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And the guys.

“Don’t be obtuse,” I mutter, “She is your friend.”

Aurora quirks an eyebrow. “Okay. So?”

“So how could you do that to her? Drag her out to some butcher in the middle of town, put her in that much danger? You’re not permitted to leave this castle, you’re not permitted to go to town on your own, and you’re certainly not permitted to be going to a place like that!”

“Where have you been for the past few days?” Aurora asks, sniffing delicately, her arms still crossed in defiance. Her eyes—the mirror image of my own—bore into me with an intensity that belies the omega disposition. “Why not come here and tear into me right after coming to rescue us? If you thought I was kidnapped, why would you wait multiple days to try and figure out who did it?”

Because I could think of nothing else but my mate in heat.

“You’ve refused to cooperate with our questioning,” Kellen steps in, ever the loyalist. “The king didn’t know about your betrayal until now!”

I don’t stop looking at my sister. Aurora knows exactly why I’ve waited several days, and she knows exactly where I’ve been. No shower could erase Mylah’s scent from me after days of being with her. There’s also surely something to the fated bond between us, my body holding onto her scent for longer than it would others.

“You’re not the one asking questions,” I growl.

“Oh, I’m always the one asking questions. Just nobody ever fucking answers me!” Aurora goes from calm and passive to exploding, arms uncrossed, hands on the table. “I did what I thought should have been done. I only regret that we didn’t do it sooner, seeing as how you’ve taken advantage of the situation!”

“I took advantage of nothing,” I growl, feeling my lips curling into a scowl. Aurora might be friends with Mylah, but she has no idea what’s gone on between us the past few days.

Mylah asked me to stay. I could never tell her no.

And I am falling in love with her.

“Right.” Aurora lets out a sarcastic laugh and leans back in her chair. When she looks at me again, there’s something wild and incomplete in her eyes.

Before she can speak, I look up at the advisers, still listening to the conversation. “Go. Leave us.”

Kellen hesitates. “But, sir—”

That fucking word.

“Go!”

They turn and hurry from the room. For a beat of silence, Aurora and I just sit at the table together, looking at one another.

Then, quietly, she says, “You have no idea what it’s like, brother. You’re an Alpha. Even if you weren’t king, you wouldn’t have to fear for your life. For your body. You think that doctor was dangerous? Try being an omega in this world. Feeling your heat coming, knowing that not only are you going to be in the throes of mind-numbing emotions, but you’ll also have to try and keep yourself safe!”

As she speaks, she works herself up, cheeks flushing, eyes getting wilder.

“Aurora—”

“Now imagine that, instead of being in your own home, or with your family, you were locked up in some fucking castle with a bunch of strangers. Imagine how scared Mylah must have been, Augustus! She doesn’t know you, and she doesn’t know any of the men—the alphas—in this place. Any of them could have gone into a rut around her. Come after her.”

“I would never—”

“You can’t make that promise!” There are tears now, gathering at the corners of my sister’s eyes. “I’m a princess, Augustus. My protection is the highest in this entire territory, and yet I’ve still overheard men, alphas, talking about what they would do to me, given the chance. I’ve felt their lingering gazes. Groping. Touching. The idea that I’m nothing more than a piece of fucking property, and I’m only off limits because technically, right now, I belong to you!”

I do not like the sound of that, the implication. But she is, technically, right. In the eyes of the law, my father was responsible for her. After his passing, that responsibility fell to me. I run my tongue over my lips, feeling on the back foot and not sure how to regain my position without pushing my sister—who is clearly already upset—too far.

But she’s not done. Her voice softens, her lips turning down, those tears breaking loose and trailing down the side of her face.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to grow up with the knowledge that rape is on the table? Always on the table. As a little girl, especially as an omega, they tell you to be careful. They explain that one day, men will want to use your body and you’ll have to be very careful—you will have to be perfect—to avoid that fate. And even then, you can still be raped.”

I wish she would stop saying that word. I look away—when we talk about heats, ruts, and the alpha-omega relationship, we always tend to dance around the violence that can befall omegas when they’re not protected.

We always dance around using that word.