Chapter 28
Fern
Darion’s arm around her tightened, taking the scarf from her hand and dropping it on the floor. “And just who was that little performance for?”
He smiled like he was sharing a tender thought so the wolfkin wouldn’t know the threat in his tone.
“It was for myself,” she replied.
He held up a forkful of meat in front of her face, waiting for her to eat. She did, taking it with a tender bite, and then he said, “An omega should do all things for her alpha’s pleasure only.”
She swallowed, taking his goblet next and bringing it to his lips. He took a small sip, eyes locked on hers, when she replied, “I will bring my alpha pleasure when I actually have one.”
He growled low, but while he had the clan’s eyes on him, he couldn’t hurt her. Yell at her. Drag her out by her neck…
If she were to be punished anyway, she might as well deserve it this time.
“I have been honorable in—”
“If you thought your treatment of me was honorable,” she cut in, “you wouldn’t dread speaking of it before the clan.”
She put the goblet down, ripping off a small piece of bread to offer him next. He took it gently at first, then nipped over the scar on her finger, sending a shiver down her spine.
“You have not taken me to bed,” she continued. “You have not provided for my nest or my person. You do not touch me or speak to me, nor allow others to do so. So tell me, am I an omega with an alpha? Or am I merely the Ashpaw with even less freedom than before?”
His free hand immediately took her chin, and he bared his teeth for a moment before crushing her mouth with his. A bruising kiss, forceful, angry, and claiming.
Her wolf immediately surged forward, and Fern’s hands cupped his face, kissing him back as hard as he was giving.
Darion’s sharpened canine nicked her lip, but neither stopped, the iron tang of her blood between them, slipping between their lips as their tongues met desperately. She whimpered softly when the hand on her chin fell to her breast, kneading it through the gown.
In the back of her mind, she knew where she was. Knew the whole room had to have been watching.
She even heard some of the cheering.
He pulled back, only to rest his forehead on hers as he caught his breath.
“Tell me then, omega. What is it you need? What have I failed to provide?”
It was a wicked thing, to want someone this much who you knew did not feel the same. To give them everything even when they did not deserve it. And not being able to keep yourself from hoping this time it would be different.
“You,” she answered immediately, her voice a breathy whisper. “Please, Darion, I need you.”
He shuddered briefly, as though he could barely keep himself from giving just that, when he snarled. “Then why would you dance with another wolf in front of me? Smile at him? Laugh?”
“Because you do not want me, and I—”
“Does it feel like I do not want you?”
Darion shifted her hips so they felt the proof of his arousal, straining against his breeches.
“Of course I want you. You’re my omega. So perfect, so sweet, so ready for me.”
Her whole body tingled with desperation, his words, scent, and touch all working to fill the emptiness inside her.
But it wasn’t enough. They both knew exactly what her body required.
The table covered his hand as it slipped up the skirt of her dress, finding liquid coating her inner thighs.
“All this slick better be for me, omega. No other alpha, no other wolf…”
She’d never felt more wanton in her life. He could take her right there and she would not even care.
Gods, what ten days of isolation had done to her. With her omega now fully awakened, it was worse than she could have ever imagined.
“All for you,” she said on a soft whine, bending her neck in submission.
With a growl, he took his hand back out and licked his fingers in front of her, and she gasped.
“Fuck,” he swore, his eyes nearly rolling back in his head. “How… how can you taste this good?”
He stood, picking her up and exiting the hall quickly.
The wolfkin may have been yelling, but she could not hear anything over the beating of their hearts, a pulse she felt everywhere. Throbbing and in need of stimulation. Of release for the pressure building inside her.
She thought he would take her to her room, so she could finally show him her nest, but instead he pushed his way through a door she’d never entered before, the dying embers of a fireplace barely lighting the space. She could not see what it contained.
Not that it mattered, because as soon as the door was closed behind them, he put her down and pushed her against it, rubbing his length on her stomach and moaning softly.
“I’m sorry, omega. I… I promised her I would not bed you until after the ceremony. When she’d feel more secure…”
Her…
Why did she have this power over him? Was he not the alpha? And was Fern not his omega? He didn’t even need that woman anymore!
When Fern whined, he shushed her, planting kisses along her jaw. “I can do this, though. I can do this.”
His lips wandered down her neck, sucking, licking, and biting. Her body writhed, knowing exactly where it needed his attention most, but he would not give it.
“You are cruel,” she nearly sobbed. “You… you tail-tease!”
Darion chuckled, pulling down the collar of her dress and latching onto her nipple, sucking hard.
She glanced down, finding his eyes glowing slightly in the low light as he looked back at her, tongue flicking and teeth scraping the sensitive skin.
“So impatient,” he cooed before moving on to the next one.
“Because you have made me wait… so… long!”
The last word came out as a moan when his hand palmed the place she needed him most over her dress, her hips instantly grinding against it.
It was better. Much better. But still not enough.
“Alpha…” she begged, running her fingers through his hair and grabbing it tightly. “Please…”
He lowered himself to his knees, lifting up her skirts as he kissed his way up her thighs, licking until he reached right where she wanted him.
Throwing one of her legs over his shoulder, he attached his lips to her right away, and she screamed in pleasure, her back arching off the door.
“Oh gods, please, right there!”
His fingers soon joined, pushing inside her and filling her, mimicking the thing she needed more than anything, but it was so much better than nothing.
He lapped at her hungrily, groaning and growling and cupping his own aching member as he ate her. Laces untying and the jerky movement of his arm at his lap soon joined the obscene, wet, smacking sounds he made with her and his mouth.
Fern couldn’t even care to be embarrassed by how her juices glistened on his nose, lips, and chin. Nor how he licked them off like it was the sweetest honey he’d ever tasted.
It didn’t take long for her to reach climax. She had been left wanting for so long, it came not like a building wave but a landslide, hurtling down the mountain, hard and fast.
Fern’s hips bucked and stilled as she screamed his name, letting it pummel her with such force she could no longer stand, immediately collapsing backward.
But he would give her no respite.
“On your knees,” he ordered, and she moved to obey him, boneless as she was.
He stood, his cock hard and leaking.
“Open your mouth.”
She did so at once, and he pushed himself inside her.
He was so big, her jaw ached from just the first intrusion, and yet the pre-cum already coating her tongue was making her even wetter. She sucked him down greedily, relaxing her throat and letting him use her for his pleasure, taking her own pleasure in the submission.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “You really… you really can take me all the way. I thought… no one has…”
And then, with a few jolting movements, he pushed until her nose and chin hit a bulbous mound of flesh.
His knot…
And suddenly she wanted nothing more than to feel that inside her.
Her hands wrapped around it, squeezing and twisting gently, and he shuddered violently as he came. His seed shot, hot and sticky, down her throat, and she only tasted the warm, salty, musk as he withdrew, panting and looking like he might be a little boneless himself.
He took a minute to catch his breath, and then tucked his still half-hard cock into his breeches.
Fern stepped up to him, rising on tiptoes for a kiss, but he turned the other way, and her heart stopped.
“That should settle you for now,” he said, his voice lacking all the desire, the warmth, the awe of her he had mere seconds ago.
It felt like she’d been hit by a second landslide. This one not pleasant in the slightest.
“For… for now?”
He motioned for her to move, and then opened the door, leading her into the hallway. With a hand on her back to guide her, he took her to her rooms.
Her wolf was elated, jumping and rolling over in joy, as though they’d actually accomplished something worth celebrating.
But Fern felt even emptier than she had been before. She held herself, careful not to sniff too loudly.
When they reached her door, he unlocked it, but stayed at the threshold. He regarded her for a moment, and when he bent down to kiss her, she winced.
Darion stood straight and sighed, rubbing his forehead. “You are right that I have been negligent of your needs. Perhaps with more… tending, you’ll become more agreeable.”
“Um.” She swallowed nervously as she entered, trying to blink back the tears. “You could start by coming in to see my nest…”
“I can see it fine from here.”
Well, that was enough for tonight, then. The tears fell down her cheeks, but he was not moved to wipe them away.
“Kyntha is in need of my company and reassurance tonight after her cousin’s cruel taunts and the musician’s even crueler dismissal of her beauty,” he explained.
Fern sucked in a shuddering breath. “So you think he should have chosen her?”
His eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms. “I will not play this game with you, omega.”
“And yet you play hers!” Fern cried. “You do nothing but console her, sparing her fragile feelings all while running roughshod over mine to do so!”
“Because she is to be my mate!” he yelled. The word “mate” echoed off the bare stone walls. “You have won your freedom and my affections tonight, and will have them until you’ve proven you no longer deserve them. Do you mean to do so this quickly?”
She looked away, closing her eyes as he slammed the door shut.
The lock turned.
Fern fell to the floor, crumpling into a ball and openly weeping.
How was it that she felt worse now than she had when Eidan had shown up earlier to release her from this cage?
Like drinking seawater when dying of thirst, his attention had only left her worse off than not having it at all.
Why did her wolf still insist he was theirs? She needed to end whatever silly infatuation her wolf had with the alpha, because she could not live like this, where the only outlet for her needs was with a man who didn’t love her.
Please, she begged. At least stop wanting him. Help me make this hurt less.
She stood, ears perked and looking towards the nest.
“I know it’s empty,” Fern snapped, using her sleeve to dry her cheeks. “No need to rub it in my face.”
No, it’s not that. It’s… wrong.
Fern sat up, letting herself settle, until finally getting up to see what her wolf had been yapping about.
And she immediately noticed it too.
The pillows… no, she liked the round one in the middle, and the long one on the side.
And the blanket was smooth. She liked it wrinkled.
She then checked her rocks, and suppressed the desperate whine before it sounded. The order was incorrect. The green one was supposed to go on the end.
Fern sniffed, smelling someone, but no one she recognized.
Panic and unease clawed at her chest, even as she tried to rationalize it.
A Solvekh who’d tidied up, perhaps. Someone who didn’t know not to touch it.
Wrong! her wolf barked. Bad!
“It’s okay,” she assured her. “Easy enough to fix.”
She spent the next ten minutes setting, resetting, taking everything off and restarting, and finally settling on the way it should be.
But the creeping feeling of the minor violation was still disorienting, so she quickly changed into her nightgown and hopped in, hoping that being surrounded by her things would quell the rushing sound in her ears.
It did, but not until near dawn, allowing her only a few fitful hours of sleep before her mute attendant arrived to ready her for breakfast.