by P. Jameson
“Mate.” The word was tipped with a growl and he rolled to his side, his eyes wild, like he meant to claim me all over again. “I could sense you were near, but I’d denied who you were to me. I didn’t want you to be my mate.”
My gasp betrayed me. I wished more than anything I could’ve remained aloof in that moment. Like I didn’t need him on much more than a physical level. “Why not?”
“This was before Adalai claimed Zelene. Alphas and omegas couldn’t be together.”
“Don’t worry about trying to sound virtuous. If you claimed me, everyone would’ve known what you really are, and you would’ve lost everything.”
He nodded. “And I would’ve never been able to give you the life you deserved. I would’ve been disgraced, and your quality of life could’ve been worse than it was before.”
“Like that was possible.” I scoffed.
“You worked in the castle. I don’t know what your life was like beyond city walls, but you held high status if you were allowed to work with the royal family. The King didn’t let just anyone work in his home.”
“He had a funny way of expressing his gratitude.”
Solen’s hand was on my chin. That delicious livewire current flowed between us once again. “Stop focusing on things you can’t change. That’s the past. Your future won’t look anything like that.”
“What happens next?” I was already salivating just from his touch, my need bubbling below the surface. One time with my mate was not enough to satisfy my heat. But we had inconveniences such as a revolution and a potential traitor to deal with. Good thing I had plenty of practice pushing my desires to the back burner. “You kind of destroyed my clothes, so that’s an issue.”
He gave me a wicked grin. “I like you like this. And it wouldn’t bother me if I kept you naked in my bed for your entire heat.”
A whine slipped out from between my lips. I’d grown so accustomed to suppressing it, to being ashamed of what I was because it was lesser, dirty, stupid...but this man, this omega, smashed all my misconceptions about myself. I could be strong and respected. I could lead.
“Let it out, my little spitfire,” he said, his voice raspy. “Let it all out.”
But was that what I wanted? For so long, I’d only longed to be taken care of, but Solen had given me permission to dream bigger.
Zelene, Tavia, Rielle, and Charolet all had a mission once they found their mate. It had been in their heart all along. But I was the one who’d accepted what I had, who made it through the situation one day at a time, and didn’t have the audacity to dream. How could I, when there was so much despair around me? It felt greedy, like I was taking more than my fair share.
But I’d think about it later because Solen’s mouth was crushing mine. His body was hard and warm, and his hands were everywhere. I let myself savor the sensations of his exploration.
It wasn’t long before my hands were on the thing I wanted most. His cock. It was hard and as ready for me as I was for him. There was no way he didn’t know that, as he stroked between my legs, his fingers soaked with my desire.
I stroked his length slowly, taking my time, really getting to know my mate. I had this crazy idea that I could set the tone of our time together. Not like I’d ever forget our first time. But it was frantic with need. I wanted to remember the way he felt when my inner muscles throbbed against him.
A horn or an alarm or whatever it was, a horrible noise separated us. My heart pounded and my pussy throbbed with need.
“What the hell was that?” I hastily pulled the sheet around my body. In the process, I’d uncovered Solen, but he had clothes here. I did not.
“It’s a message from the King,” he said, jumping out of bed in his hard, naked glory. I appreciated his round, firm ass and the two dimples at the base of his spine.
I sat up, only following him into his office with my eyes. He hunched over a laptop, frantically punching the keys. His eyes widened and lips parted, but then he shook his head and frowned as he typed some more.
“What’s happening?” I asked. Sweat beaded along my hairline, and ran down the middle of my back. Whatever it was, I hoped he could solve it from here. In this moment, I needed him more than the King did.
Solen didn’t answer as he returned to the bed, his expression distracted and concerned. I tried to clamp down my whine long enough to figure out what was wrong at the castle, but the need was rising again to nuclear levels.
Solen jerked his gaze to me, those golden eyes knowing exactly what I needed. The concern about the king’s message disappeared as his body pressed into mine to sate my heat once again.
Solen
Chapter Nine
I awoke in a tangle of limbs, unaware of how much time had passed. Ashla was draped across my chest, peaceful at last. I planned to let her sleep. She must be exhausted after the constant mating her heat required. I’d knotted in her more times than I could count, but maybe that was because I was out of my mind with pleasure, my inner wolf pushing me to satisfy her.
My mate.
My chest clenched just thinking about her. Something was happening to the walls I’d built around my heart. Something dangerous. Ashla was opening me up to a lot of feelings I’d avoided for so long.
I smoothed my hand up her bare back, pushing her tangled hair out of the way so I could watch her sleep.
Dangerous. The word described her perfectly. She was an unassuming warrior. Quietly lethal. And she was ruining my carefully cultivated detachment. Worst part was, I hardly cared. Let her fuck me up. I was tired of having no one to trust, no one to confide in. Solen, the alpha was hard and cold and powerful… and fucking lonely.
Ashla stirred, blinking awake with clear eyes, not the lusty, needy gaze of the past few… how long had it been… days?
She smiled and my stomach flip-flopped in response.
“Hi,” she murmured.
“Good morning, mate.”
“Is it morning?” she asked. “How can you tell?”
I squeezed her closer and kissed the top of her head. “I can’t. I’m pretending so that we can lay here longer.”
Soon, we would have to leave this bunker and face what was happening outside. The bounty on Ashla. The traitor in the castle. The beta resistance and the enemy humans from the Keep. As much as I wished it could, life wouldn’t stand still for us.
“Before we…” Ashla paused to trace her finger down my sternum. “Something happened before we…”
“Lost our minds to your delicious heat?” I rumbled.
“Yes, that.” Ashla’s cheeks reddened but there was no whine of desperation. Was it already over? A thread of sadness wound through me at that. And if so, just how much time had we lost?
I needed to check my messages to see if there was anything new from Adalai. The last one didn’t sit well with me.
Thanks to Ashla, I’ve identified how deeply the resistance goes. Adalai hadn’t used the code word ‘package’ as we’d agreed upon. Instead, he’d called her by name. It was dangerous and reckless. The king was neither.
The package is secure, but this line may be compromised. Switching to secondary communications. After I typed my response, I sent a code to crash that line so it couldn’t be used again. From now on, the messages from the king would come through my wrist com.
“Is the castle still safe?” Ashla asked. “Zelene and the others?”
“Yes, the castle is secure and the resistance is controlled for now.” For how long, that was the question.
“Wow. You just went into soldier mode before my very eyes. I don’t know whether to be impressed or annoyed.”
I quickly kissed her smirk away. “Be impressed. Your mate is a warrior just like you.”
“My mate. You’d better watch out,” she said softly. “That sounds dangerously like a commitment.”
It did. But I was living dangerously these days. There was no telling what I would promise this female before we left our hideout.
Ashla sat
up, reaching high above her head for a long stretch. I was mesmerized by her curves and valleys. Her lean muscles. She was a work of art, and yet battle scars from her days in the Badlands marred her skin. I’d paid special tribute to those last night, kissing and licking each one.
She noticed me watching and her cheeks went pink. Her shyness pulled at some male part of me that I couldn’t explain. Part of me that wanted to hide her away forever and give her anything she wanted on a silver fucking platter.
“I’m going to shower,” she said, standing and pulling the sheet with her. I grabbed the end of it just before she slipped past the bed.
“Leave that here.”
She dropped it, her gaze turning hot again. “You can join me.”
“Give me five minutes. I need to update the king.”
She closed the door to the bathroom before I rose from the bed to find my wrist com. Four unread messages from Adalai waited for me, all marked URGENT.
“Shit.”
Something has come up. Return to the castle immediately. Bring the package.
The next three were more of the same, except with varied levels of threats attached. No mention of the compromised communications.
I typed a reply. The package is hot. Still in danger. Advise.
Adalai’s response came quickly. Hot? Tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means.
Affirmative, I answered.
This time, the reply took several minutes to come through. It doesn’t matter. You must return with the package immediately.
I frowned. The king was asking me to return even though Ashla was in no state to travel and every wolf within a hundred miles would be scenting her heat? Reckless.
How do I know this is you? Our other line was compromised. Confirm identity.
My wrist com buzzed with an immediate reply. Twelve. Eight. Double zero. It was the king’s security code. We’d settled on it long ago when I first built this bunker.
This confirmed I was talking to Adalai.
I stared at the bathroom door, contemplating my next move. Adalai might be my king—and before my time here with Ashla that meant a whole hell of a lot—but he was putting my mate in danger with this request.
Request? It wasn’t a request. It was a command, and I was expected to obey it. Like always.
Why? I quickly typed into my com.
Why? Because I’m your goddamned king.
I promised I’d keep the package safe, I wrote. You’re asking me to break that promise without any explanation. What kind of general would I be if I didn’t ask, if I didn’t question the strangeness of Adalai’s request?
What kind of mate would I be?
There has been evidence brought against the package. Proof of guilt.
My heart stopped. Proof of guilt? How could there be proof, when Ashla did nothing wrong?
She’s innocent, I wrote back.
She needs to stand trial. For the good of our entire pack, they need to see that justice will always be served.
I believed her when she said she was innocent. But… but even if she wasn’t, I was ready to defy my king to keep her from harm.
Shit. Duty versus my heart was always where my true battle was destined to be fought.
Solen, it’s not just the package. There is also evidence against you.
I jerked my head back, reading the message again and again. Evidence against me? Impossible. I was more loyal to Adalai than anyone. There was no evidence against me.
What evidence? I asked.
Return to the castle and we will have a trial.
Bullshit. You know this is bullshit. Inside, I felt a deep betrayal. In all my years, Adalai had never done me wrong. But now? Was he using me and Ashla as pawns in a political move?
Bullshit or not, that’s an order, and I expect you to obey it. Come home.
I stood, launching my wrist com at the wall with all my strength, shattering it to pieces. My fists clenched as fury filled me to the brim. I wouldn’t obey my king this time. Not when he was asking me to hand over my mate.
I couldn’t. Not after promising her safety. If she couldn’t be safe with me, then… when would she ever be safe? It was the question every omega asked. When will we be safe?
We. An omega is taught to fight beside their mate.
I was choosing to fight beside mine now.
The beta resistance could use someone else to sway the king. It wouldn’t be me and Ashla.
I’d rather be an outlaw, with an outlaw mate, than a scapegoat in a plot to overthrow the king.
I wasn’t alpha. I wasn’t omega. I was somewhere in between.
And that’s where I planned to stay.
Ashla
Chapter Ten
As good as it felt to have Solen calm my heat, this shower was pretty amazing too. A shower in an omega heat bunker was on a dream-like luxury level to begin with, but this one went even beyond that, with sprays of water coming from multiple places in the walls and the ceiling.
I dragged the washcloth over the skin, loving the way my mate had left his mark on my body. I ached in all the right places. My nipples were sore from his mouth and his fingers, but it didn’t stop me from circling them with the cloth, bringing them to a peak one more time…
Where was he?
He said he had to deal with king stuff, and which shouldn’t have filled me with the amount of rage it did. As the main suspect in the castle security breach, it had never been more important to guard my emotions. But I wasn’t that perfect little omega anymore. The one who never said what she wanted in the event it might put her in danger.
I was greedy for my mate. If he’d gone to the shower first, I’d be in here on my knees making sure every inch of him was ready for whatever battle we faced next.
My leg muscles weakened at the visual.
The door opened and Solen emerged from the mist. He stalked toward me, those golden eyes feral and unseeing.
He needed to shift.
“Solen—” I couldn’t ask him what was wrong because in one swift movement, he had me pinned against the wall in the corner. His face was buried in my neck, his knee between my legs, and that glorious cock hard against my belly.
He moved his hands from my shoulders to my breasts, and the contact was nowhere near as gentle as I’d been with the washcloth. But it felt just as good. I writhed against him, play fighting with him, because I knew it would drive him wild, and make him assert his will over me.
He groaned against the crook of my neck, nipping my collarbone just before he drove his cock inside me. I was jelly under his touch, riding the waves of pleasure as the water rained down all around us. It didn’t take time for his knot to swell and for him to shoot his seed inside me.
There was nothing but the sound of our breath and the water falling as he pulled out, and kissed my head. So gentle in contrast to what he’d just done.
“I take it the king had good news?” I’d dropped the washcloth I’d been using on the floor, but there was another one ready for me, like Solen had known he’d have a guest here sometime soon. Like he’d been waiting for me. I wanted to wash him. This omega had seen much different brutality than I had in his life, and it was time someone showed him another way.
He shook his head. “I need to keep you safe.”
“Solen.” I grasped his massive biceps but he moved away from me, refusing to look me in the eye as he shut off the water. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re innocent. I know you’re innocent,” he growled and handed me a towel. It was soft and fluffy and so in contrast to my mate’s fury.
I wrapped myself in it and followed him to the bedroom. “You’re talking nonsense.” His thunderous expression snapped to me. I deserved that look, but it still took me aback. “I am innocent. I need to know why that’s suddenly a problem.”
His gaze met mine, and even the fluffy towel couldn’t erase the chill that swept over me. “King Adalai has proof you’re not.”
My chest constrict
ed. Not possible. I’d been set up. “And you believe him.”
“No. I’ll defend my mate’s honor, even when the King has the audacity to bring it into question.” He ripped open his closet door. The same uniform shirt hung perfectly one in front of the other. He pulled one off its hanger, sending the rest into chaos. “We’ve been summoned back to the castle. Immediately.”
“Okay.” This was really happening. The king had not been gentle with his justice of the royal omegas. Charolet served time in the dungeons, and His Majesty did not give one damn she was in heat.
I was still in heat. Solen had calmed the worst of it, but a desperate wolf, one looking to make a statement, wouldn’t miss my scent.
Solen raised an eyebrow as he buttoned his shirt. “No. It’s not okay. It’s anything but okay. His information is bad, or he’s trying to make an example of you. Of us.”
“Us?” It could simply mean our mate connection, or something much more dangerous. “Does anyone else know what you are?”
“There’s no telling what anyone knows anymore.” He sighed, and unclipped a pair of leather pants from the hanger. “But I don’t plan on finding out. I’m not bringing you back to the castle. It’s not safe. You’re still in heat.”
“The king will listen to reason.” That assumed he cared about my safety, Solen should be able to convince him I’d still be just as wrongly accused when my cycle was done.
Sometimes, I wondered if Zelene catching the attention of His Majesty put us in more danger than we ever were before.
“The king will listen to what he wants to hear. He can have a trial without us.”
“A trial?” This was so much worse than Solen had let on. No wonder he was so rattled. “He wants to put us on trial?”
Royal trials were no joke. I’d been very far removed from some of them as an armory employee, but they put everyone on edge. Justice in the castle always favored the king.
“Adalai thinks it’s good for the pack to see justice served.” He growled. How this man hadn’t shifted yet was beyond me. He’d denied his animal for so long it had him twisted in knots. “But he’s wrong. The pack needs to see that the king isn’t always right.”
