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Marlowe: So excited!! Drive safe, we’ll see you soon!

In a separate message just to me, Elias wrote:

Elias: I’ll have a surprise waiting for you.

My interest piqued, sure he meant a “sexy” surprise in the form of Marlowe, but I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the road should I try to guess any further, and the ensuing erection became too distracting.

Instead I thought about the mass spec results. If elements unknown to this world were discovered in the Luminis, what did that mean about Marlowe and her family’s origins? Why did it only seem to be present in her blood, but not other shifters or even vampyrs?

And was it somehow connected to her being an omega?

We’d never ascertained exactly why shifters had lost their abilities in the aftermath of the Great War. It had been hypothesized that interbreeding with humans had diluted our power, but how did that explain vampyrs, who only ever mated with humans, losing their ability to fly?

I had all the pieces to the puzzle laying out in front of me, but I couldn’t put them together on my own. I needed to talk this through with the pack.

The sound of Marlowe’s sweet, panting moans, accompanied by a strong wave of her perfume, hit me as soon as I walked into Elias’s house, my dick becoming instantly hard.

I rushed in and found my omega, wearing a sexy little nightgown, gripping the back of the couch while she was nearlydoubled over in ecstasy, her back arched. Slick ran down her legs, and my instinct took over as I pushed her over the back, taking my cock out of my pants.

“Wait!” she cried. “You have to take it out first!”

I bit back my instinct to growl, angry at the pause, and got down on my knees, finding a hands-free vibrator pulsing rhythmically inside her.

“It’s…” Another pulse shot through her and she whined, so close to her release I could smell it. “Elias… he has an app… he’s at work…”

Well, this wasn’t what I imagined he’d meant by a surprise.

Elias had been edging Marlowe remotely to make sure she was ready and waiting for me as soon as I arrived. I didn’t have time to even think about the actual plan I’d made in my head for us. Another role play—I’d even brought costumes so we could spend hours together.

But this was excellent, too.

I rubbed her clit with one hand as the other pulled the toy out, and she screamed as she orgasmed, “Archer, yes, fuck… yes, yes!”

Elias knew me better than I did. Or at least he knew an alpha’s reaction better than I did at seeing his omega again after a few days away, because my cock was practically screaming to be inside her immediately.

We needed this—a quick, passionate, hard fuck so we could take our time later.

At least I had the wherewithal to turn her around. We had so much to talk about, and I wanted to see her face while we were knotted. I picked her up and brought her against the wall, wrapping her legs around me while I pounded into her relentlessly.

Moon, I missed her. Her smell, the sound of her voice, the way she said my name, the way she touched me, the way it felt to be inside her… I cursed myself for my plans to stay here in Chicago through January. I would come back for the end of the year, but that was still two weeks away. If this was how I felt after not seeing her for five days…

“Archer,” she moaned. “Harder, please!”

I expressed my sentiments with my mouth, capturing hers in mine and happily acquiesced to her demands. I gave her everything I had, ignoring the artwork bouncing on the walls.

Her pussy was so wet and sensitive from Elias’s “surprise” that she came again quickly. I knotted her with one final push as I came in response, roaring at the feeling of her clenching around me.

Stars danced around the periphery of my vision, and I panted heavily as one orgasm rolled into the next, our feelings ricocheting through the bond. Her whole body vibrated in my arms, her moans reduced to sated whimpers.

“Shh,” I cooed. “I’ve got you, Marlowe. Always.”

Her arms wrapped around my neck and she buried herself in the crook of my shoulder, sighing softly as the aftershocks finally subsided. “I missed you so much,” she whispered.

I kissed her on the top of her head. “I missed you, too. More than I’ll ever be able to express with words. It felt like I was living with my soul ripped in two while you were away.”

I carried her over to the couch and sat down, taking her face in my hands. “Tell me everything you did for the past few days, I need every detail.”

My heart refilled while she talked about her time in San Francisco, and how she’d been exploring Chicago. Her eyes sparkled, and I lost myself inside them.