Page 49 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

49

FAL

W e tortured Fangless Floris for most of the night, seized by a second wind of manic energy that Marius and I shared through the pack bond. There was very little information gathered compared to the amount of pain we’d inflicted.

I hadn’t realized my brother was so good at dealing agony, stone cold about finding and pressing weaknesses. I took mental notes on the techniques he showed me, just in case I found myself in a different room with another of the bark brothers. Couldn’t have Floris having all the fun.

My father and Theodred came into the interrogation room the next morning. Father took in the scene we’d made, with our working male’s clothes stained with blood and sap. Various tools were scattered about, and the barely conscious barkfolk had his ripped-away bark mounded in a bloody pile atop his lap. His head lolled as he took in the newcomers, just to make a raspy moan when he recognized Father.

The dark elf king eyed us with new wariness, at odds with his easygoing facade. It was only then that I thought, maybe we went a little too far.

And then my alpha instincts whispered back, nah, he deserved it. And so much worse.

“Okay boys, sun’s up. Time to go,” Father said in his usual chipper tone.

Marius bared his teeth in reply, the image of an animal crouched over his kill. “Come brief us on what you learned,” Theodred added.

Father had brought the redcap king for a reason. I didn’t doubt that he’d been watching us work for a while, and realized he needed reinforcements to pry us out of this room. No one sane argued with Theodred, so we exchanged a glance and dropped our current tools of choice to step away with the two kings.

My brother was in too deep a feral state to talk, so I spoke for him. “That is Floris of Osme Fen, one of three of the alphas who Lark signed a breeding contract with, due to her stepmother’s compulsion. We learned that Pack Ellisar came to Serian independently of Cymora. They were not invited. They chose to show up here.”

Marius punctuated the statement with a rattling growl. I echoed it in agreement.

“When Cymora, Laurel, and Lark did not return to Osme Fen in a timely fashion, the bark brothers followed the breadcrumbs we all left behind in Ilysnor. Some of the locals remembered Lark, in particular, as an oddly faded gray pixie with a limp, which is the version of her that they are still looking for. They heard Lark had boarded a train to Serian with a pack of noble Unseelie and decided to pursue her. The eldest brother, Ellisar, has the original contract in hand. They have no other prospects for a mate, clearly, so they thought to push the matter to its breaking point.”

Father’s good cheer faded as I spoke, revealing the calculating mind beneath. “So,” he said in a low voice. “You’ve been sloppy. Instead of stealing your mate away from her enemies, you’ve left the door open for them to come along to Serian with her.”

My brother and I tensed. A reprimand from Father for being sloppy was a prelude to one of his elaborate punishments, and we just didn’t have time for that right now. “I don’t think we ever could’ve prepared for the sheer audacity of Pack Ellisar coming here,” I said carefully.

“And where, pray tell, is the rest of Pack Ellisar?” he asked venomously. I kept my lips sealed on the answer we all expected. We didn’t know and Floris wasn’t in a position to tell us. “The forest somewhere, hmm? We have no chance of finding them, now that you’ve mauled their brother. Those two barkfolk cowards have gone to ground so thoroughly they may as well be trees !”

“We’ll find them,” Marius murmured.

“I can smell the rut on you from across the palace,” Theodred said in his deep rumble. “Your mind is compromised, son.” His fiery gaze swung my way, taking in the evidence I wore of the gleeful way I’d joined in Floris’s torture. “Neither of you are thinking clearly.”

“I have not succumbed,” I said coolly.

“ Ach. Lie to yourself if you must.”

I would, thank you very much. I knew the heat pulsing just a millisecond behind my heartbeat, flushing my skin and threatening to drive me mad with sexual need. This was the third time I’d gone into rut, and the other two times I’d accepted it with excitement. I’d taken my pleasure and exhausted a few beta lovers while wearing a bracelet of fertility blocker charms, just in case. No ongoing consequences for slaking my alpha needs.

I teetered on the edge now, cautious of the fall. Lark deserved better than her new pack lead succumbing to alpha instinct and shoving her on her back. Especially in the midst of her enemies plotting to snatch her away from us. I would keep my head for her.

The inflamed passions Marius felt were present and heady in our pack bond. But he’d been in rut for several days too long, and his unmet needs veered on violent instability. That , I had accepted into myself with a smile, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat if we captured another of the bark brothers.

“Even so, we’ll find them,” I argued.

“And they will know pain for what they’ve done to Lark,” Marius growled.

Father hummed, a hint of dark amusement taking up residence at the corner of his mouth. “Aye. That they will. I am eager to help in that regard,” he said. Theodred nodded and cracked his knuckles, a terrifying sight on its own. “Unfortunately for you both, we will be taking over with this particular prisoner.”

No, I said to myself. He intends to shut us out completely and take care of the bark brothers his way.

The redcap king spoke, letting out just a hint of his forceful bark. “Neither of you will show your faces in the prison for twenty-four hours. You will not interfere with our forces sweeping the city or forest, nor will you execute any more plans involving the capture of the last two males in Pack Ellisar without first running your intentions by one of the kings.” Theodred’s hard gaze ran between us when Marius twitched, opening his mouth for a moment to speak, before thinking better of it. “Your orders are to rest.”

“And shower. Use a whole soap bar, for stars’ sake. You both stink,” Father added.

We snarled in offense together. He just gestured at us and glanced up at Theodred, who nodded. “You are dismissed,” the redcap king stated stonily.

I drew myself up to say something, and the giant male turned a glare my way. Marius filled the pack bond with stirrings of warning. “As per your instructions, I wish to state my intentions,” I said anyway.

Theodred growled like an incoming storm. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “Insolence is punishable, boy.”

I tossed my rather matted hair. Stars, I really did need to see to my grooming. “For twenty-four hours, I will plot out the capture of the last two bark brothers. I intend to follow through on the best course of action for my omega. As I believe you both mean to do the same. We need not decide on separate paths.”

“What are you suggesting?” Father knew exactly what I meant, he just wanted me to say it aloud.

“That I wish, as always, to be allied with the Clever King, who is always somehow a step ahead of me, no matter the occasion,” I said smoothly. “The rut has not taken so much of my mind that I cannot be communicated with.” I crossed my fingers and toes that Marius, who was obviously quite addled, wouldn’t speak up in agreement and make them doubt me.

His ear flicked, but he remained silent, his arms crossed as he scowled by my side.

Father tilted his head back and forth. “We will be chatting, no matter what. If you two bumble through my plans like you nearly just did, I will definitely communicate a few things your way. As for?—”

“Let us speak plainly,” Theodred interrupted. It was hard to tell, but his craggy expression seemed annoyed. “We all want the same thing. But we wish to go about it from different angles. Us, methodically. You, as rut-crazed fools. Sons, she is your mate, but you must still bow to our decisions. If not as two of the ruling kings of Serian, then as males with triple your experience and the marks to prove it.” One of his thick fingers traced the spiraling path of a length of knot tattoos on his arm.

“And sometimes that includes a measure of secrecy,” Father added.

Well, fuck. That just meant he was going to maneuver us like pieces on a game board, whether it concerned our mate or not. Marius, coming to a similar conclusion, snorted irritably. “C’mon. Let’s go, Fal,” he muttered.

“No matter what, we’ll get them,” Father added as I nodded in agreement and turned wearily toward the door. “The queen is watching. We will not fail Lark again.”

My brother paused and swung his attention back toward my father. “That makes two of us,” he said gruffly.

I wish I could say I was productive with my twenty-four hours of forced rest. Neither Marius nor I napped, too keyed up to consider sleeping now. We cleansed ourselves and settled in Lark’s quarters. Marius paced while I took her old notebook and wrote in it from the back.

I jotted down countless ideas as the hours passed, plotting them to their inevitable ends. Unfortunately, nothing I came up with made a lick of fucking sense after a few steps. The rut was cooking my logic and there was little I could do about it.

A whole flock of beta mothkin took care of us, making sure we were fed and as comfortable as could be expected. I recognized my pair of chipper males, and the two females were Lark’s handmaidens…and those two were Tormund’s…

All of our house moths had moved to serve us in our mate’s quarters. I took a break from fruitless plotting to go rummaging around in the bedroom in front of the nest. A portion of all of our things had been moved too, including our collection of random trophies and plaques that we passed back and forth for competitions we’d invented. Most of them belonged to Tormund right now. They’d been placed next to a basket full of Kauz’s random magical trinkets. I wasn’t sure he knew how to use half of those.

At either end of the dresser was part of my rock collection and Marius’s seashells. We both had a habit of picking up things during our leisure time, and we were products of our races. He collected the remnants of sea bugs—that was where shells came from, I assumed—and I took shiny things off the ground.

It reminded me that I’d picked up something for him while spelunking for the perfect crystal to present to Lark. I went to my old quarters to retrieve it and the rest of my rocks. Might as well covet my uncut gemstones for a while and arrange them in the right order, because I wasn’t going to get anything else done today.

Marius had stopped pacing at some point, so he didn’t catch me slipping the tiny spiral shell fossil in with his former sea bugs. I didn’t pay his absence much mind until I had my rocks back in proper order. Checking the pack bond, I noticed he was…passed out. Finally. There was hope his rut would end soon.

He’d constructed a mini nest for himself on the divan in Lark’s nest, cocooned in a few random blankets and her favorite fur-lined cloak. He had the right idea. I dismissed the house moths and crawled into the nest’s bed, settling a few layers down where her scent was still present.

My mouth watered as I drifted off with my mate dominating my every sense. I expected to see a shade of her in my dreams, to revisit the bliss of joining with her. We’d only had the one time so far, but I drifted off to it nightly. That perfect pussy molding to fit me and squeezing my knot just right…fuck, I needed her back so badly.

My dreams were uneasy, a heated tangle of my memories of her meeting erotic fantasies of everything we’d do when she returned, and was finally mine . So intoxicated by her, it was all the more jarring when I had an unwanted visitor in my mind. As I’d been trained from boyhood when I sensed someone trying to weasel into my seemingly unguarded head, I abandoned my dreams, so all the dream warden saw was a blank void instead.

The occasional intruder tested my mind, trying to access crown secrets. Hoping I wasn’t trained to recognize a dream warden, probably. I was particularly angry about the timing of this intruder’s interruption and began to imagine them trapped with one of the simplest, yet worst childhood punishments my father inflicted on me: the metronome . A few hours with nothing but the rhythmic tick tick tick tick tick of the device drove me mad.

That was before I caught a glimpse of the “intruder” wandering the darkness of my abandoned dream. “Fal?” Lark called. The real Lark, unmistakable by her pixie outline and delicate, ethereal beauty.

I wouldn’t say I understood how dreams worked, but I realized my mistake a moment too late and ended up following her into the memory of a punishment, crisp with remembered details. The gouge marks I’d clawed into the battered table and uncomfortable wooden chair were as prominent as ever. Somewhere out of sight, a metronome my father set to play at an awkwardly fast tempo ticked away.

My hands balled into fists. That sound was still maddening, and I’d nearly trapped Lark with it. I tried waving it away, then thought with force, fucking stop. And, what do you know, the sound stopped, giving way to blessed silence.

My mate’s expressive blue eyes roved over the tiny room and the evidence of the effectiveness of my childhood torture, before her gaze landed on me. Her pupils resized as they focused and she broke into a beaming smile. “Hi, Fal!”

It was like the sun came out. She was the sun, of course, heating my insides and igniting the kindling of lust hiding just under my skin. Her scent hit me with the force of a punch to the gut: extra sweet and concentrated as we lingered in this tiny room together.

I sank my claws into the meat of my palms. Focus. You are still in control.

“Hello, mo stór ,” I purred. My need made my voice huskier than usual. “You’ve come to visit me, hmm?”

“I’ve missed you.” The trust and love that gleamed in her open expression just about crushed the breath out of my lungs. My chest ached with its echo.

I didn’t think she realized the musical pitch underlying everything she said, or how much I wanted to hear her sing in truth. Her abuser may have stolen her voice for a time, but her pack had returned it. Now she just needed the words.

And I needed to get her out of this room, before I succumbed to my instincts and bent her over the table. She tested the fraying threads of my self-control by coming forward for a hug and leaning up expecting a kiss.

If I met her lips with mine, I knew I’d snap. I caught her slight form and tilted my head, letting her lips skim my neck in an electric brush. My fangs sank into my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood and the pain helped clear my head. I held her to my chest, trying to ignore how perfectly she fit against me.

She inhaled and mewled with need. “Stars. You’re in rut, aren’t you?”

“I’ve missed you too,” I said, rather than answer the question and admit how close I was to losing myself to my alpha instincts. “You know, when you were first learning how to visit the dreams of others, I prepared a reward for you if you chose to visit me. Would you like it now?” Nuzzling into her hair, I drew out a shiver from her as my breath washed over her pointed ear.

“What is it?”

“Hmm. A surprise, and technically a reward for us both.”

She hesitated. “I mean… will you remember this dream tomorrow?”

“Bits and snatches, like any other dream.” I would know I’d held the real her, no matter what. The reward would be good for her, like experiencing her first nixie night. I should be a responsible pack lead and tell her that.

Lark drew away from me as she said, “I love surprises.”

I smiled wickedly, saying, “Good omega.” I let a bit of my alpha’s authority thread through the words, just to see her flush that delectable shade of pink.

I offered her my hand with a flourish and focused my mind on changing our surroundings. As she put her delicate fingers in mine, I tugged her deeper into my memories.

We walked my old path of self-discovery together, starting from my childhood. “As a boy, I’d spent more than my share of time learning the dances expected of a prince, plus extras it felt that my father invented to trip me up. He had the kind of moves that seemed impossible for me to match, though inevitably the solution was practice ,” I narrated.

I remembered strict tutors, long evenings, and my father pressuring me to learn better, faster. No son of his would be a graceless fool. I’d practiced until the strains of music and the ticking of the metronome were embedded in the back of my mind, invading quiet time and my dreams.

“And I didn’t enjoy it until later. I asked Father if these songs we danced to had actual words. That kind of kicked off my passions, since it led me to musical theater.”

It'd been a stuffy operatic soprano that’d started it all. Father had dug up an essence orb with the song saved, and laughed at the way I’d scrunched my face and winced at the highest notes. Lark made a similar expression as my memory replayed that soprano’s solo, while I nodded in agreement, nudging her shoulder with mine.

“I said to myself, after hearing that, that there had to be other songs out there,” I whispered to her. “That’s what I want to give to you, mo stór . All the music you’ve forgotten and then some. If we don’t get through it all tonight…you’ll just have to come back, hmm?”

And I hoped Kauz didn’t exaggerate about how amazing his magic was. Allegedly, he remembered everything he saw in another fae’s dream with perfect clarity, so hopefully she was the same way. Lark regarded me with wide eyes and the beginnings of a hopeful smile. She’s so cute. “Okay. I think I would really like that,” she said.

We walked through paths of memory with songs along the way. I gave her the most popular ones, trying to fill her head with music and color. We traveled past buskers strumming their instruments, crooning about love and loss on street corners. Catchy tunes sung a little off key in taverns. Drunken revelers swaying and mumbling those same songs.

Lark caught snatches of tunes and hummed along, just as I suspected she would. I gave her the words when she seemed to take a shine to a song. Sing, my love. I know you were meant to sing. She kept shutting her mouth and glancing shyly up at me, too self-conscious to try. I needed to coax it out of her. A duet, perhaps.

We eventually entered a memory of the rundown theater where I used to hide from my duties and needy younger siblings. The managers and director would pretend they had no idea the crown prince was the kid underfoot, visiting whenever possible and watching with absolute fascination as they shaped a crew of strangers into more seasoned actors, just to lose most of them to more prestigious troupes. They told stories with song and dance, moving my heart to join them.

Lark and I sat on the threadbare seats in the front row. I itched to pull her into my lap, but if I did that, I’d lose my focus on what I wanted to show her. My favorite play, A Duel of Hearts . I’d seen it enough as a boy that it played out flawlessly onstage.

It was difficult enough to make sure the memory didn’t waver when Lark rested her head on my shoulder, laughing along and sighing with the romantic overtures. During the interlude, I told her how I’d come to find this theater and watch the production as it was rehearsed. “This play woke my love for the theater. The visuals, the dancing, the music…” I affected a dramatic swoon.

She giggled along. “I can see why. How old were you?”

“Thirteen or so. If you watch closely, I might actually be in this version.” I winked, though I wasn’t sure. Mother had paid handsomely for an essence orb to record the cameo appearance I’d made toward the end, which she still let me watch occasionally. She’d been so proud of me and I’d basked in the radiance of her approval.

“This play became a fresh start for the Fifth Wheel Troupe. The director eventually gave me a chance to audition,” I added. “He made me really work for it, even though me just existing onstage gave us enough prestige to build up a following and move out of this run-down place.”

“No wonder you’re so confident,” she said, mostly to herself.

“I’m confident because I’m irreplaceable, mo stór .” I flipped my hair and rattled my earrings just so.

My brothers would’ve probably smacked some of the ego out of me for saying that, but Lark smiled with open fondness, admiring me for who I was. She was winding my willpower around her littlest finger as she did it, too. A first for me.

I was no stranger to that look. As a prince and a performer I’d had no lack of female attention, but it was always as superficial and fleeting as possible. I could tease and pleasure my lovers, but as a general rule I could never return the affections they heaped upon me. That was how I was used to interacting with females. I’d never invested myself in a lover long term .

I’d known I would have to find my scent match and mate her along with my brothers. It was my duty to find and elevate her as the next queen and the mother to continue the royal line. She had to be a lot of things before she joined Pack Sorles, though. Resilient, determined, and loving would make for a strong start. Sweet and mild mannered, even better, for her to get along with all four of us.

She’d be the omega of my pack, which was still to this day the biggest responsibility I maintained. Deep down, I was afraid I’d see her in the same lens of duty and sacrifice. In a void, I thought I would find it difficult to love her, especially someone I was expected to share with Marius, Kauz, and Tormund.

Lark had destroyed all those doubts, seemingly overnight. She was my omega, my mate. Everything my pack needed in one petite package. She fit in perfectly in with the four of us. Our omega. She’d gathered us around her to make us a true pack. We might even, gasp , enjoy one another’s company more now. Even if our love for each other, and her, was clumsy. Well-meaning, even with our various disagreements, and always enthusiastic.

She was already ours, heat or not. I hadn’t missed the elegant art Kauz must’ve painted on her wings, or the faint lingering scent of Marius coming from some kind of claiming bite on her shoulder. The lack of Tormund’s claim was no concern, when I knew he’d sand down his own fangs rather than put a mark on his beloved li’l bird.

Soon it would be my turn to make her mine, and it would be the soul-bonding bite that put my pack mark on her brow. My expression became a mirror of hers as I admired her back. It was that look. I knew I wouldn’t tire of looking at that face even if we lived to a thousand years together.

When we weren’t in a dream, I’d tell her how I felt. Anticipation will make this sweeter, as well.

I gazed into her star-flecked eyes for quite some time. We both stirred as I added to the mostly forgotten conversation, “You are irreplaceable too. Never forget that.”

Her lips framed a shy smile. It was the face of, “Really? You think so?” It was a travesty that I didn’t kiss her then and there. But I knew my limits, and why I’d brought her to this memory.

I put on my memory of the second act of A Duel of Hearts before I got any more distracted. She snuggled closer, practically wrapping herself around my arm and purring with increasing delight toward the end of the play. Fucking adorable. The music and choreography only went from great to even better, and by the finale, she drew up with a gasp and pointed.

There I was in the background, a lanky elf teen dancing my absolute heart out with the rest of the cast while the main couple had their closing duet. “I snuck on the set,” I whispered. “I’d convinced my mother to come to this backwater theater, stole a costume, and stuck myself in the back for the final song before I could be chased off the stage. A humble debut, but it worked out.”

The memory faded out, but I had one take its place. The sound of an upbeat string quartet, playing the opening notes to the starting duet for the play. I crooned the lines of the male role and then made my voice a little higher to add in the chorus too. Then I gestured to her dramatically to take over.

She thought for a beat too long, but that was all right. My heart soared as she sang back to me, her sweet voice crystal-clear as it soared through the acoustics of the theater.

Gorgeous. Just like I thought. I raised my index finger with an unnecessary flourish of my hand, almost missing my cue as we counted up together. The leads were hostile to one another at first, thinking they were having a real duel before the play showed them in a competition, and inevitably a romance.

I coaxed the full song from her, smiling brilliantly all the while. It’d be okay if I never got her on a stage with me. I could covet her singing voice and keep moments of this to myself. Mine, mine, mine, hissed my alpha instincts.

As we finished, I leaned forward, tipping her face up to mine. Stars, I was a rut-crazed fool. I was going to wake up with her taste seared on my tongue, and I couldn’t bring myself to regret it. My lips were just skimming hers as I heard, “Fal, wake up.”

I opened my eyes, and instead of seeing my mate eager for a deep lip lock, I was face down on a pillow, my limbs tangled up in Lark’s nest. Marius stood over me, already washed and dressed and flapping a piece of paper over my ear. “ Wake up ,” he growled with a hint of his forceful bark.

“There’d better be a good fucking reason for this,” I snarled back.

He handed me a note that I took in blearily.

Dearest Sons,

There has been quite an upset in my plans. I will require your assistance after all. How do you feel about an endurance test? Don’t get too excited. You’re not going to like this.

Father didn’t sign it. He didn’t have to. My heart thudded at double its usual speed as I crumpled the note and rushed to get ready for the day and whatever else was coming next.