It’s Marcus who closes the distance between us, his scent spiking and surrounding us with cool pine and winterywinds. He kisses me so sweetly, with so much ardor I feel it in every cell of my being. I whine into his kiss, swaying closer as his lips move over mine. When I feel his tongue at the seam of my lips, I open for him, moaning at the first touch of his tongue to mine. He drags me into his lap so I’m straddling him, and I press into him, into the hard planes of his muscles. I gasp as he deepens the kiss, more of his scent flooding my lungs with the sharp intake of my breath.
He nuzzles my nose, marking me in his scent as though I wasn’t already covered in it. Still, his claim stirs something inside me. Touch by touch, he’s making me his. When he kisses me again, I whine, clinging to him. Saints, his muscles aren’t the only hard thing between us. The thought that I’ve caused this alpha’s arousal has me perfuming, honey, vanilla and jasmine filling the air, melding with his scent into something so perfectlyus.
He growls into our kiss, and if I hadn’t just perfumed, that would have made me do so. Instead, a shiver licks down my spine.
Boots scuff the path to the garden, and something hits the ground with a dull slap.
Marcus and I spring apart, both of us blushing furiously. I let out a nervous giggle when I see Cass’ father, Roman, on the garden path.
“Kids, I had no idea.” He turns away so he’s not looking at us, but Marcus angles himself in front of me all the same, always protecting me. Too bad he can’t protect me from the embarrassment of getting caught by one of Cassian’s dads. “Oh, saints,” he groans. “Beth told me to avoid the garden. I come here to sketch when I need to think, and I just thought she meant the bees, not that… Saints, I really should listen to my mate. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have intruded, but you see, I couldn’t see you behind the flowers, and now I’m rambling and?—”
Marcus lets out an awkward laugh. “We were, um, just leaving. We finished our picnic and, um, yeah. Let’s get back to the house, Juniper.” Marcus helps me to my feet and folds the picnic blanket with quick, economical movements. He gives it to me and picks up our dishes and stuffs them into the picnic basket.
We leave the garden hand in hand, and the moment we’re free of the flowers, I giggle, and he laughs. Saints, I love the sound of his laugh; it sounds so carefree, and in this moment, I know heiscarefree. We dash through the yard to the door, but Marcus tugs my hand, pulling me to a stop.
“Not done with you yet,” he rumbles. He presses me up against the door to the manor, wedging his knee between my thighs. His scent spikes again, and I whine, wanting so much more from him.
“Marcus,” I pant, expecting his kiss.
“Juniper,” he teases, clearly knowing what he’s doing to me. I lean in for his kiss, needing to feel his lips on mine.
Instead, he presses the sweetest kiss to my forehead. I’m coming to realize that he putseverything, all of his deepest thoughts and desires that he can’t put into words, into the simple gesture of kissing my forehead. And it’s more precious to me than any kiss on the lips.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
When we finally return to the omegas, they tease me about my extra-long heat, though their eyes are hollow; they know the truth about the attack, about the affinitied alpha. I’m sure they got it out of an exhausted Graeme or a stressed Jack. Still, it feels good to be teased, even if we all know better.
We’re even more cautious when approaching the castle now, sticking to back roads and watching for tails, but it seems no one else knows about the omegas in the castle on the cliff. We take supplies Gerard provides, more clothes and rations, clean bottled water. I’m teased again when I watch my men haul in all the heavy goods while sitting on a low wall around the castle garden, enjoying the show. It’s not my fault my alphas are all so strong, wearing tee shirts that show off the muscles in their arms. Saints, but they’reniceto look at.
Cora sits beside me on the wall, a little closer than she would have a few weeks ago. “Are you still mad at me?”
I turn to her. “Cora, I was nevermadat you. I was scaredfor you. You’re my friend, and I didn’t want to see you get hurt or worse.”
“But the information helped, right?”
“You have no idea how much. We’ve been able to piece together that my father is giving alphas affinities.”
She shudders. “That’s what Graeme thought. Can I show you what I’ve been working on with him, or are you too busy watching the muscle show out here?”
I color. “I’m, ah, done.”
“Uh huh,” she teases. “Come on. I’ve been waiting for you to return. I’m glad you waited until the danger died down a bit. Jack told me it was mayhem out there while they were searching for that alpha. They didn’t find him, did they?”
I shake my head. “They did not.”
Cora grumbles at that as we approach the small room where we’ve been practicing her magic. She doesn’t even bother stepping into the safety cage as she whips up a shield. “Test me on it.”
“I don’t know, Cora.”
“It’s the fancy one your mate came up with. Jack taught it to all of us. Even the omegas who don’t speak English have learned it. Someone got hold of a Mandarin-to-English textbook, and they’ve been learning English. Aimee’s teaching them all the naughty words. They definitely understand ‘knot’ now.”
My first instinct is to groan, but I’ll never regret the omegas getting closer—and Cora getting close to them too. I sigh. “All right, I’m firing sparks at you, but remember, you asked.”
“I know, I know,” she says impatiently. “Get on with it. I’ve got this spell down.”
I grab my scribe and take on an attack stance, let my magic flow, and shoot off a small spark. It bouncesharmlessly off Cora’s shield. At her insistence, I bombard her with more, until she finally tires and drops her shield.
“Your spellwork is progressing so quickly!”
