“Thank you.” Reiya dipped her head. “Vey’tar Oasis . . . that’s in the Numeria Desert, isn’t it?”
Ru Rong gave a small, approving nod. “Yes. Every year, the Talharen families gather there.”
Reiya tilted her head. “Talharen?”
“The nomadic families of the nine kingdoms,” Su Lian explained. “The Xians have been part of the Talharen for generations.”
Reiya caught the quiet pride in the woman’s voice—not boastful, but content. She could see it now—this family wasn’t just passing through the road; theybelongedto it. And for a fleeting moment, she envied their certainty.
Ru Rong added, “We meet at the oasis each year for the festival. Songs, stories, trade for a whole week—there’s nothing quite like it.”
The anticipation in her voice stirred Reiya’s curiosity. A desert festival . . . the kind of gathering she’d only ever read about in books, far removed from her carefully managed life.
Xian Jun’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Before we go any further, I must ask you.”
He paused, sharp gaze locking onto hers.
“Are you an Omega?”
The word landed hard beneath Reiya’s ribs. Her pulse faltered, but she straightened, smoothing her features into a mask of deliberate indifference.
Forcing a lightness she didn’t feel, she said, “Wouldn’t someone have stopped me before I ended up here? Don’t they keep Omegas safe—locked away, guarded like treasure?”
Xian Jun’s eyes stayed on her, unblinking, as if weighing every breath she took. He didn’t need to speak—the silence stretched tight between them. After a long pause, he gave a slow, reluctant nod.
“We travel alone now,” he explained, “but soon, we’ll join a caravan. There are rules we must follow.”
His voice stayed calm, but the warning ran just beneath it like an undertow.
“If there’s an Omega travelling with us, she must be reported. There’ll be Alphas among the caravan’s guards. They don’t handle surprises well.”
A cold knot twisted deeper in Reiya’s stomach.
One report. One careless word. That was all it would take for Castiel—or worse, one of his loyal dogs—to find her.
Or for some brute Alpha to claim her under some caravan’s law, binding her to a life she could never escape.
“No,” she said firmly, forcing the lie past the tightness in her throat. “I’m not an Omega.”
Xian Jun studied her for a long moment, his gaze steady and unreadable. She fought the urge to look away, to betray herself.
Then he turned without a word, reaching for a bundle of supplies.
“My cousin was an Omega.” He spoke almost absently, as if to the fire rather than to her. “The Xûen emperor’s soldiers took her from her village.”
He paused, adjusting the rope around a rolled blanket. “She was nine.”
The words settled between them like a lock sliding into place.
Everyone was born Beta—undefined, ordinary—until nature chose otherwise. Some Awakened as Alphas, fewer still as Omegas, the shift coming anytime between childhood and eighteen—though there were rare exceptions, like herself, who presented later.
But once it came, there was no undoing it.
A child like Xian Jun’s cousin—from a common background, especially—would’ve been easy prey the moment her Omega nature surfaced.
Reiya held her silence, the lie curling on her tongue—heavier now, harder to carry with every second that passed.
Chapter Twelve
