Page 82 of The Other Omega
Just past the hall, a few wide steps led into the sitting room, where huge navy sofas sat around a low stone coffee table. A thick rug covered the floor beneath them, and a blanket lay over the arm of one sofa. There wasn’t much else in the room, but the cushions looked so comfortable that I could easily picture myself curling up there.
Then I noticed the floor-to-ceiling windows behind the sofas and slowed down.
It was mostly dark outside, but I could still make out trees and winding paths beneath an enormous glass dome.
“Your nest is this way, little one,” Alaric said.
I gave the garden one more look before following him into one of the wide corridors beside the sitting room.
He stopped at a pair of tall doors at the end.
“Place your hand against the panel.” He indicated a dark crystal panel beside them.
“It already knows me?” I asked, placing my palm against it.
Blue light spread beneath my fingers, and the doors began to open.
“Your biological markers were integrated into the residence systems when the mating contract was signed,” Darius said. “Your permissions were amended the moment you accepted Alaric’s hand before the House Guard.”
I was about to say how efficient that was, but then the doors opened fully, and my new bedroom came into view.
I walked in slowly, hardly believing my eyes.
The room was bigger than the entire ground floor of the house I’d grown up in.
A bed was sunk into the floor in one corner, big enough for a dozen people, with a bunch of baskets beside it filled with cushions and blankets.
Two deep chairs stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the mountains. A dark wooden desk sat against one wall, with warm lights running along the ceiling edges. The shelves were already full of books, most of them ones I recognised from everything I’d been studying recently.
Through an open doorway, I could see clothes hanging in a dressing room and an enormous bench in the middle.
“The lock on these doors is under your control alone,” Darius added. “The emergency system may override it if the residence detects a fire, structural failure or medical crisis. Otherwise, no one may enter without your permission.”
“Thank you.”
I looked back at the bed.
My nest.
“I hope the nesting supplies are to your liking,” Leon said.
“I’m sure I’ll love them.”
Leon gave me the tiniest smile.
“Send for us when you’re ready,” he said.
“There’s no need to hurry,” Alaric added. “Take whatever time you need.”
I almost kissed him right there.
“All right. I will… thank you.”
What else could I possibly say?
As Eleanor explained, they left me alone to prepare the nest and get ready for the mating.
All right, Elowen. Shower first, then nest, then mating. Get going.
