Page 174 of Fated or Knot

“Absolutely not!”

If Tormund wasn’t holding my neck, I would’ve sprang right off the bed in shock and fear from the absolute thunder in Kauz’s response, followed by his soft beta growl. Tormund echoed it in a deeper, more menacing tone.

“Promise me you won’t endanger yourself that way, sweetheart,” the dream warden sighed, gentling his voice. “You are still a beginner in the arts of magic. Just the thought of you getting stranded in one of their heads for a whole night…” His wings shivered.

I tensed, my breathing coming up short. That would be the kind of terror that’d stick with me for years, if not longer. “I just want to help,” I murmured.

“And we want to take care of this problem for you, li’l bird.” Tormund stroked my neck gently with his thumb. “If Fal got his way, you wouldn’t even know they were here.”

I released a heavy sigh. “I don’t need you all keeping me in the dark, even if the truth scares me.”

“It’s not that at all. We know you’re a grown female, it’s just…” He shrugged.

“Fixing things for you is practically our calling,” Kauz added in. “And making your enemies disappear is an act of love from an Unseelie.”

I felt my negativity flow out of me like water from between my fingers. All of my mates had proven themselves enthusiastic about all of these things. It was their “clumsy love,” as Fal put it, and I reminded myself that they had saved me when I couldn’t save myself. Perhaps it was inevitable that they would do it again.

“Maybe someday I’ll make your enemies disappear,” I said.

“That’s the spirit.” Kauz patted my ass, and probably regretted it, as I released a full-blown moan. His wings shivered again, and Tormund echoed the sound with longing. I clenched my eyes closed and wished I didn’t have to have a heat, because it was nothing but trouble.

“Anyway,” I mumbled. “I know whose dream I’m visiting tonight.” Just the thought of the clumsy love talk brought me back to a moment in the shower with Fal. It’d been too long since I’d seen his unfairly attractive face.And body.

No, bad Lark.Dream sex wasn’t helping my pre-heat addled body anymore. It just made me crave the real thing that much more. Besides, there was no guarantee Fal would remember a dream we shared. Forgetting was probably common for non-dream wardens.

That just meant I would get to show him my newly decorated wings twice. I only saw so much in the bathroom mirror or by twisting my body around, but I was thrilled. My wings sparkled with silver patterns through their amethyst color. An outline of stars and mist on each wing, to represent Kauz and match him as my mate. But what we’d settled on for me were curlicues and comet trails, which originated from the base of each wing to spread in looping flourishes.

The smell of Always rose from my wings as I fluttered in delight, actually lifting my feet a few inches off the ground in a cloud of pixie dust. I launched myself at Kauz, who caught me and grinned as I peppered his face with kisses. “I love it. Thank you, thank you!”

“Well, I love you.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “And now everyone can see that you’re mine.”

He definitely won the prize for the gentlest claim amongst my mates. I nuzzled his neck and whispered back, “Yours.”

49

FAL

We tortured Fangless Floris for most of the night, seized by a second wind of manic energy that Marius and I shared through the pack bond. There was very little information gathered compared to the amount of pain we’d inflicted.

I hadn’t realized my brother was so good at dealing agony, stone cold about finding and pressing weaknesses. I took mental notes on the techniques he showed me, just in case I found myself in a different room with another of the bark brothers. Couldn’t have Floris having all the fun.

My father and Theodred came into the interrogation room the next morning. Father took in the scene we’d made, with our working male’s clothes stained with blood and sap. Various tools were scattered about, and the barely conscious barkfolk had his ripped-away bark mounded in a bloody pile atop his lap. His head lolled as he took in the newcomers, just to make a raspy moan when he recognized Father.

The dark elf king eyed us with new wariness, at odds with his easygoing façade. It was only then that I thought,maybe we went a little too far.

And then my alpha instincts whispered back,nah, he deserved it. And so much worse.

“Okay boys, sun’s up. Time to go,” Father said in his usual chipper tone.

Marius bared his teeth in reply, the image of an animal crouched over his kill. “Come brief us on what you learned,” Theodred added.

Father had brought the redcap king for a reason. I didn’t doubt that he’d been watching us work for a while, and realized he needed reinforcements to pry us out of this room. No one sane argued with Theodred, so we exchanged a glance and dropped our current tools of choice to step away with the two kings.

My brother was in too deep a feral state to talk, so I spoke for him. “That is Floris of Osme Fen, one of three of the alphas who Lark signed a breeding contract with, due to her stepmother’s compulsion. We learned that Pack Ellisar came to Serian independently of Cymora. They were not invited. They chose to show up here.”

Marius punctuated the statement with a rattling growl. I echoed it in agreement.

“When Cymora, Laurel, and Lark did not return to Osme Fen in a timely fashion, the bark brothers followed the breadcrumbs we all left behind in Ilysnor. Some of the locals remembered Lark, in particular, as an oddly faded gray pixie with a limp, which is the version of her that they are still looking for. They heard Lark had boarded a train to Serian with a pack of noble Unseelie and decided to pursue her. The eldest brother, Ellisar, has the original contract in hand. They have no other prospects for a mate, clearly, so they thought to push the matter to its breaking point.”

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