Stesha smiles. “But I still don’t want to tell anyone about us. Nilak knows you’re my mate, and that’s all that matters to me. You may confide in whom you please.”
I think about it. “I may talk to one or two people, but I always wanted to walk into a room and for people to justknowI’m an Omega. That we are mates. For heads to turn, like they did with Onderz and Mirelle. Zabriel and Isavelle. Kane and Ravenna. Noone had to be told about them. I want to feel for the first time in my life that I am who I really am.” As I’m talking, my smile fades and frustrated tears collect on my lashes.
Stesha doesn’t tell me I’m stupid for wanting this or that it doesn’t matter what other people think. He presses a soft kiss to my brow. “I understand.”
“You do?”
“Until recently, people have always known what I am. I walked into the Great Hall or onto the streets of Lenhale, and people knew my designation. Respected me. Listened to me. In New Maledin, a lot of people don’t know what an Alpha is. Apart from people noticing I’m unusually tall, I’ve felt invisible in a crowd, and I’ve hated it. So I won’t tell you it’s silly for wanting to feel like an Omega.”
I burrow into his arms and against his big chest. I want people to realize we’re a fated pair in one of those perfect moments. Stesha running across a courtyard to snatch me up in his arms as our scents burst around us, and people watching fondly as he carries me away to my nest, shielding my trembling body from the light. My perfume overwhelming everything as I go into heat.
Unless I’m broken forever and that never happens.
Stesha must smell unhappiness in my scent because he whispers into my hair, “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Omega. I’ll train every wild dragon in Maledin to eat out of your palm. I’ll wait another five hundred years for you. I’m the luckiest dragonrider in the world because I get to carry your sweet, golden heart into the skies with me. If anyone tries to take you from me, I’ll kill him.”
The threat of blood and violence against unseen enemies isn’t like the perfect moment I visualized, but it is very Stesha, and it makes my heart beat faster.
On the third day, Stesha’s rut subsides, and with it, my body seems to calm as well.
I sit up slowly, blinking in the morning light, relieved to find the golden rays are not lancing through my skull. “I think…I think my false heat has gone.”
He gently combs his fingers through my tangled hair. “That is good news,aash’lin. My rut is leaving me as well. It must have been that our cycles wanted badly to sync up.”
“Did you enjoy your rut?”
He turns me in his arms and takes my face in his large hands. “I have never known such happiness. I can’t believe I’m this lucky. It has made all the pain and misery of the past worth enduring, because now I have you.”
“Will we be all right, you and me? Will we be able to put the past behind us?”
“I hope that the pain will fade, but I will never forget what we have been through to get here. It has been a trial, but it all proves how strong we are,aash’lin.”
“We could have turned on each other. We could have turned on ourselves. I thought about it many times.”
“So did I,aash’lin. But what stayed my hand was always holding you in my heart.”
He presses a hand to my heart, and I cover it with my own.
“And I you. I hope that we have many things to look forward to together.”
“Tell me what you wish for.”
“Everything,” I whisper. “Is it too much to ask?”
“For my Omega? Never. We will have everything.” He kisses me with promise.
31
Zenevieve
Isavelle has had her baby, and the whole kingdom rejoices for the new princess, whom her adoring parents have named Sylvi. She’s the prettiest little baby, and wherever Isavelle goes with her, Esmeral or Scourge are often close behind, or watching from a perch on a high tower.
Ravenna is gone from Lenhale, and Kane and the wild dragons have followed her. No doubt she wishes that he hadn’t. I can’t imagine what a torment it must be to hate and fear the man the gods have compelled you to desire and know that your life and body are in the hands of someone who has done some of the worst things imaginable. To be totally and completely ashamed and terrified of your own mate. I feel guilty that I never tried to be her friend, and that I resented her just because Stesha saved her life. I should have been proud of him and sympathized with her.
I confess everything to Queen Isavelle one afternoon as we’re sitting on the grass with Esmeral and her hatchlings. They arestrong enough to emerge from the nesting caves, and Esmeral led them proudly across the dusty dragongrounds, over the dragon bridge, and up to one of the queen’s favorite gardens. Now she’s napping contentedly among the flowers while we play with her nestlings. And what adorable, lively nestlings they are. Scourge’s dark and steady presence circles above us as he watches over his mate and his tiny offspring.
“I feel guilty for the thoughts I had about Ravenna during the games. How much I resented her for no reason,” I tell Isavelle.
“She feels guilty as well,” the queen tells me. “She was trying to provoke Kane’s anger by paying attention to Stesha, not realizing it would hurt you.”
