Page 19 of The Queen's Nest
Thank you,I thought.Thank you for keeping her safe, Keeping them all safe.
Axe
Iwould thank the Goddess every day for the rest of my life that Lorn had heard of the attack and ridden home without stopping for anything other than to change his mounts. His arrival had broken the worst of Vali’s resistance—or her body’s resistance. She insisted she had nothing to do with her womb closing again and seemed extremely flustered when any of her mates brought it up.
In fact, she seemed not to remember much about the days of her heat after she had woken, but very clearly recalled the destruction of her nest and her part in that. She had tried to apologize for damaging my room. I’d reminded her that she had saved my life, and she’d nodded gravely. “I would kill a thousand assassins for you, my dear Axe. For any of my mates. I’m not sorry I killed him. I’m just sorry I had to ruin my beautiful nest to do it.”
Of course then, Lorn and Tarn had started joking about building an even better nest, to distract her from recalling the details of that night, but the steady fire I had glimpsed in her gaze was still there whenever her eyes fell on her mates. Our Omega was small, but fierce, and not at all as helpless as she looked.
On the other hand, I was helpless against my brothers’ teasing. I only wished I could forget how I had behaved.
After Lorn had arrived and finished attending to her, I had gone into a full-blown rut, as I had never experienced since my first one at eighteen. I didn’t remember all of it, but what I did was mortifying.
“Axe, are we allowed to sit at the dining table?” Tarn inquired smoothly. We were gathering in the private royal dining chamber. Vali claimed to be too embarrassed to eat in the formal dining hall with all the court. Her heat had triggered an orgy of epic proportions in the castle, spilling over into the town of Turino. Her friends from The Rutting Sow had sent her a gift basket of scented oils, hothouse strawberries, and wine to thank her for all the extra business.
“Yes, Axe,” Rigol asked, raising one eyebrow as he hovered by his own chair. “I wouldn’t want to sit without your approval.”
Without waiting for my answer, Tarn turned to Lorn and casually said, “You know, brother, I never even knew Alpha barks worked on other Alphas. Do you think it was his rut, or has our dear Axe had a yearning to make us obey him in the bedroom before this week?”
“I certainly couldn’t disobey his command,” Tarn murmured. “Not that I tried all that hard.” Vilkurn coughed lightly while I fought back a blush.
Vali’s small hand landed on my arm. “You have nothing to be ashamed of, my sweet giant,” she said, recognizing that I was chagrined by my behavior, though I hadn’t been perfectly in control. It wasn’t my way to order my friends around, especially in the bedroom, but somehow, for the Goddess only knew what reason, my Alpha side had needed to see Tarn and Vilkurn kissing passionately as I fucked our mate. From the sly smiles Vali, Tarn, and Vilkurn had exchanged since then, I was fairly certain they hadn’t minded that command.
But then I had ordered Lorn and Rigol to stand and watch as I took our Omega in every way a man my size could take a tiny, perfect slip of a lass, holding their own cocks and splattering Vali’s breasts with their come. My face flamed, remembering.
Shit. I was hard again.
The hand on my leg had slipped, and now moved lightly, teasingly, up and down my erection. “Goodness,” Vali murmured. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that was an axe handle.”
My brothers all laughed while I scowled, until Vali spoke again. “My scent changed today,” she announced calmly, spearing a stem of asparagus with her fork, and putting it into her mouth.
“What did you say?” Rigol asked, concern in his tone. The whole room had gone still.
Vali’s hands moved to her stomach, and she pulled one of my much larger ones around them. “My scent changed,” she repeated, a mysterious smile gracing her mouth. “It’s not just peaches and honey now, is it, my darling mountain of a man?” She fluttered her lashes at me in that exaggerated, silly way, but her eyes gleamed with deep joy.
I set my face against her bodice and sniffed, inhaling as deeply as I could, until I detected it. Yes. Peaches, honey, and there, beneath it all… a hint of rich earth and musk, both familiar and new.
My scent, but faint, fresh. Like a bright wind moving over damp earth, and springtime.
“A child?” Rigol shouted.
I gathered my mate in my arms, running for the room that was now ours, our nest, since we had all decided my room wasn’t safe enough for her. I had moved all my possessions to this one, and Vilkurn had added some toys from his collection. The staff had taken to calling it the New Dungeon.
I ran for the door, locking it behind us and laughing noiselessly at the pounding and curses that came from the others as I snuggled my Omega in our bed. We lay with my head on her stomach for an hour while she slept, while I marveled at the thought that my babe could be—was—forming inside her.
Our babe.
When I felt she must be growing tired of holding my head on her belly, I moved as if to go. “Axe,” she said groggily, rousing from her nap. “Don’t leave me. Stay.” She rubbed her nose in my hair, leaving traces of her scent everywhere she touched. “Promise you’ll stay?”
“Always,” I signed, and she closed her eyes, drifting back into a dream.
For her I could do anything. I could share her time, her body, and her love with my brothers. Share my children with them as well, so that they would call us all their fathers. I could fight the Alpha need I felt to steal her away and keep her to myself.
I winced, recalling the previous week. Unless I was in rut.
But I could never leave her. I would be with her—in this nest, if necessary—for as long as she would allow me to stay.Goddess, let me be with her to the end of my life, I prayed.Let me give her as much love as she can hold.
Across the room, something fell and landed next to my harp, making the strings chime together in a perfect chord. In an affirmation.
The Goddess had heard and answered.
The thought broke over me like a wave, and then Vali moved in my embrace, her sweet scent drifting around us both. I rolled over, spreading her legs with my hips, notching the end of my once-again hard cock to her opening as she opened her lust-filled, heavy-lidded eyes.
“Again, Axe?” Outside, it sounded like someone had taken a saw to the solid, thick oak. I ignored it and lifted my hands so Vali could see. “Always, my sweet Vali.”
I would share my new room, and this perfect nest, with my brothers. But first, I’d have my perfect mate one more time.
