“Everyone keeps saying that, but why? Why are they so rare?”
“If I knew, little one, I would tell you.” His voice softens the way it does when we’re in bed and he’s whispering filthy nothings in my ear. I hate the way I love it. “I’ve spent my life trying to find out why.” His huge hand settles on my back and I let him turn me. He’s too big—I have no choice. “Come now. Back inside.”
“Can we walk a little?” I lean back against his palm. “The moonlight is so nice.” And the more I explore the grounds, the easier it will be to find an escape route. That’s my real purpose, even if everything inside me sighs with contentment whenever the king’s around.
Bestian pauses. “Very well. We will walk. And you will explain to me why you do not think you are an Omega.”
I roll my eyes, glad I’m facing away from him. How many times do we have to go over this? Is the concept really so hard to grasp? I’m a human being. From a completely different fucking planet. Therefore, I can’t be an Omega, and I can’t be in estrus, period.
Then why do you react to the king the way you do? Why does a single look from him, or touch—not to mention his ridiculously delicious scent—turn you into a helpless bundle of need and make you forget everything but him?
The whispering voice of doubt in my head lists so many questions, but the answer remains the same:
I. Don’t. Fucking. Know.
I wonder if I’ll ever be able to figure it out.
* * *
Bestian
Rose turns and tilts her head up to me. Is she trying to see my expression? Before I raced to intercept her, I wove a spell to mask my face, but it is incomplete. The curse that marred my features is resistant to magic.
My spell obscures the worst of the damage. The growing dusk and my hood do the rest.
“I know I'm not an Omega. So I don’t understand why I’m reacting the way I am. Some sort of psychosomatic response? Delayed trauma from waking up on an alien planet?” She’s half talking to herself, and I’m pleased. I never thought I’d possess an Omega, much less one who can match me intellectually. Thewhispstold me she was in training with a healer in the village. Perhaps Rose can develop healing powers, like my mother.
“I’m human. I can’t be an Omega.”
I guide her through a hedge exit. Her muscles tense under my touch, but she obeys. Her acquiescence pleases me, but her impending disobedience intrigues me even more. I’ve never met anyone so determined to counter my will.
It’s exciting.
“A few summers ago, I would have agreed with you,” I tell her. “But in recent past, there were instances of Ulfarri kings finding their Omegas. The Wanderer King and the Golden King, as well as the Hunter King have found their mates. In each case, the Omega was like you. Human.”
She stops walking and sucks in a breath. “That’s impossible.”
“Is it? How did you come to be on Ulfaria?”
“I don’t know.”
“In the other queens’ cases, they were brought through a portal and given a serum to turn them into Omegas.”
She leans forward, placing a hand on her stomach.
“Rose? Are you all right?”
“Are you telling me… not only was I abducted by aliens, but they also gave me a serum to turn me into an Omega?”
“That is my theory.”
She rubs her chest absently. “I stillfeelhuman.”
“You are. Your slight stature and features are similar to those of the other kings’ Omegas. But, like them, you also display Omega traits.” She’s still staring into the night like it holds all her answers. I brush my fingers over her gleaming curls. “It is a gift.”
“Not to me. I’m the one who got transformed.”
“Is it so unsettling?”
