His presence in my dreams had originally confused me as he had never appeared in them before, but now whenever his face danced through them I felt completely suffocated, as if I was being pressed between two heavy stones with no way out.
“Do you think he does not wish for Guinevere as you and I do?” I asked suddenly, pushing such dreary thoughts from my mind. Our pack was making quick progress, and now we were three. Stronger together.
Bedivere’s face pinched as he shook his head. “Can such a thing be possible?”
“No,” I told the other alpha honestly. It seemed impossible to resist Guinevere’s quick wit and sweet scent. I had fallen to itquickly and had never looked back and I knew now that Gawain and Bedivere were the same. So why was Lancelot resisting so heavily?
I huffed a frustrated sigh and scrubbed a hand over my tired face.
Bedivere sat down heavily in the plush chair across from my desk, his expression serious. “Your majesty, if I may?”
I waved a hand, telling him to go on.
“I do not believe you will need to prod either of them—they will come together as the gods foretold—but they may need more time than you think.”
“How much time am I to give? You know as well as I that Guinevere’s heat approaches. You must have smelled it in her scent last night.”
Guinevere’s honeysuckle scent had begun to deepen and swell more than usual and I had noticed her body running light fevers whilst she slept in my arms over the past week or so.
The urge to cloister her in our chambers had also grown in me and I had to force myself to allow her to go about her duties within the castle, just glad that most of my servants were betas and that the alphas in the barracks would not dare to sniff after my wife.
“I did,” Bedivere admitted. “How will we handle such a thing?”
I knew of which he was referring. It would be nigh impossible to hide our pack once Guinevere’s heat started. Ideally all four of us would be present and Merlin too if he so wished.
Never had I considered the wizard having a lover before, but somehow it made sense that he and Guinevere, two magical beings, would be drawn to each other.
Though, every time I ventured up to his rectory to speak to him about it he seemed to have vanished into thin air.
I was uncertain whether Merlin felt embarrassed to talk to me, or if he was afraid I would be angry with him, but regardless I still wished to speak to him.
Still mulling over the complicated nature of Guinevere’s first heat, I almost did not hear the door to my study burst open and the wizard who had just been the subject of my thoughts stumble inside.
“Arthur!” Merlin gasped, forgetting all sense of decorum as he stood wheezing with his hands on his knees.
Nothing good could come of his reason for running to my study with such haste.
A sour pit began to form in the pit of my stomach.
“What is it?” I asked, standing from my chair.
“The Saxons! They approach—about a half-day’s ride away!” Merlin exclaimed, confirming my earlier unease.
It was not as if we had not ridden out to push the Saxons away from our borders before, but this was the first time that they were approaching Camelot with an omega—my omega—living within its walls.
“We must go out at once,” I said, reaching to whereExcaliburwas leaning against my desk.
“Yes, your majesty,” Bedivere began as somewhere a horn was blown for the knights to gather for battle.
I made my way to my chambers first and allowed my squire, Sir Kay’s eldest son, to help me dress in the leather tunic and chainmail that I always wore into battle. Some kings chose to wear full metal armor, but I always found it impaired my movement—my men did the same and it made us a deadly force to be reckoned with.
“Are you going to kill some Saxons, your majesty?” Thierry asked, his eyes big and round as he handed me my helmet.
I reached out to ruffle the boy’s hair. “Perhaps. Will you take care of your mother and siblings while we are gone?”
Thierry nodded his head vigorously, his brown curls bouncing back and forth. “Me an’ Henry will do a good job.”
I had nearly forgotten all about the little boy that Guinevere had pulled from the burning village that day. It felt as if ages had passed since then.
