“No shame in that,” Goran murmured. “There’s no less honor in being a Beta.”
“And a lot more women who can take your cock, in any hole she likes,” another warrior comforted him, before yelling, “Fuck! Sorry, Priest. You can’t even use the thing, can ya? I’m an idiot.”
“I don’t mind. I can’t miss what I’ve never had, isn’t that the saying?”
“Oh, by Her twisted left titty, you’re avirgin?”
Alexios sipped his ale and shrugged. “I am. I was left by my mother on the temple steps when I was only a few days old. The priests raised me and taught me how to fight. Or how not to fight.” He smirked at Goran. “If you’d like me to teach you some of my moves, I would be honored.”
“I have a feeling they’d be more effective for someone smaller than me. I use more brute force in battle. But…” Goran let out a sharp whistle. “Harbin!”
One of the young redheaded boys who’d attacked me came running. “Yes, Warlord?”
“Did you see the fight?”
The boy nodded, his throat bobbing wildly at the attention. “I did, Warlord. It was the same kind of fighting he did when…when I was the stupidest, dishonorable mongrel born, and attacked the Omega, your wife and my Warqueen?—”
“Shut up, Harbin.” Goran took a deep breath. “You’re one of the smaller Alphas. I think this method of fighting would suit you.”
“Yes,” Alexios agreed, standing. He handed Goran an axe, and they faced each other. “A diagonal slice, Warlord?’
Goran nodded and lifted the axe, bringing it down slowly. Alexios twisted out of the way and pushed down on the top of Goran’s arm, somehow causing the axe to fall free of his strong grip. Goran cursed, shaking his hand out. “What was that? It felt like getting the point of my elbow whacked, but in the wrist as well.”
“That is what can win you a fight against any sized warrior, young Harbin,” Alexios said. “Or keep you alive long enough to get away.”
“I would never run from a fight,” the boy blustered. “I’m not a coward.”
Goran and Alexios both laughed. “Don’t let my wife hear you say that,” Goran said, and I swallowed the bubble of annoyed happiness at hearing him call me that. “She made me run twenty miles a day for the first months we were married.”
“Did she think you lacked stamina?” Alexios teased, then ducked a playful punch that would have taken the head off my valet if it had connected.
“Fuck off. She’d been… liberating some gemstones from a dragon’s lair, and I’d insisted on going along. Then the dragon popped back in to check on his hoard, and we were nowhere near far enough away. The thing’s angry roar still haunts my nightmares.” He shuddered, but was smiling. “I was much slower than she was, and it was only her quick thinking that saved me.”
“Probably her greed that got you into the mess to begin with,” one of the warriors grumbled. “She stole every stick of gold out of my old warlord’s castle a week after she abandoned us.”
I held my breath. Abandoned… us? What did he mean?
“She didn’t abandon Starlak, you fool.” Goran took another hearty swig of ale. “She leftme. I wasn’t warlord enough to keep her from her all-important mission.”
Alexios grunted. “Would you have wanted her to give it up?” He swiveled his head to the warrior who’d complained. “You said greed. Don’t you know what she’s been doing with all the gold she steals?” He looked back at Goran, whose face was sour. “Have you asked her what her mission was?”
“What she wanted more than anything, including me. To become a master spy,” he said, though his brows were rising as Alexios stood. My valet did a very credible job of looking down his nose at Goran, who stood a good foot and a half above him.
“No wonder she said you needed to grow up. She was right.” Then he set down his cup and headed straight toward me. I could tell when the rest of the men noticed me; they all stood at attention, the ones who’d stripped off their shirts racing to cover their chests.
The nearest sentry began cursing as I walked past. “Where the hells did you come from?”
“No, hell’s where I’m going,” I whispered, turning my head as he backed away. He acted as if he were scared to be too close to me, but his eyes shone with distaste, not fear. Maybe he’d heard how I’d tried to kill Lachlan. Maybe he’d been one of the ones I’d poisoned in the fight.
I glanced around the camp. That disgust was in some of the faces there, though most still looked at me with something like awe.
“Back to work, men,” Goran shouted, turning away from me and pulling his own shirt on. “Sentries, report for discipline. Half rations for a week for allowing a spy into camp.”
“They don’t deserve that,” I murmured aloud. “I’m not just a spy.”
“A master spy, right? Thank you for the lesson, Warqueen,” the sentry muttered angrily, as he dropped to one knee in a mocking bow.
I spotted the adder in the grass beside him before he realized it was there. He wouldn’t have been able to keep it from striking. But I had two throwing knives in my hands before my next breath, and released them without hesitation. They pinned the adder to the fallen cypress needles with two soft sounds, like a mother shushing her baby to sleep.Shh. Shh.
