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“I’m just going to have to figure it out with Eric…” We could work it out. We were mates. Once he knew that, it would change everything.
I cracked my book, staring at it sadly.
“It doesn’t really matter what I want. I don’t have a choice. Not really.”
Frowning, I glanced around the room before spotting an old mop leaning against an empty bookshelf.
Okay. That would do.
I set it up at my side, sorting it out until it was right, and then cracked my textbook again.
“I’m only up here because my hair sucks and I know the other omegas will make fun of it,” I told mop-Roxy. “It hadnothingto do with Dusk.”
I peered down at the page. I had the complete course curriculum, and I knew today we were studying bond etiquette, so I could do the lesson myself.
While normal bonds may be discussed between pack and omega, it is never proper etiquette for omegas who have found their scent matches to bring upa princess bond.
When making an official princess bond offer, the pack is risking much. Unlike the rejection of a normal bond, which leaves both parties in equal standing, the rejection of a princess bond offers the rejecting omega ‘Duchess or Duke’ status, and severs that pack’s ability to form a scent match again, even after their scent matches death. This inability for another scent match has even been known to carry over into packs that have lost and added enough alphas to reform their scent match entirely.
Hmm. It wouldn’t matter, right? Not for me. Not with what I knew. I considered that paragraph for a while before a clatter ripped me from my thoughts.
“Oh, shit.” Mop-Roxy had fallen over. “I’m sorry.” I propped her back up and looked back down at the page.
We studied for a while longer before my mood spiralled. It was bad, if studying wasn’t enough to distract me.
Why wasn’t it easier for me to go to my mates today?
To make Dusk live up to his word?
Icouldn’twant him.
“Right.” I set my book down, clutching the back of my neck where I could feel that faint scar. “As you hide in the fucking attic.”
But falling for Dusk wasn’t allowed.
He didn’t understand the truth.
Last night, what I’d overheard Eric say in the library to Roxy, that wasn’t the real him. It couldn’t be. I remembered watching them from the bannisters atthe Estate. I remembered hiding there for hours until I was shooed away by another maid.
The Lincoln pack were having dinner with Uncle, talking about the work they wanted to do in the Arkology field; of illnesses they’d wanted to cure.
I’d managed to sneak past their room later, lingering enough to catch snippets of their conversation in the evening when they were alone, so desperate to learn more about them. I hadn’t heard much, but they hadn’t seemed cruel.
They’d seemed… driven. Dedicated. They wanted to study Arkology to make a difference in the world—to Alpha-Omega illnesses.
“Roxy,” I whispered. “Iknowthat’s not who they are.”
It couldn’t be.
“I swear… I know it sounds crazy, but I know what I heard.”
“...Not where I thought our life was heading.” That had been Gareth. I recognised his voice from dinner, low and distinct. I’d just caught his words through the door. “...is still holding out hope for a princess bond.”
It was the moment I’d realised—truly realised what they were.
“It’s the only reason I risked everything to come,” I said. They wanted their scent matched mate as much as I needed them. Mates didn’t always offer princess bonds, but minewantedto.
They were searching for love.
