“It is better for you to be far from there,” Gawain chimed in from my other side. The lad’s face was pale and there was a splash of blood across his tunic from the man he had slicedfrom shoulder to groin before the man could do the same to Guinevere. “His majesty would not be able to focus if you were there.”
“But what about this little boy? We can’t just take him from his home,” Guinevere protested, reminding all of us that I had not just scooped up our queen.
The little boy in question looked to be about six or seven years old and was grubbier than I had ever seen a child—the parents of the children in Camelot were always fastidious about their children’s cleanliness thanks to the hot springs that had been discovered in and around the hill it was built into.
He was covered in ash and soot from the fire, but I could see that the child had not been clean even before the Saxons had descended upon his village.
He blinked up at me with wide blue eyes filled with fear.
“Stop looking at him like that,” Guinevere scolded, holding the boy close. “You’re scaring him.”
I had not meant to do so, but still I looked away. “We will bring him with us to Camelot and someone will take him in.”
“What about his parents? Won’t he want to be reunited with them?”
I bit my tongue, not wanting to snap at her that the chances of any of the villagers making it out of that bloodbath alive were slim to none.
Albeit against their wills, they had been complicit in the trap that we had found ourselves in. If the Saxons did not tear them down, then Arthur would be forced to.
This boy had, in an instant, become an orphan several times over.
“Your majesty,” Bedivere said gently, always the one to take the lead in situations like this. “There will be no reunification with his parents—at least not in this life.”
“But that’s so unfair,” she cried, her light brown eyes filled with frustrated tears.
I was out of my depth, not accustomed to anyone’s tears let alone the tears of a woman.
Her discontent seemed to waft off of her in sour, floral waves and I could see both Bedivere and Gawain stiffen on either side of me. It seemed that the two of them were more in tune with their alpha instincts, hells even my own numb ones were stirring with the omega’s misery.
I needed to put a stop to it. “It is war, your majesty, people die. That is how life here works.”
Guinevere’s spine straightened as she glared up at me, seeming to forget her sadness for a moment. “I don’t care if it’s war! It’s still sad, don’t you have a heart? Or are you just cold like this to everyone?”
I opened my mouth to respond but she was already turning away from me and holding out an arm to Gawain. “I don’t want to ride with him anymore.”
Gawain easily pulled the queen onto his horse and I had to fight back the sudden urge to yank her back.
I felt oddly… envious of the other alpha as he murmured something softly to the omega and she nodded, leaning her head against his shoulder as she continued to cradle the little boy to her.
Irritation filled my chest and I gripped the reins of my horse even tighter. “Very well, I will ride ahead and see if I can scout a place to stay for the night.”
With that, I kicked Sarion’s sides and pulled away from the group, confusion winning out over every other emotion as I rode away from Guinevere and straight into my own tumultuous thoughts.
Protect, that small voice in my mind whispered balefully.
But I simply ignored and pushed it back down before continuing on.
***
“You should apologize to her, Lancelot,” Bedivere told me later on that night as we sat around a small fire. It was as big as we dared to make it, fearing that any Saxons in the surrounding forest would be able to see our light if we made the flames too tall or too large.
“I have nothing to apologize for,” I told him stubbornly as I continued to polish and clean my sword which had seen about as much bloodshed tonight as the one Bedivere kept hanging uselessly at his waist.
“Then you are a fool,” Bedivere huffed, shaking his head with exasperation.
The omega in question was sitting across from me, though she had not looked my way since I brought them to the small formation of rocks that had created a small cavern-like space to shelter us from the rain that had begun to steadily fall since our disagreement earlier.
It always seemed to be raining around the omega—more rain than I had seen all season.
