Page 242 of Kingdoms of Night

“Oh, fuck you.”

“That’s not a very good start, Riley,” he chastised me, but there was a smile in his voice. “Pleasefuck meare the words you’re looking for.”

“Maybe I’ll tell you never to fuck me again.”

“Then I’ll growl until you change your mind,” he replied.

I narrowed my gaze. “That’s cheating.”

“That’sbiology,Doctor.”

An indignant part of me sputtered. But the overpowering part of me giggled. Because that was a clever play on words.

And he wasn’t wrong.

Itwasbiology.

An Alpha’s growl instantly prepared an Omega for sex.

However, this Alpha didn’t need to growl to make me wet. I was already soaked for him.

Because I wanted him. I wanted his knot. I wanted his purr. I wanted Jonas.

“Please fuck me, Alpha,” I said softly. “But be gentle. I’m sore.”

His gaze immediately turned liquid, his expression softening as he reached for me. “Want me to kiss your bruises first?”

“Yes, please.”

“I’ll start with this one,” he said, leaning in to brush his lips against my shoulder.

My skin tingled in response to his attentions and to what it meant to be kissed there.

He was claiming me again.

But in a gentle way.

“I’ll kiss every inch of you,” he said as he licked a path up to my ear. “Then I’ll give you another bath to help with the aches and pains.”

I assumed he meant another bath like the one we’d taken together… whenever that was.

But then I realized he meant another one today.

Because he’d clearly recently bathed me.

As I’d woken up clean, not covered in our fluids.

And in a bed, not a nest.

I pressed my palm to his chest and glanced around, confused.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I… I didn’t nest.”

“We didn’t breed,” he said. “You’re not pregnant.”

My brow furrowed. “But I went into heat.”

---