11. Kestrel
Kestrel
My anger keeps me wrapped up, lost in furious thoughts and the pure frustration of Raven and her one-horse vigilante band. It has locked the rest of us out in the cold, wondering what the hell kind of danger she’s going to drop us into. It takes me too long to notice the nest.
When I do, I’m deep inside, and my heart crawls up into my throat and sits there as I slowly turn so I can take it all in.
“Oh,” I whisper.
There is fabric of all different colours that has been shredded into long threads, and it’s been arranged from tree to tree, bush to bush.
There’s a pattern in the weavings, spiralling in like a spider’s web but bigger, so much bigger.
It goes from tree to bush, overlapping and creating this tangled maze.
There’s a way in, but only if you follow his scent through a thin, highly hidden path.
“Are you seeing this?” I whisper to the others.
Pix hasn’t built a nest. He’s woven one.
And he’s added in all this shiny material that is making Merle purr.
“Huh.”
I reach out, touching a crimson strand. I guess a lot of people would think this looks like rubbish, but there’s this intricate, delicate perfection to what he has created. It’s art. Soul art. A functional nest that traps the unwary and alerts anyone inside. It’s a lure and camouflage.
If you want to reach the danger that sits at the middle of this web, you have to get through his test and then face his wrath. I feel the deadly challenge in every strand that he has painstakingly hung.
I walk towards the middle and his scent, my own pheromones building and flaring out.
What kind of nest would I have? Merle likes shiny things, and the closer we get, the more the web sparkles.
Is this the kind of nest I’d have? I’d always assumed a dark hole with one door in and out would be all I deserved. Concrete, cold, hard, empty.
But to be out in the sunlight, with trees and water. The world so big around me. Trapped in the centre of a giant web that my omega made. I could live with a nest like this.
Would Pix let me borrow it?
Would he share?
Is he going to kill me when I get close?
The sparkles indicate that he is welcoming us, but there’s still a little bit of hesitation, and that hesitation is giving me all the strength to hold the heat at bay. Just for a little longer.
I don’t want to let go. I don’t know if it’s safe.
I follow the trail around some trees and find myself in a clearing with threads so thick it would be impossible for someone to get through without cutting them.
Heads turn in my direction, alphas drunk on the scent of their in-heat omega. I’ve never seen alphas look like that.
Feral, needy, dangerous.
The way they move is like wolves. Every movement is silent. Every tiny bit of them is attuned to the world and everything in it.
Blaze is wearing a pair of light blue jeans that sit so low on his hips you can tell he isn’t wearing anything else. His hair falls over his face, and the wind lifts it, and I see his eyes watching me, glowing, hungry, assessing.
Stay or go. Run or fight.
Is there no other option?
Rolly stands up from a crouch, and my heart slams into my chest. His eyes are crystal, and his smile is gone.
He looks like an entirely different person.
He moves slowly, crossing the space and leaning down into me, his arms encircling me.
His scent, that mysterious amber and clove, fills up my lungs until I’m struggling not to cough.
Huge hands stroke down my back possessively, lazily.
“Omega.”
One word.
One single word that goes right through me, tears me up, shreds my intentions. I’m not Raven, I don’t hate this. But I’m not Merle either, throwing myself headfirst into a situation that could destroy us.
I lift my face, and before I can voice the question, his lips come down on mine, his tongue pressing into my mouth. Heat twists around me, like an ember that catches the wind, the tinder goes up. I’m kindling, dry and ready.
I wrap an arm around his neck and pull myself closer, kissing him until my lungs are burning, and I need to break away from him or pass out.
Sage pulls Rolly away from me and cups my cheek.
“Are you ready for this, Kestrel?”
Am I?
My mouth is dry, my skin feels too tight. My stomach hurts, and everything smells stronger. I don’t remember it feeling like this.
That was because it hurt so much.
I grab at my top, pulling it out and fanning myself, trying to cool down.
Sage turns and walks away like he’s called, but I can’t hear anything.
My abdomen clenches hard. A hollow need growing like an ache, a familiar one between my legs.
Slick pools, and soon, my clothes are soaked in sweat and slick.
I pull them off, intending to change, but the moment I get them off, my overheated skin cools.
I let out a whimper and look around. King is watching me from near a tree, but I can’t see Roseland.
Another scared whimper slips out, and the clearing turns deadly quiet. I crouch, tensing, ready to run, but from the tent in the middle of the clearing comes a tall, lithe form, covered from head to toe in tattoos. His hair’s a mess, and he reeks of jam.
He’s got a knife in each hand, and he’s looking around like he’s trying to decide who he’s going to kill.
“I thought you took his weapons off him?” Sage grumbles.
“I did. It’s not my fault. You didn’t tell me I needed to do cavity searches,” Rolly says back.
Pix turns, and his eyes land on me.
Omegas are territorial. They don’t share. That’s what he said. He’s got a knife in his hand. I stand up and back away. He throws the knife, and it embeds itself in the tree right in front of my face.
I whirl and hiss at him.
He cuts me off. I lash out, but he grabs my arm and hurls me towards the tent. I spring up, ready to run. He cuts me off again.
When Sage tries to interfere, a knife is thrown at him.
“All right, message heard,” he says, holding his hands up in the air.
I let out a noise that says what I think of their betrayal.
Pix continues to stalk and cut me off. He backs me up against the tent. I try to run, but he flips me onto the ground. I hit it hard, lying on my back, staring up at him as he straddles me. His cock is hard, and when I look down, I see swirls of black ink circling his length.
“If you don’t want me here, I can go,” I snarl. My words are short and puffed out of me as I try not to wriggle. His slick drips onto me. I can’t help the whine that I let go of. I want to see him rub it all into my skin, watch our alphas lap it off.
Just the thought has me clenching my thighs.
He still hasn’t said anything. He just leans forward, burying his nose in my neck, inhaling deeply.
“Pix, if you want me to leave, I need to do it now.”
His hand slams on my throat as he sits up, putting enough weight on it that I can’t breathe. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“What?”
He snarls and stands up in one fluid movement, catching my ankle and dragging me into the tent.
He hurls me onto the swag mattress and follows me down, kneeling with one leg between my thighs. I shift backwards, but he grabs my thigh, stopping my movement, and then pushes my legs open. He leans forward slowly until his thigh is pressed against my pussy.
“Daega,” I whisper.
He looks at me, and his eyes clear just a little bit.
“You said we didn’t share, you said-”
“Forget what I said.”
“No-”
Pix growls and yanks me up by my throat until we are nose to nose. “You’re mine.”
“What?” I whisper, startled.
“You’re mine. I claim you. I’m keeping you. This heat…I need you here with me.”
“No-”
His fingers tighten, cutting off my words, and his eyes darken with heat. “My omega. My slick, my pussy. I’m going to mark you over and over so you know who you belong to.”
I choke out a startled laugh.
“You go nowhere. I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you,” Pix whispers in a deadly croon that lifts all the hairs on my arms. He suddenly rolls me, putting me on my hands and knees, and before I can even figure out what he’s about, he’s licking up my inner thighs, and he’s got my hips in an implacable hold and is pulling me down to sit on his face.
The moment his hot breath hits my overheated skin, I just about lose my mind.
I sit, and his lips find my clit, kissing it.
I grind down, gasping, my mind sliding into a place I’ve never been before.
He grabs my hips and rolls me up, and suddenly, his tongue is inside me, his lips and teeth sucking and scraping.
I’m losing my mind.
I ride his face, my slick scent mixing with his, and then I’m on my knees, bent forward, and he’s slamming his knotless cock into me, filling me with slick, mixing our scents, perhaps forever.
I’ve only just enough awareness to notice that the alphas are approaching. Pix watches them wildly, refusing to invite them in, but I know we need them. I need them, so I hold out my hand, and when Rolly creeps in, I kiss him hard.
“Good omega. You look so pretty getting railed by Daega.”
I whimper, squinting up at him.
Pix growls and slams into me so hard that I slide forward.
He lets out a half whine, half growl, and I know as much as he needs me, and this, we both need our alphas and the knots they offer.
Rolly pulls him away, leaving me in the corner alone, gasping, but not for long. Blaze comes in and puts a finger under my chin.
“Are you in heat?”
I nod my head.
“Still aware?”
“I think it’s because of Raven, Jay, and Dove. It doesn’t take our awareness the way it does the other omegas.”
“So, you will remember everything I do to you in crystal-clear clarity?”
Those words send a bolt of trepidation through me. “Yes.”
“Kestrel,” Blaze whispers. “I want to hurt you.”
I shudder but climb up onto my knees, facing him. “Do your worst, Alpha.”
Blaze flattens me on my back. He stares at me and then leans in to kiss me.
It’s light, it's gentle. It doesn’t hurt.
I’m so confused. He kisses my eyelids, my forehead, my chin, my nose, then trails down, kissing feather light over my body, down my sternum, over my stomach, by the time his lips reach my clit, I’m a panting mess, sobbing with need.
His huge hands stretch me wide open, and he pauses to just look at me.
Now, I know how he wants to hurt me.
“Alpha,” I beg, my voice hoarse.
His fingers sweep over my clit and send me into my first explosive orgasm. I cry out, tightening as slick gushes out of me. My alpha sits between my legs and watches, occasionally stroking with a finger that starts ripples all over again.
“Blaze!” I plead.
“I’m sorry, darling, but we’re just getting started.”