Page 30 of Omega’s Fealty

I watch until he finally wakes up slow. I feel it happen. His breathing changes, then he goes very still, the way you do when you remember where you are.

Then he lifts his head and looks at me and doesn’t look away.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hello.”

His voice is wrecked. I did that. He clears his throat and puts his chin back down on my chest and looks at me from there.

“There is something I should tell you,” he says. “Before the heat comes back.”

“Okay.” My heart skips a beat. I don’t know what he is going to say. I know what I am hoping for.

“What we have done is a capital crime.”

That wasn’t what I was expecting.

“You mean the kidnapping?” I say, confused. There is no “we” in that. He didn’t kidnap himself. Technically, I didn’t either.

“The sex.” He shifts, lifting his head. His body is lean and long, warm skin against mine. “In Monteverra, an omega belongs to his husband. Before that, to his father. Sex with any alpha who is not the husband is adultery. It doesn’t matter that I am not married.” He is watching my face. “The penalty is death. Technically, the law applies to alphas too, but somehow it is only ever omegas who are convicted.”

I knew that Monteverra was conservative, but I’ve never been politically or geographically minded. If you had asked me two weeks ago, I’d have said I’d heard that their omegas didn’t have a lot of rights, but that would have been the extent of my knowledge.

The penalty is death.

I can’t send him back now. There’s no reason they need to know. The heat will be done soon. He’s just a few days and a good shower from no one being able to tell.

“I won’t tell anyone.” The moment I say it, I realize it is the wrong answer. His face goes a careful blank. “I mean, I would never do anything to hurt you. I won’t.”

The blank expression is replaced with one of sheer startlement, then he surprises me with a sudden laugh. “You kidnapped me.”

He doesn’t know it wasn’t me. He doesn’t know anything. I shake my head slowly. “No, I showed up for guard duty. I didn’t know it was going to be you. I didn’t sign up for that. I wouldn’t have. I’ve always refused any kind of job involving people. But when I got here and found out, it was too late to back out.”

He studies me, his eyes penetrating mine. Then he lifts his head and kisses me softly.

I kiss him back but I am still stuck on the whole “sex means death” thing. What kind of backward country? I pull back.

“You’re the crown prince,” I say. “The sole heir. They can’t execute you. They’ll just pretend it didn’t happen.”

They better. I would wage a one-man war on an entire fucking country if any of them dared touch even a hair on his head.

“The law has never been tested on a prince,” he admits. “But that is what it says.”

I don’t say anything for a while. My hand is still in his hair. He knew this. He knew that sex with me risked his death. Maybe it was just the heat. Maybe not.

Omegas can resist their heats. It hurts them and it’s hard, but they are capable of saying no.

He didn’t. He knew it and he kissed me anyway. Did a lot more than kissing.

He is lying on me with his chin on my chest and his eyes on me and he is not scared. Not of me. Not of the law. He’s just telling me. “Nobody’s going to find out.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I do. I’ll make sure of it. I’m going to keep you safe.”

He nods, like that is fair. He puts his cheek down on my chest again. His scent is all over me and I breathe it in and hold it there.

“Tell me something,” he says, after a while.