Page 18

Chapter

Nine

Emmerich

B liss! Love was absolute bliss. It cleared my mind of everything that had been worrying me and expanded my heart to the point where I could hardly stand it.

Nothing else mattered but my omega in my arms, the taste of his kiss, the feel of his body against mine, his cherry cordial scent surrounding me and eclipsing everything else.

I didn’t have a care in the world as long as I had my omega in my arms.

Cherry cordial? No, that wasn’t right. My mate’s scent was honey-lavender, warm and mellow without being sickly-sweet.

Something was wrong.

“You have no idea how happy it makes me to have you back,” Nazeing sighed, pressing himself against me. “I have waited so long for this moment.”

In the blink of an eye, the jarring feeling that something was wrong vanished and a smile spread across my face. “I have missed you as well, my darling,” I said, tightening my arms around him. “My world hasn’t felt complete without you.”

No, that was wrong. My life was perfectly fine. It was wonderful, even. I’d found my fated mate and we would soon have a family and a beautiful life together.

But Nazeing was my mate. I was certain of it.

I was certain of it the way I would be if someone wrote something on a slip of paper and pasted it directly into my brain. It was as if I was reading from a script for some romantic play I’d been cast in.

“Come, my alpha,” Nazeing said, stepping back slightly, though he still gazed up at me with hungry adoration. “You look tired. A good rest will do both of us a world of good.”

“Yes,” I said, partly because I felt compelled to and partly because I was so, so tired. “A rest will do us good.”

I took Nazeing’s hand like a child wishing to be led and walked with him to one of the sofas that stood against the wall of the Great Hall, near a window that looked out into one of the cloistered gardens.

The evening sunlight poured down into the room, making patterns on the floor.

Those patterns were so fascinating that I couldn’t help but stare for a moment.

Something wasn’t right. My soul felt…bulky. It was like there was something buried deep within it, a large coil of thick rope that had been wound up and shoved into the back of a closet. I knew that rope was important, but I couldn’t quite reach it.

“Now,” Nazeing said, shaking me out of my odd contemplation. “Let me just dispose of that lot and the two of us can enjoy the alone time we have been missing out on.”

“Anything you want, my love,” I said, again feeling like the words were pushed out of me before I examined whether I should be saying them at all.

Nazeing laughed for a moment, then grasped my face in his hands and kissed me. I wanted to pull him close and just sit there kissing him forever. He pulled away, though, and turned to hurry back to the center of the room, where my brothers stood uselessly.

My brothers?

I blinked and tried to focus my thoughts on them, but my eyes kept slipping past them to watch Nazeing.

It took more will than I thought I had to pay attention to the way my brothers just stood where they were, blinking and looking around, like they were sheep in a pasture, waiting for a shepherd to gather them up.

That was exactly what Nazeing did.

“Come along, you wretched dragons,” he said, his face twisted in a sneer even though his words came out as if he were speaking to children. “Let’s get you lot out of the way.”

I watched in passive silence, my heart telling me how much I loved my omega and how brave and clever he was as he herded my brothers to one side of the vast Great Hall.

There were multiple doors and hallways that led off of the Great Hall, but Nazeing opened a door that led to what appeared to be a storage closet.

He pushed my brothers inside, though none of them put up so much as a hint of resistance, then shut the door behind them.

He waved his hand over the lock, I heard a click, and that seemed to be the end of that.

With a happy chuckle, Nazeing spun as if he were dancing, then practically skipped across the room to flop onto the sofa with me.

“Now where were we?” he asked, his eyes full of fire as he raked me with a ravenous look.

“Oh yes,” he said, pushing himself up so he could straddle my lap. “I remember.”

The next thing I knew, my omega was in my arms again, his mouth slanted over mine and his body rubbing against me. It was wonderful, blissful, arousing, and…and wrong.

I wanted my omega. The urge to keep him safe welled up within me, stronger than any bliss or desire.

I needed to protect my mate at all costs.

Somehow, I knew his life was in danger, even if that didn’t match the way Nazeing groaned and ran his fingers through my hair, all while kissing me to the point where I couldn’t breathe.

Why did I feel like I needed to protect and defend my mate when he was clearly enjoying himself?

“Darling,” I said between kisses, running my hands up Nazeing’s sides then down his back to grip his backside. “Perhaps we should?—”

I wasn’t entirely certain what I was going to say, since the thought that had preceded my words instantly vanished from my brain. It didn’t matter, though. The sound of footsteps approaching the Great Hall, many footsteps, shook both me and Nazeing out of our loving stupor.

Nazeing pulled back from kissing me and let out an irritated breath as Freslik entered the room followed closely by his Chief of Guards, Rottum, and about two dozen other soldiers.

All of them looked worse for wear, but from what I’d seen earlier, they were probably the best and healthiest of Freslik’s army.

“What is the meaning of this?” Freslik demanded when he spotted me and Nazeing on the sofa.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Nazeing said, pulling back so he could stand and face Freslik. “You’ve interrupted me.”

“This is my castle,” Freslik said with a scowl. “You are here by my leave.”

Nazeing took a step forward and I immediately rose to shadow him as he approached Freslik. Protect my omega. That was what instinct told me. I had to protect my omega at all costs.

So why did I keep looking around as if to find my omega when he was standing directly in front of me?

“Everything you are and everything you have you owe to me,” Nazeing said, his voice growing harsh as he crossed to where Freslik and Rottum stood with the exhausted soldiers behind them. “If not for my timely intervention, Osric would have defeated you weeks ago.”

“Ridiculous,” Freslik snorted, though he seemed drawn and anxious instead of confident.

“You helped me to overcome the spell that wicked traitor of a so-called councilor had me under, I’ll give you that, but I have an army behind me.

I would have been able to fight that upstart Osric off without you. ”

Nazeing laughed as though Freslik were a child who had told a joke. “Is that what you think?”

“It’s what I know,” Freslik said in a dark voice.

Nazeing shrugged the comment off, turning his back on the king so that he could grasp the front of my tunic and gaze adoringly up at me. “What do you say to me banishing that washed up old man over there so that you and I can rule this kingdom together?” he asked, passion in his voice.

“I beg your pardon?” Freslik snapped, furious. “Guards! Seize that filthy omega at once and throw him in the dungeon.”

A few of the soldiers swayed in their places for a moment, looking at one another as if trying to decide who should obey the questionable order first. That hesitation only lasted a split second before two of the soldiers stepped forward.

Nazeing didn’t even look at them. He merely raised a hand and the two men dropped to the floor, either stunned or dead.

“Mortals are such a bore,” he said, sliding his hands up my chest so he could clasp his hands behind my neck and lean into me. “If you’d like, we could do away with all of them once we rule this world.”

“Whatever you want, my love,” I said.

The words felt as if they came from someone else.

But they were so easy to speak. It was easy to ignore everything else but Nazeing, to smile at him and to laugh along with him as he neutralized another half dozen soldiers who stepped forward on Freslik’s command.

I just wanted to gaze at my omega forever.

“This is outrageous!” Freslik shouted. “I did not hire you as my advisor to be treated in such a manner. Somebody kill him!”

“Be quiet,” Nazeing said, glancing over his shoulder to Freslik then nodding at him.

Freslik’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.

“I think it’s time you took a nice, long nap,” Nazeing said.

Immediately, Freslik walked to one of the sofas at the side of the room, lay down, and closed his eyes. Rottum and the rest of the soldiers sat and then lay down where they were and fell asleep as well.

“So many interruptions,” Nazeing said, shaking his head as he returned his attention to me. “Interruptions bore me. You, on the other hand, do not. ”

“No, my love,” I said with a sappy smile.

Inwardly, I heard a distant voice in my soul shouting, “No, no, no! This is wrong! Rumi!”

Rumi? The name felt vaguely familiar, vaguely important.

“Mmm, that’s more like it,” Nazeing said breathlessly between kisses. “If we keep this up, I will finally go into heat again for the first time in a hundred years and the two of us will mate and bond. I’ll have an egg and you at last. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” I repeated and pulled Nazeing close for a kiss.

It was what I wanted, but I had it. I already had everything I needed and more, but not here. Why was that voice screaming so loudly inside me, and who was Rumi?

Rumi