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He’d given me a map of everything, with the title. Had he known how perfect the gift was? I wasn’t sure. It didn’t replace my pelt, but it gave me even more to live for, to explore.
“...do hereby relinquish my position as Warlord of All Starlak…” Goran’s words wrenched my attention back to the moment.
The Alphas began shouting, crowding closer, their voices filled with shock and anger. To my dismay, the children almost all froze in place, more than one crouching on the rocky beach, covering their heads like they expected to be hurt. A boy in the back of the crowd fell, crying without making a sound. Lachlan was there in the next instant, making a shield with his body to keep anyone from stepping on him.
A dark-haired little girl who couldn’t be more than three was almost camouflaged on the rocks. The Alphas who rushed past didn’t see her, and she toppled over, falling into a tide pool with an unheard splash.
But not unseen. I lunged for her, but somehow a warrior was already there, reaching down and cradling the trembling, wet girl to his chest. “You’re all right, little one. I won’t let anyone harm you.” He’d dropped something to grab the child. A harp, I realized.
“Shame!” a voice called out over the noise, cutting it into silence with one syllable. The crowd stilled, until the only sound was the sea, and the terrible, weeping gasps of the children and Omegas who had been traumatized by the outburst. “You should all be ashamed. Is this the behavior of Alphas sworn to protect the young, the broken, the widows and orphans?”
Mirrim stood on a small rise, the tattooed sea witch girl beside her brandishing a sword at the closest Alphas. Something in the woman’s expression had the entire group going silent and dropping their heads.
“Queen Mirrim,” I called out. “What is wrong?”
She didn’t answer, but the girl did. “She was looking for an Alpha worthy of saving an Omega’s life. Instead, she found… rabble.”
“Forgive us,” Dustin said, dropping to one knee in front of the girl. “We fail and fail, and fail again, unworthy of the Goddess’s grace. We grovel at your pearly toes, unfit to look upon your face.” I cringed at the spontaneous poetry.
Her lips twitched with something that might have been a sneer, or a stomachache.
Goran stepped up before she could use the sword in her hand. “Adiah? Mirrim? What’s wrong?”
The old woman’s words were heavy. “Rielle is awake. She needs an Alpha.”
Adiah muttered, “No. None of these bastards will treat her right.”
“Dustin?” Goran said quietly.
“No!” Adiah repeated, then closed her mouth so hard, her jaw clicked. Goran flinched. Mirrim narrowed her eyes.
Dustin swallowed hard and stood. “I would never, my queen.”
Before Adiah could answer, Rielle appeared behind them both, shuffling forward. Her voice was high and sweet. “Where… Where is he?” The wind blew her scent over the crowd of Alphas, but not one of them moved or made a noise.
“Rielle?” Lachlan said softly. “Who are you asking for?”
The woman gazed up at him. “The music stopped. I need the music.”
Ah. I looked down at the warrior with the harp, who was humming softly into the little girl’s ear, his arms still around the child. “Luten.”
His gaze rose to mine. His cheeks were red. “My lord?”
Rielle’s neck stiffened at the sound of his voice, and I leaned down. “You did well to protect the child. Now you have another task, if you accept it.”
He swallowed hard. “Only if she… if she consents. If she wants me.”
She did. The two of them stumbled back up the rise to the cottage, Mirrim trailing behind. Goran snapped out a few commands, and the children and remaining Omegas were carefully escorted to safe seats behind him.
“I am leaving,” Goran announced, his eyes piercing as he sneered at the shame-faced warriors. “You have all sworn to obey me. But I made a vow to obey my mate. She has given me a command, and I must leave you to carry it out. But the fire god could come at any moment for revenge—or to take back these innocents. If you ever hope to regain your honor, you will listen to me now. I do hereby relinquish my position as Warlord of All Starlak… until my return to Starlak, with my mate. In my absence, you will follow the commands of Dustin, once of Warrior’s Ridge.”
He reached up and gathered three of his braids, and set his knife to them just above the beads. They fell into his palm, and he held them up: a dragon, a bear, and a wolf’s head, all gleaming, though the metal had gained a patina over the years. “Dustin, wear these beads as a sign of your place and my faith in you. You led well, young warrior. Lead on.”
“Warlord,” Dustin choked out as he stared at the beads. “I’m not… not strong enough. Not old enough.”
“I was no older than you when the Warlord Wulfram chose me to lead while he went on a perilous quest. You have proven your strength, of body, mind, and heart.” Goran smiled almost wistfully down at the young man he’d thrown out of his army entirely only a few months before. “Though your poetry needs work.” Stepping back, he called to Adiah, “Perhaps you can help him with that, Omega.”
Dustin and Adiah both blushed furiously. Before either one could reply, though, Goran grabbed a canteen of fresh water and a small pack of food from the piled-up provisions the Alphas had not yet loaded onto their boat. He strode to one of the canoes and turned it over, examining it with a critical eye.
