Page 130 of Fated or Knot

“Okay, if you’re going to make me guess…” He drew it out, and I waited, wondering if he’d even get close. “You’re worried about my past lovers. And maybe about comparisons to them.”

“Oh, stars,” I sighed. “How’d you know?”

“I’ve already told you. Figuring out others’ secrets is my thing. A new challenge with everyone I meet.” He went back to washing me as he talked, polishing my breasts with a few extra rubs. “They say the secret to maintaining the love in a lifelong mating is communication. So, let me tell you a secret or two, all right?”

I tried to take the soap from him, but he kept it over my head until I said, “All right.”

Not that he needed it, but I started washing him too, enjoying a moment to relax with one of my mates. “I set expectations with every female I take to bed. I was around for a fun time, not a long time,” he began.

“My past lovers have been all betas, except for the time I tried something with an alpha female. Suffice it to say, I have had many experiences, but you will be my first—and only—omega. I have no female to compare you to because you are incomparable,mo stór.”

I took in a shocked breath. I knew from my memories that he was something like thirty or thirty-one, the tired eldest child of his huge family. Not committing to a relationship in all that time must’ve been lonely.

“Thank you for telling me. I hope it’s worth the wait.”

He tilted his head. “Did you just empathize with me?”

“Are you reading my mind?”

“I hope it’s worth the wait,” he repeated. “Focusing on the wait, not the… You know what?” He caught my face in his hands. “I adore you. I’ve wanted to make sweet love to you since the moment you stole my mask at the Omega Masquerade. You’re the perfect fit for my pack of stupid, ungrateful brothers, and I think you’re going to make us all the best versions of ourselves.”

My eyes widened as he went on, and my heart melted. “I love you, Fal,” I said. It was the only thing I couldsay. “I loved you first, you know.” He made this look so easy, but I fumbled for the right thing to say. “You saw me. I mean, you looked past what I showed you when we first met and…andcaredwhen you didn’t have to.”

He placed his hand on his chest and bowed as much as the rain room allowed. “When you asked for help, I couldn’t say no.” I wracked my brain, trying to think of when in our first short meeting I even asked for help. “Your body did. The shadows in your eyes, the tense set of your wings. Your limp,your exhaustion, and your sticky fingers too. You didn’task. You went to the event thinking you’d save yourself and ended up with my pack falling over ourselves—as I warned you we would—all trying to save you at the same time. Clumsy love.”

When he returned to washing me, he was now working on my hips and thighs. I whimpered when his fingers brushed the tender spots. “Exactly what you just experienced,” he added with a tisk.

I was trying not to get teary, in the good kind of way. I cherished Pack Sorles’s clumsy love. They really had saved me when I couldn’t save myself. It was just striking how much he’d read from me and responded to after our fateful meeting.

He was splashing water between my thighs when I slid forward and clung to him, putting all my gratitude into the purring, slippery hug. He looped his free arm around me and purred in harmony with me, and we stayed under the warm spray of water like that for a few minutes.

He shifted the mood as easily as drawing me in for a kiss. Slow and sweet to start, then becoming a passionate duel of our tongues. He slipped his hand further up my leg to brush his knuckles over my clean pussy. Those graceful fingers went to work. His thumb found my clit and rubbed one side ever so carefully. Three fingers entered and parted my slit, and the pinky circled the rim of my ass.

I made a startled “eep” into his mouth and flapped twice, shooting water and pixie dust everywhere. He chuckled and nipped my bottom lip, trailing kisses up my jaw. “You know we’re going to play back here too. It’s only a matter of time,” he murmured, then crooked littlest finger crooked. I soaked his hand further as my pussy responded to the jolt of pleasure with more slick.

“Looking forward to it,” I replied breathlessly.

He scented the air and withdrew his hand. I reached around to shut off the water, eager and ready for him now. “I think it’s time I claimed my treasure,” he purred.

He toweled himself off, helped me do the same, then retrieved Marius’s salve. Before we returned to bed, he had me spread my legs as he rubbed a generous glob of the cream into my hips and thighs where I’d been gripped the hardest. The yellow and purple marks under my arms received treatment last and disappeared before my eyes with a tingling feeling.

“Oh, this stuff is enchanted,” I said, amazed it’d worked so quickly.

“You’re going to have some on hand at all times untilcertainalphas learn their own strength. And aye, I do mean both of them,” Fal said.

“Okay, pack lead.” I meant it as a tease, but his answering growl was more aroused alpha than refined prince.

“That’s right. Plucked from the stars and formed to please and care for you.” He lifted me for a short walk to the bed and sat on the edge. My belly quivered with anticipation as I spread my legs around his hips and throbbing cock. The angle of his hold changed, drawing me in until he stopped with mere inches between us, and he tilted his head. “I still have your almost full trust?”

“Full trust,” I corrected.

He grinned and nodded. “Let me show you a real trick.” His voice held the subtle thread of alpha authority, the enticing whisper of his bark that he layered on just thick enough that I could sense it. “Listen, Lark.”

I rested my weight back into his bracing hands and waited, an attentive audience.

“You are safe here with me. Nothing else matters. No worries, no fears, no doubts.”

As I accepted and let in his dominance, my mind emptied of lingering static. I was present in the moment, damp and full of desire, and aware just how poised I was to be full of him. Shifting in his hold, I made a soft whistle of need.

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