Chapter 77
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
My “nest,” it turns out, is impossible.
I was right earlier, when I felt like my walk here took almost an hour. And that was when there were paths carved through the crowd for me. Now? With all of Rholoko in the streets? Celebrating? And the fliers, setting off for distant clans, clogging every road that leads anywhere?
Zolkan leads us as far from the dais as we can get without being swallowed by the mob. He curses, his naked body taut and watchful as he scans for options.
Rask suggests flying me back to the castle, but Cylus and I both growl at that thought. The fact is, I can’t be separated from any of them right now. The very idea feels like a death sentence.
Zolkan suddenly snaps his head in Rask’s direction. Asking a question I can’t hear over the rushing in my ears.
I feel Rask harden, his cocks kicking against my ass. His reply vibrates against my cheek as I bury my face close into his throat. “Not far. Less than a league.”
Zolkan demands something else, his hand coming up to knead the back of my neck. I relax into his touch so completely, I miss Rask’s answer. But the next thing I know, we’re in motion.
Their pace is much faster than it was while navigating the crowd. Black spots start to swallow my vision, but I assume they found a different way to the palace. To the bedroom they call my nest.
I’m not sure why the thought of it isn’t a relief. I know it should be, but every time I picture the big, airy room—with all its cool, gleaming stone and sweeping views—I feel dizzy.
The raucous clamor of the Roktusians grows dimmer, until my mates’ frantic footsteps against the pink-sand-covered walkway are the only thing I hear. Aside from three deep purrs and the occasional growly comment.
By the time the air around us shifts, growing damper and more crisp, I’m shivering. It feels like a fever, only instead of stomach aches and exhaustion, I have painful pulses in my pussy and too much energy.
Restless, I shift against Rask’s hold. His rumbling chest gets louder. “Almost there, korryna.”
During one of our whispered conversations in bed while he healed, my pink alpha finally taught me what that word means.
His treasure.
The sweet pet name, murmured in his worried voice, finally breaks my last threads of sanity. Scalding tears start to run down my face. The guys abruptly stop.
“Give her here.”
It’s Zolkan. My king. He whisks me out of Rask’s arms, cradling me bridal style against his broader chest. He rubs his cheeks over mine, marking them. Tingles sweep across my overheated skin.
Rask and Cylus continue muttering in low tones, but I can’t care. My entire world has narrowed to Zolkan’s beaming violet gaze. The pretty colors swirled behind him.
Cotton-candy clouds and lavender sky. Threads of gold and magenta. Swirled with the distant horizon—a seething sea of pearlescent aqua.
The ocean, I realize, bleary. We’re—
Stepping into the dark.
It’s a familiar sort of dark, though. A place I’ve been before. Warm and humid, with walls that press close and shimmer slightly.
Rask’s cave.
His secret nest.
For his mate.
Something at my center unclenches. My Omega pants, as if she’s been doing jumping jacks for the last hour, trying to tell me this.
Our nest, she gasps, ragged. Here.
Cylus ducks in ahead of us, hunching to fit past the first dip of the ceiling. He tries to look around, but it’s too dim. Rask shifts to the side, his foot stepping in the same spot as before.
Pinpricks of light slowly blink to life. Pure awe and relief swirl through my middle as a soft glow bathes the abalone walls. Iridescent azure, pink, and pearl ripple from the floor mattress to the curved apex of the cave. I whine shrilly, practically flipping myself out of Zolkan’s arms.
Cylus catches me with a dry huff, chuckling. “You like this, omega? Does Rask have good taste?”
Zolkan joins us, pausing to wipe his feet before kneeling in the middle of the recessed mattress. “He has the best taste,” the king grunts, elbowing his best friend as Rask lowers himself into the nest, too. “He Selected our mate.”
“That’s true,” Cylus allows, carefully going to his knees and shuffling forward with a grumbling shrug. “I only saved his life.”
It’s so strange. I know I would normally be laughing, but any sense of humor I once possessed is buried under a love so big and raw, their teasing only sends more tears to my eyes.
I adore them. And we wouldn’t be complete without one another.
Bonds, my Omega begs. We need them to bite us.
I can’t deny the painful pulse of arousal that pulls the lowest muscles in my belly. Their pearly white fangs, scraping my skin. Piercing it. Putting scars on me that everyone will see.
The thought brings a fresh round of slick and perfume. I keen, reaching out to dig my nails into Rask’s waiting palm and searching for our Alpha’s dark eyes.
“Please,” I beg, just as my haze swallows me whole. “Bite me.”