Page 123 of Mercy & Her Devils

He drops heavily to sit on the log, and his jade coat splays around him.

How can he even collapse elegantly?

Gabriel turns back with a frustrated huff. “This isn’t a leisurely stroll.”

Lark ignores him, patting the place on the log next to him. “Cupcake, do you need to rest as well?”

Gabriel wrinkles his nose in distaste on the cupcake (and I remember how we’d always laughed over pet names that were used for Omegas in romance novels as kids).

I struggle to smother my smile because I love being called cupcake.

But only by Lark.

I move to Lark, pushing his hair behind his ear. “I’m fine. I feel strong. Amazing, actually.”

Lark’s eyes crinkle at the side. “You don’t know how happy that makes me.”

Only, I do.

Because I can feel it through our bond.

Lark lifts his hand from the log and recoils in horror, as he stares it. “What the hell is this? Mud or…? It should be considered cruel and unusual punishment to expect an Omega to hike.”

This time I can’t help it. I do laugh.

Lark wipes his hand over a patch of moss to clean it.

Gabriel shoots me a bewildered glance.

“He was a caged Lark,” I explain. “They’re not found naturally in the wild.”

Gabriel gives Lark a long look, which makes him squirm. He’s assessing him like an opponent, which I have to admit is smart.

Lark and I have a plan, after all.

“Then I suggest,” Gabriel says in a clipped tone, “that this fancy lark bird returns inside to his natural habitat. I didn’t invite you on this patrol. You’re ruining my objective.”

Lark flutters his eyelashes at Gabriel in a move that would work on me in a heartbeat, but I’m pretty certain isn’t going to work on Gabriel.

They’re like two men playing poker and neither wanting to call the other’s bluff.

“My cupcake,” Lark drawls, and now I know that he’s just as aware of Gabriel’s reaction to the word because he rolls it over his tongue with such delight, “has told me about what an honorable Alpha you are. But surely, such a good Alpha wouldn’t expect a poor, little Omega to walk back through unknown woods by themselves?”

“You’re tall,” Gabriel points out. “Plus, you’re older than me.”

Lark attempts to look scared; he fails. “But there could be bears, wolves, or even Bigfoot.” I bite down hard on the inside of my cheek not to laugh again. “Can we all go inside together now?”

Gabriel looks wrong-footed. “Actually, you’re more likely to see white-tailed deer, which is why this forest is named buck. Plus, it’s not me keeping you out here. Antonio’s the one who’s been excitedly telling me that he’s going to have you chopping wood and swimming in the creek.”

“Actually,” Lark points out, “it was Kai who sent us with you, saying that we needed some exercise.”

“So, get your ass up and get marching.”

“Do you talk to all the boys like that, or am I just special?”

Gabriel’s shoulders stiffen, before his lips curl in triumph like he’s worked something out.

He glances between Lark and me. “You’re trying to figure me out, while also needling me. You’re pretending that you don’t want to be here, at the same time as deliberately stalling me in the middle of the forest.”

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