Page 126 of Fated or Knot

I winced in sympathy. “Oh.”

“That’s not the worst of it,” the kelpie grumbled. “I asked my dear older brother to tell Theodred something to cover for me for a bit. You know what he did?”

“Told him the whole truth,” Fal said.

“Why would you do that?” I gasped. How embarrassing for Marius.

Tormund poked his head around the corner from the bathroom. “Have you met my dad? No one lies to him. Ever.”

“Right,” Marius said dryly. “So, I was the one who had his training intensified when I could finally walk again. My designation hadn’t hit yet, so he loomed over me and said, ‘So, you wish to please a lady’ and informed me I was still far from that mark.” I shifted in his lap when he mimicked the older redcap by lowering his voice and adding a growling undertone that I felt to my core. His eyebrows rose in surprise, then he smirked at this next new bit of insight our one-sided bond had given him.

“So, where is it?” Tormund asked. Marius didn’t show him but mimicked its placement by pinching the base of his thumbnail. The redcap paled and ducked back into the bathroom.

“It took nearly a year to heal. Turns out shrimpy little kelpies get the package so they’re healed up for their mates later. In my case,muchlater,” he continued.

Stars, I hoped I loved how it felt after he went through all that.

“Shall we find out?” he offered.

Did he read my mind?I waited to see if he answered this unspoken thought, too.

“I told you; the bond is intense right now. I’m feeling almost everything you are,” he said right on cue.

“Then you know there are a couple things I’ve been dying to do.” I didn’t leave him to wonder what I meant. That wasn’t Marius’s style. Instead, I went ahead and started by latching on to the solid column of his neck.

His growl was immediate and inviting. As I suspected, he wasn’t so keen on gentle, not when he was such a tough alpha. “Harder.Biteme,” he grunted. I dug my little fangs in more and stopped when the points broke skin. His cock jolted under the towel.

I lifted my hips and tore the offending fabric away. While I kissed my way down his neck and collar, he grabbed my hand and placed it over his cock. “Feel what your pleasure’s done to me.” His erection was already soaked and slick, and I covered his whole length with pre in a couple passes of my fingers.

“Did you almost come?” I guessed.

“I held on.” He drew in with a feral, rasping growl as I circled my tongue around his pierced nipple and took it into my mouth. “Because I want to feel how you fall apart when I come inside you instead.”

“Oh, was that one of your gleanings?” Fal asked.

The heat of the kelpie’s regard turned into a flash of anger by the tensing of his muscles. I sucked harder on his piercing and bit down, hoping the pleasure and pain would distract him from snapping at his brother. At the same time, I caressed the rise and fall of his abs, admiring the strength sheathed in smooth skin and the occasional scarred ridge.

The tension in his body eased. I ran my hands back up and down, aiming to pet and soothe him. “Mate,” he sighed. I released his piercing and met his gaze, melting a bit at what I saw there. Fierce affection, unspoken but palpable. He traced my cheekbone in a tender sweep of his thumb.

“I learned you have the breeder’s delight, aye,” he said, speaking to me while answering Fal’s question at the same time. “And you’re apparently fearless, because you fucked a fully transformed redcap nearly knot-deep.”

I’d known about “the breeder’s delight” but not by that name. The vile pack I didn’t want to think of right now had called it something else, making it sound incredibly dirty. Some omegas had a love for being stuffed by their mates, but not all. I now thought it was fortunate that I had it, now that I belonged with Pack Sorles.

“Not fearless,” I corrected quietly. “Just not afraid of Tormund.”

His touch ghosted around to cup my neck. “It’s a strong start. We’ll convince you that you’re a princess—you have nothing to fear.”

I was sure princesses had plenty of things to fear, first and foremost losing one of her princes, but he kissed my doubts away before I could air them. He tipped back and took me with him, and his length nudged my belly as our legs tangled. Our lip-lock didn’t end until he’d helped me lift my cast so I straddled the pulsing heat of him. “I want you to ride me, p’nixie. Take what you need,” he invited.

I was flush with awareness as I took his cock in hand and lined myself up on the pierced head. His expression had hardly changed. He looked at me like I was the sexiest omega. That warm regard was heady as it traveled up and down my body, and I only paused to return the favor.

He’d saved himself for this moment. Despite staying in peak male condition and holding on to the highly desirable status of an eligible, unmated alpha kelpie, he hadn’t slept with another female. He was already loyal, already mine, in ways I was only grasping while poised to claim him.

Mine,I thought. It felt more intimate to express it through our one-sided bond. His expression shifted subtly to show smoldering approval. I sank onto his shaft, sheathing him in one long, hot glide. My eyes rolled back when the rounded nub of his intimate piercing rubbed through a sensitive patch halfway along my inner walls for a starburst of sensation.

“Oh. I feltthat,” he hissed, bucking his hips to seat me fully on him.

I lifted and whimpered when he stroked that same spot on the way up.Lady pleaserindeed. It really sank in that he’d hit that knee-liquefying patch with each stroke. His broad grinsuggested he was coming to the same conclusion. His lips moved soundlessly to the words “Worth it.”

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