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“Not a chance,” Asher said, laughing softly. “I want to hear all about him. What the hell is an omega doing out here anyway?”
“He was using magic to disguise himself as a beta,” Brandon said. “Tell him, Wyatt.”
I shot Brandon a dirty look, but we spent the rest of the evening talking, and I told Asher how I’d met Darcy and about my suspicions, though no other Alphas noticed anything.Brandon and I stayed late, switching over to wine with Asher after a while as I explained my story of confronting Darcy. He listened carefully and then, like Brandon, Asher urged me to be cautious and not jump into anything. I respected his opinion, and I listened to what he had to say, but I knew it was already too late for any second thoughts. I was feeling too connected to Darcy to leave him and never see him again. It was too soon to say love, but I definitely felt strongly possessive of him. I felt an urgent need to take care of him. In the end, they both agreed that we could take him back to our lodge before we went looking for the viscountess.
The sentries stopped us on the way back to our tent later, but they had been slow to challenge us, and I could tell they’d been half asleep. We sternly lectured them for a few minutes before going on to our tent. I hoped the lecture we’d given them would do some good, but I didn’t have much confidence it would. As I’d told Asher earlier that evening, betas made good clerks, but not good soldiers.
The camp was dark and quiet, with only a few campfires still blazing, though most of them were only glowing coals in the darkness by this time of night. I couldn’t resist going by to check on Darcy before I turned in. I could smell him from where I stood outside the little “tent” he and his friend Anders had erected. I still couldn’t understand how I was the only one affected by his scent, because it was so patently obvious to me. I stood for a moment listening to Anders’ soft snores before peeking in, and I saw Darcy’s slim form under the blanket on the right, his golden curls the only brightness there in the gloom inside the tent.
Feeling vaguely unsatisfied and irritable, I turned away and went back to my own side of camp and the larger tent we had put up earlier that afternoon. I didn’t like the idea of being parted from him, and when exactly had that happened?
I went inside our tent and got ready to crawl in my own bed. Brandon was already wrapped in his bedroll and asleep, which made me wonder just how long I’d stood outside that dog tent, considering whether or not I should just snatch Darcy up and take him with me. It was better for him if no one suspected what he was as yet, however, so I knew the right thing to do was to let him finish this training mission and then I’d take him to my lodge. It was for the best, and I knew that, though every step away from him and back to my own tent without him was literally painful.
****
Darcy
Morning, as I couldn’t fail to notice, always came exceedingly early in camp, and this one was no exception. Anders and I woke up with the reveille bugle call around seven. I rolled out of my blanket, feeling stiff and with a sore back from sleeping on the ground. I had a headache too and felt almost like I’d had too much to drink. It was getting colder, and that didn’t help any either. In fact, I sat up in the little dog tent that managed to be both stifling and cold at the same time for a while, just cataloging all my complaints. Anders sat up yawning and knocked an elbow into my face, which didn’t help a bit.
“Morning,” he mumbled, scratching his chest. “Was that bugle call?”
I replied with a grunt and crawled out of the blankets with my clothes, shivering in the chill air outside as I pulled them on.
I needed to go down to the stream to wash while Anders was having his breakfast. I couldn’t afford to skip that again, no matter what, and I’d promised Wyatt. As I crawled out of my tent, I almost expected to see the big Alpha somewhere around, but there was no sign of him. Memories of the night before came crowding back, but only in bits and pieces and still, my face got heated with remembering the things he’d done to me—and how I’d reacted to them. I was mortified by the way I’d acted. I didn’t understand why Wyatt seemed to be the only one who noticed me or who was affected by me. Again, Barbarosa’s words about “the noble warrior” being the one to bring about my fate came back to dance around me as I made my way to the stream. Was Wyatt the one she’d prophesied about? The one with the power to break her spell and bring on my cycle? He’d certainly found me out and put me in heat without even breaking a sweat.
What would happen to me if he did it again? And again, and again every time I saw him? There was no way I could stay here at camp now. But where would I go and what would I do? It was a scary idea and not one I wanted to think about, so I concentrated instead on bathing myself. One calamity at a time, thank you very much.
I dipped my damp towel in the icy water and wrung it out some, and then I slipped behind some trees to take off my shirt and pants and clean up. It wasn’t as good as a real bath, but there wasn’t enough time for that and too many people were around. So, after scrubbing myself as well as I could, I found the food wagon and got myself a mug of black coffee, some bread and some delicious, sliced bacon that had been fried up in a pan over the fire. Maybe it wasn’t so much good tasting as the fact that I was starving, but anyway, it tasted good enough to me and filled me up.
After breakfast, I took some of my potion and then put it back in my pack. I hadn’t brought much with me, having left the bigger bottle inside my locker at the fort. I wouldn’t need it before we got back.
Anders was stuffing some padding into his boots when I returned, and he glanced up at me. “Word is that another Alpha arrived last night to see Alpha Brandon and Alpha Wyatt. Maybe he’s come with a message for them from the king. Maybe we’re about to start fighting the Crillians soon.”
I hoped not. I had, of course, dreamed of battles for a long time now—of loud, uncertain and bloody fights with the enemy—but that was when I’d first come to be in the Imperial Army and had still been fired up with excitement. Back then, I’d imagined vast scenes of battle over some glorious cause, with flags flying in the air and rifle fire being exchanged on both sides. I had imagined many times how I’d act and feel and what I’d do.
In dreams, I’d seen myself in violent struggles, protecting the men around me and encouraging those who were afraid with my own fierce example of bravery. But then I’d learned that the “glorious causes” usually fought weren’t really glorious at all, but just some squabble or other between kings. Not that they weren’t necessarily important, but were they really enough for men to die for? The royals certainly thought so, but I wasn’t so sure anymore.
I’d been secretly afraid for a while now that the time of bloody battles, glorious causes and brave deeds were all in the past, reduced to mere lines of bloody history written on the pages of old books gathering dust in the library. Maybe the old stories had never even been true at all.
The grim reality seemed to be crushing boredom and sore muscles from constant training exercises and getting up way too early and doing all kinds of boring work, like cleaning latrines and mopping floors. All of that had trampled on my old dreams over time and insidiously managed to discourage me. I began to long for home. I wanted to talk to my aunt and go on long rambling walks in the twilight and sit on the grass to look up at the constellations.
If I were home, though, I wouldn’t see Wyatt, and that wouldn’t do at all.
How had he come to mean so much to me so quickly? I’d always thought he was gorgeous, but this overwhelming attraction was new. Well, maybe not new—I’d just never before entertained the possibility. He was a nobleman, cousin to kings and a Duke in his own right, through his family. And he was an Alpha, one of the strongest I’d ever seen. What on earth could he possibly see in me?
The answer was nothing—nothing outside of lust. And once that had been assuaged, what then? As my aunt had always warned me, Alphas couldn’t be trusted. They’d use up any omega they came across and then throw them away when they were finished with them.
Disconsolate, I made my way back to my campfire and saw that there was movement all around the camp as we got ready to march out for the day. Officers rode past at a gallop, always seeming to be in a hurry. Soon the sergeants would be yelling at us to get in line and begin our day’s march.
Only—I hadn’t seen Wyatt yet, and I needed to talk to him about what had happened at the stream the night before and about what he’d said and done. What was he going to do now that he knew about me? Was he planning on telling everyone what I really was, making it necessary for me to leave? I had tried to think about the things he’d said to me, but it was only now that my full memories of what happened were coming back. Wyatt knew now what I was—an omega. And I couldn’t see him turning a blind eye to that. Not in a million years. He was far too stern and serious, not to mention being an officer. Even though as an Alpha, he’d been affected by the pheromones in my scent, as I had been, he had maintained enough composure not to throw me to the ground and give me his knot. He had made me take the potion so that no other Alphas would scent me, and he’d said…he’d said—damn it, I couldn’t remember exactly what he’d said. All I remembered was his hands on me and him kissing me.
I actually got a little weak in the knees as those memories came back. I thought he told me I belonged to him, but that must have only been the heat lust talking. The idea of belonging to Alpha Wyatt was too good to be true, and I must have misunderstood him. He was so far above me in rank and station. I was nobody compared to him. Plus, it was hard for me to fathom such a thing, because up until now, I thought he hated me. I knew I got on his nerves. So why would he want me, of all people? It had to be the lust he’d experienced when I’d suddenly gone into heat, and that was purely a biological thing.
I remembered my aunt’s warnings about what would happen if an Alpha decided he wanted me.“If you come across some Alpha, he might decide he wants to keep you. That’s what happened to your poor mother. That man she married—your so-called father—saw her at the market and followed her home to ask our father for her hand in marriage. Then he forced babies on her that quickly died. One after another until she was used up. Until it killed her as surely as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. Yours was far from her first pregnancy, you know. There were six before you, and she lost every one of them. The doctor said pregnancy and giving birth was too dangerous for her, and indeed, you were the only child who lived. But your father ignored what the doctor said.”
I remember looking up at her in horror. “And you think the same thing will happen to me?”
“It could. I don’t know, but do you really want to take that chance?”
