Chapter Twelve
brIGID
Irubbed my thumbs into my temples and stared down at the cobalt blue gown spread over the bed.
"It's fine silk, my lady," said the young maid, Vera, while eyeing me watchfully.
"Aye. And likely fifty years out of date," I murmured.
The maid hummed noncommittally. The gown had been my mother's, wrapped carefully in more fine silk tissue, and then paper, and stored away in her cedar chest that I'd tasked Torion to fly back to the keep with us.
Conveniently, it had required him to shift to his dragon, keeping me from having to make conversation while cradled in his arms.
It was the morning of the selection ceremony, and between planning the feast, running wild through the keep to get rooms ready for guests, and bullying the workmen to get the stage ready in time, I'd gone half mad preparing the alpha's keep.
Now was the first chance I'd taken to even consider how I would prepare myself.
I'd enjoyed gowns and jewelry when I'd been Malcolm's omega. I'd enjoyed presenting myself as his, knowing I was beautiful, or at least understanding I could convince others as much. My lip curled now as I thought of what a pretty little trophy I'd been, how willingly I'd made myself as such.
Malcolm had kept the jewels, of course, but the gowns had been mine.
I'd tried to keep them in good condition at first. And then slowly, as spite warmed me at night rather than a good fire or a large man, I'd taken joy in wearing them thin, staining and patching and tearing them down to rags for a more useful purpose than ornamentation.
So now I had an ancient gown of royal blue silk and no time at all to make it into something fashionable.
"Is there a lace fichu?" the maid asked.
I shook my head. "There's only this, I'm afraid."
She shrugged. "A well made gown on a handsome woman can never go so wrong, my lady. Let's get you dressed."
Her words, so matter of factly presented, made me blush and fall silent. I remained docile as she pulled the robe I'd donned away from me and hurried to ready me.
Already, the keep was buzzing, the volume outside Torion's bedroom door rising by the minute. Betas and their families had started arriving the night before, the men camping outside while the young women—the omegas who would be standing on stage—piled into every available guest room by the double.
The door to the bedroom opened, but Vera had me by the hair, tight braids working back from my temples.
"Not too much up," Torion said, appearing in the mirror, the maid squeaking assent as he reached and caught a long lock of my hair between his fingers. "It's sunny today. Your hair is going to shine like amber from our seat."
I bit my lip and studied his sporran in the mirror. "Won't I be on stage?"
Torion had been tight lipped about his plans for the ceremony.
I wasn't sure if he intended to make a show of choosing me in front of dragonkin and all gathered or had some sort of perverse plan to auction off the other omegas, but I dug for hints at every chance.
Surprisingly, Torion had uttered not a clue.
For such an open man as he was, he kept a secret well.
I tried not to let him see how much it bothered me.
He knelt down, Vera scrambling to follow as he turned me and the stool I perched on to face him.
"Neither you, nor I, will step foot on that stage, omega," he said softly, holding my gaze too fiercely for me to look away, fire rising in my throat. "We'll have a nice view of the proceedings, where we might be admired as the lord and lady of these hills."
I huffed, and Vera patted the braids she'd finished before curtseying and fleeing from the room.
"Then what—" I started.
My question was cut off as Torion surged forward, cupping my face and drawing my mouth to his, a hungry purr roaring out of his chest to burn against my lips.
"You'll see," he rasped, nibbling my bottom lip. "My rut is near, Brigid."
His mouth covered mine once more, tongue thrusting in eagerly as I moaned, my arms settling around his shoulders to keep him close.
A breeze stroked against my ankles, and I realized he'd pulled a hand from my cheek and was now rucking my skirt up, scooting on his knees to fill the space between my thighs.
"Are you ready for me, Brigid, hm?" he asked, barely parting our mouths.
"But I—the nest isn't—" My voice hiccuped as a warm hand pressed the inside of my knee, a path of heat moving up my inner thigh. My personal dress wasn't the only thing I'd neglected. I'd been putting off building the nest we would need for Torion's rut, as if that might keep the event at bay too.
"You'll have time to finish the nest," Torion said, voice low and quiet, the keep strangely silent all of a sudden. "That's not what I meant, though. Are you ready to have me, here?"
Two fingers stroked down from my clit to my opening, not hesitating a moment before pressing inside. I caught my breath, my eyes opening to find Torion so close, watching me, all his easy charm now sharpened into dark intent.
"Are you ready to take my cock into you, omega? It's all I think about. I can barely walk straight," he rasped.
I opened my mouth to answer, to pant out a yes, but he swallowed the word with another probing, licking kiss, his fingers settling deeper as my body eased the way with slippery welcome.
"To root myself in you." Torion's teeth scraped over my jaw, his bold, hot words ghosting over my throat. "To fill you for days on end, seeking only our release. Over and over again. For the love of flight, Brigid, I can barely stand not to start now."
I shuddered, the stool thumping faintly against the floor as I started to roll myself into his touch, fucking myself on his two fingers. "We could," I offered, not thinking straight.
He groaned, the sound broken by a ragged laugh. "You've no idea how tempted I am. I'm so hard just touching you. I'll come when you do. The sound of you always makes me burst."
"T-Torion, please!" I gasped, suddenly desperate to have him inside me, to satisfy us both. Only a little of the reason, just the smallest kernel, was due to how much I dreaded presenting myself as his omega to all of Grave Hills dragonkin.
"Mmm, no. We must see this farce through. And then we fly to the other alphas," he muttered. "And the nest, omega. You need to build me a pretty nest."
"The alphas?" I squeaked out, startled, thrown by the suggestion.
"The flight approaches. But first—"
His touch inside me grew urgent, his mouth on my throat biting gently and then suckling hard over my pulse, a spot I found so sensitive.
I moaned, my hands scrabbling over his shoulders, hips rising off the stool until only his arm around my waist and his fingers inside of me kept me from hitting the floor.
"Torion, I—"
"Don't beg, Brigid, I can't stand resisting you," he said, and the words were so rough, so earnest, that I sobbed and obeyed, pleading only with wordless sounds, with the unsteady thrust of my hips into his touch.
It didn't take long. Torion knew the path to my climax too well by now. When my toes dug into the floor and my hips arched high, his thumb found my pleasure point, circling twice and then rubbing firmly on the right side.
The damn man had figured out too much of me.
I came with a shout, his teeth and tongue holding firmly at my throat, his arm around my waist steadying me as I started to fall.
He pulled me to his chest, settling me in his lap.
He pulled his fingers free of me and then brought them up between us, stuffing them greedily between his lips with a lewd, wet sound as he sucked and licked them clean.
I watched with wide eyes as he let out a long, low cry, his eyes rolling back and fluttering shut as he shuddered beneath me, sagging forward so we were propping one another up.
I gaped at him, wondering what we'd just done, why it felt like so much and so little at the same time, but he only nuzzled my cheek and sighed.
"That's the best I can do until we deal with the next two days of duties," he said, kissing my cheek.
He stood with a soft grunt, lifting me to my toes in the movement, turning to set me at his side. On the floor, a spatter of Torion's opaque seed remained. My mouth watered at the sight, and I stiffened, strangely struck by the urge to crouch and lap away the evidence of Torion's desire for me.
I twisted away from the sight, a little appalled with myself. Torion hummed, searching the room quickly before reaching for a spare washcloth, wiping the mess away.
"Come, they'll be waiting," Torion said, tossing the cloth into a basket of linens to be washed and guiding me toward the door with an arm about my waist.
"Wait," I cried, spinning back to the nest. I grabbed the plaid Torion had gifted me and hurried back to the mirror, gaping at my reflection. "You marked me!"
I had a large red and pink welt on my throat where Torion had been suckling. A matching flush covered my cheeks as I spotted his handiwork, and Torion huffed a laugh behind me.
"I like that spot," he said unrepentantly.
I sighed, lifting the plaid and trying to arrange it over that shoulder, bunching at the top like a collar that might hide the love bite.
"No," Torion said, the word low but gentle, his hand settling over mine, taking the plaid away and then rearranging it to his liking on the opposite shoulder. "Let them see."
It was childish. I'd seen girls who'd been marked by their young sweethearts, maids with stable boys who could not resist the possessive claiming, omegas whose young betas had wanted to make a statement. Malcolm had never felt the need.
Malcolm had been a cold but accomplished lover, and I'd never known the difference, I told myself, grazing my fingers over the now sensitive spot on my throat.
"It's silly," I murmured, catching Torion's eye in the glass.
"I know," he said, shrugging. "But I like it."
Ignoring the soft heat that bloomed in my chest, I turned away from the mirror, stepping into the shelter of Torion's wing and following him out of the room.
"What did you mean about going to the alphas?" I asked, trying to sober myself from the giddy high of release.
Torion's head tipped as he led us through the halls.
The keep had been cleared out, everyone moving outside to where we'd set up the stages and tents for the ceremony.
My legs were still weak from the unexpected and swift lovemaking, and Torion was warm, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and tucking me close to his side.
"The flight of the alphas," he said, catching my eye, saying the words as if they ought to have meant something to me. "Didn't I mention?
I shook my head. "Weren't they just here?"
"For my rising, yes. But this is an event that takes place regardless. We try as a group not to step on each other's toes, keep our laws and our trade agreements equitable. It gets sorted out after we fly together. But it takes place between here and Skybern this year, so it's a quick trip."
"If your rut is near, and the nest isn't finished—"
"Brace yourself," Torion warned before throwing the doors open.
We stepped out of the keep together to a rousing cheer from the crowd, and I caught my breath, blind in the sudden bright sunshine, blinking at the mass of people ahead of me with blessedly no clear faces.
Torion led us easily through, bodies shifting out of our way, and a bite of relief rushed through me when we turned away from the stage, walked past the risers of dragonkin nobility, and over to the smaller platform where a private seating arrangement I'd planned for just the two of us waited.
To the left, hovering near the high stage, a cluster of young women perfumed the air, tittering as Torion and I passed near them.
My good sense warred with my curiosity, and I leaned around Torion to study them.
They were a pretty bunch, and a few had keen gazes as they eyed us, but mostly they looked…
young. Fang's fire, some of them looked like children, and it made my heart pang.
"Do you know who you would've chosen?" I whispered, looking up at Torion, who seemed to take no notice of the group.
His brow furrowed as he gazed down at me, and I wondered if he could hear me over the murmuring roar of the audience around us, but then he looked briefly over to the girls.
One real beauty, a tall and gloriously curved creature with long black hair curling down past her waist, smiled with too much knowledge and tossed that wealth of hair.
Torion shook his head and smiled at me. "Haven't the faintest, really.
I made sure to steer clear of them," he said, an easy grin on his face.
Then he bowed his head and whispered against my ear, his breath hot and stirring inside of me.
"I'm going to shock them, Brigid. And in truth, I wanted to surprise you. But be united with me, yes?"
We stopped at the foot of the stairs. I'd requested two chairs for us to sit in and watch whatever proceedings Torion had planned, but found instead a cushioned bench waiting for us.
Torion was taking my hands in his, staring down at me, waiting for my answer.
All around us, humans and dragonkin watched us.
Had the rumors, the truth, and everything in between reached them all by now?
Was there anyone who didn't know that Torion had claimed me in defiance of Malcolm Barr?
Was Malcolm here today? Would I watch him claim my replacement?
My eyes slid to the gathering of young omegas, wondering who it might be, when I caught the eye of the dark haired beauty once more. She was looking at me now, not Torion, and I didn't understand the expression on her face, only that it wasn't jealousy or spite but something like…admiration.
Torion's fingers squeezed mine, drawing me back.
Be united with me.
My heart hammered. With fear. With hope.
"Always," I said, nodding.
He beamed at me then, releasing one hand to cup my jaw and lift it higher to accept his lips as they lowered to mine. I did, and the gentle warmth, the tender press, blocked out the cheerful cries that surrounded us.