Tack glanced from Mads to Haze before signing something, and Haze smacked at Tack’s hands.
“Sorry! My mother is deaf, so I’m used to translating both ways. No, it’s not Baron’s baby. Marquis has been his mate a long time.” Tack nodded along as Haze signed. “Yeah. He stole a mated omega.”
Haze shook his head and gave Mads a nod of sympathy before they all eyed the cart of food.
Haze was the first to push forward, grabbing a sliced croissant that he spooned chicken salad into with gusto. He bit into it with a heavy sigh that might have been a moan if he had voice.
“I take it that’s first on the list of things you wanted. I remember when I was stuck shifted, I only wanted three things. People food, people bathroom, and peen—” Nite halted before clearing his throat. “Peeing. Yeah. Peeing.”
Haze glanced from his sandwich to the bathroom before giving a thoughtful expression. He leaned over, sniffed Tack, and nodded once before giving a shrugging gesture at him.
Tack pursed his lips, cheeks going red. More signing happened, and they signed back and forth, Tack’s face going redder as Haze rolled his eyes and held his sandwich in his mouth while signing.
“I feel left out,” Leon said over a mouthful of sandwich as Nite overstuffed his croissant with enough tuna for three sandwiches. He bit into it with a hum of pleasure.Cats and tuna.
Mads avoided the fish for obvious reasons as Tack tried to weasel his way out of explaining what Haze demanded.
“He wants the same thing you wanted, Nite. Tack is single, smells interested, and doesn’t smell mated.” Mads exchanged a glance with Haze as Tack tried very hard to not meet anyone’s gaze. Haze signed something else and glanced at Tack’s groin pointedly.
“I’m not translating that!” Tack squeaked. “And it’senough. I don’t think a mage is quite… Er… Wolfy enough in that department for you.”
Haze waved his hand dismissively, tearing into his sandwich.
“Unfortunately, omegas get what they want, Tack.” Mads snickered as the mage flustered. Fortunately, Sheila was too engrossed in chicken salad to pay any attention. Haze lifted an eyebrow and made a gesture that Mads was quite certain was both universal and not official sign language.
So much for another scarred omega. Extras? We were born to handle chaos. Extrasensory, extraterrestrial, extraplanar… Extra durable.
Tack excused himself with a cough and slipped from the room. Haze lowered his gaze and stared, quite blatantly, at Tack’s ass as he did.
If Mads didn’t know any better, Haze was giving some rather dominant energy for an omega.
Chapter Nineteen
Marquis
Marquis luxuriated in a dream, breathing deeply as wet, hot pressure engulfed his cock, slicking its way slowly up and down. As a grown male, he’d rarely had dreams so vivid, and he shuddered, the sensation growing fiercer by the minute.
Slick sounds pricked his ears, and pain from sharp nails digging into his chest woke him with a start as he lost the sliver of control he held onto and came, eyes fluttering open to stare at his mate seated atop him, taking his pleasure with the most beautiful expression.
Thin streaks of cum shot over his chest, wet streaks splattering and splatting with a beautiful note of pleasure. He’d never been that amorous with Rexford during his pregnancy, but the small swell of his belly and hormones flushed through his system like a storm—and some of his medications had inhibited his orgasms. Off of them, his anxiety was high, but his sex drive made Marquis a walking target.
Slumping forward, Mads huffed, hair stringy with sweat and covering his forehead. His ragged sigh dissolved into a groan of pleasure.
He sat up abruptly and rested a hand over his belly, gently circling a spot for a moment before drawing Marquis’s hand in as a tiny flutter pushed back. Marquis kept his hand there for a long moment until the stirring ebbed. Mads, for his part, stared with open wonder at Marquis, meeting his gaze when he glanced back up. “Morning.”
“G’morning,” Marquis said with a yawn. “To both of you.”
Mads slid off of Marquis’s softening cock and donned a robe, stretching out his lithe body as the terrycloth draped neatly over his bump.
“Shower time and then I need to be in the community center at seven.” Mads yawned and Marquis peered at the alarm clock in betrayal. Six fifteen.
“Bollocks…” Marquis rose and went his separate way with a pair of low-hung pajama pants to the kitchens, praying his help had left some overnight oats or something for breakfast. Pleased to see it, Marquis pulled one of the jars out and dug in, eating silently as he stared at the rising sun outside with a glare. Mages were nocturnal creatures, so early mornings were crimes against nature, sins against the goddesses, and wholly unnecessary. For the humans he was forced to entertain? Mornings were imperative. Marquis had the majority of his duties of an afternoon and evening.
Once he was full, he went to the downstairs bathroom to shower and back to their bedroom to dress. It was a casual day, which for Marquis meant not wearing a jacket. A button-up with rolled sleeves did him nicely as he tucked his wand to his side and strode out to his workshop to find a few of the humans already there, Nelson leading the gaggle of them.
“Good morning, Marquis!” Nelson waved, and Marquis gave him a soft nod. The humans didn’t give him honorifics, for Marquis was not a covenmaster or councilman to them. He was a master, a sage, and teacher.
He unlocked the workshop, and they filed in, back to work as they’d done the past few days, shaping out elegant rods of wood into serviceable wands. They were far different from a mage’s wand, these a symbolic thing that would hold their power in a wish crystal, imbued with a certain set of spells tailored to the wielder and anchored to their bloodline. Invisibility, permeability, mostly spells that could cause little chaos other than middling thievery. They would be Penumbra wands, made with the old Eclipse standard, his father’s mark on them, a testament to Arthur and Baron’s misdeeds. He dubbed them thewands of regret, each one a facet of their promises to the magi that their service was appreciated.
