"Actually, I've been here for twenty minutes, watching you." His smile is crooked, challenging. "You missed my approach from the south."
I narrow my eyes. "Impossible. I had clear sightlines."
"Not if I was in the trees." He points upward, his smile widening. "You always forget to look up, Sera."
The nickname breaks something in me. My composure, maintained through confrontation with Malakai, through my father's revelations, through preparations for a marriage I dread—finally cracks. I cross the clearing in three quick strides and collide with him, my arms wrapping around his solid warmth.
He catches me easily, his arms tightening around my waist, his face buried in my hair. We stand like that for several heartbeats, neither speaking. I breathe in the familiar scent of him—pine resin and leather and something uniquely Asher. Comforting. Safe. Not overwhelming like Malakai's dark cedar and winter smoke that makes my biology scream mate even as my mind screams danger.
"You shouldn't be here," he murmurs against my temple, his Alpha rumble soothing rather than dominating. "If they catch you?—"
"They won't." I pull back enough to look at his face. "I didn't spend years mastering stealth to be caught during a simple rendezvous."
His expression darkens. "There's nothing simple about this, Sera. When we received word about the forced marriage—" He breaks off, his jaw tightening. "I wanted to storm the Shadow Court then and there."
"And get yourself killed?" I shake my head. "That would hardly improve the situation."
"No worse than you marrying that monster." His voice turns hard, his hands tightening on my waist. His Alpha scent spikes with protective aggression. "Everyone knows what he is, what he does to those who displease him. And tomorrow he's going to claim you. Going to knot you and bite you and—" He can't finish, his scent turning acrid with distress.
"I know exactly what he is," I say, stepping back slightly, needing the physical distance to maintain my focus. "That's why I'm going through with this."
Asher's eyebrows draw together in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Asher reaches for my hands, but I tuck them behind my back. "I need an explanation as to how you ended up tied to him." I sense more than just worry and anger; I can detect jealousy bleeding through his Alpha scent. I'd laugh if it had been anyone else.
I take a deep breath and tell him everything—Cassian's accidental killing of the advisor, Malakai's demand for marriage as blood payment, my father's revelation about my designation. As I speak, Asher's expression cycles through shock, anger, and finally a grim understanding. His Alpha scent fluctuates wildly—protective fury, territorial possessiveness, worry.
"Wait." Asher's face goes pale, his hands dropping to his sides. "When you said Malakai scented you... you're an Omega?" His voice cracks on the last word. "All these years, the monthly 'illnesses,' the suppressants you claimed were for headaches—" He takes a step back, running both hands through his hair. "You never told me."
"I couldn't risk anyone knowing," I say quietly, the old shame rising. "Not even you."
The silence stretches between us, heavy with years of secrets and half-truths.
"And you're going to go through with it?" He paces the small clearing, agitation evident in every movement, his Alpha energy crackling in the air. "Walk willingly into that viper's nest, into his bed, let him claim you, let him breed you, on the slim chance you might someday get close enough to kill him?"
"It's not a slim chance," I counter. "It's the best chance anyone has ever had. Malakai is well-protected, paranoid, and powerful. No external assassin has ever gotten close. But a wife..." I let the implication hang in the air. "A mate bound to him by biology. Who he'll want in his bed, in his nest, carrying his offspring. I'll have access no one else could dream of.
"A mate he'll be watching closely, especially given the circumstances," Asher argues. "He's not stupid, Sera. He'll suspect something."
"Of course he will. Initially. But I have time. I can play the reluctant but gradually accepting Omega. Build trust slowly. Let the mate bond convince him I'm truly his." The words taste bitter, but they're true. The mate bond that pulled at me in Malakai's throne room, that biological recognition I can't deny. "He already thinks he's my true mate. He scented it on me."
Asher's head snaps up, his Alpha scent spiking with something dangerous. "What?"
"He knows I'm an Omega," I admit quietly. "The suppressants aren't perfect. And he claims..." I swallow hard. "He claims to recognize me as his true mate.
A sudden breeze rustles the leaves, carrying with it a scent I can't quite identify—something metallic and cold. Wrong. My instincts prickle. The shadows beneath the trees seem darker than they should be, moving wrong, but I attribute it to the boundary's strange magic.
"And is he?" Asher's voice is dangerously quiet, his Alpha dominance bleeding through. "Your true mate?"
The question hits a nerve. I've been avoiding thinking about that biological pull, that visceral recognition when Malakai looked at me. But Asher's words force me to confront the reality of what awaits me tomorrow.
"I don't know," I say honestly, working to keep my voice steady. "My biology responds to him. My Omega recognizes his Alpha. But that doesn't mean?—"
"It means everything," Asher interrupts, his voice breaking. His hands clench into fists. "True mates can't resist each other, Sera. Once he claims you, once he bites you and knots you during your heat, the bond will snap into place. You won't be able to kill him. You won't even want to. Every instinct you have will scream to protect him, to please him, to give him children." He turns away, his shoulders rigid. "I never imagined I'd have to hand you over to another Alpha. To watch you be claimed by someone else."
"I'll fight it," I insist, even as doubt curls in my stomach. "I've been fighting my biology for nine years. I can?—"
"Not a mate bond," Asher cuts me off. "That's different. That's primal. Unbreakable." His Alpha scent turns bitter with grief. "Once you're claimed, you won't be mine anymore. You'll be his in every way that matters."
