Page 175 of Fated or Knot

Father’s good cheer faded as I spoke, revealing the calculating mind beneath. “So,” he said in a low voice. “You’vebeen sloppy. Instead of stealing your mate away from her enemies, you’ve left the door open for them to come along to Serian with her.”

My brother and I tensed. A reprimand from Father for beingsloppywas a prelude to one of his elaborate punishments, and we just didn’t have time for that right now. “I don’t think we ever could’ve prepared for the sheer audacity of Pack Ellisar coming here,” I said carefully.

“And where, pray tell, is the rest of Pack Ellisar?” he asked venomously. I kept my lips sealed on the answer we all expected. We didn’t know and Floris wasn’t in a position to tell us. “The forest somewhere, hmm? We have no chance of finding them, now that you’ve mauled their brother. Those two barkfolk cowards have gone to ground so thoroughly they may as well betrees!”

“We’ll find them,” Marius murmured.

“I can smell the rut on you from across the palace,” Theodred said in his deep rumble. “Your mind is compromised, son.” His fiery gaze swung my way, taking in the evidence I wore of the gleeful way I’d joined in Floris’s torture. “Neither of you are thinking clearly.”

“I have not succumbed,” I said coolly.

“Ach.Lie to yourself if you must.”

I would, thank you very much. I knew the heat pulsing just a millisecond behind my heartbeat, flushing my skin and threatening to drive me mad with sexual need. This was the third time I’d gone into rut, and the other two times I’d accepted it with excitement. I’d taken my pleasure and exhausted a few beta lovers while wearing a bracelet of fertility blocker charms, just in case. No ongoing consequences for slaking my alpha needs.

I teetered on the edge now, cautious of the fall. Lark deserved better than her new pack lead succumbing to alpha instinct and shoving her on her back. Especially in the midst of her enemiesplotting to snatch her away from us. I would keep my head for her.

The inflamed passions Marius felt were present and heady in our pack bond. But he’d been in rut for several days too long, and his unmet needs veered on violent instability.That, I had accepted into myself with a smile, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat if we captured another of the bark brothers.

“Even so, we’ll find them,” I argued.

“And they will know pain for what they’ve done to Lark,” Marius growled.

Father hummed, a hint of dark amusement taking up residence at the corner of his mouth. “Aye. That they will. I am eager to help in that regard,” he said. Theodred nodded and cracked his knuckles, a terrifying sight on its own. “Unfortunately for you both, we will be taking over with this particular prisoner.”

No,I said to myself.He intends to shut us out completely and take care of the bark brothers his way.

The redcap king spoke, letting out just a hint of his forceful bark. “Neither of you will show your faces in the prison for twenty-four hours. You will not interfere with our forces sweeping the city or forest, nor will you execute any more plans involving the capture of the last two males in Pack Ellisar without first running your intentions by one of the kings.” Theodred’s hard gaze ran between us when Marius twitched, opening his mouth for a moment to speak, before thinking better of it. “Your orders are to rest.”

“And shower. Use a whole soap bar, for stars’ sake. You both stink,” Father added.

We snarled in offense together. He just gestured at us and glanced up at Theodred, who nodded. “You are dismissed,” the redcap king stated stonily.

I drew myself up to say something, and the giant male turned a glare my way. Marius filled the pack bond with stirrings of warning. “As per your instructions, I wish to state my intentions,” I said anyway.

Theodred growled like an incoming storm. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “Insolence is punishable, boy.”

I tossed my rather matted hair. Stars, I really did need to see to my grooming. “For twenty-four hours, I will plot out the capture of the last two bark brothers. Iintendto follow through on the best course of action for my omega. As I believe you both mean to do the same. We need not decide on separate paths.”

“What are you suggesting?” Father knew exactly what I meant, he just wanted me to say it aloud.

“That I wish, as always, to be allied with the Clever King, who is always somehow a step ahead of me, no matter the occasion,” I said smoothly. “The rut has not taken so much of my mind that I cannot be communicated with.” I crossed my fingers and toes that Marius, who was obviously quite addled, wouldn’t speak up in agreement and make them doubt me.

His ear flicked, but he remained silent, his arms crossed as he scowled by my side.

Father tilted his head back and forth. “We will be chatting, no matter what. If you two bumble through my plans like you nearly just did, I will definitelycommunicatea few things your way. As for?—”

“Let us speak plainly,” Theodred interrupted. It was hard to tell, but his craggy expression seemed annoyed. “We all want the same thing. But we wish to go about it from different angles. Us, methodically. You, as rut-crazed fools. Sons, she is your mate, but you must still bow to our decisions. If not as two of the ruling kings of Serian, then as males with triple your experience and the marks to prove it.” One of his thick fingers traced the spiraling path of a length of knot tattoos on his arm.

“And sometimes that includes a measure of secrecy,” Father added.

Well, fuck. That just meant he was going to maneuver us like pieces on a game board, whether it concerned our mate or not. Marius, coming to a similar conclusion, snorted irritably. “C’mon. Let’s go, Fal,” he muttered.

“No matter what, we’ll get them,” Father added as I nodded in agreement and turned wearily toward the door. “The queen is watching. We will not fail Lark again.”

My brother paused and swung his attention back toward my father. “That makes two of us,” he said gruffly.

I wish I could say I was productive with my twenty-four hours of forced rest. Neither Marius nor I napped, too keyed up to consider sleeping now. We cleansed ourselves and settled in Lark’s quarters. Marius paced while I took her old notebook and wrote in it from the back.

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