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“You look like you can’t wait to get out of here.”
Karlach looked up from the bottom of the empty tankard she had been staring at. Shadowheart had approached her, her wine glass also empty. “Sorry,” she said, sighing. “Got a lot on my mind and it’s not putting me in a party mood like those harpers over there.” She nodded at the direction of the largest group of harpers, cheering for Jaheira, who just rolled her eyes.
Shadowheart sat on the chair beside hers. “Not quite like the celebration at the grove, is it?”
Karlach nodded. There were only half as many tieflings this time, for one thing, and Mol was still missing. They didn’t find the girl in Moonrise’s prison or in the illithid colony, where they found Zevlor instead. She scowled. She wished Zevlor had the nerve to show his face here in Moonrise, just so she could flatten him with one punch again.
“It’s not all bad,” she said, more to herself than to Shadowheart. She had to think more pleasant thoughts than Zevlor and his cowardice before her engine started to act up. It wouldn’t do any good to set Moonrise on fire after they’d gone through the trouble of weeding it free of cultists.
Dammon’s second upgrade had cooled her off enough to touch, but anger still made her burn up.
Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.
They saved all the prisoners in Moonrise, even Minthara. They saved Rolan’s stubborn ass before he died to the shadow curse, which was now on its way out. Ketheric Thorm was dead, so that was one Chosen of the Absolute down. Two to go, one of whom was Gortash.
It would feel so, so good to kill that motherfucker.
One more happy thought was Shadowheart giving Shar the biggest fuck you by freeing Aylin instead of killing her, and Karlach was so proud of her. So damn fucking proud of her.
“Thank you.”
Karlach blinked, confused at first, and then groaned. “Said that out loud, didn’t I?” she guessed, wincing when Shadowheart nodded. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s nice to be told I did the right thing…” Shadowheart trailed off with a sigh, “because I’m still not sure if I did.” She attempted to take a drink and sighed again when she realized that her wine glass was empty.
“Hey.” Karlach patted Shadowheart’s knee. “You did good. You did. I know you still need to talk to Dame Aylin, but it’ll all make sense when you do. I’m sure of it.”
“Yes, well,” Shadowheart started, laughing, “that may not happen for a while yet. She has a lot of catching up to do with Isobel, I imagine.”
Karlach snorted out a laugh of her own. “Looked like they were gonna fuck right here, didn’t they?”
“I’m surprised they didn’t,” Shadowheart quipped, giggling now. “Did you see how Dame Aylin was looking at Isobel?”
“Hey, now, go easy our demigod,” Karlach said in good humor. “Look what ten years of no friends, no touching, and no fucking has done to me. I still have to make an effort not to pounce on Solen in the middle of a fight.”
“And all of us appreciate that, Karlach,” Shadowheart teased. “Truly.”
Karlach laughed. “Cheeky, but I’m still right. Dame Aylin’s got some divine self-control, as far as I’m concerned. Keeping her hands to herself that long, after one hundred fucking years of being alone and just finding out the love of her life is actually alive? Sounds like a godsdamn miracle to me,” she said, and then she shook her head. “Gods, a hundred years, all alone. I can’t imagine the loneliness.”
“I hadn’t really thought of that,” Shadowheart admitted. “That sounds… awful.”
Karlach nodded. “Take it from someone who’s experienced just a fraction of that. It’s not great.” She patted Shadowheart’s knee again. “It’s why I think it was really nice of you to let them have this night for themselves. You didn’t have to. You did just save Dame Aylin’s life. They’d have owed it to you, but you didn’t push.”
Shadowheart smiled a little. “Seeing them like that, how happy they looked, it made me feel like I could stand to wait at least one more night.”
“Look at that. Shadowheart, rooting for love,” Karlach said, smiling big enough for the both of them. “I know you’re still all muddled up about it, but I think your decision is already doing you some good.”
“Maybe, but enough about me,” Shadowheart deflected, but Karach didn’t miss that little smile on her face. “Speaking of love, where is Solen?” Shadowheart asked. “I was surprised to see that you were still here, if I’m being honest. I thought you two would be rolling around in your tent by now.”
“Gods, if only,” Karlach groaned, feeling her engine flare up in agreement. She refilled her tankard and then emptied it in one swig. “She insisted I stick around here a bit, said that I ‘need not suffer the Elturians’ disdain and ire’ for what a ‘wretched creature’ like her did to Alfira.”
The Elturian-turned-refugee tieflings were grateful for their help, first at the grove and now here in the soon-to-be former Shadow-Cursed Lands. However, they also couldn’t forgive Solen for killing one of their own in cold blood, especially Lakrissa, Alfira’s mate.
Karlach couldn’t fault the Elturians. She herself had been ready to put Solen down the morning they awoke to the smell of death at their camp, finding Solen bloodied and covered with Alfira’s insides.
“I did it. I killed her,” the alpha had said. “But I don’t remember. I don’t remember.”
Solen then told them all to kill her, that they’d be better off without her, that all of Faerûn would be. Wyll nearly went through with it, and had to be talked out of it by Astarion.
“Have you tried explaining Solen’s affliction to the Elturians?” Shadowheart asked. “It wouldn’t give any comfort, certainly not to Lakrissa, but maybe some closure.”
The urges, Solen had called them. The very same urges that almost drove the alpha to kill Isobel, and later, Karlach herself.
Karlach sighed. “I want to, but that fool alpha of mine doesn’t. Says Lakrissa should hate her, not pity her. I guess I understand it. I wouldn’t want to feel anything but hate for my mate’s killer. Not that I’d ever mate in the first place. Nobody should, these days.”
Before Shadowheart could respond, Lae’zel approached them, an unopened wine bottle in hand. She nodded at them in greeting, and then looked specifically at Shadowheart. “I noticed your glass has been empty for quite some time now, Shadowheart,” the gith said. “I found this. I believe it’s the blend you enjoy. You were disheartened when you finished your last bottle of it.”
Shadowheart stared at Lae’zel like the gith’s spots had rearranged before her eyes. “You remembered?”
“It was a noteworthy observation,” Lae’zel stated. “Share a drink with me. I’m curious about its taste.”
Seeing Shadowheart blush, Karlach stood up. “You two have fun,” she said, winking at Shadowheart. “I’ve got a sulking drow to find and drag into my bedroll.”
When Karlach made it to camp, she found it to be mostly empty. Withers was there, of course, but that was expected. Scratch and the owlbear cub were sleeping in Solen’s tent.
Karlach smirked. Well, it wasn’t really Solen’s tent anymore. Her soldier had been spending nights in her tent since her engine got its second upgrade. She could touch Solen anytime she wanted, and she damn well did.
Astarion, Gale, and Wyll weren’t back yet. Last she saw, Wyll was mingling with the tieflings and Astarion said he was going to cheer Gale up, whatever that meant. Halsin was also still at Moonrise, keeping Thaniel company.
That left Minthara, who, like Solen, wasn’t welcomed by the Elturians.
Solen alone with Minthara. Karlach would be lying if she said that didn’t bother her. She trusted Solen. The alpha had sworn to be loyal to her even when she was still too hot to touch, going as far as insisting on kisses, singed lips be damned. But Karlach couldn’t help it. Thinking about Solen being alone with Minthara made her nervous. And jealous.
Both drow. Both paladins. An alpha and an omega. And it was rare enough to see one Lolth-sworn drow on the surface, but two of them? Who wouldn’t think they were together?
When they brought Minthara to Last Light after rescuing her at Moonrise, they hadn’t even made it to the inn before some people wondered, out loud, if Minthara and Solen were a couple.
“Another drow?”
“An omega, too.”
“Must be with the drow alpha who’s leading that tadpoled lot.”
That had been the first time Karlach was tempted to mate Solen, just so there’d be no mistaking which omega the alpha belonged to.
She found Solen at Minthara’s tent, the two drow talking. Minthara noticed her first, since Solen’s back was turned on her.
“Seems your mistress is here to fetch you, Solen,” Minthara remarked.
It was only recently when Minthara started to call Solen by name. It used to be just ‘alpha’, and Minthara said it like a slur because she meant it to be. For someone who kept saying she wasn’t a Lolth-sworn drow anymore, Minthara sure acted like it when it came to Solen.
Solen turned around, and the way her soldier smiled at her made Karlach forget how angry she was getting. “Karlach, my love!”
Karlach opened her arms and pulled Solen into a hug, murmuring a fond, “Hey, you,” before leaning down to kiss the alpha. It was a short kiss, and Karlach never took her eyes off Minthara, who watched them with a curious expression she didn’t like. “What were you two talking about?” she asked, keeping an arm around Solen’s waist.
Minthara noticed, and looked amused. “I have not been encroaching on your territory, if that’s what you were afraid of, Karlach. I respect you far too much to do that,” the other omega said, unfazed when Karlach growled in warning. “Solen and I were discussing her amnesia, and how, it seems, some of her memories are finally starting to come trickling back. The worm grants us many powers - powers that you all foolishly ignore - but its most notable disadvantage is how it hinders alpha and omega healing. I’m certain Solen would have regained all her memories by now, if not for the tadpole in her brain.”
“Certain? You’re too optimistic, Minthara,” Solen said. “Some of my memories may forever be lost to me. When Halsin examined the scarring on the side of my skull, he was in disbelief that I had survived a wound so grave. It is a miracle, he claims, that the worst of my ailments is memory loss and the occasional unpleasant headaches.”
Unpleasant headaches that could lead to murder, Karlach wanted to add.
Minthara scoffed. “That, to me, is simply irrefutable proof of your resilience. I’ve seen glimpses of your true self, Solen,” she said, smiling wickedly. “You kill and you maim and you slaughter as naturally as you breathe, and when you do stay your hand?” Minthara paused, shaking her head and chuckling. “You walked right out of Moonrise, with me at your side, and no guard dared to question or stop you, like prey animals realizing almost too late that a deadly predator prowled in their midst.”
Solen would have killed those guards, too, and wiped out the rest of Moonrise, if Karlach hadn’t taken her aside and reminded her they were supposed to be playing along with the cultists until they found the source of Ketheric Thorm’s immortality.
“Fine. They live. For now,” Solen had growled at her, and not the sort of growl Karlach was used to receiving from her soldier. “But when we break Thorm’s immortality, I will march back into this tower and turn its floors and walls red with Absolutist blood.”
“That’s not who she is,” Karlach told Minthara. “It’s those godsdamn urges of hers, that’s all. We get rid of those and we’ll have the real Solen all the time.”
The real Solen, the one who liked to talk to every animal they came across. The one who made stupid jokes that only Jaheira laughed at. The one who, every night, before they fell asleep, told Karlach she loved her.
“Hm,” was all Minthara said. She looked at Solen, so long that Karlach began to possessively wrap her tail around her soldier’s leg. “We shall see soon enough which of us is correct. I advise you to consider every possibility, Karlach, especially the worst, to save yourself the heartache. The qualities you saw in Solen that drew you into this… relationship, if you insist on calling it that, may cease to exist when - not if - Solen’s memories return, along with her real self.”
Solen, Karlach noticed, didn’t seem to have anything to say. There was a faraway look in the alpha’s eyes, and it worried Karlach more than she worried about Minthara.
“C’mon, soldier,” she said, taking Solen’s hand as her tail released the alpha’s leg. “Let’s get some sleep.”
The walk to Karlach’s tent was quiet. It wasn’t until they were sitting on the bedroll did Solen finally say something.
“Karlach, do you think it true, what Minthara said?” Solen asked. “Will I… change when my memories return?”
Her soldier, for as terrifying and vicious as she could look when ripping their enemies apart, now looked like a skittish cub.
Karlach scooted closer, taking one of Solen’s hands and working on removing the gauntlet. “I think you’re talking to Minthara way too much, baby,” she remarked, moving on to the next gauntlet. “And I’m not just saying that because I’m fucking jealous,” she added. “Which I am, by the way, but you know that. The whole damn camp knows it.”
“Jealous?” Solen echoed, frowning. “Darling, I would never–”
Karlach interrupted her soldier with a kiss, the glow from her engine briefly turning blue. “I know, you fool alpha. I know. And I love you, too.” she murmured fondly, smiling.
Solen smiled back. “You realize, too, that Minthara would sooner pursue you? She talks, ceaselessly, about your strength and your beauty. She wishes to present you Zariel’s head. She dares to, when the duty is mine.”
Karlach pressed her forehead to Solen’s and laughed. “No one’s going to the hells, so no point in arguing over who’s going to bring me Zariel’s head,” she said, and then she caught it, Solen wanting to say something that would probably lead to yet another argument.
It’d be the same fight they’d been having since Dammon told her she had to go back to Avernus if she wanted to live.
They’d yell. They’d snarl. And then they’d fuck all that anger away.
Tempting. The last part, anyway.
“I love you,” Solen simply said, a peace offering Karlach accepted with another kiss. “Tell me of the celebration at Moonrise. Did you enjoy yourself?”
“Not as much as I would have if you’d been there,” Karlach replied, smirking. “But, oh, guess what! Lae’zel and Shadowheart are having a drink together. You should have seen it. Lae’zel just comes up to Shadowheart with a bottle of wine and says, ‘Have a drink with me.’ About fucking time, isn’t it? Those two have been making eyes at each other for gods know how long.”
“Indeed,” Solen agreed, always up for humoring her when she was in the mood to gossip. “Not long after they threatened each other over the prism, I’d say.”
Karlach laughed. “You know what, my love, I think you’re right! Shadowheart did look smitten when Lae’zel took that hatchet metaphor literally,” she said, grinning when Solen nodded. She held the alpha’s now bare hands, happy to be rid of the gauntlets. “If it goes well for them, maybe the four of us can go on a double date when we get to the city. No, a triple date! With Dame Aylin and Isobel.”
“A date?” Solen asked, doing that head tilt she did when she didn’t know what a word meant.
Right. Amnesia.
It felt like so long ago when they had to tell Solen how to ‘act like a drow’ so they could walk into the goblin camp without starting a fight.
Karlach, however, did remember Solen admitting she had no idea what to do during their first night together. Her soldier had been so shy and cute. It was adorable.
“It’s something couples do,” she said, explaining dates to Solen. “We’ll go to a fancy place to eat. Dance. Have fun. It’ll be great, darling, I promise. And, of course, we’ll end the night like we always do, just maybe in a fancy room, with an actual bed.” She whispered the last part in Solen’s ear before gently nipping the pointed tip. She grinned when her soldier shivered.
Elves and their sensitive ears.
Solen purred. Karlach had her hand placed on the alpha’s chest, and she felt it even through the breastplate. “That sounds very pleasant, indeed,” Solen murmured, voice deeper, huskier.
Karlach felt her infernal engine roar in response to it. She was sure her eyes were glowing blue now, along with the flames from her engine. She clawed at Solen’s breastplate, cursing paladins and their damned heavy armor that covered them from head to toe. Her tail whipped from side to side in frustration.
Undressing Solen always felt like unwrapping a present, and patience was never one of Karlach’s strong suits. Thankfully, her alpha was more than happy to oblige her.
With Solen’s help, off came the breastplate. Then the pauldrons and the sabatons, and everything else under that. Karlach liked how her soldier looked in full armor, but, godsdamn, there were so many buckles and strings to undo.
When Solen was finally stripped down to nothing but her trousers, Karlach got rid of her own clothes - thank the gods for easy-to-remove barbarian leather armor - and she chucked them at the pile. As for her underwear, Solen had been more than happy to help her slip out of those.
They kissed, Karlach growling and straddling Solen while they did. She had no worries of crushing her soldier. Unlike most drow, Solen was tall and big, and had no trouble bearing Karlach’s full weight, even though she was still bigger and heavier than the alpha.
Solen buried her face in her neck, holding her close and purring deep and loud as she breathed in her scent. Karlach purred back and stroked her soldier’s hair in encouragement. She loved when Solen did this. Most alphas and omegas found her scent repulsive, the smell of the hells and of sickness, she’d wager. The smell of looming death. But Solen loved her scent, saying it made her blood sing.
If the alpha’s words didn’t convince Karlach, then her body certainly did. Karlach’s purring turned into a lustful growl when she felt Solen getting hard.
“Driving you mad already, baby?” she asked, dragging her claws down Solen’s back.
The alpha made an approving sound, muffled against her neck. “As you do. Always. When do you not, my love?” Solen asked back. “I could be sustained by the sweetness of your scent alone.”
“Sweet? I don’t know about that,” Karlach joked, even if she couldn’t stop herself from giggling at the flattery. Solen had spoken with such sincerity that she knew the alpha meant every word. “But I can’t argue with this,” she said, grinding on Solen’s hard cock, which was already straining against her pants.
Solen’s fingers found her clit, rubbing in slow, steady circles. Karlach rewarded her soldier with a purr and a gentle bite on the ear, drawing out a hungry growl.
Hells. She was going to make a mess of Solen’s trousers. Why did she leave those on again?
Karlach’s hands, which had been tenderly stroking down Solen’s spine, now pawed at her broad back and muscled shoulders.
“The sweetest,” Solen murmured, and it took Karlach a moment to realize the alpha was talking about her scent. “I’d want nothing more than to have it all to myself, if you’d let me, my love. If you find me worthy.”
Just Solen’s alpha instincts talking again, Karlach reminded herself.
Solen always spoke this freely when they were like this. She didn’t know what she was asking for, not really. What it meant to mate. She didn’t know that mating her would mean committing herself for the rest of her life - and afterlife - to someone who barely had a life left to live. The fool alpha.
Karlach kissed Solen, hoping to distract her alpha from her neck. And to distract herself, too. She was an omega, after all, and her stupid omega instincts wanted so badly, so loudly to agree with Solen. It felt so easy with her, so natural.
Couldn’t have that, but she and Solen had tonight, and how many more nights she had left.
How few. Too few.
Karlach closed her eyes, willing her mind to close with it. She focused instead on the feel of Solen’s lips, tongue, and teeth while they kissed. She focused on where her hands were, one clutching the back of Solen’s neck while the other clawed down the alpha’s back, not enough to draw blood, but enough to mark, if only for a little while.
She focused on where Solen’s hand was, and so did the alpha, whose long fingers slipped lower and then inside. Karlach purred in approval and began to grind on Solen’s hand, her clit rubbing on the alpha’s palm as her cunt clenched around the fingers inside her.
It wasn’t the stretch and reach that Solen’s cock had, but the alpha was no slouch with her fingers, knowing where to curl and where to rub. As Solen fucked her with her fingers, Karlach held her soldier’s head to her chest.
What a pretty sight it was, to see Solen’s face alight with the blue fire from her engine.
Rolling her hips a little faster, Karlach nudged Solen’s head to one of her breasts, and the alpha obliged with a purr, eagerly sucking on a nipple.
“I love when you purr while you suck my tits, baby,” she cooed, petting Solen’s hair. “And when you do it while you eat me out.” Her hips rolled faster just thinking of it, of her soldier’s tongue on her clit, vibrating from the purr. Of the pleasant sting of the alpha’s sharp teeth when she bit down.
To her delight, Solen growled in agreement. The alpha then replaced her mouth with her hand and switched to her other breast. Squeezing one breast, Solen sucked on the other, and then bit down.
“Fuck,” Karlach hissed, almost crushing Solen to her body when her cunt clenched around the alpha’s fingers in surprise. “Oh, fuck, do that again,” she rasped out, rolling her hips faster when Solen obeyed. She rode her alpha’s hand, now soaked from her cunt. “Fuck!” she cried out when Solen’s bit down again, almost hard enough to make her bleed.
Clutching the alpha’s head to her chest, Karlach kept riding, pushing her clit hard against the palm she was grinding on. Solen pushed a third finger inside her, slipping in easily since she was already so wet.
Karlach tensed, feeling her cunt start to seize. Wait. Not yet. Not yet.
With a growl, she dismounted Solen’s hand, and before the alpha could protest, she pulled those ruined trousers down. Solen’s hard cock sprang free, and Karlach wasted no time mounting it. When she took her soldier to the hilt, the stretch of it, and how suddenly full she felt, Karlach couldn’t hold back her orgasm any longer. She came with a breathless, “Fuck, yes,” clutching Solen to her body as she rode out her orgasm.
The alpha helped her through it, stroking her clit and slowing down when her hips did, until her cunt finally stopped squeezing tight around Solen’s cock.
“Gods, that’s good,” she panted, melting into Solen’s strong arms. “You’re so good, baby. The best,” she told her soldier, purring in appreciation as she drew random patterns on Solen’s back with her claws.
Solen responded with a purr of her own. “You deserve no less, my love.”
Karlach smiled and kissed her soldier’s shoulder. She kissed Solen’s neck, indulging herself in the alpha’s scent while she caught her breath. “So do you, darling,” she said once she recovered, and then growled playfully. “Now, let’s take care of you.”
She gently pushed Solen to lie on the bedroll. With some creative maneuvering, they managed to get the alpha’s ruined trousers off without separating. Karlach, keenly aware that Solen was still buried to the hilt and hard inside her, grinned wickedly and wiggled her hips.
Solen laughed, grasping her thighs but not doing anything to stop her. “Do you mean to test my endurance before you ‘take care of me’?” the alpha asked, very much in good spirits. “Must I prove myself worthy of an omega so beautiful and strong?”
“You’re plenty worthy, soldier,” Karlach was quick to say. “I’m just having a little fun.”
“Ah. Like the cat playing with the mouse snagged in her claws.”
Karlach huffed out a laugh. “‘Mouse’ isn’t the first thing I think when I see you, baby,” she told Solen, emphasizing her point by clenching on the anything-but-little cock inside her and groping the muscles that were right there in front of her, all for her to touch.
However, when her fingers touched a particular set of scars, she stopped. The scars that ran just above Solen’s collar bone, and then right down the middle. Autopsy scars. There was no mistaking what it was when she first saw it. When she told Halsin about it, he had been shocked, and the look on his face was obvious: how was Solen even alive? That had been the second time he’d wondered that.
At the illithid colony, they found the necromancer who had done it, who said she opened Solen up over and over, like a child misusing a toy.
Karlach almost regretted killing her too quickly.
She knew what it was like, to wake up confused, in pain. The feeling that there was something wrong, something missing, and gods, how it hurt.
Solen held her hands, which, she realized, were trembling. Her fire was red now. Not blue. “You’ve nothing to mourn, my love. I remember nothing of it,” the alpha reminded her. “I only wish you were similarly fortunate.”
Karlach sighed. She rested her head on Solen’s chest, closing her eyes when she felt her soldier’s arms wrap around her. For a long while, they stayed like that, quiet, just breathing. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’ve ruined the mood.”
Solen stroked her hair. “You’ve ruined nothing,” the alpha said, letting out a purr to comfort her.
Karlach lifted her head to kiss Solen. “I’ll make it up to you next time. For now, I want to hold you.”
Solen nodded, and, with some reluctance, Karlach dismounted the alpha. Solen was now just half-hard and going soft slowly. Karlach almost apologized again, but Solen stopped her with a kiss. She kissed back, not wanting to argue.
They settled on their bedroll, Karlach spooning Solen. She kissed her soldier’s shoulder before burying her face in her neck.
They heard voices in the distance. Some of the others were back in camp, but Karlach knew no one would disturb them unless it was important.
She draped her tail on Solen’s legs, covering what she could of the alpha to keep her warm. Solen purred and snuggled up to her even more.
“Comfy?” she asked, smiling. She loved when Solen sought out cuddles.
“Always, with you,” the alpha replied. “I hope to fall asleep in your arms every night.”
“You will, darling,” she promised, holding her soldier’s hand and intertwining their fingers. “For as long as I’m here, you will.”
“And what of me, if I’m not?” Solen whispered the words so softly that Karlach almost missed it. “If I change, like Minthara suspects, will I still be someone you’d hold every night?”
Godsdamned Minthara and the shit she’d said.
Karlach was going to have a few choice words with the other omega come morning, but, for now, there was Solen to tend to.
“I can take you at your worst. With pleasure,” she told her soldier, repeating the very words she’d said that very night, when the urges almost made Solen kill her. “I love you, and nothing will change that.”
“I’m afraid. Of who I was. Of who I may be again.”
Karlach squeezed Solen’s trembling hand. “I won’t let that happen. This, right here? This is who you are. You are sweet, you are loving, and I’m going to make sure you stay that way, returning memories be damned. All right?”
Solen squeezed her hand back, though barely. “All right.”
“Rest, baby,” Karlach murmured, kissing Solen’s neck. “It’s been a long fucking day, and we’ve earned a good night’s sleep.” She began to purr, hoping to soothe her alpha. Sure enough, Solen’s tense muscles relaxed, and soon, her breathing evened out.
Karlach stayed awake a while, hoping that the nightmares and the urges wouldn’t find Solen tonight.