I consider the question. Nothing stands out. I sometimes openly show my exasperation with the advisors, but that has been the case for years.
I shake my head.
“Hmm. Well, just so long as you’re aware.”
I give him a grunt of appreciation. There’s a deep, pounding ache in my skull and, when I tentatively probe my bond with my mate, there’s a different kind of pain: a deep, unbearable sorrow. Are those her feelings, or mine? I close my eyes.
“Don’t worry,” Brokk says. “We’ll work things out and defeat that fucker.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Go back to your queen and comfort her. Explain everything. Ulf knows, if I were you, if I were lucky enough to have an Omega mate, I wouldn’t leave her side for a second, and would do everything in my power to make her happy.”
My fists are clenched so tight, my nails dig into my palms. I force my fingers to uncurl. Brokk has been obsessed with the idea of fated mates since we were young. Most Alphas have accepted the fact that there is a dearth of Omegas on Ulfaria, and that they will never go on to experience the rut, claiming, knotting and so on like their ancestors did. That they will never sire offspring. I myself had accepted it long ago.
But not Brokk. He has never given up hope, and now that there are three Omega queens here on our planet, he will no doubt only be more determined to find one of his own. If I could help him achieve that, I would. He deserves happiness.
“Soon,” I say.
“Ah.” He slaps my back. “To the drinking hall then. Your queen will be safe.”
I follow him back into the palace. I wish to return to my lysia flower, but her words of rejection sting. I will give her the space she needs before I return to her. In the meantime, I will post more Alpha guards to make sure she is safe.
If anything ever happened to her…
I cannot even finish that thought.
SEVENTEEN
Haley
I’m pacingthe room when there’s a rap on the door. I’ve been going round and round, trying to figure the situation out, and I’m going mad. The Ulfarri-King sized bed and all the cute little pillows call to me, but I’m resisting.
Part of me wishes we’d never left the cave.
“My queen?” Sian calls, and pokes her head in. “You sent for me?”
“Come in.” I sink into a chair. Hunter listened, and found Sian for me. Maybe he is capable of doing more than rutting me, and growling.
Sian’s gaze is filled with concern when she arrives and spots my swollen eyes, red and sore from crying. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.” I hug a cushion to myself.
“That is what people say when they are not.” When she leans over me for a hug, I almost break down again. I release the pillow to hug her back.
“Things are so fucked up,” I whisper. “And Hunter and I…” I squeeze my eyes shut.
“The king adores you,” Sian says, releasing me and perching on a seat beside me.
Even as my brain calls her a liar, a ridiculous surge of hope floods my heart. “How can you be so sure? Were you at the audience just now?” I didn’t see her there. My attention was elsewhere.
“I was.”
“I don't know what to do. They think I’m some possession to be passed around without any regard to my fucking feelings…” my voice is rising but I’m past caring, “Hunter is no help. His councilors act like he’s a big kid—and then he smashes that orb and makes things worse!”And he wouldn’t even look at me.
“It’ll be all right.”
“Easy for you to say. No one’s calling for you to be sacrificed to the Stone King.” I shiver, and she tugs one of the furs towards me. I pull it around my shoulders gratefully.
“You’re not going to be given to the Stone King—”
I tune her out, burrowing into soft fur. It smells like Hunter, and the forest.
