Page 22 of Fated or Knot

“There. She needs you,” my would-be savior said before running back out the door and shutting it hard behind him.

I turned to the male he’d left me with, Kauz. He had a heavy set of wings that nearly swept the ground when he turned and looked at me with a pair of unusual eyes resembling the starry sky, rimmed by icy white lashes. He looked familiar, though I had no idea how. I’d never met anyone with such a striking feature. “Are you an essence spinner?” I asked.

“I am. You have need of me, hmm,” he replied.

His nostrils flared, and the set of his mouth softened. As he spoke, I caught no sign of sharp fangs. He must’ve been an Unseelie with wings like that, but I didn’t care. He was a beta and an essence spinner, so the stars themselves had sent him. Only a beta could ignore the pheromone cloud I was putting off as I sat there holding my thighs as tightly pressed together as I could. My breath came in short pants, my pupils blown.

“My heat,” I managed to say before yet another cramp had me in its grasp.

“Finally, I’ve found a force that can make Marius turn tail and flee.” He chuckled as he raised a hand, summoning essence that began to spin between his fingers. The magic matched his hair, white with a sprinkling of glimmers like stars. “His mate’s heat.”

Oh no, not the m-word. Calling these males scent matches was enough;matesimplied a sense of intimacy we definitely didn’t have. “Suppressant,” I gasped. “Please.”

Kauz’s face etched in concern. In that moment, he looked exactly like Fal; they had to be brothers. He spoke in a low tone, mostly to himself. “Suppress this? I can give it a try. I’ll go get the ink.”

9

LARK

The world swam in a feverish haze. Kauz returned to sit across from me, a table between us. He had a kit open on the surface, containing a grid full of tiny bottles. “Any color preference?” he asked.

I inhaled through my teeth, but I was beyond words. An inferno was eating me from the inside out, and I felt so empty, my pussy clenching on air. I was mentally undressing this poor beta while it happened, imagining how good his cock would feel inside me even though he didn’t have a knot.

No. Stop that. Bad Lark.

I shook my head, and he nodded, lifting a brush and selecting for me. He shook the tiny bottle and infused the liquid with his magic in a swirl of starlight. If I were in my right mind, I’d mention the ink on my lower belly, where I preferred to hide the tattoo. I would probably succumb to full-blown heat if I took my dress off right now, though.

Kauz wetted the brush’s bristles by placing them between his lips. I imagined them pinching the little cherry at the apex of mylegs and felt slick escaping the seal of my thighs, dripping onto the bottom of my dress.

I was slicker than a fish in the sea, my whole body aching to be filled. I needed…a knot.No.A bath. I needed a long, hot bath.

The first line of ink brushed the inside of my wrist and shimmered with the starlight of Kauz’s essence as magic suffused me. The tremors wracking my body eased.

“Come back, Lark,” he was murmuring, spinning essence with one hand while the other drew another line next to the first. By the third stroke of his brush, he’d taken hold of my fingers, running starry magic down my arm and straight to my core. It tingled over my skin, cool and soothing, and the temperature in my body fell, giving way to chilled shivers. A bit at a time, my muscles relaxed and my skin loosened.

He dipped the brush in the ink pot and ran the tip in a delicate pattern over the back of my wrist, his eyelids narrowed in concentration. I watched him work with fascination that had nothing to do with how horny I’d been moments ago.

His essence felt right in the places where it entwined with mine, as if it belonged there. My body responded to his power and obeyed what his spell work bid without a fight, going dormant once more and shoving my heat back where it belonged. And I caught a whiff of his scent through my overpowering cloud of perfume. It was just a hint of something nice, tickling my nostrils and disappearing when I tried to get another sniff.

“Would you like a fertility blocker?” he offered. He flashed a reassuring smile. “To prevent conception when you inevitably go into heat.”

“Such a thing exists?” I murmured. The essence spinner in Osme Fen had never offered me something like this, and I would’ve gladly paid extra for it.

“Of course.” He squeezed my hand between both of his, careful of the wet brush. “You should always have the freedom to choose.”

Stars, I practically wilted with relief. He had no idea about Pack Ellisar and the way they’d promised to breed me. They wanted a baby from the heat they’d purchased, and I shuddered with a spike of fear just at the reminder. I didn’t want to go into heat for them. I didn’t want to carry their child.

They’re not here. You’re going to be on a magirail to Zemosia as soon as possible.

“No one’s going to force you into anything, Lark,” Kauz said gently. It was like he’d read my mind. He brought me back from the spiral of my thoughts and lanced through the heart of my fears all in one go.

“How do you know my name?” I asked, refocusing on him. I wasn’t suspicious… I’d told him, hadn’t I? Silly me, forgetting that detail while my mind cooked from heat-driven fever.

“Fal mentioned it last night,” he answered.

My cheeks pinkened. Of course Fal had mentioned me. He’d probably sat his whole pack down to tell them what a disappointment I was. Some scent match, flying away the moment he was revealed as an Unseelie.

“I did,” confirmed the dark elf himself. Gasping, I nearly fell out of my chair, but Kauz caught my arm when I startled hard. Fal stood right inside the room, dressed down from the fancy suit he’d worn to the masquerade yesterday, but his navy getup and the glittering chains and earrings along his long ears still screamedprince. My heart just about galloped out of my chest to see him again.

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