Chapter 23
Fern
Several scents lingered in the air beneath the smoke of the hearth in Reinn’s room—cedar oil, old parchment, and chamomile, which reminded Fern of her mother’s favorite tea.
Clothes had been draped carelessly across the backs of chairs and over the foot of the bed, while an open trunk sat near the wall, half filled with folded fabrics so fine Fern was almost afraid they’d break apart just from her looking at them too long.
Books were stacked in uneven piles beside the hearth and atop the bedside table, some splayed open face-down as though abandoned halfway through reading.
A silver brush rested near a shallow wash basin alongside several combs carved from bone and ivory, their teeth still threaded with strands of moon-pale hair.
Fern lingered in the doorway, her fingers twitching at her sides as she spied the bed. It was smaller than Darion’s, though softer looking, buried beneath thick blankets and far too many pillows.
Reinn followed her line of vision and chuckled. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m not part omega myself with how much I like to nest.”
Ha! her wolf barked. I told you!
“Nest?”
He sat down on the bed, his hand caressing a particularly nice looking pelt. A tease or an invitation. Fern bit her lip.
“Perhaps it’s for the best I came across you, because I doubt your alpha would have the time or wherewithal to teach you about your designation.”
Then he gestured towards a door in the back. “Go, wash yourself, and return. I’m happy to be your tutor while we wait for my cousin to tire herself out. Knowing her, it could be hours.”
A sharp pain stabbed her in the stomach for a moment at just imagining the two of them together for so long, but she breathed through it as she started to move.
The door opened up to a private bathing chamber, and in the middle was a large copper tub, filled with steaming water.
Her toes curled into the stone floor, a soft whimper sounding from her lips.
“Everything alright?”
She sniffed. “I haven’t had a hot bath since I arrived here.”
Reinn got up from the bed, and she felt him standing behind her. Not quite touching, but close enough to feel the heat of him.
“I really should take you far away from here, you know. What this clan has done to you is a travesty.”
Fern stared at the water longer. “Because I’m an omega?”
He paused for a moment, and then grunted softly.
“So if I were still just the Ashpaw, a Solvekh who’d failed to learn her place, then everything would have been justified?”
When he didn’t reply, Fern had her answer. She took a step forward, but he placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
“There are no Ashpaws in the Ironcoat Clan, and our Solvekh bathe in the hot springs found on our lands.”
She didn’t look at him, but nodded once, and he released her as she started to move again.
“I’ll help you.”
At this she whipped around, clinging her cloak tightly together.
She knew modesty was moot at this point considering how they’d woken up that morning.
But she no longer had the pull of the moon and wolf clouding her human sensibilities, and when she felt her cheeks redden, he leaned against the doorjamb, arms crossed.
“I’ve already seen you.”
Fern held her head high. “That doesn’t give you the right to see me again.”
He chuckled, running his tongue across his teeth as he looked at her. And then he shrugged. “Alright then, if you don’t want me to wash your hair…”
Reinn started to walk back into the bedroom, and Fern stepped towards him. “Wait!”
He stopped, still facing away.
Fern swallowed, her fingers gripping the cloak even tighter. “Does that mean you’d…”
His neck turned slowly, and he smiled over his shoulder. “Mean I’d what?”
“Rub… my head?”
“I can’t imagine any other way to work the soap in.”
She let the cloak fall and slipped into the water quickly, the heat almost shocking. She caught her breath, wriggling down. “Well, if you insist.”
* * *
His fingers dug hard into her scalp as he lathered, Fern trying and failing to keep the moans from escaping.
“Right there, don’t stop…”
Reinn laughed. “Be careful with your tongue, or someone passing by may think I’m trying to seduce Alpha Darion’s omega.”
“Aren’t you, though?”
He slowed down for a second, then lowered his mouth to her ears and whispered. “That depends entirely on whether the omega in question is open to being seduced.”
“Mm, maybe if you promise to wash my hair like this every day.”
He leaned in closer, his lips brushing against her skin. “It would be my absolute pleasure… as long as you comb mine in return when I’m done.”
She almost replied that it was a deal, and instead looked around her.
The heat from the bath seeped through her skin and relaxed her muscles, the water turning embarrassingly gray from the dirt she hadn’t realized she’d accumulated in the past few days.
“So what are nests?” Fern asked, changing the subject.
Reinn hummed a bit before answering. “Now, you have to understand that you’re the first omega I’ve ever met in the flesh, so everything I know comes from books.
And nesting, apparently, is an instinct for many omegas.
They like to be surrounded by softness, the scents of their family or mates, or anything else that brings them comfort. A favorite trinket, or book….”
Fern stilled. “Or a rock?”
“Rocks?” he asked, sounding slightly horrified. “Solas’s Hells, have you been forced to find comfort in rocks?”
Fern shrugged, not sure what to do with her hands for a moment as they floated in front of her. “I like rocks.”
He clicked his tongue against his teeth as he rinsed the soap from her hair, that part now done. “Whatever you say, sunbeam.”
Then he rose with a stretch and a yawn, patting her on the head. “I’ll leave you to finish in peace.”
Fern turned to watch him, the front of his tunic wet and clinging to his chest, and she wanted him to stay.
She barely knew the alpha, and yet she felt almost as at ease with him as she did with Eidan. He didn’t make her feel like she was wrong in wanting or asking. In just being herself.
And then she remembered with sobering clarity that she could have been with either of them—or both of them!—if Darion’s sway over her hadn’t been so strong. That she could be curling up in Reinn’s glorious bed—
Nest!
—right now, happy and at peace.
So she watched him go, and tried to relax before having to leave the water. She rubbed a washcloth over the rest of her skin, and couldn’t help from wondering if Darion was looking for her.
He probably wasn’t.
When she was sure she’d scrubbed every last inch of her body, and the water had turned cool enough to remind her of the pools beneath the castle, she got out and used the linen wrap that Reinn had left out for her to dry off.
Fern then saw that she didn’t even have anything to change into, and she doubted Reinn had any spare dresses lying around.
She knotted the wrap right above her breasts, and opened the door a crack to find Reinn sitting in one of the chairs by the fire, drinking from a goblet and reading a book.
His leg hung from one of the arms, and he swirled the drink slowly in his hand, eyes raising as the door creaked and she entered. “All finished?”
Water from her hair dripped on the floor. “I am, but I don’t have anything to wear.”
He stared at her for a second. “You say that like it’s a problem.”
Fern rolled her eyes. “Are there clothes for me or not?”
The book snapped shut and he took one more sip of his drink before rising, heading to his trunk and digging through the contents until he found what he’d been looking for.
“Here, this will do until your alpha provides you with a proper wardrobe.”
“Why do you say it like that?” she asked as he handed it to her.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Have I not made my disdain for Darion clear enough yet?”
It was a man’s tunic—Reinn’s, obviously—long-sleeved with silver embroidery stitched into elaborate patterns along the hem, neckline, and sleeves. When she slipped it on, it fell almost to her knees.
It felt entirely too indecent, but she supposed the bottom half of her legs were nothing compared to what he’d just had an eyeful of in the bath. Or that morning.
“Why though?” she asked, using the wrap to dry her hair. Reinn guided her to the chair in front of the mirror and took over for her. “It’s not just because of me, is it?”
“I won’t lie and say you’re not part of the reason, but this goes back much further than your unexpected arrival.” He finished wringing all the water in her hair, and threw the linen behind him, not caring where it landed. “Our clans were once at war with each other. Did you know that?”
She shook her head, and then he placed a hand on top of it to keep it still, next taking a comb and running it through her wet locks.
When the comb got stuck almost immediately, he rummaged around on the table in front of them until he found a small, glass bottle.
Fern watched in the mirror as he poured a few drops of a rich, golden liquid into his palms, then he worked it into her hair.
The scent was rich, hints of smoky amber and spice she couldn’t name.
“I didn’t,” Fern replied. “Why were you fighting?”
He shrugged. “We both have our own sides to the story, but truthfully there was no real inciting incident. Just a number of small offenses that added up over time like dry kindling until something set the spark. A skirmish along the border, of course, between wolfkin who would have called themselves neighbors if not for the invisible lines that alphas who died a long time ago had drawn for their own benefit.”
The comb ran more smoothly now, the gentle tugging making Fern close her eyes and want to purr herself.
“It was only the rise of the Bloodmoons that finally forced us to work together. A mutual foe to find common ground on. And so my cousin was promised to your alpha, and once the mating is complete, we will rise as one and fight against the growing threat to the west and blah, blah, blah…”