Page 25 of The Sorcerer's Alpha
Oh, he was due. He wasoverdue. He cycled extremely regularly, every twenty-nine days, and it had been at least that long. And the signs were unmistakable. He would go over tomorrow or the day after, alone here on the steppe with Marut and nowhere for either of them to go.
“Oh, Sun Above,” he whispered.
CHAPTER10
Marut slept well and woke in as good a mood as one could be in under the circumstances. A light dusting of fresh snow had fallen overnight, and by the time he rose and left the tent, the horses had eaten off a large patch of it and were grazing on the grass underneath. They were doing better than he had hoped, and so was Sycamore. They had food, and they were keeping warm enough. He was beginning to think they might live to return to Banuri.
The wizard rose late, as he had the day before, and Marut was glad for it; sleep would help him heal. He came out of the tent squinting in the bright light, his hair loose in his eyes, and shuffled over to where Marut was sitting on the rock beside the fire. Marut frowned at him. He didn’t look well: drawn and weary, although Marut hadn’t noticed him being restless at all in the night.
“I have something I need to tell you,” Sycamore said.
“Oh—all right,” Marut said, now even more alarmed. He offered Sycamore their one plate, bearing freshly roasted deer meat, and Sycamore sat and held it in his hands without eating. He stared at the plate, then the horses, then directed his flat gaze at Marut’s face. Marut felt that Sycamore was waiting for him to say something, but he didn’t know what.
“I’m going into heat,” Sycamore said finally. “Maybe later today. Maybe tomorrow.” His gaze slid away again, dropping back to the plate. “No later than that.”
Marut couldn’t have been more surprised if a full battalion of Skopoy troops suddenly rose from the earth already mounted on their horses. He eyed the wizard uncertainly, wondering if he had somehow misunderstood.
“We won’t have enough time to find the Sarnoy. So.” Sycamore exhaled shakily. “I can—I’ll search for a cave somewhere nearby. With a fire, and blankets—”
“Wait. Please stop.” Marut held up a hand, fending off the onslaught of Sycamore’s planning. “Your heat? You’re going into heat.”
Sycamore scowled at him. “Yes. As I said.”
“I’m sorry. I’m a little—” Unprepared. Mortified. Not because of Sycamore, but on his behalf. He could read Sycamore’s intense discomfort in every tense line of his body. “What was your plan if it came on you in White Valley?”
“What plan? I had a tent of my own. I would have stayed in my tent and told no one to disturb me.” He shrugged. “In truth, I expected to be back in Banuri by then. I didn’t know what task the king had assigned me, but I didn’t imagine it would take more than a few days.”
“It shouldn’t have,” Marut said. “To expose you—to put you at risk like that—”
“What risk? What alpha would touch me without my permission?” He raised his eyebrows at Marut. “You have a low opinion of your fellows.”
“It’s not. Proper,” Marut said, knowing even as he said it that the wizard would scoff at him, which he did. “My lord, forgive me. I’m—not sure what—”
“My lord,” the wizard repeated scornfully. He set the plate beside him on the rock. “Stop it with that. I’ll look for a cave, and if there’s no cave, I’ll—the people of the southern ice sheet make snow shelters, I’ve read, while they’re on hunting expeditions. I’m sure I could summon a snowstorm.” He scowled at Marut again. “Or you could stay on your own side of the tent and keep your hands to yourself.”
Marut hesitated, then decided he had better say it. He cleared his throat. “I’ve been with an omega in heat before. He was very—he was clear about what he wanted, and I—responded to that, I couldn’t resist him. With you, if you asked, I don’t know if I could—withstand.”
Withstand the temptation, he meant, but he couldn’t bring himself to say that part, although surely Sycamore understood what he was eliding. He would be sorely tempted lying there in the tent all night with Sycamore sweet-smelling and receptive beside him. If Sycamore pleaded the way Purya had, if Sycamore wanted what Marut could give him, Marut’s self-control would crumble at once. He was only a foolish man.
The wizard covered his face with his hands. “Let me—I’ll search. I’m sure there’s nothing. But I’ll look.”
“Am I so repellent to you,” Marut said stiffly.
Sycamore tore his hands away, his eyes burning with fury and desperation. “You are theoppositeof repellent. Why do you think this is such a problem? I can’t risk bonding, with you or with anyone else. I’ve gone through every heat alone for nearly twenty years. And now, because of thatworthlesscolonel, I’m trapped in a tent in a frozen wasteland and you’re looking at me like you’re afraid I’m going to start weeping.”
“I would never suspect you of weeping,” Marut said, and Sycamore let out a choked laugh and shoved his hands inside his cloak, hunching his shoulders. “Sycamore, I’m sorry. I’ll give you the tent and freeze myself into an icicle outside, and be happy to do it.”
“You’re very chivalrous.” Sycamore regarded him. “Who was the omega?”
“A childhood friend.” Marut intended to say nothing further, but then Sycamore picked up the plate and began eating, and Marut decided he had best keep talking so that Sycamore would finish his breakfast. “He married well—the only daughter of a wealthy merchant house. When they wanted children, they asked me to help.”
The wizard’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re already bonded?”
“No. He bonded with his wife. But she couldn’t, ah.” He tried to think of the least offensive way to phrase it.
“She couldn’t knot him. Well.” Sycamore took a bite of venison and chewed diligently for a moment. “I didn’t think it worked without a bond.”
“His wife was with us both times. I suppose that helped.” Marut had no sexual interest in women, but he liked and cared for Diya, and had been glad to have her beside them in the bed, stroking Purya’s hair and telling Marut how he liked to be touched. The experience had been awkward in a variety of ways, but Marut gladly participated again a few years later when they decided they wanted a second child.