So much burden to put on young shoulders—even if they were broad, Alpha shoulders. I can’t help reaching out to stroke his cheek. His midnight stubble is rough beneath the pads of my fingers. He looks down at me, and his eyes are filled with tenderness. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.
He catches my hand and holds it gently. “Kind, compassionate, and gentle: a true Omega,” he murmurs. “And I don’t believe that was caused by the serum. I believe you were always that way. Always had those traits.”
“They’re not really rare traits, where I come from,” I say. “I mean, there are selfish, unfeeling assholes, too, but I’d say it’s a fairly even split.”
“Be that as it may. You’re special, Emma. I see some aspects of my mother in you.”
Not exactly a line most women want to hear, but I know how he means it, and I’m more touched than I’d like to admit. “Thank you.” There’s a sudden lump in my throat. Maybe he does care. Maybe he is more capable of feeling than I suspected at first.
But that doesn’t negate the fact that I’m not here of my own free will. Nothing, no kind words, good sex, or purring will change that. Ever.
* * *
Khan
Emma sleeps curled into herself. She’s thinner; she’s barely been eating, claiming she cannot easily stomach Ulfarri food. She is distressed and anxious. Not even painting seems to interest her much anymore. Her unhappiness throbs in our bond. I hold her until she falls asleep, but then I rise, restless.
Even after our conversation the other day, where I thought I’d made it clear to her how important Omegas are to our very survival, she says she will not, cannot, accept her life here.
And so I find myself poised on a stool in my private quarters, in a room closed off from Emma but close enough that I can hear her cries. Her distress is always with me, a dull ache in my heart. It cannot go on.
There is only one solution.
I sit with muscles rigid and tense until the orb in front of me flares with a golden light. It’s King Aurus, answering my hail.
“Khan?” Aurus rumbles. He sounds surprised.
“Aurus. I need a favor,” I say roughly.
There's a pause. Aurus knows me well. I do not easily ask for help. Aurus would consider doing so a weakness; an Alpha would never willingly show weakness to a rival. And all kings are rivals, even as we are allies. The truce between us is an uneasy one.
“Ask.” Aurus makes it sound like an order. But he can't help himself.
“I want your magicians to create a portal so I can return my Omega to her home planet.”
“Return your Omega?” Disbelief tinges his tone. “Does she not please you?”
“She wishes to return home,” I say simply.
There’s a longer pause. “I will order my magicians to look into it,” he says. “They are attempting to create a portal to summon Hoo-mans. Returning one is surely possible.”
It is the answer I need—and hate to hear. “Thank you.”
Aurus doesn’t seem to know what to say to that. I sit in silence, poised on my stool, waiting for him to think through the questions he wants to ask. He needs to know why I would relinquish my Emma.
“The other kings will not like it if you obtain a second Omega before they do,” he says at length.
“There is no need for jealousy. I will not take a second Omega.”
“No?” To Aurus and any other king, this notion is inconceivable.
“No.” Emma is the only one for me.I can hardly believe it even as the words leave my lips but it’s the truth. She is my soul mate. I desire her more than anything else—even more than I desire an heir.
There’s another long silence. For once, Aurus is speechless. It took an Omega and a king’s sacrifice to do it.
“You have given us a great gift,” he says finally in rolling, regal tones. He cannot see my small smile. Out of all the kings, I am the one who found Omegas for our planet. Perhaps it is because I was born to one. My mother was in the last generation of her kind.
Now, Alphas are born in rare instances of Beta/Beta pairings. Aurus was born to such a couple, and taken from his home at a young age to live and rise among the ranks of the Alpha soldiers. He has never known the tenderness of an Omega mother like I have.
