Chapter 17
Guest Bathroom, Devil Estate
I’m cool but exhausted.
My heat is finally over.
The last twenty-four hours since I bonded with my two Alphas have been a mind-blowing blur of blissed out pleasure.
It’s clear that a forced bond isn’t the same as one that’s entered into willingly because the connection that I feel between Kai and Gabriel now is transcendent.
It’s like the bond with Fletcher was in black and white, but this new one is in vivid color.
Like the bond is meant to be.
Somebody should write about this because why would anybody not search for their true match, if they knew how amazing it could feel?
Where am I?
I wrinkle my nose at the delicious rose and peach scent.
There’s a warm, oily feeling around me, as if I’m floating in a womb.
Someone’s nimble hands are massaging my head in a way that’s sending delicious tingles down my spine.
I smile, relaxing.
My last memory is a fuzzy tangle of gorgeous limbs and lavender eyes.
Instinctively, my hands rise to press on both sides of my neck.
I squirm in pleasure, tracing over my bond marks. They’ve already healed to the lightest scar.
Kai and Gabriel’s mark on me.
My Alphas.
As soon as the bonds hit, saving my life, I could feel my pack’s emotions and needs through the bond.
Now, I feel through the connection for them.
Antonio shines like the sun. I almost flinch away from the brightness of his joy. No matter how much he pretends to be a villain, I can see now that there’s no darkness in him.
Lark’s happiness is complicated by an underlying grief.
Kai feels like a cool mountain stream.
Gabriel?
His intense joy is frozen like a shard of ice.
I shiver, desperate to see my guys now that I can feel them.
I open my eyes and find myself looking into Lark’s twinkling eyes.
He’s kneeling next to the bath.
I’m lying in a large, claw foot bath in the guest bedroom’s marble en suite. The tiles are a beautiful peacock blue. The taps are gold.
The porthole window above the sink, which is shaped like the sun, lies open. It lets in pine scented fresh air. Bright morning light streams across the small room, warming me further.
Steam rises from the water, which must have been scented with rose oil. Rose petals float on its surface like a sacrifice.
I’ve never bathed anywhere that’s so decadent.
My smile widens in delight.
Now, I truly feel cherished.
I’m glad that I haven’t come round from my heat covered in many, many different fluids. Because I don’t know how many times we all came…but it must have been a record.
Lark’s neatly folded his suit jacket over the edge of the sink. He’s turned his shirt back to reveal his pale forearms, and is washing my hair methodically in a way that makes me whine.
He’s good at this.
“Peach…?” I whisper.
My throat is sore.
But then, Kai has a big cock, and there’s no way that I wasn’t begging to suck on that.
Lark’s lips quirk. “Our pup thinks he’s funny.”
“Peaches are delicious.”
“You’ll understand when I bite your peachy ass then.”
“Feral Omega.” I think for a moment, before adding, “Yes, please.”
“What if I also prefer to be gentle?” Lark startles me with how intense his distress feels, spearing through the bond. “I almost lost you yesterday. I can’t lose any one else…”
Millie.
He doesn’t say it but he’s lost family, including Cygnus and then his daughter.
He must have been terrified throughout my heat and he hid it for my sake.
I’m going to be just as terrified, if he has a heat.
I can’t think of that now.
His hands still in my hair. Then he lifts them and rinses them off in the bath water. He avoids my eye, before picking up a cloth that’s so soft I don’t even know if you could call it a wash cloth.
He dips it in the water.
“When was I brought back into the guest room from the Omega Chamber?” I ask.
Lark runs the wet cloth down my neck, shoulder, and then down my arm.
I melt into his touch.
“You mean, when were you carried here in Kai’s arms, after your mind-blowing heat?” Lark gently runs the cloth down my front, leaning over me to reach.
He’s washing me with such care that I know he remembers all the times in the cell, when he was desperate to do this for me but couldn’t.
One of our favorite daydreams, as we laid side by side in our dirty clothes on the single mattress, was about how we’d take week long showers or bathe each other in scented oils.
My chest is tight that finally, we’re living that dream.
“Uh-huh.” My breaths become short and fast, as he drags the cloth around my breasts.
“About half an hour ago. All your guys marched next to you like your guard. Everyone wanted the honor of bathing you. Your soldier boy ran the bath, and our pup chose the oil and petals. But I sent them away because we need some Omega on Omega quality time. We’ve earned it.”
I hum my agreement, as Lark grazes the cloth over my nipple.
My cheeks blossom with pink, and I make a soft noise.
Lark looks at me with dancing eyes. “Shall I say sorry?”
He kisses my nipple in apology, and I moan.
He sucks on it, before licking over my nub.
Then he throws down the cloth into the water with a splash.
Fluidly, he rises up to meet my lips, and I open my mouth sweetly.
I whimper, caught in the sensations of the oily water, rich shampoo, and his plush lips now pressed to mine. He darts out his tongue and kisses me, languidly.
His tongue is like a lazy snake.
When he pulls back, he grips me by the chin, and our gazes meet. “You’re alive, Mercy.”
He can’t hide the emotion now.
“I am,” I whisper. “Is there a reason that your tongue’s tired?”
Lark pulls back with enough affront that I know I’ve pulled his mind back from its dark place. “Tired? My tongue was busy buried between your thighs for hours. For a day and night. I’m amazed that I can talk without slurring. This tongue deserves a medal.”
“So does my pussy. I bet Kai and Gabriel won’t want to use their knots for months.”
Lark snorts. “Alphas always want to use their knots. They think with them, after all.”
“Omega advantage, right?”
Lark leans closer, before he conspiratorially whispers, “Another reason that we need this time alone together is that I’ve been around clever strategists for many years now, ones who thought of me as no more than a pretty piece of furniture. My Alpha and her father would talk about their NHL team’s strategy, as well as their shady business, sponsorship, and industry dealings in front of me. I was brought up on it. I would have been beaten black and blue, if I’d dared to offer an opinion. But I still learned to read a room and work out when something was going down. Well, it is now. In fact, schemes within schemes. We need to make sure that our pack know just how many dangers we’ve already faced and that we won’t be kept trapped in the dark any longer.”
“We won’t,” I say, hoarsely. “When I don’t feel like my limbs are melted, we’ll call Gabe out on it. He wants to protect me, and I think that he’s simply spent a long time running these missions by himself. Secrets and subterfuge is how he’s survived. But we can help him now. We need to get him to understand that pack means we all trust and support each other.”
Lark nods, casually swirling his hand in the rose scented water. “You smell like an expensive bouquet. I should clean you more often.”
“We should bathe together more often,” I counter.
Lark’s eyes light up. “Deal.”
See, Omegas truly can compromise better.
Suddenly, there’s a knock on the open door.
Once, that would have made me tense, flinch, and drop to my knees.
Maybe it would also have sent my heart rate skyrocketing, pushing me into panic attack.
Now, I only glance happily up at my Alpha, whose dominantly satisfied and contented emotions I can feel through the bond, as he waits in the open doorway.
Waits in his pack home for his new Omega to invite him in.
This is why I no longer feel anxious.
“Hey, Kai, come in,” I call.
Kai shuffles into the bathroom, taking up a lot of the space with his bulk. He’s dressed in a dark brown suit and stag tie. Although, there’s definitely an awkward hunch to how he’s moving, which makes me proud.
I did wear out his knot.
“I have an old family remedy for sore knots,” Lark says with a smile that tries for sweet but doesn’t pull it off. “Would you like it?”
Kai pats Lark on the head, which makes him bristle like a cat.
I laugh.
The perfect revenge.
“Nay, that’s kind, but I already make my own from a Scottish recipe.” Kai catches my eye, and I’m only fifty percent sure that he’s playing along. “How are you feeling, beloved?”
“Like I’ve had the best heat of my life.” I stretch out.
I may be about to prune but I’m definitely not ready to get out of the bath yet.
Kai glows.
He’s so powerfully built that it’s easy to forget how much he enjoys praise as well.
He’s been raised to serve Omegas.
Seeing me happy appears to give him the same dopamine hit that being called good Omega does for me or being spanked probably does for Antonio.
I’ll remember that.
“We tried our best, beloved.” Kai adjusts his tie. “I know how important it was to my soldier, and aye, to me as well. We’ve waited all our lives to rut and bond with an Omega. It means the world to us both that we made it the best experience that it could be for you.”
“And how was it for you?” I say, carefully.
Kai startles like he genuinely didn’t expect anyone to ask him that. Perhaps, back in his country, nobody would have.
My eyes narrow at that thought.
“Worth every year that I waited,” he replies.
Lark stands up, dripping water from his hands. “You’re a prince amongst Alphas.”
“Interesting that you should put it like that, lad.” Kai appears to be debating something, biting at his lip.
He walks agitatedly to the sink and leans back on it, resting on his hands.
His knuckles are white.
Anxiety begins to coil through me.
What the hell is he going to tell us?
“Secrets eat away at your Soul,” Lark says. “Especially when they’re between bond mates. Even if you don’t trust me yet, then you should trust Mercy.”
Kai winces. “I trust you both. I’ve been trying to protect you or at least, I told myself that. I was probably trying to protect myself. I can feel your emotions and needs through the bond now, however, and I know that you’ll understand. I didn’t want you to reject me because I’m a bad Alpha.”
My heart breaks.
Lark bares his teeth. “You’re the opposite of that. Who would fucking dare call you that?”
“Most of the Scottish Court.” Kai crosses his strong arms. “Living here is confusing for me. Your culture is different to my own. It’s like I’ve landed on an alien planet, and I’m trying to work out new rules and social customs. In my country, I was an outcast. I was too dominant for an Alpha. Smart and book learned, which I wasn’t meant to be. I debated with my brother, an Omega. Both of us were often punished for that. I refused the matches that my Omega Da tried to arrange for me. I spent more time reading, than training to act as a warrior guard for Omegas.”
I stare at him.
I wanted to know about the Scottish Omegacracy. It’s fascinating but at the same time, it doesn’t sound better than what we have in the rest of the world.
“Scottish Court?” Lark says, whip sharp. “Just how much of an elite are you? Are you a runaway lord?”
Kai lets go of the sink to fiddle with his stag cuff links. “Do you remember that I courted you with my most precious belonging from my pack? Artio?”
I grin, remembering the cute teddy bear, which was dressed up like Prince Charming, complete with blood red cape and sword.
“Of course, the cute bear prince,” I reply.
“It was my younger brother’s,” Kai says. “He’s sassy, fiendishly smart, and renowned as the most beautiful Omega in Scotland. He’s the only person who I truly miss. He never treated me with anything but respect, even if the lad is…admittedly…nicknamed the Omega Viper by his enemies. You don’t cross an Omega prince.”
“Prince…?” I whisper.
“Then you’re…an Alpha prince?” Lark’s eyes are wide with shock.
And I haven’t even been kneeling for him.
My breathing picks up, and for the first time, I wish that I wasn’t sprawled naked in this bath.
It’s not like I can curtsy like this.
Could I at least bob my soapy head somehow? Or would that be even more disrespectful?
Shit, shit, shit.
As if his strings have been cut, Lark drops to his knees on the marble floor with a crack that must have hurt his kneecaps.
I wince at the same time as Kai does.
Lark’s hair hangs over his face, as he ducks his head. “I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
“None of that, lad.” Kai grips Lark by the elbows and effortlessly lifts him back to his feet. “Remember I told you that you’ll never have to kneel for me.”
“But that was before I knew you were royalty,” Lark snarls and then catches himself, freezing in alarm.
Kai opens his mouth and then shuts it, before he bellows with laughter, clapping Lark on the back so heartily that it almost knocks him over. “At least you’re not calling me Your Highness anymore. Look, I’m just me. Antonio is helping me to hide here from Da…”
“The King,” I breathe.
“I felt caged in his claustrophobic court.” A cloud chases across Kai’s expression. “What happens in Scotland is little known to the rest of the world, and in many ways, an Alpha prince there is even less known. Luckily for me. I wanted to be a journalist and right some of the wrongs happening to Omegas. I had private funds that I could use to help me do it. I wasn’t going to tell anyone who I was in my new life, but then, you happened.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” I ask.
“The best but most unexpected thing in my life,” Kai reassures. “I couldn’t stay in my Scottish pack. I didn’t want to be married off to some older, wealthy Omega widow, who’d use me in my ruts like I was her Alpha stallion. And that’s what was going to happen.”
I grimace at the image. “I’m glad that Gabriel and you found each other.”
“We saved each other,” Kai says with a hint of pride. “We could be brave for each other.”
“Let me get this straight.” Lark cocks his head. “You’re a royal prince…”
“An Alpha prince,” Kai corrects. “I can’t inherit and have no power or authority. It’s merely a title, making me a pawn to be moved in a matching alliance. In fact, that alliance would have happened earlier, but my brother was always vocal about wanting me by his side. He protected me from an unhappy matching for as long as he could.”
“Still, a prince, and you gave it up to become a hunted rebel for Omega rights.”
Kai’s lips curl up. “Aye, laddy. It sounds a fair exchange.”
Lark grabs Kai’s tie with a sudden fierceness, before throwing himself against Kai’s chest.
Lark’s eyes are blazing with desire. “You’re truly a good Alpha. It’s not an act.”
His voice is suffused with wonder.
Then he yanks Kai’s head down with all his strength to kiss him with a clash of teeth and sharp, nipping bites.
Kai raises his hands to Lark’s shoulders, holding him in place. He kisses back with equal passion.
Fuck, it’s hot.
I understand.
Lark believes in this Alpha now.
He finally believes that there’s such a thing in the world as a good Alpha, and that’s life altering.
At last, panting, Lark pulls back. His eyes are glassy.
He’s resting his hand over Kai’s heart, and I don’t know whether he realizes that he’s doing it.
Then a thought strikes me, hard and powerful in my chest.
I grip the side of the bath, pulling myself up in a cascade of water.
Concerned, both of the men turn to me.
“I’m a princess,” I gasp. “I’m a Brok princess. Has that ever happened before? I must be the only one in the world.”
Emotions rush through me, intense enough to make my hands shake.
A Brok is meant to be broken, abandoned, and rejected.
But I’m claimed and wanted.
And I’m also a princess.
What would Fletcher say?
What kind of conclusion would that make to his case study?
Kai’s gaze becomes possessive and dominant as it sweeps over me. “You’re my princess.”
Then to my shock, he kneels in front of Lark.
Lark makes a soft sound like the breath has been knocked out of him. “And soon, I hope that you’ll do me the honor of becoming my prince.”