Page 27 of Impaled by His Omega Prince (Reluctant Fae Princes #2)

Lumic

Sitting around had grown boring, and his wings were weak and ached profusely any time he tried to fly. Despite this, he yearned to fly, to explore, and to observe. Especially since the thalmway had finally breached his part of the kingdom.

In the distance, the road, once a thread of bare earth between two expanses of forest and farmland, split in two, a buffer between road and a new path. They’d considered widening the existing road, but spooking horses and mules was a bad idea. It was a little more work, but the rewards would be amazing for years to come.

Geothalmists and phytothalmists, those with magic, honed in the art of moving earth and plant life, made quick work of shifting the existing tree species. They couldn’t afford to cull open earth so readily and chance flashpine having a place to thrive. They’d choke out everything around them, and Croatens was insanely proficient at keeping the foul wood at bay.

That morning, escaping his father was a simple feat, excusing himself from breakfast after Askara left to tend to the incoming omegas, the first wave of them being moved into the dormitories.

The train had come that morning, half a mile off from the city limits, but waiting for the rail to be built up to unload them would have been days that a short cart ride would have solved.

Lumic flew from a parapet much to the chagrin of palace guards who sent an alpha after him with swears and shouts. Despite all the fuss, it wasn’t a guard that caught up with him when he landed on the local merchant’s guild roof. A flutter of white wings, shaped like that of the northern seabirds, ended with light feet settling beside him. Ingred.

Lumic glanced over, watching him brush back his finger-length silver hair, focusing green eyes shaped like Kershai’s, all the rest of him the alpha image of Pallosar. “Brother.”

“Hm.” Ingred grunted in acknowledgement before dipping his head, his short, pointed horns curved slightly forward, tips upturned rather like a rock lamb.

“Here to stop me from spying on the thalmway construction?” Lumic eyed Ingred suspiciously.

“No. I am curious, too. They bring a new contraption today that will make a large part of my duties inconsequential.” The news didn’t seem to put Ingred off at all. In fact, something akin to relief lit his pretty green eyes.

“Ah. They say you always did your job poorly.” Lumic grinned as he slanted his gaze, earning a sly grin in return, if unenthusiastic. “But I know better.”

“Do you, now?” Ingred surveyed the landscape and squinted into the distance.

“What part did you play?”

Ingred’s cheeks pinkened. “Our lady goddess speaks to me and has for some time. As I know, her sister spoke to you. I enjoy lazing about in her warmth, and she promised me much joy in sloth if I were to respond to Alluin as needed and ensure his son didn’t get taken back.”

“That’s an awfully complicated plot for you, Ingred.”

The alpha grunted and shrugged. “And now I get to have my sloth and freedom. I can find myself a woman with an enormous posterior and settle down to have a dozen children.”

“Really? No judgement, brother, if that’s your thing.” Lumic stretched his back and took a deep breath that ultimately didn’t sate him.

“Of course not. A dozen is too many. I have envisioned myself having a wife and being more clerical. With the telecom they’re bringing, I can do the majority of my job from the castle and my wing. I’m free to ensconce myself in paperwork where I need not interact with people face-to-face. I find it tiring.”

“In any case, I thank you, Ingred. I know I can trust you.” Lumic stretched once more, readying his wings for another short flight before Ingred glanced down and hummed to himself.

A quick peek at his line of sight brought Lumic’s gaze upon a rather plump young woman, the merchant guildmaster’s daughter. “Fly down with me and accompany us to go see the thalmway. I’ll summon a carriage.”

“You devious little snatchpurse! You wanted a chaperone…” Lumic huffed and rolled his eyes before flitting down after Ingred with a huff of exhaustion. He really shouldn’t have tried flying to begin with. But, with his presence, Amarie, his conquest, couldn’t turn him down for impropriety. The girl was very strict in that she waited for her mate.

A few smooth words and an offered arm later, and Ingred swept her by the merchant’s guild to inform her pater of their journey and off they went.

***

“Is that it?” Amarie, the female sun fae leaned from the carriage as the final tracks of the thalmway fell into place. A lead engineer called ahead, sending a butterfly of his magic down the track to tell them to roll the thalm engine forward. It had to have a certain amount of space to be able to stop in time.

“Were we expecting an entourage?” Ingred leaned forward and shielded his eyes from the light.

“Not to my knowledge.” Lumic stood and stared down, surprised to find a royal carriage in line on the train. “That’s the Liaberian royal car…”

“Is Alluin coming? Saria only recently had her babe, I’ve heard…” Ingred frowned. “No, she’s in Heskilia with her husband’s family.”

As the train rolled forward, coming to a slow stop, it quickly became clear who their guest was. Seidrik. The pompous little beta first prince of Liaberos, one waiting to be replaced by one of his nephews because the goddesses deemed that he would sire no heirs.

The spitting image of his beta father in many ways, light hair and pale eyes. Though, he was a little shorter, a softer slant to his face. Honestly, he favored Virion a lot, save for pallor.

As the car came to a full stop, Seidrik disembarked, holding the hand of a timid little omega, slight and waifish in the way Liaberians kept them. Underfed. A few scars dotted his lips and face. His left hand was bent at an odd angle, healed broken. The treatment for it would be to rebreak it and administer vitalis.

“Oh good, you’ve brought a carriage. I hadn’t anticipated joining the omegas this trip, but thought I’d accompany Stamel back to Liaberos.” Seidrik kept his nose upturned as he disembarked, but did help the omega to the ground before beckoning a few others. “Lumic, I presume?”

Lumic cocked his head as Seidrik acknowledged him.

“If you’re not troubled by it, could you possibly help our guests, here? They’re timid around alphas.” Seidrik’s gaze flitted over Ingred.

“Oh, of course. And worry not, omegas, Ingred is largely harmless. Unless you’re the last tallroot pastry, that is.” Lumic gave Ingred a pointed look before he leaned over toward Amarie and muttered something about her being a little pastry he wouldn’t mind nibbling.

Ew.

“I thought the omegas brought were already taken to the sanctuary a day and a half ago!” Lumic furrowed his brow but climbed from the carriage, his round form preceding him.

“They were, but a few stayed with me. They sent alphas to gather them, and they protested. I was alone in my carriage and unannounced. I wasn’t expecting fanfare when I arrived, as Pallosar has me performing a task for my father.” Seidrik said it as if the feat were inconsequential.

“Well, this is quite the conundrum. I see there’s no carriage waiting for them and we are hereby happenstance. Amarie, would you mind if I sat up with the driver and departed with you at the guild? I wouldn’t want to tax the poor dears.” Ingred gave his sweetest smile to Amarie, and she nodded, lips pursed. Lumic idly wondered what he saw in the female as he stood and slid out of the carriage to join the driver up front. When Amarie stood, turned around, and bent over to tidy her space before sliding down, Lumic understood fully.

Good for him.

Seidrik nodded in thanks and the omegas slid from the carriage, happier with Ingred out of the way. None of the omegas were untouched; all broken, scarred, and terrified.

Lumic hadn’t intended on being there to escort new omegas, but who was he as first prince to deny them that comfort? After all, given where he was when he’d conceived his little one, they very well could have been mirrors of himself if things had gone differently. “Welcome.”

Amarie’s eyes grew wide, and she stiffened as they approached, but Lumic raised a hand to caution her. “They don’t need your pity or kind words. They need friends. Offer them normality or nothing at all. They’re not charity cases.”

Amarie blinked in confusion before understanding lit her eyes and she nodded. “As you wish, my prince.”

Lumic gave her a long, hard look before he scoffed. “Hang around my lout of a brother long enough and you may call me Lumic, my lady.”

Her cheeks pinkened, and she made to glance over her shoulder in Ingred’s direction. “I’m not sure he feels that—”

“Trust me, if he’s offering to eat you like a pastry, he’s very interested. If he makes you uncomfortable or you don’t want the attention, tell me and I’ll throw him in the dungeons, okay?” Lumic grinned and Amarie giggled, covering her lips politely as the first of three omegas boarded with their small sacks of possessions.

“Y-your alpha allows you outside of the house like th-that?” A timid sun fae with bright-orange eyes like flame itself, with lashes and hair an identical orange shade, stared openly.

“My alpha doesn’t allow me to do shite. He bows at my feet.” Lumic snorted and offered a hand to shake the omega’s with a slight grip. “Name? Designation?”

“A—I’m omega.” They blinked up at him, confused. “Morda.”

“Yes, Liaberos has the neutral designation, but do you wish to be male, female, or omega?”

Morda blinked as if he’d never considered the thought. “I—I like being male. It’s easier, I think.”

“Then I shall refer to you as male.” Lumic smiled as the other two gave him their names and designations. One was a male and the other, a rather plain brown-haired omega with pale-yellow eyes, asked to be kept neutral. Iskine.

A crate passed Lumic’s field of vision from the window as they loaded it onto a cargo trailer, the reinforced carriage drawn by several stocky mountain mules, nothing like the horses he was accustomed to.

“Is that it?” Lumic asked, glancing toward Seidrik who turned his head in the direction of the crate.

“One supposes. It’s Nemiah’s little device—and Virion’s.” He hurriedly said the second part, as if he’d been scolded for it before.

“The telecon. Have you used it?” This time, Amarie spoke before covering her mouth and blushing as if she spoke out of turn.

Seidrik didn’t seem to notice, though. “A few times, I admit. It comes in handy. He says he should be able to send portraits with it soon, being able to freeze a portrait taken from time by the position of light—it’s all strangeness I don’t understand.”

Amarie’s eyes grew wide. “Father has been chomping at the bit to try one. Oh, Prince Lumic! Do you think I could—”

“Amarie, give us some time to install it and learn its mechanisms and I shall personally give you a demonstration,” Ingred called from his place up front.

“Not without an escort, you won’t.” She sniffed indignantly and primly placed her hands in her lap.

“Always with the escorts and chaperones! You act as if I am a monster.” Ingred feigned a swoon.

“Monsters rarely announce themselves as one,” the flame-colored omega, Morda, said.

Silence filled the space before Lumic cleared his throat. “They do not, but fortunately, you are in a land ruled by an omega. We have power here. Monsters are slain. I promise you.”

“And what of your alpha?” Morda gave Lumic a sharp look.

“His alpha is my brother. Askara is, from what I’ve heard, as timid as a marshrabbit, as protective as a wildercat, and gentle as sugarmoth wings.” Seidrik quieted. “It is he who spearheads this by the goddesses’ command. If any alpha you don’t have to fear, it would be him.”

Morda didn’t appear as if he believed it, but time would show him.

“He lets me drag him around by the horns at least.” Lumic grinned and Morda’s cheeks pinkened. That had his attention.

“Really?”

“Of course. He wouldn’t be worth a damn if he didn’t do what he was told.” Lumic beamed and settled into his seat. “I’d have no other alpha beside him.”