by Susan Hayes
She frowned, biting at her lip. In fact, Kinn hadn’t been like any of the horror stories she’d heard. He’d been an arrogant, bossy asshole, sure. But he’d never done any of the things the other omegas whispered about. He’d said he was H’thor. That his clan weren’t like the other alphas. She hadn’t believed him. Now… maybe she’d have to reconsider that. It could be valuable information to share with her sister and the others.
“I still don’t understand why we’re waiting until morning. We could have been gone hours ago,” Max was arguing with Ariadne again.
“The gates are sealed. Do you want to risk your sister’s life trying to get her over the walls when she has documentation that will allow her to walk out the gate later today?” Ariadne’s voice was soft but firm.
Boots scuffed outside the door. “She’s getting better. You said so yourself. The moment she saw me she started coming back. I still can’t believe she’s pregnant. You’re sure?”
“I am.”
Fireworks flew up into the sky, the explosions loud enough to rattle the windows.
“Down!” Max was in the room in a second, racing to drag Serena away from the window. “We’re under attack!”
“Oh for heaven’s sake. Calm down, Max.” Ariadne sighed from the doorway. “It’s just fireworks. That’s all. Not everything is an attack.”
Max paused, her hands still around Serena’s arms and her expression not convinced. “We’re in the middle of enemy territory. Anything could be an attack.”
The priestess joined them at the window. She had always been difficult to read, even when they were children, but her smooth, calm expression held a hint of… something as she looked out of the window.
“Not this time,” she said, and for a moment Serena was sure she sounded sad.
“Good. We should move,” Max ordered, trying to hustle Serena away from the window. “Get you somewhere safe with the other betas. Away from danger.”
“I’m an omeg—”
Max hissed and clamped her hand over Serena’s mouth before she could finish the sentence.
“Never say that word,” she hissed, her face pinched with anger and fear.
Serena shook her head, freeing herself from her sister’s touch. That was one of the rules. She knew that. But… she was pregnant. Claimed. She had an alpha. Those rules didn’t apply to her anymore. Did they?
Her attention was drawn back to the fireworks. There were so many it was almost deafening. It had to have woken up everyone in the citadel. “Why are they doing that? Is it a holiday?”
Ariadne shook her head, and this time her voice was even heavier with what had to be sadness… or maybe even grief? “They are marking the passing of one of their own. This is how they celebrate the life of a valued warrior.”
“Good. One less of them means one less asshole we’ll have to face in our next fight.” Max tugged at Serena’s wrist again. “Come on before that asshole ex of yours changes his mind. If this is a trap, I don’t want to be here when it springs.”
“No… wait. What?” She slapped Max’s hands away to focus on Ariadne. “Which warrior? Did someone die?”
The other woman met her gaze levelly. “Not yet, no, but he will at sunrise.”
She shook her head. “What? That doesn’t make sense. How do you know?”
Ariadne sighed. The sound was weighted. Reluctant.
“They’re marking the Iratzi Tarn. It’s the Tolathian ritual suicide ceremony.”
Max barked a laugh. “One of them is topping himself? Why? Fuck, if we can figure that out maybe we can make the rest of the bastards off themselves and get our planet back!”
Ice rolled down Serena’s spine. “Which warrior?”
Ariadne didn’t answer. Not directly. Instead, she asked a question. “Did you know that with some of the Tolath, the mating bond is so strong that they cannot exist without their omegas? I only learned of it the other day. I gather it’s rare, but when it happens…” She nodded out the window.
“Who is it?” Serena was screaming inside. She suspected, no, she knew who it had to be.
Ariadne gave her a look of sympathy that chilled her down to her soul. “It’s T’kinn. You were fading, Serena. Letting you go was the only way to save you and the baby.”
“So he’ll just find another omega. That’s all. Right? They share all the time.” Her voice was raw and her hands were shaking so hard she had to clamp them into fists to make it stop.
“Not in this case, no.” Ariadne raised her hands in a gesture somewhere between confusion and disbelief. “He’s giving up his life for you, Serena. I didn’t know any of them had that kind of honor.”
“They don’t,” Max spat. “It’s a lie.”
The floor titled under Serena’s feet and she clutched at the window frame for support. Her gaze flew to the lightening predawn sky.
“No… he can’t,” she breathed, pain welling up in the center of her chest from her very soul. “He can’t do that. He’ll find another omega.”
But she knew he wouldn’t. She knew the truth in her heart. She’d read it in Ariadne’s gaze.
“No… No!” She gasped, grabbing at Ariadne’s arm. “I have to get there. Stop him.”
“The fuck you do. We are leaving. Now!” Max snatched for her hand, but this time Serena blocked her with a hard slash of her hand.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Rena! What the fuck are you thinking? They did this to you. Didn’t they? They fucked with your head somehow. Made you want to stay here and live in hell. Forget it. Come with me and we’ll fix you.”
Max glared at the priestess. “This is why you wanted to wait. Isn’t it? Where do your loyalties lie, Ariadne? Because I don’t think you’re on our side anymore.”
“I wanted to give Serena the choice.” Ariadne looked directly at her. “If you want to leave now, we can.”
“Of course she wants to leave,” Max scoffed.
“I don’t.” Serena looked at the fireworks, and the ever-lightening sky. In a heartbeat, she made her decision—the only decision.
“I need to find him. Stop him.”
“Fuck!” Max was furious. “No. This is not happening. You are not going to save one of them. For fuck’s sake, they’re the enemy!”
Serena turned and looked at Max. Her sister. Her twin. The one person she’d always been in sync with… until now. “He saved your life, Max. And now he’s willing to die to save mine. He’s not my enemy.” She went for the door. “He’s my alpha.”
Ariadne joined her. “I know the way, but we must hurry.”
Max slammed her fist into the wall, putting a dent in the aging plaster. “You’re not going anywhere without me. Two human females running around this city unescorted is an invitation for trouble. If you’re doing this stupid fucking thing, I’m coming too.”
Serena flashed her sister a grateful smile. “Thank you.”
Max just grimaced. “Don’t thank me yet. If he’s not dead by the time we get there, I might just kill him myself.”
9
The sun rose, breaking across the morning sky with a soft, warm glow that he would have stopped and admired on any other morning. Earth was, even after what the L’crav had done, a paradise far better than some of the xarthing hellholes where they’d been forced to live. He couldn’t remember any of them, though. They were no longer important so he let them go, tilting his face up to the sun and letting it warm his skin.
Closing his eyes, he let himself slip back into the times he’d spent with his omega. No, not his omega. Serena. Her name was Serena. Whispering her name, he remembered the light of battle in her eyes as she sassed him in the healer’s hall, the feel of her lips under his. The soft smell of her hair when he kissed the top of her head.
He loved her. Not that he’d ever admit those words aloud, but he did. More than his own life. And if giving it up it meant she would live and be happy, that was the only choice he had left.
He tightened his grip on the handle of his blad
es, the ribbons catching in the breeze and fluttering against his hands. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine it was Serena touching him again. He gave himself one last moment to pretend and then opened his eyes and raised his weapons. A warrior did not go out of this world with his eyes closed.
The light was bright enough to make him blink, and when his vision returned, he saw her. She was running toward him, eyes wide and cheeks marked with tears. It wasn’t real. A gift from the gods perhaps, or the last gasp of his sanity as he fell into madness.
He drove the first blade toward his torso but then froze when Serena’s cry reached his ears. “No! You are mine, T’kinn of the H’thor. Don’t you dare try to get out of this now.”
He froze, watching her. This was it. His mind had finally unraveled. Holding his arms out, he offered up his blades to Warr and Jaxx.
“You will have to complete the ritual,” he told them, his throat tight with emotion. “I am… I… specters haunt me.”
“That’s not a specter, my friend.” Jaxx clapped a hand down on his wrist, staying the blade he’d offered to him.
“That is an omega trying to issue you orders.” Warr’s words were laced with horror and outrage, his own weapon already in his hand. “Unacceptable!”
“No. It’s not real. She’s not…” Kinn looked again, trying to see past the tricks his mind was playing.
Serena threw herself at him, putting her own slender body between him and the blades. She looked up, not at him, but at his two companions, and her eyes were pure black. With a feral snarl she lunged at them, her fingers contorted into claws and her lovely face twisted in fury. “Don’t you touch him! Mine!”
He snapped out of his daze to wrap his arms around her, capturing her against his chest. She snarled and sliced at the air over his shoulders, trying to get at Jaxx and Warr.
“Mine!” she snarled again.
He parthed, the sound flowing from him as he buried his nose in her hair. If he’d lost his mind, he no longer cared. She was here. She’d come back to him. He was complete.
Slowly, she calmed down, settling into his embrace. But she kept her eyes on the two warriors behind him.
“You… might want to back up,” he broke his parth to warn them, feeling the tension in her slender body. “She’s with child. I don’t want her stressed.”
She hissed at them and then buried her face against his neck, nipping at his throat. “Mine.”
“Always, little star.” He cradled the back of her head in his hand, holding her gently against him as she settled even deeper into his arms. A soft sound rose from her chest as she started to parth back to him, the sound buzzing against his neck and filling him with desire so raw and primal he wanted to roar.
He looked out and saw the Mother Superior speaking to Lord Tane. Both of them looked pleased, though Tane looked down at the little human with a focus that would have made most of his warriors find somewhere else to be.
Warr cursed and vanished, darting into the still-gawking crowd of warriors who had come to see him off.
Kinn couldn’t find the energy to care where his friend had gone or why he’d left his post. He had all he needed. Answers could wait.
He lifted Serena into his arms, carrying her as he got to his feet. “I’m taking you home now.”
“Yes.” She parthed louder and smiled. “Home.”
Rising to his feet, he cradled her close to his chest as he walked right past his brother warriors, not even seeing them. All his attention was on the tiny female in his arms. His female. His omega.
Serena.
He walked through the citadel, savoring the feeling of her soft weight against him. His heart was full as she stroked gentle fingertips against the back of his neck and slid them through his hair.
Finally, they were in their rooms, in their bed chamber. Dimly he was aware they had been cleaned and the ruined furniture replaced. Pausing at the side of the bed, he looked down at her, memorizing her beautiful face.
“If this is madness,” he admitted in a low voice, “I don’t care.”
To his delight, she laughed. It was a bright, airy sound like silver bells and sunlight. “I came back. I think that makes me mad, too. But when I heard…”
She touched his face. “You would have done that? For me?”
“Whatever it takes to protect you. Always.”
Serena uttered a tiny sigh. “Don’t you ever do that again. I have no idea how to raise a baby, never mind one that’s half alien, so here’s the deal. We don’t leave. Either of us. Ever.”
“Ever,” he agreed. “Though you have to stop giving me orders, little star. That is not how it works.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll stop… when we’re in public.”
He tried to hold it back, but a growl escaped the back of his throat. “I am alpha—”
She put her fingertips over his lips. “And I am your omega. Without each other we are nothing. Are we?”
The light of battle was back in her eyes, the sassiness back in her voice, and the sense of relief that washed over him was so complete his knees almost gave out there and then. He covered by sinking to the bed with her in his arms.
“I will allow your orders,” he admitted, hiding his smile. “But only in the bedchamber.”
“Good.” She nodded sagely, but he’d lost her attention. Her gaze slid sideways to the mounds of soft blankets on the end of the bed. He didn’t recognize any of them. They’d obviously been placed here by whoever had cleaned up their quarters, but he could kiss whoever it was when she wriggled free of his hold and leaped on them with a soft squeak of delight.
Then, he watched in delight as she made a nest.
When she had everything arranged to her liking, she stripped out of her clothes and settled into the middle of it, gesturing with her fingers for him to join her. She was almost playful as she coaxed him to her, the scent of her arousal nearly as intoxicating as her smile. It was the first time she’d built a nest large enough for both of them.
He didn’t hesitate, taking only as long as he needed to shred his clothes. Naked and hungry, he prowled over to her, not stopping until she was under him, her soft body already writhing against his as he found her lips and sealed them with a kiss.
“Finally, you welcome me to your nest, little star,” he murmured, parting her thighs with a hard knee. Mindful of her condition, he was careful to keep his weight off her. “I am the luckiest male alive.”
“And don’t you forget it.” His beautiful omega wrapped one leg around his waist, her nails digging into his shoulders as she pulled him closer. She tore her mouth from his to nuzzle the side of his neck.
“I need you, Kinn. Please. Make me yours again.” She parthed and nipped his neck, sending a jolt of pure lust through him. “And then I can make you mine.”
He should have gone slower. Brought her to orgasm before he took what he needed, but he couldn’t wait. Not when her mouth was at his throat and her words rang in his ears.
“Mine,” he growled, arching his back so his cock rubbed along the slit of her slick folds. “Say it, Serena.”
“Yours.” This time it was different. Better. It was more than a surrender. It was a joining. He groaned her name and slid into her, forcing himself to move slowly to give her time to adjust.
She arched, keened, and then bit him. Pain and pleasure exploded inside him and he drove himself deep. She rose to meet him, their lovemaking wilder and fiercer than anything he’d ever experienced before. Slow wasn’t an option. It hadn’t been the instant her little blunt teeth broke his skin.
They moved together, each stroke and slide driving the heat and need between them higher. He wasn’t going to last. Neither of them were. Their need for each other was too great. Sensing her tense beneath him, he pulled back to look into her eyes and saw the need and love there.
“Mine. My little star,” he murmured and thrust her over the edge into pleasure.
She screamed his name, and that was all it
took.
Kinn threw back his head and roared, her name blending with his as they joined not just their bodies but their hearts as well.
His knot formed, tying them together in bliss as he emptied himself inside her.
She licked his neck and then turned her head to kiss him again, letting him taste his blood on her lips.
“Mine,” her snarl was as deep and fierce as any alpha’s.
“Yes, you are.” He kissed her again. “And I am yours. Always.”
Epilogue
“You have to do something!” D’warr snarled, shoving a hand through his hair as he paced the width of the chamber. “These rebels… they’re laughing at us! And they’re females!”
Tane sat in his chair at the end of the hall, resting his chin in one hand. He’d never seen his general so out of sorts although he was quickly beginning to recognize the signs.
“Females, indeed,” he said dryly. “Am I to take it you encountered one?”
“No!” Warr snapped as he turned, tension in every line of his body. Of all Tane’s warriors, Warr and Var, his Shield, were the largest. Literal juggernauts in battle, he’d never seen Warr at a loss like this before. Or so angry.
Rather than answer, Tane cocked his eyebrow.
“Yes… maybe,” Warr admitted, grudgingly.
“Maybe? Was it a female you encountered, a rebel, or both?” He knew he was baiting his general, but the fastest way to get to the truth was to dispense with annoyances like polite conversation.
“Both! At least I think it was.” Warr scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “When I tried to speak to her, she fled. When I ordered her to stop, she defied me. And she laughed.”
“I have noticed that some of the betas are far less meek than they pretend.” He tapped a long finger to his chin. “It makes them more useful, but still, defiance can’t be tolerated. Who is she?”
Warr stopped pacing. “I don’t know.”
Ah. That explained his general’s foul mood. “She got away from you?”
“Yes. And I think maybe she wasn’t a beta.”
