“Shit,” Tarn whispered.
“What is it?” Our eyes met, and I sucked in another breath. His eyes glowed golden for a second, then flickered back to normal. The effect wasn’t dangerous; in fact, it heralded a period of invulnerability and unusual strength. I asked if my eyes had changed, and he shook his head.
Tarn lifted his hands from Vali’s hips and signed, “We must be under attack somehow. As far as I know, an Omega’s powers only flare when there is need.”
“Rigol,” I replied, moving toward the edge of the bed, and grabbing a pair of my trousers that had been part of the building materials. I had to get to my king and protect him. Vali snarled and tore the trousers out of my grip, tucking them back on the pillow as I threw my legs carefully over the other side. She let out a pitiful wail, reaching for me.
“You can’t leave an Omega’s nest,” Tarn muttered. “I didn’t mean you shouldn’t. I meant youcan’t. It will damage her, hurt your bond irrevocably. You have to stay.”
I shook my head and launched myself out of the bed. Vali would forgive me for leaving her; she might not forgive me for letting Rigol die. But the moment my hand touched the doorknob, Tarn shouted.
Vali was twisting her body, grasping handfuls of the blankets as she tried to push Tarn’s knot out of her, to follow me. “Alpha,” she wailed, her golden eyes red-tinged, as if she was bleeding somewhere I couldn’t see. “Alpha!”
Tarn hadn’t been exaggerating. I picked up the carafe of water and carried it back to her, grabbing my axe and setting it on the floor on one side of the bed. “Just getting water,” I signed. “I won’t leave.” Her breathing, which had gotten so fast it seemed she might hyperventilate, quieted as I gave her small sips while Tarn waited for his Alpha biology to run its course.
“We must warn the others,” he signed. “How?”
“Vilkurn was supposed to follow you here,” I replied, only realizing now that he had never appeared. Inner alarms started ringing; Vilkurn knew Vali had entered her Omega cycle. None of her mates would decline an invitation to experience what Rigol had. We’d all spoken of how long it would be until the next one. Lorn had read that they came once a year but could happen more rapidly with constant exposure to her mates. None of us had dreamed it would come so soon. I prayed Vilkurn was with Rigol, keeping him safe. “We’ll have to wait.”
I grasped the handle of my axe and brought it into the bed with us. I wouldn’t leave my Omega, but if anyone thought to take advantage of this moment, it would be the last mistake they made.
Vilkurn
“Have you seen the king?” The guards at the north gate both shook their heads, their expressions growing grim. I breathed deeply, fighting the worry that had been my near-constant companion since I’d mated the most coveted and unique woman in the world.
I didn’t want to panic the troops, but anyone could tell that when the king’s Master Spy had been reduced to asking gate guards about the king’s whereabouts, something was very wrong.
“Sir!” A small voice piped up from a few yards down the street outside.
“Come forward,” I ordered, though I knew the voice that emerged from the gathering dusk. I was certain I would need this little monster closer, mostly to keep her from pick-pocketing the guards in my retinue from the shadows. “Ratter, I said come forward.”
The young girl slunk out of the semi-darkness, her mouth twisted into its usual snarl. She was my youngest contact in Turino, a ten-year-old orphan who I had rescued from a pedophilic Alpha gone mad a year before. She had refused to be adopted into a family, preferring to stay on the streets, where she ruled the other street rats like a tiny, despotic warlord.
“Yeah, I seen him, General,” she said, pushing her oily, dark strands back, and staring up at me from too-wide eyes that should have been filled with innocence, but were as jaded as a fifty-year-old barmaid. “Executioner took him for drinks at the Swill and Spill two hours ago. Left him there with a handful of guards.”
I cursed under my breath. Rigol knew there had been Starlakian warriors scouting the borders of Rimholt, and Turino could already be infiltrated. We all had to be on guard; it was the reason I hadn’t been remotely offended when Tarn had snuck out to double check on Vali during our ride.
Ratter spoke again, her voice lisping in the frosty night air. “Think the king was pissy about it bein’ Axe’s night.”
My eyes widened, and Ratter let loose a sweet, childish laugh.
“The street knows about our nights?”
She rolled her eyes. “The street knows more than that. Just heard she’s in her Omega cycle right now. I bet if you got close enough you could even smell it waftin’ out of them castle windows. Windows big enough for a stranger to sneak through, General.” She pursed her lips and tsked like a disapproving matron.
Fuck. “Someone’s here, in the city?” I reached into my cloak pocket and pulled out a goldani, more money than Ratter would have ever held in her life. I usually paid her in coppers, but I had a feeling this knowledge was worth much more. “Tell me everything.”
“Three men, not together,” she whispered after I pulled her away from the listening guards. “The owner at the Rusty Blade acted like he knew ’em. Put ’em in different rooms, but they been in town for three days now.”
Three days? I was going to flay my spies for not finding this out before tonight.
“They was waitin’ for the right minute, they said. But then a couple hours ago, one of them went harin’ off toward where Rigol was gettin’ drunk, and the other two got all dressed in black and snuck out the back of the inn.”
“Heading for the castle?” It was madness; I had tripled the guards in the past months. “Alphas, or Betas?”
“Couldn’t tell. Tall enough to be Alphas, maybe. But quiet, sneaky.” She shrugged and her frail shoulders irked me. I paid her enough weekly to eat better than this; she must have been giving it to the other street rats, instead of buying food for herself.
I handed her a second goldani. “Get food—for yourself this time.”
