Seamus clapped his hands on the arms of the chair. "Well, that's a relief. You get unbearably maudlin when you're taking yourself seriously. Like now."
I laughed at that, and the way it rushed through my chest lightened my limbs.
Seamus shrugged. "If she likes you well enough, enjoys you in bed, surely you can sort out the rest of the issue."
The rest of the issue was that I had started to fall for my omega, without waiting for her to join me in the descent. But Seamus was right. Brigid's words at the feast had hurt me, but they hadn't been designed to do so. I wasn't sure why she'd balked at the idea of coming to the Flight, but in the middle of the keep, surrounded by dragonkin, I hadn't taken the time to coax a real answer out of her. I'd just…left. I grimaced at myself, trying and failing to hide the expression from Seamus.
"It's your first alpha rut," Seamus said calmly, taking on that deep stillness he sometimes had that I'd found so calming when I'd joined him on the sea. "It's normal to have uneven moods. I imagine it grows more complicated when you have an omega at hand."
"Why haven'tyouever taken an omega?" I asked.
Seamus grinned. "Oh, I've considered it. Every time I set foot on land, enjoy an evening with a welcoming lady, I think it might be time. But I'll never give up my life on the sea. Not until some brave upstart can take it from me. And it doesn't seem to suit the gentler sex."
I hummed at that. To my mind, omegas hadn't been given much choice in the matter. Most were kept strictly in their homes, in their territories. A rare few managed to escape, and even less of that number was recovered.
"Have you ever come across a fleeing omega on the sea?" I asked, thinking of the many women who'd gone missing from the Hills over the decades.
Seamus shifted forward, elbows resting on spread knees, eyes shifting to the barely parted curtain of my tent and glaring farther out into the setting sun. "No, in spite of what the othersmight think. And I've searched. Not for the alphas' sakes, but for the omegas'. It's not the easiest mode of traveling."
"I recall," I said drily, thinking of some of the storms where I'd been sure we wouldn't survive the struggle.
"Either those women have a shepherd who knows the waters better than I, or…"
Or perhaps they'd been lost in the effort. Given what I'd experienced with Seamus in our travels, I thought it likely the latter. We shared a moment of pained quiet.
"I expect you and Cadogan will do your bit to lose fewer women from your territories," Seamus murmured.
My lips twitched. "As a matter of fact, you might like to hear what I pulled off in Grave Hills yesterday."
I would return to Brigid soon, make up for my sullen exit, and in time, I thought I might win her over properly. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but she'd already proven she'd be worth the effort. I just needed to be patient.
Chapter Fifteen
BRIGID
Ihuffed, wiping the sweat from my brow with the heel of my hand as I stepped back against the bedroom door to examine the nest in front of me. A tall tent of sage green velvet now took up the majority of Torion's bedchamber. With its opening barely parted, I could just see the large copper tub we often used. Sliding inside, the space grew hazy in the light low, and another peaked sheath of thin cream linen hid the bed from view. I'd had local carpenters fashion half walls of cedar, topped with an attractive scrollwork design, and I'd set them up a few feet around the mattress and then filled in the gaps with feather pillows and wool bolsters, expanding the mattress in every direction.
It was a nest fit for the alpha.
I chewed at the corner of my thumb, glancing through the parted velvet to the window, where the sun was just starting to drop from the sky to meet the horizon.
I should've gone with Torion, I thought as a now familiar turning sensation, heavy and sour, rolled in my chest. Defiance kicked back hard, and I pulled my abused thumb away, fisting my hand at my side and bucking my chin.
I might've gone with Torion if he'd given me more than a day's notice. If I hadn't spent weeks toiling to bring the keep back into shape, or gone mad in the past few days preparing the festivities for the selection ceremony. If I'd known to have the nest ready by now.
I sighed. "You knew," I muttered to myself, shaking my head, opening the curtains around the bed and reassuring myself with the sight of heaping pillows and soft sheets.
I'd known from the start that the rut would come. That I'd bargained my way into being the alpha's omega, a role that required me to play a part once more—supportive and sweet, welcoming to all who arrived at the door. I hadn't realized how attached I'd grown to my place in the woods by the river, hadn't braced myself for how shocking it was to step back in the shape of being a man's woman, and this time on an even grander scale.
I'd worn a decades old dress for the selection ceremony, for goodness' sake. Most days since I'd arrived, I was better suited to being one of the keep maids than I was the alpha's omega, dusty and sweaty and up to my elbows in a task.
Because I'd chosen to be.
A knock sounded behind me, and a bright pleasure spiked in my chest before quickly burning away. Torion wouldn't be back yet, and he wouldn't knock on his own bedroom door.
"Yes?" I called, retreating from the nest.
"My lady, there's a beta in the old alpha's chambers," a maid answered from the other side of the door. They were now under orders not to step inside the room, so that the only scents present would be mine and Torion's.
