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In Devlin’s generation, there were two other alpha princes in line behind him: Prince Rohan and Prince Sinclair.
“It doesn’t make sense, though, does it?” I said, tilting my head to one side. “Because, from a genetic perspective, it seems like the designations should have spread through basically everyone by this point. To keep them out, the royal family would have to have only interbred, right?”
He laughed. “Yes, I’ve had this conversation many times at family gatherings, usually over cards, while we’re all drunk and scheming some way out of this mess.”
“Out of it? You don’t like being a prince?”
He looked up at the ceiling. “I suppose I shouldn’t say that, not exactly. I obviously have advantages and privileges which I’m grateful for. But it’s hard anytime you have your choices limited, you understand? And I feel as though my choices have been limited since I was born in many ways. And definitely, once I presented, it was all over for me. I have very little power over my life, very little at all. It wears on me sometimes.”
I hadn’t thought of that before. But I supposed I could understand what he was saying. He couldn’t choose his profession—he was going to be King someday. And the kind of king he would be was a figurehead king who did charity work and appeared places and went to state functions and had to wear nice clothes. He would be hounded by the press every waking moment. Even day-to-day, he probably had very little choice about what he did. He probably had his schedule laid out by others, and he had to follow it. And now, me, here I was…
“This mustn’t feel like a choice either,” I said to him softly.
“You, you mean?” He smiled at me. “Is that how you feel? That you’ve had no choice but to be swept up with me?”
I shook my head. “Not exactly.”
He raised his eyebrows questioningly.
It was hard to find the words. I looked down, because looking at him was almost like staring straight into the sun, and I needed to be away from that brilliance to gather my thoughts. “It’s more like, um, having been hungry one’s whole life and only ever having been fed some kind of tasteless protein square and then being served steak for the first time?”
“Yes,” he said. “Perhaps there’s no choice, but I’d never not choose you if there was. It’d be like denying myself sustenance. Like not breathing.”
I gasped, looking up at him. “It’s strange, isn’t it? But so nice.”
“I’ve heard it spoken of. I thought I understood. I didn’t.” He lowered his voice. “I think we may have something stronger than some alphas and omegas have anyway. A real pair bond.”
“Like fated?” I said.
“Well, I don’t know if I believe in fate,” he said. “I know they call it that, but I think it’s actually biological.” He tugged on my hands and pulled me further into my new room.
Only now was I looking around. The room we were in didn’t have a bed. It was smallish, and there was a fireplace to one side, flanked by two ornate, upholstered chairs. A doorway opened onto another room, through which I could see a four-poster bed.
The prince had us sit down in front of the fireplace. It wasn’t burning. It wasn’t cold enough outside for such things. “I almost started talking about this in front of your father, but then I realized it probably wasn’t appropriate.”
I settled into my chair, curious. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you know how presenting works, I presume?”
I blushed, then, because I did. There was really only one way that an alpha was different than a regular man or woman, and that was the presence of a knot. A male alpha would get his first knot in puberty, and it was very obvious. For a female alpha, it was often undiscovered until later, since her knot was internal.
Omegas presented by going into heat, which I supposed was what had happened to me in college. Omegas sometimes didn’t go into heat immediately upon entering puberty, so being eighteen when it happened actually was about right.
“Well, obviously I did present,” he said. “And I have, erm…” He blushed, looking away. “Only for alphas, for other alphas.”
“Right, of course,” I said. I supposed I knew about this. After all, the alpha princes were not necessarily related, not closely enough for it to matter anyway, and there was speculation always that Prince Devlin and Prince Rohan were in some sort of… something together. I wondered how I felt about that.
It was common enough for alphas to travel in what the press sometimes called alpha packs. Apparently, alphas were so intense sexually that it was better that they took out their desires on other alphas if they couldn’t find an omega. Those other alphas would be able to handle them better than anyone else could.
“That’s not normal,” he said. “I’ve met omegas. When I met Prince Maddox, for instance, there was a lot of speculation that maybe we would mate.” Prince Maddox was an omega who was heir to the throne in the country of Castille. The idea of two heirs mating, creating a power couple, was very popular in the press. “But I didn’t, uh, no knot for him. Which… typically, when alphas and omegas are in the same room, there’s…”
“Like us?”
He nodded. “Or… well, I don’t know, because I’ve never experienced it, but I think this is more intense than what it usually is.”
“Do you…” I bit down on my lip. I could feel that I was blushing. “Now? Do you have one for me now?”
He swallowed hard. “We’d best not, I think.”
