It was Lady Genevieve and Lady Delaney, two much younger women I’d once mentored for modeling.
“Well, aren’t you naughty?” Brand said, but from the tone of his voice, he thought they were adorable.
Humiliation burned at me as tears gathered in the corner of my eyes.
“So I heard you were looking for a new Omega,” Genevieve prompted. “OrmultipleOmegas.”
My heart sunk as Delaney giggled. The ruined mate bond meant I didn’t crave their scents anymore, but it was still a humiliation to hear they were courting other Omegas. Much younger Omegas. MorefertileOmegas.
“We’ll see,” Edgar said, his voice a low rumble. “But the two of you would bring so much youthful energy to this Pack.”
Genevieve squealed with glee, and I was able to edge away, tears spilling down my cheeks.
My old Pack was already trying to find a new Omega? Now I would have to watch them with a hot new Omega, probably impregnating her right away, while I withered away, old & passed-over.
Life stretched, bleak and unrelenting in front of me, like a winter that never ended.
CHAPTER 2
Alexei
The ducal carriage jostled down the road, bringing my Pack and I through mushy, ice-pitted roads back home. There were much faster ways to get across the countryside, of course, but Winter Haven was nothing if not stuck in tradition, and of course the Palace had sent a full golden carriage for me, the huge monstrosity dripping with intricately carved flowers and woodland creatures, the entire thing pulled with six pure white horses. Nothing but the best for Duke Alexei Koval.
I’d been running for a long time, and now I was going toattemptto stay in one place.
Ever since my Alpha scent glands kicked in at 18, pumping heat and fire andlongingthrough my veins. By 25 most Alphas had sowed their wild oats and started to look around, set up a Pack and find the Omega that would complete them.
But we never had. Oh, it was easy to form a Pack with my best friend Theo, the only friend I could ever trust who wasn’t out for the fame, money, and prestige of hanging aroundthe Duke.
The man who’d been Duke ever since he was old enough to spell his name.
But we’d never sowed our wild oats. Two men who had every possible opportunity to? Never had. Maybe we were both just picky as hell. And finding an Omega we both liked? Impossible.
Theo seemed to have an endless list of perfections he required and so. . .the matter just rested there.
As for me? I knewexactlywho I wanted.
But she was the one woman I could never have. . . so it was better this way.
Better that Theo and I never agreed, couldn’t find an Omega to tempt us away from our bachelor ways.
But now something was pulling me back to Winter Haven. From this distance, I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it had tugged at me with increasing urgency.
I felt fertility enflaming my loins, seed gathering deep in my balls, making the sac heavy and swollen, pendulous with baby-making matter. My gut was urging me to plant my seed. But there was only one place I wanted to plant it, only one pussy I fantasized about burying my face in.
“What do you plan to do when we get back?” Theo asked. “We’ve spent the last six months touring every art museum in the Summer Lands, and now you want to go back to Winter Haven when the snow’s still on the ground. It’s going to be cold as balls and gloomy as hell.”
“How about finally settling down with an Omega?” I suggested. “Besides, it’s spring now.”
Unlike me, who was always casual and rumpled, like the trappings of dukedom sat uncomfortably on my shoulders, Theo looked impeccable from the top of his head to the soles of his boots, somehow managing to give the impression of an immovable rock even in the rocking carriage.
He turned away. “I can’t think of anyone I’m interested in.”
“I know you feel it too,” I countered. “Swollen balls, dick hanging heavy. Our Alpha instincts are wanting us to procreate.”
To our Alpha instincts, it was time. Time to settle down with an Omega, find the person who was going to make us into a family.
But who?The thought of being with any Omega other than the forbidden woman I desired made me sick to my stomach.
