Page 30 of Mercy & Her Devils

“I wish that I could…” Lark glances over his shoulder at Millie, who appears to be lost in a clapping game. “…Insert bad word to everybody in your life who has made you feel unworthy of saving. I can’t change where we are or what others are going to do to us. But I swear, Mercy, I will do everything that I can to make you happy, when it’s just…our broken pack.”

“Broken pack?” I whisper.

He leans closer. “It’s all that I can offer. I’m rebellious, probably feral, and definitely broken. But I’ve spent a decade being made to feel like less than a man by my ex Alpha, when all I did was follow her orders and my duty. I’m a free Omega now, though, and I am a man.” His jaw clenches. “And even if I’m not worth anything to others, I can act like I am.”

“You are worth something.” I reach out my free hand, brushing Lark’s hair back from his face. “You’re worth everything to Millie and me.”

I didn’t mean to say that, but the words slipped out.

Lark blinks in confusion.

To cover the twisting emotions in my stomach, I blurt the first thing that comes into my head. “I’m sleeping in your bed.”

Fuck.

I’ve never courted anyone.

I didn’t think that I’d ever meet a scent match.

I was forced into a bond. I didn’t get the chance to choose my pack.

I suck at romance.

But it’s true.

There’s only one mattress in this cell. I wasn’t even meant to be in here, and clearly, was thrown in unexpectedly.

Fletcher, the fucking knothead, didn’t bother to add an extra mattress or blanket.

Lark’s dancing gaze meets mine. “I know. It’s terribly forward of you.” My blush deepens, especially when he adds, dryly, “Oh no, don’t tell me that you love those Omega romcoms with the turning up at the hotel and there’s only one bedroom booked scenes, are you? That Omega actor, Jex, is famous for those.”

“And hot,” I can’t help adding.

Lark leans forward and whispers into my ear so that Millie can’t hear, “Did you see his cowboy one? With the spanking scene?”

My skin feels like it’s on fire again. Lark’s hot breath against my ear makes me shiver.

“Wait, are you telling me that you did?”

Lark pulls back, opening his mouth and then snapping it shut. “I’m pleading the fifth.”

“So, you like movies?” I venture.

I want to know about him. I don’t know how this can feel like a date, when we’re stuck in this dank cell and I already have a connection with him that’s Soul deep.

But it does.

“I had movie nights with my brother-in-law, another Omega in my old pack called Cygnus,” Lark replies. “He has health difficulties and spent a lot of his time trapped in his room. Along with his books, it was his only freedom: A window out into the world.”

I beckon Lark closer.

His hair is silky against my cheeks, as this time I whisper into his ear, “And he liked to see hot Omegas and spanking?”

Now, it’s Lark’s turn to shiver. “That may have been me.”

We both chuckle at the same time.

All of a sudden, there’s a loud sound of footsteps in the hallway.

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