Page 225 of Fated or Knot

“Aren’t we just the pent up lads club now?” I remarked.

I strode toward the nest, ignoring Marius’s warning growl. Lark was pacing the length of the room and had one hand resting on her belly. I watched her in concern, unsure of what she needed, but I inched forward until she looked at me and slowed her stride. “Fal. Fal, it’s stuck,” she said in a roughened voice.

“What’s stuck,mo stór?”

“My heat. It won’t come.” She stopped a pace away from me, sounding increasingly panicked. “He said there would be consequences. I could’ve just gone into heat earlier. Or earlierstill. Back and back, I pushed it. Now it’s stuck. When I want it, it’s not here and you’re all waiting and?—”

I closed the distance between us and slanted my mouth across hers. She parted her lips immediately, and her sweet taste coated my tongue. I rumbled deep in my chest. The rut haze pushed in on my mind and I did the same thing she was doing. I had it wait just a little longer. As we kissed, I nudged her back. One step, two. I petted her hair and down one wing until she started to purr. Three steps, four.

With a gentle nudge, she toppled back atop the fluffy nest she’d just made. I caught her legs and nudged them open as I crouched between her thighs until I was at eye level with her slick-coated slit. It was a rare moment when I didn’t want to say a starsdamned thing, so I simply tapped the pack bond in the signal forcome here.

Then I buried my face in Lark’s pussy and started eating with abandon. Her breathy, desperate moans were music to my ears. She rocked her hips, chasing my tongue and lips. I lapped up her slick, just like a tomcat for her cream. She was as pent up as the rest of us, maybe more so, with four mates around yet little stimulation for days.

Marius and Tormund entered the nest to see her arching her back and screaming as she came fast, drenching my face and the soak mat beneath her. I only eased back to her inner thighs, licking slowly as she came down from her pleasure high with panting breaths.

The other two alphas sat on either side of her. Marius grasped the back of her head to pull her into another kiss. She hummed and flicked her wings as he poured several days of loneliness into the passionate lip lock. Tormund cupped and teased her breasts, plucking at her nipples and running his hands over her curves and wings while Marius swallowed her moans of delight.

I waited a minute before giving her seam a testing lick. When she didn’t seem overstimulated, I delved back into her pussy gladly. Her taste was blissful and I could drown in how sweet it’d gotten. Nestled between her thighs as I was, the warmth coming off her core was easier to measure. It seemed to be mounting as she lost herself in us and forgot that she was expecting her heat.

If it came, great. If it didn’t, we’d at least coaxed her to come anyway. I just wanted to see her come apart in the good way after the stress of tonight. She was still my princess, and the strongest female I knew. She was stillmine.

I moved my mouth to her clit, giving it a little pinch between my lips. She jolted and threaded her fingers into my hair. They pressed down to demand more. As I worked a finger into her channel, crooking it to stretch her, she stopped kissing Marius for a moment. “Where’s Kauz?” she whispered, before she grabbed Tormund and drew him into a kiss next.

All three of us immediately started poking the pack bond. Kauz probably jumped a foot, wherever he was, as he was hit with dozens of insistent signals tocome here. We were so annoying about it, he poked back at us multiple times.

“He’s coming,” Marius rasped.

She didn’t have much of a chance to reply. Tormund kissed her deeply while I flicked her clit with the tip of my tongue. Her legs tensed. I withdrew my finger from her to reposition her thighs, spread wide, and her knees over my shoulders. I started in on drawing the Serian alphabet over the little nub of nerves with my tongue, complete with a careful flick with each accent mark. I worked my finger back into her pussy, then stretched her further with a second.

Sweat sheened her as she writhed between us. Her channel squeezed my fingers tight in a pulse that shook her from the core out. Could that have been one of her cramps? It wasn’t so badwith three of us touching and playing with her. Her pussy felt hot around my fingers, and more so by the moment.

Her body wound tight for another detonation. My gaze flicked up to watch her face, but instead I got an excellent view of my brothers pleasuring her too. They cupped her pinkened skin and caressed her curves. Tormund eased off from kissing her, as we all wanted to hear her scream as she came. Marius layered love bites over her shoulder, his sharp fangs dimpling her skin with just the right amount of pressure so he didn’t draw blood.

The privacy curtain was drawn aside while she was teetering on the brink of her release. Her star-flecked eyes danced as her lips framed Kauz’s name. Then she came with a scream.Fuck, I loved hearing her come apart. My brothers echoed my thoughts aloud, or in Kauz’s case, his wings rustled. I lapped up more of her come as she fell limp, only held up by Marius and Tormund.

She panted and exhaled with little moans, her eyes shutting tightly. “Look,” Tormund said in his loud whisper.

I followed the line of his pointing finger. Right above her left breast, particles of magic formed the distinctive horseshoe-like shape of an omega mark. It was no bigger than the size of my fist. It filled in and darkened rapidly until it was an unbroken black ribbon.

For a moment, we stared at it in awe. Here was our triumph: our mate ready to be claimed. Her perfume gusted around her in a cloud of dessert. Chocolate and honey crackers, sweetened with her fertility. I double checked the inside of her arm before anything else. The fertility blocker charm was still inked on her skin. No babies, not yet. That was a big step for another time.

I glanced back to see Kauz discarding a bath robe. His short hair was still spiky and damp, but he was clean and white bandages peeked from the folds of his hurt wing. I was glad he made it to see her mark manifest.

We eased her to lay on her nest and everyone backed away, except for me. I climbed up with her and skimmed her omega mark with my fingertips. Her eyes shot open with a gasp. “Sensitive, isn’t it?” I murmured. There seemed to be more nerves in a designation mark than anywhere else, like we were really touching a piece of another’s soul.

Her gaze found mine. She was an open book, vulnerable in that way that still seemed a little lost. “Fal.” A hint of recognition glinted amongst the fever overtaking her from the inside out.

“I’m here.We’rehere.” I wanted to reassure her one last time before the heat haze took her mind. “I’m going to bite you into the pack now. Then we’re going to see you through this heat, no matter what.”

It was probably superstition, but no one else would touch her until I’d fully claimed her with fangs and knot alike. Nothing could get in the way of the process. She was too precious to all of us.

“Yes.” She reached for me, parting her thighs. “I need you.”

My next breath seized in my chest. Stars, I needed her too, so much I ached with it.

I lowered my weight carefully overtop her, bracing under one of her wings so I didn’t crush it. She shivered as my breath ghosted over her new mark. It’d rested on her skin, dark and perfect for only a few minutes. I pressed my lips to it, then laved the whole shape of it. Her mewl and moan accompanied a general tremor through her whole body.

I wanted her very soul to know pleasure from my touch before I claimed it for Pack Sorles. As I traced her mark’s curve with my fingertips, I took in her expression again, fully expecting her wits to be gone from her heat. Instead, she was still gazing back at me. Another testament to her strength. Trust and love andneedglittered amongst the stars in her eyes as she gave a little nod.