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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"Tom……..!" Harriet gasped.
Outside, dawn began to break as her emerald eyes widened.
Her husband held her hips in his strong hands while he placed rough, possessive kisses across the base of her throat.
"Tom, please……!" Harriet cried.
The massive, mahogany headboard knocked against the wall with the force of their motion.
A short distance down the hallway, Mae and baby James slept in their separate rooms, blissfully unaware of their father's condition.
Harriet let her head roll back as a hoarse moan escaped her throat after her husband's skillful fingers attacked her center.
The sensations he caused overwhelmed her.
Harriet's nails dug into Tom's arms as the aftershocks coursed through her body while she began to drift back down to earth.
She sighed as Tom stiffened and growled through his own ecstasy while he buried his face in the crook of her neck.
Harriet gasped as her lover flooded her.
She could feel the warmth of Tom's heated skin under her nails.
As he relaxed and pulled her into a protective cuddle, careful not to let himself slip from her, Harriet frowned as she tangled her fingers in his short, curly, hair.
Harriet had enjoyed another cessation in her cycle sequence after James's birth.
Tom's body had grown bored with the pause and decided to throw him into a rut.
Most omegas would have been exhausted after hours of being kept awake by their insatiable, rutting alphas, but Harriet's loving heart filled with sympathy for her poor husband.
"You've had a really tough night, haven't you, sweetheart?" She asked in a gentle whisper as Tom helped himself to her breasts.
He rewarded her empathy with gentleness, instead of cruelly using his teeth.
Tom couldn't bring himself to harm Harriet, even in his agitated, primal state.
She sighed to herself and closed her tired eyes, hoping she could nap for a few minutes while Tom enjoyed his sustenance.
As the sun rose, a veiled peace settled over the Riddles' bedroom.
Harriet's breathing became steady and deep while Tom momentarily contented himself.
She nearly wept out of frustration when her gateway to rest abruptly closed once more.
A strangled cry left her throat as she instantly responded to her mate's needs, driven to adrenaline-fueled arousal by Tom's seductive pheromones as his hands began to roam her body as his lips moved down her abdomen.
The whispered incantation that left his throat sent curling swirls of black smoke slithering up Harriet's arms to bind her wrists to the bed.
She blushed at the degree of her own readiness as Tom raised himself up on his knees and eagerly spread his mate in front of him.
He paused for a moment to stare at his beloved.
Harriet didn't quite recognize him then, with his face a mask of desire.
His dark eyes seemed cold and predatory, yet there was something in his merciless stare that excited Harriet more than his scent.
Tom, her Tom, her dear Tom, he wanted her and her only, more than anything else in the world.
Harriet fascinated him.
From her flushed cheeks to the silvery scars on her belly that proved she belonged to him, all the way down to her waiting………….
Tom swallowed thickly as his fascination grew.
Harriet groaned long and loud as he moved forward and united them once again as he pulled Harriet against his chest in a possessive embrace.
He stared into Harriet's face with his teeth grit while she moved in his arms, determined to watch his wife's expression change as they coupled once more.
Harriet hoped Merope would receive the message she had sent before Tom had pulled her into her nest the previous evening.
It didn't seem likely she would be able to wake the children that morning.
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Merope and Tom senior gladly provided child care to their grandchildren over the next few days.
While Harriet dearly enjoyed spending quality time with her husband, she missed visiting with her little ones each day.
James was still fed by his mother directly, at intervals, when Tom's patience could hold out long enough.
During the hours Tom lacked restraint, Harriet supplied Merope with what would be needed to feed the baby.
The Ministry allotted time off work due to heat and rut cycles, a benefit the young Riddles had already used several times.
Nearly a week later, Tom's torment began to conclude as he and Harriet spent their fifth evening in her nest.
A part of her was relieved her alpha seemed to be pleased with simple cuddling and tender kisses that night as they snuggled under the covers.
"You're beautiful, sweetling." Tom whispered as he pressed another kiss to his wife's lips, "Magnificent, strong…….You are mine, Harriet Riddle."
"I'm yours, Tom." She agreed before she pulled back and grinned, "I would think our two children display that well."
"Perhaps a third would make that fact more well-known?" Tom asked as his dark eyes flickered down to Harriet's belly.
She couldn't hold back her laugh.
Of course, her amorous lover would have liked nothing better than for her belly to swell again after he spent the previous week making his best attempts to impregnate her once more.
Harriet chuckled as she answered, "That's unlikely since I'm not-"
Tom cut her off as he pressed an urgent kiss to her lips.
Harriet refused to ruin the romantic moment and instead, decided to let him learn the truth in a few weeks.
While the fire crackled in their bedchamber's massive hearth, Harriet let her hands slide down Tom's smooth back as she marveled at her husband.
The last few years had held their own distractions.
Between the birth of two children and Tom's demanding job at the Ministry, he and Harriet often found themselves yearning to connect like many other hardworking young couples.
While a rut brought discomfort and aches, the event also guaranteed that Tom and Harriet could take a break from the world, blissfully undisturbed.
"Tom, you're awful!" Harriet laughed mockingly as the innocence of their cuddle faded once her husband's unignorable arousal pressed into the softness of her thigh.
A sly grin cracked across Tom's handsome face as he did his best to kiss Harriet into a trance while he whispered, "You've done well for me, sweetling. We can be finished……..Give me a moment in the lavatory to dream of you and I'll return."
His eyes widened as she suddenly placed both hands on his muscular chest and roughly pushed him back to lie flat on the bed.
Tom drew in a quiet breath of pleased surprise as Harriet gazed down at him with an angry frown.
His smirk returned as he watched the fiery fierceness that had first drawn him to Harriet return to her fair face.
"I'll say when we're finished, Tom." Harriet firmly declared.
Tom waited for a moment with his heart pounding in gleeful anticipation, although his dark eyes narrowed to slits when Harriet declined to move.
He huffed as he questioned, "Sweetling-?"
"-Beg." Harriet snapped.
It wasn't a question, nor a suggestion, it was a blatant demand.
Tom chuckled at his mate's attempt to fight for dominance.
The temporary, odd reversal of roles amused him.
He was the alpha, the dominant partner.
Who did his darling think she was to order him about as if-
Harriet sighed heavily while she waited, purposely letting her chest heave to tease her husband.
As she had planned, Tom walked right into her trap as his dark eyes followed the gentle swaying motion of her full breasts.
He licked his lips as he considered Harriet's taste and how much better she would feel than his own, boring efforts.
Tom's smirk melted into the sweetest smile he could manage as he nodded at his darling and asked, "Please?"
"Please what?" Harriet frowned.
"Please, sweetling-" Tom began.
"That's not my name, Tom." She snapped again.
Tom frowned while he watched her slowly move forward.
"Please……" He began as she crept closer.
His breath hitched as Harriet positioned herself so they were mere tortuous inches away from connecting.
His eyes widened as the last bit of his receding hormones locked him in an iron tight grasp of angst and need.
"Please, Harriet….." He repeated, his voice dry, sweat beading on his forehead as she let herself brush over the very beginning of his-
"PLEASE!" He begged as he watched for a single, terrifying second while his wife prepared to lift herself from him and forget the entire venture.
Harriet determined she had tormented her husband enough.
Instead of pushing herself up and leaving the bed, she rewarded Tom's obedience by sinking down on top of him.
The sensation made them both cry out as they once again found each other.
Their play ended quickly as Tom sat up and pulled Harriet into a deep kiss with one hand knotted in her long, dark hair.
An hour later, Harriet lay on his chest as they both enjoyed a pleasant sleep, satisfied and happy.
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Tom's steps seemed to exude an exaggerated sense of confidence as he walked down the hallway to attend an important meeting at the Ministry of Magic the following morning.
Secretaries giggled as he walked through the main lobby, knowing full well why the Minister's aide had been absent all week.
He flashed them a smug grin of unashamed pride as he passed.
Tom had never been modest about his affection for his beloved Harriet.
She remained on his mind as he entered the meeting room a few moments later and sat down at the head of the table, acting as he had for more than a year, as the Minister's……spokesperson.
A silent smile curled his lips as he looked around at all the people he had managed to fool.
How long would it be until-
"Tom." Lucius Malfoy nodded.
"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy." Tom smiled in reply.
The other high-ranking magical officials whispered to each other for a tense moment.
Lucius silenced them all with a single glance before he turned back to Tom and revealed, "As you know, the next election will be held in two month's time."
"Yes, I do, sir." Tom answered with a pleasant smile, "The same week as my son's first birthday."
Lucius sniffed before he went on, "I'm certain you've realized our current Minister for Magic is incapable of running for re-election."
Tom bit down on his tongue to avoid letting a sinister laugh escape his lips as he thought of the gray corpse that still sat in the Minister's chair.
He chose to answer with an innocent frown, "Yes, sir, I have."
Lucius nodded, "The Ministry must put forth one endorsed candidate, although others are welcome to run, of course."
Tom frowned.
Had his moment come at last?
Would all of his calculated schemes to take power prematurely become unnecessary?
"We've called you here this morning, Tom…" Lucius said as he cleared his throat, "To notify you that you have been chosen as the Ministry's endorsed candidate."
A wide, unstoppable grin spread across Tom's face as he nodded at Lucius with sincere appreciation before he turned to the other seated officials with a smile of greedy glee, "Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you all!"