Page 32 of The King's Omega
She shrugged. “I never wanted to. I didn’t know I could. My body… anyway, I never even had those feelings until I met Axe—and you. And Lorn.” Her soft cheeks flushed pink.
“But not Tarn or Rigol?”
“Perhaps Tarn.” She wrinkled her nose. “But King Rigol reminds me of the men Madam tried to make me have sex with. Pushy and mean.”
A heaviness settled over me. If she was our salvation, Rigol had a lot of work to do.
And so did I.
“You should know that the reason you couldn’t have sex with them is because it’s your nature, Vali.”
“I’m defective,” she stated baldly. “Madam told me plenty of times, thanks. I’ve known that I was a freak for years, Vil, you don’t need to—”
I gave a short bark, and she was shocked into silence. “You are not defective at all. You are an Omega. All Omegas are physically different from Beta women.”
“How do you know?” she asked timidly.
“The book I have to show you is all about Omegas. How they are different. Howyouare different. Would you like me to read it to you?”
She nodded, and I read selected excerpts of the book aloud, relishing her shocked exclamations as she learned about her Omega nature. And regretting the impression my regal friend had made on the girl who was his destiny.
Rigol
Ihad been king for almost fifteen years, since my father died from an insidious slow-acting poison. Five years before his death, he’d gravely offended the Verdan monarch and spent the remainder of his reign ducking arrows, dodging assassin’s blades, and going through food tasters at an alarming rate.
His lingering death was an ignominious end to a failed kingship, many had said—aloud, and in my presence. By the time he succumbed, most of Rimholt’s traditional allies and trading partners had abandoned us. Verdan bordered us on two sides, but our people had managed to persist, if not flourish, within our borders with limited trade for the past two decades.
That my own reign might prove to be the one that lost the kingdom entirely rankled in a way no insult about my father could.
That prophetess must have been playing me all along, convincing me that a miraculous weapon existed between the legs of a chit. What was her name again? Vali or something. I had convinced my closest advisors of the necessity of finding her, wasting time that we should have dedicated to planning actual solutions to the problem.
In my madness, I’d even mated a spy. I deserved to lose my crown and my head.
“Stop.”Axe signed from atop his war horse as we returned from our daylong search for any sign of Selene. No matter how many coins we’d offered, or whippings we’d threatened, the townsfolk had been close-mouthed. A few had even smirked. They probably thought I deserved to lose my crown as well, although they clearly feared the alternative. King Milian of Verdan had a reputation for two things: brutality and over taxation.
“Stop!” Axe’s fingers flickered again. I waved my guards on and dismounted to speak with Axe more privately. After six years of signing, many of the castle staff knew the language almost as well as my generals.
“What do you need to share, Axe? That I’m a fool, and have been for months? That I’m soon to lose my head, and cause the destruction of everything my forebears granted me? That there is no hope?”
He curled his lip. “You are a fool. Do you remember what the seer said that last time?”
“She was false. I can’t believe anything she said.”
“She sent you to the Sow, and you found your Omega. You just didn’t see the treasure in front of you.”
I muttered, “Fine, take me to her, I’ll close my eyes and fuck the grubby little thing.” As I turned away, a giant fist slammed into my head.
I woke up, bound and gagged, on a hard wooden chair. My head pounded and my vision swam. It was dark as pitch.
Had I been abducted? If the Verdanians had made their move…
Then I realized where I was: the tunnels outside Vilkurn’s pleasure chambers. Axe stood beside me, but it was too dark for us to sign, and the restraints held my hands behind my back, anyway.
Whatever was happening, it wasn’t an abduction or attempt to harm me. Axe had taken more hits for me than any ten men, and I was only alive because of him. If he’d done this, he felt I needed it.
I was still going to knock the shit out of him when I got free.
After a few seconds, he slid open the viewing panel into Vilkurn’s room. Soft light filtered through the panel, and my eyes began to adjust.
