“Stop moving,” Medwin said, standing in the threshold of the lift, keeping it open. “Stay where you are. Hands up where I can see them.”
“What--? Did you fake this? What the hell?” I raised my hands, confusion eating at my insides and making my dragon fire burn hot enough to waste away the last bit of the bourbon left in my system.
“We’re going to get a few things straight right off the bat,” Medwin said. “I’m not against flaying you. A broken heart is nothing compared to what some omegas go through. I don’t care that you’re heir. I don’t care that your whole family thinks they’re free to take what they want. If you ever try to pull a Roster on me, I’ll cut off your balls and shove them so far up your ass that you taste them.”
I blinked.
“Pull a Roster?” I asked him.
“He thinks he can fuck whoever he wants whether they want to or not,” he growled.
Oh.
My father’s reputation must’ve only been a secret to me.
“Don’t look at me like you don’t know what I’m talking about. That dumb himbo look doesn’t work on me,” Medwin said. “I got dumb himbos lined up around the corner to fuck. I see straight through that horseshit.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that I only found out tonight, but I wasn’t sure he’d believe me at all and the thought of taking him anywhere near my parents sent a chill down my spine.Couldn’t this have waited until I figure out how to turn the world right side up on its axis again?
“I’m not a rapist,” were the words that tumbled out of my mouth again.
Medwin inched closer, pointing the knife at me as if he wanted to remind me that he was the only one allowed to move. It was such a shitty end to a shitty day. I wouldn’t hurt him. He was my omega. He was the one who was supposed to come along and make the world make sense. Only tonight—Well, tonight he was another reminder that I must’ve been living with my head under a rock for the last two decades.
When he was close enough, Medwin sniffed me. I must’ve smelled like sweat and bourbon, but he didn’t react except to meet my gaze.
“I won’t put up with you running around on me either,” he said. “And if you ever lay a hand on me, you might win the fight, but you have to sleep sometime and you can’t hide forever.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, my hands still up.
“You better not because love and magic won’t be enough to stop me from killing you, Clarence Moonscale,” he said and his scent said he was telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, may Frost have mercy on us all.
He lowered the knife and it disappeared from sight. Years later, I’d figured out that it was a simple glamour over a thigh sheath but that night it was magic.
“I don’t have a roommate,” he said. “I just wanted you to think someone would come to my rescue eventually before I brought you up here.”
The London Medwin lived in wasn’t the London I knew. My sire and his friends ran around pillaging his. Did he know about the eggs too? Did everyone know about everything except for me? How dumb could I be?
“You looked so shocked right now. I’d offer you a drink, but you smell like you’ve had enough for the night. All that celebrating has probably gone straight to your dick,” Medwin said.
No, it hadn’t. The only thing that had gone straight to my dick was him. I was rock hard and throbbing despite being held at knife point. Medwin stepped properly into the apartment and let the lift shut behind him. He unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it over the back of a leather sofa.
“What preparations will need to be made on your side?” he asked. “There’s some ceremony or something, right? Then we have to put on the theater show of a wedding? I’ll have to let my people know of course. I’ll have to…” he paused as if choosing his words wisely. “I’ll have to let them know that you don’t smell like Roster’s sins.”
“I..” I started but what could I say? “I have a plan.”
“I’m aware, alpha. There is a plan for every occasion when you’re part of the ruling family,” he nodded, moving into the living room. I followed straight to his little drink cart where he made something that had a lot of grenadine in it and drank it down before making another.
“No, I meant—Do you know about Ferrick?” I asked.
He turned and moved to lean against the sofa.
“Do I know about your carrier? Do all royals call their parents by their first names?” he asked. “I don’t think I’d like our hatchlings to do that.”
Our hatchlings. The words hit my dick and my heart at the same time. Our hatchlings might not be safe in this new London I’d discovered.
“I… About the egg smashing?” I asked, because if I couldn’t trust my true-mate who in the name of Frost’s fiery balls could I trust?
His eyes shifted to that of his dragon, and he looked me up and down as if I were the egg smasher instead of the unknowing son of one.
