“Did I? Or did I save her from death by drowning and make certain nothing could harm her, whether I was with her or not?” He and Alexios exchanged a look that made me want to reach for my sword again. I needed to kill something.
“The pendant?” the Beta murmured. “It was protecting her.”
The kraken nodded. “As long as she wears it. I felt her remove it and came to make certain she hadn’t been harmed while it was off. She is not in the water now, and she has it on, so she cannot be killed.”
Couldn’t be killed? What kind of magic was in that pendant?
“Can she be killed by a god?” Alexios asked while my mind spun. “Because the ‘ice dragon’ may actually be some sort of elemental god.”
“An ice god?” The kraken’s dark skin grew slightly paler at those words, and the wind picked up, lightning flickering on the horizon. “Hold on to the mast. What direction did he take her?”
Alexios pointed north, and the kraken slid over the side, his body changing so fast it blurred. Suddenly, the boat was shooting up in the air, the three of us humans scrambling to hold onto anything we could reach as the kraken expanded and began to carve a path through the waves to the north, his rage a shimmering veil that covered us all as he swam.
Rage filled me as well, but mixed with something else. Doubt.
How much had I gotten wrong? How many things had I missed about the woman I’d claimed to love above all else? Had I been so caught up in having her to myself that I’d forgotten that Omegas were never meant to be owned, only protected and worshiped?
Please, give me the chance to worship her better,I prayed, and kept praying, while Alexios and Dustin did the same, all of us holding to the mast together.
RADA
Something was wrong. Not as wrong as before, but still… itchy. I might be the one with snow mites now. The pain that had torn at me from the inside had gone completely dead, but a peculiar, needy feeling had taken its place.
I tried to meditate, but couldn’t. I tried to sleep, but that was even more impossible. The storm outside thrashed against the ice house like it was fighting to melt its way through, the fire was burning low, and I was getting colder by the minute. Maybe the ice needle had frozen something.
I shivered. Skadi still hadn’t returned from wherever he was, though that was probably good, since his cold asshole persona had exposed a new personal shortcoming. Apparently, I kinda liked all-powerful jerks who wanted me to throw them around and––though I had not ever done this before, and was shocked at how hot it had been––choke them a little.
I pulled my cloak around me, still pissed that Skadi had stolen my supplies, and dug my toes deeper into the soft pelt. I wasn’t about to add more wood to the fire with Lachlan sweating buckets at the other end of the dome. He looked sick, almost, and kept muttering something about timing.
“Lachlan? Are you sick?” I grabbed a cup of meltwater and carried it over to him.
“Stay back,” he groaned.
“Listen, I’m immune to everything,” I told him, ignoring the way he scuttled farther away, pressing his sweat-soaked face to the ice wall. “I haven’t been ill in five years. I’ve treated Omegas with plague and not caught it. I’ll be fine.”
“Please,” he moaned when I reached out to press one hand to his brow. He was burning up, his emotions were spiking inside me every few minutes like he couldn’t control them, and this close, his scent of rosemary was thick as…
“Oh, fuck me,” I muttered, getting it now.
“Don’t tempt me, Rada.” He rolled onto one side, trembling.
“Are you… in heat?” I asked cautiously. “Do you need something? What do male Omegas need in heat?”
After a moment, he replied, “In the sea? I buried myself in the bottom of the deepest trench I could find, and hibernated. On land? I don’t fuckingknow.It’s never felt like this. Itburns,Rada. I feel like I’ve eaten embers.”
I knew that feeling all too well. I reached into my cloak, hunting for the heat suppressant herbs, but of course the ass god had taken them. And they weren’t useful at this stage, at least not for the female Omegas I’d treated before.
I searched all my pockets, checking to see what was left. I had a few mild pain suppressants, one dose of fertility suppressant, good for two weeks, a remedy for poison sparweed rash, four potions to help with lactation issues, and in a double-sealed pocket, one tiny, incredibly rare vial of starflower poison antidote, a courting gift from Goran that was probably ineffective after this many years.
Lachlan groaned again, his hands covering his naked groin.
“A nest,” I murmured. Omegas needed a nest, soft things to wrap around them. This ice house was the farthest from that asI could imagine. Time to make do. I shucked off my cloak and grabbed the pelt and carried them over to Lachlan, arranging them so they were next to him. “Here, Omega,” I coaxed, putting as much softness into my voice as I could, almost purring. “Make a comfortable nest with these?”
He panted. “Fuck. I can’t move, but… call me that again?”
“Omega?” I grinned when he nodded. “Be a good Omega and fix these up so you have something soft to lie on. A pretty little nest.”
We’d been naked around each other for long enough that I wasn’t curious about his external features. He was lean like Kellin, with solid muscles packed under that delicious brown skin. His cock was more like a Beta’s, though, a solid handful but not enormous. He didn’t have a narrow knot like Kellin, but Stellina had said selkie royalty could get them once they’d mated.
