His Rebellious Omega (The Royal Omegas Book 3)

by P. Jameson

  Freedom.

  Freedom from the law, from my father’s ingrained obedience, from my own vicious guilt. Freedom to serve my true purpose.

  My. True. Purpose.

  Charolet.

  Was this what Adalai felt when he found Zelene? Dagger, when he realized Tavia was important? Was this some evolutional turning point in Weren history? A new law being written, one mating at a time.

  Without restraint, I told the king everything I’d learned at the keep.

  About the drugged mead the humans used to control the omegas.

  About the ones who were cast aside when they didn’t perform to spec.

  About the clandestine beta resistance and the plot against the kingdom. How the betas wanted to align with the humans to bring down Luxoria.

  June and Alix and Martha.

  All of it.

  When I was finished, I didn’t wait to be dismissed. I left the entire room floundering with what to do next and hauled ass out of there. I knew where I was going.

  Hang on, mate. Your alpha coming.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Charolet

  Jacoby brought us deep into the Keep, away from the shabby, ruined buildings to a lush green oasis.

  “The omega project is still in the beginning stages,” he explained as he drove Rielle and me around on a cart. The other omegas followed close behind. “After the solar flares, the city perished. Their main industry was tourism, which is why there are so many huge abandoned buildings. They were resorts, so once refurbished, they can support our needs. The humans use them for research now. We live in these cottages. Much nicer than the shacks we had in the Badlands.”

  The little houses did look cozy, but that wasn’t my concern. “What kind of research?”

  “All kinds of stuff. The alphas won’t be able to claim their superior technology for long.” He pulled the cart into a spot outside one of those large buildings. Palm trees and a working fountain flanked the entrance, which seemed out of place in the desert.

  “They’re with me,” he said as we passed a security checkpoint. I was already sweating, but it wasn’t from the unrelenting sunshine. I hoped this human didn’t notice.

  But Jacoby and the others, they’d be able to smell my approaching heat soon.

  The security guard held his hand up. “These are the omegas that caused trouble the yesterday.”

  Yesterday.

  Yesterday morning to be precise. I did the math in my head. I’d been out for more than twenty-four hours. I couldn’t freak out. Not here. Not yet.

  “Charolet and Rielle are interested in working with us,” Jacoby told the guard. What? “I think they have a lot to offer our project.”

  Project?

  The stupid human looked us over and let us pass. Jacoby led us down a long hallway, flanked on either side by glass walled rooms. Equipment sat on steel tables, and humans and omegas worked together in each of the labs.

  I stopped dead in my tracks at the next room, where omegas were strapped to chairs with tubes running into their arms. I recognized some. Their faces brightened when they saw me, but they had that same heavy lidded, red-eyed look that Rielle did.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I slammed my hands against the glass. My wolf was going batshit crazy inside me and it would take everything I had to keep it inside. Everything to keep from smashing that glass to free my people.

  “It’s not as bad as it looks,” Jacoby said quickly.

  I startled when he put his hand on my arm, and gently peeled me away from the window. I couldn’t take my eyes off one omega. Sarah. We worked together at the castle until very recently. She must have been one of the ones who fled the Badlands on foot. Now she was here, hooked up to these wires and machines.

  “We’ve been malnourished for years, Char,” Jacoby continued. “Deprived of the nutrients that our bodies need. So, the humans take a little bit of our blood to find out what deficiencies we have. Sarah’s getting an infusion now.”

  Rielle whimpered. Oh, hell no. My girl never whimpered unless she was overtaken with heat. I ignored it, hoping Jacoby didn’t notice.

  “What kind of infusion?,” I asked, my eyes still on Sarah. “She looks terrified.” And alone. So alone. We had to get her out of here. Or at least talk to her and make sure she’d consented to whatever was being pumped into her body.

  “It will help her control her heats.” Jacoby’s adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “So she only has them when she wants them. Soon, we’ll determine if she’s a good candidate for our Elite team. If so, she’d receive additional infusions.”

  I wiped my forehead, trying to be discreet, but there was no way he or the other omegas would miss the sweat that had beaded there. I turned to Rielle, who’d gone totally pale. “Did they do that to you while I was out?”

  She couldn’t stop staring at Sarah, and her eyes shone with unshed tears. She nodded.

  Fuck.

  “Rielle is a fantastic candidate for the Elite team,” Jacoby said. “I would never hurt either of you.” Said the man who pointed a gun at me. The man who shot my alpha through the chest. “Char, this is a good thing.”

  “She’s not herself.” Panic roiled in my body. “And neither is Sarah.”

  “Sarah was severely dehydrated when she got here,” he said. “Rielle’s levels were also alarming. So far, she’s received a mix of vitamins and superminerals—”

  “She’s not one of your experiments!” I cried, wrapping my arms around my stomach to stop the surge of energy in my body. “What if they turn mutant?”

  It took everything I had to concentrate on his answer.

  “They’re safe here.”

  I dropped to the floor, pressing my lips together, but failing to hold back my wolf’s whine. My heat was coming now, whether I wanted it to or not. Whether Cassian was here to help me through it… or not.

  “Charolet!” Rielle was on her knees beside me. “She needs a bunker. Now!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Cassian

  I steered the Humvee to a stop at my outpost, dust kicking up behind me as I applied the brake. A supply stop was necessary even if it put me back a few minutes. Weapons, food, water… I recited a list in my head. Things Charolet might need. Blankets? Extra clothes?

  Shit, I didn’t know what was going to happen when I returned. I only knew that I was getting her out of there.

  Preoccupied with remembering what I needed, I didn’t notice that none of my men were stationed at their posts. Pushing through the door, I came face to face with my king.

  Adalai stood, arms crossed over his broad chest, glaring like he was ready to flay me. “Do you know how many times I’ve had a general walk out on a meeting… and live?”

  We’d been friends long enough for me to know the answer. Never. Because none had ever walked out on him. But I also knew he wasn’t going to kill me for the offense. Adalai was a brutal alpha, but only as much as he needed to be.

  “Look—”

  “No. I already had to come hunt you down. Don’t make me draw blood. You said your piece, now listen to me.”

  The alpha in me wanted to butt heads with him. He was costing me precious minutes, time I could be on the road back to the Human Keep, back to Charolet. But the faster I got this out of the way, the faster I could move on.

  “You’re going to answer my questions. Here, now. Without any interference, is that understood?”

  “Wholly, Your Majesty,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “How sure are you about the beta resistance? How credible is the threat?”

  “Credible enough that I rushed back to tell you,” I snapped.

  Adalai growled a warning. “I can’t just set my armies loose on betas if I’m not sure. It would start a civil war.”

  Well, shit. He was right.

  “I’ve heard rumblings. My men have brought concerns to me that betas are stirring. Some are jealous of the omegas’ new status. Worried they will be put on equal fo
oting with them. I chalked it up to confusion and uncertainty of their place in the pack. But after what I learned at the keep, I believe the situation is more dire.”

  Adalai frowned, thinking. “This beta, Alix. Have you ever seen them before?”

  “No, sir. I only know Alix is the only beta in the keep, and seems quite desperate to leave. Even willing to face you and reap whatever punishment awaits.”

  “The punishment should be death,” Adalai muttered.

  Should be? Was he considering a different punishment for treason?

  “I believe the beta expects it, Your Majesty.”

  “Expects to die, yet is desperate to leave the humans,” the king mused. “It means whatever they’re doing to those Weren must be worse than death.”

  My stomach lurched. “My thoughts exactly.”

  Adalai cursed. “The omega Charolet is your mate?”

  Just hearing her name on his lips made me want to pound his royal face in. I needed to get back to her.

  “Yes.”

  “Have you claimed her?”

  “That’s none of your fucking business.”

  Adalai blew out a slow breath, grappling for patience. “What I meant to say,” he snarled, “was can you shift yet?”

  Oh. Of course the king would wonder about that.

  “No. Not yet,” I said, a fraction calmer.

  Adalai pressed his lips together, eyeing me. “I can’t let you go back by yourself.”

  I scowled. “Fucking try to stop me.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You know I could if I wanted to.” He could do a lot of things. He was alpha. He could bring me to my knees with a single howl.

  “But you won’t,” I challenged. “Because you know I can’t leave her there. You wouldn’t leave yours. What alpha alive would?”

  The king stared hard at me, no doubt, seeing the danger in letting one man go ahead and wanting to rein me in. In the end, he had no argument. Keeping an alpha away from his mate when she was in danger, was an impossible feat.

  “Go,” he said, “Take as many weapons as you can carry. I will leave Dagger and Solen to deal with the unruly betas. Evander and myself will gather our armies and be close behind you.”

  I nodded, relieved to finally be moving in the direction of the keep. “Yes, sir.”

  The king hurried off while I started stacking weapons and ammo to load into the Humvee. In fifteen minutes flat, I had it loaded to the brim and weapons strapped to every part of my body.

  The dusty road through the Badlands was clogged with construction vehicles. Dagger and Tavia’s reconstruction project was costing me precious minutes. Frustrated, I banged the steering wheel with my fist. It would take me hours to cross the desert, and that was after I got past the Badlands.

  Unless…

  The cutoff that went by the toxic lake and through the canyon was a shorter route, but it was dangerous in a vehicle.

  Staring at the brightly colored earth mover blocking my path, I considered my options. Take the canyon and get to Charolet faster or stay on the road and hope she didn’t get drugged while I was away. Or worse… go into heat.

  My wolf snarled at the idea. No one was touching mine.

  I jerked the steering wheel, turning the vehicle into the sand and sped toward the lake. No doubt, the king would get word of my alternate route but I couldn’t care. My animal was going crazy, needing to get back to the keep before something awful happened.

  “Hold on, Char. Hold on.”

  Now that the threat to the kingdom was out of my hands, my mind spun with ideas of what could be happening in the keep. I shouldn’t have left. Rielle was too intoxicated. Did my mate even get my message? Would she think I’d abandoned her?

  I was already nearing the lake as I pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor. The sand beneath my tires turned to gravel, and then to bigger rocks. Soon there would be boulders for the Humvee to climb before the land descended into the valley where the keep was located.

  The sun was setting over the craggy hills, but every heartbeat brought me closer to my omega.

  As I maneuvered my vehicle through the canyon where we’d hidden Tavia during her heat, my head spun with awareness. The scent of omega heat filled my nostrils and turned my cock to steel. Instinctually, my eyes scanned the area for any sign of Weren, but it was only me and the disappearing light in the canyon. It must be the memory of what happened last time I was here. I blinked, my vision going foggy. I shook my head, trying to clear the scent from my brain.

  Except, it only grew stronger the farther through the canyon I went. And to my complete horror, it was laced with a scent I had come to love.

  Lavender and honey.

  Charolet.

  “What the fuck…”

  I pressed the pedal to the floor, ignoring the rocks kicking up and hitting the underside of the vehicle. Lowering the window, I inhaled the air, letting my wolf instincts guide me. The scent of heat and Charolet was stronger, which told me everything I needed to know.

  One, I was very close to the keep.

  Two, my female was in heat.

  I snarled, demanding everything from the vehicle. I wouldn’t let her go through this alone. Or worse, with some random male who cared nothing about her.

  Sometime later—it could have been minutes or hours, I could hardly tell the difference with my instincts roaring beneath the surface—I stopped the vehicle in the alley where the fence was. As I stepped out, I scented the air to get an idea of my mate’s location, but the smell had all but disappeared. She’d found a bunker.

  Wasting no time, I pushed through the fence opening and climbed across the rubble that separated me from the omega barracks where June and Alix were. They could help me find Charolet.

  I found June quickly, ignoring how the omegas eyed my weapons warily. “My mate,” I growled, feeling more animal than man. And she must have understood the seriousness of the situation because she didn’t say a word until we were inside the elevator, cranking upward.

  “They brought her here from the transfusion center.”

  My blood ran cold. “Did they…”

  “No. No juice. She went into heat and fought them off before they could try.”

  Relief pounded my sternum. Good. My omega was tough and brave. The bastard humans wouldn’t have stood a chance.

  “She’s in an old interrogation room. It’s sealed off and mostly airtight. I can’t guarantee privacy though. The humans have cameras everywhere.”

  As the elevator doors opened, I could smell Charolet’s heat getting stronger, and through the walls of her chamber, I could hear her needy cries.

  I’m here, mate.

  I rushed down the hall, stopping at the wide window that gave me a view of my writhing omega. She lay on the ground where blankets and pillows were strewn haphazardly. Her eyes were closed, and as she slept, her head thrashed from side to side.

  “It’s a fever dream,” June said, keeping her distance. “They can be very intense, showing her things that aren’t real.”

  “You know from experience.”

  “Yes.” June turned back for the elevator. “Do what needs to be done. We will keep a watch out.”

  I nodded my thanks and watched her start her descent before peering back through the window at Charolet. She twisted and moaned, but it was cry of noooo followed by my name that spurred me into action. That sound… the way her voice sounded as she screamed Cassian. So filled with loss. Dream or not, I never wanted her to feel that way again.

  I burst through the door, falling to my knees beside her. “Charolet. Charolet, wake up.” I unloaded my weapons, tossing them carelessly aside, and peeled my shirt over my head.

  “Cassian?” She scrambled to a sit, her eyes roaming me wildly. “Oh, thank god… Cassian!” She flung herself at me, and I caught her as she dissolved into tears.

  “I’m here, mate. Right here.”

  “I-I dreamed…” Her sobs didn’t slow even as she moved her body a
gainst mine, undulating. “I thought you were dead.”

  “No, little rebel,” I whispered, my arms crushing her to me. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Charolet

  “I thought you were dead.” I could barely see Cassian through my tears. My heat might have been making me hallucinate, but as I inhaled his deep earthy scent, I knew he was real. He had to be. Having him here, with me, gave me hope that we were going to survive this awful ordeal. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

  He took me in his big, strong arms, and rocked me gently back and forth, running his hand over my hair. My heat skyrocketed, and I pressed my lips together to suppress my whine.

  “I will always come back to you. Always.” His voice was soft and breathy as he pulled me in tighter against his body. My knees went weak. Every inch of him was rock hard, and there was no missing his giant erection pressing against my belly.

  The alpha knew I was in heat. There was no way he couldn’t smell it, couldn’t feel it with every fiber of his being when we were this close.

  “Rielle said they carried you off on a cart.”

  I couldn’t hold back my sobs and my heat. Especially when it came to Rielle. I couldn’t get the image of Sarah hooked up to those machines out of my head, knowing they’d done the same thing to Rielle. “They’ve given Rielle something. Put it in her veins and she’s not right…”

  I dissolved into hysteria, pounding my fists against his chest. The heat was absolutely unbearable, and my desperation had turned into a howl. He pushed me back down to the floor of the cell. There were windows everywhere. Cameras. I needed to beg him to take me, set me on fire when he knottted himself inside me, but we couldn’t do it here.

  “She’ll be okay.” He brushed his lips against my cheek. So close to kissing me. “You have to listen to me, Charolet. I know it’s hard right now. I just need you to hear this and then we can make you feel better.”

  All I could do was moan. I clutched his shoulders. There was only so much longer I could hold my heat back.