“You know more than you’re telling us. Don’t you, Ariadne?”
Frustration rolled through Tane as he stalked toward the tiny human female in front of him. As always, she looked down demurely, her hands folded in front of her. He growled, the sound low and dangerous, wanting to rattle that damned calm she wore around her like the blue robes of her faith and calling.
He stood in front of her, willing her to look up at him and meet his eyes with those blue pools of her own. She rarely looked him directly in the eye, but he lived for the days she did, and often deliberately rattled her to get her to do so. Today was not one of those days.
“I have always been honest with you, Lord Overseer.” She didn’t look up at him, but her voice changed so a hint of a smile was buried in the words.
“When I ask you a direct question, yes.” And that was one source of his frustration. She would answer his questions, but he had to guess which ones would be useful. He only tolerated her behavior because she was important to the humans. Her being in the citadel was a declaration of his intent to do better than the L’crav. It was also insurance against the humans trying another foolish attack.
He pulled the wickedly curved knife Rath had given him out of his pocket and showed it to her. “You’ve never mentioned these before. Your people call it a mercy. Don’t you think that was something I needed to know?”
She shrugged her slender shoulders. “The L’crav knew. Didn’t they tell you?”
He bit back his growl. If the L’crav had known, they hadn’t seen fit to share it with the H’thor and therein lay the problem. He was fighting a battle on two fronts—the human resistance and the memories of what the other clan had done here, the untold damages they had wreaked on the human population. But to admit that would make him look weak, and he refused to look weak even in front of one insignificant beta female.
He stepped forward, crowding her space and making her back up against the stone wall of the corridor. Her startled look flicked up to his face but then darted away again before their eyes met. Then her back was against the wall, and he was so close her body heat beat at his skin.
“You’re not afraid,” he murmured, leaning in to run his nose along the side of her throat. He scented her but didn’t touch her. He stood so close he felt the small hitch in her breathing and heard her swallow nervously.
She was nervous. Good. She should be.
“Yes. I’m afraid,” she murmured. “You’re an alpha. Only someone who was insane wouldn’t be scared of you.”
He stilled and inhaled deeply. Her scent was as it always was. Neutral. Faintly floral but unalluring, and yet there was something about her… “And yet you were antagonizing T’kinn a few moments ago. Defying him. Angering him.” He touched the chain around her neck, sliding one finger under it to lift the holy symbol she wore a bare inch off her flesh. “This won’t protect you from him, Ariadne. Or any other alpha. You must be more careful.” He toyed with the chain some more. “The only thing protecting you from them… is me.”
Her lips parted on a gasp and she wrapped her fingers around the symbol, something with two crescent moons, the meaning of which he’d never bothered to ask about.
“My faith does protect me.”
For a moment he thought she was actually arguing with him. Adrenaline and awareness flooded his veins. Yes! He wanted her to argue, wanted to see something other than the bland mask she always presented him with. He’d seen glimpses of it sometimes—a look or an edge to her voice when she wasn’t careful and in conversation with others when she didn’t think he was near.
And… he wanted to see more.
She bowed her head, her body language sliding back to neutral and deferential. “But so do you, my lord, and I am grateful for that.”
He wanted to snarl, his lip curling back. His words held an edge as he spoke.
“How grateful?”
“You are in my prayers each night, Lord Tane.”
Prayers? He didn’t want her prayers. He wanted… He cut off that line of thought with another snarl. D’warr was right. He should just find a willing beta and slake his pleasure on her like the others did. Only he wasn’t interested in any other betas.
Just this one.
He released the chain and moved back a few inches before changing the subject. “Can you save Kinn’s omega from the Fade?”
This time, she did meet his gaze for a brief moment. “No. Only he can do that.” She stared down at her hands. “Humans have an expression, Lord Tane. It is said that if you love something, you must set it free. Only if it comes back to you is it truly yours.”
He frowned. “That makes no sense. If you let something go, it’s gone. If he lets his omega go, they will both die. One cannot exist without the other.”
“And that is the difference between our species, my lord.” She looked, tilting her head to the side with a frown on her face. “You said they would both die? Why? T’kinn is an alpha. They do not suffer the Fade.”
He hesitated. This was knowledge the humans didn’t have, and he was loath to give it to someone who might use it against them someday. “They do not suffer if the mating bond is weak. The L’crav do not appear to have formed any lasting attachments with their omegas. But in the case of a true bond…” He inclined his head to the door Kinn had left through. “When one alpha is called by the scent of his omega? That is a different thing. If Kinn has truly bonded to Serena, he is unlikely to survive their separation. To experience that… it drives us mad.”
“But he might survive. Whereas I can assure you, she will not survive here. Neither she nor the baby will live.”
He sighed. “I hoped it would not come to this. Once he realizes, he will perform the Iratzi Tarn to save her.”
She tilted her head to the side, interest lighting her eyes. “The Iratzi Tarn? What is that?”
“The Leavetaking. The ritual suicide of a warrior.” He paused, studying her expression carefully. “He will take his own life to free her from the bond.”
The reaction was barely there. Her eyes widened and her lips thinned, but it was gone so quickly he almost missed it. “He would do that? For an omega?”
“For his omega and his child, yes.” He leaned over her. “Or do you think your people are the only ones strong enough to make sacrifices for the good of others? We are H’thor. We have honor!”
He surged forward, slamming his hands to either side of her head on the wall hard enough to crack the stone.
“More than that, little female,” he murmured. “We are what it means to be alpha. We protect our omegas, always. Even if it means we must die. Understand now?”
8
He could feel Serena slipping away with each and every breath. Kinn’s throat thickened, the big warrior healer fighting back the prickle of tears as he held his precious omega wrapped in his arms. He savored the feeling, knowing it was the last time he would hold her as the sun rose. The last time he would wake with her in his embrace. That wasn’t strictly true. The last time he’d woken with her in his arms was yesterday because he hadn’t slept after carrying her to his bed. He hadn’t wanted to lose even a fraction of the time he had left with her to something as mundane as sleep.