He was blinking sleep out of his eyes. Unlike Shan, Cas, and Em, he wasn’t trained to wake up at the drop of a hat. My former familiar had spent hundreds of years as a cat, so it made sense it took him a bit of time to become alert after being asleep. “He’s… adjusting,” he said cautiously.
“Well enough that I can start flirting with him, or…?”
Oswald’s chest rose as he sighed. “If you flirted like a normal person, I would say yes. Unfortunately, you fucking don’t. You have one setting, and it’s way too aggressive.”
I snorted softly, leaning forward to brush my lips against the fading mark on his neck. His cock, half-hard already, chubbed up further against my thigh. He groaned, but didn’t act on it. Ozzy had been surprisingly hesitant to act, with the exception of when I’d been in heat. Was it because of Nolan? Did he worry he’d scare the man away if he claimed me?
“What if I promise to tone it down?”
“You don’t know how.”
“Teach me.”
“I can’t teach you how to flirt,” he said.
“Why not? Clearly you know how, if you know I’m doing it wrong.”
He growled. I pressed forward, rubbing his cock against me. It was covered only by thin silk boxers that felt delectable against my skin.
“Because you can’t be taught anything. You don’t listen.”
“I’m all ears,” I said.
Trying to prove my point, I pulled back from him and propped my head up on my hand, watching him intently. His eyelids fluttered shut and his fangs threatened to puncture his bottom lip. There was plenty of bagged blood on hand, but I occasionally caught him staring at the pulse point in my neck like he wanted to take a sip of me.
“Sometimes I hate that you’re the bitch I’m bound to for eternity,” he groaned.
“I think you mean witch.”
“No, I meant what I said.”
I grinned and shuffled back another foot. From this distance, I barely felt his warmth, though the arousal was ever-present. “Teach me how to flirt with our mate in an acceptable manner.”
“For fuck’s sake, just be gentle with him!” he said, exasperated. “Don’t crowd him into corners in the kitchen. Little fin, you know what it’s like to hate your designation, but you don’t know what it’s like to feel less worthy of love and affection and success because of it. Nolan puts on an impressive facade in the presence of others, but his emotions live inside me now. Whenever he’s around you, he’s on edge because he’s worried you’re going to drop him at any second, favouring your Alphas.”
Oswald probably hadn’t meant to tell me so much, but he was half-glaring at me, the expression not having the same bite as it could have had. All these fucking Alphas, man. Overbearing and overprotective. I understood he was worried about losing his mate, but Nolan and I had danced around each other before they’d met, and far before they’d been bound.
“You’re contradicting yourself, Ozzy,” I said. “Telling me I should treat him gently but implying I should treat him just like I treat my Alphas. Have I ever in my life treated Shan softly?”
“Caspian gets the soft side of you.”
“Cas is a whole different story. Speaking of, is he still terrified you’re going to attack him in his sleep?”
I changed the topic. I’d seduce Nolan in my own way, when I could find him separated from Oswald. If it failed, we might end up in an awkward predicament, but I doubted it would fail. We’d all seen how Nolan reacted to my teasing before. It was only a matter of time before he pushed past his reservations and began to taunt me right back, and I would be ready and waiting when he did.
Letting out a soft snort, Oswald glanced at the opposite side of the bed, where Caspian insisted on sleeping when he was in here with us. “I clawed his leg up one time. Once! The man is irrational, and it’s a damn shame because I’d love for my flirting to arouse him and not make him anxious.”
“Flirting, huh? You’re serious about having him, then? Cas is the type to fall in love quickly.”
“Nolan and I talked about it, and we’re going to stick to flirting. For now. Makes it easier for us to connect as a group if we’re not all worried about fucking each other, considering how much of that there is already.”
“And after this is all wrapped up, and we’re living a relatively normal life again?”
He smirked. I hitched my leg over his hip and pushed him to lie flat on his back, straddling him. “Everyone is fair game, so long as our glorious Omega Queen wills it.”
“You know I’m perfectly happy for you all to be fucking each other,” I said.
My fingers trailed down his chest, making him shiver in anticipation, but I didn’t touch below his naval. “I imagine it’s because if we all love each other, there’s less pressure on you to do romantic shit,” Oswald said, his voice husky.
