Her every breath was my claim, each step an extension of the journey I had quietly, secretly crafted for her. She was an assassin who had never killed. Would never kill, if the Goddess answered my prayers. Roya was so full of righteous anger, and possessed an unflinching desire to prove herself—to me mostly. But injuring others, even in training, had hurt her. I feared that killing with her own hand would take a piece of her innocence I hadn’t been ready for her to lose.
Even if she had been ready, or thought she was.
If she ever learned how often I had protected her, how many young bucks I’d had re-assigned away from her camp, how many full-fledged assassins I’d quietly snuffed out when I found evidence they were planning to get close to her in an attempt to steal her innocence… she would know I had always acted as more than a mentor, a safe friend.
Not that I had ever been truly safe. Goddess, if only I weren’t Anathema, I would have her under me in a breath, and put my claim on her neck with my fucking teeth.
“I can smell her,” Kavin breathed, his voice a whisper as we waited, hidden in the jungle on Havira, some distance from the palace. “She’s… She’s…”
“Where?” My voice was even quieter, though my inner Alpha was roaring. What was going on? I had never been this unsteady, this off-center. I took a breath, and my lungs ached from it: her scent, orange blossoms and honey, salt and musk, and fresh spring grass. It had never been so rich before, so pungent. And we were nowhere near the palace.
Kavin’s voice was raspy and low when he growled his answer. “She’s in heat, Thorn.”
“Fuck,” Altair murmured behind us. “Who’s with her?”
“Doesn’t matter.” I squeezed the words through gritted teeth as her scent assaulted me again. “Icarus helped his brother take her from us, Talon thinks she’s his, Gullen would give her to his Alpha guards. There’s not a male on this island who will have her and live to see the next hour.”
The two men grunted their agreement, and moved when Altair whistled. He had servants who were loyal to him, and they had helped row us ashore on the far side of the island. Unfortunately, an unknown ship had been moored on the palace’s pier, so we didn’t know what we were walking into.
I had a suspicion the other ship was the Guild. The palace was too quiet for it to be official visitors from another island or country. A sinister air of expectation hung over the place.
That, and the profoundly seductive scent of my little queen.
We followed Altair into the palace, weapons ready in our hands. He knew the back ways though the sprawling one-storied island castle better than anyone, so I allowed him to lead. The scent of Roya was stronger here, although it smelled less floral. It had to be where she was, though my heart was pulling me in a different direction.
“She must be in the throne room,” he breathed after he led us into a small chamber that smelled of dust and musty cloth. “From here, there’s a back entrance that comes out right behind the throne. Only the royal family knows of it.”
I wanted to stop him, ask if the royal family included his uncle, but he had already gone ahead.
He opened a thick wooden door that didn’t squeal on its hinges, thank the Goddess. The scent of Roya rushed into the small antechamber where we stood. Altair stepped forward, silent, watching. Nothing moved; no sound or light or change in the air. A single candle burned by the door, illuminating very little… but enough to see what was there: a slumped figure on the floor in the middle of the room, draped in Roya’s cape. And drifting out from a corner of the fabric was a thick lock of her hair.
“It’s her,” Kavin moaned. Altair scented the air, then trembled as he nodded in agreement.
It was her hair; I knew the glimmer of it by sight. I had memorized the feel of it over the years, collecting strands every year until I had enough to form a small braid that I carried in my cloak pocket.
My pocket.
Before I could warn them off, Altair slid along one wall, and Kavin took the other, their eyes fixed on the unmoving shape.
To my shame, I didn’t see the trap being sprung behind me, didn’t notice a thing, until I felt a snick of cold pain, and reached to the back of my neck to find a small, feather-fletched dart had punctured my skin. I pulled the dart at the same moment I turned, knife already rising. But there was no one behind me now.
Light flared to life in the throne room, and Kavin let out a hiss of breath. “Father.”
Wulfram? Had he darted me?
But with the light, I could see the colors of the fletching. Black with three silver stripes. The Guildmaster’s personal poison. I let out a breath, allowing my eyes to fall shut.
I was standing, breathing, but I was already dead. I had at most an hour, if I took measures… Not even enough time to find Roya and say goodbye.
I shook off my sorrow. I might be able to save my young friends, the two Alphas I’d grown close to in the past weeks. They were more my brothers than any Guild member had ever been.
“Drop your weapons!” Gullen’s nasally voice speared the quiet. None of us obeyed. I carefully tucked the dart in my fist. The poison on its tip would suffice to kill at least one more before I died.
“Where is my mate?” Altair called out. “My Omega, the queen of this island?”
“Your Omega?” Gullen jeered. “The virgin I left with King Talon? I promise, she was not your mate when she arrived. Of course, she’s not a virgin anymore… or even alive. Talon used her body until she died, and my men threw her corpse in the sea for the sharks as a lesson to other women who would betray their mate for another.” He giggled, a high-pitched cackle. “Talon has some experience with that kind of woman.”
“Then who is that?” Kavin growled, pointing to the figure under the cloak.
