Page 34 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

34

LARK

W e entered my study, and Marius closed the door behind him with an irritated flick of his ear. He indicated that I should sit, so I lowered myself into one of my new overstuffed armchairs, and he dragged over a second one across from it. He simply sat and looked at me, and after maybe ten seconds of silence, I yielded.

“I’m sorry I kept this from you,” I said, still speaking Serian.

“A female is entitled to her secrets,” he replied, speaking Theli. “Though this one was guaranteed to come out sooner rather than later. It’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Fal being himself.” He set his mouth at an unamused angle. “Trying to take advantage of every situation as it arises. We spoke about ‘punishment,’ and I let him know I’d rearrange his pretty face if he started equating that word with fucking our omega, as he began to.”

I didn’t quite know what to say to that, so I made a small whine at the violence he’d suggested.

“With that out of the way, he suggested something we’re not opposed to unless you are. You must realize our entire pack wants you. Right?”

I shifted and ducked my head, cheeks heating. “I don’t think I realized how much until I had a taste of pleasure yesterday. After that, I’ve noticed, um, signs,” I said with a vague wave.

He snorted gently. “Signs,” he echoed.

“I want you all too,” I said, face flaming further.

“Slowly? Or all at once?”

His meaning clicked into place for me. “ All of you at once?” I yelped. It was a huge step up from making love with Kauz in a dream.

“I know it’s a lot to ask.” His gaze flicked away, the only cue that he was embarrassed or avoiding something. “And not all of us may be welcome in your bed. We agreed that we were competing to have you first, while you don’t seem to have a preference. So, if you truly cannot choose between us, why not share…” He trailed off with a meaningful flip of his hand.

“Why not,” I echoed with a disbelieving laugh. The logic was sound, even though, three alphas at once, wow. I loved them, though, so maybe it wasn’t so farfetched to share my first time as an experience for all of us. And even though our relationship wasn’t perfect, my feelings encompassed the grumpy male across from me too.

Marius shared a bit more of what was discussed while I was learning magical control. There were logistics of one female and three males, and knotting too. I was back to being flush with heat and tingling excitement once he was done explaining everything.

“Only if you’re all right with it,” he repeated. He reached for me, and I stood, limping the two steps between us to sit astride his lap. He traced idle patterns over my wings while I thought.

“I’m glad you told me all this,” I murmured.

“I know it ruins the spontaneity, but it didn’t sit right with me to spring this on you with all three of us, especially if we were all already naked…”

He trailed off as I stroked his solid chest through his clothes. He grew still in an almost predatory way, waiting to see what I did next. I rested my head against him and caught a hint of the quickness of his heartbeat.

“I could offer you a feral thought,” he said after a moment.

“Okay.” With his unreadable face, any insight into how he felt was valuable.

He seemed nervous to me but hid it, or distracted me from it, by banding his arms around me with a possessive growl. He whispered close to my ear, “You’re prey. Soft, warm, relatively defenseless. But I think I’m figuring out how to protect you. No one is allowed to prey on you, not even me, unless you allow it. Do you understand?”

“Are we still talking about sex?” I whispered back.

“In this case, aye. If I knew you were willing…” He took a dry swallow. Oh yes, quite nervous.

I sat up and channeled my inner Kauz, turning his head with a gentle grip on his chin. With no other choice, he met my gaze. The familiar shadow of doubt and worry darkened his expression.

Marius was certainly the pessimist of his brothers. He dwelled too much in his own head. The best example I’d seen was the matter of Nemensia’s approval; no matter the amount of reassurance he’d received, nothing seemed to stick until he saw me before his mother.

Now, for some reason, he thought I wasn’t going to invite him to bed, even if I decided to share myself with his brothers. What could I do to get rid of those nagging doubts and have them stay gone?

The answer hit me the next moment, and it was so blindingly obvious. Words didn’t matter so much to a male like him, not like actions. “Marius, I want to start our bond,” I said.

He exhaled, his body loosening with relief. “It’s time,” he agreed, standing and carrying me up with him, just to place me back down in the armchair I’d started this conversation in. He didn’t waste time, going straight for his belt. “All you have to do is bite my alpha mark. Hard enough to draw blood. I know you have it in you, p’nixie.”

He flicked his pants open and dragged them down, sweeping away the hint of dark underclothes too. I blushed and averted my gaze. Stop being an innocent li’l bird . With that thought in mind, I looked at his bared skin.

The tails of Marius’s alpha mark wrapped around his hip, leaving most of it in an intimate spot right up against his groin. I inspected it in fascination, since it was the first time I’d seen the sideways loop that darkened on any alpha’s skin when they manifested the traits of their designation.

Then I noticed something about his cock that had me squealing. “You’re pierced… there ?” I asked in disbelief. It looked like he had a bar all the way through the tip, with a stud marking the top and bottom. I immediately wondered what it would feel like inside of me. That had to be the point to it.

“Aye. There’s a story,” he grumbled.

He shifted closer to me, angling his mark my way. I slipped out of the chair, onto my knees where I could’ve licked his hardening shaft. And I definitely wanted to. Mates did that, right? But my lips landed on his mark instead, and his groan was my immediate reward.

The whole thing was barely bigger than my palm, slightly upraised from the rest of his skin. I did my best to line up both my fangs on it while he threaded his fingers through my hair, applying light, encouraging pressure. He trembled, watching me with hooded eyes.

A claiming bite was permanent, and for him to offer me the kelpie equivalent was so special. He wanted it so badly. I felt the intimacy all too well. As an omega, I was the one who’d usually received claiming bites. Once my heat overwhelmed me, it’d be him sinking his teeth into me in the same way to strengthen our pack bond.

I was about to bite down when the door opened, and Marius whipped his head toward it with instant snarling aggression.

“I heard her notice the piercing. Are you two starting without us?” Fal asked, sounding unconcerned to be on the receiving end of all the tensing muscles and vibrating fury I felt underneath my lips and hands.

“Bad timing,” I put in, no more than a nervous whisper.

Marius balled his fists, radiating alpha rage.

“So it is,” the dark elf agreed, retreating to the other side of the threshold and shutting it quickly.

Stars, that may’ve been the first time I’d seen him back down to Marius. It probably helped that the kelpie’s violent reaction didn’t seem like posturing this time. Fal had interrupted our moment, and now my instincts left me petrified. Alpha anger meant danger, and I was alone with the source.

I looked around for a place to retreat to, and Marius whispered, “Sorry.” The rare apology gave me pause. He stroked his fingers through my hair and started his purr. With a little more coaxing, it rose from a silent pitch to something comforting and warm, and the soothing vibrations ran along my scalp. “I’m not going to hurt you, p’nixie. Never .”

In my right mind, I knew that, but I couldn’t help being an omega. I whined. His expression softened, his feral side rising. Like when we were nest building, his instincts communicated with mine. A few noises back and forth, and we understood each other. In the future, if I ever had to hide, I should hide behind him. He’d be my snarly shield.

What a mate. I kissed his mark, soaking in his answering moan, and watched his face grow slack as I licked the mark’s curving trail. His breathing changed, which suggested I was doing fine at bringing him pleasure.

No danger here. Just a seriously pent-up male. While I continued to lick and nibble on the sensitive mark, I touched his lower belly, tracing a path to his opposite hip. If it weren’t for the clothes he still wore to cover his chest, I’d drift upward and caress some of the strength he’d cultivated.

His cock jumped to full, throbbing life. I gave it a stroke, and his thick shaft kicked upward at the touch of my hand. Since I didn’t know if that was normal, I let it go with a little startle. A rumble of a chuckle drifted from him as he watched me.

I was too curious about his body not to touch him again. I held him more firmly this time, earning a soft growl of interest as it throbbed in my palm. My thumb twirled the bottom of his piercing, and it didn’t go up and down as much as I expected it to. That was probably a good thing; the only thing I’d feel inside of me were the rounded studs.

Finally, I gave the base of his cock a squeeze, feeling for the knot. Even while it wasn’t inflated, it was much harder than the rest of his shaft. I rubbed the dense skin over it.

“P’nixie,” he warned, his grip tightening in my hair. His sharp nose had to pick out the scent of my slick, even with my thighs pressed together tightly. My heart beat harder with excitement, spurred on just from touching and teasing him.

I stopped kissing his mark to use my lips to find the perfect spot. Once I found it, I hovered there, as I wasn’t sure I really “had it in me” to seriously bite him. I didn’t want him to think my hesitation was second-guessing, so I counted down in my head. Just one bite. He wants it.

I bared my small fangs and sank them into the top of his mark, around where it was thickest. His skin parted with unexpected ease, and my mouth was flooded with a concentrated blast of mint and waterlily. It was so strong I’d taste him for days. He tensed with a gasp and a muttered “ foc .”

He held on to the back of my head like it was an anchor. Though he didn’t come, he panted and shuddered like he felt some kind of orgasmic pleasure from my claiming bite. My slick threatened to soak my clothes, just from me seeing him enjoy the bite.

I didn’t feel any different otherwise, which worried me. Shouldn’t I have? At least Marius loved it. His head was still thrown back when I released the bite and took in my handiwork. I’d left two neat punctures behind, which started leaking thin trails of blood.

He hauled me up and into his arms, kissing me like he was ready to devour me. My pussy clenched, my body replying to devouring with yes, please!

“You’re mine now,” I said once we surfaced for air.

He grinned back. “And I accept your claim,” he replied. Oh, now that caused something to change; his acceptance started a sensation tickling in my mind.

His expression only became more predatory. “I can feel how much you want me,” he added in a feral rasp.

“You can?” I murmured. With our kelpie bond half finished, it seemed he was the one affected by it more. I needed to finish the bond to know what he was experiencing, then, because his expression was shifting further, until he seemed overwhelmed.

As his hands began to roam my body, he nodded. “I can feel you . Your needs, your feelings. Sensations. Pleasure.” He bent to kiss my neck and drew a breath at the same time I did. “And…pain.” One of his fingers pressed on my arm, finding a bruise from the crutches. “Why didn’t you say something? I have a salve you can use.”

“It’s minor, not something I’d bother you about?—”

He interrupted me with a kiss. “Nonsense.” Then he caught my mouth for more kisses, adjusting the pressure back from the initial force he tended to lead with until we were sealed in a perfect lip-lock. I barely realized we were moving until he set my down on the side of the bed outside my nest and started undoing my clothes.

He drew back only enough to ask, “Are you inviting my brothers? I’ll call them over our pack bond.”

I winced when he tried to remove my shirt without undoing the buttons on the backside, which had the material around my wings pulling too tightly. A quick study, and he stopped, realized the problem, and fixed it while I remembered my excitement over inviting all three alphas to bed at the same time.

But I’d just started something more intimate than I would’ve ever expected with Marius…

He tilted his head. “I need a few moments to adjust, p’nixie. They could help,” he murmured. “Besides, I want to feel your reaction when one of us sinks inside you.”

Stars, how intimate. I was going to combust just at the thought of him sharing in my pleasure.

“Call them. Let’s have an experience together.”