Page 55 of Lost in the Fog

“But you have a waggy, little tail. I saw it.”

He looked embarrassed. “I might not take this form again if it elicits commentary.”

“Oh, come on, Zhin has taken the comments on his little twigs and hanging vines with good humour. Your cute, little waggy tail is going to have to deal with my skewed admiration.”

His hand clenched.

“Although, if we have kids, you are going to have to wear your other form for more public displays of affection. Or whatever this is.”

His hand clenched again. “You doubt our affection?”

“This is sex. The rest is courtship. I don’t know you and don’t know much about you.” She blinked slowly. “I have my life, and you have yours. We live together and have kids together. Like roommates with benefits.”

He frowned.

Zhin said softly, “We picked this house for you.”

“Ira’s images picked this place.” She didn’t know why she was being crabby; it was a perfectly nice house.

She felt Knur’s knot loosen up, and she eased off him. Pandora fell to one side and wrapped her arms around her bent knees. She tried to think of why she was acting this way but wasn’t sure. She thought about some of the books she had read on the history of omegas, and as Zhin and Knur were both rubbing her back in concern, it snapped into her. “Mate rejection.”

Zhin paused. “Oh. So, you feel...”

“Dark, hollow, depressed, suicidal.” She wiped her cheeks on her knees. “Can we just bond first before I am played with like a toy again?”

Zhin began to comb her hair and said, “A bond is why we were here. We just didn’t think you would want us all tangled together before it started.”

“I think I would prefer that over the urge to throw myself into the fireplace.”

Knur was kneeling next to her. “Which lock do you want?”

She sniffled and reached behind her for one on the back left. Zhin combed it out quickly and grabbed one of her hands, and she felt a sharp puncture. He pulled a section along her finger, and then she smelled other blood in the air as they did the same while Zhin got to work. Knur was sitting nearby and working on Zhin’s hair, so she reached for Knur.

She combed out the lock and smeared blood on one out of three. Knur reached back and held his finger out. The blood was added, then Zhin’s, and then they all sat there braiding.

The moment she finished Knur’s braid, there was a click in her mind. Then another when Zhin’s was done. She felt better. Less like she was in the middle of a panic attack.

The moment Zhin finished, there was a thunderclap to her senses. The spiral of despair cut off in an instant. “Oh, that’s better.”

Knur pressed his forehead to her shoulder. “I am sorry to have given you such distress. I know the pain of that kind of loss.”

“Except I never had the hope of it in my thoughts, and then it was gone. What kind of a stupid adaptation is that?”

“It must have been useful at one point,” Knur murmured.

Zhin nodded and stroked her braid. “Possibly. It could also be the grief of centuries of omegas past. Used and discarded.”

Pandora winced. “That leaves a horrible mental image.”

Zhin hugged her. “It does. Sorry.”

Knur stroked her cheek.

She could feel them now. Thick golden bands swirled in her mind, and their emotions coursed along them. Knur was relieved, concerned, and there was a simmering lust in his thoughts. Zhin was bright energy, tense lust, and healing concern.

Pandora straightened, gripped the back of each of their necks and whispered, “So, which room is next?”

Joy sparked in their minds, and Zhin lifted her in his arms. Apparently, next up was the kitchen. If she was on the counter with tilted hips, Zhin was perfectly set up to access all of her. She was sweaty and slipping around on the counter by the time they locked up, but the giggles in her mind matched the satisfaction in his.

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