Page 2 of The Sapphire Dragon Prince (Omega Fairy Tales #4)

And yet as comforted as I felt in Azurus’s arms, as delicious and alluring as I found his scent to be, I was still cold without even a spark of heat coming over me.

It wasn’t the way things were meant to be with fated mates.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed against his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever for, sweet one?” Azurus asked, incredibly calm and patient. He had been that way from the start. He was everything an alpha should be, strong, brave, and powerful, but he was so caring and gentle with me. “You are not upset by a dream, are you?”

I sniffed, fighting against myself to be the sort of omega, the sort of man a dragon like Azurus deserved in a mate. I knew I came up short in every way, though.

“I am better,” I said, willing myself to believe it and pushing back so that I could sit on my own. “You are right. It was just a dream. I’m feeling much better now.”

It was a lie, and the way Azurus stroked his hand around my face and studied my expression told me he knew it.

“Whatever it was,” he said, “it’s passed now. Morning has come, you are awake and with me in the magical world, and nothing, not even your father, can ever harm you again.”

I tried to smile. I wanted to believe him.

I knew in my mind that his words were true.

My father was an entire world away and had no means of accessing the magical world.

But I was still terrified, because as far away as my father was, the deepest feeling of danger was inside of me, and I feared it always would be.

“I will be well,” I said, smiling bashfully at Azurus. I meant it as a reassurance, but I prayed it was a prediction as well.

“You will be,” Azurus assured me. “I have you.”

He swept his hand around my face once more, then paused before leaning in to kiss my lips.

It was a lovely, warm kiss filled with promise and devotion…and I felt nothing from it. I kissed Azurus back as best I could, but as comforted as I felt, my fated mate’s kiss did not fill me with lust and desire the way it should have.

Something was wrong with me. I was hopelessly broken.

Azurus ended our kiss and leaned back to study me with a kind smile. I could see how much he longed for our bond to form and for me to desire him. It tore me apart that I could not give him what he wanted.

But he did a good job of sounding cheerful when he said, “Why don’t you get out of bed and have a quick bath to wash away the specters of the night?

Then we can dress and go downstairs for breakfast. Rufus said something about bringing Tovey and the eggs over to join us this morning. I think the others are coming, too.”

I smiled. “I would like to see the eggs.” Pretty much the only thing that settled my soul these days was playing with my brothers’ eggs. They were the epitome of innocence and trust.

“Come along, then,” Azurus said, standing and offering me a hand.

With the intensity of my dream fading fast, I felt mostly embarrassed as I got up and went about my morning ablutions.

Azurus returned to his bedchamber to prepare for the morning so I had a few minutes alone to take care of everything I needed to do to make myself presentable for my brother and Azurus’s.

I loved having my brothers nearby. For so much of our lives, we had relied on each other for everything.

I’d been able to keep my meek, anxious nature under control when all six of us were together, even though our father inflicted terrible things on us.

But since Tovey and Selle, and now Leo, had moved into the magical world, my fears had grown too difficult to control and I missed them too much.

Even now, once I’d washed and dressed and spent a few minutes sitting in the morning sunlight just breathing, then as Azurus and I went downstairs and joined the rest of the family in a large room that served both as a dining room and socializing space, I felt fear.

“Misha! There you are,” Tovey said. He stood from the huge bowl-like structure everyone was gathered around and stepped to the side so that he could greet me with a hug.

“It’s so good to see you.” When he let me go, he stepped back to study me, then said, “Are you sleeping well? You look a little piqued.”

“I’m fine,” I lied with a tight smile.

“We’ve got plenty of food for breakfast,” Tovey’s mate, Rufus, told me, a look of concern on his face that was as genuine as if he’d been born my brother. “Would you like tea?”

“I can fetch your tea,” Azurus said before quickly touching my back and heading over to the table, where tea things and a huge amount of food were set out.

“Thank you,” I told him, my smile still in place, though I could feel my anxiety growing with all the sudden attention coming my way.

“Come and see the eggs,” Selle said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. His mate, Gildur, had the power to correct Selle’s vision, but Selle insisted on continuing with his glasses, saying he didn’t feel right without them. “They’re so entertaining when they all get together.”

I moved over to the large bowl. It was some sort of portable nest for the eggs.

It was lined with silk cushions that seemed custom-designed for dragon eggs.

All four of my brothers’ eggs were nestled together within the silken folds.

Tovey and Rufus’s twin ruby eggs were the largest, though Selle and Gildur’s golden egg wasn’t that much smaller.

Leo and Diamant’s glittering diamond egg might not have been as large as the others yet, but it had a sort of powerful presence about it that made me think Leo’s child would be the leader of that particular group of my nephews or nieces.

“They are sweet,” I said, watching the eggs quiver and pulse.

None of the eggs were near to hatching yet, but they definitely had life to them. I couldn’t feel it because I was not the papa of any of the eggs, but Tovey, Selle, and Leo all insisted to me that they could feel the eggs interacting with each other.

I couldn’t feel it. I wasn’t a papa. The way things were going, I never would be.

I had my fated mate, but my body refused to go into heat so that I could mate and have babies. I couldn’t even bond with my dragon, who I knew was falling in love with me, though I hadn’t done anything to deserve that love.

I was broken, and after the nightmare I’d had, I didn’t think I would ever be fixed.

“Here,” Leo said, scooping his egg out of the nest and turning to me. “Why don’t you hold him for a while?”

I gulped and would have refused, but the way Leo thrust the egg into my arms gave me no choice but to embrace it and cuddle it close.

I could feel the egg’s warmth and caring innocence as I held it against my chest, but those feelings only broke my heart.

It was like the biggest part of me, the part I was meant to be, was missing, and there was nothing I could do to find it.

“You’re certain it’s a boy, then?” Emmerich, one of the dragon brothers who I knew was fated for my brother Rumi, but who had yet to claim him asked.

“With a papa like Leo, how could it not be?” Diamant laughed, clapping a hand on Leo’s shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Selle said as he stroked his and Gildur’s egg in the nest. “I’ve met some fearsome women in my time.”

“I’ve no doubt,” Leo said with a shrug. “But I had a vision of this little warrior when he was still inside me.”

He spoke as if seeing visions of your future children was something ordinary. I’d had no such visions. It had to be a bad sign.

“Are you planning to leave your egg behind when Cousin Osric makes another attempt to take the throne in a few months?” Tovey asked, crouching beside the nest again. “I hated leaving my eggs in someone else’s care back when they were first borne.”

“If Osric needs me, I will do whatever it takes to fight by his side,” Leo said. “It will be the most important fight of any of our lives, and we must win.”

“I’ve no doubt Cousin Osric will succeed against Father,” Tovey said with a serious look at his eggs. “I just fear what sort of a battle it will end up being.”

“It will be the battle it needs to be,” Diamant said, beaming proudly at Leo. “And we will be there with swords drawn.”

A horrible shiver went through me. I had to push Leo’s egg back into his arms before I let it get the better of me. A wave of panic passed through me that was so acute I started to shake.

“Excuse me,” I wheezed, turning away from the happy circle of my family and starting for the doorway that led out into the castle gardens.

“Misha, are you well?” Azurus asked, stepping after me.

“I—” I almost lied to him and told him I was fine, but he could see that I wasn’t. “I just need to breathe fresh air for a moment. I’ll be alright on my own.”

I thought Azurus would come with me despite my insistence on being alone, but he stayed where he was as I picked up my pace and all but fled into the garden.

I could hear and feel my brothers and their mates talking about me behind my back, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I raced out into the gardens, putting as much distance between myself and discussion of the war I knew was coming in my father’s world as I could.

At the other end of the beautiful, fragrant castle gardens was a water garden with a great many fountains.

I’d always found the sound of fountains to be soothing, so I went there, sinking to sit in the grass beside one of the larger pools.

There I was able to look at my reflection in the water… and I hated what I saw.

“Who are you?” I whispered demandingly at my reflection. “This is not who you are meant to be.”

A sad, frightened, defeated omega prince looked back at me. He didn’t have any answers as to why I had become the miserable man I was. Nobody had those answers.