“He’s just joined your service?” Stellina asked, trying not to laugh as Dustin muttered rhyming words for “fragrant sock” as he stitched the toe.
I told her the story, but had to back up and share what I’d been doing in Mirren when Kellin asked, “You mean you’ve established an apothecary there?”
“Not just there,” Stellina interjected. “She’s set up apothecaries in Verdan, Rimholt?—”
I ticked off all the countries I’d been to on my fingers. “Gael, Wyngel, Havira, and Mirren.”
“And you found someone to run them?”
I grinned at his wide eyes. “Not just someone. Omegas. There aren’t many of them, and some are less… powerful? Maybe the word is obvious. But at least every city has one or two in hiding. In Mirren, I ran across an older Omega and her two mates. She’d been living in the underground sewers of that city for her whole life. She’d had four babies of her own, though three died as infants. They helped set up not one but two safe houses. She didn’t need much help, to be honest. Just some funding, a little medical and weapons training for her guys, and enough herbs to see them through until their own gardens are established.”
“Gardens?”
I grinned. “Dried herbs and tinctures only last for a while. Half of my cloak is filled with seed packets, not poisons. Or it was, at least.”
“How many more apothecaries are you planning to start?”
“One more on this side of Starlak, if I can.” I sipped my tea. “Then I’m done.”
Kellin was fascinated with my story, asking dozens of questions about all the places I’d been, and I let myself bask in his admiration for a moment. “You know, Lachlan is an herbalist,” he said, too casually.
Stellina and I exchanged glances. “So I discovered. I’m planning to ransack his garden tomorrow for new supplies.”
He grinned, showing slightly pointed canines and mischief in his dark eyes. “I’ll help.”
He was too damned cute. I half-stood and leaned over the table, dropping a kiss on his mouth before he knew what I was doing. His lips were soft and warm, and he touched them again and again for the next half hour while we cleaned up, like he could still feel mine on them.
The men wereall in the kitchen finishing the dishes when Stellina grabbed me by the hand and pulled me down the hall. “Come on. Tradition time,” she said, then opened a door to a room where Lorana was preparing a bath.
“Did you do all this?” I asked, delighted.
“Ah, no, Miss Rada. That was your mate.” She dimpled when I narrowed my eyes. “Kellin. That one’s quiet, but he thinks of everything.”
The small room was filled with tables, all of them covered with candles and polished stones, though one held a silver carafe of water and a matching silver tray covered with small bits of dried fish, cheese, olives, late summer berries, and sliced sourdough bread. In the center of the room stood an enormousbronze clawfoot tub, easily large enough for three people, or two Goran-sized ones.
“This is an ancient selkie tradition, more or less,” Stellina said, sprinkling flower petals into the steaming bathwater. “Usually, the mother and mother-in-law of a moon mate share in the preparation before the mating bites are exchanged, and answer any questions they have. But Kellin insisted on setting up the room for you himself as a courting gift.”
“Courting gift? Isn’t it already… done?”
Her eyebrows flew high. “Are you turning down a month of bliss?”
“Bathtime to begin a month of foreplay sounds smart.” I grinned at her small, crinkled nose. “I guess I skipped a few steps when I gave him my blood. On the next new moon, I was meant to decide if I want to stick around, right? He was supposed to work for it.”
I didn’t think it was possible for Stellina to add another wrinkle to her creased face, but one more dented the area between her brows. “He still must. He’s not marked. You don’t have to fully claim him, like you did Lachlan.”
“Lachlan.” I scowled.
She shrugged, but her tone was sharp. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with him. You marked each other, and you accepted his pelt and claimed him three times. The time for that choice has passed.”
“I was lying to the ice dragon to get him to let Lachlan go!” I half-shouted, as Lorana dragged the robe off me and rubbed scented oil on my rough hands, then up to my elbows, tutting at the nicks and scars that littered my body. My calves had healed almost completely, thanks to the fenrick and my tinctures, so she slathered it on them, too.
I sniffed and recognized the herbs in the oil: lavender, mint, rose, and a drop of chrysforin pollen, a very mild aphrodisiac. I rolled my eyes. There would be none of that going on tonight.
Lorana grumbled as she stacked fluffy towels on a chair. “Didn’t even get a single one of those twenty-eight times twenty-eight happy moments. I think both those boys need to do some penance, not just the sweet one.” I laughed when she winked at me and licked her lips, indicating exactly what they should do.
“Quite right,” Stellina said. “You know, I’m not certain what to think about your mating with Lachlan. I, ah…” She blinked furiously, looking flustered. She couldn’t have been more flustered than I was.
“He’s an Omega and a male.” Now it was my turn to blush. “Just out of curiosity….” I gestured below my waist.
