Page 125 of Omega's Heart

The afternoon was spent on baths and hair, Cale and Julius and I hiding out in my bedroom with occasional visits from my mother to put in her two cents worth of advice on our grooming.

Before I knew it, it was time to get ready. And then I really started to panic.

“I shouldn’t have gone for the traditional form,” I said for what was probably the hundredth time.

“Stop fussing,” Cale said calmly. “It’s a beautiful ceremony. And it suits you better than it suits either me or Julius. Get undressed so we can paint you.”

I took my robe off and laid it on the end of what used to be my bed, in what used to be my bedroom. “Maybe we should do this in one of the other bedrooms.”

“We can manage,” Julius said doubtfully. “Cale, you’ll have to talk me through this, I don’t know many of the symbols.”

Cale opened his mouth, then shut it and shook his head. “What do you want, Felix? What do you think you’ll need for this mating?”

“I don’t know.” I really didn’t, but I was such a ball of nerves now that my own name sometimes escaped me. “Just do what you’d do for anyone, I guess? We all need the same things.”

“All right.” He frowned and looked me over. “Jules, I’m going to let you work on his chest. Maybe Love and Strength and Faithfulness?”

“I can do those. Health? I have the list you gave me—how do I do the lines to connect them?”

“Those are just to make it pretty,” Cale told him, dipping his brush in his pot of paint and kneeling in front of me. “We always did vines, because we weren’t very creative.” The corners of his mouth curved up, and he squinted. “Fertility,” he said as he traced the symbol on the skin below my belly button. “Obviously. Success on this hip,” he dipped his brush in the pot again and wrote just inside the jut of my left hipbone. It tickled and I made an undignified noise and fell backward onto the bed.

“You’re not helping,” Julius said severely. “Where’s a rag? We need a rag.” He set his pot aside and poked around in the mess on top of my dresser.

“Here.” Cale snickered and handed one over. “Stand up, Felix, or this won’t have time to dry before we have to dress you.”

Grumpily, I squirmed off the bed and stood up again. “Stop tickling me.”

“You need to have better self-control as a mated omega,” Cale scolded with mock severity. “Kaden’s going to want to do a lot more than tickle you.”

Julius squawked and laughed, carefully wiping away the ruined symbol. “You dirty omega!”

“Like you haven’t been thinking the exact same thing,” Cale reminded him. “And talking about it too!”

“You’ve been talking about my sex life?” I demanded and Julius went bright red with guilt.

A knock on the door interrupted us. It was Bax and Holland and Raleigh, with two of my omega cousins Theodora and Franklyn behind them. “Can we come in?”

“Will you fit?” Cale asked. “There’s about three feet of floor space left.”

“We can do the legs after. Or they can climb up on the bed?” Julius turned to stare at me critically. “How on earth did you survive in here? It looked bigger last night.”

“It was only you and me in here last night. Not half the pack.”

Bax laughed. “Good thing we abandoned the pups with the alphas.” He squeezed in and climbed up on the bed, making room for the others as they entered, laughing at the crowd in my ever-shrinking bedroom. “Also a good thing you have a different room for your mating night. I can’t imagine cramming the two of you in here together.”

“It was really crowded,” Julius agreed. “But Felix won’t be looking for a lot of extra space to stretch out in tonight anyway.” He nodded knowingly at the other omegas.

Laughter exploded in the room. I blushed and moved back to the open space at the end of the bed. “Let’s just get this over with, okay?” I made quick introductions between the Mercy Hills shifters and my cousins, and then we got back to business.

“Do you have more brushes?” Raleigh asked. “We’ll get you done in no time.”

The spare brushes were handed out and then I was barked at and scolded to stay still during the tickling torture of having the mating wishes painted all over me. “I’m never doing this again,” I said through gritted teeth as Holland slid a line of paint along my waist and up my ribcage to curl out over my chest.

“I hope not,” Bax said, sitting back to give the total pattern a once-over. “That looks like just about right. If we add anything more, it’s going to be too busy.”

“I expect Kaden will be too busy himself to notice,” Holland said slyly as he flicked the brush along his painted vine, making leaves along each curve. The rest of them hooted again with laughter— even my cousins, who appeared totally intimidated by Holland—and I wanted to die.

“Here.” Bax passed out sheaves of paper. “Fans, to dry him faster. It’s getting close to time to leave.”