Aura stood in the uncomfortable processional, trying to ignore the uncomfortable tingles of heat along her skin. Castor had not come to her the night before, the first time in weeks he hadn’t, and she had barely slept because of it. And once she had fallen asleep, just as dawn broke, Dharia had burst into her room and announced that they had to prepare themselves for another event.
Hours before, a trail of servants had marched into the pavilion, carrying racks of elaborate gowns that were much more ornate than anything Aura had seen before, paint for their faces and implements that when heated changed the pattern of their hair.
It wasn’t until she was forced toward the bathing pool by a female guard that Aura tried to resist. She had restricted her bathing times to late at night or early in the morning when all the others had already retired. No one in the pavilion had seen the mark that Castor had left on her shoulder. All the other Omegas in the harem carried scars from bonding, but King Rolan had created theirs and his mark looked noticeably different.
But despite her protests, she was stripped of her dress and pushed into the water.
Aura heard a sharp gasp as she surfaced, wet hair dripping into her face.
Dharia swam less than a foot away, gaping as her hand rose into the foggy air to point in the direction of Aura’s chest. “That isn’t the King’s mark.”
Covering her shoulder with her palm, Aura let her body sink lower into the water until it covered her up to her chin. “No, it isn’t.”
Dharia opened her mouth and then closed it again. When she finally spoke, it was at a lower volume. “If you get out on the far side where the towels are, no one else will see.”
With a nod of thanks, Aura quickly washed and then swam to the far edge of the pool on the opposite side from where the others gathered. She was careful to keep only her head above the water so that no one else would see Castor’s mark.
She couldn’t decide if hiding it was a way of protecting him or herself and if those were even different concepts.
Once she was out of the pool and wrapped in a towel, Aura found herself immediately accosted by a servant who wrapped her in an ornate gown. Then she spent the next several hours having her hair pulled and teased until it was piled high on top of her hair like a teetering sculpture. But the face paint was the worst of it, making it feel as if a layer of oil had been applied to her skin.
Most of the other women seemed pleased with the results, but all Aura wanted to do was crawl back into bed and escape into the oblivion of sleep. But instead, she found herself led down the hall with the rest of the women towards an uncertain destination.
“Now I understand why you’ve had such an aversion to bathing,” Dharia whispered in her ear as they fell in line together. “It’s good you’ve kept it a secret.”
“Do you know where we’re going?” Aura asked.
“None of them have said.”
They reached the ballroom which had been decorated with glowing lights that seemed to float in the air above their heads and reflect hazily on the polished floor. Silken curtains hung from the walls and draped over a platform with three thrones on it at various heights. King Rolan was already seated on the tallest one, expression jovial and a large smile spread across his puffy cheeks as he surveyed the room.
Hundreds of people were already gathered, some dancing in the center of the room as soft music played while others stood around tables laid out with sumptuous food and drink.
“It’s a ball,” Dharia said eagerly, eyes shining in the light. “I haven’t been to one in ages. I wonder what the occasion is.”
A nearby guard overheard her comment. “It’s an engagement ball. The negotiations have been completed with Vigil and Prince Castor will marry their Princess in two days’ time.”
Even though she understood the day was coming, the calm announcement still hit Aura like a physical blow. She had thought she had prepared herself for this, attempted in vain to wall off her heart from the insidious reach of the man who had claimed her.
And perhaps now that he had Sirena, he no longer saw any use for her which is why he had not come the night before. It made sense in a way that he had hidden her in his father’s harem, because it was the best place to leave her once he lost interest.
Aura felt anger, but also a pervading numbness that pushed any true emotion to the side and left her cold and lost.
“Are you okay?” Dharia murmured, catching sight of the suddenly stricken expression on Aura’s face. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
“It’s fine.” Aura looked around the room, fighting back the tears burning in her eyes that she wouldn’t be able to explain. All the exits were guarded by stone-faced Alphas who would be unlikely to let her pass until the ball was over. She caught a brief sight of Ianthe who was standing on the far side of the room, barely visible behind a large Alpha who glared around him with a watchful expression. That had to be Legion, her mate. The dark expression on his face made her shiver and Aura forced herself to look away. “What are we supposed to doing exactly?”
“Impressing the invited guests with our beauty and grace.” Her tone was droll but there was a smile on Dharia’s face. Clearly, she enjoyed taking part in these sorts of festivities. “I’m sure someone will ask you to dance.”
As if her words were a summons, an older Alpha appeared at Aura’s side. “I do not believe that I have had the pleasure, my dear. I am Councilman Vegane. Would you care to dance?”
Aura’s awareness that it would be rude to refuse combined with Dharia’s unsubtle shove compelled her to place her hand on the crook of the man’s arm. He swept her into a waltz, keeping one hand respectfully high on her hip while the other rested on her shoulder. His fingers just barely brushed the aching mark hidden underneath the collar of her gown. She jumped as a spark of fire burned along her skin.
Vegane noticed the movement and looked down at her with concern. “Are you all right, my dear?”
“Yes…yes, I’m fine.”
She briefly closed her eyes and took a steadying breath, luckily the older man was skilled enough to lead them through the dance steps with little effort on her part. With every turn, she found herself searching the room for Castor, but he was nowhere to be found.
Aura could only assume that he was with the Princess. The thought felt like a wash of cold water running through her veins and she forced herself to push those feelings aside. Feeling nothing at all was better than sadness.
“You must tell me where you’ve come from,” Vegane murmured as he turned her a gentle spin. “I could have sworn that I’d met all the Omegas in the King’s harem.”
Forcing a winsome smile onto her face, Aura responded airily. “Nothing about me is particularly interesting, I’m simply an orphan from the lower levels. I would much rather know all about you, Councilman.”
“My, aren’t you silver-tongued,” he replied with a chuckle, making the comment seem weighted with a hidden meaning. “I can assure you that I have been engaged in only activities that would bore tears out of you, particularly since we’ve finished these negotiations and agreed on terms.”
“Terms?”
“Well, it won’t be a secret much longer and you girls don’t leave the palace grounds, so I’ll let you in.” He leaned in closer, sending a wafting scent of expensive skin cream and the mustiness of old age into her nostrils. “The most contentious point was the status of any new arrivals to the sector we may get through our connection to Vigil. It is now the law that any person within our borders who was not born either here or in Vigil, will have no rights to personhood and may be put to labor, sold or otherwise treated as chattel.”
It didn’t take an idiot to figure out that he was talking about slavery and not in a way that was at all hesitant. The numbness receded, replaced with a spike of fear. Aura suspected that she already knew the answer to her next question but couldn’t stop herself from asking it. “What new arrivals?”
An unsettling smile briefly crossed
the man’s face. Aura decided, despite his grandfatherly demeanor, that she didn’t like this man.
“That is confidential information, at least for the time being. Let’s just say that I expect the population of Omegas in Pandora to rise by a considerable margin.”
A sick feeling filled the pit of her stomach, because she understood his meaning. Not only were they planning to bring people here from the Citadel but also literally enslave them. And the same thing would happen to her if anyone discovered where she’d truly come from.
Before she could craft a response, the music abruptly stopped. Every head turned simultaneously in the direction of the large staircase at the far end of the room. Castor and Sirena stood there, arms looped together and dressed in finery that practically glowed under the lights. Distantly, Aura heard their names and titles announced as the two descended the stairs but the sound of blood rushing through her ears made it nearly inaudible.
“The legislation will be put to a vote tonight. And the royal wedding will occur tomorrow.” Vegane came to stand beside her, a hair too close. “The dynasty that they create will rule the world.”
She had heard more than enough. When Castor wrapped his arm around Sirena as they descended the stairs, she forced herself to turn away.
“I have to go.”
All attention was on the royal couple as they descended the stairs. No one, not even the guards, stopped her as Aura strode though the ballroom and out the nearest set of doors. She had no idea where she was headed, but she knew that she couldn’t be in that room for even a moment longer.
Aura ran blindly through the halls in the vague direction of the pavilion. None of the guards had seen her leave the ballroom, so she was blissfully alone.
No one would see the tears streaming down her cheeks.
It wasn’t a surprise, none of it was a surprise, but that didn’t stop it from killing her. And she was so caught up in the sense of betrayal and pain that she did not notice the figure ahead of her until she had crashed into him.
“Well, hello there.”
Aura looked up into Faseer’s mocking face and her sadness quickly shifted into fear. She tried to pull away from him, but his hands caught at her upper arms and arrested the movement.
“Shouldn’t you be at the ball?” Aura asked, attempting to infuse her voice with calm as if he didn’t have her trapped alone in a dark hallway.
One winged eyebrow went up to match the slight smile that curled his lip up in the corner. “I could ask the same of you.”
“I just needed some air.”
“There’s a veranda just over here with a lovely view of the gardens. Allow me to escort you.”
Aura dug her heels in as he tried to guide her towards a set of doors in the opposite direction from the ballroom. “I don’t want to keep you.”
“It’s no bother at all. Things will seem much clearer once we’ve had a chance to chat.”
A cold chill ran down her spine. “We have nothing to chat about.”
“But I’m sure that we do, my dear Aura.” His expression grew more openly sinister as he surveyed her in the dim light. “Aura is quite an uncommon name around here, one I’ve never heard before. Is it a family name?”
“Not exactly…”
“There’s much about you that’s mysterious. You’re the first Omega that Castor has allowed to be added to his father’s harem in years. It seems like quite the change of heart for the reformer Prince.”
“Let me go.”
“Unless he had no choice because the harem was the only place where he could hide an Omega without an identity.”
“Stop.” Aura tried with all of her strength to pull away but Faseer held her, hands squeezing tight until she let out a sound of pain and stopped resisting. “You’re wrong…”
“So you didn’t escape the soldiers from Vigil that brought you here from a derelict space station? Excuse me, I believe they told you to call them Sotiri — a word in your native tongue.” His hands pushed into her hair, stroking the bump of flesh near her ear where the translation unit had been implanted. “I doubt that Castor knew it, but this model is of Vigilian design so easy for us to track.”
She just stared up at him, mouth frozen open in horror.
“Let me tell you what will happen next. There is a skycar waiting for us in the garden and you are going to come with me without putting up a fight. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to use a method that you will not enjoy to ensure compliance. You are the rightful property of Vigil and our scientists are very interested in examining their most promising specimen.”
“Castor will know—”
“Once the wedding has taken place, Castor will have little attention to pay you. What will happen then? How long would it take him to realize you have vanished?”
The truth of it hit her hard. Castor did not care for her enough to protect her from this. With a surprising show of strength that was likely born of desperation, Aura ripped her arms from Faseer’s grip with enough force to send her stumbling away. She did not look back to see if he followed her as she raced back to the ballroom, slowing only once she was through the doors.
Her gaze searched the room, briefly pausing on where Castor sat on one of the thrones with Sirena at his side. He looked up at the same moment and their eyes briefly met. He seemed to notice her fear because his expression darkened, but he did not rise and simply stared back at her from across the room.
He couldn’t know that Faseer had accosted her, but what else might happen to her that escaped his notice? At best, she faced a lifetime of languishing in the harem, away from her family and with no control of her own destiny. At worst, she would be captured and returned to the Vigilians, who clearly had nefarious plans.
Ianthe and Legion had not moved from the spot she had seen them in earlier. Aura did not waste time on small talk, words spilling from her lips from the moment that she was close enough to be heard.
“You have to help me escape the palace. Tonight.”
Chapter Twelve
Aura paced impatiently back and forth across the carpeted floor, her mind in turmoil.
Ianthe and Legion had escorted her back to the pavilion from the ballroom and there had been no trace of Faseer. Even Ianthe seemed surprised when Legion had agreed to make the arrangements to get Aura out of the palace, apparently he had been the true reason for Ianthe’s reticence. Aura couldn’t help but wonder what had changed his mind, but decided not to dwell on it. He had agreed to aid her in escaping, the reasons why were immaterial. Even though Ianthe had pointed out that leaving the palace would make her less safe from Faseer, not more. He would try to find her and might just succeed. There wouldn’t be any palace guards out there to keep him from her.
But it wasn’t just the Vigilian advisor that she was trying to escape.
It had been difficult not to reveal her intentions when Dharia returned from the ball, bleary-eyed and smiling. The older woman had expressed surprise that Aura left the ball early, but didn’t question it extensively. There was no way to say goodbye without revealing the truth. Faseer’s determination to pluck her right out from under Castor’s nose meant that she wasn’t safe anywhere in the palace, even within the walls of the harem. She couldn’t risk giving herself away.
Someone would come for her at dawn. Hours passed slowly as she waited for morning to come.
When the door silently opened, Aura looked up in surprise to see Castor standing there. They stared at each other across the small and quiet place, gazes full of intensity.
Her mouth opened to tell him all about Faseer’s threats, but no sound came out. She desperately wanted to give him the chance to prove to her that she meant more to him than just a convenient place to stick his cock. But she couldn’t stand the thought of trusting him to truly protect her and being disappointed. Perhaps he would neutralize Faseer, if given the opportunity, but that wouldn’t change anything else about her situation. He had not stopped the law from passing that stripped her of any r
ights and left the people on the Citadel defenseless.
Her people.
And it was better to be in a more dangerous situation, than to be trapped here with the dregs of his attention. Reminded every day that he wasn’t willing to fight for her, that he had claimed her and married someone else.
It wasn’t sadness that spurred her forward as he silently closed the door behind him, but an anger that he couldn’t possibly understand and likely mistook for passion. Their mouths clashed as she rushed into him with enough force drive him back against the door.
An urgency burned along her skin as his hands lowered to grip her hips and his tongue shoved its way into her mouth. His teeth pressed against her mouth hard enough to leave a mark, but the pain was a distant sensation to the one currently overwhelming her.
Aura felt herself lifted into the air and her legs naturally parted to wrap around his hips and hook together, their frantic kiss never breaking. Castor turned them so that her back pushed against the wall with a hard thump. In that position, he only needed one hand to hold her aloft while the other wandered up her body.
“You left the ball early,” he murmured against her mouth. “Why?”
She bit him hard enough to draw blood. “Why would I want to watch you dance with the woman you’re going to marry?”
His tongue dipped out to touch the small wound on his lip as he stared down at her. “You’re angry.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You could tell me why.”
Aura wanted to tell him that the reason should be apparent, but instead she gripped his head hard with both hands and pulled his face down to meet hers. The last thing that she wanted either of their mouths to be doing was producing speech. She couldn’t allow him to say anything that might change her mind about leaving. But the righteous indignation finally became enough to loosen her tongue.
“Isn’t the wedding tomorrow? I assumed you’d be with your fiancée.”
He frowned down at her, gaze riveted on her face. “It is customary for the bride and groom to be separate on the night before the bonding ceremony. Regardless, Sirena will maintain her own apartments even once we are married.”
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