Page 38 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

38

LARK

B y that evening, I retired to my nest early since I was exhausted in a good way. Kauz had passed out on the divan rather than the nest’s bed. I spent a moment tucking one of his sprawled wings and arranging the blanket over him better before turning to see my bed had filled with alphas. Stars, it was going to be a good night.

I fell asleep purring and clinging to Tormund, with Fal at my back and Marius closest to the nest’s exit. He’d placed his mace on the floor by the bed and slept with some clothes on, unlike the rest of us.

It was easier than ever to find and slip into Kauz’s dream. We returned to the epic dream nest and talked. He wanted to know everything he’d missed while he’d been unconscious, after what he’d walked in on. For most of the night, I talked while he held me in his arms, cocooned in his wings. When there was nothing more to say, we just lay together until I drifted from our dream space.

I woke feeling cozy, my body now resting in the crook of Fal’s arm, as I’d shifted to wrap an arm around his chest. Tormund and Marius were already gone, it seemed.

“Morning, love,” the dark elf said. “Did you know your wings vibrate when you’re asleep? It’s adorable.”

I eyed his chest, which was coated in a generous dusting of purple sparkles. My wings must’ve shaken a lot of that loose last night. “Whoops,” I giggled. Seems I’d marked him as mine in an unconventional way.

He glanced down. “Oh, this is something I’m proud of. I aspire to be covered in p’nixie dust daily. Anyway, I’m glad you’re awake. I need to go.” After sharing a kiss with me that seemed completely unbothered by urgency, he stood and strode from the nest. Completely nude, I’ll add, and I got in an admiring view of his backside.

He returned to the nest with a pile of folded clothes and started dressing himself as he talked. “Elion, Theodred, and Mother are hearing appeals of certain criminal cases in the next couple days, which means they’ll need me to stop dodging my duties and assist.”

“What kinds of cases?” I asked curiously.

“Only ones where lives are on the line. Two reigns ago, the executioner was made a requirement for appeals weekends so liars and the guilty would stop wasting royal time. Usually only the innocent or the very foolish appeal to the queen and her lord now.” He tilted his head toward me, an odd look on his face. “I’d take you with me to observe how the process goes, but the timing is terrible with your injury. You will be staying in your rooms until this event is over, Lark.”

That wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order, and I suppressed a whine. “I could still come with you,” I protested.

“Not with a cast and without my pack mark.”

I rubbed my face, blowing out a sigh in the process. “It’s Marius and his ‘injured and unclaimed’ bit again.”

“Aye. Wonder if we all feel that way,” Fal teased.

“You, agreeing with Marius?”

He smirked back. “Happens a bit more than you might think. Tell me you’ll stay here, mo stór . We’ll make it worth your time.”

I shivered from the intent look he gave me. I was getting knotted today, hopefully more than once, if I agreed. Thinking with my pussy, I said, “I’ll stay here.”

“Good omega,” he purred in his special voice. His alpha presence didn’t quite stroke me head to toe with the same kind of pleasure as when we were mid-sex yesterday, but it was still pleasant without that context. He left me feeling warm and a little slick, and I slumped back on my bed with a little whine.

Now what? My only mate around was Kauz, and I didn’t want to wake him again before he was ready.

Or I could abandon my needy thoughts and try calling on one of my new nixie sisters to come visit me. Happy Fins would be here in a heartbeat and could teach me more Serian games. There was also gossiping with Jani and Lon. At the thought of them, I hoped someone dismissed them before they overheard me screaming last night.

Just as I was getting set to call to the two house moths to help me get ready for the day, the privacy curtain rippled. “It’s me,” Marius said on the other side.

“You can come in,” I said, puzzled.

“But I want you to cover your eyes first.” He sounded playful.

“Oh, a surprise!”

After I promised I wasn’t looking, I knew when he entered the nest and spotted me by his rippling growl. My nipples tightened while I recognized the sound as nonthreatening, just a lusty rumble that told me the kelpie liked what he saw. I was being lazy when he’d arrived, so I was sprawled on my belly naked, with a layer of covers tossed to the side. “I think you just gave me the better surprise. Stay right there. I want to try something.”

His clothes started plopping to the floor. “Can I look?” I asked.

“Hmm. Nay.”

He didn’t necessarily warn me that he wanted to try a new position, but I got the idea quickly when he climbed on top of me, kissing up my wings. He nipped his way to my ear to whisper what he was about to do, which I nodded eagerly to. I tucked my arms into my sides, and he put his full weight on me. If we weren’t on top of several plush layers in my nest, I’d probably get a little crushed. All that muscle made him a heavy male.

His feral side took over the moment I lifted my hips and he slid inside me. Lowering my hips back to the bed, he took a testing thrust, and my mouth hung open at how deep it felt he went from this angle. I gasped when he pressed a possessive bite on my shoulder to hold me pinned and prone while he rocked his hips. The pain was short-lived; he hadn’t sunk his fangs in too deep.

He made love to me from there, slow and intimate. It didn’t last very long. It felt too good for both of us, and his knot didn’t fit from this angle. He licked the small punctures he’d left on my skin afterward, rasping, “Mine. Now we match.”

I purred my approval, and he sat up, grunting in surprise. Without his weight on my back, I turned over and giggled. His front was even more coated in pixie dust than Fal’s had been. He also had the shadow of small twin bruises on his neck from yesterday. “That washes…oh.” I’d looked up at his face and discovered the surprise.

Marius posed for my perusal. He’d gotten some of his hair shaved off, signaling to the world that he was a claimed male. It wasn’t exactly half his hair, as that would’ve looked terrible with his face shape. It was more like an angled undercut that left a fuzz of blue stubble, with the rest combed over to form the pseudo kelpie mane that hung over the right side of his face. I admired the effect, hoping he could sense how much I approved of the look on him. With his other asymmetrical angles, the hairstyle just emphasized his more savage beauty.

“Handsome beast,” I purred.

His slow, predatory smile was all Niall. “Yours.”

I held my middle as a sudden burst of heat and pain clenched my insides. The cramp came out of nowhere, and I curled up while keening quietly. Marius nudged me onto my back and buried his face in the crook of my neck as I rode out the pre-heat symptom. I sweated from both my internal temperature and the spike of feverish heat rolling off his skin.

He inhaled, considered, then sniffed my neck close enough that it tickled the little hairs on my nape. When his tongue darted out to lap up my sweat, I moaned and reasoned that he was tasting my pheromones. Another rippling growl rumbled from low in his chest at what he tasted.

“I know what you need,” he said in that smoky feral voice. His scent changed subtly as he nudged my legs apart. It was like mint and waterlily in bloom, the green scent of him enriched with fertility and male musk. I drew him closer to take a deep smell of him while also accepting his cock as he slid back inside of me.

He smelled incredible, and I licked his neck thoroughly as we went at it for hours with him nearly knot-deep in me. The only reason he held back was my cast, unfortunately. We both wanted to seal the kelpie bond properly, which meant I needed to swim with him in his animal form before I could take his knot.

That didn’t mean he didn’t satiate my need for him. It was like he couldn’t stop until the pre-heat pressure faded in my belly. But I couldn’t get enough of him, either.

Hiding away for a few days while part of the royal pack heard criminal appeals wasn’t as much of a challenge as I expected. I’d never been so needy in my life, but thankfully, my mates were enthusiastic to help.

Kauz woke up again after a solid day and a half passed out on my nest’s divan. He left to wash and returned with a carafe of water, which he drank from directly. We mated in an enthusiastic tangle of limbs, then he turned my wrist over to observe the damage to the heat suppressant tattoo his father had inked on my skin.

“The more sex you have, the faster this breaks. And the more broken it is, the more you’re going to crave your pack. It’s already going to degrade quickly with how pent up your heat is,” he reasoned.

He looked at me thoughtfully. A scattering of stars had returned to his gaze, promising that the dream warden illusion over his eyes would return in due time. I couldn’t wait to explore those purple-threaded nebulae again. “Then you can complete Pack Sorles,” he added, flashing an eager smile.

I snuggled into him, no longer seeing a reason to dread my heat or push it back. Except… “What if I don’t survive it?” I whispered. It wasn’t exactly common for an omega to suppress a heat for as long as I had. As I’d experienced during my brushes with the end of my pre-heat, the temperature felt more intense the more it was delayed.

“Your heat won’t kill you,” he said immediately. “I’ll need to do some research, but there has to be information on long-suppressed heats and how to handle them.”

Not that Kauz got up to visit the library. We spent the rest of his recovery together, which annoyed Fal and Marius, who’d take breaks from their duties to visit my nest and find Kauz not resting and me either encouraging his bad behavior or lying around in a satiated afterglow. Not that that stopped them from joining in.

In the meantime, I found that my pixie dust blended well with Kauz’s skin tone, even when the sparkles noticeably darkened as the days passed. I told him how his essence had turned my wing scales half silver, and he promised there was an easier way to blend our magics together, though he’d show me later. He wouldn’t be casting any spells for a couple more weeks at the earliest.

The only male I didn’t see much of during these few days was Tormund, who came around at night to sleep in my nest and disappeared before I woke. Fal had whispered that the redcap needed time to work through some things. I didn’t hassle the gentle giant with that in mind, even though this new distance between us felt awkward. I missed him and the sunshine he brought to the pack.

When it’d been a week since I’d woken in the infirmary, I got up, washed, and dressed to await Thalas in my receiving room. I sat in the middle of one of the couches by the fire, between Fal and Marius. Tormund was in the hall, acting as a scout.

The house moths prepared refreshments while we waited. Jani and Lon were joined by two male beta mothkin. The lot of them were nearly identical in appearance, though the males wore the tunic-and-trouser version of the palace uniform. I’d later learn they were assigned to Kauz and had relocated here after house moth gossip had revealed to them that the winged prince had every intention of staying in my suite permanently.

The dream warden was on his feet behind us, waiting to meet his father’s eye and reassure him that he was okay. He and his brothers all tilted their head in the same way from some invisible cue from Tormund over their pack bond. “Five incoming. Just as I suspected,” Fal said.

Stars, I was going to be ill with a rush of nerves. “The whole royal pack?” I practically yelped.

He threaded his fingers through mine, giving them a squeeze. “Relax. Mother loves you, which means her males do too.”

Marius’s ear flicked in displeasure. “Why are all of them here? Are they just thumbing their noses at the protocol they taught us?”

“Patience. They can’t say anything if and when we jump forward a step as well,” the dark elf replied with a wink my way.

He also was the first to slide into a more formal posture when Thalas and Rennyn entered the room first. The latter male took a look around and elbowed his brother. “Hey, it’s our missing lads!”

Fal called to his father, “I’ve been around, doing my duties.”

Rennyn scoffed. “Please. Elion’s noticed you half-assing things and disappearing. You can’t fool us.” He pointed downward. “We’ve been in your shoes.”

“I have all my fingers and toes crossed hoping this isn’t the time you want to provide fatherly advice,” Fal said dryly.

“If you need my advice for what you’re implying, you’ve got bigger problems, kid.”

I listened to them go back and forth with a small smile. Thalas had rolled his eyes and gone to Kauz, asking him a few hushed questions after they had a big, wing-tangled hug. Their calm presences at my back soothed my nerves a bit, but I had my fingers tangled in the fabric of my skirt as I watched the door.

I hadn’t re-met two of the kings, and they happened to be the larger-than-life personalities, the lord and the protector. They’d liked me when I was a kid, but I’d been three . I couldn’t help but worry, even with Fal’s reassurance.

The next pair of fae to walk through my front door was Nemensia and Tormund, though the last two kings in question were right behind them. She was still the immediate center of attention and spread her arms with a sunshine expression. “Hello! Good morning, everyone,” she said. We said a chorus of hellos back.

The royal pack gathered in a hum of male voices, momentarily distracted by the team of mothkin that passed around tea. It gave me a moment to inspect Theodred and Elion.

Tormund was the largest male I knew…until I saw him next to Theodred. His father was several inches taller than him and built even broader, like a wall of solid muscle. He hadn’t changed much, actually. Age hadn’t softened a single line, only lengthened his forward-facing horns a bit and faded some of the red vibrancy in the fuzz of hair on his head and short beard, shooting orange and blond threads throughout.

He wore a sleeveless shirt and knee-length shorts, showing off the pairs of blood-red knot tattoos that circled each limb in helix patterns. I wondered what they represented. Maybe I’d ask Tormund later, because I couldn’t imagine having a full conversation with such an intimidating alpha.

Nemensia came around the couch to coax her sons into hugs. As I made to stand, she rested her palms on my shoulders. “Just sit tight, Metalark. We’re here to set you free.” She knelt down to hug me long and hard instead, the two of us purring in greeting. There was a momentary lull in conversation around us.

I smiled while thinking of Kauz. He’d already set my mind free. This was nothing. Right? I tried not to sound nervous as I said, “I hope I get to walk after this.”

“You will, as long as your wounds from the olcanus are sealed,” Thalas put in from behind me. “Magic affects the healing and scarring process.”

“Aye, well, I think Lark is tired of having every alpha in her life trying to prevent her from standing. Let’s crack the thing open,” Rennyn put in. When I glanced up at him now crowding the space behind my couch, he flicked his lucky coin over, and I caught it. I circled my thumb on the flat gold surface, hoping some luck rubbed off on me.

Marius gestured for his mother to take his spot next to me. Nemensia eased onto the couch, folding her fins around her outline as she rubbed her rounded belly. She released a sigh of relief upon lifting her feet off the ground. “Elion, look at our wild boy,” she said, smiling up at Marius.

“I was just noticing. Already claimed.” The kelpie king inspected his son with a nod. There was a buzz of alpha authority in his voice, though it was different than Fal’s. It was like I could feel a layer of his approval for Marius, who’d stilled before soaking in the moment with a lift of his chin.

Elion wasn’t all that different from my memories either, still a noble fae with noticeable dapples patterning his gray skin. Of the whole royal pack, he was the only one wearing a crown. It was understated, resembling golden maple leaves growing from a gilded circlet.

His blue-green hair was long on one side, past the collar of his fine suit, and three braids were spaced through it. The first was thicker, with a length of curly, darker blue hair woven into it. The middle braid had several jeweled rings hanging from it at even intervals, and the last one swung out of my line of sight as he turned his yellow gaze my way.

“Daughter,” he said. Stars, his approval felt like being enveloped in a warm hug. I perked up under his attention. “Welcome home. All of us wanted to share in this moment with you.”

Theodred spoke after him with a voice like a growl, a deep and roughened counterpoint to the kelpie king’s cordiality. “And to ensure no more jokes of war crimes are made.”

“My queen may wish for a certain Seelie farm town to disappear in a ball of fire. Who are we to deny her?” Rennyn said, exaggerating a shrug.

“You’re making our kids nervous,” Thalas said in a warning tone.

He probably meant they were making me nervous. Why would Nemensia want Osme Fen to burn up? While it hadn’t been perfect and my memories of it were now tainted with reality, it was still populated by hardworking farmers and their families. I wondered what they were doing in Cymora’s extended absence. Hopefully they had a party and put someone else in charge.

“All right. Theo was going to do the honors,” Nemensia said over Rennyn, who had his lips parted to make another remark. She reached over and took my free hand, pressing it between her palms.

The redcap king drew a knife from his belt and offered in hilt-first to Tormund. “I am content to see the results,” he said.

Tormund hesitated before taking the weapon and flashing a grimace toward his father.

“I get to free you, li’l bird,” he said in his too-gentle way when he didn’t want to startle me. He made his way around the furniture and the crowd of alphas. Marius shifted out of his way with his brows knit in the beginnings of a scowl. But he suppressed any other hint of discontent, probably because he stood beside his mother.

My redcap mate knelt in front of my legs, not quite meeting my eyes. I swallowed, feeling my insides knot up. Had I done something wrong? I still wasn’t sure why things between us had become so awkward.

“Be careful?” I suggested. This was before he repositioned my cast so my leg was extended and showed me the knife. It was shaped for this purpose, no thicker than my knuckle, with a dull side to protect skin. I nodded to him with a smile of encouragement.

He cut into the cast from there. It parted with minimal sawing, and he eased it off my leg. I held my breath as it slid away to reveal an intricate wrap of condensed essence. It was black with silver sparks, Thalas’s magic, and the winged fae nudged Tormund out of the way and knelt to take his place.

“Moment of truth. If there’s any hint of essence bleeding from you, you’ll need to go back into a cast.” He took hold of the edge of his essence.

Kauz leaned over to rest his hand on my shoulder. The softest of growls lifted from him when Rennyn mirrored the movement on my other side, and the dark elf king laughed, sounding genuinely amused.

I tried to tune them out and held on to Fal and Nemensia as Thalas slowly unwrapped my leg. Prickles of itchiness hit my exposed skin, which was visibly dry. I’d had an itch hiding under the cast for days , and it felt a bit like pain as I forced myself to let him finish before I set my claws upon myself.

Thalas tugged when he reached the top of my ankle, revealing a new scar shaped vaguely like a diamond, or the first spike of the silencing band. He leaned in to inspect it for a moment before continuing to unwrap my foot. My chest froze each time the dream warden king stopped to look more closely at me.

“Breathe, kid,” Rennyn murmured, squeezing my shoulder.

More murmurs of encouragement rose from the group as my foot came free inch by inch, until I was wiggling and spreading my toes with a sigh of relief. My foot looked…normal, not like the swollen and unsightly mess I’d been tricked into thinking it resembled. A pattern of scars wrapped around it, matching the spikes of the olcanus that’d once been there.

“Your wounds scarred up nicely. You should be able to put weight on your foot,” Thalas said.

But could I walk? My palms were damp with nerves as he indicated that I stand. The room seemed to hold its breath as everyone moved out of the way and I put my weight on both feet. Thousands of instances of agony flashed in my mind’s eye from moments just like this one, when the olcanus dug into my foot and restricted my ankle.

But that awful chain was gone, and so was the pain. I took a step and wobbled. My body was used to compensating, and my ankles were stiff from disuse. Then I took another and another, my gait smoothing out. It didn’t hurt. If anything, I wanted to skip and jump and run around like I hadn’t been free to do in years. I was truly free, mind and body alike.

I cupped my hand over my lips to muffle a sudden sob, all too aware of my audience watching. While I didn’t want to cry in front of the royal pack, there was no helping the tears of joy that leaked free. Marius caught and crushed me in a hug a moment later, letting me hide my face in his chest and get some of my composure back.

“My legs work,” I murmured, echoing one of the first things I’d said to him.

He chuckled and ran his fingers through my hair. “With a bit of therapy, you’ll do more than walk. I volunteer to massage your feet,” he murmured back.

I glanced up at him, batting my wet lashes. I already knew what to ask that would further echo that conversation, which felt like years rather than weeks, ago. You’d do that for me? He’d responded with the full blast of his grumpy demeanor. With that and the doormat comment, it’d been a lot of angry Marius all at once.

How times changed. Now he was covertly rubbing away the evidence of any tears on my cheeks and looking at me like I was the only fae in this room. His ear flicked as he caught the direction of my thoughts. “I’d do anything for you,” he said to the unspoken question.

The roughened texture of his thumb lingered on my cheek. Something shifted behind his eyes, some emotion I couldn’t place, and before I could ask, I was being beckoned to. Nemensia stood a few feet away, her arms out. “Finally,” she said.

I gave Marius one last glance before stepping away and walking into her hug with more stiff steps.

Behind her, Rennyn had taken my place on the couch and was wrestling with Fal, who kept his lucky coin just out of reach. He must’ve picked it up when I stood. I gawked over my godmother’s shoulder, and she turned to look too and rolled her eyes. “Males,” she whispered.

“Is that normal?” I whispered back.

“Completely.”

I parted from her to visit with the other males, fighting off a purr from cozy hugs, with wings from Kauz and then Thalas. “Thank you for getting the silencing band off of me,” I said to the latter.

“Of course. Now that you’re free to walk around, I hope you walk yourself to my workshop more often. I could teach you a thing or two more about your magic,” he offered.

I promised him that I would, eager to learn more. He then nudged me to go say hello to Elion and Theodred. The redcap king had called over Tormund, it seemed, as my gentle giant stood beside him and was in the midst of mumbling, “…it’s fine. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“If you tell me what’s wrong, we have hope of fixing it.” Theodred rumbled like thunder. Stars, that was a growl as menacing as the wrath of nature. I searched for the nearest thing to hide behind. Thalas’s wings were available, though it seemed Elion had noticed and stepped between the redcaps and me.

“Metalark,” he said in the same tone that’d made me feel all warm earlier. “Though I hear you prefer Lark?”

“That’s right,” I murmured.

As he stepped closer, I heard a more familiar growl behind me, from Marius. Elion stopped a respectful distance away. “I see you still like horses, to tame such a wild one,” he remarked.

My hand twitched, and I fought the reflex to cover my face in embarrassment. “You remember that conversation,” I said.

He had a laugh like his son’s, deep and rich. “How could I forget? It was refreshingly candid.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Marius stood a few feet behind me, his gaze darting between the wrestling dark elves—it seemed Rennyn had gotten his lucky coin back and was now trying to keep it—the quietly arguing redcaps, and then his father.

Tamed? Hardly.

“So, how have you been?” I asked.

“Busy as ever. Now eager to train you to take my job one day.” He made a motion toward me, and Marius growled again. Elion’s expression creased with amusement. “I know you’re newly bonded, son, but I’m in no way your competition.”

“Can’t help it,” he muttered back.

“Then you’ll just have to come with us,” he said, tilting his head at me. “Lark, how do you feel about walking yourself to lunch?”