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Before I could greet him, Mirrim was there. “Darling girl, come and sit. Tell us where you’ve been please. Godla? Tally? We need more food.”

Everyone sprang into motion, except for the youngest children who clustered at my knees. The table in front of me was quickly piled high with slabs of bacon, salted mackerel, sausages, fluffy scrambled eggs, soft morning rolls, and pots of jam, butter, and honey. Mirrim wouldn’t let me answer a single question until I’d worked my way through one full plate.

“You’re so shiny,” one of the little ones said in Pictish, her small hand landing on my forearm. I peeked at the spot. There were a few spots that looked like scales just under the surface. They’d been appearing and disappearing for the past few weeks. Skadi had said it was my reward for having such excellent taste in mates. “Are you a dragon?”

“No, but I have a dragon mate,” I said, glancing at Mirrim. “Or possibly two.” Serak hadn’t shifted yet, but he had patches of dark scales from time to time.

She sucked in a breath, just as Adiah entered the room, along with Lachlan. “The rest of your harem went to eat with the warchiefs,” Adiah said. “Except for Serak. What happened to him? Did the goddess of good looks bless him?” She shrugged when I raised an eyebrow. “What? He never looked like this before.”

“He changed his diet,” Lachlan said, grabbing some bacon before I could get it. “He ate half a god.”

“Half?” Mirrim broke in. “Half of… the fire god?”

Adiah hissed. “Does that mean he’s still out there?”

I shook my head. “I ate the other half.” I tapped the nose of the little girl who was still at my knee. “That’s why I’m so shiny.”

“So much to tell us,” Mirrim whispered, gesturing for one of the Omegas to bring more apple cider. “We have news as well.”

“None of us ate a god, though, so you two go first,” Adiah demanded.

Lachlan and I spent the morning sharing everything that had happened, before listening to their tale. “Rielle and Luten are mated,” Mirrim finished with a sweet smile just as the pub owner’s wife began to carry noontime food to the tables. “He is the loveliest Alpha. So gentle, and that voice! And as it turns out, Rielle can sing, too. She never tried before. They’ve been turning some of that atrocious Starlakian love poetry into songs, and singing duets just outside the pub in the evenings. Luten is so devoted to her, and she’s lost some of her fear of Alphas.”

“I’m glad for Rielle. What about the rest of you?” I looked around. The Omegas had all gained some weight and had softer curves than before, but their eyes still bore the shadows of the abuse they’d suffered.

Adiah cleared her throat. “I thought I might be able to fight, but the Starlakians are all assholes. They won’t lift a blade to an Omega.” She sneered the last word. “The Emperor said I come from a line of sea witches. He said he’d have his people, fish or whatever, look for any others. I’ll stay here and wait to see if any show up.”

“What about the rest of you?”

“There isn’t enough room in Starvale for us to stay under one roof forever, and most are too nervous to be parted even for a night,” Mirrim said, nodding to a stack of blankets along one wall of the pub. “The villagers offered to adopt some of the girls, but…”

“But they’re all Omegas, or will be.”

She nodded grimly. “A terrifyingly beautiful woman came by a week ago, though. She had on a cloak, like the one you wore. She was an Omega, but she reminded me of you in all but looks. She slipped in at night and was gone by the next morning, and didn’t leave a name. She told me she was going to Turino to get things ready for us, just in case.”

“Was she blonde? Big boobs, blue eyes, and smells a bit like orange blossoms and cut grass?”

“That’s her. Like a perfect doll that might kill you in your sleep.”

“That’s Roya. She’s the Queen of Havira, and a fantastic assassin.”

Mirrim nodded, like this was no surprise. “I told her your cloak was destroyed. She said she’d find someone who didn’t need his anymore and leave it with your parents.”

“Haven and my dads.” I grinned. I wondered which Guild assassin was dead, and what kinds of poisons might still be in it when Roya left it. She had plenty of her own. Maybe she’d leave a few things in it for me.

I looked around the room. Some of the children were playing a game where they moved walnut shells around and tried to guess which one had a coin underneath it. One was juggling two blunt kitchen knives. They reminded me so much of my crew when I was a child.

“There aren’t many safe places for Omegas in this world,” Lachlan said quietly. “Or families who would understand how to love children who’ve lived through hell.”

He draped his arms around my neck, and I sighed. My apothecaries and safehouses were set up all over. But the world still wasn’t safe for Omegas to live freely. Though Starlak was on its way to becoming that.

And one kingdom in the heart of the continent had a queen everyone knew was an Omega, protected by her five terrifying mates and a town I’d bent into shape before I left over ten years back. Turino, in the heart of Rimholt. My crew was still there, mostly.

“I wonder…” I paused, and Mirrim sipped her cider, waiting. “I wonder if you’d all like to live in my hometown.”

“I’ll ask.”

Two days later, Mirrim had their answer. We stood at the edge of the army camp, horses and Alphas moving around between the tents. Goran, Dustin, and a few of the higher-ranked warriors had gathered to meet with me, Adiah, Mirrim, Serak, and Skadi. They all bowed to Mirrim and greeted her as a queen. Me, they shied away from, keeping their eyes averted like a dragon might pluck them out and roast them for his breakfast, if they stared for too long.