Page 186 of Fated or Knot

“Would you like some tea, Lark?” Elion invited. His voice still radiated comforting approval, underlain by his alpha’s authority.

“Yes, please.”

I wasn’t sure of the etiquette of taking tea with royalty, but the tea set was closest to him. He started pouring and stirring before I could move, generously dishing out spoonfuls of sugar as he spoke. “I’ll prepare your cup as my mate prefers it, and we can adjust from there.”

“That’s a good idea,” Thalas commented. He had an ink kit set out next to him, and looked at me with something like regret tightening his lips. Those starry eyes were downturned at thecorners. “You look like you’ve already endured a full day’s trials. I take it you’ve spoken with Rennyn?”

“And Theodred. He definitely gave her the tattoo talk,” Elion said with another poorly disguised chuckle.

I nodded and held my arm out to the dream warden king, resigned for the suppressant tattoo. He slid closer and peered at the remnants of his handiwork, clucking his tongue.

Elion stood and slid a cup of tea before me and narrowed his yellow eyes on the small inner mark where I’d once had intricately looping ink. He exchanged a glance with Thalas and his jaw clenched. “Rennyn isn’t the authority in clever plans, despite the title he chose for himself.” The buzz of alpha’s authority in his voice turned chilly with disapproval. “Surely there’s some other way.”

“It’ll buy us time to think of a better idea,” Thalas answered in a low voice.

“I’ll be okay. I’ve suppressed my heat for this long,” I ventured.

Elion’s gaze slid back to me. “How do you like the tea?” It was nearly uncanny how, just from his tone, I felt a sense of approval from him again. I needed to ask someone how he was doing that, and if it was a projection of his true feelings or something he controlled at a whim.

I took a testing sip while he waited, and I brightened from the moment it hit my tongue. It was more warm milk and honey than tea, though it had a pleasant aftertaste of spices. “Delicious!” No wonder, with how much sugar I’d seen him add to the cup.

“I’m glad you like it. As to the matter of your heat, there are consequences to manipulating your body for so long. My mate can explain it better than I can.”

“For another time,” Nemensia put in. “Now is not the moment to argue about the way forward.”

“She needs to be with our son, my heart. That is a fact. It’s not healthy for a newly bonded couple to be apart for this long,” he replied, though he took his seat again with a short, refined version of the kelpie snort Marius tended to do when irritated. “I believe his extended period of rut is a direct answer to your built-up heat, Lark.”

I considered, before nodding in agreement. The rut had started, and stuck around, since the moment we’d finished the kelpie bond. I still worried about how he was doing without me.

While Nemensia and Elion gazed into one another’s eyes, their expressions contorting like they were having a wordless conversation via their own bond, Thalas prepared his brushes and told me in an undertone, “Suppressing your heat was a three to two vote amongst the royal pack. Elion believes the grievance clause Rennyn is worried about will be rendered null just by the fact that you and Marius have completed a kelpie bond. Rennyn argued that he was being emotional about an unpredictable, and illogical, force of magic.”

“Who voted with Elion?” I whispered back.

Thalas smiled and gestured to his chest. “This pack that’s harassed you would need to show their faces to claim a grievance. I don’t believe they possess the stones to do so, and Fal could make himself impossible to find. However, Elion and I were outvoted, so this is hot air.” He pointed between the queen and her lord, still locked in their private moment.

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but…” I said tentatively.

“You believe you and our sons should have a say in the matter?”

“Well, yes. It’s my heat we’re talking about.”

“I don’t disagree,” he said, inclining his head. “However, Pack Sorles is next in line for Serian’s throne, and anything that threatens the line of succession gets my pack’s undivided attention. And anything that threatensyougains the immediateire of my mate, as well. She reserves the right to make decisions for Pack Sorles, as reigning queen.”

Nemensia’s attention turned our way. “That’s right. And we owe you a fresh start, Metalark, which means these males will not be skulking around with a grievance in hand. Or even without one. There will beno skulking.”

“As my mate demands, I echo. No skulking permitted,” Elion proclaimed, regarding her with a quirk of his lips. “The matter of the mermaids will also be dealt with.”

“I’m sorry about the suppressant, but it is the only way forward. You will take it and let us plan, right?” She clasped her hands and fixed me with an earnest smile.

I couldn’t say no to that face. “Yes, Mom.”

Elion shook his head and muttered something about consequences as Thalas got to work repairing the suppressant tattoo. I privately mourned losing the feeling of impending heat as my core chilled incrementally with each swipe of ink.

It was a familiar, if unpleasant, sensation for my body’s needs to retract forcefully from the effect of someone else’s magic. Disappointment replaced kindling heat and I sighed unhappily. I thought I was past this.

The dream warden king was still working when Lon returned with a curtsy for the royalty and a box of tools in hand. “Princess, Prince Marius requests a lock of your hair.”

Elion perked up. “You’d best take two, just in case. I remember when I tried to get my braids right for the first time.”

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