He sent a smile my way and held out his arm so I could help him walk the last few steps into the library.
“I take it you’ve heard the news,” he said, offering me a sympathetic look.
I let out a dramatic sigh. “I’m apparently a dying man. One who needs a baby in him or otherwise our kingdom is doomed.”
He winced at that. He knew how much pressure there was on my shoulders. If I failed to give birth to an omega child, then all omegas would be in danger, since only our bloodline could perform the magic.
“Maybe this will be a good thing!” Elias exclaimed with fake enthusiasm. “Our children will be close in age. Maybe they’ll become best friends like us.”
I had to admit that was a nice thought. “As long as they’re omegas, right?” I muttered bitterly. All alphas were sent away to work on farms once they reached their middle adolescence. In theory, we would still be able to visit them, but I knew most families lost contact.
Elias spoke in the firm, no-nonsense tone he very rarely used around me when he replied. “I will love this child with all that I am, regardless. Alpha or omega, it holds my heart forever.”
It was at that moment that I saw just how changed my best friend was. This child he was carrying would have all the love in the world; there was no question about it.
“He’s lucky to have you as his father,” I whispered. Other words failed me as we both sat on the loveseat next to the windows. It was our favorite spot to gossip and people-watch, since the window overlooked the front of the palace where people came and went.
“You’ll soon know of the love I feel for my child,” Elias smiled softly. “I’m just saddened by the thought that you don’t get to decide who will breed you.”
“None of us do,” I stated, giving him a knowing smirk. He just rolled his eyes at me and giggled while opening his book.
I had so many books to read, but I rarely had the time nowadays. With my never-ending royal duties and the constant need to hide away from my advisors, it seemed like it had been months since Elias and I had sat together in companionable silence and just read.
I’d missed it. Would things change once his baby was born? Of course it would. But then again, how much wouldIchange once I carried my own baby?
Closing my book, I gazed out the window, watching my advisors get into their carriage to leave. Would the alpha they picked for me be to my liking? My previous heats had been with so many different alphas, all forgettable as they only came to serve one purpose. But this time, I would be bred. Would that make a difference?
A shiver ran through me at the thought, alerting me to my approaching heat. I had to admit, the thought of finally getting to feel claimed in that way… It made the thought of a strange alpha more alluring. Maybe he would be all silent and broody as he took me from behind? Would he be allowed to stay until we were certain I was with child? Or would they simply pick another one if the first one failed?
Elias had told me how different the heats were when breeding was the purpose. Normally, we’d drink a special tea that prevented us from getting pregnant, and the alphas would drink tea themselves, which stopped their knot from forming. The only reason we omegas felt relief when taken by an alpha during our heat was their seed, calming our instinctive need to be bred.
During my upcoming heat, I would not only experience a knot, but I would also feel a cock penetrating my womb. An enormous alpha cock. How would that feel?
I squirmed in my seat, unable to stop myself as more and more delicious thoughts came to mind.
I just prayed the alpha would be to my liking and not some Neanderthal brute. Then again, with my luck…
Chapter 2
Gus
I woke up with this strange feeling in my stomach. Almost like a craving. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to shake it. I ate breakfast twice before I went to work in the fields, but by midmorning, it felt like my stomach was trying to eat itself from the inside.
It was harvest season, and we had a full day ahead of us. The other alphas and I would be working until sundown, side by side in the fields, to bring the harvest home before fall. I tried my best to focus on anything but the weird churning sensation in my stomach, but it was pointless. Dinner at the Wild Willow Farm, where I lived with the other farmhands, seemed light-years away.
We always enjoyed a really nice, hearty meal after a long day in the fields. Lord Willoughby, the old omega who owned the farm, always provided for us, and most evenings he even sat down with us to eat, asking us for advice on crops for the next season, or telling us about a new horse he was set on buying.
Like the other alphas, I’d been sent to the countryside to work when I reached my middle adolescence. This November, it would be eight years. Eight years since I’d seen my omega father and my omega siblings. Most days, I tried not to think too much about them, because then it just felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand why I had to be sent away. It was, after all, for their protection. I knew I could potentially be dangerous to them—all alphas could if the magic failed for some reason. I didn’t feel dangerous, but I knew I had it in me—the potential to hurt my omega family. The thought of that alone was enough to make bile rise in my throat. I didn’twantto hurt anyone—didn’t think I could—but I’d heard the tales about the ruthlessness of past alphas, and I understood why I had to be sent away.
“What’s wrong with you?” Hal, my closest friend, asked, frowning at me as he stacked another hay bale on the cart. “You look like your eyes are gonna pop out of your face.”
I rubbed my stomach as it rumbled ominously. Hal had come to stay at the farm six months after I’d arrived, and we had become instant friends. By now, I saw him as a brother, a substitute for the family I’d lost, and I knew I meant the same to him.
“I don’t know. I just woke up hungry,” I winced, then dug my pitchfork into a stack of hay.
“You always wake up hungry,” Hal laughed. “You’re an alpha.”
“So are you,” I countered, wiping my forehead with the back of my hand.
