beneath the shirt and up her back, and he pulled her up to rest against his chest. He held her in place with one hand, whispering praises against her ear as he slowly slipped the shirt from her shoulders.
He had to swallow down his rage when the dark pink word carved into her arm came into view.
Mudblood.
The near painful arousal he had felt just moments before receded, his cock flagging against his thigh, half-hard as he struggled to reign in his emotions.
Fury.
Disgust.
Sorrow.
Failure.
Love.
When his hand covered her forearm, he could feel the rough, raised patches where it had yet to heal. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as he crushed her to his chest. Severus Snape was not a man to cry. He was a man who kept his emotions carefully schooled. Always in control beneath a cool mask or behind his mental shields and yet he was unable to stop them all from rushing through his veins and clouding his mind.
Just like the one bisecting her torso, he knew the word carved into her forearm would never fade. Curse scars might lighten slightly, but they never blended into the skin. They served as a near constant reminder of the violent experience in which they occurred. She would forever bear the hideous slur on her arm and the mere thought nearly made him fly apart.
A gentle brush of her lips against the scent gland at the juncture of his neck and shoulder was the only thing that held him together.
"Severus." The sound of his name falling from her lips was so soft, so tentative and he could sense her hesitation, overpowering the lingering scent of her desire, temporarily dampened from her recent orgasm. "I'm okay."
She shouldn't have to reassure him, but the words themselves settled something deep within him.
"When?" was all he managed, deep voice cracking where his mouth was pressed against her shoulder.
Her tongue licked a calming path over his scent gland and the tension drained from his body like a slow leak. "Easter."
His brows furrowed almost painfully. She'd been hurt so recently and he hadn't been there to protect her. If his suspicions proved correct and she had traveled through time from the future, why hadn't he been there? She was his. He should have been by her side. She never should have had to suffer. Never should have been near anyone or anything that could possibly harm her.
He nuzzled his nose against her neck, letting her scent calm him to the depths of his soul. "I'll never let anyone harm you again."
"I know."
He held her for an interminable amount of time, hands stroking along the curve of her spine and simply breathing her in as she purred against him. He felt the change in her body before he smelled her arousal peak, once more. She grew warmer in his arms and her lips wrapped around one of his scent glands, sucking, licking, and scraping her teeth across it in an impossibly soft way that made his entire body surge with need.
He pressed her into the bed, covering her with his body, hips raised just above hers. Fingers parted her folds and gathered the slick there to coat his cock and for the first time, the scent of them combined filled his nose. Already the base of his cock swelled with a hint of a knot.
A soft, keening whine came from below him. "Alpha, please."
His thumb flicked over her clit and her back arched, pushing her slick warmth closer to him. Instinctively, her small hands curled into the duvet pulling it around them like a tiny nest, shrouding them in comfort and warmth and something that was quintessentially them.
"Fuck me, Alpha. Knot me, please."
"Mine," he whispered against the shell of her ear before his nose and lips brushed against the mating gland on her shoulder. Still gripping his cock, he teased her with the head, rubbing against her clit, then down to her entrance. "Say it, Omega."
"Yours," she breathed, golden eyes finding his and full of everything he didn't know he needed. Warmth, desire, and something edging so close to love that it nearly made him tense.
He pushed forward and in one stroke he was buried within her. The feeling of her tense, and warm, and slick around him overwhelmed him. Lightning licked up his spine and fireworks burst behind the lids of his eyes. He'd felt the membrane give way when he entered her and he was powerless to stop himself as he rocked against her core, pulling delicate moans from her lips.
He'd never expected her to be untouched.
Heavy pants fell from his lips as his knot swelled unexpectedly, engulfing him with pleasure he had only dreamt of before. His lips grazed her shoulder as instinct shattered any command he had over himself.
His teeth sunk into her shoulder, her blood and her scent filling his mouth as his teeth pierced her mating gland, forcing her pleasure as he emptied himself within her. She pulsed around him while the sweetest, most perfect sounds poured from her lips in a song meant only for him as the waves of her orgasm crested.
Sharp nails dug into his back as something deep within him forced a roar from his chest at the satisfaction at having claimed an untouched Omega. His Omega. His mate.
But he'd done the one thing he told himself he would not do.
He'd taken her choice.