Page 63 of Marked Omega

They are all awake and watching me. It’s a slightly disconcerting way to wake up.

“How do you feel, little one?” Addom purrs.

I stretch and squint against the sunlight as my eyes adjust to being awake.

“Sore,” I chuckle.

That’s an understatement. My muscles ache like I’ve had the workout of my life, and between my legs feels tender.

“Come on,” Addom says. “We will bathe you.”

He gathers me up in his arms like a child, and I hug his neck. He carries me back to the hot baths, Hasker and Kadmon following close behind.

When Addom lowers me into the water, I can feel the heat relaxing and unwinding all of the tension in my muscles. The Alphas gather the soap and wash me thoroughly. They pass me around, each of them cleaning every recess and crevice.

Their gentleness is a total contrast to the rough way they shared and used my body last night.

After I am clean three times over, we get out and they dry my body. It feels funny being treated this way. I can’t tell if they are like servants serving their queen or men caring for a prized possession.

“Good,” Addom says at last as he plucks a damp curl dangling down my shoulder and drapes it down my back. “Now we will go to the Source, to complete the binding.”

“Wait, what?” I gasp. “I don’t think I can take any more sex right now. I need to rest.”

Addom shakes his head and smiles.

“We are not going there to mate,” he says. “The final part of the binding should be done at the Source so that your body may heal more quickly.”

“Heal?”

These guys were pretty rough with me last night, but not that rough. Sure, they marked me with their teeth, but they didn’t injure me or anything.

When I glance at Kadmon, I see that he is touching his lip ring.

“Oh,” I gasp, my fingers going to my own lip as a reflex.

Now I understand. They are going to pierce me.

CHAPTER 27: LILY

“Oh fuck me!” I bark.

Exquisite pain explodes through my right breast as Hasker’s long thin needle pierces my nipple. As a reflex, my body tries to jerk away from the pain, but Addom’s powerful arms clamp tightly around me in a marble-statue embrace. I squeeze Kadmon’s hand so tightly his fingers turn purple.

The sound of my shouted curse echoes through the Temple of the Source, bouncing around the cavernous, domed space. A few worshipers who are making slow laps around the Source raise their heads at my outburst.

I think, under the circumstances, I can be forgiven for sullying this sacred place with my profanity.

“Shh. Good omega,” Addom purrs in my ear. “You’re doing great.”

I’ve already gotten two other piercings today—one through my eyebrow to match Hasker’s, and one through my nostril to match Addom’s septum piercing. The idea is that the matched piercings will bind me to each of the Alpha’s individually.

And by doing the procedure in such close proximity to the Source, the wounds heal almost instantaneously.

The first two piercings didn’t hurt too badly, but this third one was a doozy, given to match Kadmon’s nipple ring.

It was a team effort too. Addom hugged me tightly from behind to keep me from flinching. Then Kadmon pinched my nipple and pulled it to a taut peak. And last, Hasker handled the thin needle, using a cork on the other side to catch the sharp point as it came through.

Before today, the prospect of mean old Hasker being the one to do the piercing would have terrified me. But ever since last night, his attitude toward me has changed, and I can’t deny that I feel a strange connection to him now.