Page 60 of Fated or Knot

I peered up at her sleeping face, so peaceful and sweet. What I wouldn’t do for her to wake up right now so I could hold and kiss her. She needed pampering and that epic nest she’d dreamt of. More importantly, she had to know how we were coming together to defend her, our mate.

And she would have me Always.Fate has bound us, forever in the depths of time.

19

LARK

Ihad the sense of time passing as I came in and out of the darkness of deep sleep. There was a gentle weight keeping my eyelids from lifting. It was like a soap bubble stretching around me when I reached for wakefulness. That thin barrier wouldn’t allow me to rouse completely, but sometimes I got close.

There were voices exclusively speaking in Serian, mostly indistinct. The door opening and shutting more than I was used to. Tormund’s sudden, loud exclamation of, “I found it!”

Kauz whispering at him to keep his voice down. It felt like his warmth wrapped around me…his hand cradling my back, gently rocking me to return to resting.

And so I slept until that soap bubble popped on its own and I cracked open my eyes. The light from the shaded window was slanted like it was already afternoon. I smelled the princes all at once: a summery evening by a lake flush with wild mint and waterlily blooms, completed by roasted mallows and the sprinkling of stardust I was starting to associate with Always.

I sighed out a little purr and shifted, realizing I was snuggling with my arms around three pillows. The warm blanket under mewas actually Kauz’s wing. He lay next to me, one hand splayed over his stomach, the other curled around my hip. The shape of his eyelids changed. Even without pupils, he was looking at me, and I looked back. Stars glimmered and winked in his eyes, dancing under the diffuse purple sheen they’d taken from the shaded sunlight.

This is better than stargazing.The night sky was static and remote compared to the dancing stars and the warmth of his gaze. Even the frame of his white lashes glittered with the occasional starry mote, set free after each blink.

The rest of the room was still, absent of shuffling clothes or the whispers of others keeping quiet below our bunk. Maybe they’d gone to lunch. They’d given me their pillows, and the combination of their fresh scents had me filled with a fuzzy kind of peace. I still set them aside, dropping them off the edge of the cot, to shift closer to Kauz.

We were nearly nose to nose when I was satisfied, my head resting on his shoulder and my arm banded around his torso. “Hi,” I murmured.

“Hello, sleepyhead,” he teased.

My eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why’d I sleep so late?” That soap bubble feeling was probably magic, meaning he’d cast it upon me with his fancy essence spinning.

He shifted me with his shrug. “You must’ve needed it. This many days stuck on a train, with present company, is stressful.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong about that. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten Cymora’s punishment and the breakdown I’d had afterward, but for a few blissful moments, it hadn’t been important. I needed to relieve myself. That meant figuring out whether my stepfamily was already in the female’s bath. Which also meant leaving his warmth, and I didn’t want to do that yet.

“But if I had used magic on you,” Kauz continued. He brushed hair out of my face, tucking it behind the point of myear. “It would be worth any ire you have to share this moment alone together.”

Ah, stars. With a tender noise in the back of my throat, I leaned and kissed him. I hoped I wasn’t misreading him and going too far, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

His lips yielded to mine, and he cupped my face as our mouths melded. I longed to taste Always on him like the blast of pheromones from an alpha’s kiss, but it wasn’t like that. Kauz was still a beta, his own unique person compared to his brothers.

Essence tingled on my lips, making the pressure of his mouth and tongue feel incredible. It had to be a deliberate trick, as he wasn’t spinning magic, though my skin felt extra sensitive in the path he traced up the curve of my waist.

Heat built at my core. Kauz hadn’t touched up my suppressant tattoo since before yesterday’s events, and my slick came fast with the promise of a male’s touch. I released a needy mewl.

What am I doing?This was a mistake. He had to feel my body heat swelling against him. In a moment, he’d stop kissing me and go for his ink kit to restrain the need building in my body.

Kauz lifted one hand, and a thread of starry essence curled around his fingers. He flicked it away, and the door locked a moment later, its bolt sliding into place with aclick.

His fingertips drew up the hem of my shirt, letting in cool air. He spoke between kisses. “And it would be worth my whole pack’s ire to give you some relief.”

“Kauz, what—” I cut off with a moan. He’d caught the curve of my neck in his blunt teeth, and I stilled, my inner omega submitting by instinct with one last flutter of my wings. My breath came in short, heated bursts as he pawed my back blindly until he found the buttons securing my sleeping shirt around my wings. The material loosened significantly.

His touch lingered as he tunneled his hands underneath to rub my bare skin. He used that same essence trick, leaving just enough to tingle in the wake of his fingertips. He traced circles up my back, teasing the base of my wings, which trembled the more he touched me. I was slick and needy for him, my core pulsing to the fevered beat of my heart.

“Kauz,” I murmured, reluctant to stop him. “We can’t.”

He released my neck to reply. “‘Untouched’ has many definitions.” He caught my hips and rolled until I was lying flat on my back inside the circle of his wings. I was loosely caged, his weight braced between my top and bottom wings. My pussy fluttered and clenched as I considered how easy it’d be to pull him the rest of the way on top of me.

“Not touched,” I panted.

“By a penis. In a very specific place.” He watched my face as he eased his fingertips under the front of my shirt. He tilted his head, asking for permission.

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