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His fingers dug into their muscles as they thrust into him, touching the depths of his needs. He tasted their flesh, kissing and licking and begging for them to never stop.

He was no longer acting in a heat-driven frenzy like when they'd first taken him. That wild intoxication that had numbed his inhibitions was no longer what drove him. What he felt now was true uninhibited desire, and it was returned to him tenfold.

That night, Lars lay curled between the two sleeping wolves. The window was open, a cool breeze rustling the curtains. The wall clock ticked softly, and he watched the minute hand counting down from ten to midnight.

His heart beat a little faster. A door was about to close and forever lock him from a diverging path into a much different future. His choice was clear. Still, he found himself holding his breath as he watched the minutes slip by. Sixty ticks until the clock struck midnight.

He rose from the bed and silently moved across the room.

Thirty.

He went to the window and looked out across the peaceful town. Looking out across the horizon, he could see a pale orange glow in the sky, the lights from the capital city.

Ten.

He closed his eyes.I will have Ekdol returned to me,he thought.Or I'll die by their side.

Three.

Two.

One.

The clock gonged. In his mind's eye Lars could see Pym Longfang waiting for him, checking the time again and again before finally relenting and slipping away into the night.

Everything will change.

Ekdol and its people would soon be returned to him. He knew that his land would heal quickly. The wounds were shallow. Adosh, however, would have a long way to go. The people there had forgotten its past. Many now only knew Maitran, the name it'd been given by its conquerors.

Could it ever be anything like the home their parents had told them stories of? Would the people welcome their leadership? Would they even remember who the Greers were?

Perhaps nothing could ever stay the same. Change was a natural part of life. It would be a new Adosh, and a new Ekdol. A new Empire.

He was new, too, no longer the same Omega who spent his days wandering the grounds of the royal estate, admiring the beautiful birds in his mother's aviary. He wasn't even the same Omega who had been captured and imprisoned by two ruthless Alphas.

Lars looked over his shoulder at the sleeping brothers, their warm fur touched by the light of the moon. He was certain they weren't the same either.

He uncovered the bird cage and peered in through the wiring at the beautiful blue warbler inside. The bird woke and pruned itself, and when he opened the door and put his hand inside, it hopped up onto his fingers. He gently stroked its head. Then he offered the bird to the sky, and it spread its sapphire wings and took flight, disappearing towards the forest.

Chapter 10

Lars had come full circle.He was one story below the surface in Phoenix's quarters at the Feral Fangs base, the room where they'd first made him their mate. Returning there had felt like coming home—it still held significance in his mind as the first mating nest, and he could still detect their mixture of scents lingering in the bedsheets.

Hanging around his neck beside his royal pendant was a silver key. He removed it and turned it over in his fingertips.

"Here," Phoenix had told him before Lars had left the town with the Feral Fangs escort. "In my quarters there's a desk with a locked drawer. I put you in charge of the contents. At least until this is all over with."

Lars understood what he implied. If he and Griffin failed to complete the mission—if they were killed--then he was to protect whatever was inside that drawer.

Underneath the surface, it was impossible for him to know what might be happening above. It was silent as a grave. Posted outside the door and at the elevator were a guard of Feral Fangs elite, and Lars assumed that if anything went wrong they would tell him. The plan was that when they succeeded in capturing the Emperor, they would tap into the public viewscreen system and cast the execution to every unit in the world. The viewscreen monitor sitting on the desk was tuned to the public broadcast, and Xyletian propaganda droned on.

Lars looked at the clock. It was already late afternoon, which meant that the operation must've been underway. Not knowing anything was eating him up inside. He couldn't take it.

He went to the desk and pushed the key into the lock. He would just have a look. He had to distract himself with something or he'd go crazy. The drawer unlocked with a click.

Slowly, he pulled it open.

Inside were two identical necklaces made of shimmering amethyst gemstone, triangular in shape with an intricate wave pattern that spiraled into the center. Lars took them into the palm of his hand. He knew exactly what they were.