“Your pack is complete,” he says quietly, and I expect to feel jealousy or even hesitation through our bond, but all I feel is his joy. Every part of him that was once closed off to me is open now as our bond solidifies between us.
I smile against his chest and doze for a time. When I wake, his knot has deflated, but he’s hard again, his cock brushing against my inner thigh. I let out a hum of appreciation and straddle him.
“I want you,” I murmur, perfuming for him again.
He sends me a lazy, dozy smile and takes my right hand in his, pressing a kiss to his bite. “I’m yours,” he says.
I lean forward just enough to take him in hand, guiding his thickness to my entrance, then slowly lean back, taking him inch by perfect inch. I moan as I slide down his length, taking him to the base. I brace myself with my hands against his hard chest, and he covers my hands with his. I roll my hips, feeling him move inside me, and I let out a moan at the feel of him. Each slow, grinding stroke sends sparks shooting into my belly. He moves with me, his hips meeting mine in a leisurely rhythm. We make love, unhurried, and I cherish every stroke of his cock inside me. Being close to him like this is far sweeter than I ever imagined it could be. Marcus meets my eyes with a faint smile as we move together, matching thrust for thrust. He grinds his hips against me with every stroke of mine he meets, ratcheting up my desire as his cock glides in and out of my slick cunt.
He lets go of my hands to weigh my breast in his palm, massaging and squeezing. I let out a breathy sigh, and he strokes a thumb over my nipple, making me keen. He eases his other hand between our joined bodies, finding my clit. He circles it as I fuck myself on his thick cock, drawing my need tighter and tighter.
“Come for me, Juniper,” he says, his eyes intent on mine. There’s no demand in his voice, but rather a soft plea.
I speed my downstrokes until I can feel my orgasm building inside of me. He rubs circles around my clit until I crest, crying out his name as my orgasm crashes through me.
As soon as I come down, he rolls us so I’m on my backand starts fucking me in earnest, thrusting long and hard inside me.
I gasp out his name with each stroke, which only incenses him. I meet each thrust, drawing him even deeper into my cunt, as he pounds into me, need and hot desire flashing in his gray-green eyes. My orgasm comes hard and fast, catching me totally by surprise, but Marcus follows me over the edge, hot cum jetting inside me.
“Knot,” I beg, and he obliges, fitting his thick knot into my body. It hits all the right spots inside me, and I rock against him from below, letting out a mewl of need. He rolls us again until I’m on top of him once more, his hands on my hips. He grinds me down on his knot in a steady rhythm that has me coming again and again. When I’m finally sated, I collapse against his chest, my cunt still fluttering around his knot. I curl against him, pressing my nose into his neck where his scent is most potent.
“You’re mine,” he says, voice ragged and deep. “Mine forever.”
“Mmm,” I agree. “We should have done this a lot sooner.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
When he’s not in the library or my nest, it’s not uncommon to find Simon at the kitchen table, a coffee in front of him, typing frantically on his computer. He’s been slowly hacking the Saint Galen Consortium in between surfacing missing persons reports. While he can’t lock in on the signal for the collars due to the wards, he does sneak into their network and gets an idea of their power consumption by parts of their building. It’s allowed him to narrow down which operating theater he believes my father is using for his experiments and determine where the test subjects might be being held. Working with Cassian, who knows the campus, and Ian, Luca and Marcus, all of whom got to see part of the consortium when rescuing me, we start to piece together locations on a giant map of Saint Galen’s hanging on the library wall.
We get more information every day, but every day brings with it new horrors. More omegas are grabbed off the street, filling the already at-capacity omega rehabilitation centers. The Soldiers have yet to release the mated omegas whose packs have been pursuing their release through legal means,just as the Soldiers have yet to release any hostages from the consortium.
I’m vision casting in Marcus’ lap, letting my affinity flow through me, when I’m struck with a vision. It comes with no pain this time, and it’s like I’m seeing through my own eyes once again, though when I look down at my hands, it’s not my hands I see, but two masculine hands clad in black leather gloves, gripping the handle of a cart. I try to look around, but the body—a Soldier—continues onward to the rooms where hostages are being kept. He trades words with a Soldier standing guard at one of the rooms and is let inside. I miss the complex warding the guard undoes because the Soldier whose body I’m in looks away.
I let out a growl of annoyance and feel Marcus hold me tighter.
The vision continues. I’m let into the room where hostages are gathered against the back wall, huddled together.
And that’s when I see them: worse for wear, emaciated, but live in the flesh. All of Bethany’s alphas. Pack Leclerc has survived.
The Soldier sets a stack of rations at the front of the room, then backs out into the hallway, carrying on to five more rooms. I note the classroom number of each one of them, and the moment my vision clears, I leap up from Marcus’ lap and dash to the giant map of Saint Galen’s we’ve been annotating. I quickly mark down the rooms where the hostages are being held, stop to give Marcus a quick kiss, and then run through the halls of the Leclerc estate until I find Cassian in the kitchen with Simon.
“Cass,” I say breathlessly. “I’ve seen them. Your parents are still alive, and I know where they are.”
“The government troopsare still at a standstill,” Graeme says at the next resistance meeting. “The Soldiers are threatening to kill hostages if any of the troops engage. We don’t know if the hostages are still alive, and we don’t know where they’re being held.”
I raise my hand slowly, and Graeme nods for me to go ahead. “Simon and I have found out where at least some of the hostages are being held. Simon was able to track power utilization to a block of specific rooms. We believe that’s where they’re being held.” I bite at the inside of my cheek, hoping Graeme understands the part unspoken: that I’ve seen the hostages with my affinity. “My pack is in a unique position following our time as hostages at Saint Galen’s. Though my men were limited in what they were able to see—trying to get to me as quickly and quietly as possible—they were still able to get a fundamental layout of some of the campus. That, and we know an unguarded entrance to the consortium. There are secret tunnels running beneath the campus, one of which opens about half a mile from the school.”
Gasps go up through the room.
“The secret tunnels are real?” Sienna asks, her eyes wide. “I’ve heard tale, but not that anyone had ever found them.”
“The headmaster guided us through the tunnel Juniper mentioned when we freed her,” Ian adds in. “It’s a solid way in that won’t be guarded. It will still be warded, but I’ve already broken the wards once. I’m more than confident that I can do it again.”
I unroll the map we’ve been annotating and use magic to stick it to the lodge’s wall, briefly explaining where we believe the hostages are being held as well as the position of the hidden tunnel.
I then swallow hard, bracing myself to relive some of my own experience. “I was held in a treatment room near one ofthe operating theaters. I witnessed my father experiment on an omega firsthand.”
“That’s appalling,” Mai gasps, coming up to look at the map and our markings on it. Of any of the resistance members in the lodge with us, she’s the most likely to know the medical school within the consortium’s campus. “I think Pack Rose is correct. From my time at Saint Galen’s, I would agree that the test subjects are being held right here.” She gestures to one of the areas we’d marked off. “How many did you see?”
