Page 8 of The King's Omega
Tarn barked out a laugh. “Is she comely? I am willing to help her bathe.”
“The King’s Omega?” I cuffed my brother’s golden curls. “Rigol might forgive a lot, but his mate?”
“Not just his mate,” Vilkurn murmured, passing by us, his cloak muffling his steps. “Our salvation. She is stunning, blonde and shapely, and strangely perfect.”
Tarn punched me in the arm. “And the prophecy says he’ll share her perfection. Start as you mean to go on, eh, Vilkurn?”
I gritted my teeth. “The prophecy only says he’ll share her gifts, whatever those may be. Not her body, right, Vil?”
But Vilkurn had left and only silence answered me. It wasn’t kind, to think of one of my best friends as creepy, but I couldn’t help it. How did the man not make a single sound when he moved? I resolved to buy him a collar with a bell on it for his birthday.
“Think he’s going to spy on the Omega in the bath?” Tarn lifted an eyebrow. “We should probably follow him.”
I decided not to encourage Tarn’s lechery. “Let’s leave the King’s Omega alone. I don’t want Rigol to scar your pretty face. It would disturb me to see my mirror damaged.”
“Fine. Leave the Omega. But I need to relax. Let’s find this girl Axe was hoarding, eh?”
Now that I could do gladly.
Vali
“Novalia! You lazy slut, get over here and scent my dress for dinner.” Selene’s voice was as musical as ever, even if her words were harsh. I sighed and took the farthest path around the steaming bathtub to reach the bed, where someone had laid out a dress for the evening. A gift from the king, most likely.
It was a gorgeous sapphire blue silk that matched Selene’s eyes, with a mass of beading on the bodice and sleeves. “Nice,” I commented, wondering if the little crystals would cut me when I stretched out on it.
“Strip and roll, Vali. I have to be at dinner with the king in a half hour.”
“Dinner with the king, oh la!”I mouthed, remembering the unfairly handsome man who had been cruel to me and my kitten. I hoped whatever he ate gave him the runs.
I pulled off my filthy clothes, lay them on the floor, and climbed on the tallest bed I’d ever seen, plopping down on the dress. Ow. The crystals did hurt, but the tiny pinches of pain were strangely satisfying, too. The odd sensation of pressure in my core flared again. Probably not worms after all. Was it possible I was finally getting my period? Madam had told me I was defective and infertile, and that’s why I’d never bled.
I flopped back and forth, imagining I was bleeding from my lady parts and rubbing the blood all over the dress. What would the king say when Selene showed up looking like she’d been visiting a slaughterhouse? It would serve her right. “Don’t wrinkle it!” Selene snapped. “Goddess, you reek today.”
I fought to keep my lips shut when I spotted Mischief on the other side of the room, carefully peeing on the edge of the stockings Selene had laid out. Axe had an excellent nose, or I would think so anyway, from the way he’d been sniffing me. I hoped he would get a whiff of the cat pee on her feet, and we could laugh about it later. And then I could sniffhimsome more.
I also hoped he would bring some food and water for Mischief. If he did, I might tell him the secret of Selene’s “perfume.” He would tell the king, of course.
The king hadn’t been kind to me, but the citizens of Turino liked him and he didn’t deserve a queen like Selene. The idea of the king mating with Selene made me roll harder on the dress, and a crystal cut me, leaving a coin-sized spot of blood on the sleeve.
“You idiot!”
Sharp nails suddenly dug into my bare stomach. “I didn’t mean to!” I tried to flee, but Selene had a good hold on me, and was pinching so hard I worried I’d lose a chunk of flesh.
A sudden knock saved me. When the door opened to admit the royal hairdresser and perfumer, Selene sat wrapped in a bath sheet by the fire, and I was naked on the floor, huddled by my pile of dirty clothes.
The women who entered beamed at Selene and glared at me, but I didn’t care. In less than twenty minutes, they departed, and I was alone. Alone in the room with a still-warm bath full of rose petals, and a tray covered with cheese and chocolates.
“All right, Mischief, looks likewe’rethe grand ladies now.” I stuffed some cheese in my mouth and ran to the tub, slipping over the high edge and letting myself relax for the first time in years. A bottle of shampoo Selene had left unused floated among the petals. Taking the cap off, I knew why—the fragrance was incredibly strong, like every flower in the world was fighting with every fruit. I used all of it anyway to cleanse my body and hair, finding a sea sponge on the bathtub’s edge to scrub my nails and feet. There was even a razor.
Great Goddess! I could shave everything like some of the Betas at the Sow did. Ten minutes later, I inspected my hairless body, quite pleased. I looked like a woman, even if my curves were much less pronounced than Selene’s.
I floated until my fingers wrinkled like prunes and then I used the hair oil and comb the hairdresser had abandoned to tame the mass of corkscrew curls that fell halfway down my back. “If I had a dress, I could go to dinner!” I declared to the empty room and jumped when someone cleared a throat outside the door.
The handle moved as I ran for Selene’s still-damp towel, wrapping myself up like a sausage roll. “Who is it?” I called, as two men—a matched set—entered the room. I recognized them—well, one of them. It was the laughing man who’d interrupted Axe and me just outside the castle, the one Axe had not introduced me to.
Maybe he wasn’t trustworthy. Maybe neither of them were, no matter how much they looked like fairytale princes. They weren’t just men after all. From the size of them, and the way their nostrils flared when they entered, they were most likely Alphas.
Both were tall, muscular, and had identical golden curls and sparkling blue eyes. They wore trousers and tight-fitting jackets with cravats. For a moment, I thought they might be lost, since they both looked around in confusion. “I believe you have the wrong room, gentlemen.”
