Page 13 of Fated or Knot

If the stars were merciful, he wouldn’t. But I didn’t know anymore if that mercy would be for him or me.

“Good night, Tormund,” I answered, lifting a hand in farewell as he walked away.

When the food arrived, it came with its own table. My eyes widened as a pair of fae passed plate after plate into my room. There were nibbles with dipping sauces, pull-apart breads, pretzels with cheese cubes, so many different variations of sandwiches… and the desserts. I could’ve simply started there. A slice of chocolate cake, moist and dense. Brownies with chilled cream, berries and foam, and perhaps cheekily, toasted mallows in their own separate bowl.

I thanked the pair who’d delivered all this and stood there with my lips wobbling. All this was for me?

I ate more than my fill and cradled my stomach with a content sigh as I headed for my nest to pass out, just to stop short. It smelled clean, but it was still missing two key components.

I told myself I couldn’t have the males I’d just met, even while doubling back to pick out Fal’s mask and the piece of Tormund’s cloak from the things I’d stolen. I snuggled into the soft bed and tucked the two items close to my heart so I smelled grassy days and mallows roasting over a fire. My scent wove into theirs with perfect harmony.

But they weren’t actually here, and my most familiar companion, empty loneliness, came to settle with me instead. The ghosts of Tormund’s purr and Fal’s leading hand on the small of my back lingered. I just wanted them to touch me more.

How was it possible that two Unseelie were my scent matches? I pictured them on either side of me in my nest and loosed a rusty purr that startled me anew. The part of me that was all omega instinct knew I needed them. Their skin on mine…but not only that. I blushed with a heady wave of pre-heat. I needed their knots, too. With my heat built and denied for fouryears, I probably needed their knots over and over and over so I didn’t burn myself to a stifled cinder.

My fingers drifted to my pussy and the slick that coated my folds. My perfume leaked out, made richer as my heat threatened to arrive. I circled my clit with my thumb, then inserted my fingers one at a time to stretch my overheated core. All the while, I pictured Tormund and how gentle he would be with my body. And Fal too…whispering teasing words in my ear while he knotted me with just the right amount of pressure. My toes curled as I found release, but it was a hollow and brief high.

What did a knot evenfeellike? I’d been too afraid to dally in Osme Fen. One curious encounter could trigger the point of no return with my heat, and then it would be Pack Ellisar biting me when I couldn’t tell them no and soul bonding us until the end of days.

I huffed in disappointment, but just thinking about the trio of barkfolk who’d purchased my first heat was enough to dampen any sort of afterglow.What if I could have something else?

“I see you, Lark.”

No. I refused to even entertain the impossible. If I veered off the path of my plan, I was doomed. It didn’t matter that neither Unseelie had seemed as monstrous as the stories, even if Falhadlaughed at me and Tormund was unusually large.

I had to leave Ilysnor before my stepfamily tracked me down. No exceptions.

Still, their lingering scents were a comfort.Dessert after a warm summer’s day. Mmm…

I was asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.

6

FAL

The other fae on the patio turned to stare, alerted by Lark’s breathy cry of “Unseelie!” I’d jumped to my feet after Lark’s leap from the balcony, my call into the night following the gray blur of her wings.

What a situation this had become. I straightened and cleared my throat, regaining a semblance of my princely dignity after a simple kiss from a pixie obliterated it so efficiently. I headed for the stairs to go into the garden after her. That didn’t seem like a steady flight, and I wasn’t about to let my future mate escape me so easily.

“Unseelie aren’t allowed at this event,” a male said as I passed the bench where he sat.

I paused, my gaze slipping to him and the two others who shared his bench. “Two alphas from the same pack aren’t allowed, either,” I responded coolly. They had a blue-winged pixie between them.

“We’re not from the same?—”

I strode past them with a scoff, uncaring of what they had to say for themselves and, frankly, tired of listening to Theli.The burr found in the Seelie tongue was starting to get on my nerves…except when spoken by a certain shy omega who smelled like she was already mine. Lark could talk to me in Theli all she wanted with her higher pitched, musical voice.

Suppressing a growl, I took the stairs down to the garden two at a time.

There was no way word of my presence didn’t filter to the ears of the Seelie royalty, but the deed was done. I’d found my scent match. The repercussions ofwhoshe was would be interesting, to say the least. But I’d still managed to pass as Seelie for long enough to pick up on her indulgent scent of chocolate and honeyed dessert crackers.

I craved the combination as I strode through the castle’s garden, looking for her or Tormund. He had insisted on coming and waiting outside the event, just in case I needed rescuing. An eye-rolling sentiment from my baby brother.

As the eldest of my pack and the one to come up with the idea of meeting Seelie omegas, I’d practically been forced to attend this event. I’d handled it fairly well until Lark stole my disguise, though the first hours were dreadful. The scent blockers in the air were not enough to dampen my sense of smell completely, a fate I cursed until the moment Lark tiptoed right past me on a guard’s arm and the wake of her scent made my skin tingle.

It’d only been a matter of time before I would’ve gotten her alone. I’d observed her, guessing the reasons for her every quirk. And while she’d been stiff and unsure face-to-face, she’d certainly made a favorable impression on me.

I had too many unanswered questions about her. Why had she come to the event late and without supervision? Why did she take in the crowd of potential doting mates with the chagrin of someone who’d rather be anywhere else?

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