Page 119 of Fated or Knot

“Fal being himself.” He set his mouth at an unamused angle. “Trying to take advantage of every situation as it arises. We spoke about ‘punishment,’and I let him know I’d rearrange his pretty face if he started equating that word with fucking our omega, as he began to.”

I didn’t quite know what to say to that, so I made a small whine at the violence he’d suggested.

“With that out of the way, he suggested something we’re not opposed to unless you are. You must realize our entire pack wants you. Right?”

I shifted and ducked my head, cheeks heating. “I don’t think I realized how much until I had a taste of pleasure yesterday. After that, I’ve noticed, um, signs,” I said with a vague wave.

He snorted gently. “Signs,” he echoed.

“I want you all too,” I said, face flaming further.

“Slowly? Or all at once?”

His meaning clicked into place for me. “All of youat once?” I yelped. It was a huge step up from making love with Kauz in a dream.

“I know it’s a lot to ask.” His gaze flicked away, the only cue that he was embarrassed or avoiding something. “And not all of us may be welcome in your bed. We agreed that we were competing to have you first, while you don’t seem to have a preference. So, if you truly cannot choose between us, why not share…” He trailed off with a meaningful flip of his hand.

“Why not,” I echoed with a disbelieving laugh. The logic was sound, even though, three alphas at once, wow. I loved them, though, so maybe it wasn’t so farfetched to share my first time as an experience for all of us. And even though our relationship wasn’t perfect, my feelings encompassed the grumpy male across from me too.

Marius shared a bit more of what was discussed while I was learning magical control. There were logistics of one female and three males, and knotting too. I was back to being flush with heat and tingling excitement once he was done explaining everything.

“Only if you’re all right with it,” he repeated. He reached for me, and I stood, limping the two steps between us to sit astride his lap. He traced idle patterns over my wings while I thought.

“I’m glad you told me all this,” I murmured.

“I know it ruins the spontaneity, but it didn’t sit right with me to spring this on you with all three of us, especially if we were all already naked…”

He trailed off as I stroked his solid chest through his clothes. He grew still in an almost predatory way, waiting to see what I did next. I rested my head against him and caught a hint of the quickness of his heartbeat.

“I could offer you a feral thought,” he said after a moment.

“Okay.” With his unreadable face, any insight into how he felt was valuable.

He seemed nervous to me but hid it, or distracted me from it, by banding his arms around me with a possessive growl. He whispered close to my ear, “You’re prey. Soft, warm, relatively defenseless. But I think I’m figuring out how to protect you. No one is allowed to prey on you, not even me, unless you allow it. Do you understand?”

“Are we still talking about sex?” I whispered back.

“In this case, aye. If I knew you were willing…” He took a dry swallow. Oh yes, quite nervous.

I sat up and channeled my inner Kauz, turning his head with a gentle grip on his chin. With no other choice, he met my gaze. The familiar shadow of doubt and worry darkened his expression.

Marius was certainly the pessimist of his brothers. He dwelled too much in his own head. The best example I’d seen was the matter of Nemensia’s approval; no matter the amount of reassurance he’d received, nothing seemed to stick until he saw me before his mother.

Now, for some reason, he thought I wasn’t going to invite him to bed, even if I decided to share myself with his brothers. What could I do to get rid of those nagging doubts and have themstaygone?

The answer hit me the next moment, and it was so blindingly obvious. Words didn’t matter so much to a male like him, not like actions. “Marius, I want to start our bond,” I said.

He exhaled, his body loosening with relief. “It’s time,” he agreed, standing and carrying me up with him, just to place me back down in the armchair I’d started this conversation in. He didn’t waste time, going straight for his belt. “All you have to do is bite my alpha mark. Hard enough to draw blood. I know you have it in you, p’nixie.”

He flicked his pants open and dragged them down, sweeping away the hint of dark underclothes too. I blushed and averted my gaze.Stop being an innocent li’l bird.With that thought in mind, I looked at his bared skin.

The tails of Marius’s alpha mark wrapped around his hip, leaving most of it in an intimate spot right up against his groin. I inspected it in fascination, since it was the first time I’d seen the sideways loop that darkened on any alpha’s skin when they manifested the traits of their designation.

Then I noticed something about his cock that had me squealing. “You’re pierced…there?” I asked in disbelief. It looked like he had a bar all the way through the tip, with a stud marking the top and bottom. I immediately wondered what it would feel like inside of me. That had to be the point to it.

“Aye. There’s a story,” he grumbled.

He shifted closer to me, angling his mark my way. I slipped out of the chair, onto my knees where I could’ve licked his hardening shaft. And I definitely wanted to. Mates did that, right? But my lips landed on his mark instead, and his groan was my immediate reward.

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