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Even worse, I had a perverse streak inside me that made me do things I knew I shouldn’t. Like a penchant I had for wearing black gloss on my lips and painting my fingernails the same color. I figured the entire court had already decided I was irredeemable anyway, so I might as well not disappoint. Plus, if I did miscalculate and run into my stepmother, the black gloss and nail color never failed to get a reaction.
As for the visitors that she’d mentioned, I was only now aware of their presence. Three gorgeous, muscular men were seated at one of the two long trestle tables that ran down the center of the room. They were unreasonably beautiful people. And good gods, they were all Alphas. I tried to breathe through my mouth and not be affected by the pheromones streaming off them. I’d gotten one good whiff and that was plenty.
They all practically screamed dominance—it oozed from their pores, just like their strong, delicious smelling pheromones. There must be an omega in heat somewhere in here from their out-of-control scents, and I had to be careful not to get overwhelmed by them just because I was in the fallout. I looked around but couldn’t find the source. Maybe one of the servants? Being affected by another omega’s pheromones was another little “perk” of being an omega.
And my own fucked-up omega pheromones had me wanting to climb those Alphas like they were trees.
No one else seemed to be reacting, but then again, I was one of the few omegas who was ever at court. My stepmother Queen Berinda was a beta and heartily disliked omegas. I think she was jealous, personally, but she claimed our scents made her physically ill. It was bullshit, but that was Berinda in a nutshell.
None of the other men in the room—except for those three gorgeous Alphas—were posturing or acting aggressive in reaction to that other, unknown omega’s scent either, because my father now had only weak old men and betas as his close associates. He was paranoid, fearing a strong, young Alpha might try to take his throne away by force, and he was getting so frail he wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight to stop one if they did.
It was rare to have visitors at court, not to mention Alphas like these. Some of the biggest and strongest I’d ever seen. Aggressiveness poured off them in waves. Their pheromones were raging from whoever the omega was that they were scenting and all that put together was making me feel dizzy. An odor of spun sugar emanated from the muscle-bound Alpha on the end closest to the head table. And there was a sweet smell of cinnamon apples from the one with auburn highlights in his hair. The blond Adonis closest to me had a scent like chocolate brownies.
Great. Now I was craving sugar, apples and chocolate as well as Alpha knots. Thanks a lot.
I realized that all three of them had been staring at me since I sneaked in the back. It had been their fierce intensity that had made me feel so uneasy. What was that about anyway?
Ignoring them, I turned my attention back to the real danger in the room—my stepmother. She was finally taking her seat next to my father at the head table, which was on a raised dais, in front of the massive fireplace. The royals sat at right angles to the long trestle tables designated for their court, so it pretty effectively knocked off any heat to the rest of the frigid room. The lords and ladies seated there were all dressed in their silks, so they had to be freezing. I saw several of them trembling with the cold.
But hey—as long as the royal family was comfortable, right?
Actually, I understood why the nobles didn’t complain too much about where they were sitting, and it made sense. I wouldn’t have liked to turn my back on the royal family either. Much better for them to be front and center so you could keep your eye on them at all times.
The king and queen were pretty much universally hated throughout the kingdom, and most especially by their lords, from whom they demanded higher and higher taxes every year to help pay for my father’s ongoing war with Morovia and my stepmother’s increasingly lavish lifestyle.
I knew I needed to get out of Berinda’s sight, but I stood there another moment, considering my options as to the best way to accomplish that. I could try to exit by the back door and into the scullery, where the food was prepared. It was the same way I’d come in, but this late, I’d risk irritating the head cook, who could throw a mean meat cleaver when she was ready to serve the food, and someone got in her way. Or I could brazen it out, walk past my family and out the front doors, which was the quickest way back to my room. One thing for sure, I had to leave and soon, before my stepmother lost patience completely and began chucking the silverware at me.
“Oh, just get out,” Berinda snarled as I edged along the wall to the front entrance as fast as I could, having finally decided to just go for it. As I passed the three big Alphas, they turned to watch me pass. As the door safely shut behind me, I thought I heard one of my stepmother’s silver-plated chargers smash against the wood, but it behooved me to just keep my head down and take off as fast as I could before she lost it completely and came after me. I wouldn’t put it past her to fling one of those things down the corridor at me like a battle boomerang to try and take off my head.
Although I tried very hard to stay out of my half-sister’s and my stepmother’s way, they still despised me and took every chance they could to let me know how happy they’d be when I was out of their lives forever. They made no secret of the fact they wanted me totally out of the palace and out of their hair, and I was only too happy to go along with that plan. The thought of never seeing either one of them again was like a sighting of a unicorn—way too beautiful and lucky to be true.
My stepmother had, in fact, had first begun to look for a suitable Alpha for me to get me out of the way since I’d turned fifteen—which was four years ago now. I was now nineteen—well, nineteen and a half—old for an omega, and well past my prime. I was in dreadful danger of becoming an even bigger burden on my family than I already was. But finding me a mate was a big problem for them in a few different ways, and one in particular.
“Stop!” came the sudden, shrill, imperious voice behind me as I hustled down the corridor. I turned, already ducking and dodging, only to see my half-sister coming after me. Reluctantly, I came to a stop and waited for her to reach me, because I knew she wouldn’t quit until she had me cornered, and if she had to chase me down and I’d made her run, she’d take it out of my hide. Quite literally.
“We’ve invited those three Alphas foryou,” she said, her dark eyes glistening like the scales on a red-bellied black snake.
“What?Why me?”
I shifted uneasily, trusting neither Callista’s motives nor her choices. But I knew better than to make her angry, or else she might decide to rake those fingernails across my cheeks until the blood ran down my neck.
“Because Father insists you find an Alpha first. He says it’s imperative that you get a mate and have a child, so he’ll have an heir right away, before it’s too late. And you know my child can’t be an heir.”
Unfortunately, I did know and only too well. Inheritance was a huge problem because our tiny kingdom of Igella had truly Byzantine laws regarding the whole question of who inherited the throne, and my stepmother had been trying to work her way around them for years to no avail.
In our kingdom, the eldest child inherited the throne, and that would be me.Unlessthat child was an omega. Omegas couldn’t inherit, though theirAlphamates could rule as Regent for them. The crown would then pass to their eldest child, and so forth and so on down the line, Alpha mates still acting as Regents for any omegas or until the child came of age.
I was my father’s eldest child, but omega, so unfortunately, and because of these crazy laws, the king and queen were stuck with me as my father’s only possible heir, and I had to find a strong Alpha male to mate me, get me with child, and then boss me around as my Lord Regent for the remainder of my life. An unpleasant prospect for everyone involved, except the Regent, I guess.
Even if I were to predecease my father, the title still wouldn’t go to Callista, but skip over her entirely and go to my father’s nearest male relative, a distant and despised cousin from the southern part of the kingdom. So, while my stepmother would have gladly gotten me out of the way, it wouldn’t have helped her situation in the least. The laws were written into our Constitution, and not even my father could change them, though believe me, my stepmother had made him try on multiple occasions.
As his eldest child, then, Ihadto find a mate who was suitable as soon as possible. My father, who had lived a long, hard and profligate life, wasn’t exactly in his prime anymore. If I were to be still unmarried at the time of his death, his title would go to the aforementioned cousin and I, along with my stepmother and half-sister, would be kicked unceremoniously out on our asses.
That meant my stepmother, who liked her ass right where it was, found herself on board with finding me a mate, andtout suite, as she would say, because though she hated me, she liked her very comfortable lifestyle just fine
She thought she had a plan all worked out—one that would keep her in the castle. The plan involved me and her secret weapon, the remarkably beautiful Princess Callista.
Speaking of my half-sister, I brought my attention back to her, and not a second too soon, either, as she was already taking a menacing step toward me, her long red fingernails filed into sharp claws and ready for action.
