Jake shook his head.
“I know you’re new to the Were world, Ani, but you’re taking what we just did way too lightly. If you only knew the penalty for incest…”
“Tell me then!” I demanded but Jake shook his head.
“No. I don’t want to upset you. Anyway, what were you talking about—what was your question?”
“I just wanted to know if the way you, uh, you know, made love to me without knotting me is normal. Not that it was really making love,” I went on quickly. “Maybe ‘had sex with me’ would be a better way to put it. But anyway, you came in me but you didn’t knot me. Is that normal? For a Were, I mean?”
Jake looked away and I had the feeling he didn’t want to answer.
“It’s not uncommon for regular Weres, no.”
“But what about Royal Weres?” I persisted. “Ones who have the, uh, blood of the First Wolf?”
“Well…” Jake sighed. “It’s not usually a problem, since, unlike regular Weres, Royal Weres mate for life and have only one partner.”
“So Royal Weres are monogamous and regular Weres aren’t,” I murmured. I remembered the casual way Ophelia had talked about the orgy-like Pack breedings where everybody apparently fucked everybody else indiscriminately and shuddered. It was fine for her—and for the regular Weres, I decided—but it just felt wrong to me. In fact, the idea of making love with anyone but Jake felt wrong, but maybe that was just because he had been my first.
“Typically, Royal Weres find their Fated Mate through breeding and when they do, they knot them,” Jake explained. “The Fated Mate is the one a Royal Were is meant to be with his or her entire life. Not being able to knot your Fated Mate can cause pain.”
I looked at him, my eyes wide.
“Are…are you saying I’m your Fated Mate, Jake? And that’s why it hurt you to make love to me without…without knotting me?”
“Of course not!” he denied quickly. “How could you be my Fated Mate, Ani—you’re my sister. Such a thing would be impossible.”
But I noticed he wouldn’t meet my eyes as he spoke.
“Jake—” I began again, but just then we heard footsteps below.
“Quick!” he muttered. “Start moaning—they’ll never believe you’ve got Royal Heat Syndrome if you don’t act the part!”
“Oh! Ohhhh!” I moaned, arching my back and clawing at the sheets.
Just as I was working myself up into a real moaning panic, Sorenson entered the attic through the trapdoor.
“It’s all right, baby—it’s all right!” Jake pulled me to his broad chest and comforted me, just as he had earlier when Ophelia had been watching. Speaking of the Were girl, she was right behind Sorenson and she had a worried look in her mild brown eyes as she studied us.
“Professor, just look at her!” she exclaimed. “I told you—she’s in trouble!”
“We’ll see about that.” Sorenson still looked skeptical.
“Can’t you see she’s in pain?” Jake demanded, rubbing my back and glaring angrily at the cult leader. “I need to breed her the right way—without silver!”
“Yes, well I heard you’ve already bred her once,” Sorenson said, raising an eyebrow at us. “That is, if what Ophelia told me is correct. Tell me, Jacob, did you really fuck your ‘little sister?’”
Jake flushed, his face going red as he glared at the other man.
“I had to,” he growled. “Thanks to everything you’ve made us do together! It brought on her Heat Cycle so badly she’s now in full blown Royal Heat Syndrome.”
“Oh, so now you expect me to believe that you’re fully willing to knot her and get her pregnant?” Sorenson demanded. “Well, I’m not sure I believe it—I’ve done my research and I’ve never seen anything in the texts about any ‘Royal Heat Syndrome.’ And even if it were a real disease, I don’t think the Royal Omega really has it.”
“Then you’re studying the wrong texts! Are you willing to bet Ani’s life on your little theory?” Jake demanded, and I moaned loudly to back him up.
Sorenson shook his head.
“I think you just want me to take the silver cuffs off so that you two can get away. I’m more than aware that if you weren’t wearing silver, your Wolf would be three times as strong and twice as big as any of ours—even Tainer’s,” he said. “So please don’t think you can fool me—you can knot the Royal Omega with silver on just as well as you can without it.”
“No, I can’t!” Jake ground out. “You don’t know what she needs! What all Royal Omegas need. For all your studying and scholarship, you know fuck-all about the actual Royal mating practices!”
“Is that right?” Sorenson crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at Jake. “And what are these ‘Royal mating practices’ that would keep you from wearing silver in order to knot and breed your Omega?”