“Such a good girl, Junes,” Simon praises.
My lips tighten around Marcus as I moan.
Simon thrums his fingers over my clit twice more, and with Luca in my cunt and Marcus in my mouth, I fly apart, squeezing around Luca as I whine around Marcus’ hard length.
My orgasm sends both of them over the edge, and they pump into me in alternating strokes until Luca’s turn jerky. He spurts hot cum into my cunt and presses his knot into me. Marcus comes with a low, growly groan, spilling into mymouth. He paints my lips with his spend, and I eagerly lick off every drop. Luca rolls us over, until I’m on my back on top of him, his knot lodged in my cunt, making me quiver with need.
“Marcus, since it’s your first time,” Luca says, voice annoyingly level while he winds me up with his knot, “want to do the honors of licking her pretty pussy while she’s on my knot?”
“What was it you said? Abso-fucking-lutely? Fuck, yes.”
Saints, is there a bliss greater than this?
Marcus settles between mine and Luca’s thighs, pulling my legs up onto his shoulder. He nuzzles against my mound, drawing my honeyed-vanilla-and-jasmine scent into his nose before parting me with his tongue and licking my clit. I whimper his name as he tongues me in earnest, laving his tongue over my clit until I’m throbbing around Luca’s hard knot. Luca grinds his knot into me just as Marcus sucks my clit into his mouth, lashing at it until I break, coming hard on his tongue and around Luca’s knot.
My pack isn’t done with me when Luca’s knot deflates, and he eases me off his length. Cassian and Ian take me together, exchanging hard thrusts into my cunt and ass until I’m panting. And when I look over at Marcus? He’s watching me intently, lazily stroking his cock, basking in my breathy cries.
After being thoroughly pleasured, I fall asleep between Cassian and Marcus and, for one blissful night, all feels right with the world.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Despite protests from my pack that I still need to rest, that I’ve been burning the candle at both ends trying to keep up with schoolwork, I’m determined to visit the freed omegas. With all the time spent catching up in my classes and my new tutoring every Friday morning, my weeks become untenable. Still, I must see them. I have to show them they haven’t been abandoned.
I visit them on a Saturday with Ian in tow.
Cora rushes up to me, stopping just short of giving me a hug. She eyes me with apprehension. “You’re okay?”
I’m not, really. It’s almost as if I can still smell the smoke in the air from the initial attack, from hexes hitting home on innocent attendees. I can’t get those days of solitary confinement out of my head, nor will I ever forget being forced to help my father with his experiments. “I’m doing better,” I tell her, because it’s the best answer I have to give her.
Aimee shoves her way to the front of the group, deftly avoiding touching Cora. She looks me over, but the marks of my mistreatment have faded. The scars that remain are on my heart, not my skin. She throws her arms around me,hugging me tightly, only letting go when I do. It’s enough to make tears spring to my eyes, but I quickly wipe them away. I haven’t gone through a fraction of what these omegas have.
Graeme enters the great hall, a cup of tea in hand. “You should tell them,” he says to me softly. “Whatever you feel you can. Spare no detail you’re comfortable giving. We need to know what we’re up against.”
I want to protest that these omegas are safe, that they’re not up against anything, but I know they will be. It’s only a matter of time before the war comes to them. Eventually, the castle’s protection won’t be enough. If the Soldiers find out about the castle, there’d be a siege, and though the omegas are presently well stocked, it wouldn’t be long before their food ran out. Before one of them, namely Cora, did something dangerous.
I sigh, sitting on top of one of the long dining tables we pushed aside to make room for practice space. “I know I’ve been gone for a while,” I hedge. “During most of that time, I was a hostage of the Soldiers of Saint Aldous. Many of you have met my mate, Cassian. We were at a convocation ball at the Saint Galen Consortium, where he was due to start the next day. More than one hundred Soldiers attacked and took those they didn’t kill hostage.”
Gasps sound throughout the crowd, murmurs rushing through the omegas like waves.
“Hostage?” Aimee echoes weakly.
Saints, I shouldn’t be telling them any of this. They’re already traumatized from their own time in confinement, and that time was so much worse than mine. I was never forced to use my affinity or be put to death, was never tormented with a collar.
Graeme gives me a slow nod, and I get his message. As hard as this will be for the omegas to hear, they must. They need to know what we’re all facing.
“Hostage,” I confirm. “Everyone who wasn’t killed in the initial attack was taken hostage. Both my pack and I were. I wasn’t harmed because I was of particular interest to a man they called ‘the butcher.’ A man I would later find out is my father. They kept me hostage with other omegas for a time, before putting me into a treatment room on my own. I was handcuffed and spent most of my days chained to the bed.”
“Juniper,” Cora murmurs, reaching out as though she might take my hand. She thinks better of it and drops her hand.
“Eventually, my father came for me. For those who don’t know, my father is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. He has an extensive background in medicine—and a background in experimenting on omegas.” I swallow hard and stare at my boot-clad toes for a moment before raising my head. “I believe I was one of his first test subjects when I was sixteen. He locked my magic, something the Council is now threatening to do to any omega caught casting forbidden spells.”
I look to Graeme for confirmation, which comes quickly.
“Jack and I told them.”
I nod and force myself to continue. “I believe my father’s research in locking magic has emboldened the Council and the Soldiers of Saint Aldous. But it’s hisotherresearch that truly scares me and should scare all of you. Cora found an abandoned facility around the beginning of June, one I believed my father was using to conduct experiments on omegas. He confirmed as much while I was being held hostage. His experiments are gruesome. And fatal.”
I beckon Aimee forward and turn so her back is facing the crowd of omegas. At my prompting, she gathers her blond curls to the side.
