Page 21 of The King's Omega
Goddess, just thinking about her enticing aroma made me begin to swell.
“She had the scent,” he groaned. “Axe, tell them.”
“I could tell them what didn’t happen, brother,” Axe signed. “That the false Omega did not bite you.”
There was a moment of silence as we all gaped in disbelief.
My jaw dropped at Rigol’s stupidity, and then my heart seized at the position he was in. I had known him almost my whole life. He was a fair king, an intelligent man, and he knew the stories of uneven mate bonds. How had this happened? When had he changed, lost his sense of caution?
The stillness exploded into shouts of disbelief and cursing, until Vilkurn rose and moved to the center of the room, dark cloak swirling around his form. Even his usually impassive face wore an expression of deep unease. “It’s done. Rigol, you can bite her the next time you knot her and complete the binding.”
Rigol shook his head. “I’m not sure I can knot her again. She’s not an Omega, Vilkurn.” He pulled at his hair, tearing out a few of the auburn strands. “But she had that damned Omega scent. It was irresistible.”
There had been nothing irresistible about Selene. Now, Vali, on the other hand… the thought clicked, like a puzzle piece finding its place.
Axe rumbled, and we all looked at him. “It’s not hers. She stole it from the girl, Vali. Vali is the Omega.”
By the Goddess. He was right; he had to be. I rubbed my brow. “Of course she is.”
Rigol scoffed. “That wretched, ugly creature? The dark hair and the smelly clothes? She’s a child.”
Axe bristled. Vilkurn hissed, “A child? It was no child who came on my tongue a dozen times last night, and tasted like every dream I’ve ever had come true.”
Jealousy and shock warred for precedence. Vilkurn had sampled her? Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to run from the room and find her, steal her from whichever dungeon playroom he had stashed her in.
Rigol leaped up, knocking over the decanter of whiskey. It reminded me of Vali spilling almost everything on the table the previous evening. Had she even gotten to eat? “I told you to torture her!” he roared.
Vilkurn’s lips curled into a wicked smile. “I was trying a new technique.”
“Where is she now?” I wondered aloud. My mind buzzed with the overwhelming desire to find her, feed her, and fuck her. Not necessarily in that order.
“Vali? Sleeping it off,” Vilkurn said. “I left Selene in the dungeon.”
“I had her moved to her rooms,” Rigol muttered. “She’s my mate, like it or not, and my health is tied to hers. The dungeon poses too many health risks for a gentle woman. I tripled the guards; they know she’s a flight risk.”
“Fuck!” That’s where Vali was. “You just locked a likely spy in with the only Omega in Rimholt, you idiot!”
I ran for the door, but Axe was ahead of me. By the time I got to Selene’s room, the door was swinging wide, and Axe and the guards were tearing the room apart.
The room was empty. Selene was gone, and so was Vali.
There was no way out of the room save the window, which presented a sheer drop of at least fifty feet. I peered outside, breathing only when I saw no bodies lying at the foot of the tower.
When I sucked in that breath, a sweet, heady odor accompanied it. On the floor, beside the torn bedding, was a pool of blood.
Her blood. I dipped a finger in it and raised it to my lips. Like honey and wine, the finest vintage created. But so much of it. Was she even alive? If so, she wouldn’t be for long in the hands of that bitch.
Axe groaned deeply as he rounded the tall bed and saw what I had found.
She had been wounded and taken. My chest threatened to tear open, and I let out a roar. Axe’s eyes flew to mine. “Track them.”
I nodded, and examined every bit of stone, scanning for blood droplets, for signs of the women’s passage. The bedroom connected to a toilet chamber with a tall tapestry hanging behind the toilet. The room smelled of the flowers that the servants replenished daily.
But it also smelled of peaches and honey and blood. I pulled back the tapestry to reveal the false wall and a narrow opening to a spy tunnel near the floor. There was blood on both sides of the hole, as though small fingers had grasped the edges during an escape.
Or an abduction.
My vision clouded, and I gritted my teeth. Killing that bitch might be out of the question without also killing my idiot king, but I would make her pray for death if she had taken my sweet girl from me.
