Page 86 of Shadowlands Omega

I think of terrible, undead things as I feel my knot slowly,slowlyrecede, the ridges and bumps used to seal our connection and keep my seed within her body deflating into a single ring around the base of my erection, which I am able to then pull out of her tight, swollen heat. The cool air brushes the length of my penis and I growl, opening my eyes to the sight of white, syrupy seed gushing from her pretty brown lips.

My eager thumbs move down, massaging their way through her slick. She’s swollen and hot, her lips looking ravaged and delicious when I spread them. I want to suck them into my mouth, tasting my cum and her flavor on them. I want to transform into my beast just so I can stick the full length of my tongue deep into her body.Fuck.

“Command me to step away from you,” I bark just as my arms start to tremble.

“What?”

“Do it!”

Her foot stamps in the center of my chest. She kicks mehardand I topple backwards onto my ass. The surprise of it distracts me from my goal and I meet her gaze. She’s glaring at me firmly, fixedly. “Get off the bed, beast. Go sit in the chair in the corner and stay there until I tell you otherwise.”

“The chair is broken.”

“Then kneel.”

I’m moving before I know what’s hit me, her foot first, and then her command. My beast whimpers through my throat as I retreat from her and kneel beside the too-small chair. I yank my cloak from it and the buckle hits the floor with a heavy clunk. I fist it, letting the metal dig into my palms.

Kiandah sits up in the bed and pushes her dress down to cover herself. “Would you throw me a towel?” She gestures to the small table beside the chair and the copper basin atop it.

I toss her a damp cloth, wanting nothing more than to clean her myself, but I don’t have the strength to be close to her. My erection is still prominent and driving me mad. I fight past the sensations seeing her clean herself stirs and say, “How certain are you of Ruby City’s fall?”

“I wasn’t, at first. But after prompting her, Madame Zenobia confessed that a ship arrived at the ports yesterday afternoon with refugees from Ruby City. Madame Zenobia is housing them. We met with them — Cyprus, Mara and I — and then with Dorsten, Renard and Malik when they came later. Their story is too believable to be faked. We also made sure to speak with some of them separately and their stories aligned.”

“And how did they say Ruby City fell?”

“Apparently, the undead came in the night by the hundreds. They targeted the ports and the Ruby City fortress, overtaking both in a matter of hours.”

“The fortress is just that, it would not be so easy to overtake.”

“Apparently the Fates were with them. One of the boys said he saw one single Fate at the fortress. Soldiers were there, guards ready to defend Ruby City, but he said the ground opened up and the sands swallowed them whole. The Fate didn’t even need the undead. She just walked through.”

Adoqhina.The Earth Fate. Having seen her power in action, I can believe she was capable of this and more. “And what of Ruby City’s Berserker, N’dogo, and her Omega?”

She shakes her head slowly and, cleaned up, slides off of the bed. Her knees buckle momentarily and she catches herself on the headboard. I flinch, wanting to close the distance, but I’m afraid. Clarity is difficult to clutch in my claws and I am clearer now than I’ve been at any point in the lust-fueled haze of the past twelve hours. I must cling to it like salvation, because it might just be. If I fall, the Shadowlands may follow me.

“The refugees don’t know. Madame Zenobia is asking for payment from you to house them here. I told her we’d pay it.” She looks down quickly, shame in her gaze that I hate. “That you’d pay it. I’m sorry.”

“You apologize to me for nothing,” I say, recognizing immediately that that’s not correct. “No. You apologize for leaving our bed. You could have been killed.”

“You asked me to help you find out about Trash City and the Fates and the undead. I did.” The firm set of her jaw and the jutting of her lower lip cause me to narrow my gaze and curl my toes into the floorboards. I can feel my claws bore into the soft wood.

“Do not test me, Kiandah. I am not well enough for it.”

“You’re not well?” Her incensed outrage falls immediately, a rush of concern taking its place. She rushes forward. “What’s wrong?”

“Do not come near me,” I bark louder than I mean to. “I cannot be close to you.”

A look of hurt changes her expression once more, and though I want to correct her misunderstanding, I don’t. “Get dressed and gather your things. I want to meet with these refugees myself.”

23 | Yaron

Shadow Keep

Twelve Ruby City refugees were gathered at that shit inn, all Alphas, all from different parts of Ruby City, mostly very young or very old, but some in between.A young girl with her grandparents were the only ones who knew one another. The rest arrived alone, separated from everything and everyone they knew. When I asked them how they managed to escape, their stories aligned and rang true.

They fled to the ports, which were under the control of the undead who — it is supposed, but not certain — must have burned the boats they arrived on, for there were none there. The refugees found only a single skipper at the southernmost edge of the port city, where only black market deals take place. I did not ask how they knew it was there and none offered to confess to it. That is fine. They are not to be condemned by my hand for their past actions, and with no more Ruby City Berserker to offend, their criminal records — their entire histories — have been erased clean on these shadowy shores. That they made it out at all is a gift to me.

Of the refugees who gathered — many more than twelve, or so they say — they piled as many onto the skipper as they could and set it asea, the rest of their families remaining behind in the city. The twelve then had no choice but to give their lives up to Zaoul. Zaoul treated them with grace, unusual for the turbulent sea, filled with creatures known to down ships much larger than that one.

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