Incredulous, Sinadim looked to Giaus and found the king standing rigid in her wake. Unblinking, he bristled and postured for the attention of a female he couldn’t stop watching. One healreadypossessed.
“Giaus… This is a trick!” Sinadim said, whirling. His claws flashing, he snapped forefinger and thumb to break Giaus’ line of sight. “It’s a distraction, and a bad one at that.”
Giaus lifted one massive, burly shoulder and craned his neck to look around Sinadim. “She’ll have her torches and her wall,” he said, resuming his watchful vigilance. “And if she runs, I shall have my hunt.”
A moment passed between king and queen. Heavy with meaning that excluded Sinadim. “Mmm,” she purred, and her eyes flashed a reflective, devious green. “My king wields my authority.”
Head thrown back, Giaus coughed up a barking laugh. Mirth echoing through a voice deep enough to recall the wisdom of the ancients.
And despite the pang of hurt, Sinadim threw up his hands, and said, “Fine!” because there was something far greater to be gained in this moment. A chit called on a favor already claimed—and he would not be denied another instant. “Then I’ll take what I am owed before she runs again.”
Tinkling laughter tickled his ears, and Sinadim spun. Fixing his good eye upon the creature backing into the sunken pit where the dregs of a nest awaited.
“Why would I run?” she asked, ears laid out to either side. Taunting even as she enticed.Confidentin the way she watched him and didn’t blink as the shadows wrapped about her thin shoulders and embraced. Her smirk both fierce and defiant in just the way that made his cock throb. “I’m to be cherished,” she drawled. “Served by my kingandmy general… Something precious, guarded from theft… or escape.” And then, gracing him with a small, sad little she shrugged. “I had to try, remember? I failed. And now I’m left to salvage what I can.”
A tiny puff of held breath misted over Sinadim’s lips. His words echoing back to haunt him as his mate turned. Knowing he would follow.
At this, she sank back into the nest, and he caught the moment that her attention faltered. Where she transitioned from budding queen to nesting Omega. A female who couldn’t help but twist in worn leathers, turning and turning and turning again, until she found comfort in an act shunned in the Silver City. Primitive and messy, that of commoners who’d let an Omega go into heat without the aid of suppressors to keep her civilized.
But this was the Feral Court.
The Renegade Queen was already in her nest, already saturated with the scents of Anhur musk she couldn’t ignore.
And for just a moment, Sinadim resisted the urge to scatter all that she had placed just so—ignored the bulge of an eager knot swelling at his base. Content to bear witness to the ancient ritual, this instinct that had consumed her. For despite the many nameless Omegas Sinadim had once boasted… he’d never had Renegade. Never allowed a female to lead, just to see where she might take him.
Swallowing a lump lodged at the back of his throat, Sinadim bristled when she stretched. Throwing both arms over her head, she tilted her chin back, nipples jutting up. Peaked and beaded, they begged for attention as she arched to reveal the languid bend of hollow ribs—and an empty cradle between her hips.
His resistance shattered at the sight, for that was his price. The value of his fealty, the bid to retain his expert-fucking-counsel the king needed but didn’t want. And the very last secret of keeping Hathorian females he had left to divulge—that in breeding an Omega in the throes of a natural cycle,without suppressants, timing was crucial. The act one that required practice…
… or a guide.
And now Giaus had everything.
Sinadim had…this.
A chance to share the litter Giaus may well have pumped into her this night. That he too might plant life inside her and know the secret joy of seeing his own eyes staring back at him in a face he recognized and had only just met.
“Come,” she murmured, and flashed the straight edge of blunt teeth. “You have a promise to keep.”
Mane shivering with scarcely contained lust, Sinadim lifted one brow. “Is that so?”
“You said you’d come so deep inside, you wouldn’t have to bother with a knot.” She hummed. Moving to cup her breasts, worrying at her nipples as her eyes were dragged down. Drawn by the way his cock jerked, a pulse of silky want beading at his tip. “Promised it would take a week for me to stop dripping.”
At this, Giaus made his presence known. Vibrating, seething with contempt Sinadim could literally taste, the king’s brow grew damp with the evidence of his temper. His restraint.
“I want that,” Renegade cooed, oblivious to the war she insisted on feeding, an evil little grin spreading across her lips. Spurred on by the way Giaus blustered at the edge of her nest.
“You’re going to get me murdered,” Sinadim replied, leery of the beast rumbling with a low, threatening growl. Bristling with the sort of possessive madness only a few Anhur ever had the chance to know. The sort only soothed with the attention of a willing female.
Forcing his mane to go flat, his scent muted, posture meek, Sinadim turned his cheek.
Exposing his silver eye to the king.
Giving up the place where he was most vulnerable, where he wouldn’t see that final mercy coming until it was much too late.
It was a subtle concession of trust, and it was enough.
Though Giaus’ glare only narrowed and he reeked of heat and musk, he issued a guttural chuff and made no move to interfere.
