Vali
Before the world discovered what I was, before even I knew the secret that slept inside my body, my life was simple. Ignored by most, I lived in a closet off a brothel kitchen, sleeping on a cot stuffed with dried moss and rags. I stayed out of the way of the other girls who worked in the bedrooms of The Rutting Sow, where I’d been raised. By day, I worked as a maid, and at night I hid from men who wanted me for more than cleaning floors and doing laundry. I’d never allowed myself to dream of a life like I had now.
Why would I? I wasn’t anyone. Certainly not an Omega, some legendary, magical creature that could topple evil kings and elevate better ones. I was just Vali, an orphan with nothing to her name but a kitten and a funny scent.
When I met the first of my mates, all that changed. My wonderful, powerful, seven-foot-tall mountain of sexiness, Axe, transformed my life.
I took a deep breath, wishing he were here so I could pull his rich earth and musk into my lungs, and him into my arms.Oops.A smatter of delicate curses swirled around me as a whole row of buttons came undone. “By the Goddess, Your Majesty, please stay still!”
“Sorry, Dorcas.” I stood on a raised wooden pedestal, with lady’s maids fluttering about me like sparrows around the seed I enjoyed throwing out in the castle courtyard. Excited and competitive, each one reaching for me, they were very similar to the noisy birds as they dressed me. I called them Fancy Ladies, but only in my mind. My mate Vilkurn, currently sprawled in a leather armchair watching the spectacle of the queen being dressed in her first riding habit, had warned me not to let them hear that nickname.
“Fancy Ladies?” he’d said that morning after he woke me with the news we would go riding today. “It sounds a bit like they might work in your… previous friends’ occupations.”
It had been Vilkurn’s night last night, so I’d woken in my favorite dungeon in his bed with the softest mattress and fluffiest blankets. The riding had started early, though not on horseback. As I remembered the gallop he’d taken me on against the headboard, my stomach cramped the slightest bit, and I stilled. I’d felt this way before. Maybe it was just gas?
I hoped so. I really wanted to ride a horse; I hadn’t been on one for years. “Aren’t we done yet?”
“We would be, Your Majesty, if you’d stop fidgeting,” Dorcas, my favorite lady’s maid answered pertly. “This riding habit has a hundred closures.” She shot a glare at Vilkurn, which I thought was very brave of her. He was the King’s Torturer, after all. “The seamstress figured any less than that, and you’d be gallivanting about the entire kingdom of Rimholt dressed in your knickers with that lot of men you have.” She pursed her lips in mock disapproval, though her eyes gleamed with humor, then she tickled my ribs slightly as she fastened a few more of the tiny pearlescent buttons on the bodice of the fancy butter yellow split-skirt ensemble.
I stifled a laugh. I had gotten used to help while getting undressed—thanks to my five gorgeous Alpha mates, I never had to undo a single lace—but the assistance putting clothes on was still odd.
Finally, we were done, though Vilkurn’s warm gaze made me fidget a few more times. I peeked in my mirror and was stunned. A jaunty riding cap, covered with white feathers and golden trim, made my dark curls look even darker. My unremarkable brown eyes, the subject of at least five terrible poems sent to the castle in the months since my coronation, were shiny and golden-flecked. Hmm.
I chewed at my lip. “Let’s go, Vilkurn,” I urged, pulling him out of his chair. “I want to ride.” I needed to ride soon. If I was right, we didn’t have much time.
“Where are we riding today?” I asked as we walked far too slowly down the hallway that led to the stables. I had been queen for a few months, but there were just too many passageways. If I didn’t always have someone with me, I would have gotten lost far more often than I already had.
He settled a warm fur cap over his head, stopped to wrap a soft woolen scarf around me and then a fur-lined cape. He opened the door. “We’re going out to the fallow fields past Turino, to the east. The ground is cold but fairly clear, and the views are exceptional.”
“Oh, la! The views are exceptional,” I mocked, skipping ahead. “We shall have to inform the other nobles of the splendidly phenomenal prospects—oh!” I stopped teasing when his hand landed on my bottom in a soft swat.
“Careful, kitten. I’ll have a crop in my hand today.”
I scowled. “You won’t use it on me.”
He brushed his fingers gently on the side of my cheek. “Of course not, little one. I would never hurt you.”
“Even if…” There was something I’d been worried about, and I had to ask. I took a deep breath and let the next words out in a rush. “Even if I never want to do the spanking and those sorts of things? I know you like them, and that you used to do that and lots more to the ladies, and…” I couldn’t say any more since he’d covered my mouth with his own in a kiss. He pulled away, placing his hand at my nape, and I craned my neck to see his face. It was wreathed in a look so full of love, my eyes stung with sudden tears.
“My love, I told you before. My special dungeons are only for the willing. Now, only for you. That means what happens there will be yours to decide. We have our whole lives ahead of us. Years and years to explore.” He tapped the end of my nose with a gloved finger.
“Are you sure? You don’t miss those things?” There were a whole lot of paddles and whips and instruments I couldn’t even guess at in his dungeon. But my past made them as attractive to me as eating rotten sardines.
“Who says I have to miss them?” Vilkurn asked calmly, ushering me outside into the frigid air. My breath caught at the freezing wind, or the implication that he might take another partner.
Suddenly, my tears weren’t happy ones.
“I’m sure, if you gave your permission, Tarn or Lorn would like to explore their boundaries.” His face stayed expressionless as my jaw dropped. The thought of my golden-haired mates being tied up and spanked by Vilkurn was… was…
“By the stars,” I moaned, fidgeting in the silk drawers Lorn had bought for me. The air filled with the scent of peaches and honey, and I blushed. This was one of the more embarrassing traits of being an Omega; anyone who came near now would know precisely how I was feeling. “Would they like… I mean, do you think…?”
“Anything you ask, kitten, your mates will provide.” Vilkurn’s smile was as bright as the winter sun. “They’d like it, though from your scent, maybe not quite as much as you would.”
“Vilkurn!” I buried my burning face in my hands as he laughed, praying that I would make it through the day.
Although galloping back to my bedroom and riding one, or all five, of my mates was not a bad idea either.
Axe
