For watching an omega female and wishing she could be mine.
I went still as I spotted her across a great distance, blinking twice to make sure it was really her. She wasn’t dirty like the first time I saw her in the castle. And though her dress was bland now, it wasn’t ratted and torn like before. Her dark hair was braided back against her head, but it wasn’t caked in mud this time.
Tavia was different now that her sister was queen, but she still liked to pretend she was one of the desperate. She’d made me hate myself the most, and didn’t even know it. Never would, if I had anything to say about it.
Pulling my eyes away from her, I focused on the horizon.
The omegas had become my people without ever meaning to. I was The Division, half dedicated to them, and half to my king. The barrier between them and the city. It had been my darkest and most tightly kept secret, and would remain as such until the day I died.
What the fuck was I now? Where did I belong in this new unified pack that King Adalai vied for?
None of those feelings the omegas brought out in me mattered more than my station. My place.
Now, I had to earn it back.
I would leave at dawn. I’d find every omega lost on my watch, and bring them home. And while I was at it, I’d find myself. Never again would I be torn between honor and duty.
Never again.
***
Tavia
Becoming the first omega queen in a generation wasn’t even close to the most reckless thing my sister Zelene had ever done. Keeping her ass out of hot water was a part time job, and I never dared tell her that it was the reason I got fired from my position at the castle. The first one, anyway. At the time, it seemed like the end of the world.I thought it was a secret I’d take to my grave. If I wasn’t good enough to work for the Luxoria royal family, no one else would hire me. I couldn’t put her job in jeopardy. We would’ve starved to death.
But the spark in her eyes when she cooked up trouble had sometimes been the only light in The Badlands,
Now here we were, in the private suite of the royal castle in Luxoria. No, we weren’t trespassing. We lived here now. Zelene did, anyway, now that she was mated to King Adalai.
My sister was an actual queen. I still had trouble wrapping my head around it.
That was why, despite Zelene’s protests, I went home to the Badlands every night. Omegas had been sentenced to a life of misery there, so the former king could settle a score. Adalai’s father.
The former king had fallen in love with an omega too. But it didn’t stop him from bringing us so much misery.
For that reason, I would never trust Adalai or anyone in his court. Bloodthirsty and ruthless, they would do anything to save their own asses. After twenty five years in The Badlands, I understood survival instinct more than I ever wanted to. The difference between the Alphas and me? I wouldn’t put someone else in harm’s way to save myself.
Now, it was my turn to be the reckless one.
“As queen, I can forbid you from going.” Zelene hugged a velvet pillow to her chest. Her broken leg relegated her to the suite. She had crutches, but she refused to show weakness. Everyone in the city and beyond had their eyes on the omega queen. Her favorite seat was by the window, overlooking the garden. Beyond that, we could see the Badlands. Some might say she was hiding, but she was the first line of defense in another attack.
“You’d forbid me from going back to the Badlands? How soon you forget where you came from.” I scoffed. She swore she never would.
“It’s not safe. It never was, but especially not now. The mutants will be looking for you, specifically, because the humans would love nothing more than to capture the sister of the queen.” She shuddered, and the same chill went down my spine. “So yes, I can command you to stay here. Or I’ll…”
She had nothing.
“How will you punish me that’s worse than what we already lived through?” I looked to the door, to make sure the King hadn’t paid us a surprise visit. He did that, a lot. It was probably supposed to be romantic, sneaking up on his new bride, but I didn’t know much about that lovey dovey stuff. To me it felt like he was checking up on us.
“If you get caught, there’s no telling what will happen to you.” Zelene shuddered as a host of possibilities went through her head. They were certainly going through mine. “The humans already treated omegas like lab rats. If they can get their hands on you…”
“I don’t trust Dagger will come back with the living omegas. He’ll cut a deal with the humans to get what he wants, not what’s best for the Badlands. He’s never done right by us.”
Until Adalai stripped Dagger of his duties and title, he’d been in charge of keeping the Badlands safe.For five years, he’d ensured our lives were a living hell. Now he promised he’d turn a new leaf, and do the right thing. I’d believe it when I saw it. When all the missing omegas came back to the Badlands safe.
“You have to trust Dagger,” Zelene said, and I had no idea how she kept a straight face. That man was as much our enemy as the humans that captured omegas and turned them into mutant wolves.
I wouldn’t let the crown change my sister. I’d do whatever it took to keep her true to her roots.
“You don’t trust Dagger to keep me safe.”
She pursed her lips together, and for the first time since the crown had been placed on top of her head, she looked vulnerable. Not weak. No omega was weak. Especially not our queen. But every once in a while, our walls came crashing down. It was impossible to keep them up all the time.
“No, I don’ trust him,” she said. “I think he’ll do whatever Adalai asks of him to get his title back. But that’s where it ends. He’ll see you as a challenge, Tavia. And more than that, a representation of all his failures. Dagger couldn’t impose his will on the Badlands. Especially not on us. As much as he tried, he couldn’t make us submit. He’ll expect you to fight for yourself.”
“I’ve been fighting for my life every damn day.” Since omegas had been exiled from Luxoria. If Dagger thought I’d give up easily, that I’d stop fighting just because my sister slept in the King’s bed, he had another think coming. “I’m ready.”
Coming September 2019!
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P. Jameson
Kristen Strassel
Other Books By The Authors
P. Jameson
Kristen Strassel
About the Authors
P. Jameson likes to spend her time daydreaming, and then rearranging those dreams into heartstring-pulling stories of trial and triumph. Paranormal is her jam, so you’re sure to find said stories full of hot alpha males of the supernatural variety. She lives next door to the great Rocky Mountains with her husband and kids, who provide her with plenty of writing fodder.
You can sign up for newsletter updates here: http://eepurl.com/3s00L
Kristen Strassel is far cooler than she'll make herself sound in this bio. She enjoys spending time with the voices in her head—nudging the characters toward those bad decisions and seeing if she can get them a happily ever after. When she's not writing, she's often still in the land of make-believe—doing makeup for film and television. And when she's not doing any of that, she enjoys making her house look like a Pinterest board, watching football, and road trips to the middle of nowhere. You can sign up for newsletter updates here: http://bit.ly/2Fbfrjc
His Forbidden Omega (The Royal Omegas Book 1) Page 13
