BEATRICE
“Areyou happy with the scents in your nest now?” Pax purred.
“If they are not enough, please grant me a reprieve whilst I rest.” Jack nipped at my finger.
“The pair of you! I’m happy for now.” I buried my face into the mattress, which was collecting a layer of our scents. “By the Goddess’ left tit, I am sore.”
A swat landed on my exposed buttock. “Language.”
“I heard a maid say it once and have longed to say it,” I confessed.
“Now you have.” Pax laid out another. “Nothing like that will come out of your mouth unless you want something filling it.”
I rolled onto my back. “By the Goddess’ left tit.”
Jack inserted a finger into my mouth.
“By the Goddess’ left tit.” The words garbled as I avoided biting him.
He added another.
I spoke the words again, even more unintelligible around the intrusion. A third finger filled my mouth. I took a breath, prepared to say them once more.
“Suck, Trix,” my mate’s command. But I had something to say, so I sunk my teeth into his fingers. He jerked his hand out of my mouth. “That hurt.”
“I—”
“You little Vixen.” He laughed, shaking his hand as if that would take away the dull pain. Pax leant forward and nipped at my shoulder.
“Can we stop biting each other for one moment?” I growled. “I might have started this unfortunate habit, but I wanted to say something.” I paused, waiting for them to quiet.
“Yes, lady Paxton,” Jack said, his smile warm and the humour dancing in his eyes. Pax purred, no doubt relishing the fact Jack was calling me Lady Paxton. Not that I blamed him. The title did strange things to my insides—a pleasurable sense of oneness with my mates married with the thrill that I was no longer just a “Hartwell omega”.
“I’m hungry,” I declared.
“You choose to bite Jack because you are hungry?” Pax asked.
“Yes.”
“As the omega wants.” Pax stood and left the nest to order a meal brought up to the room, leaving me alone with Jack.
I shifted to my knees, crawling over to him, until our noses brushed, and I could take in great lungfuls of his scent. I closed my senses off to everything but him. Elfwort. I remembered the first time I’d learnt what his scent was. A bright yellow flower with a faintly camphoraceous scent, and it recalled nothing of the alpha it belonged to. Even so, I’d noted the faintest hint of my mate on Pax. The whiff so gentle another would have missed it. I hadn’t.
“Trix?”
“I’m scenting you,” I told him. “I like this.”
“I do to… But now that you are back—”
“You’ll let me be myself?” Only it wasn’t really a question. I pressed on, not knowing when Pax would return and share his opinion. “You know me. Knew me. I won’t just stay home because it makes you feel safe. My friends, my enjoyments? Can you really ask me to give them up?”
“Trix, did you send Pax off?”
“No! But… I am taking advantage. He will do or say something, but ultimately he is an alpha… You aren’t just my alpha, Tod. You have watched over me. I’m more aware of your need to protect.”
He rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling. “I know. I’ll work on it. But with Stimpson—”
“No. Leave Stimpson out of it. I don’t want you to pursue him. If you see him… Do what you want. But will not have you risking prosecution by going after him.”