Page 19 of Omega’s Fealty

“No,” he agrees. “It isn’t.”

He sits back. The chair creaks.

“Then I’m guessing,” he says finally. “There’s stuff you can get. Not good stuff. Might slow it down, might not. If I can lay hands on some, you take it and we see.” He stands and the chair comes up with him, folded one-handed. “You want it or not?”

“Yes.” It is out before he finishes. “Yes. Please.”

He nods once. He turns for the door, but I have one more question. “What is your name?”

He stops. He does not turn around. His shoulders go up and stay up, and I count two full breaths before he answers. By then, I already know that whatever he says is going to be a lie.

“Banks,” he says. “You can call me Banks.”

“Banks.”

“Sit tight, Highness.”

Then he is gone and I am left with the scent that he left.

He lied. Of course, he did. He wasn’t going to give me a real name but I have something else to put with the other things I know about him. He isn’t a good liar.

I have other information too. He is expecting me to stay in this box for days more. At least.

Another bit of information: he is breaking rules for me.

Maybe not for me. Maybe just for himself. But he is breaking them and whoever he is breaking them for is dangerous. Dangerous enough that he thinks they will kill him over something that is not his fault.

He is not the person in charge. I didn’t think he was, but it is a wedge that I can use between them and him. That is genuinely useful.

And I am going into heat.

I put my head back against the steel and shut my eyes.

I cannot have sex with him.

I have never had sex with anyone. Omegas must come to the marriage bed untouched.

That is not simply a custom in Monteverra. It is the law.

The statutes on adultery do not care that I am unmarried. Any alpha who is not your husband is adultery. The penalty for an omega who commits adultery is death.

I don’t know whether they would make an exception for the crown prince. That has never been tested and I would rather not find out.

I am a virgin and I intend to stay a virgin until my wedding night. It is literally a matter of life and death. My death.

And there is the other thing. The reason omegas of the blood are kept untouched in the first place.

Whatever grows in me is the throne.

So no. Not him, not anyone, not here.

It is a very clear position.

It soon becomes clear why they call it a “heat.”

It was freezing in here. That soon stops. My skin hurts. My shirt hurts. I take it off and lie on the cold of the floor in my underwear. It is good for a minute and then it isn’t. There is a low ache in my belly that comes and goes. My mouth is dry no matter how much I drink and I am running out of water.

I am so hot that I am sweating.