None of the castle servants spoke. Not to us and not to each other as we moved slowly about the castle, avoiding Morgana’s eerie gaze. None could be trusted and we did not know where Guinevere had gone. Was she safe? Was Lancelot?
It took until the early hours of the morn for us to finally find her in the last place I ever thought my queen, my omega, would be put.
Her eyes were red-rimmed as she stared up at us through the small hole that served as a window to the dungeon. A torn linen sheet was wrapped around her naked body. I could see bruises on her arms from being tightly gripped and a heavy metal collar had been placed around her neck. As I stared at her, I was quickly able to put together the events that had preceded her imprisonment.
Especially once her scent hit my nose and I smelled that she was in heat.
I had to force the growl gathering in my chest down at how my omega had been mistreated by our king—magical coercion or not.
The desire to march into his study and shake the spell from his eyes and ask how he dared to do this to our omega who was vulnerable and in heat. Did he not know such things could make her ill?
“They hurt Lancelot,” Guinevere told us softly as she reached for Gawain’s outstretched hand and hung on for dear life.
I glanced into the window neighboring Guinevere’s and found, with horror, that Lancelot was lying face down with wounds crisscrossing his back.
“We will break you free from here,” Gawain said, his face pale with shock as he seemed to be trying to figure out the best way of doing so.
But Guinevere just shook her head. “No, it’s too risky. If Morgana finds you she could put the same spell on you too. You need to get to Merlin—he’s the only one who can break the spell on the people of the castle.”
“We cannot just leave you here,” I told her, finding the very idea of it abhorrent.
Guinevere’s lips pressed into a firm line and I could feel her stubbornness through the bond. “You don’t have a choice, Bedivere, if we’re going to get out of this then we need him. Go—he’s trapped in between two stones an hour or so ride to the east. We also need my father and his men so that we can push the Saxons out once the spell is broken.”
I was taken aback by her logic. Everything Guinevere told me about her place in the future told me she was not familiar with such things, but here she was giving orders as if she had seen battle before. It was almost as if I was listening to Arthur speak.
“Gawain,” Guinevere said, giving the younger alpha’s hand a squeeze. “You ride faster so I’ll need you to go to Cameliard. Bedivere, you will need to find Merlin.”
“I do not—” Gawain began to protest but I put my hand on his arm to stop him. There was no more arguing with her. She was our queen before she was our omega and she was giving us an order for the good of Camelot.
“How am I to release Merlin from his prison once I find it?” I asked as I had no experience with breaking magical spells.
Guinevere seemed to think about it for a moment, her hand drifting up to the collar around her neck. “Merlin once told me that etched spells like this can be disrupted if you are able to break enough of the runes. Take a chisel and a hammer fromyour workshop and break as many of the runes as possible. Merlin should be able to do the rest.”
I gave her a firm nod, my mind already moving ahead on how we were going to get the horses out of the stable without being discovered.
“Please be careful,” Guinevere said, reaching up through the bars to touch my knee. “And come back to me in one piece.”
I wanted to lean down to kiss her, but the small dungeon window impeded that. Instead, I crouched down until her hand could cup my face, her skin fevered from the heat.
“We will come back and get you out of this, sweetling,” I promised, my chest burning with the desire to protect her from harm.
Guinevere’s smile was bleak, but she still nodded. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
It turned out that getting the horses from the stable was no task at all. The place had been abandoned as revelry began to take place in the great hall. The Saxon invaders demanded a feast and it was evident that every hand in the castle was needed to make it happen.
We were able to pull Breac and Evefir with ease and make off as the afternoon started to ease into the sky. The two horses seemed relieved to be away from the place, their nerves easing as we galloped away and Camelot grew into a small dot in the distance.
“I feel as if this is a mistake—to leave Guinevere behind,” Gawain shouted over the wind whipping around us.
I felt the same, but I could not let the younger alpha know that.
“We must,” I replied, not looking over at him. I knew he could feel my reticence through the bond we now shared, but I chose not to dwell on that. If we had any chance to save our omega and the rest of our pack, we needed to do this. “This is where we part ways, Gawain, steer your horse true and bring back the assistance we so desperately need!”
Gawain shot me one last determined look before he yanked his reins to the left and our paths veered off from one another.
It was nightfall by the time I reached a section of the path that contained hundreds of hoof-tracks. This was undoubtedly the way that Arthur had come earlier.
Steering Evefir up the hill and following the weave of the river, I happened upon a small clearing about halfway up the mountain, surrounded on all sides by high rock walls.
