Chapter Twenty-Six
Serenya
My body temperature was rising again, and the Shavari’zorr brushed my skin with each step I took, its silk cooling. But there were a lot of steps between the River Caverns and the High Ledge where the Bonding Hall was located.
The walk passed in a haze of cramps and half-formed thoughts, the only constant the weight of the cloak tied at my throat and the slick sliding down my thighs.
“Might as well have stayed home. Could have gotten to the Hall faster. I’m sweaty again anyway.”
The Karzhari beside me glanced my way, but either my mutter had been too quiet, or she chose to ignore it.
The tunnels to the Bonding Hall had been long and winding, but the entrance loomed ahead.
It was a single arched opening, tall enough for a giraffe to pass through without issue, the black stone carved with intricate designs painted in varied colors.
It felt old, and I wondered how many omegas had passed beneath on their way to be claimed.
The Karzhari flanking me didn’t speak, though one reached out to press a steadying hand to my hip when I swayed. My mouth was dry despite them making me drink water before we left the River Caverns, and the cramps were growing more intense.
I shivered as we passed under the archway, the chill of expectations breaking through the heat of my flesh.
Inside, the cavern yawned wide, ceiling stretching into shadow far above the paltry glow of the moss that lit the tiers flowing down to a circular dais at its heart.
The nesting platform.
My breath caught in my throat at the sight.
Was I ready for this?
The dais at the center of the hall looked like an oasis.
Gauzy curtains hung from the ceiling above, forming a soft barrier around the plush mattress that filled the platform.
The sheer fabric fluttered as unseen air currents stirred them, pulled back on one side to reveal an opening wide enough for someone to walk through.
Blood red tiles encircled the obsidian dais, a striking contrast that made me think of Kael. The ensemble gave me the feeling of being a sacrifice to some ancient god, not the bride in the Morraki version of a wedding.
A cramp took hold of my stomach, making me grunt and stop on the edge of another step. The concoction they had given me before the bath was wearing off, the pain steadily increasing and making my thoughts blurry.
I heaved a sigh when we reached the bottom of the cavern. I still had to cross to the platform, but at least there were no more stairs.
Kael stood at the edge of the tile ring, his gaze locked on me, hands clenched at his sides.
He was dressed in the same uniform he’d worn to the gala, his top open at the chest to reveal the charcoal grey of his skin and the faint shimmer of the kethra along his collarbones.
They pulsed slow and steady, the crimson glow matching the sash hanging loose across him, soothing something inside me.
Part of me wanted to go to him. To fling myself into his arms and beg him to take the pain away. Instincts told me he could, but the Karzhari had warned that he wasn’t allowed to touch me until my nest was finished.
Or else.
I hadn’t been brave enough to ask, or else what?
The Karzhari guided me forward, my bare feet silent on the polished stone beneath them as I crossed toward the nest. A wave of heat rolled through me, and I grimaced at the sweat coating my skin once again.
That bath had been pointless. Even if I hadn’t been forced to climb a million steps, the fever made me sweat like I was in a sauna.
I breathed through another cramp as I stopped outside the tile circle. I should have been focused on Kael, or maybe the bed since I had to decorate it in some way for him to be allowed to help me, but what drew my attention was the four stacks of bedding between me and the opening in the curtains.
There were folded blankets and cushions in every color I could imagine, the fabrics organized in some way that logic couldn’t understand, but my instincts approved. I reached for the nearest, a rich burgundy that felt like velvet, but paused when the scent hit my nose.
It smelled clean.
Neutral.
Not like spice and smoke.
Growling, I dropped it.
I moved to the next pile, thick fur in mottled blues lying over the top. My fingers sank into it but I jerked back, rubbing away the sensation with my other hand.
“No furs.”
The Karzhari waiting around me exchanged murmured words, then two stepped forward to remove anything with fur from all the piles.
I ran my fingers over the next cushion, the feeling of it reminding me of suede. It wasn’t as nice as the cloak I wore, but it was acceptable.
Except…
It smelled wrong too.
Agitation had my kethra flaring bright enough to light the floor around me. The platform in the center kept calling me, but I needed more than a bare mattress, and none of the bedding was right.
Fueled by desperation, I snatched the suede blanket into my arms and turned towards Kael. The Karzhari murmured my name, alarm threading through their voices, but I ignored them.
Kael stiffened as I approached, and three alphas flanked him in an instant, their muscles taut beneath their clothing, but they remained a pace behind him. Far enough from me to not be a threat when I needed Kael.
I didn’t stop. I marched directly to him, my fists clenched in the blanket I’d pulled from the pile. When I was close enough to reach him, I thrust it out before me.
“Make it smell like you.”
Kael blinked, then reached for the blanket, his eyes never leaving mine. His pupils were narrow slits, his kethra bright, but he was careful not to touch my hands as he took the fabric.
He brought it to his chest and rubbed it across his bare skin, dragging it up beneath his jaw, over the glowing lines of his kethra, and across his throat before holding it back out to me.
“Is this better?”
I seized it and inhaled, a moan slipping from my throat as my knees almost gave out. Wrapping it around myself, I closed my eyes and pressed it to my nose again.
“Yes.”
Small fingers gripped my arms overtop the blanket, the Karzhari guiding me back to the piles of bedding.
I looked them over again, flicking away a cushion that looked like corduroy with the tip of one finger, before grabbing the rest of the stack from the floor.
Shoving it into the arms of the Karzhari beside me, I walked through the curtain and climbed up onto the mattress.
“Make them smell like him.”
Normal me would never make demands like that of someone trying to help me, but normal me was trapped inside a body taken over by instinct. My alpha was here, I was in heat, and it was time to make a nest so he could claim me.
The plush mattress gave beneath my weight, but it was firmer than the one in Kael’s home.
I laid back within the gauzy enclosure and realized when I looked up, I could see stars overhead.
There was an opening in ceiling of the cavern that revealed the sky above, but no sand drifted down from the never-ending wind, so it had to be shielded in some way.
I was still staring up at it when a piece of bedding was passed through the curtains. I reached for it automatically, breathing in Kael’s alpha musk and peppery smoke.
Rolling to my knees, I compared the blanket to the suede I already had and then looked for a place to put it.
There was too much empty space.
“More.”
There was a pause, and then a cushion appeared. I snatched it, lifting it to my nose to assure they had made him scent the whole pile.
I accepted the next blanket with a soft sound, placing it reverently in the center of the platform. It was the same material as my cloak and my special blanket at home, although it was grey instead of red.
The nest took shape around me, soft and layered, the heat and pressure in my body easing as I worked. I covered the mattress in soft blankets, cushions tucked on one side of the round bed, extra sheets used to hold them together where I wanted them.
I accepted another blanket, sliding it through my hands to decide where it belonged, then froze. Pulling it closer to my face, I took a careful sniff, then snarled and flung it at a shape beyond the curtain.
“It must smell like him!”
Every item in my nest had to carry my alpha’s scent.
Every blanket, cushion, and pillow.
My own scent was drowning out the smell I wanted. Slick poured down my legs with each cramp, wetting the bedding as my core throbbing. My nipples were tight pebbles that ached for some kind of relief, and my skin was so sensitive even the brush of the breeze was too harsh.
I grew frantic. Tucking, and folding, and adjusting. Lying in the center to see if it felt right. Moving cushions and blankets until each limb was cradled.
Then flipping over and adjusting everything again.
The sun had begun to rise, Vorrashan’s red light tinting everything around me.
My hands trembled as I smoothed a wrinkle while resting in the shallow hollow in the center of the bed, panting for breath.
Kael’s scent surrounded me, entwined with mine, and my kethra finally settled into a steady, brilliant amber.
Sharp and sudden, a cramp tore through my abdomen, making me curl forward, gasping.
Sweat beaded my brow, the red cloak I still wore damp against my skin as my body demanded what it needed.
I panted, tears slipping down my cheeks as the pain built, my thighs coated with the fluid meant to ensure an alpha could fit himself into me.
“It’s almost time.”
The quiet murmur came from the other side of the curtain. There were other noises out there now, but my mind was too fuzzy to figure out what they were.
It was too much.
Too hot.
Too loud.
My skin was too tight, my belly was empty, and I was alone.
My flesh crawled with the need to be touched, my body aching for something I couldn’t name, but I knew who had it.
“Kael.”
It was a broken whisper, muffled as I bent forward and pressed my face into the bedding. It smelled of my alpha even though he wasn’t there.
Wasn’t seeing to my needs.
I sobbed into the soft folds of the blankets, fingers scrabbling at my throat before I pushed the Shavari’zorr off. Even it had become too much for my body to handle, the sensual brush of it on my naked flesh a torment I couldn’t bear.
A low, resonant sound reverberated through the chamber, vibrating the nest beneath me and freezing my lungs as it grew.
The horns.
The signal echoed from the far corners of the cavern, rising and falling in haunting harmony long enough to make my head spin. The curtain rippled, then parted, pulling back to reveal a chamber now filled with Morraki.
I looked around, the shadowy shapes too far away for me to see clearly except for the pulsing of their kethra. Tiers upon tiers of them, gathered together to witness my claiming as the horns fell silent.
And me, trembling in the center of my nest as a roar went up and hell broke loose.