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Chapter

One

Rumi

LORD OSRIC’S CAMP – PRESENT DAY

T he war was imminent, and we were as ready for it as we could be.

“Are you certain you know how to use that thing?” Selle asked Leo as he strode over to join the group my brothers and I had made near one of the campfires.

Leo glanced at the long sword strapped to his side. “Of course I know how to use it,” he said, pulling the sword from its sheath and wielding it through a few sword forms for us. “Diamant has been teaching me,” he said with a mischievous smile.

“I bet Diamant has been teaching you a few other things as well,” Tovey teased him with a smirk.

“He most certainly has,” Leo replied with a wicked purr.

“Do you really have to talk about those things when we’re in the middle of Cousin Osric’s camp, waiting for a war to start?” Obi asked, though he couldn’t help but laugh as he did.

Obi had only just found and mated with his dragon, who had actually been among us for years in the disguise of Councilor Dormas. It was cute how his face went pink anytime any of us joked about the pleasure we found with our dragons.

Or at least the pleasure my brothers found with their dragons.

Aside from a few, stolen kisses, which had been nearly impossible to come by lately, I hadn’t enjoyed my dragon mate for almost a year.

Just thinking about that fleeting moment of pleasure I’d stolen with Emmerich, and the consequences of our impulsivity, made me long for the war we were stuck in to be over.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Leo went on, still as cheeky as ever, “spending special time with my dragon is the second most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done.”

“The second most?” Selle asked, pushing his golden-framed glasses up his nose. He should have just let Gildur, his dragon mate, permanently fix his vision, but he swore that he actually liked wearing glasses.

“I suppose you think warfare is the most enjoyable thing,” Misha said, just a bit sullen.

He didn’t have to take part in the war, but as soon as he’d learned that the other five of us wanted to play an active part in the battle, he chosen to join us.

I was secretly glad for it, even though I knew it hurt Misha deeply to be around so much strife and violence.

Leo shook his head and wielded his sword a bit more before sheathing it again. “Not warfare,” he said, suddenly going a bit gushy and omega-ish. “Spending time with my egg.”

I almost laughed. Leo was the very last of us brothers who I would have pegged as loving being a papa. Somehow, his omega nature had come through when it came to his egg, though. I knew it hurt him to leave his egg behind in the magical world, in the care of a nursemaid, like the others had.

It hurt all of my brothers to leave their eggs behind, but it hurt me to have mine paused within me. I hadn’t even been able to tell my brothers about my secret egg yet.

“The twins will be hatching any day now,” Tovey said, half to himself, biting one of his nails. “Alicia swore that she’d send word to us the second she detects any cracks in the shells, but still.”

I reached out and rested a hand on Tovey’s arm, sending him a sympathetic smile.

At the same time, as subtly as I could, I touched my belly with my other hand, sending a rush of love to the paused egg that lived inside me.

At first, when I’d returned to my brothers after meeting and mating with Emmerich, I found the idea that I had the beginnings of an egg inside me to be wonderful and fascinating.

I’d met up with Emmerich secretly or seemingly by accident a few times after that glorious afternoon but before he gave me the marble to form the door into the magical world.

Emmerich was excited by the baby egg as well.

He teased me by calling me his half-bred mate when we’d danced in the pavilion or spent time together in either of our worlds.

Lately, however, as I’d watched my brothers get with egg and then birth those eggs, the urge to get on with things myself was almost overpowering.

Having a baby egg inside me was no longer a source of excitement and wonder, it was a deep, anxious worry and a strain.

I didn’t resent my baby at all or reject it in any way.

Quite the contrary. I longed to have it grow to the point of leaving me.

I wanted to hold it in my arms and lavish it with love until it hatched.

Then I wanted to love and nurture my baby…

and mate with Emmerich to produce another egg.

“Rumi, are you alright?” Selle asked.

“Hmm?” I raised my head quickly to glance around at my brothers and moved my hand so none of them would be suspicious of the truth.

I’d confessed to them earlier that Emmerich and I had known each other for longer than I’d let on, but I hadn’t whispered a word about the pausing spell or the fact that I had mated and bonded with my dragon and conceived his egg almost a year ago.

“We were just saying that we really ought to put more effort into finding the traitor Father says is in Cousin Osric’s camp,” Obi said in a whisper. He sent a furtive look around the camp where we sat.

Father had surprised Obi and his dragon, Argus, who had spent all those years in our midst, disguised as Councilor Dormas, by telling them there was a traitor in Osric’s camp.

It had to be the dark sorcerer who was helping Father and giving him the sort of power that he’d never had before.

Father had been bad enough when he was just a nasty, evil man, but now he had magic on his side.

We were all deeply worried about it, even our dragon mates.

“I still say that this dark sorcerer, Nazeing, can’t have been Father’s ally for long,” I said, sitting straighter and hoping I could distract my brothers away from any questions about me. “Father was completely surprised by the sorceress Saoirse when she tried to take his throne last year.”

My brothers hummed in agreement, though not all of them remembered the details of that afternoon clearly.

Lady Saoirse, a self-serving sorceress from the magical world, had attempted to overthrow our father, King Freslik, in a bid to first take his throne, and then to use armies from our world to overthrow Queen Gaia.

Queen Gaia not only oversaw the magical world, I had my theories about just how important she was to all the worlds, to the entire universe.

Saoirse had failed, of course. Selle and Gildur had helped to capture her and take her to Queen Gaia.

Queen Gaia had punished her by removing all her magical powers and banishing her to our world.

Meanwhile, to protect the rest of us, Gildur had erased the memory of Saoirse’s attempt from everyone who had been present, including our father and some of my brothers.

He’d erased the knowledge that Councilor Dormas was one of the dragons helping us as well.

“I agree that this dark sorcerer is a new twist to our father’s wicked ways,” Leo said with a dark frown. “Whoever he is, I’m certain he slipped into Father’s sphere while most of us were distracted with our dragons and mates.”

I agreed. After the first few, eventful months after Emmerich gave me the marble to create the doorway, there had been a lull of several months through the winter and early spring when not much happened.

It had been too quiet. I should have known better than to think that meant nothing was happening.

I wanted to discuss the matter with my brothers more to find out what information we all had that could be pooled together.

I always felt stronger and cleverer when all six of us were together.

But before I could say anything, I was distracted as Bronnen, a beta and one of Cousin Osric’s closest advisors, marched through the camp to where Osric sat with his other, key advisors not that far from us .

“My lord,” Bronnen said, stopping near to Osric’s group and bowing with military precision. “I bring word of Freslik’s movements.”

Osric sat straighter from where he’d had his head together with Nikkos, his lone omega advisor, and Hellis, a female alpha. “Where is my uncle?” he asked. “What do you have to report?”

“King Freslik and his army have arrived at the crest of the other hill,” Bronnen reported in a stoic tone. “They are spreading out and digging fortifications. It looks as though they will be ready to attack within hours.”

Osric stood with a deep, weary sigh. “This is the moment, then,” he said. “Soon, the battle not only for this kingdom and this land, but for the souls of our people and the lives they deserve to live will begin.”

“We’re ready for this, my lord.” Nikkos said, an excited light in his eyes as he jumped to his feet, staring adoringly at Osric. “There’s no way King Freslik could possibly defeat anyone as magnificent as you. I…I mean, anyone who has prepared as carefully as you.”

I raised a hand to cover the smile I’d broken into. Nikkos was a little obvious in his adoration of my cousin. I hadn’t seen Osric return that affection in any way so far, but that could have been because there was a war going on, even if we had yet to face the first battle.

“Should I gather our army?” Hellis asked, striding up to Osric’s side and glaring at Nikkos. She didn’t approve of the young omega’s enthusiasm.

Osric held still for half a second, then nodded. “Yes. Gather the troops and make certain everyone is armed. Freslik could attack at any moment, and we need to be ready. ”

“Yes, my lord,” Hellis said, nodded, then turned to march off to the west.

“Yes, my lord,” Nikkos said in a much lighter voice, then scampered off to the east.

Bronnen just shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I’ll see to it that your horse is prepared.”

“Thank you,” Osric said, then came over to us.