Page 194 of Fated or Knot

“That’s sweet, but it smells too delicious not to share!”

She didn’t really have to work all that hard to convince me. I loved crème brûlée and happened to be perfectly suited to making it. I was glad to share the flavorful dessert and this moment with her. It was the best part of a very eventful day.

I woke to a feeling of flames under my skin. The rage really was back, as was my need for Lark. I was harder than a metal bar, pressing into her belly while she woke groggily with the rising of the sun. Her scent and its intoxicating sweetness was branded on the inside of my nostrils.

We laid entwined in my bed. She’d arranged the furs like a female possessed before she would let me lay down, and at some point in the night had kicked off most of the layers she’d settled under to reveal her curvy body and a tempting triangle of skin where her sleepwear had twisted askew. My mouth watered to taste the soft swell of her breasts, but my fangs…

I had a mouth full of regular, flat teeth, other than my alpha fangs. I probed them with my tongue, snapped out of my thoughts. Lark nuzzled my neck as I laid there puzzled, taking in a deep inhale in my beard. “Your scent is changing,” she murmured.

She laved an approving lick on my neck. It felt like she’d licked my cock directly and I rumbled with interest. I took her soft curves in hand and pulled her up and into my waiting mouth to kiss the breath from her lips. She mewled just right as I ground against her, pressing my hardness to the damp fabric over the apex of her thighs.

Wait, no. What am I doing?

Releasing her, I startled away. Heat pulsed under my skin just behind the frantic beat of my heart. I couldn’t draw my gazeaway from her kiss swollen lips and the way they parted with realization.

“Youaregoing into rut,” she said.

I sucked in a breath to keep from cursing aloud in her presence.Aw, fuck,I thought in my head instead as I got out of bed and backed away from her. This wasn’t happening. It was my only full day with her before we had to return to Serian Palace and I didn’t want to spend it staring longingly at her ass.

“I’m going to take a shower. Why don’t you head downstairs…get some tea. Or something. Wirr’s staff will help you.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay. Sure. Tea.”

She dressed and left while I took a shower under a tepid stream of the coldest water the lodge could provide. The scent of the soap and the shock of cold helped give me my senses back. I must’ve gotten lucky to endure a whole train ride with Marius without catching the rut.

Fal must’ve given it to me instead when he was bringing me up to date with the plan for Pack Ellisar and Cymora. While he’d spoken to me with most of his usual polish, he was not as perfect in his physical appearance as he usually was. He must’ve been using scent-blocking soap, because he hadn’t been surrounded by a cloud of pheromones.

But the biggest sign he couldn’t hide were his eyes, which had started to emit the rut “glow” where they reflected facets of light, not too unlike dreamlander stars. Females were apparently entranced by it, especially omegas in heat. I should’ve known he’d succumbed and was able to pass it on to me despite us shielding our sides of the pack bond.

Good thing we hadn’t had sex last night, else I would already be succumbing to the pressure to mate nonstop until my alpha needs were satiated. I’d never been in rut before. I knew what toexpect in theory, yet it’d still hit me hard and fast. It hadn’t even been a day!

But I did know I had my self-control. Regardless of anything else, I had held my rage at bay fairly successfully for years and regulated my emotions so I didn’t erupt into flame as often as I wanted to. I would bend this to my will, too, and only let it out once it was time to claim my mate’s heat.

I owed her a nice, angst-free day and that was what I was going to give her.Not my knot.

Before I went downstairs, I checked the room at the end of the hall. Technically, it was mine, since I paid an annual fee for its upkeep. It’d been an unused broom closet, too small to house most fae, with its slanted roof. I had to stoop to fit inside. The staff here kept it running, but I didn’t think there would be any occupants with how long I’d been away.

It was my critter room. Wirr’s house moth staff cared for the wee woodland creatures when I wasn’t around to do so. The occasional hunter brought in an animal that needed care, though, and they received it in this wee room that was probably a palace for a wee creature anyway. I’d fit in a cat tower, a scattering of small toys, bowls for food and water, and a box of medical supplies. I checked the supplies, noting what needed to be restocked.

Then I found the critters hunkering down in a section of the cat tower, as we’d never met before. I held in an unmasculine sound of delight with considerable effort. “My mate has to see you. Later,” I whispered to them, letting them rest for now. Lark was definitely going to make the noise I’d just barely suppressed when she did.

In the meantime, I headed downstairs and held in another growl next. Kauz was already awake and held Lark as she nursed a steaming mug. At least now I knew where these negativeemotions were coming from, though my packmate shouldn’t have been such a target for them.

He glanced over his shoulder. Over the pack bond, he asked if I was all right. I signaled back a yes and forced myself to relax. He was still my brother. We’d been close enough in age to grow up together; even if we had next to nothing in common, we still shared the most important interest of all…our mate.

“Good morning,” I said.

Lark made a groggy noise into her tea and Kauz shuffled and folded in his wings so I could sit on her other side. One of her handmaidens brought me a mug of snownettle tea. I took a sip and shuddered. That sour-sweet tang wasstimulating, to say the least. “Wait. Why are you still here? You have time off,” I said to the house moth.

“Always happy to help the princess and the princes. Jani went up to clean your room. We thought you wouldn’t mind,” she answered cheerfully.

I nodded, still a little confused. House moth work ethic was something else. “Thank you. We did leave a mess last night.”

Lon glanced left and right before gesturing for me to come with her. I got to my feet and followed as she led me into the kitchen. “We also heard about the basket you wanted from Wirr’s eclipse and made it better for you,” she whispered, pointing to a wooden basket with a telltale white and red checkered cloth sticking out from one side. “Do you want me to sneak it into your horse’s saddlebags?”

She regarded me with an earnest smile, hands clasped before her.

There was only one appropriate response to the two handmaidens going above and beyond. I scooped her up into a hug, squeezing delicately since she was such a little thing. “Aye. Thank you.”

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