“Ah!” I cried out at the sudden pain in my abdomen. The men froze, sniffing the air. “Um, just a cramp. I’m fine.” I had to be.
Brute checked every corner of the room before waving Talon and me inside.
“Right. I’ll go with Brute… Branton. Talon, you can hide here while you recover.”
He snorted. “You must be joking. No, woman, you will hide here. It smells like ten thousand fruits in this garden, which will help cover the scent you’re making.”
I blushed, just noticing his reddened face and dilated eyes. “I can’t help it.” I sniffed. His scent had begun to mingle with mine, adding earthy, masculine notes to the sweet citrus. I licked my lips and fought not to step toward him.
“So I gather,” he gritted out. “I will find my brother and bring him to you. You cannot be alone now.”
“Why not?” I stuffed a fist against my stomach, which felt like hot claws had begun to scrape at me from the inside.
He gaped at me. “You’re in heat. If you don’t have your mate with you…” He stopped speaking, pointing at the bed. “Get under there and stay quiet. I’ll bring my brother,” he muttered softly as he left, Brute right beside him. “The lucky bastard.”
I crawled under the table, wishing I could crawl out of my own skin. I was humiliated and angry. Finally, it was time to fight, and I was going to be hiding under a table, like I had when Valerie had been taken by a monstrous rapist.
Hiding, when I’d spent the past six years learning all I could to make certain I never had to hide again. Never had to be weak, and depend on a man to save me or anyone I loved.
My body was sabotaging me. After all my training, I finally had a mission that was vital—a chance to save Altair’s people, and his throne, and maybe make a home that would be safe for Thorn and even Icarus… My mind flashed to Kavin, but I wouldn’t think of him now. I hadn’t told him that I forgave him for not letting me know about his father for so long. What if I never saw him…
“Ah!” Agony speared me, and I couldn’t stop the small noise of pain that slipped out. I shoved a fist into my mouth to stop any more sounds from emerging. It was fruitless.
No matter how hard I had trained, I couldn’t block out the pain that wracked me now. No matter how far I ran, I couldn’t outrun my own biology.
It felt as if my veins were filled with fire, my bones with acid. The cramping in my core was so intense, the heat on my skin so maddening, I wasn’t sure if I would survive. Could Omegas die from this?
I whimpered. Kavin would know. I wished he were here, wished someone were. Even Icarus. Any one of my men, if only to hold my hand. If I died now, I would never have the chance to tell Altair how I felt about him.
To tell Kavin it was his father’s machinations that had enraged me, not him. Kavin was honorable, and earnest. And incredibly fucking sexy. Thinking of him sent razors of pain through my insides, arrowing into my core. If he were here with me, he would touch me, make me come. Or hold me, while Altair worked between my legs with his strong tongue… or Icarus. Or all three would labor over my body, bringing me pleasure until the pain was only a distant memory.
For a second, I could see it in my mind. All of them. Thorn, sitting in a chair in a darkened corner of the room, trousers open, his long cock in his hand, stroking it slowly and directing the other Alphas in how to please me before he took his turn.
My dark-haired angel, Altair, his mouth moving on my nipples, biting and sucking, forcing cries of pleasure and pain from my lips. Kavin holding my thighs open wide, the stretch burning almost as much as his hungry gaze on my slick-covered mound. Him moaning as Icarus licked me to my first orgasm, the two of them taking turns until I begged for them to stop, to fuck me.
I felt a gush of over-hot liquid flow from between my thighs, wetting the floor beneath me. I had to have something inside me, now.
I moved my hands to the flesh between my legs, and cried out. My own touch was agony. I could feel it deep inside: the only way I could survive this was if my Alphas came and helped me.
Fucked me.
The fever overtook me, dragging me into unconsciousness. I slept, and woke, and slept again, insensible of anything but the agony that raced through me, the waves of need and sickness and lust that reduced me to a quivering heap of weakness. My insides felt as if they had been filled with molten lava, my skin like it had been sanded away. If I could have, I would have screamed for someone, anyone, to come and relieve me, or kill me.
All I could muster were small cries, pants, and whines. I felt my breath grow thin, my pulse sputter. I was dying.
Dying a weak, fragile, virgin Omega. I slipped back into the darkness with one thought haunting me. Milian had been right. I was a Failed Omega after all.
Failed and broken. Useless.
THORN
All my life, I had maintained perfect control of my Alpha nature. Others might roar and let their tempers flare, beating their chests and demanding attention.
I knew better. I knew that true strength was quiet and ever-present. I kept my temper in check, my desires muted.
Until now.
Roya had been taken, and if we had not been on the very edge of the horizon, able to spy them as the ship that King Talon had flown her to deviated from its course for Wyngel, she might have been beyond my reach. That thought drew a sinister thread of my nature to the surface, and threatened to undo all my years of training to wait for the perfect moment. I wanted to rain down death on anyone who would keep me from her. I might never let myself have her, be with her in the way my nature demanded, but she belonged to me more than to herself.
