Page 54 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

54

LARK

T ormund and I returned to the winter lodge just past sunset. We went straight to the kitchen and were swiftly joined by Jani and Lon, and eventually a curious Kauz. I’d asked to make an old, humble favorite, meat pies. The whole process took hours, and the house moths and I did most of the work at first. Tormund chased his brother around with flour until Kauz found a safe perch up in the rafters to read in peace.

My gentle giant returned to being helpful after that. The pies themselves turned out delicious and I hadn’t laughed so much in ages.

I had another rough time finding sleep, worse than the night before. An ache deep in my belly was making itself known, and I’d shifted around trying to find a comfortable spot, just for there to be none. Kauz had been half asleep when he’d finally brushed his finger down the ridge of my nose, mumbling something about my heat, and sent me into unconsciousness for a couple hours. I’d slept in his arms since Tormund was still showing early signs of rut.

Stars, my heat was really coming. The suppressant I’d just gotten from Thalas was fading, even though we’d been chaste throughout this trip. While the physical signs of pre-heat hadn’t fully returned, and I was glad I hadn’t been knocked over by a cramp, the emotional ones hit me with debilitating force instead.

Before we left to journey back to the palace, Tormund had one more surprise for me. He took me to a tiny room and told me a bit of the story of the critter room through the doorway, as he’d probably have to stoop low to come in here. He directed my attention to the little cat tower in the corner and I squealed unabashedly in delight as a few small faces peeked out at me.

I emerged with a hedgehog baby cupped carefully in both hands, its body still pink and hairless, though its little eyes were open and squinting. He’d been snuggled up to his mother with his other spiky siblings. The mother had suffered some kind of wound to her side that’d been neatly bandaged.

A few tears leaked from me out of joy. “Look at him,” I whispered, overcome by the miracle of life.

I want one. The hedgehog, I told myself, though my instincts were in full mood swing. I truly wanted one thing from my body: peace. I’d just been cursing my omega neediness with the sunrise. Stupid heat, I don’t even want this. Let’s just skip the whole thing.

Tormund’s brows rose as he took in my expression. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“It’s just so beautiful.” This teeny tiny life, new and fragile.

He eyed me with concern. “You should probably go put him back,” he suggested in his usual loud whisper. “I thought you’d like the critter room, li’l bird.”

“I love the critter room,” I sobbed.

Somehow, I don’t think I convinced him, even when I put the little thing back with his mother and came out to hug and nuzzle against Tormund. His scent was still changing, deepening, and it was intoxicating to my omega instincts. He’d lost the sweetness of mallows, smelling of smoke and a woodsy cologne, like he’d set fire to a pile of exotic kindling. I wanted to be covered in his scent. Soon. So soon.

We saddled up and left for Neslune shortly after that. I’d whispered in Stella’s ears a plea for us to bounce less and she made the trip without being quite as jaunty as our last outings. I certainly appreciated it, with my churning stomach.

It’d been nice to get away from the crush of strangers in the palace and disappear into nature, but I was ready to curl up in my nest with the comforting scents of my mates all around me. I wanted to take sweet Tormund and steadfast Kauz straight to bed with me. But I needed Fal and Marius too, and I missed them dearly.

Kauz didn’t shadow us this time, riding his horse with us on the return trip and adding his voice in occasionally to Tormund’s ever-present storytelling. The gentle giant had a talent for making sure there were never awkward pauses, because there simply wasn’t much quiet between thoughts. His voice helped keep me from dwelling on my yearnings too much on the way home.

I would say he wasn’t one for introspection, yet I’d seen how moved he’d been as he read from one of his little books of poetry to me yesterday. He thought plenty and felt deeply, but he didn’t let just anyone see past his jolly exterior to know that about him. That he’d shown me was a blessing. I was grateful we’d gotten to eke out some time together. We’d made the most of what we’d been given and grown closer than ever.

I still wilted with relief when the woods thinned and we made our way to the palace stables. First things first, a nap. Hopefully no one intercepted me on the way to laying down.

“We should check in before you head inside, sweetheart,” Kauz said, cutting into my daydreams of rest.

“Do you think…maybe they’re dead?” I couldn’t say Pack Ellisar right now. Bile would probably rise in my throat instead.

“There’s always that possibility. Let me go ask first.”

I couldn’t help but whine. Tormund added in, “The li’l bird should come inside. She hadn’t been home in ages.”

“It’s not a good idea,” Kauz said gently, earning a growl full of redcap menace that barely made him flinch. “Give me half an hour.”

“Sure. That’s not too long,” I said, before Tormund could get any angrier on my behalf.

We had Kauz fly out ahead of us while we took care of his horse, and ours. I took Stella to her stall and saw to her needs. Thirty minutes probably came and went in the blink of an eye, though it felt like much longer by the time I was brushing her mane until it was perfect.

My ears perked when Kauz returned and spoke to Tormund a few stalls away, their voices too low for me to hear. Except for the fiery, “What!” the redcap crackled after a few minutes of conversation. “Tell him…”

I huffed in exasperation. I could’ve cried from how frustrated I felt, and that was the pre-heat at work again, making everything that much worse. He’s never this quiet any other time, except when I want to know what’s going on.

“You tell him. Go now,” Kauz said, more loudly. “I’m going to escort Lark.”

I poked my head out of the stall. Stella did the same thing with her equine face above mine. “Escort me where?” I asked.

Kauz turned a smile my way that didn’t quite meet his eyes. Something was definitely wrong. Tormund was wafting heat around his body as he stomped out of the stable, hands forming clawed fists at his sides. “Your nest, sweetheart. The royal pack wants you to rest up for tonight.”

“What’s happening tonight?”

He didn’t answer. I patted Stella in farewell and rushed over to him, my wings pinned to my back with nerves. “Kauz, what’s going on?” I pressed.

He slowed his stride, putting an arm around me with a sigh. “Nothing’s wrong. Everything is nearly as we left it,” he assured me in his calmest tones. “Your date with Fal is what’s happening tonight, and you should rest.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked in a small voice.

He gritted his teeth hard. “I’ve given my word that I would let another tell you what to expect tonight.”

“Will this person talk to me soon?” I asked.

“Aye.”

“I trust you.”

He stopped walking abruptly. We’d entered the palace through a less-used hallway, so no one bumped into us as he swung to face me. “Your trust is not misplaced. Always.”

“My Always.” I reached for him and he obliged, leaning down to meet my lips. He drew me into the embrace of his arms and wings, wrapping me in the comfort of him. He rested his forehead against mine, our breaths mingling.

The uncertainty creasing the planes of his face was an upsetting change for my inner omega. My mate is in distress, it whispered.

“I’ll be okay,” I assured him.

His breath hitched and he hugged me tighter. The set to his mouth and brow shifted, determination hardening his expression. “You need to sleep, sweetheart. It’s going to be a long night.”

I didn’t doubt it. We eventually let one another go and completed the trek to the royal wing. My nostrils flared in the hall leading up to my room. Notes of sunshine and wild mint twined in the air and lingered. The ache in my belly only grew more pronounced, like I was about to have the worst cramp of my life if I didn’t do something about it soon.

I said goodbye to Kauz at the door of my suite, hunching over my middle as soon as I was inside and the door was closed behind me.

“It’s the princess!”

“Princess!”

I startled and straightened. My receiving room seemed to be swarming with house moths, though as they gathered and bowed or curtsied, it was just eight males, plus Jani and Lon, who happily made introductions. The males were the moths assigned to the princes, relocated to serve us all here. “We’re cleaning everything in preparation for your heat, Princess,” Jani reported.

“That includes everything in your nest. Please don’t be upset,” Lon added. “Most omegas want to re-do their nest right before their heat anyway.”

It was impossible to look at this flock—eclipse?—of earnest house moths and be angry. However, I’d wanted to lay down in my nest, and the idea of re-doing it just made me feel more tired.

“Don’t let me interrupt your work. I’m going to the rain room,” I said.

“I’ll get your favorite soap!”

“I’ll get your robe!”

Jani and Lon bumped into one another in their haste to do as they’d said. I scrunched my nose and giggled, fluttering by them. “It’s okay, I’ll be fine. Thank you, ladies.”

The rest of the moths split up to return to what they were doing. When they said they were cleaning everything , they meant it. Yet I still picked up a strong whiff of Fal’s grassy sunshine in the study and noticed my old journal was upside down on the desk. I flipped it open, noticing the sheer amount of scribble marks on the pages before any other details.

I picked it up and flipped through it while standing, as one of the male house moths was wiping down the study’s armchairs behind me. This was Fal’s handwriting in the back of the journal. I’d recognize the elegant, looping script anywhere, even though most of it was unreadable for me since it was written in Serian. Still, it was a rare peek into his mind and apparently it was chaos in there. There were so many things crossed out on the first page alone.

Deeper into the journal, there were arrows pointing every which way. Then he’d started doodling in the middle of an idea or a thought. He wasn’t half bad at drawing, either. When I saw the barkfolk shape surrounded by a plume of fire, I had the idea of what I was holding. Plans. Brainstorming. Fruitless, since his frustration was evident.

I turned one more page and my breath caught. He’d taken some kind of break to sketch a full page spread of, well, versions of me. “ Mo stór ” was written at the top next to a heart. I knew those particular Serian words very well and blushed. There had to be a couple dozen doodles and they were increasingly naughty and detailed.

I could see the progression from him getting my face, body, and wing proportions right, to sketches of a few expressions. Excited, blushing and shy, annoyed, embarrassed, and coy seemed to be his favorites. Then there were full-body doodles. Me wearing outfits I knew he liked, and then just without clothes at all, posing in bold and sexy ways I’d never had the confidence for.

I flipped through the other pages. More plotting and scribbling, until he seemed to give up mid-thought. I turned back to the sketches of me and studied the poses carefully. For reasons.

A tickle of static began at the back of my head. I paused and glanced up, like I would meet Marius’s predatory eyes the moment the kelpie bond fell back into place. His voice was a deep growl in my mind. “Mate.”

I got a little slick. Just from that? C’mon. Bad Lark. To be fair, I was already stirred up from the peek into Fal’s mind, and my body was reacting accordingly.

All I could sense from Marius was a tangle of alpha instinct and pressing, urgent need. “Where are you?” I asked.

“I came running. Almost there.”

I tingled with anticipation. The door into my suite slammed a room over. I put the journal down as he rushed into the study and over to me in a few long strides. He crushed me into a hug, burying his nose in my hair, and I sighed happily as his scent hit me. His fertile waterlilies and mint was enough to make me weak at the knees.

“P’nixie.”

When I tried to pull away to see his face, he wouldn’t budge. His thoughts had an oddly fragmented feeling to them. Warm. Soft. Mine.

“I missed you,” I said through our bond.

He made a feral sound, a gentle growl of agreement.

“Are you all right? I’ve been worried.”

He nipped my ear before nuzzling my neck, breathing in my scent intently enough that he stirred the little hairs on the back of my neck. “Marius?” I asked.

“Speak to me through our bond. Mate to mate.”

I nodded and repeated the question. “Worried? Why?” he asked.

He tasted my pheromones with a quick swipe of his tongue. I held in a moan with a sharp inhale. “You’re still in rut. I thought it only lasted a couple days. You know we can’t ? —”

“I know. Don’t remind me,” he growled. “All it would take…”

One. Little. Push. One I sensed that he would be eager to supply, if the circumstances were different.

“I was losing it. So, I let Niall lead.”

“You wanted to stay in rut without me?”

“Not without. I wanted it for your estrus.”

“Marius…”

“It’s so close, p’nixie.”

“You didn’t have to put your body under that kind of pressure.” I could sense the echo of how painfully tight that pressure had become in the days we’d been away from one another. It was a full-body experience, though most intense in his back and groin. He absolutely should’ve let himself relax rather than endure this.

He released me with a snort. “Pain and I are close friends. This is nothing. The worst part was the waiting. Pacing, watching for your return.”

Catching my chin between his thumb and forefinger, he inspected my face while breathing shallowly through his mouth. As his eyes roved, the rim of yellow threw off the occasional shard of light; if Niall relaxed, Marius would still have the rut glow in his irises. And he had a new braid, my white hair standing out starkly woven into the blue and green of his.

“You’re in pain too.” His expression set into a worried frown. “Let me take care of you.”

I was about to tell him all I needed was a shower and a nap, when he rested his palm over the ache in my belly. The discomfort reacted to his presence, its dull throb fading like magic.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Wait. Stay? Shower? Nap?” I asked, deliberately fragmenting the thoughts.

And his considerations came through in snippets as well. Shower no. Naked mate. Will breed.

Stay. Nap. Aye. She needs it.

“But I smell,” I protested.

His ear flicked. “Apparently I do too.”

I tilted my head, confused, and he mirrored the movement in sympathy. The new braid slipped over his shoulder, and I gasped as I saw the end. It was capped with a silver bead and two metalark feathers, the filaments still starry and pristine. “I had a bit of help. Bought a spell to keep it nice. Do you like it?”

I really did. It was prettier than anything I imagined Marius would put in his hair, though. He caught that thought and laughed, though it was more of a rasp than his usual rich chuckle. “Come, mate. Time to rest. It’s going to be a long night.”

A chill creeped over my skin. That’s what Kauz had said, too.