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The wolves led me to a massive set of heavy wooden doors. It looked like the entrance to a throne room, and when the guard posted at the door opened it, I realized that wasn't far from the truth.
As large as the room was, it seemed to serve the singular purpose of housing a massive high-backed chair on the center of a dais. There were several low tables surrounding it, at which no fewer than a dozen people were seated. They were all lounging with a banquet of food spread out before them, and goblets of what I assumed to be wine in their hands.
I hoped it was wine.
In the center, seated on the throne before me, there was the man I presumed to be Leonidas. He wasn't anything like I had expected, either, even though I really wasn't sure what I had expected of him.
He was quite possibly the biggest human—to use the term loosely—I had ever seen, and his build was solid muscle. He had long, dark brown hair that flowed around his shoulders, and even though he was reclining in a seemingly bored position, the sheer magnitude of his physique was obvious from a distance. He was younger than I had expected, too. Twenty-five, maybe thirty at the most. I knew shifters didn't age as quickly as humans, so it was hard to say how old he really was, but the piercing golden eyes that met mine as I approached made him seem much older than he had looked at first glance.
That stare had a similar effect on me as Castor’s, and I would have assumed it was an alpha thing, but Castor had had that effect long before he was turned. The shifter's gaze darkened as it swept over me, and I came to a stop not far from his throne, unwilling to get any closer unless I had to.
"What do we have here?" he asked, lifting his head as if he was sniffing the air. I was really getting tired of that. His curiosity turned to something darker. Something that made me feel a bit sick. "Omega," he said, his voice low and rumbling as he pushed himself up from the throne. It took all I had not to back away as he walked down the steps leading off the dais.
When he came to stand in front of me, the intensity of his energy made the air itself crackle as if it were alive with electricity.
"Let's have a look at you," he said, studying me a bit too closely for comfort. He made no attempt to hide the fact that he was appraising me. I was not even the least bit relieved that he seemed to approve of what he saw. My fur bristled instinctively despite my best attempts to keep a brave face as he reached for me, taking my jaw in his rough hand.
"I have to admit, I'm surprised and a bit disappointed,” he finally said. “I thought the hunters were stubborn enough that we would have to kill at least half of them before they delivered you." He paused, as if waiting for me to respond. “You may speak. We are close kin, and I can understand you as easily in this form as the other.”
I gritted my teeth at the reminder of our connection. “Kin” wasn’t quite how I would phrase it, though.They didn't deliver me,I replied.I came on my own.
He raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? And how did you escape?"
Careful planning,I answered, resisting the urge to bite his hand.
He watched me, something like amusement dancing in his eyes. "When I heard the hunters had an omega fighting for them, I didn't believe it, but seeing you standing here with that look of disdain in your eyes, it's a little easier."
I knew that probably wasn't supposed to be a compliment, but I certainly took it as one.I'm here with a proposition.
"A proposition?" He raised an eyebrow, and to my relief, he finally dropped his hand. It was harder to resist the instinct to bite in this form than I’d thought, but I wasn’t about to shift back and become even more vulnerable than I had to be.
The shifters gathered around the room had ceased their conversations, and they were all watching us with great curiosity. I could imagine this wasn't something that happened every day to interrupt their drunken revelry.
"I'm not sure you're in any position to bargain, but for the sake of my curiosity, what is it you suggest?” he asked.
As deceptively pleasant as his low, gravelly voice was, his condescension was already grating on me.
One of your fallen showed me how to get to you and said you wanted me, I said, holding my arms up with a shrug.So, here I am. And here I’ll stay, so long as you don't attack the Sanguine Church again.
The bastards at the Order could get fucked for all I cared.
Leonidas listened quietly, chuckling when I was finished. "As you said, here you are," he began. "What makes you think I would do what you ask when I already have you right where I want you?”
Because there's no honor in doing otherwise,I answered.And I assume honor is something you care about, unlike your father. That's why you cast out your brother in the first place, isn't it? Aleko? The one who hunted children?
His eyes narrowed dangerously, and for a moment, I thought he was going to strike me. I braced myself for it, even though he could probably put me through the wall if he wanted to. Maybe several walls, given the look of those muscles.
"A wolf who betrays his own kind has nothing to say about honor," he said bitterly, baring his tightly clenched fangs as he spoke through them.
I didn't betray anyone,I said, resisting the overwhelming urge to break eye contact.Certainly not “my kind.” Your brother attacked me and left me for dead.
Leonidas’s eyes widened as I spoke. “My brother… He was your sire?”
He was my nightmare,I replied, snarling.He left me to kill my own family. I owe him nothing, and while I might not have been the one to put a silver blade through his heart, I would have if I’d had the chance. Happily.
I was all but certain he was going to hit me now. When he didn't, I realized the whole omega thing was an even bigger deal than I had thought. I could pretty much get away with murder. Maybe even literal murder.
"You speak boldly for one who knows nothing," he remarked. "I can see why the hunters grew fond of you."
