Page 58 of The Assassin's Promise
“He needs an Omega to marry.” The pain in her voice ripped at me. “It all comes down to that, doesn’t it? Goddess, Thorn, I thought it was bad being a broken Omega all those years ago. Now I’m not, and the only reason anyone will look at me is—” She broke off, stuffing a fist in her mouth. I pulled it away and lifted her abused knuckles to my lips.
“Roya, the last thing any of us love about you is that you are an Omega.” A confused furrow appeared in her brow. “It makes you harder to protect; it makes you a target. If you were a Beta woman, I would have had you in my bed years ago. Married you.” I hadn’t meant to say that last bit out loud.
She let out a curse and attacked me… with her mouth. “You”—she kissed my chin—“stupid”—her tongue slid up the side of my jaw and she bit my earlobe—“idiotic man.” Her hands landed on the sides of my head, and she pulled my face down to hers.
I didn’t resist. I had waited so long for this, too long. I was about to send her away with Altair, and I would never see her again. I had to let her be another man’s mate. Everything in me that made me an Alpha roared out in protest, but I would do it, for her.
But first, I would take this one kiss. I let my hands fall on her soft shoulders, caressing the skin beneath the thin cotton, then to her back, as I gathered her close. Her mouth moved on mine, her lips exploring. I took control of the kiss, angling her head, and plundered her mouth, my tongue delving deep, my mouth almost savaging hers.
Her bloom filled the air around us with the scent of green and citrus and honeyed musk. “Goddess, I want you, Roya. My soul may be damned forever. I should still look at you and see that young girl, but I can’t. I have wanted you for so fucking long.”
Our whispered words of need and longing came out in all the languages I had taught her, and more. By the time I stopped kissing her, she was helpless in my arms, trembling, her long limbs shivering with need.
“Thorn,” she rasped as I purred into her ear, loving the way the sound reduced her to clinging to me. “Please make love to me.”
But before I could answer, she had doubled over in pain.
“What’s wrong, Roya?” I kneeled next to her, ignoring the pain in my own ribs, as I lowered her to the sand.
The answer came from behind me. “It’s her heat, Thorn.” I whirled to find Kavin standing behind me. His eyes were shuttered.
“You didn’t eat.” I glanced back at Roya, who clutched her stomach and moaned softly. Had she gotten some other poison into her system? I scrambled for her cloak and found the charcoal pill tube empty.
“You told me the stories of her cooking,” he murmured. “It was a good code. I’m glad you weren’t trying to kill us.” His eyes were filled with hurt.
“You have a secret,” I said flatly, answering his unspoken question. “I don’t know what it is. I can’t trust her with you until I do.”
He stayed silent for several moments, and I knew I was right.
“She thinks I want her because she is an Omega,” he finally said. “I have wished every day since I met her that she wasn’t the Omega we sought.”
“We?”
He ran his hands through his messy hair and down his beard as Roya writhed on the sand behind us. “I wanted her to grow to lo— to like me. Then I could tell her, and she would know I would never betray her.”
“You’d better tell me now.” Roya let out a strangled cry, and I crossed to her, gathering her in my arms as I kneeled on the sand, almost missing his answer.
“She’ll never forgive me,” he sighed. “I’m the reason she lost everything. Her home, the Guild. You.” He bowed his head.
“Wulfram is my father.”
Suddenly, it all clicked. “He made sure you were on the ship. Somebody in Valerie’s household must have leaked the information… Were you supposed to bring Roya to him?” I snarled. “He will not have her.”
“I swear on my honor, my reason for being on that ship was only to travel to Havira. Seeing Roya there was nothing but a coincidence, one that I have been grateful for beyond measure.” Kavin paused. “But Wulfram never wanted her for himself.” A muscle in his jaw jumped as he ground out the words. “My father told me he bought her for me, to be my mate.”
I thought I would have to drop Roya to punch him in the face, but I didn’t.
Roya did it herself, tearing away from my arms and launching fists first at the unsuspecting Starlakian. Surprised, he fell to the sand. She landed on top of him, then scrambled off, vibrating with anger as she yelled, “You ass! You came to, what? Abduct me on board the ship? What’s your plan?”
She was red-faced, panting, her pupils so wide they had chased all the blue from her eyes. I fought back the pain in my ribs, ready to protect her if he tried to fight back, but he stayed down.
“The Guild sold me toyou?”
Kavin couldn’t answer since she’d knocked the wind out of him. Finally, he nodded. “My father set it all up. When he first learned about you years ago, he wanted you for himself, for Starlak. Not just you. All of Milian’s Omegas.”
“He gave up once Rimholt extended their protection.”
“He didn’t give up,” Kavin growled. “It’s more than that for him. It’s some sort of quest, to bring an Omega back to Starlak. Even a broken one. For years after Milian died, he sent spies and warriors to Rimholt to try for Milian’s Failed Omegas who settled there. But the queen’s consorts caught all his spies and sent them back.”
