Page 36 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

36

LARK

“ T hat was a huge tease for me, li’l bird,” Tormund said huskily.

I moved out of the wet patch to sit next to him, keeping my hand laced through his as if that would help him stave off his rage. He was bare, his cock jutting out from a thatch of red-brown curls. I forced my gaze on his with a swallow, wondering how such a huge member was going to fit in me. But I was sure going to try to take it all after making him wait.

“I’m yours now.”

His pupils held tiny flames behind his spectacles. “Mine. I like the sound of that,” he growled. The monstrous side had a voice deeper than Marius’s, hitting a tone I could feel down to my core.

I wasn’t sure if I should be scared or excited, since it wasn’t anger that had his nails flexing into claws and back. As I scooted up the bed and he pushed me down onto my back, he seemed impossibly large as his body rippled with heat and muscle.

He bore down on me, expression tight with lust, until I squealed in pain. His weight was too much to rest on my wings, and they bent in ways they shouldn’t when he braced his hands on them. The moment I cried out, he recoiled off me as he’d burned me.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’ll get a hold of myself. I’ll control it,” he said hurriedly.

Marius growled. “Don’t bear down on her wings. She’s as delicate as she looks.” He sat at one corner of my bed, a towel over his groin, and watched his brother and me with unease. If anything happened with Tormund’s other form, I didn’t doubt he would try to intervene.

“Come back,” I urged, beckoning to the redcap. Instead of feeling weird about our audience, I felt quite safe. I knew Tormund wouldn’t hurt me. This time, I lifted my wings so he could brace himself by sliding his arms underneath the top pair. He kept his entire weight off me, but that wasn’t what I needed from him.

I cupped his face and leaned up to kiss him. His caramelized mallows and smoke danced on my tongue as ours twined. When his confidence returned, he relaxed his stiff stance and rumbled deep and low. He was purring, actually, keeping his pointy bits at bay, though I could feel him trembling with restraint.

I forced a purr too, thinking he might be self-soothing. It stuttered away into a gasp when he nudged at me and missed, his hard length sliding down and through my sensitive folds instead. His brow crinkled when I sank down and reached, just to growl when my hand wrapped around him and guided him to the right spot.

“Take it slow,” I urged.

He nodded and kissed me gently in promise. He nudged in a couple inches before I felt the pleasurable burn of my pussy stretching around him. My sharp nails dimpled his skin where I clung to his shoulders as he claimed me. It seemed he was going to fit, but in the process, he tested my depths in a way they’d never been tested before. My earlier dream did not prepare for how overwhelming an alpha’s cock would feel when I was spread to my limits around it.

He purred all the while, working his own kind of magic to help me accept all of him. Once he was sunk in me to the root, his trembling worsened as he took great gulps of air through his mouth and leaked smoke.

I released my hold on his shoulders to smooth my hands down his chest. It didn’t seem to help. His control was at its end, and it seemed we’d only found that edge when he was fully buried in me. “Tormund,” I whispered.

“I have it. Just…give me a second,” he gasped.

“It’s okay. You can let go,” I urged.

His eyelids peeled open, those fiery pupils dancing in disbelief. This was clearly something he needed. The monstrous redcap was as big a part of him as Marius and his feral side.

The only thing we could do now was embrace it, even if the idea of inviting Tormund to start shifting had my heart pattering at double the intensity. Fear and desire mixed well together, and the combination was heady as I made my offer. “What kind of mate would I be if I couldn’t even look at your other form?” I reasoned.

His jaw clenched. “I don’t want to hurt the li’l bird,” he gritted.

“You won’t.” I put my full confidence into it.

Something like relief lit his expression before he lowered over me to pepper my face with kisses. After a single, lingering press of his mouth to mine, he transformed. The full-fanged maw of his monstrous form couldn’t kiss, nor could the claws he had folded in his fists underneath my wings. He vented extra heat from his back as his chest glowed molten with fire from the inside.

He lifted his weight off me as his form swelled with exaggerated muscles, and his cock…ooh. I made a strangled scream and bucked as it thickened noticeably and tested the limits of what my pussy could take. I writhed and left scratches down his front, not that my claws could penetrate the hide of a transforming redcap. As the moments passed, he was only inching up in size and heat.

He still hadn’t moved from where he was buried in me, but now his blazing gaze threatened to recede to concern as he tried to read my reaction.

“Please,” I moaned and made a whistling sound of need. I bucked my hips to fuck myself an inch or so on his cock until he got the message.

And as much as I thought I was ready for him, his first real thrust had my eyes rolling back. It was pure bliss to be filled to the brim.

“I’m okay,” I told him. My breath rushed out of me when he took the reassurance and rocked into me again. “Better than okay.”

“Better?” he echoed in a core-shaking rumble. I lifted against him, and he rocked my entire body with the slam of his hips against mine.

“Uh-huh” was about all I managed. I hooked my good leg around his solid ass and held on tight as he threatened to ruin me for any other male. His transformation made his chest look dangerous to the touch, but it was about as hot as a sunbaked stone. His heat slicked our skin, and his panting breaths expelled spoke and steam, which he aimed away from my skin.

All the while, that mouth of deadly pointed fangs was close to my exposed throat. This was the ultimate act of trust, and I hoped Tormund never doubted how much I loved him after the moment was over.

He could’ve hurt me at any point. But he didn’t, just as I knew he wouldn’t. He did, however, find sensitive points deep within me that had me screaming. I found myself wondering if I could even take his knot, sure to be just as sized up as the rest of him. On one hand, I really wanted it, my omega instincts calling for me to get tied up and bred properly by my mate. On the other hand…I was going to be so sore once he finished pumping into my stretched pussy.

His knot began to inflate with each thrust. The first couple caught the rim of specialized muscle designed to stretch around and seal in an alpha’s knot, popping out each time. It swiftly grew too large to force its way into me. His panting breaths shuddered as he came hard, grinding and bucking his swollen knot against my folds all the while.

I came too as soon as his heated seed filled my belly. My pleasure was prolonged by his, and as he tapered to a finish, I fell limp with bliss beneath him. I had to acknowledge a dirty fact about myself: much as I didn’t want babies right now, there was nothing near as satisfying as being stuffed with fresh come from one of my mates.

Tormund’s transformation receded and he gathered me up, the two of us nuzzling. He marked my neck and pressed a soft kiss over my throat. “You’re okay,” he whispered.

“Better,” I echoed, breaking into a big grin. “That was amazing .”

In the meantime, there was another whispered conversation at the foot of the bed. I paid it little mind as Fal asked Marius if he was okay and the kelpie grumbled, “Lost my shit a bit.”

“Oh. What else is new?” the dark elf replied flippantly.

I cupped Tormund’s face, adjusting his spectacles back into their proper place before I kissed him leisurely. He eventually rolled off me, and I tucked my legs together, only remembering our audience fully when I could see them. The massive bed had given us all a chance to spread out and get comfortable.

Fal was closer, partially reclined and at ease. His unfairly perfect body was on full display, complete with a new erection he palmed when he caught me admiring him. “Can’t wait for my turn,” he purred.

I parted my lips to agree with him, only to find that I was still quite winded. “I…need a minute,” I puffed out.

He stroked himself ever so slowly. “We have all day,” he replied, winking.

“Besides, it’s my turn with you,” Marius put in. He was sitting at rigid attention in the same corner he’d claimed earlier, towel over his hips.

The moment I tensed, thinking I saw anger in that posture, he softened and offered a lopsided smile. “If it pleases you, p’nixie. I just learned a few new things about you,” he added.

“Do share,” Fal said.

I flopped toward Tormund to give him one last kiss before anything else. “Love you,” he murmured.

“Love you too,” I whispered back. He made room for Marius by getting up to head for the restroom.

I was sitting up and moving out of the newest wet spot I’d created, catching the kelpie snort, “As if.”

“Just tell me,” Fal wheedled. “Or maybe I’ll share with her how you got your extra piercing.”

“What extra piercing?” Tormund called.

Marius rolled his eyes as he inched over to where I’d settled. He drew me up across his lap, on top of the towel for now. He tipped my chin up to talk to me directly. “When I turned thirteen, I received my tags,” he began, pointing to the two eyebrow studs and nose ring on the right side of his face. I reached for his chest, and he tensed, but all I did was tweak the bar through one of his nipples. He released a soft, aroused growl.

“After my tags were in, the piercer asked if I wanted, and I quote, the ‘lady pleaser package,’” he continued. “Which, at thirteen, was a decision I definitely wasn’t old enough to make. Especially because I said yes.”

“Package. Like, more than one?” I asked.

“Mmhmm. We made it to one before I swung at him. So, I did not receive the whole package,” he said, shaking his head.

“You punched him?”

“I missed. I didn’t realize it would hurt like a sonofabitch even with the numbing cream. Violent kelpies get thrown out, though, and it was already a miracle I’d gotten through all my tags without biting the piercer.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“That is not the best part,” Fal added. “Theodred sent me to look for him the next day since he’d missed training. He was still in bed, groaning like he’d caught the winter flux. He looks at me and goes, ‘I think I’m fucking dying.’” He deepened his voice into a fairly spot-on impression of the kelpie.

Marius glanced away with a resigned sigh while I muffled a snicker.

“And I’m eyeing his face as I say, ‘It doesn’t look that bad’ before he flings his covers aside. It was very purple and very swollen, and not in the good way,” Fal continued.

I winced in sympathy. “Oh.”

“That’s not the worst of it,” the kelpie grumbled. “I asked my dear older brother to tell Theodred something to cover for me for a bit. You know what he did?”

“Told him the whole truth,” Fal said.

“Why would you do that?” I gasped. How embarrassing for Marius.

Tormund poked his head around the corner from the bathroom. “Have you met my dad? No one lies to him. Ever.”

“Right,” Marius said dryly. “So, I was the one who had his training intensified when I could finally walk again. My designation hadn’t hit yet, so he loomed over me and said, ‘So, you wish to please a lady’ and informed me I was still far from that mark.” I shifted in his lap when he mimicked the older redcap by lowering his voice and adding a growling undertone that I felt to my core. His eyebrows rose in surprise, then he smirked at this next new bit of insight our one-sided bond had given him.

“So, where is it?” Tormund asked. Marius didn’t show him but mimicked its placement by pinching the base of his thumbnail. The redcap paled and ducked back into the bathroom.

“It took nearly a year to heal. Turns out shrimpy little kelpies get the package so they’re healed up for their mates later. In my case, much later,” he continued.

Stars, I hoped I loved how it felt after he went through all that.

“Shall we find out?” he offered.

Did he read my mind? I waited to see if he answered this unspoken thought, too.

“I told you; the bond is intense right now. I’m feeling almost everything you are,” he said right on cue.

“Then you know there are a couple things I’ve been dying to do.” I didn’t leave him to wonder what I meant. That wasn’t Marius’s style. Instead, I went ahead and started by latching on to the solid column of his neck.

His growl was immediate and inviting. As I suspected, he wasn’t so keen on gentle, not when he was such a tough alpha. “Harder. Bite me,” he grunted. I dug my little fangs in more and stopped when the points broke skin. His cock jolted under the towel.

I lifted my hips and tore the offending fabric away. While I kissed my way down his neck and collar, he grabbed my hand and placed it over his cock. “Feel what your pleasure’s done to me.” His erection was already soaked and slick, and I covered his whole length with pre in a couple passes of my fingers.

“Did you almost come?” I guessed.

“I held on.” He drew in with a feral, rasping growl as I circled my tongue around his pierced nipple and took it into my mouth. “Because I want to feel how you fall apart when I come inside you instead.”

“Oh, was that one of your gleanings?” Fal asked.

The heat of the kelpie’s regard turned into a flash of anger by the tensing of his muscles. I sucked harder on his piercing and bit down, hoping the pleasure and pain would distract him from snapping at his brother. At the same time, I caressed the rise and fall of his abs, admiring the strength sheathed in smooth skin and the occasional scarred ridge.

The tension in his body eased. I ran my hands back up and down, aiming to pet and soothe him. “Mate,” he sighed. I released his piercing and met his gaze, melting a bit at what I saw there. Fierce affection, unspoken but palpable. He traced my cheekbone in a tender sweep of his thumb.

“I learned you have the breeder’s delight, aye,” he said, speaking to me while answering Fal’s question at the same time. “And you’re apparently fearless, because you fucked a fully transformed redcap nearly knot-deep.”

I’d known about “the breeder’s delight” but not by that name. The vile pack I didn’t want to think of right now had called it something else, making it sound incredibly dirty. Some omegas had a love for being stuffed by their mates, but not all. I now thought it was fortunate that I had it, now that I belonged with Pack Sorles.

“Not fearless,” I corrected quietly. “Just not afraid of Tormund.”

His touch ghosted around to cup my neck. “It’s a strong start. We’ll convince you that you’re a princess—you have nothing to fear.”

I was sure princesses had plenty of things to fear, first and foremost losing one of her princes, but he kissed my doubts away before I could air them. He tipped back and took me with him, and his length nudged my belly as our legs tangled. Our lip-lock didn’t end until he’d helped me lift my cast so I straddled the pulsing heat of him. “I want you to ride me, p’nixie. Take what you need,” he invited.

I was flush with awareness as I took his cock in hand and lined myself up on the pierced head. His expression had hardly changed. He looked at me like I was the sexiest omega. That warm regard was heady as it traveled up and down my body, and I only paused to return the favor.

He’d saved himself for this moment. Despite staying in peak male condition and holding on to the highly desirable status of an eligible, unmated alpha kelpie, he hadn’t slept with another female. He was already loyal, already mine, in ways I was only grasping while poised to claim him.

Mine, I thought. It felt more intimate to express it through our one-sided bond. His expression shifted subtly to show smoldering approval. I sank onto his shaft, sheathing him in one long, hot glide. My eyes rolled back when the rounded nub of his intimate piercing rubbed through a sensitive patch halfway along my inner walls for a starburst of sensation.

“Oh. I felt that ,” he hissed, bucking his hips to seat me fully on him.

I lifted and whimpered when he stroked that same spot on the way up. Lady pleaser indeed. It really sank in that he’d hit that knee-liquefying patch with each stroke. His broad grin suggested he was coming to the same conclusion. His lips moved soundlessly to the words “Worth it.”

My legs shook as I rode him in earnest, and I wasn’t sure I’d last very long. Could he endure feeling me come a third time through our nascent bond without spilling too? I wanted this to be good for him, separate from what he felt from me.

He released one of his gentle snorts. Closing his hands around my hips, he caught my momentum and slowed it so he sawed at that bundle of nerves. I was glad of his assistance, even if he took shameless advantage of knowing exactly when to press for maximum effect. “Don’t fight it. Come,” he rasped. “I won’t follow prematurely like some untested colt, even though you feel fucking incredible.”

“Marius,” I said breathlessly.

If he told me to come in that smoky feral voice one more time, it felt like I would, right on command. He tilted his head, flashing fangs, about to do just that. He coaxed me toward that edge, lips parted, mirroring my expression as I cried out in a higher pitch and teetered on the brink of completion…

When the one thing that could ice over my pleasure happened, timed to the second. There was a knock on the door, coming from the study.