“The thought has occurred to me as well. I’d love to, but he’s got many well-trained guards, and a very extensive knowledge of poisons. Daylight is coming, and morning isn’t the assassin’s friend. We’ll run and come back to kill him from the shadows later.”
Thorn had impressed on me the value of hiding, watching, and waiting. We weren’t soldiers, Thorn and me. We were silent killers.
“He has to be alive,” I murmured, my eyes moving from Altair’s dark form as he went ahead of us, to the trees nearby, always alert. We followed him closer to the barracks, listening hard. When we were no more than a hundred feet away, crouched at the base of a grouping of hibiscus bushes, our luck ended.
Altair stumbled, the cofi root’s effectiveness gone. I jumped to catch him, and the motion gained the attention of the regent’s guards.
“There they are!”
I slung my arms around Altair, and Kavin grabbed his other side. We ran, but the guards had planned for this. They intercepted us, funneling us closer and closer to the long, dark pier that ended in the middle of the crashing waves.
“There’s nowhere to go,” Kavin gasped as our feet pounded the wooden planks, dragging Altair between us now.
“Can you swim?”
“Of course,” he snapped. I ignored his offended tone; he was high as a kite on cofi as well. He probably thought he could call whales to his aid.
“You need to jump in with Altair, float him on his back, let the tides take you. I’ll fight until you get some distance away, then join you. Don’t worry, I’ve trained for this.”
I was only half lying. I’d heard stories about this type of crazed maneuver, and they all ended with, “and smart assassins never do this sort of thing because now the ones who did are all dead.”
There had to be a first time for everything, right?
Kavin cursed, then grabbed me and pressed a hard kiss to my mouth. “If you die before I get to lick you again, I’m going to be so angry.”
I let out a laugh, not sure what to do with that. “If you die before I get to lick you at all, I’ll bring you back and kill you again.”
His pained moan was louder than the surf. “Now that’s motivation to live. I’ll find you,kralovna.”
Knowing the extra weight would drag them down, he stripped off his boots and Altair’s sandals, then both their shirts. I turned to face the oncoming guards, listening for the splashes in the water behind me. I didn’t hear any over the surf and wind, but I could sense my Alphas were no longer there.
My Alphas. Yes, they were mine. Mine to protect, at least.
The guards waited for the regent to approach. “Duplicitous little bitch,” he spat, yelling over the boom of the surf. “Acting the fool!”
“Better than being one,” I replied, letting my disdain show. “You saw an Omega and thought I’d be stupid.”
He sneered. “You’re about to die, so I wouldn’t crow so loud.”
“I am?” I asked, my mind racing for a way out of this. A way to keep the guards’ attention from Kavin and Altair while they escaped. To keep their eyes on me.
I thought back to my time in the harem. To the countless instances when one of my sisters had acted the whore for an Alpha to distract him from another who was still healing from previous abuse. Courage had been common in the harem, and even if I had been saved the worst of it by the older Failed Omegas, I remembered their example.
I straightened, and lifted my hands sinuously to my neck, slowly unbuttoning my cloak. The guards closest to me jumped forward until they saw the knife in my hands. I didn’t use it to attack them, though. One knife against so many was folly, even if my blade had been poisoned.
Instead, carefully, with intentionally slow movements, I used the blade to cut a long slit down the front of my shirt, slicing it open and revealing my breasts to the salt wind. My nipples beaded in the breeze, and I fought to keep my gaze cool, my chin lifted. I vowed that every one of these men would die by my hand if I had the chance. It was what they deserved. I inhaled deeply, lifting my chest like a sacrifice.
Every male on the pier froze, even the regent.Never needed to learn to boil a fucking egg,I thought, allowing my hands to move over my bared breasts.I have hypnotizing tits.
“W-what are you doing?” Gullen yelled. I didn’t answer, just toed off my boots, leaning to the side to pull off my socks, making sure my breasts swayed enticingly. I tucked my shirt and socks into one boot and ran a hand over my front and down my hips, pulling my trousers away and stuffing them into the other boot, along with the knife.
I tried not to shudder, and ignored the blush that raced over my entire body as I posed. I had never been completely nude in front of any man except Thorn, and that had been a disaster.
When I was young, I had asked Valerie why my sisters acted interested in the Alphas, when I knew they hated them. I never wanted any of them to look at me that way, to see me as desirable. She had told me my body wasn’t merely a nuisance—it could be a weapon when used correctly. But I hadn’t realized the paralyzing effect it would have on men who should know better.
“It’s one of the only powers of the Omega that even us broken ones have, my girl,” she had laughed only a few years ago, when I’d noticed how stupid men—both Alphas and Betas—acted around her. “Pretty face, pretty tits, and a nice round ass? They may not be magical, but I’ve never bought a flagon of ale in my life. And many of those blokes know I’m a lady’s Omega. Doesn’t seem to stop them.” Valerie had never wanted men’s eyes on her; she loved only women.
I certainly didn’t want these men’s eyes on me, but she had been right. There was something magical about the way I stupefied them. Their eyes followed my hands like charmed snakes as I moved them over my body, using sensuous motions to tie my cloak around my boots, knotting it well. I mentally crossed my fingers that the wax coating on my cloak would hold up against the surf.
