Page 54
“Growing up in the Northern Kault pack is all I’ve ever known,” Augustus says instantly, as though proving to me he can share information with me. “Though I do sometimes wish I had been from the Southern pack, after all.”
“For the long history of torture and violence?”
Another laugh that shakes me. I can’t help but smile against the tacky warm skin on his chest.
“No. For the few more days a year with sunshine.”
“Why does anyone live here?” I muse, turning finally to look at him again. “If nobody actually likes the weather?”
He shrugs, “I don’t read enough to know the answer to that. Maybe, when the Kault settled here, they were primarily in wolf form and didn’t consider how ill-tempered it was to the human half. Maybe it’s easier to defend. Land nobody wants.”
When I hmm in response, Augustus flattens his palm against my back, sliding it down to the slope of my ass. It makes me shiver.
“It was fine. It’s also all I ever knew,” I say, in response to his question. “I did sometimes wish we lived in the city, but just so I could get more books.”
“Your father likely would have been caught, if you’d lived here.” Augustus rubs my back and stares at the ceiling. “I don’t actually understand those rules for omegas at the library. What possible harm could come from an omega reading or studying?”
A lot of harm. That is, to the system that keeps alphas and betas held as higher classes. But I don’t say that to him. I just shrug against him, the sleep heavy and pulling me down.
Just before I drift off, he says, quietly, “I will see what I can do about the library rules.”
Later, when I wake, our bodies are already moving together, Augustus hard and hungry, his mouth on my neck and his cock pushing against my ass.
When I’m hungry, he orders the guards to bring up whatever I want from the kitchens. When I complain about my back aching—the familiar pains that come along with the heat every month—he tells me to turn over on my stomach and gives me the best back rub of my life.
It does, of course, turn into him between my legs, first with his mouth, then with his hand, and finally with his cock, but the back rub loosens me up and leaves my muscles feeling like pulled taffy. The fucking seems to help, too.
Even as I get tired and sore, it feels like a good kind of exhaustion.
And, after the second day, Augustus shares more.
“Zade—king of the East. Brack of the West, and Denvil of the South.”
“I think I saw Zade, maybe.”
Augustus thinks for a moment, then nods. “That day in the forest. You’re right. That was him.”
I don’t bring up the fact that I saw them the day I was nearly sacrificed, too. When I say nothing, Augustus goes on, talking about his childhood. Spending time with the other future kings and his sister.
“…and Aurora nearly took his eye out. The trainer held off on weapons training after that.”
I’m laughing, but I can’t stop the question from rising. “So, your father thought Aurora might have been an alpha?”
Augustus lets out a harsh laugh. “We all thought she would be an alpha. It was very surprising when the omega traits started developing.”
I can only imagine how hard that was for her. Augustus tells me about how he and Aurora were treated like equal candidates to be heirs. At first, they both got all the same schooling and training.
“So, Aurora knows how to fight?”
Augustus tips his head back and forth, giving me a lopsided smile. “Well, she stopped around thirteen, so I guess that just depends on how much she retained. My guess would be to say yes, she can still fight.”
“That would be my guess, too.”
We make love, sleep, eat, and talk. He murmurs into my hair, against my ear. Holds my body tight against his, even when he’s not inside me.
Laughs when I gather more pillows and blankets up onto the bed, not even realizing I’m doing it. Making a nest around us. Insulating this thing from the rest of the world for as long as I can.
Everything about it is warm and safe.
