“That man is a ghost,” she said. “Somehow, he got his fellow spy aboard the ship as a crew member, and he kept the Guildmaster hidden until just before we arrived on the island. I recognized him and tried to keep him from getting off the ship.” She placed a hand at the corner of her mouth, where her lips were still healing from a bad blow. “He killed the crew that wouldn’t go along with him. Thank the Goddess he didn’t poison me. Just knocked me around. Wulfram eventually stepped in to protect me, while pretending to be on his side.”
“I’ll kill the Guildmaster someday,” I promised. “No one touches you like that and lives.”
“Wulfram has it taken care of, darling.”
I frowned. “You… and the warlord?’
Her laugh pealed out like silver bells. “No, Roya. Although if any man were to pull me away from my lovely women… No. I’m too much Alpha for a man like Wulfram anyway. He’s a terrible misogynist.”
“He’s planning to take me back to Starlak, isn’t he?”
Valerie’s smile unfolded like a dark shadow, full of mystery and malice. “He can try, darling. But no one takes away an Omega’s choice. Especially not my baby girl’s.” She stood, her hands patting her dress and hair. Anyone else would think she was primping; I knew she was checking that all her weapons were still in place.
“I don’t have much in the way of weapons.” I complained, yanking at the tie to my robe. It was gorgeous, pale pink silk, hand painted with lush green vines and bright tropical flowers, but it had no pockets at all. Useless.
Valerie rolled her eyes when I said as much. “I saw you take the meat knife from the table, dearest.” I shrugged. I had stuffed two into my robe, and a few other pieces of cutlery elsewhere.
She went on, pulling me toward the door. “And those tiny forks in your hair are very serviceable. But I know what you mean. I’ll get you some wire and real weapons, or—”
A low voice interrupted her chatter. “Or you could let your primary consort give them to you.”
ROYA
Thorn stood at the door, dressed in his usual black clothing and cloak, face shrouded but his eyes hot on me. I flushed, reacting to his stare as I once would have to his touch.
“We need to hurry, little queen. Altair is on the beach at some sort of ceremonial rock, about to make what I think might be an irrevocable mistake. And Kavin may be on the verge of patricide.”
“What are they doing?” I gasped, walking as fast as I could barefoot. Thorn swept me up when we got outside, and the stones grew too sharp. I didn’t complain; I loved being in his arms.
He carried me gently at first, but when the sounds of angry voices and swordplay reached us, he slung me over his shoulder and ran. I struggled to get down, but he smacked my ass, his pace so fast it rattled my brain. In seconds, we were out of the jungle and on the sand, slowing slightly. I craned my neck around to see, but the world was upside down.
My other mates, and a few more men, were upside down on the beach. Icarus and Altair, Talon and Brute stood at four edges of a loosely defined circle about ten paces in diameter, with islanders forming a ring farther back.
In the center of it, an upside down Kavin—shirtless and swinging a sword almost as tall as I was—battled his father, who was similarly undressed.
Thorn tossed me down on the sand, muttered, “You made this mess. Now, clean it up. Go save your sweet baby knight over there before he kills his own father to defend your honor, or gets us all killed trying.”
“Defend my honor? What…?” I couldn’t finish my question, because Wulfram’s voice rang out.
“Boy, I said I don’t want to hurt you. But that woman belongs to me, and to you, and she’s coming back with us to Starlak as we planned.”
“No,” Kavin shouted, raising his sword in an overhand swing before angling it down, toward his father’s shoulder. Wulfram spun away, faster than a man his age had any business being. Kavin was enormous, but Wulfram was at least an inch taller, and was fully mature, his chest and shoulders far broader.
It was like watching two giants warring, and my heart froze as Wulfram’s blade came perilously close to cutting into my mate’s gut. “Stop!” I yelled. No one listened, though Kavin snorted. Icarus and Altair’s heads swiveled, and I flinched; they both stared daggers at me. “What did I do?”
Thorn let out a soft curse and glared as if I were the stupidest woman in the world. “Apparently, you were ranting to Valerie about how your mates coveted an Omega. How we had gotten what we wanted from you, or some equally inane shit. Accused that honorable young man of making a deal with his father to share your power.
“Kavin doesn’t have the right, in Starlak’s eyes, to question his father’s rule. So he’s challenged him to aliefgang, a fight to submission, to decide who rules all Starlak. We talked them out of battling to the death since that would kill you as well. And all of us.”
My jaw dropped open. “He can’t win against his father,” I whispered, not wanting anyone else to hear me. It wasn’t that I thought he was weak, or incapable. But Wulfram was widely known to be the strongest, most proficient swordsman on the continent. He had fought hundreds, if not thousands, of challengers over the course of decades. There were songs written about him. My mate would one day rival him, but not yet. “He’s only twenty.”
Thorn’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, well, tell that to your mate. Kavin was gutted, Roya. To hear you say that he mated you for power? You couldn’t have damaged him worse if you’d used a poisoned blade.”
“I was just talking, just…”
“Speaking your worst fears out loud.” He was right. I stepped forward, intent on explaining I had never meant what I said, not truly, but Thorn’s hand wrapped around my arm again. “No. If you interrupt this fight, you may as well announce that you have no respect for him at all.”
“That’s insane!” I struggled to get free. Thorn gripped me harder, and I cursed. “Let me go!”
