Hunter carries me up the steps, between the columns, through an open door. The ceiling of this place is four stories high. Whole trees grow between the inner columns. Birds chirp above us.
Hunter doesn’t put me down until we’re at the end of a long columned hall, in a cooler, quieter part of the palace. The walls and doors are brushed gold.
My eyes hurt from the brightness of the palace façade. I blink to adjust them to the cool darkness.
“Someone’s decorator sure likes gold,” I say.
“You got that right,” a voice answers.
Up ahead, a woman pokes her head out of a shadowed door. Her face is small and strange, round with too pale skin. I jolt. I’m looking at another human. I’m so used to looking at Ulfarri, my brain registers her as weird.
“Oh,” I huff, pressing a hand over my heart, where the bond pinches me.
“Hello, there,” the human says. “It’s okay. I’m Kim.” She opens the door wider. “Come on in.”
TWENTY-ONE
Haley
I standin the shadows of the hall, staring at the human. Her face is strange but familiar. She’s got short blonde hair, and rounded ears. She’s about my height.
Hunter puts a hand to my back and pushes me forward. I step inside the small room and face the other woman.
“Sorry,” I gasp. “It’s just so—”
“Weird? I know. I haven’t seen another human in a while, either. I look pretty pasty white compared to an Ulfarri.” She chuckles to herself. Her calm and ease slow my sprinting heart.
The door closes behind me and I jerk around. Hunter hasn’t come inside with us.
“It’s okay,” Kim says. “Your mate will stay nearby. He’s not going to go far with you here, that’s for sure.”
I have to say something. “Really?” I croak. “How do you know?”
“Alphas protect. Betas connect. And Omegas…” She sits and pours a glass of something to drink. “We’re supposed to breed. But I have an IUD, so good luck with that, suckah!” She lounges back on a low couch and stretches out her arm towards the wall with her middle finger raised, as if she’s flipping off an invisible person.
I’m still frozen by the door.
“Sit down.” She pats the couch. “It’s going to take some getting used to me. Might as well be comfortable.”
I slowly lower myself onto the couch. “I’m so glad I have a chance to talk to you.”
“That’s good. I’m told you wanted to meet me as much as I wanted to meet you. Emma wanted to come but she’s busy.”
“Emma?”
“AnotherHoo-man.” Kim mimics the Ulfarri name for us. “She’s pregnant, and you can imagine how protective her Alpha is right now.”
“Her Alpha is…”
“Khan. King of Altrim. Emma was the first Omega brought here. The first one to get pregnant, too. The magicians say everything’s good and she’s healthy, but you know how the Alphas are.” Kim waves a hand. “They treat us like pets, not people.”
“Oh my gosh, I was just thinking that I felt like an alien trophy wife.”
Kim throws her head back, cackling to the ceiling. “Yes, good way to put it. It took me a while to break that mold in my guy’s head. But I smashed it pretty good.”
I press my lips together. Kim’s laugh bounces around the room. She’s not pasty at all—her pale skin glows, and her hair has a golden sheen in the low light of the floating orbs. She looks like a queen. An Omega and a human, and comfortable as both while still one hundred percent herself.
I twist my hands in my lap. “They didn't treat their own Ulfarri Omegas any better. I just met one.”
