Page 11 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

11

LARK

“ K auz, will you accompany Lark into the city while I finish speaking with her charming family?” Fal invited. Cymora and Lark both smiled at the flattery.

The winged Unseelie stood with a relieved sigh. “It would be my honor.”

I made to stand too, just for Cymora’s hand to band around my forearm. “Before you do anything else, go retrieve our bags. We had to leave them outside the cottage while we went looking for you.” Her melodious voice didn’t have its usually acidic edge, but there was a gleam of malice in her eyes.

I swallowed to keep from frowning, since I saw the order for what it was. It’d take me ages to find the cottage from here and return with our bags. No time for the princes to buy me anything if I was kept busy. With no other choice, I bobbed my head in agreement. “Yes, Stepmother.”

Marius also stood, shrugging on his cloak and his merman illusion as he went. “I have errands in the city,” he said, sparing my stepfamily a brief glance before striding out.

Kauz offered me his arm, and we walked out together. I didn’t release the pent-up breath I was holding until the inn’s door shut behind us. Stars, it wasn’t a complete disaster, but now my stepmother had a chance to influence the events to follow. My mind buzzed with all the implications of what could happen next.

“Hey. Are you all right?” Kauz asked, resting his free hand over mine. He drew me to the side of the inn for a bit of privacy.

“I don’t know.”

I didn’t even know if I could answer the question. An honest fae response would prompt a negative comment about my stepmother, something she’d forbidden me from doing years ago.

“I know they’re family to you, but we could trick them into boarding a different train tonight,” he offered.

I pictured it, especially Cymora’s face when she realized that she’d been fooled halfway to the wrong destination. I giggled, and Kauz laughed with me.

“No, really,” he said.

“My stepmother is too smart for that. She’d notice,” I said, even though it felt like pouring cold water over the moment. I sounded distant even to my own ears. Over the years, I’d found her next to impossible to fool and considered whether I was a simpleton for thinking my trick at the masquerade would end any differently than this.

Maybe if I’d managed to board a train to Zemosia earlier today. Then I’d be out of her grasp for good.

“I have to go get those bags,” I said, letting reluctance bleed into my voice.

“Are you truly in the habit of being such a doormat?”

I startled at Marius’s gruff question. He crowded the little alleyway we’d ducked into and stopped before me, face hard and expression probing.

“Doormat?” I repeated meekly.

“Marius,” Kauz said, a warning in his tone.

“You were there. You saw it too,” the kelpie said to him before his yellow gaze returned to me. “You allowed that beta to belittle and talk over you in front of your potential pack, and all you did was take it. Why?”

My cheeks stung as my mouth parted, but try as I liked, I couldn’t get more than a few sounds out. I couldn’t tell him the truth, that I’d been a foolish, heartbroken child once who’d rushed to promise, then vow to her stepmother that she’d be good and do everything she was told.

Cymora had implied that if I was disobedient, I’d be heading for an orphanage with “all the other unwanted brats,” and I’d bawled at the implications. I’d given away my freedom for the chance to avoid the truth: I’d been unwanted from the moment my father died from a sudden heart attack and left me in the hands of his second mate. In the years that followed, I’d taken a lot worse than what they’d seen at that table.

But again, I couldn’t tell Marius any of that. All I could do was break eye contact and hunch like a good little servant. Kauz freed his arm from my hold and wrapped his wing around me. He switched languages, the earthy Serian rising and falling in a furious cadence.

Marius snorted like a pissed-off horse and replied in kind, his accusing yellow eyes now locked with Kauz’s starry ones. They were definitely arguing about me, and Kauz’s wing only tightened around my shoulders as their words grew more heated.

It felt like an eternity before Marius switched back to Theli. “Fine! Where is this cottage?” he demanded.

The lingering anger on the kelpie’s face made me into a trembling creature. I made a small whimper before saying, “I…I’ll go. She told me to get the bags.”

“Ridiculous,” Marius sighed. “I’m going to do my duty —” His gaze cut pointedly toward Kauz. “—and retrieve them for you.”

“She didn’t say your name. Technically, any one of us could fulfill her request,” Kauz murmured.

“No…I have to,” I insisted.

Marius hadn’t stopped staring at my face. “It would be no trouble for me.”

I shook my head. “That’s okay. My legs work.”

The kelpie’s lips pressed into a tight white line.

“Mostly,” I added in a mumble.

“I see what you mean,” he said, his expression shading with understanding. Kauz nodded. I wonder what else they’d said in Serian during their argument, because I was a little lost.

“Look, Lark. I will get the bags, and your stepmother will be none the wiser. Fal will have her out of the inn for as long as possible. So, the bags can stay with the innkeeper, and I’ll give him coin to say you brought them. Will that work?” Marius said. This felt like the most he’d actually said at one time, rather than grunting and growling through a conversation. He’d also lost the air of alpha aggression which had my chest pinched so tight with fear.

“Marius won’t do anything else before he retrieves the bags,” Kauz added.

I guess I felt like looking this meat-eating horse in the mouth. “You’d do that for me?” I asked, practically reeling from the change in his tone.

One of Marius’s ears flicked. Even illusioned to look like a merman, that tell of his remained. “If you would give me a hint as to where the cottage is,” he said irritably. Well, he wasn’t doing this to be nice; Kauz had somehow talked him into it.

I told him the name of the rental cottages and the general idea of where they were. That was apparently enough for him to go off of, as he strode off without another word.

As the moments passed, my shoulders lowered from their defensive hunch. I’d missed my chance to more heavily imply that there was a vow between Cymora and me. Maybe one of the princes knew of a way I could break it. I’d never figured out if it was possible, other than if Cymora willingly released me from it. Something she’d never do.

Instead of interrupting my thoughts, Kauz waited for me to resurface from my musing. His eyes sparkled with purple stars, glimmering this way and that as his gaze roved over me. They really were pretty. I’d already lost any unsettled feeling at looking at his lack of pupils.

Since he was a beta, he was only a few inches taller than me. While his brothers had alpha height and muscles, he was lean, with the illusion of being broader than he was due to his wings. I wondered how heavy they were since he usually kept them furled tight like a trailing cloak of leather and stars.

“Kauz,” I murmured, mustering my nerve to ask to see his wings again. I hoped it wasn’t weird. Maybe he got the question a lot and would handle it with the same grace as he had when talking about his beta designation with Cymora.

“Aye,” he answered, shifting his weight. “Ready to go? I only have a few hours to spoil you.” He was serene again, calm in a way that had me relaxing too. I think it was just something about him, despite the fact I’d seen that he had a temper even Marius respected.

My mind blanked. “Uh…spoil? No,” I protested. Once Cymora noticed anything of interest in what he bought me, she’d demand it for herself or Laurel.

I didn’t have much money to make many purchases for myself. The nine hundred fulls from my stolen goods were still waiting at a pawn shop, and I’d combined the coin pouches I’d nicked last night to come up with a sum of about fifty fulls, with more than half of it being loose slivers.

“Come along.” He smiled, motioning me out of the alleyway. “I have my brothers to answer to if we don’t return with more bags than I can carry.”

We walked into the midday crowd, swinging around to the expensive side of the market I’d walked through earlier in search of a pawn shop. “First stop should certainly be clothes,” he said, heading into one of the first shops before I could talk him out of it.

If the beta who greeted us was surprised to see an Unseelie, she kept it under a bright smile as she greeted Kauz and then side-eyed what I was wearing. She modeled clothes from this shop, bright colors offsetting her light brown skin. They were altered to fit her form perfectly.

“We have a train to catch this evening,” Kauz said. “I know it’s short notice, but is there a seamstress here who can alter clothes for pixie wings within the next few hours?”

“Of course, sir,” she simpered. “If you will follow me, we have some ready-made clothing for omegas that may be of interest…”

Kauz fell into step with me, saying, “We’re going to get you a set of winter wear. Serian, Neslune especially, will still be cold for another month or more. Plenty of time for us to have lighter clothes tailor-made for you. There are a few designers that would murder for a chance to dress the next princess.”

I fidgeted with my fingers, releasing a nervous laugh. “Oh, but I’m a pixie. That must be a big change for Unseelie tailors.”

“The good kind of challenge. Do you know how many different slits and folds there have to be in nixie fashion for all their flashy fins?” He laughed, resting a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

I didn’t know, actually. I hadn’t met a nixie, but I’d heard they were vicious and toothy, the beastly opposite to the ethereal charm most pixies possessed.

The beta showed us to a section of the store lined with ready-made clothes. She hovered a polite distance away. I waited and eventually turned to Kauz, who mirrored the movement.

“If you don’t start trying clothes on, I’m going to buy every single thing here that fits you,” he said mildly.

That spurred me into action. I looked at every tunic and dress in the first row. These were clothes for noble omegas, made of buttery soft fabrics I’d never worn but wanted to rub against my cheek the moment they were between my fingertips.

The prices glowed on the sleeves from enchanted ink. In reality, Kauz shouldn’t buy me any of them. I didn’t pick anything off the rack before moving to the next one.

I browsed the whole section and turned, empty-handed, to tell Kauz that we should shop at a more affordable store, just to do a double take. He’d slung several items over one arm and reached past me to pick up the cloak I’d just barely restrained a purr over. It was charcoal gray on the outside, with a snowy lining of responsibly harvested fur that I’d snuck a covert rub of against my jaw while I’d longed to wear something so soft. “The changing rooms are over there,” he said, pointing.

The beta jumped forward to prepare a room for me, sweeping away the chosen clothes. I followed, shaking off my daze. The changing rooms were split by designation, with a couple sectioned off for omegas. There were complimentary heat supplies beside a three-fold mirror, and I helped myself to them once I was shut away for a moment of privacy.

I dressed down, pulling my smock and dress off. I used some sanitary wipes to clean away the spots where my perfume and sweat were lingering, not wanting to get any offensive odors on the clothes. Then I sat and peeled my panties off, hissing at how wet and oversensitive my folds were when exposed to the air. I’d come a hair’s breadth from my heat, and my intimate spots still felt it.

No wonder I was so needy to be touched and gentled. My inner omega still craved to be soothed by alphas, and was it any wonder when a couple had shown me hints of care and attention lately? It didn’t matter that they were Unseelie. I wanted their affection.

I sighed and used more wipes to clean off the lingering slick, grateful to wipe it away even as I frowned at my panties. Guess they had to go back on, soaked as they were.

“Lark? You know I want to see you model the clothes, right?” Kauz called.

“One moment,” I called back. Then I poked my head out of the changing room to catch the attention of the beta assisting us. She came over when she noticed me. Though my cheeks heated, I whispered in her ear about underclothes, and she went off to retrieve some without so much as batting an eyelash.

It was another ten minutes at least before I emerged in a new ensemble. Kauz glanced up from where he’d been waiting in a chair built large enough for his wings, which he had half-spread behind him. He had his chin resting in the cradle of his hand but sat up with a jolt when he noticed me.

“Well, look at you.” His tone lit warmth in me, unrelated to any kind of pre-heat. I felt pretty, and my wings fluttered under his admiring inspection. Most of the clothes on offer were neutral colors, designed to make pixie hues pop. They even made the dim glow of mine look nice. This tunic was a light brown, with faun-colored pants that went with it. It’d be good traveling attire, though the decadent fabric felt odd against my skin. If I was given such a nice outfit, I’d be afraid to exist in it and potentially stain it.

We’d acquired a second assistant, apparently, as Kauz signaled to a beta male. “The lady requires new shoes as well,” he said.

“Right away,” he answered, taking a good look at my worn slippers before heading further into the store.

Kauz sent me off to change into a new outfit. He didn’t say whether he liked any of the various things I ended up modeling for him, though on occasion, he asked if I did, especially if something needed a seamstress to fit me correctly.

After the hitch in starting the process, I had fun, enjoying the feel of some of the clothing that swished just right against my skin. He’d picked up everything I’d spent more than a couple moments touching and admiring, and I was grateful for the chance to try it all on.

And the fur-lined cloak… I modeled it last, with the gray pants and amethyst-toned tunic Kauz wanted me to wear out of the store. It was huge on me, as some of the clothes were, but that made it easier to close around my body and sink into like a wearable blanket. It even had a hood… I loved this thing.

“That was everything?” Kauz asked. Once I nodded, he stood and took the edge of the cloak, brushing my cheek with its ultra-soft lining. I began to purr as he did it again. He smiled, adding his fingertips as he held the side of my face for a too-brief moment that I chased by leaning into his touch as he was withdrawing it. He reached for the clasp holding the cloak around my shoulders. “You’re going to overheat if you wear this right now.”

I began to whine as he pulled it off my shoulders, suppressing the sound out of habit before it got too loud or annoying. His starry eyes flickered, something unknowable passing over them. “I know,” he murmured. “I’ll carry it for you.”

“Oh, wait, you’re going to buy it? It’s a lot,” I said, figuring he hadn’t looked at the hood’s edge, where the price was inked. Over a thousand fulls, probably because of the fur.

“Why don’t you rest your leg a moment while I finish up here?” he suggested. He didn’t even look at the cloak’s price before leaving with it.

I sank into the big chair he’d left behind with a sigh. The clothes I wore, plus the cloak, shoes, and underclothes, were already a pricy gift. However, getting to this point had taken a lot more time than Kauz probably expected. We had maybe an hour before the sun would start setting.

The act of taking clothes on and off, twisting to get my wings through some of the holes, trying on different pairs of shoes until Kauz insisted I walk out with the fur-trimmed boots I now had on… I’d aggravated my lame foot at some point along the way. He’d noticed that, too. This male could read me at a glance, it seemed.

Instead of feeling worried, as I probably should’ve been to have an Unseelie able to perceive my inner thoughts so easily, I was flattered. I thought I just might like Kauz, and the smell of pine he’d left behind on this chair. It had to be a soap, since betas didn’t naturally have a strong and distinct scent.

There was something else too, a smell more alluring underneath. What was that? It passed in and out of my awareness before I could figure out what it was.

He returned after a short while with the fur-lined cloak thrown over one arm. “I’ve been given leave to spritz you,” he said playfully, showing that he had what looked like a perfume bottle in one hand.

“Oh no, I smell that bad?” I asked in a small voice, suddenly mortified that I’d gotten my scent on all the clothes I’d tried on after all. The female beta attendant had offered to dispose of my old clothes, but I insisted on keeping them, so they rested in a bag by my side. My smock still had my limited funds and the tokens from my scent matches.

His snowy lashes fell in a long blink. “No, sweetheart,” he said gently. “It’s a potion to remove the prices. See?” With a little shuffling, he showed me the damp edge of the cloak’s hood, which no longer had luminous numbers.

I nodded, glancing down as I rode out my embarrassment. Kauz sighed as he knelt and took my wrist, spraying away the price on the long-sleeved tunic I wore. “I know you must feel overwhelmed by my family and our personalities all at once,” he said in that same tone. “No one expects you to change overnight. But what you’re doing right now, hiding your face and reactions…we’ve got to break you of the habit.”

“Sorry,” I murmured.

He took hold of my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “You have nothing to hide, li’l omega. Not from your mates.”

“It’s a little early to call me a mate, isn’t it?” I protested, though it didn’t have much teeth. Not while he was touching me, even this little bit.

His fingers drifted down my jaw, and this time, as his fingertips drifted, he let me lean into it. He cupped my face, his thumb caressing my cheekbone ever so gently. Stars, even something so basic had me fit to melt.

I wished I could read his thoughts better, as his striking eyes remained unreadable, though they seemed to soften. “Perhaps, but look how you respond to my touch. When you’re in the pack bond… Shall I clue you in to a secret?” His lips took on a conspiratorial slant at the abrupt change of subject. “Hmm. Maybe after I take you to the next store. I paid one of the attendants to do some minor shopping for us, by the way. There’s a place I have to take you to before we return to the inn.”

“Oh, you have to,” I echoed curiously.

He returned to spritzing off the prices of my new clothes. “See, that’s the kind of reaction I want to hear. Don’t hold yourself back so much.”

“I’ll try,” I promised. Though that also didn’t have much teeth. We were going to be traveling in an enclosed space with my stepmother. Candid moments would be dangerous.

He offered me a hand up and let me out of the store, passing the perfume bottle back to an attendant on our way out. “We will have the items delivered as soon as possible, sir,” she said.

He nodded and turned a sparkling gaze my way. “The store isn’t far. This way.”

We entered a thinning crowd, with him slowing to stay by my side. I wondered what kind of store it had to be for him to seem excited. We were heading away from the pawn shop, toward a section of the market I hadn’t visited yet. It wasn’t too long before he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed. “Have you been to an omega store before?”

We were coming up on a shopfront with a hanging sign that was just the horseshoe-like omega symbol. “Um, no,” I admitted.

“Hmm. Osme Fen just keeps getting smaller in my estimations,” he remarked, getting the door for me.

“It is very…” I drifted off as I took a look around. My eyes quickly widened when I realized most, if not all, of the items on display were for nest building. Mattresses, pillows, blankets, and more.

“Go ahead. We have time,” Kauz said, nudging me in encouragement.

Next thing I knew, I was face down on a display mattress, vividly imagining taking a nap on it. It had just the right amount of give without engulfing my body, and its outer fabric was thick enough that no quills poked up from the feathers within. Would Kauz buy it for me?

How will you get it onto a train? a more reasonable part of me asked. There probably wasn’t space to haul an entire mattress on board.

Though my body had decided to weigh a hundred extra pounds in my reluctance to leave the mattress, I turned my head looking for Kauz. He’d intercepted an attendant, the two of them talking over a basket the prince held.

I stood before I could really fall asleep and decided to leave the mattresses alone, just in case I encountered an even nicer one. I went to the pillows and bedding section, losing myself to feeling each and every display item. My inner omega was going crazy, wanting to arrange everything anew as the logical lines and stacks didn’t fit her style.

Kauz interrupted the process by resting his hand on my shoulder. “Do you have a favorite fabric?” he asked.

I tilted my head up at him. Hadn’t he asked me this before? But wait…when? We’d just gotten to the omega store.

“Lavir spidersilk,” I answered uncertainly, itching all over with the sensation of déjà vu.

He rifled through the blankets with a hum, producing a folded bundle that was exceptionally thick. “Try this one,” he suggested.

I took it and squished it against my chest, my fingers roaming over the material. Stars, it was so nice. I’d felt it before…last night…

I looked up at Kauz, who was waiting with a kind of knowing expression as hazy memories clicked into place. “You were in my dream,” I practically accused before sucking in a breath. I couldn’t talk like that to a prince. “Sorry, I mean, I had this dream and…”

“You can trust your new pack to free you of anything that would get between you and us.”

Ah, stars. I remembered a quarter of last night’s dream, if not less. But that’d been Kauz and his calm presence at the end of it, not Tormund.

“Let us take you to Serian, li’l omega.”

I was struck breathless by the implications. Had he somehow talked me into trusting him and his brothers subconsciously? If it was Unseelie trickery, I didn’t know what to do.

“Yes, that was me. I’ll tell you more later. We don’t talk about my powers in public,” he murmured. He unfolded the blanket and draped it over my shoulders, pillowing me in its softness. “By the way, this is fleece.”

I nodded, not trusting my voice as I wrapped the material around me more. I was seconds from rolling around in this blanket if he would just look away for a moment.

“I have a theory, if you would indulge me.” He held out his arms for a hug.

More trickery? Or just a kind offer?

I barely hesitated before walking into him, resting my cheek on his chest while he held me tight. “You need this, don’t you? You’re a little touch starved,” he whispered.

Since I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been held like this, other than Tormund’s soothing last night, he was probably right. I whispered back, “Was my dream why you already know me so well?”

He stroked my hair with a warm hand. His muscles shifted as he shook out his wings and added them to the embrace. Starry purple leather made a boundary between us and the outside world, and I succumbed to a deep purr that rattled my whole frame from how snug and safe I felt. This was no trick.

“Being observant isn’t magic, sweetheart,” he said just loud enough for us in this cocoon of comfort. “I just want you to know…if your stepmother turns out to be the reason you’re touch starved and have pushed off your heat for so long, I will ensure she has nightmares for the rest of her days.”

That was possible? I couldn’t wish ill on Cymora due to my vow, but I could purr even more at the idea.