In the throes of it, Lycan shoved his hands into Seath’s hair, getting enough purchase to make his own mark on Seath’s waiting neck.
Lycan was ferocious in his bite. Just as he was in the training room. The feeling was indescribable, a euphoric wave of pleasure that made Lycan dizzy as he bit until he tasted the copper tinge of blood on the sweet bouquet of Seath’s skin.
Seath’s responding roar reverberated off the wards as intense satisfaction raced through his body and his vision blurred golden on the edges. His knot fully formed, and Lycan bit down harder in his pleasure, more release between them as the very last he had to give joined Seath’s skin.
It was pure, liquid pleasure. Undiluted by anything else.
When Seath could see clearly, he licked over the mark on Lycan’s neck, already ensnared by the beauty of it on his mate. The mark was beautiful, and Seath growled with satisfaction when he was able to come down from the spiraling high to see it fully. Already, a faint gold ring had started to appear.
His wolf roared again with satisfaction. There was no denying it now. Lycan was his. Mating marks took all shapes and sizes, depending on the species involved. But fated mates were always the same, a gold ring imprinted on the neck over the mating gland— almost as a tattoo. No one could question his mating with Lycan now, or why he had been so enamored by the found omega. He had been obsessed with Lycan since he found him in the forest and for good fucking reason.
Humans had adopted the fated mate phenomenon of the gold marks to the ceremony of golden wedding rings. But for those who the Fates themselves had touched, it was always this. Seath would have his own as soon, right where he could already feel fated-mates magic had it forming in a low burn.
Seath nuzzled against the neck of his mate, the wolf in him wanting a chance to claim, too. Then, he again rolled over, so his weight wouldn’t crush the omega as they waited for the knot to release.
Lycan snuggled against Seath’s broad and hairy chest, equal parts sated and asleep, drifting still on waves of pleasure, his body limp with satisfaction.
Seath laughed as he felt his release drip even around the knot. It was a heady picture, but not one that would get his knot to recede. Thinking about filling his omega so much Lycan’s body couldn’t hold it in would only lead to the next round.
It was going to be very hard not to strut like a peacock if he ever left their bed to use his legs.
Lycan sighed and snuggled closer. Seath threaded his fingers through Lycan’s and watched his gold mark form on Lycan’s creamy skin and felt the comforting weight and scent of his spent omega covering him like a too-small blanket. He covered them with a real blanket as well, wanting Lycan warm and safe as he recovered from the intensity of their love-making.
Lycan slowly came awake, the knot still keeping them together, and he rolled his hips as if he was testing the feel of it in his body.
“How long . . .”
“Depends, baby, long enough for you to rest, I would imagine.”
For him, Lycan wiggling on his cock already had him interested in seeing if his omega had another orgasm in him, and the look on Lycan’s face when he pressed his hips up and down suggested that having more than one round when knotted was a definite possibility. Having an orgasm on a full knot like this could be overwhelming to some omegas.
But, Seath also could tell that Lycan needed water, food too, just like any heat. Only this time, Seath was seeing him through the heat, but he reminded himself how many heats his omega had been through in the past months, leaving Lycan always a little tired and depleted.
Heats Seath caused. Heats that now might get on a normal course. He needed to go slow with Lycan. Fated mates or no, Lycan had been through a lot, and was not through it yet. He should still be wooed. Romanced. Not just knotted and seen through his heat.
“Are you okay, Lycan? I know your heats haven’t been easy on you. So many, so intense.”
Lycan shook his head. “This is different. This is . . .this is wonderful.”
“I bet Caine left us some food outside the door,” Seath said to his lover, noticing how Lycan looked interested at the mention of food.
“Why Caine?” Lycan asked.
“The shifters will know we are mating, and they will stay away, pull the sentry to the wing, not the hallway. If we had run into another Alpha when we . . ..” Seath paused, unsure how much Lycan needed to know about his headspace in a rut. “I can be overprotective, apparently, when I’m in a rut. I didn’t want anyone to see you when you were going into a heat. Makes me crazy to think about it.”
Lycan tilted his head back, capturing Seath’s mouth for a kiss.
“It won’t always be like that, the more we are together, it will ease the appetite and the possessiveness.”
Lycan beamed at him, “So Caine could make it through all of that to make sure we don’t starve?” What he didn’t say was how he liked the possessiveness Seath showed. Given his past, and being kept in a way, he wasn’t sure how he should feel about that. But, he would sort his thoughts. Just, not right now.
“Yes,” Seath kissed Lycan lightly, “we aren’t done yet, my omega.”
And that was true. There was a tray of food, and a note, assuring that all was well. And subsequent trays and notes. Seath and Lycan drifted out of real time and in their own bubble of exploring each other’s bodies.
No one bothered them, other than to leave fresh towels and linens, and food at the door.
Chapter nineteen
