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I gave a small smile, hoping he’d buy my lie. His eyes focused and unfocused, and then he sighed. He reached around to the back of his neck, unclasping a chain hidden underneath his shirt. Then he took off a pendant necklace, the stone looking just like the ones in Bethyn’s earrings.

“Crystallized Aetherium,” he said wistfully, brushing the polished surface with his thumb. “This was also a part of your mother’s dowry. I took it for myself, foolishly wanting to keep a part of her with me at all times. But I think it belongs to you now.”

He took my hand, placing the necklace in my palm and then wrapping my fingers around it.

He held on a beat longer, closing his eyes and breathing heavily. Then he grabbed my cheeks, pulling me in for a kiss. I fought back my instinct to fight, giving him this one small piece of me, until he pulled back and said, “The stables are in the back. I can distract the king if he leaves his room, but not for long.”

My body shook. This was it. This was my chance. And I finally had someone in my corner who might be able to help me pull this off.

Even if I wasn’t sure where to go or how to ride an alderbeast or if I could even get through the gate, I had to try.

“Thank you, for everything.”

He gestured towards the back with a nod of his head, and I was off, fastening the pendant around my neck as I ran.

I have a chance to escape,I said down the bond.I’m taking it. Where are you?

Babe, are you sure? Is it safe? Fuck, I don’t know how to tell you where we are, let me ask…

Can you feel us, Marlowe?Archer interrupted.

I reached down, pulling on the bonds as I moved. I could just make out a sense, a feeling that each step was either bringing me closer or farther away from them.

I… I think so!

Follow it,he said.Follow that feeling, and we’ll meet you halfway.

I slipped out the back door, the moons illuminating the dark grounds. Following the stink of alderbeast, I easily found the way towards the stables.

The wind also carried the scent of alphas patrolling in the distance, but nothing was too close or between me and my current goal. But that didn’t mean a gust of wind couldn’t carry my perfume towards them, and I willed it down, hoping that was something I could actually do, and bolted

My satin slippers muffled my light, quick steps, and I kept to the shadows between trees. The building loomed closer, and I heard the deep snores of the animals inside.

“Halt, who goes there?”

Oh shit. He must have been downwind of me. Despite all my wolf-y senses, I was still terrible at this sort of thing.

Even more annoyingly, my fight-flight-or-freeze instinct was still “freeze,” something else I needed to work on. My body still, I was too afraid to make a run for it, and did my best to catch my breath as I heard the guard approaching. He took a long inhale and sighed. “Omega…”

Then he rushed towards me and grabbed me from behind, digging his nose into my neck. I bit my tongue to keep from screaming out, wriggling and flailing, trying to get out of his hold.

“Let me go,” I whined, but the sound spurred him on. He started to carry me to a small copse of trees, and his alpha scent grew stronger with his growing lust.

“Who let you out, hm? Are you a gift for me?”

“No,” I half whispered, half cried. “I order you to stop!”

“I haven’t knotted in so long, and you smell so good…”

What was I going to do? If I screamed for help, it’d only bring more guards, or even worse, the king or Ezra.

A low snarl distracted him, and we looked up towards the stable door. It rattled, as something heaved against it, trying to get out.

The alpha growled in response, angry to have been interrupted. “Don’t move,” he barked, getting up to investigate.

Alpha commands didn’t work on me, but I was staying right where I was anyway. He was headed in the only direction I wanted to move in, and unlike him, I knew what was making that sound.

He lifted up the cross bar, and the door was knocked clean off his hinges, pushing him onto the ground. Wasabi leapt out, goingstraight for the alphas throat and shredding it in one swift, vicious tear.