Forget Me Knot (PoisonVerse #2), page 40
“I love you so much…” Viper’s teeth grazed his mark on her neck. “My beautiful omega.”
I let my eyes flutter closed, just enough that I could see, but not enough that I would distract them. I didn’t want to look away.
What came through from her side of the bond, it was something beautiful. Something whole and full and loving. There was a vulnerability to it, the aching part of a wound that might never truly go away, but she had opened it to us. She had let us in to help her patch it up.
She wanted the love we had to offer, and it started with him.
I listened to hushed sounds of her soaring pleasure—the cutest little low moans she was trying to stifle—as Viper brought her to her climax, whispering his love in her ear the whole time.
His bond was still open and raw and vulnerable, and the love that blossomed from him every time he laid eyes on her, it was enough to sweep us all away.
It was reverence and passion and disbelief all at once, and sometimes when I caught him looking at her, it was as if he couldn’t believe she were real.
It paved a path for something so much better.
Not just for her.
For all of us.
It took a lot for me to fall for someone, but I realised I felt the same as he did—the same as everyone else in the pack.
I loved her.
EPILOGUE
Arsenal
I felt like I was living through one of those house renovation shows they always played in Institute waiting rooms.
The garage was cleaner than I’d ever seen. The kitchen was updated, and there was now actual wooden flooring across the space.
Onyx finally made King and Mal take the money she’d promised them. King had surprised us all, using the money to do up Ice’s old nest as a recording studio. Still not totally confident in working in public, he’d wanted to go for something he could do at home. The money covered the cost of the equipment.
It had started one night when he’d flicked through her fairy book. He began reading it out loud to us all when he’d discovered it was full of smut. Instead of blushing, Onyx had told him she wanted him to read the whole thing to her.
Ice, too, still had reservations about going out, despite Nash’s death and his registration. We’d talked about moving away from the Gritch District, but he was set on staying in the garage. He had, however, commandeered a slice of the workshop to make into a piercing—and one day, tattoo—shop.
Then he’d shocked us all last night by announcing he wanted to host a party.
The news had blown us all away. He’d been reclusive and terrified of anyone outside the pack for years, so for him to suggest that we invite people into our home was massive.
And he’d banned anyone from helping—with the exception of Onyx—since he wanted to see how well he could host.
The party was a week away, but they were apparently practising. There were dozens of Pinterest recipes and designs scattered across the couches.
Currently, they were hunched over the kitchen table. Onyx was trying to decorate cookies with roses. The first batch had been long trashed. It had been Ice’s idea to make brownies—so of course Onyx had told him rose cookies were just as necessary. But surprisingly enough, sprinkling rose petals into cookie mix in hopes it would magically meld together in the oven wasn’t the way to go about it.
Onyx—at least—was wearing an apron. Ice had discarded his with a comment about it being stupid, but he was currently covered head to toe in flour.
Onyx had always wanted a pack to look after and never had one. And Ice had always had one and never wanted to. Turned out, neither actually knew what they were doing.
King was the only functional one when it came to sorting the house out. He was not-so-subtly tailing them around, trying to fix disasters waiting to happen when they weren’t looking. Every time they turned their back, I watched him edge closer and crack an extra egg into a bowl, or sprinkle a little salt in. He’d retreat as soon as they were done.
Right now the space was filled with the scent of burned brownies. That happened to be their most recent mishap.
“Did I hear one of them say lemon icing on brownies?” Mal asked from where he was working on his bike. I winced, but pressed my fingers to my lips.
“I don’t understand.” Viper’s frustrated whine sounded from behind me. “How do you tell if you did it right?”
“You get a feel for it,” I said, turning my attention to him. I’d set him to work on his own bike after it had come out that he’d been the one to break it.
My eye twitched just thinking about that.
How? Why?!
Who would do something like that to a Hound?
Viper frowned. “I’m really no good at this. Couldn’t we just pay someone to—” He cut off at the flat look I gave him. My eye might still be twitching. He cleared his throat. “Noted.”
I dragged a stool up beside him, peering at what he was doing. “Your family is rolling in it. Do you work?”
“I dabbled,” he said quickly.
I snorted. “So… no?”
“I took a few uni courses, but none of them were right.” He scratched his head. “Alternatively, you guys don’t have to work anymore. I mean my dad is shit, but he hasn’t touched my funds—”
“No one in this pack is freeloading. Makes for lazy pricks that no one wants to be around. And that includes you.”
“Technically, I’m pack lead now, so…” He trailed off as my eyes narrowed. “Soooo… we’ll all be working.”
“Good. Well, looks like you’re getting the hang of it.” I nodded to the bike. “Keep at it and it’ll be good to ride in the next week.”
“You trust me to fix it up enough to ride it?” he said, clearly thinking I was joking.
“No,” I laughed. “Your bike. Your fix. Your ride.”
Viper’s face paled. “But I’m new…”
“Better make sure you’re paying super close attention when I’m teaching, then.” I clapped him on the shoulder.
It wasn’t until I’d turned to walk away that I saw Malakai watching us. I grinned at him and winked as I felt Viper through the bond since he still couldn’t shut it down: anxiety and absolute focus.
He was put out of his misery in the next moment, though, as takeout arrived.
It wasn’t long before we were all tucking into his favourite Chinese—delivered by his dad’s chauffeur.
“So, about the party... What do you think about inviting the Saint pack?” Viper asked.
“That’s the one with Havoc Saint, right?” Mal asked. “That gold pack omega you were supposed to dark bond?”
Onyx froze.
“What did you just say?” Onyx asked coolly, looking between Malakai and Viper. Even in a dusted apron with flour on her nose, she managed to look intimidating.
“I was never biting in,” Viper said instantly.
Her glare did not stall.
“Her pack helped me get back to you.”
“Her?” Onyx’s voice dropped a few tones. The scent of charred brownies was suddenly much stronger than one abused batch could possibly be responsible for. I abruptly found the oil under my fingernails extremely problematic.
Viper, clearly sensing danger, got to his feet and crossed toward her. “I burned a whole mansion down to get back to you, Love,” he murmured, tugging her against him from where she sat on the barstool.
“Wait, is that the pack with the hacker you used to keep tabs on Onyx’s phone?” Ice asked, the only one unphased by Onyx’s rather charred condition.
I winced.
“Uh…” Viper’s voice was hoarse.
But it was too late.
Lavenders rotted and brownies turned to coal.
The following fallout lasted three hours and ended in Onyx wrapped up in Ice’s chunky, rainbow knit blankets, weeping that the fresh pack hormones were out of control. Ice held her tight while Viper tried to bribe her affection back with brownies King had rushed to the bakery to buy.
“We’re inviting th-the Saint pack,” she finally sobbed.
“We really don’t have to—”
“They’re coming!” Her voice turned to a snarl.
“Okay.” Viper nodded weakly.
“They’re c-coming.” Onyx wiped her eyes, doing a poor job of gathering herself. “And Ice and I are going to—” She hiccupped.“—h-host them, and I’m going to be b-best friends with the waffle girl… Y-your ex.”
“She’s not my ex.” Viper’s voice was barely a wisp.
Malakai, who was lounging on one of the vintage couches watching the entire episode with poorly hidden amusement, snorted and tried to pass it off as a cough.
Ice
Later, we lay in the nest. Onyx had fallen into a deep sleep in my arms.
“Hormones were bound to catch up to her eventually,” I said.
Omega hormones were no joke.
Viper nodded, still laying at her side, arms wrapped around us both as she slept. He looked a little shell shocked and I was fighting the smile tugging on my lips.
“She was actually very rational.”
Most of the meltdown had been her hiding in the nest, fretting that everything she was upset over was silly and she just needed to ride it out. It had been a cycle of her weeping, then drying her tears and declaring it was over, reapplying her makeup, and then breaking down in my arms again. All the while sobbing that she didn’t even know what she was crying over anymore.
“She just found and bonded a new pack, she was taken by Riot, and she got all her memories back. Plus, she might deny it, but her heat’s on its way too.” I could feel it. “She just needed a good meltdown to get it all out. She’s going to feel way better when she wakes up.”
I knew it. I’d done it.
Though admittedly, having Onyx wrapping me in blankets to see me through would have made for a much better experience than hiding alone in my nest and trying to pretend hormones weren’t real.
Like the time I’d demanded they toss me down five consecutive tubs of ice cream over two days. They’d been worried I was ill, but I’d just discovered King’s gym wasn’t alpha exclusive. I’d wept a stupid amount of tears, imagining he might run into a sexy, ripped omega. And I’d been furious about it the whole time.
“Hold on. Did you say her heat’s on the way?” Mal asked, still seated on my nest couch, phone in hand. He liked to be around us when he could.
“Yeh.”
“Wait. But yours is too.”
“Yup.”
“But… Then…” I could see the comprehension dawn on his face. We all knew what it meant. If we were close, one heat was likely to trigger the other now we were bonded.
“Damn.” Mal had the cheek to look a little ashen.
“Don’t think you can handle us?”
“I absolutely fucking can,” Malakai snapped. “It’s the other old codgers I’m worried about.”
Viper snorted.
My mind drifted for a while before returning to the thing that had been nagging at me. Since we seemed pretty set on the Saint pack coming to the party…
“I did have a question, though, about the guy from the Saint pack that helped you?” I turned back to Viper.
“Kai?” Viper asked. “He’s good.”
“Where we got taken… The, uh, trafficking ring. I was there before.”
Viper propped himself up on his pillow, watching me seriously.
“Do you think… he can help me find someone?” I asked.
“I can ask. He got the Institute’s information about this pack when Onyx matched you.”
My pulse thundered in my ears. He was good enough to get into the Institute? That was where she’d been taken.
It was a question that haunted me, something I’d never had the resources or courage to fix, not when I’d been so afraid of ending up back in that place. “She was an omega too. She was taken from me…” My voice threatened to give out. How long had it been?
How old was she now?
Where had she ended up?
“Sure,” Viper said. “I can text him. What do you know?”
Not nearly enough. Her age—at a guess. That it was the Institute that had taken her.
“Her name is Hannah.”
THE END
BONUS CONTENT?
But I want more :(
(Before I tell you you how to get more for free, I’m going to slip is a request for a review! Make amazon love me <3)
But if you didn’t get enough happily ever after, there’ll be weekly episodes of Pack St. James’s HEA on my newsletter: HERE! (1st episode on April 11th) Or go to mariemackay.com
Don’t know why Havoc’s known to the city as the waffle girl? Read her pack waffle battles HERE
Where was the HEAT?!?
Double heat will be in the bonus content! I wanted to put it in the main book but when I started writing it didn’t feel quite right. I think because of where Ice and especially Onyx was at after the finale events. I felt there needed to be maximum autonomy for both omegas for the first pack intimacy, and I also didn’t want to skip the first time either.
Will there be more books like this?!?
Yes! See next page for Hannah’s story (Told by Olivia Lewin). And did you catch the omega’s lullaby that Viper heard while rescuing Ice? She’s going to be the main omega in my next Poisonverse book. (July release!)
Don’t forget to Join my Facebook group and let me know how you felt about the book!
HANNAH’S STORY
Hannah’s story will be told by Olivia Lewin, with a release date May 2nd 2023.
PreOrder Now.
And have you read my first Poisonverse book? (Havoc Killed her alpha?)
I'm the omega who killed their pack brother. Now they get to decide my fate...
Read Now
AFTERWORD
A quick note on a choice in this novel: Onyx’s infertility.
Onyx’s infertility was originally a bigger part of the book. As the plot shifted, I considered taking it out as I didn’t want to fail to give it justice. But I decided not to.
I realized I was already giving it the voice I needed it to have.
I’m adding this note to say this: I would never want to minimize the journey of those who experience the grief of infertility.
However, I rarely see infertility represented as a purely societal issue. Instead, most often it’s both societal pressure compounding existent personal grief.
Onyx’s issue was simple: without society making it so, her infertility would be a non-issue. Nervously, I say this: Onyx doesn’t care about her condition, and that’s okay.
Everyone else that cares so much it’s impossible for her to voice that. What if it’s just… present, yet not something she wants to be important, but she lives in a world that makes it front and centre?
My relationship with this issue isn’t an exact parallel, but this storyline was cathartic to write. Thanks for reading!
-Marie
ALSO BY ME
MFM PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Need some shifter romance? Read The Dusk Wall Academy series next.
Amber and Shadow is the first book in an enemies to lovers, paranormal—Hold up. Stop.
I’m not even sorry. Cut the blurb, I’m venting.
Sylas.
You. Absolute. Prat.
You remember what we sacrificed to get to this godforsaken academy, right? All for you, I might add. And while I downed that potion to qualify—the one with a fifty percent chance of killing me—what were you doing?
Oh, that’s right. Opening your bleeding heart to a random woman and accidentally binding her to your magic. (You know—that minorly important thing your 'condition' requires for survival?)
And that—that’s not even the kicker, is it?
You should be popular with the ladies, you have that whole ‘strongest-vamp-in-academy-history’ thing going, right? But congratulations, you found the one exception, because Briar Bishop hates you.
To add to everything, she’s untrained (also, insane). Come the trial, demons are going to eat her alive, and she’ll take your magic with her—magic she’s now burning through, it seems, just to spite you.
And who’ll end up fixing this mess?
Right.
Me.
Where did I put my matches? I need a bloody smoke.
*ahem.* Download NOW for a Witcher meets Zodiac Academy four book romance. Broody vampires, and shifters. Enemies to lovers. Monsters and magic. Check. Check. Check. All the good stuff. Go buy it. Or Axel will find you. And he’s in a bad mood.
Author’s Note: This is a slow burn (2nd book explicit spice) adult romance. It contains dark themes, adult language, intimidation, violence, and triggering situations detailed in front of the book. For mature readers.
Marie Mackay, Forget Me Knot (PoisonVerse #2)
