She shivered. “I know. I can sense your power. You’re destined for greatness.”
He nodded, doing his best not to show how her words soothed something inside of him. It wasn’t good to look weak, or as if you cared what others thought, but he’d been overlooked so long, it was satisfying to hear the certainty in her tone.
Nice. Like her.
It reminded him that her first words to him had been ones of compassion . . . because she thought him weak enough to need it.
“Why are you here?” Olan brought his prime omega with him often enough, but he’d never brought his daughter to Abzal before.
A tiny scowl formed between her delicate eyebrows. “I arrived this morning. Normally, I’m kept at the compound, but my mother and I stopped over because my Alpha says it is time for me to go to omega finishing school.” Her nose wrinkled, her words coming easier as her emotions overrode her awareness of him. “I don’t want to go. I hate the idea.” She swallowed hard. “That is why I helped you. Because I wish I could do what you are doing, stealing enough to be able to run. I don’t want to be an omega. I-I want to escape with my mother and my baby sister and leave Anarcheim for good.”
The growl erupted without warning, the burgeoning Alpha in him offended by her rejection of what was his to claim.
“I’m sorry.” Cheeks red, she bowed her head. “I forget myself.”
Two different instincts warred within him. Remembering her earlier kindness, he let his more understanding side take the lead. “If I was a Lundin, I’d be miserable too.”
Irritation flashed in her eyes. “My baby sister is a Lundin and I like her. That is why I will find a way to flee. Because she is a Lundin worth saving.”
“No, that is why I will rise to the top and come for you both.”
“Really?” Her big blue eyes grew wider. “Would you? We can go to the Federation for help. I heard a beta servant once say that they are the only organization in the galaxy that can take on the Brotherhood.”
“Those uptight do-gooders?” he snarled. The Federation was the law of the galaxy, a collection of puritanical self-righteous politicians out to take down the Brotherhood. Their rules for their citizens were so strict, Nikolai would rather have been dead than live a life sentence under their thumb. They required all Alphas, except those in their military, to take suppression drugs. The same was demanded of all Federation omegas. “They’re the worst, and worthless, too.” His chest puffed wide. “I have no intention of running or crawling to the Federation for help. I will become the most ruthless Alpha warlord this galaxy has ever seen. No one will fuck with me. They’ll be too terrified. Only my family will be spared my wrath.”
“You will kill me?” Her voice was a squeak.
“No. You will become mine.”
Her eyes flared, then darkened with sadness. “You will not want me.” She moved closer to whisper her confession. “My parents do not want me to talk about it for fear of lessening my value, but my gift hasn’t shown itself yet. That’s why they’re sending me to the school. They’re worried I might be one of those omegas that never reaches her potential. But I don’t think it would be so bad. If my gift never shows, maybe they will let me run away without a fuss.”
He should have rejoiced at his enemy’s troubles. Instead, he worried for her. An omega who never showed any evidence of enhanced gifts was reduced in value since it was assumed she might pass on the same failing to any omega offspring.
Such a female had no chance of becoming a prime omega and was rarely desired as indentured property, either. Most were relegated soon after estrus to the position of omega whore, untethered to any family and shared by all. It was an even lower position than his mother currently occupied, and that seemed difficult enough.
“You will find your gift.” It wasn’t a comfort; it was a command. He needed time to secure his place.
“I-I don’t know.”
“You will.”
She bowed her head once more. “Yes, Alpha. I will.”
“Good.”
“Thank you for your faith.” She was a talker, his omega. “You are a good Alpha.” There was hero-worship in her gaze. It made his cock harder. “If I had my own shuttle, I’d take you away with me right now.”
He studied her, resentment mixing with something softer. He didn’t like that she thought he needed her help, but her pledge warmed him all the same. “I think you would.” So many people had made him promises. None had proven true. He’d learned long ago to depend only upon himself. But this girl . . . he almost believed. “But that is not your job. I shall come for you.”
She smiled shyly, echoing his words. “I think you would.”
“I do not say what I do not mean.”
“Dahlia Lundin!” The snap of admonishment crackled in the air. It came from the same beta servant who’d squealed on poor Naytalia. “Come out of that room this instant. You do not associate with filth. If your Alpha hears of this, you will be punished worse than usual.”
Worse than usual.
Nikolai’s rage surged. He’d tear them all to pieces before he let her be hurt. He started forward.
With a gasp, the beta scrambled out of sight.
“No, please.” A tiny delicate hand wrapped around his arm, the omega’s fingers curling around the leather band at his bicep while her palm seared his skin. “Don’t risk yourself.”
At her touch, several things happened at once.
First, a rush of violent white heat slammed through every cell. His skin pulsed as if the muscles beneath were suddenly too large for their casing—the force of it almost enough to send him to his knees.
He was aware of everything in a way he hadn’t been before: the scents of those not just inside the house, but at the farthest ends of the outpost, the sharp tang in the air that signaled a storm, the sound of ice cracking in the fields several lengths off, and most significantly, the throbbing knot at the base of his cock and an intense, all-encompassing lust.
Second, he saw that he was not the only one affected. The girl vibrated as if electrified by his touch, and her crystal-blue eyes bled to black.
Before he could process what was happening, the images crashed into him, projected simultaneously like a vid into his mind, and at the same time, in the space above his head.
Murky and blurred, but accurate, nonetheless. He knew. Because it was a memory he’d lived through. The rotation his father, Burian Skolov, pressed the leather band with the Skolov crest into Nikolai’s hand and told him to “hold it for a sec while I take care of this outsider Olan Lundin.”
Worse, anyone who walked by could see the past exchange and live it too. Her vision forecasted in technicolor above his head as Nikolai’s younger self stood tall, absolutely certain that the bully who’d always controlled his life would prevail. He’d still been thinking that as the warm splash of his father’s blood hit his cheek and the flimsy bit of stability he’d had was torn apart.
Through the omega’s touch, he heard the screams of his brothers and sisters as the full weight of what his father’s death meant fell on his shoulders. It was up to him now to keep his siblings alive.
The fear nearly choked him. Would he be enough to protect them? He’d have to be.