Chapter 44
Fern
“Fern? Fern, are you awake?”
Her eyelids felt heavy, her skin sticky, and her limbs sluggish.
“Alpha?” she croaked through chapped lips.
“Solas’s Hells, look at the state of her. Did he even wash her before leaving? And this nest… it’s filthy. He didn’t refresh anything.”
There were two shapes in the room, although she couldn’t quite make out the details of their faces yet.
And then she breathed them in.
Oh… oh she knew these two.
Alphas.
The good kind.
The kind who would take care of her.
Slick coated her thighs.
“Please,” she whined, rubbing her legs together to ease the building ache. “Please, help me…”
“Fuck…” Eidan moaned, taking a step back. “How… how can we travel with her like this?”
Reinn blurred past her to open the chest against the wall, pulling things out.
“We need to get her dressed first. Find her shoes. Does she have a cloak?”
“I have one for her in my bag.”
What were they doing? Had they come in here for her or her shoes?
She sat up and crawled over to where Reinn was crouched, wrapping her arms around his back and resting her cheek against him as she whimpered. “Alpha,” she cooed. “What do I need a dress for? I only need your knot…”
A shudder ran through his body and he stilled, placing a hand on top of hers where they met over his heart.
“I know, little sunbeam, and you’ll get it. Trust me. Whatever you want. But first we have to bring you to a new nest.”
“A new one?” She sniffed. Fern remembered working so hard on her nest. Even Darion had helped. “Do you not like mine?”
Eidan lowered himself to her side, massaging her neck. “I’m sure yours was perfect, Fern. But Kyntha destroyed it, remember? We’re going to bring you to a new nest. A clean one. Just for you.”
She gasped. That’s right. That vicious, nasty woman had ruined everything.
“Just for me?”
Eidan kissed her along her hairline. “Just for you. But you have to get ready to leave. Quickly.”
Reinn dug out one of her gowns, and Eidan helped her stand. “Arms up.”
She did as instructed, and Reinn pulled it over her.
The fabric felt awful against her skin, and she let out a pitiful whine.
“Shh…” Reinn whispered. “We’ll take it off as soon as we can. We promise.”
Promise…
At least these two kept theirs. Unlike her other alpha.
Because he wasn’t here.
A twinge of a cramp had her wincing.
“Where’s Darion?”
They looked at each other, and then Eidan answered. “He’s not coming.”
Reinn growled behind her as Fern began to cry, the cramp worsening.
“He doesn’t want me…”
“He does,” Eidan replied quickly, taking her into his arms. He held her tightly, breathing her in. “He does. He just can’t come. I’m sorry.”
Fern nodded, but the tears didn’t stop. It wasn’t fair that despite everything, she could still want him. Still miss him. Still feel disappointed when disappointing her was all he ever did.
She buried her face into Eidan’s tunic, the smell of incense and roasted meat clinging to the fibers.
And the scent of him.
Fern rubbed herself against him, and his cock hardened between them.
She rubbed harder.
“Fern,” he warned, although there was no bite to his tone. “We need to go. Is there anything else you need to take?”
Reinn was at her feet, tapping each one so he could help her into her shoes.
Shoes… a gift from Eidan. But did she have a gift from Reinn, too?
She shook her head, then remembered. “My rocks!”
Reinn looked up immediately, grinning widely. “You still want your rocks?”
Fern pressed her lips together and nodded. “They’re beautiful.”
“Rocks?” Eidan asked, amused and confused.
They sat in their little row by the window, thankfully overlooked by that awful woman who had come in and ripped her nest to shreds.
“One, two, three, four…” she counted carefully, putting them in her pocket. Then she turned around, the alphas watching her with soft eyes.
Not just any alphas.
Her alphas. She was sure of it.
“Ready,” she said.
They each took a bag that had been waiting on the floor, and then Eidan stretched out his arms. “I’ll carry you. It will be faster.”
Fern ran towards him and jumped, he let out a small grunt of surprise as she landed.
“Careful, there,” he chuckled.
Reinn went first, and they slipped out of the room.
“Where’s Lucas?” she asked. “I want to say goodbye.”
“Shh,” Reinn replied. “We dismissed him. His help was needed elsewhere.”
The hall was empty, but the sound of screaming and clashing steel echoed from the dining hall.
Her grip on Eidan tightened. “What’s going on?”
“You don’t have to worry about it, we’re going the other way. No one will hurt you,” Reinn whispered over his shoulder.
For large men, they moved with a surprising amount of stealth, their steps light, calculated, and fast.
They went down a staircase Fern didn’t recognize, then through a hallway she didn’t know, and then stopped in front of a door she’d never seen before.
The screaming was too far away to hear.
Reinn looked at Eidan, who nodded in confirmation, and he opened it slowly, the hinges squeaking from age.
A gust of cold, humid air pulled them inside, and then the door shut firmly behind them.
“Where are we going?” Fern asked, a trickle of fear running down her spine. Her mind was still foggy from the heat and the medicine, but was starting to clear to make way for panic.
They were taking her somewhere she didn’t know.
New nest or not, this was strange.
At first, neither of them answered. They cut through the darkness with ease, not missing a step or turn, while Fern could only see pitch black.
When her grip on Eidan tightened and she began to tremble, he squeezed her tighter.
“We’re taking you away, and we’re never coming back.”
Fern didn’t know whether to scream, laugh, cry, or fight.
She was leaving… leaving this place where she had known nothing but hurt, misery, and loneliness. The only reprieve ever offered had come from the alphas whisking her away. And none of them were coming back.
Fern felt she should have been ecstatic, but all she focused on was hearing she would never see Darion again.
Darion was awful, but he was still her alpha. She still needed him.
Something shattered inside her, agony bleeding through and making it difficult to breathe. And in the darkness she felt the icy, cold grip of oblivion threaten to swallow her.
“Fern,” Eidan called. She knew he was close, but his voice sounded so far away. “Stay with me. Breathe…”
Breathe…
She sucked in a breath. It didn’t go far.
“Fern!”
And then the darkness had her.
* * *
She woke with a start, her body flushed and stomach cramping.
The medicine had worn off.
The heat was back.
And she was… on a horse.
Every bounce and sharp jerk was like a hammer to her spine, which was currently resting against the shield arm of Eidan.
She looked up at him with a moan trapped in her throat, his jaw set tight and trained on the path ahead as they rode at a steady canter.
There was an aching need building between her legs, one she knew could not be ignored for long.
“Eidan,” she whimpered.
“I’ve got you,” he replied.
Fern shifted uncomfortably from where she sat, her legs draped across his lap.
His cock was hard against her thigh, and her hands moved quickly, drawn like moths to a flame, trying to fight their way through layers of linen and leather to get to the prize inside.
“Fern,” he hissed, closing his eyes and swallowing audibly. “Not… not now. We have to…”
“Please,” Fern whined. One of her hands went between her legs, trying to move against herself for the friction that would take the edge off the pain but the skirts weren’t helping.
She needed skin, she needed him. His hands, his mouth, his knot locked inside her.
“I can’t wait.” Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, and she turned her face into his chest.
He smelled so good. So powerful, so strong, so… so Eidan.
“Eidan,” she said again. “I need you…”
“Reinn!” he called, urgency pushing his register up. “Reinn, we have to stop.”
“Not yet!” he called back. “There’s a good spot just a little farther up the road—”
“Please!” she practically screamed. “Please, I need you now!”
“Fuck,” Reinn spat. He slowed down from where he’d been riding ahead of them so he could speak from beside her. “Fern, you will never have to beg again, but I need you to hold out just a little while longer. You can be my good girl, can’t you?”
Her back arched and she gritted her teeth, holding on to Eidan so tightly her knuckles were turning white. “I want to be your good girl, I do, but—”
“You are, you already are little sunbeam. You need only wait a few more minutes for us.”
“Are you sure it’s only a few minutes?” Eidan asked. She could feel his hips grinding slowly, and she tried to touch his cock again. “I… I don’t think I can make it that long.”
Reinn rode even closer. “Climb over to me, let’s give your alpha a break, hm?”
Her alpha? She liked the sound of that…
“Are you my alpha, too?” she asked, not quite ready to let go of Eidan.
Reinn grinned, his sharp canine teeth reflecting the moonlight. “I always have been.”
They both slowed down, the hand off a little tricky as she tried to maneuver her way to his lap. But instead of sitting across it, he had her straddle him, their chests pressed together, her nose right in his shoulder.
And his cock… his cock was hard and rubbing right where she wanted it.
“Oh,” she said on a breath, unable to keep herself from moving against it.
“There you go,” he chuckled. “My body is yours, take what you need until we can stop and I can knot you properly.”
With one hand supporting her lower back and the other on the reins, he took the lead again, knowing exactly where to go.
Now, every jostle and bump was working with her, and she licked and nibbled on Reinn’s exposed skin as she rotated her hips and found the perfect spot, hitting it over and over.
Reinn started up a purr, the vibration adding to the pleasure.
“You like that?” he asked, meeting her thrusts with his own.
She did. She did very much.
Too much.
She was going to come.