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Lodan shrugged his shirt back on as he strode outside into the rain. He needed to talk to Xander to see if any scouts brought new reports, but he didn’t head for Xander’s tent. Instead he walked to Greta’s. After Lodan’s tent, hers was the largest since she needed room to help anyone who may need healing. The healer stood at her table of tinctures and herbs, moving some jars around.

“I need you to check on the Omega.”

Greta tutted. “Oh, hello, Lodan. I’m doing excellent today, thanks.” She turned around, a small brass jar in her hand.

He growled and crossed his arms.

“Don’t go glaring at me. You come into my tent for help, the least you could do is say hello before barking orders at me.”

“You look well, so I have no need to ask.”

Greta shook her head. “Alphas.” She turned back to her table and poured a viscous liquid, like molasses, into the jar she held. “Go on then, what is the problem with her now? I checked her feet this morning and they looked good. Did she tear them open again?”

He strode closer to join her at the table. “No. She had a fit of some kind. She was fine one moment and the next, her eyes went blank. Nothing I did woke her.”

Greta paused mid-pour. “She fainted?”

“It was similar, but I don’t think so.” His first thought when she’d gone strange in his arms, was that she was faking it. She was a Sardi, and it would be just like a Sardi to fake illness to get out of touching him. “Could she fake something like that?”

Greta turned to him, raising a brow. “If you’re here , you don’t think she was faking it.”

“Her heart rate slowed. It was so sluggish I thought she’d died for a moment.” He wasn’t going to share his reaction with Greta. He was a warrior, someone who met death on the battlefield over and over, yet his own heart had almost stopped. She’d looked so vulnerable and small.

He gritted his teeth. It was only his Alpha instincts. Alphas took care of Omegas. It wasn’t about her.

“She couldn’t fake her heart rate. Also, for a Sardi, she isn’t good at deception. She wears her thoughts on her face.” He put his hand on the table. Gritty powder tickled his palm, and he snatched his hand back. Who knew what Greta ground up in here? “She wasn’t faking the fit, but she was hiding something afterward. I want to know what’s going on.”

“What were you doing when this happened?” Greta wrinkled her nose. “Or do I want to know?”

He glared at her. “She was touching me. Nothing strenuous.”

Greta threw her arms in the air. “Oh great. Not only will we have legends about Lodan the Unkillable, but Lodan the Untouchable. Touch him, and you fall to the ground in fits.”

“This doesn’t need to be spread around.” They were a war party, but the men liked to talk at night, and camp gossip spread fast. The men didn’t need another reason to discuss the Omega more than they already were. “If her feet are healed, she’ll help around camp. I’ll have her assist you and assist with meals. I want you to keep an eye on her and see if there’s something wrong with her.”

Greta rolled her eyes. “I get to be babysitter again?”

“You complain you need assistance all the time.”

“She’ll be petulant and sulking, and I’ll have to force her to do anything I ask.”

“If she acts that way, send her to the kitchen. After a few days helping with the cooking, she’ll leap at the chance to help you instead.” He paused for a long moment. “Is it possible the Sardi really did pack her off to a temple? She claims she’s lived there for four years.”

Greta’s brows shot up. “Four years?” She shook her head. “No. Not even if she does have some kind of sickness. The Sardi prize their blood too much not to marry off one of their Omega princesses.”

Lodan frowned. When the Omega said she’d lived in the temple for four years, he sensed she spoke the truth. However, like Greta, he found it impossible to believe. Kassandra was beautiful, and she was clever. It made her a pain in the ass, but also a desirable Omega.

A desirable Omega placed in the temple to the goddess of simplicity and chastity, sealing her fate to remain untouched for the rest of her life. None of it made sense. He was missing something, and he was going to figure out what it was.

Greta turned back to her table and continued organizing it. “How goes it with the Omega otherwise?” Greta cackled. “With your way with words, you must have her swooning for you.”

He crossed his arms. “Things progress fine.” He opened his mouth, then closed it. Although if he didn’t ask Greta, who would he ask? He sighed. “She said my bed wasn’t right. Why would that be?”

Greta turned to him again. “I’m supposed to understand Omegas? They’re strange creatures.”

“She should want to sleep in my bed over the floor.”

Greta lifted a brow but didn’t say anything.

“I made the bed frame myself.”

“And you take it with us when we move camp.”

He shrugged. It was the only vanity he took as their leader, and it was only a bed.

Greta drummed her fingers on her table. “Have you had other Omegas in it? Omegas can sense things like that, and she won’t want to lie there.”

He shook his head. “No.” He thought again about what his father had said about his desire going dormant before he met Lodan’s mother. As Greta had pointed out, he hadn’t desired anyone for months before the Sardi princess.

Myrdinians believed Alphas and Omegas awoke to their natures as late teens, then spent a period of time enjoying themselves and exploring their instincts. For some, that meant pursuing carnal pleasure, for others, it was more of a slow awakening. But his father was the only one who’d ever spoken about desire fading being a signal an Alpha might meet his bondmate.

It hadn’t happened that way for his sister.

His older sister had always hated the harvest fetes and feasts, being a bit shy, but at eighteen, her attitude changed. She spent hours on her hair and clothing, then danced and chatted the night away with the other single Alphas and Omegas, seeking the conversations she’d spent most of her life avoiding.

He was ten years her junior, and he hadn’t understood it much at the time, but his parents had told him one day he, too, would want to dance instead of stuff his face at the food table. He’d told them the only thing he looked forward to was getting old enough to drink his weight at the wine table.

He’d been fourteen when his sister bonded with Nikolaos. They’d known each other since childhood, but it wasn’t until her twenty-fourth year that his sister saw Nikolaos anew.

According to Myrdinian lore, her heart had shifted. Myrdinians believed that at a time determined by the gods, all Alphas and Omegas changed. Their bodies, and their hearts, shifted. For some, like Nikolaos, fate chose to let them know their bondmate almost instantly. He’d loved Lodan’s sister almost his entire life. At one of the dances, when his sister danced with another, Lodan saw Nikolaos crush a pewter mug with his bare hands, his expression tortured, but he never let her see. He waited for her, knowing one day, she’d see him the way he saw her.

And he’d been right.

Lodan’s hands fisted, and a sharp pain twisted in his chest. He didn’t think about his sister. Ever.

Greta turned to him, and he realized she’d been talking, and he hadn’t caught a word. “If she isn’t repulsed by another Omega’s scent, she probably doesn’t like your bed because she’s a princess. She probably wants silk sheets and goose-down blankets.”

“No.” He paced across the room. “By that logic, she wouldn’t be comfortable sleeping on the floor and she’s slept fine there.” Surprisingly so.

Nothing about this Omega added up. While he was certain she was the Sardi princess, so many things didn’t make sense. “Keep watch over her and report back to me.”

Greta waved a hand. “All right, but most likely, she’s going to be a bother and I’ll send her to the kitchens.”

Lodan nodded. “It will do her good to work with Jason.” His cook, Jason, was a grizzled old warrior famous for having a temper so vile he could make even the toughest Alpha bend to his will. His temper hadn’t improved since Lodan assigned him to the role of cook after he’d lost an eye early in the war. Since he’d also lost half a foot in a previous battle, Lodan didn’t want him to lose any more pieces of himself. Jason fought in older rebellions with Lodan’s father, secret skirmishes against the Sardi going back years and years. Lodan valued his insight and his strategies, and he was part of every war council. He wanted him alive and well.

Jason would make sure the Omega worked hard.

Lodan strode from Greta’s tent, ignoring her calls about offering her a proper goodbye. He turned his back on his own tent and headed for Xander’s.