Page 18 of Impaled by His Omega Prince (Reluctant Fae Princes #2)

Askara

The guards, as sparse as they were on his wing of the dungeons, rustled as a messenger butterfly flitted from guard to guard, orders given. With confused muttering, they left the halls one by one.

It’d happened before, the first night when he was abandoned there. Given his orders. Oryn put a knife between his ribs and ordered his silence, demanded he leave Lumic alone.

It’d been painful to ask Kershai how Lumic was, but he did.

Maybe Oryn would be back to punish Askara for asking. What was dying again? He laughed to himself. Lumic is racking up quite the debt in my name.

He didn’t mind. He’d die over and over again to get closer to seeing him. He just wondered why Lumic hadn’t come. Maybe he couldn’t.

As his pondering deepened, a sudden warm shock twisted his heart in his chest. It was as if the moon had cradled his heart in her palm and the sun kissed the broken part better. The sensation drew him to sit up, blinking sleep from his eyes as new footsteps rang through the hall and with them came a familiar scent—even more familiar sight as he stepped in front of his cell.

Lumic.

Askara sat bolt upright and scrambled to the small window of bars, reaching out to touch the omega, nothing between them but rough-forged blacksteel until Askara pulled his arm back, holding his face at the opening.

“Askara!” Their mouths crashed through the bars, one fierce kiss after another. Lumic tasted like tears, his eyes reddened with them. “Step back. I have keys.”

Askara pulled himself away and within a few seconds, he was in, slamming the door behind him. He bowled Askara over, his girth toppling the alpha to the bed with a noise of strain. “Lumic.”

Their mouths crashed again, tongues gliding. The salty taste of tears flowed between them, Askara shedding as many tears as Lumic.

“Askara… Please. Listen to me.” Lumic kissed him once more and held his face in trembling hands. Askara blinked and didn’t speak, waiting for whatever it was that was so important. “Can I… I want you. Will you let me, have you? Can I take you?”

“Want me? Take me where?” Askara blinked in confusion and mnnf’d under the force of a kiss so fierce he whimpered. “It’s no matter. I’m yours.”

“Before the goddesses. Will you let me, have you? Will you be my mate?” Lumic straddled Askara’s hips, pinning him to the mattress. In the process, he grabbed for Askara’s wrists, holding him down until he forced a silver sigil into his palm. “Your fate is your own to choose.”

Askara clenched his hand to the sigil and pulled it to his face to examine it. The power of it was true, his anchor and curse. Using magic he barely knew he had, he forged the broken chain ends together with a spark of his thalmic power and slipped the chain over Lumic’s head. “Before the goddesses. I’ll be yours.”

Lumic wept hard and pushed their mouths together, lips desperate to draw out one kiss after another until the weak frame of the bed gave the creak of one that was not made to hold two. It didn’t deter Lumic’s frantic grasp. “I’m so sorry.”

“You’re here now.” Askara led the way and offered his own kiss, not nearly as skilled as Lumic seemed to be, but it was his kiss to lead, to taste and feel. As gently as he started, he parted it. “Can I really be yours? Aren’t you a prince?”

“Aren’t you?” Lumic laughed. “Nobody’s ever accused Croatens of having high standards or class.”

Askara hummed in acknowledgment and laughed. “I’m no prince in anything other than name. And, you’re sure?”

“They have no chance of stopping us. I hate to push this on you so suddenly…” Lumic huffed and leaned down, putting his head to Askara’s chest, letting his horns spiral free into the air. “About what happened to us when—when we were—my heat.”

“That was lovely. I remember it.” Askara had remembered it, right into his hand several times during his stay. “I’ll do it again, if you wish. Gladly.”

“I—wasn’t able to get my medicines in time and—” Lumic’s face turned such a beautiful shade of pink, the heat of his cheeks washing out his freckles.

“Are you sick?” Askara placed his palms on Lumic’s shoulders as he sat up and slouched a little. His fingers trailed the omega’s chest, down to his hips where they rested like they were meant to be there. A perfect fit.

Lumic cleared his throat and glanced away. “In a manner. The kind of sick an omega gets when he spends a heat with an alpha.”

Askara drew a blank. He’d been very sheltered when it came to the opposite sexes.

“I’m pregnant.” Lumic choked on the words as he said them, his eyes watering again. “We don’t have to keep it if we—”

Askara’s heart clenched, eyes dipping down to stare at Lumic’s belly. It was largely the same as last he saw. Granted, Askara didn’t know what he was looking for, exactly. “A baby?”

“Not if you don’t want it to be. You can leave or we can—someone can raise it. I don’t think I could bear to rid myself of it.” Lumic rubbed at his eyes and sobbed just once as Askara’s mind reeled with the news.

“We… I made a baby with you?” Askara reached to palm his hands on Lumic’s belly and laughed just once in a huff. “That’s… We can have a family? Mine and yours? For real?”

Lumic nodded. “No matter what anyone says. Us. Together.”

“So, we’re mated?” Askara’s brow furrowed. Babies happened between mates.

Lumic’s brow furrowed in confusion. The way he cocked his head took the steam out of their moment. Though he did enjoy the sigil hanging there on his neck. “Not unless you want to be.”

“But we—you’re…” Askara used it as an excuse to rub Lumic’s belly once more. It didn’t feel different, but babies took time to grow, didn’t they? “We’re not mated.”

Lumic’s puzzled expression only deepened until a dawning look of realization drew him into a rough laugh. Part of leading a sheltered life didn’t lend to one having the most spectacular of educations on sex and its consequences. Lumic carefully explained to him what they’d done.

“Please don’t send them away or do the other thing. But it’s your decision. I’ll be there for whatever you choose.” Askara let his hands wander Lumic’s stomach and circled to his hips. The thought of Lumic being his, the warmth of his weight and the familiar straddle made Askara’s cock plump in his trousers.

“After all that and you can still be hard for me?” Lumic leaned up to peer down at Askara’s bulge. He ran a single finger over it with a warm smile. “Alpha, the second I have you out of this cell, we’re going to pray to your moon mother and rut until it is time to thank the sun.”

Askara bit his lower lip painfully hard, his cock straining at the thin fabric. “But we can’t do that… You’re—you know?”

Lumic laughed again. “It’ll be fine. If you want to wait until you can ask the healer questions, that’s fine, too.”

Askara nodded sheepishly. The thought of Lumic coming back to him, bringing him the start of their family, promising him a life together, freedom—and then the prospect of hurting him or their unborn child… It made Askara’s hackles prickle and horns push free. The urge to have Lumic closer to him, twisted against him, inside of him rose so fast that Askara couldn’t contain himself. He had Lumic pulled into a kiss again, their mouths hungry.

“Let’s go to my chambers, Askara.” Lumic sat up and huffed when Askara drew him down again, folding against him in a tangle of legs when they rolled together. With gentle grace, Askara drew the blanket over them and cocooned themselves in the scratchy warmth. “Kinda smells bad in here.”

“It does. But I’m not ready to see my mothers just yet.” Askara nuzzled under the blanket with Lumic, pressing their noses together. The green in Lumic’s eyes danced like backlit emeralds. “Let it be us for one more minute.”

One minute turned to five, turned to almost falling asleep right there, before Lumic insisted and they strode free of his cell.

Nobody had given boots to Askara, so his dusk-colored feet padded softly against aggressively clean stone floors, like his home had been only a few years ago. Lumic wasn’t watching his feet, his shoddy pants, or shirt that hung off him limply. His hair hung in clumps, uncombed. He didn’t call attention to any of it.

Through the myriad of halls, they left to scale the steps to the main floor, down a long corridor, and finally they stopped before a set of elaborately carved glass and steel doors. The moon glittered through them, only a sliver of her full glory, but that was enough.

“Mother…” Askara rushed through the door, hand reaching back to take Lumic’s, his prize and pride. Where most people had to light candles, drawing the light of a star on earth to the sky, a beacon to summon her attention, Askara needed only his voice. The flame that summoned her lay within his silvery eyes. “Mother Goddess, moon above…”

Lumic reached for Askara’s hand and looked upward. “Lady goddess, moo—”

You will call me mother, Croatens omega.

The voice cracked sharply in his ear, and he shied away from her, bowing his head in deference.

Look upon me.

Askara squeezed his hand and urged him.

“Mother Goddess, moon above, holy is your glow.” Nerves shook his voice, and Askara urged him with yet another squeeze to speak up. Glancing back, he caught Lumic’s eye encouragingly.

Better. Now where has my child been?

“Mother Goddess, he was imprisoned in our dungeons. I did not know. I have set him free. It is my most sincere apology that this happened.” Lumic fought the urge to look away if his shaking twitch was to be believed.

“They treated me kindly, Mother. They were afraid of Alluin, afraid of what you’d do.” Askara turned his face up to the moon, basking in her glow, the cool air kissing his cheeks. She made his body feel whole. “And I wish to be taken as his mate.”

Generations ago, an alpha spurned my gift. I sent unto Croatens a moonborne son; one meant to raise the nation of Croatens up to be the balance for Liaberos. King Ensamel was a bitter omega, spurned by alphas and only seated the throne out of technicality. He took his anger too far and when Rahavi came to him—Ensamel took him unwilling and refused to pray to me. He forbade Rahavi from speaking to me. And for that, I cursed Croatens. I am a bitter, jealous goddess. So, for five generations, you have had famine, fratricide, and been ostracized. What say you, Prince Lumic?

Lumic took a deep breath and blinked hard, tears pooling the edges of his eyes. “You have blessed me, goddess, time and time again. You saved me, and now I see why King Ensamel would have coveted a moonborne. Your child is the most beautiful alpha I’ve met. I see your light in his eyes. I smell the night mist in his hair. Mother Goddess, I humbly ask that I be allowed to take him as my mate.”

Why do you wear his dreadful talisman? Why do you hold his control?

“Mother, he gave it to me when he found it. I put it on him. If anyone I want to control me, to hold my will, it’s him.” Askara fought the urge to hold Lumic. He loved him. Granted, their time together had been short, less than a few months, but Askara knew. There was and would never be anyone else for him.

“It is as Askara has said. He placed his sigil on me, but I do not wish to control him. If I could, I would wipe those horrid sigils off him. I would take them onto myself to spare him.” Lumic’s voice cracked at the admission, and Askara caved in and leaned over to press a soft kiss to his temple. Askara didn’t mind his marks. They were part of him at that point, and if the goddess wanted him unmarked, she’d have helped him rid them.

You would take his marks? The soft coo of a voice, a whisper on the wind that kissed over Askara’s ears.

“A hundred times over. And I offer my most sincere apologies for what my ancestor did, and let you know that I will never take Askara for granted. I will never hold him from his mother. I will honor you. I cannot promise you a nation of followers, but my worship will go to the day and night sisters.” Lumic placed a pledging hand over his heart, spreading his fingers. “Any debt still owed; I will find a way to pay you.”

Your child. I will claim your child as my next vassal. They will also be moonborne, and I shall give them a name.

Lumic nodded and made a soft noise, something so close to yes .

Then it is done. No more brother shall fall to brother in the crowned court of Croatens, but only moonborne may seat the throne. Only moonborne will be delivered of the crown. The crops this year will thrive, and you will build a shrine to me in your springs. You will divert the flow of some water to fill a basin, to flow endlessly at your demand. For Askara will give Croatens the gift of life and health.

“Vitalis?” Lumic’s lips parted in soft awe.

No. Vitalis is life. A dose will bring back from death, will heal the wounds of battle and injuries of the world. I give you Salus Omni, Salusis. Where vitalis can heal the wounds of the world—Salusis will ease illness, cure poison, and beat the creeping plagues that come from human lands.

Lumic paled in the moonlight and Askara placed a hand to his sternum, where his heart beat the hardest. In him lay magic so entwined with his thalms, and at the goddess’s word, it unraveled a little, ready to find host in his lands.

Do this before the babe is born. My sister will have her own demands, but I leave you with this, Askara—you are no bastard.

Askara nodded sagely. He had too many features similar to Alluin to have been a child of infidelity.

Queen Lyrica knew Alluin’s treachery would curse Liaberos before it was over. She sacrificed greatly for her country, and you were part of her offering. My sister gave them power and sunlight itself in an omega son, and they scorned him. King Nemiah and Virion of Drashil are my devout followers, and so will you be, too. Liaberos will no longer be the power it once was.

“Thank you, Mother Goddess.” Lumic’s cheeks streamed with tears. “I will do as you say.”

At that, the clouds coalesced and drifted on a breeze, covering the face of the moon as if to end the conversation.

“What do you think?” Askara turned to face Lumic and pulled his hand up, kissing the back of it.

Lumic didn’t answer, but another voice did as the door pushed all the way open, revealing Kershai. “I think Pallosar may need some convincing… And we have a lot to discuss with Alluin.”

Askara’s cheeks burned, but Kershai only smiled.