Page 24 of Deadly Ties

With his mates in the room next door, Elvi, no doubt plotting how to win him back.

Because no matter what Kelly says about not being the center of their pack, I know the guys love him. Hell, Link proved he’d cross any line to find him and bring him home.

But Kelly doesn’t seem to be thinking about them now, slipping his fingers into mine and resting his warm cheek against our clasped hands. “You have no idea what it was like seeing you push your claws into that asshole guard. He’d told me there was a party upstairs, and a bunch of horny alphas were bidding on my ass. But then you appeared like an avenging angel and took the bastard out. I wanted to kiss you so much right then...” He gives a soft chuckle. “Sorry. Demon army horny, remember?”

“It’s okay.”

It comes out breathy and tight. Kelly must hear it, because he’s suddenly looking at me through hooded eyes. “Angel… Are you thinking about me kissing you right now?”

Oh, crap. That voice. With the British accent he hasn’t quite lost, and all the alpha arrogance he once possessed… That voice is my freaking kryptonite. “Um, I might have a small confession to make.” He perks up at that, and I know this is going to bereallyawkward. But I’m way past secrets and lies. “My roommate at boarding school had your picture on our dorm wall and I might have fingered myself while I was looking at you. Once or twice, I mean…”

The words come out in a rush, not that there’s any easy way to tell someone that. He’s so quiet I’m hoping he misheard me, but then a growl rolls out of his chest, like the sweetest, most sinful purr. “Oh, you fucking angel.”

Then he’s on me. Or, we’re on each other, because his lips might crash down on mine, but my mouth is open and ready for him. Our tongues lash together, the opposite of unfamiliar, and we both groan. My hands are on his back, my legs falling open so he can press in between them. He grips the pillow under my head, diving deeper into my mouth, and I welcome him in. He’s above me and inside me, invading my every sense. And I forget all about our mates, and his trauma, and just drink him down. Because he tastes better than he smells, sweet like a peach, but heady like champagne.

“Angel…” He groans into my mouth, and I eat up the sound. I need more, so greedy my head spins as I grab his shoulders and push him down on the pillow. He stares up at me, hooded-eyed and breathing hard, but I don’t give him a chance to talk. Swinging a leg over his hips, I straddle him, my hair sliding around his face. He grins, grabbing handfuls of the messy strands and pressing them to his nose. “How did I get here, Angel?”

I pull my hair free with a smirk. “I gutted an asshole, and you fainted in my lap.”

His laughter bubbles up out of his chest, vibrating against my thighs. I’m still dizzy from his kisses, but that happy sound makes me so wet, he must feel it against his ribs. Especially when I bend and lick along his neck, nibbling at his pulse while my hips roll against his groin. He’s so hard it almost hurts to grind against him, not that either of us is complaining.

“Angel! I’m not gonna last,” he pants, his hands going to the globes of my ass. “It’s been so long and you feel so fucking good! But I promise to eat your sweet pussy until you fall into a cum-coma…”

“Yes,” I whine, chasing the friction of his cock, which is slipping against my bed shorts, damp from our combined arousal. It’s only then I feel the other sensation sliding over my skin.

Angel?

“Wait!” I sit up so suddenly, I have to grab Kelly’s chest for balance. Which, unfortunately, just happens to be over his mating bite. I move my hand to a safer place, holding myself still as I feel the heat shimmer through our bond. Oh, yep. That’s definitely what I think it is. “We have to wait, Kelly. Just for a minute or two.”

“O-kay,” he draws out the word, pressing his head back into the pillow. But after a moment of tense silence, he sucks in a deep breath. “Did I… do something wrong?”

“No!” Crap. I’m killing the moment, but what am I supposed to say? I mean, if my horny mate wants a front-row seat, he should have kept his sweet ass in the bed in the first place. I flush as his dark chuckle snakes around me in the bond, plucking at my already stimulated parts. “This is all so good. Really. I don’t want to stop. It’s just, you know how I can shift at will? Well, that was kind of a bonus when I mated Arben. And it wasn’t the only thing that changed…”

“You can bondlink?”

I stare at him, amazed he guessed. Bondlinking is so rare, I thought it was a myth. But that’s a mystery for another time, since the other half of my bond is one floor away and closing in fast. “I promise Arben’s not going to hurt you, or be angry about this.” In fact, from the heat pulsing over me in waves, he’s overjoyed. I flap a hand in front of my burning cheeks and huff. “The thing about my mate… have you ever heard of a cock conductor by any chance?”

Arben

Back in the old country, bitter old men liken omegas to witches. They say an omega’s call is a siren’s song, designed to lure innocent alphas into their clutches. One whiff of their sweet perfume, and the urge to lose ourselves in their promised bliss is overpowering. The omega will then own us, body and soul. Assuming we’re too weak to fight our way free, of course.

In the village where I grew up, the old men bragged of their narrow escapes from wicked omegas. Tall tales, all designed to puff themselves up, to make themselves feel better about their small, empty lives. Of course, there hadn’t been an adult omega in our village in decades, since any child who favored the designation was quickly whisked off to wealthy packs in the West. But I still believed omegas were something to be avoided and feared. Born to corrupt strong-hearted alphas and drain us of our potency.

When my parents died, I quickly began to doubt everything I’d ever heard about designations. Both powerful alphas, their fights were legendary in our village. Their bonding was an arranged one, designed to continue the line of strong alphas, but they hated each other with a passion. God knows how they ever stopped fighting long enough to make me, but on my eighth birthday my mother bought a shotgun from a local farmer and blew off my father’s head. Five minutes later, after I’d walked in from school to find him on the kitchen floor, she’d turned the gun on herself.

I was sent to the orphanage after that, and met my first omega. A boy five years older than me, he would have been bought by a western pack if he wasn’t so feral. But he’d lived his life with the gypsies in the hills, only being committed to the orphanage when he’d almost murdered the son of a prominent alpha. His days were bleak, even to a boy who came from a family like mine. Most of the time he seemed lost in a red rage, but we both liked hunting, and I knew the local trails well enough to impress him. As soon as we entered those woods, he became another person. Clever and cunning, and as fast on two legs as I was on four. But then his heat hit – the first I’d ever witnessed – and I learned to fear omegas all over again.

Some of my melancholy must leak through the bond, because when I open the door to the omega suite, my mate is watching me with concern in her eyes. All that giddy happiness I’d felt as I stood guard, watching for Crouch’s retaliation, is suddenly gone. Which will not do. My princeshë deserves better.

As I enter the dim room, Elvi is straddling the other omega, and I give a low purr at the sight. They’re both still dressed, but their arousal is thick in the air. I take an armchair from next to the window and move it over to the end of the bed. They both watch me with wide eyes, but I focus on the Prior boy. “Did she explain things to you,princi?”

He shudders, whether at my tone or the pet name I can’t tell. But he gives a nod, pushing himself up on his elbows so he can see me better. “She said you like to call the shots. Even when it comes to fucking.”

Elvi sniggers at that, and I let her feel my dark satisfaction through the bond. “Especiallywhen it comes to fucking,” I correct him, my hands on my thighs and my bulge on full display. I won’t do anything he doesn’t want me to, and right now, their desires come first. But he needs to know what seeing them together like this does to me. “You will do exactly what I tell you to do,princi. Agreed?”

I can tell he’s thinking about rolling his eyes. But the temptation of my mate is too strong to risk pissing me off. “Yeah. As long as we’re talking about right here and now. Outside of the nest, I say what goes for me.”

I don’t miss the warning in his words. Like all male omegas, others of my kind have abused his trust. But that ended the moment my mate risked her own life to rescue him from that basement.

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