They reset their stances. Circle each other with the easy rhythm of people who've been training together for days, comfortable in each other's space in a way she'll never be comfortable with me.
She attacks first. Fast—faster than she was before the heat, I notice. Enhanced speed, sharper reflexes. The contamination changing her, making her more. Carter blocks but barely, his eyebrows rising in surprise.
"Getting quicker," he says, and there's genuine admiration in his voice. "You've been holding back on me."
"Maybe I just didn't want to embarrass you in front of your friends." She nods toward the other guards watching from the edges of the courtyard. A few of them chuckle.
She'sbanteringwith him.
Easy. Natural. None of the walls she puts up around me, none of the cold distance and careful blankness. With Cartershe's just... herself. Fierce and sharp-tongued and almost playful.
I've never seen her playful.
The jealousy rises again, hotter this time, and I have to dig my claws into my palms to keep from doing something stupid. Like walking out there and putting myself between them. Like reminding everyone in that courtyard that she'smine, bond-claimed, marked by my teeth and my seed and my?—
No.
She's not mine. Not by choice And she's made her choice very clear over the past eight days.
She doesn't want me.
She tolerates me because she has to, because the bond won't let her leave, because she's trapped in my castle with a monster she was supposed to kill and instead let fuck her for four days straight.
Of course she'd rather smile at Carter.
They spar for another few minutes. She disarms him twice—quick brutal movements that speak to years of training—and he yields with good grace each time. When they finally call a break, both breathing hard, she accepts a waterskin from one of the watching guards and drinks deeply.
Then she glances toward my hiding spot.
Our eyes meet across the courtyard. Golden to amber. Alpha to omega. Monster to the woman who hates herself for not hating him enough.
Her expression goes flat. Closed. All the warmth she showed Carter draining away like water through sand, leaving nothing.
She holds my gaze for a long moment.
Then she turns her back on me and raises her practice sword again.
Dismissed.
Something in my chest cracks.
My beast howls its frustration.Go to her. Make her see us. Make her?—
I leave before I can do something I'll regret.
-
Corvith finds me in my study that evening, surrounded by crumbling manuscripts and cold tea I forgot to drink.
"My lord." He bows, stiff with age but still precise. "You sent for me."
I did. An hour ago. Spent that hour staring at the wall and trying to convince myself not to do what I'm about to do.
I failed.
"The omega has been in the restricted section." I don't look at him when I say it. "Researching."
"Every day this week, my lord. She's determined, I'll give her that."
