For a moment, I worried about my heat, but the unwelcome touch and presence of these Alphas had the opposite effect from what I’d experienced when surrounded by my men. Now, I only felt revulsion, as if the heat in my belly was doused by a whole ocean, never to reignite, though I knew I wouldn’t be that lucky.
ROYA
After an embarrassing search of my clothing, where my cloak was stripped away and I was left wearing nothing but my thin cotton shirt and tattered pants, the oversized guards untied me and escorted me to a cabin with a large table and chairs. They pushed me down on one of the chairs, my wrists tied together in front of me, one coil of rope wrapped around my waist to keep me in place. It had been hard not to smile at that mistake.
Icarus was shoved into another seat on the opposite side of the table, his hands tied as well, but more securely, and behind his back. “I’m sorry,” he mouthed. “I didn’t know.”
I didn’t want to hear his excuses. My heart ached at the thought that I had trusted him, believed his lies about me being his sky bond. No one would let their other half be abused this way. I wouldn’t let a dog be treated like this, and I told him that. He’d just opened his mouth to protest when his brother followed us into the cabin.
“So, this is nice,” I sneered at Talon. “I have to say, I think even the stinking regent of Havira has you beat for hospitality.” He pulled his hand back and I braced for the next hit.
“Talon,” Icarus shouted, his face purple with rage. “If you strike her again, you will answer to me.”
“Answer to my younger brother?” The odious man laughed. “What a threat. No, Icarus. I sent orders for you to collect this Omega for me, my promised replacement mate, and you stole her away.” He leaned closer to me, and I fought to not react. “She smells of you and at least three other men. I knew Omegas were whores, but this seems a bit extreme.”
Talon kneeled, and I stared at his stunningly ruined face. Scars reached from one side of his jaw to the other, streaking through a short, dark beard and disappearing behind a black patch that covered one eye. The other eye was amber and glittered with malice. For all his brother acted the pirate, King Talon looked the part.
His expression, though, was far crueler than Icarus’s had ever been.
“What do you plan to do with me?” I spat out.
“Take you to my kingdom. Get a few brats off you. Maybe pass you back to my brother when I’m done.” He waved a hand, dismissing all the guards but one, a brute of an Alpha who kept his eyes on Icarus. Thorn would have told him it was me he should watch.
There were fourteen things in this room I could use to kill Talon as soon as I got my hands free. Two forks on a side table, two butter knives, a lantern that could be broken into shards to cut, the oil used to ignite a man, or poison him.
The oil could also help me slip from the ropes.
On the wall, a picture in a frame was hung with wire and a nail. The nail could tear an artery, the wire become a garrote.
I liked using the garrote. That option rose higher on the list as Icarus shouted at his brother. Apparently, he hadn’t known Talon was waiting to kidnap me, or was on the island at all, though he’d suspected he would come for me.
I would question him after I killed Talon… My eyes slid to the door. After Talon and the guards, that was. Then, if Icarus’s answers weren’t satisfactory… Well, my cloak was still on board. I could get to it and make him regret even thinking of handing me over to that ass.
My eyes skated around the room, taking in every small detail, as Thorn had trained me. Talon had a hidden knife in his boot, judging by his stance, as well as his sword and a necklace with a chain and some sort of cameo—not as good for strangulation, but it would work if I couldn’t get to the wire.
“Icarus, be quiet,” Talon commanded. He stared down at me, trying to cow me with his look. He had no idea I had been raised and ruled by a king far crueler than he. I lifted one eyebrow.
“You agree with my plan, then?” he asked. “Going to open your legs for the older brother as well as the younger? A nice switch this time, Ick.”
Icarus said something in a cutting, low mutter that had Talon’s eyes swinging away, the scars shining silver-white on his red face as he cursed him thoroughly in a language I didn’t know. Icarus spat a few words back, and moved as if he was planning to attack his brother, taking the chair with him, and the Alpha guard moved to intercept him. I lifted the guard’s belt knife as he passed me and tucked it down my shirt.
Talon whirled back too late; he hadn’t seen the knife vanish. Icarus must have, though, as his eyes gleamed with satisfaction. I let my own dark humor show on my face.
“Why smile?” Talon demanded. “I have your life in my hands.”
He had no idea who I was.
“You don’t know a thing about Omegas, do you?” I mocked. “You think you can just… what? Fuck me, get me pregnant, and send me away when you’re done?”
I thought briefly about cutting off his dick, but that was a showy move. It would take him too long to die. No, it would have to be an artery, and then the guard.
“Omegas are nothing but pretty baubles. I’ve known your kind before, and they are faithless.” Something in his voice spoke of remembered pain.
I let my head fall to one side. “You knew an Omega, did you? Let me guess. She never had sex with you?”
“She did,” he countered. “She claimed to love me, even gave herself to me… and then to my first lieutenant, and my own brother.”
“I never had her,” Icarus shouted. “Goddess damn you to the deepest pit, I have told you, I never touched her! No matter what Rabbas said. She was running from him that night. When she came to me, she was covered in blood—her own, and under her nails, his. I scented it. He tried to rape her, Talon, not me.”
