Page 143 of Fated or Knot

“As long as it’s hypothetical.”I wasn’t as uneasy about the topic as I probably should’ve been. My core felt quite hot and empty, and when he felt how I ached, he did too. My heat and his rut seemed impossibly entwined. When one came to full fruition, so would the other.

His response was balanced between both him and Niall.“If I promise it’s hypothetical, will you indulge some breeding talk occasionally?”

While he didn’t want babies much more than I did—kids were loud, after all, and he spent most of his days trying to find peace and quiet while being pack bonded to two outgoing males—he knew what Niall really wanted. An omega was at her most vulnerable while pregnant and then nursing newborns. He’d have the fun of making them but the ongoing pride of defending me and these theoretical babies.

“That is such a male ego thing.”It was a candid thought that I would’ve never said out loud.

But he just laughed and agreed.“That’s not a no, p’nixie.”

“It’s not. I don’t mind it. You can picture me heavy with four of your colts if you want.”

Marius shook his equine head. We were coming out of the paralyzing daze of being bound so tightly together, though our mind spaces remained open and connected.“It would be four daughters,”he corrected. He didn’t really want a son, especially if he turned out like himself. That, we would need to address someday.“If we’re fantasizing, you’re carrying more p’nixies just like you.”

“Sure. Four little p’nixies as blue as their father.”

He purred in agreement, even in kelpie form. We drifted for a while as he meandered in his own thoughts before he realized we’d gone off course. He flicked his tail to correct it, working up to a speed that had something cool and translucent passing over my eyes. I could suddenly see our surroundings so much better despite the gloom of the deep sea below.

“Ah, seems we have a theme for the day: nothing to worry about. You do have nictitating membranes like any other water fae. You’re perfect,”he said affectionately.

41

LARK

Now that my built-in eye protection was in place, Marius showed me around the Serian side of the Doras Sea on the way to our mysterious destination. Since his thoughts weren’t quite private anymore, I knew we were heading for a cave, but he wanted to stall for an hour or so for us to arrive around low tide.

Fish scattered everywhere as we circled a tiny shelf of multicolored coral.“Serian’s waters get too cold for us to have significant amounts of coral. The biggest reef I know of hugs Thelis’s western edge,”he narrated while I admired the small version growing here despite the odds.“I’ve seen it from a distance. The merfolk don’t allow kelpies close to this day.”

I was surprised by the spike of dislike he had for merfolk. I wondered if it was because of Cymora and Laurel.

“While they didn’t help matters, I’m probably privier to the war crimes merfolk committed on kelpies long ago than you are. There’s still a lot of bad blood there,”he answered.

I didn’t want it to taint our date by asking for details. But I was curious, and he could feel it. He steered us away from the coast and considered how much to tell me.“Mermaids usedto have a spell called the siren’s song. It was fully effective on males and sometimes on females too. Those caught in the spell were compelled to do anything the singing mermaid demanded. A lot of nixies were murdered by their mates in a ploy to break the bereft kelpies and clear the sea for merfolk conquest.”He shuddered in fear and rage just imagining that distant past.“Which, in turn, resulted in revenge plots that killed hundreds of mermaids who could sing the siren’s song or were suspected of it. There’s a very good reason when our people talk about Unseelie warring with Seelie, they mention the water fae first.”

“Stars, I’ve never even heard of the siren’s song, and I lived with two mermaids.”I knew neither of them could cast such a spell, because Cymora was the type to abuse the fuck out of something like that.

“The merfolk lines that had access to that spell are gone. And good riddance.”

“Good riddance,”I agreed, thinking of my stepfamily.

“Cymora is still alive,”he said to my unspoken wonderings. He wasn’t all that happy to know that Rennyn had shared the full story about what’d happened to her since I last saw her.“Diplomatic overtures between the two nations of Faerie take weeks to complete. Last I heard, Queen Alora was still looking for her daughter. Mother’s letter detailing why we will be executing Cymora may be buried in a pile by this point.”

“What happened to Glory?”

“We still don’t know. Not that it’s our business. Probably just cinnamon girl being extra bratty.”

He shared his impression of Glory as a peer from a rival nation. Alora and Nemensia visited with each other at least twice a year, which meant their kids mingled too. He’d found Glory to be loud, brash, and bossy, and her pheromones aboutas pleasant as being hit in the face with an autumn festival cinnamon broomstick.

“She couldn’t be that bad,”I protested. Sharing memories seemed to be as easy as thinking about them, so I lingered on my one impression of her at the Omega Masquerade, saving me from the alpha male that’d tried to carry me onto the dance floor. Marius growled dangerously, and the vibrations shook my legs.

Forget the relatively gentle warning the other male had gotten from Glory. Had he been there, no one would’ve dared pick me up.“The fucking nerve. No one touches my p’nixie.”

That effectively distracted him from talk of cinnamon girl Glory. We circled an old shipwreck. Only the broken boards that used to be the skeleton of the vessel were left. According to Marius, there were several lining the depths of the Doras. We were staying in relatively shallow water because I needed more exposure to water pressure before we dove deeper, but someday, we could wander the seabed and search for treasure.

“Sounds like another date,”I said eagerly. He had me at treasure hunting.

He hesitated, second-guessing the offer.“Not that there aren’t water fae pirates that search regularly for anything they can steal.”

“Hmm. Extra adventure!”

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