The square buzzed with the usual foot traffic, servants shopping and tradespeople stocking up on necessary supplies. No one else was near the grocer’s—the wife of the balding, pot-bellied man had taken one look at my face, grabbed her gaping husband by the ear, and hauled him inside the store. I could have told her not to worry. I had no designs on her husband, who was easily fifty years old and smelled of garlic.
My hands were filled with the small woven bags Valerie always had me carry, when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and heard the tell-tale swish of Luka’s favorite assassin’s toy, the blow-dart gun.
Honestly, it should have worked. If Luka had spent half as much time practicing the dart gun as he had talking about how masterful and effective it was as a primary weapon, he never would have missed.
But I ducked down when I saw the movement and scooted under the wagon just as the blow dart whistled overhead. It thunked into the cart driver, and he toppled from his perch almost immediately. His horses reared and began to stampede through the square. I leaned down to check if he was still breathing and smelled a hint of bindweed. They weren’t trying to kill me then, but capture.
A shiver ran through me. Killing would have been understandable. After my conversation with Valerie, it was almost to be expected. But why would they want to capture me?
Valerie’s guards had caught up with Luka and Karl, chasing them from the square. I picked up my pace, watching for the third. Recent graduates always worked in pairs, with an assassin guide in the background to clean up any messes.
“And I’m a mess,” I breathed, almost running now.
“That you are, littlekralovna,” I heard too late. My mind interpreted the word:queen.
Before I could take another breath, I was wrapped up in two of the largest arms I had ever felt, and a hand just as impossibly large descended over my mouth. I managed a shallow breath through my nose and sucked in a scent I’d never experienced. Apples, maybe, tart and green, and… rum? Something fiery and addictive. I sort of wanted to lick his hand and see if he tasted like he smelled.
Shit. He was definitely an Alpha, and I was losing my mind.
“Shhh,” the man instructed, his lips near my ear. “There is an assassin hunting you now. Give us two minutes and we will kill him for you.” His bushy golden beard brushed gently against my ear as he murmured, and I felt the strangest sense of something coiling in my core, like a spring being tightened.
Had I been poisoned after all?
I twisted my head and bit the giant’s fingers as hard as I could. He cursed in Starlakian but didn’t drop his hand. “I should punish you for that, little Omega,” he said, still in his native tongue, though his grip didn’t tighten with anger. “And not the good kind of punishment.”
Goddess’s tears, he knew I was an Omega. Who was he? One of the Alphas who had been hunting me on the street?
I smelled like swill today, like stale urine. I should not have been attracting anything but flies. The arm tightened, and he dragged us back even farther into the shadows just as a man wearing a nondescript hooded cloak walked past.
I would have thought it was Thorn from the cloak, but I knew the way he walked—the careful, purposeful setting down of one foot after the other that was more graceful than a dance.
This wasn’t him. But itwasan assassin. In one hand, he held a blow-dart gun, and in the other, a stiletto knife.
I held my breath. The man holding me did the same.
The assassin kept going, not looking back. I waited for the count of a hundred before breathing again.
The hand on my mouth loosened. “Who are you?” I mumbled against his fingers. I tasted blood on my lips. “And what do you want with me?”
He released me just enough that I could turn and see his face. His eyes were the greenish blue of the calm sea, almost turquoise. His hair, tucked up into a woven cap, was as blond as his beard and moustache, with streaks of red running through it. He was so tall that my chin only came to the top of his chest, and I wasn’t short for a woman.
“I am Kavin of Starlak, littlekralovna. I was sent here with a group of warriors from my country to find a missing… purchase my warlord made.”
I swallowed, knowing what was coming next. “And what purchase was that?”
His gaze was troubled. “An Omega named Roya. A queen.”
“And what will you do when you find her?” I let my tongue dart out to touch my lips; his eyes followed it. Good. “Will you take her?” I let my voice linger on the wordtake, knowing where his mind would go.
His eyes darkened.Yes, keep thinking that, you ignorant giant.
I dropped my lashes and let out a small, panting breath. “Will you take me? Take me wherever you want…”
“Yes,” he agreed earnestly, “but not to my home. Not to Starlak. I’ll keep you safe, my sweet Omega, safe from all of the— Oof!”
Some moments should last longer than they do. Like this one, where the giant, rock-hard potato I had wrapped in my hand connected with his testicles, a feat that never would have been possible if he’d been a normal height. It might as well have been a rock, as hard as it was.
He doubled over, collapsing to the cobblestones. I didn’t stop to taunt him, just shot a knee up into his nose, dropped the potato, and ran.
