Chapter 18 Oros
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
OROS
My knot is fucking killing me.
But rather than being in my suite with Taliana, I’m standing in her father’s suite with Rio hovering on a screen between us.
My brother leans against the wall in the corner of the room, his disapproval heavy despite his silence.
When Rio requested a call thirty minutes ago, I assumed it was to discuss his arrival.
Instead, he said he needed to see Keegan first.
“Why?” Onyx demanded.
“I’ll explain after I see him” was Rio’s reply.
Onyx instantly vetoed that plan. But I allowed it, hence the reason we’re here.
But my patience has limits.
His request insinuated that he didn’t trust my handling of his friend. And that irritates me.
“Well, you see him,” I prompt Rio. “Now tell me why you needed proof of his welfare.”
Rio ignores me, his focus on Keegan. “Well?”
“The rumors are true,” the Alpha replies.
I arch a brow. “What rumors?”
“That you value your Omegas, regardless of their breed,” Rio says, finally looking at me again through the translucent screen. “You were right that I sent Keegan there for a reason, but it’s not the reason you suspected.”
“So you didn’t send him and his daughter here to spy on us?” I ask, trying my best to keep calm despite the flare of anger brewing inside me.
However, before that flare can blaze into an inferno, Keegan says, “Taliana has nothing to do with this.”
“She has everything to do with it,” Rio corrects, causing that furious flicker to reignite. “But not in the way you think.”
“Then tell me what to think,” I say through my teeth as fiery energy builds all around me.
I don’t bother glancing at Onyx; I know exactly what kind of face he’s making right now. The “I told you so” taunt practically radiates off him without him even having to speak.
Or maybe that’s just my own internal voice chastising me for falling for Taliana’s scent.
It was too good to be true.
She was too good to be true.
“Taliana is about to go into heat, and she needs a mate,” Rio says. “So I sent him to you for two reasons. First, I knew her wolf wouldn’t be accepted here. And second, I’ve heard rumors of how your Alphas treat Omegas in Gold Sector.”
“Taliana knew neither of those reasons,” Keegan interjects. “I prepared her for the worst-case scenario, just like we discussed.”
“I know, and that made her the perfect candidate for all of this,” Rio replies, glancing at his spy before looking at me again. “I wanted to see how you would treat her. How your Alphas treated her.”
I glare at him. “So you sent her in here as, what, some kind of test?”
“Yes.” There’s not even a hint of hesitation or remorse in that one-word response.
“Why?” I demand. “Why do you care how we treat Omegas here? Are you trying to discredit our reputation for cruelty? Because I’ll happily prove that reputation as well-earned, right here, right fucking now.”
Onyx growls in agreement, a blade appearing in his hand as he ashes to my side.
He’s my Second for a reason. My enforcer when I need him. And he’ll make an example of Keegan if I allow it. If I request it.
“I needed to know before I trusted you with my sister,” Rio says, his words so unexpected that my ire momentarily dies.
“Your sister?” I ask, my brow furrowing. “Taliana…?”
“No.” He runs his fingers through his hair, his gaze cutting to Keegan again.
Which is really fucking annoying.
“Tell him,” Keegan encourages. “You can see what kind of state I’m in—well fed, content, staying in a suite, not a dungeon. While I haven’t been permitted to meet with Taliana, I’ve checked in on her several times without anyone knowing. She’s pleased and content.”
Rio nods. “I saw her the other day. She’s the spitting image of Helena.”
Keegan’s responding smile is almost sad in nature, not happy. But I can’t focus on that so much as the words being exchanged between him and Rio.
When did he check on Taliana? I’ve been with her every day. However, I haven’t seen him at all, nor has she mentioned him.
“Yes,” Keegan murmurs. “Fortunately, Tali is nothing like her mother.”
Onyx grunts. “That remains to be seen.”
Keegan looks at him. “Helena seduced me with her scent. Used me for my knot. And never had the intention of mating me. All she wanted was to be bred.”
“And you expect us to believe your daughter isn’t playing a similar game?
Particularly after you openly admit to using your daughter as a ploy to enter our waters and spy on our internal processes for an outsider?
” My brother twirls a silver blade between his fingers, the picture of calm and deadly.
“That alone is grounds for death, traitor.”
That has Keegan jumping to his feet. “Hurt me all you want, but Taliana is innocent.”
“Is she?” Onyx returns coolly. “Taliana has ensnared my brother in some sort of scented trap, which I already questioned the validity of before. However, now I’m certain it’s purposeful and nefarious. And I won’t let you or your daughter hurt my prince. My brother.”
I blow out a breath, this entire exchange leaving me uneasy.
Valid or not, I don’t like discussing Taliana in this manner. I’ve spent a week with her, gotten to know her more and more each day. And not once have I scented a lie on her.
While it’s entirely possible that I’m merely drunk on her perfume and incapable of smelling anything else, I don’t think she’s here to harm me. She doesn’t even know I’m the Gold Sector Prince.
Unless that’s a lie, too, and I’ve misread her entirely.
“I understand,” Rio says solemnly. “I feel the same way about my sister. Which is why I asked this of Keegan when he reached out to me with his sanctuary request. I saw the opportunity and seized it. If you want to punish someone, punish me. But I ask that you at least hear me out first.”
Onyx is practically vibrating with fury, something I very much understand. But I place my palm on his shoulder to quell him. “Explain,” I tell Rio. “Quickly,” I add. Because I’m as livid as my brother, perhaps even more so.
Taliana might be innocent in all this, but I don’t appreciate being used or tested in this manner.
I asked her a week ago if she wanted a mate, if she was here willingly. And I never coaxed a true response from her.
She was under the impression that taking a mate was her only choice.
Because her father prepared her for this, told her the worst—or at least allowed her to think that way.
No wonder she thought I was going to knot her immediately.
Fuck.
“Basalt is either dead or indisposed,” Rio says, his words entirely unexpected and seemingly unrelated to everything we’ve been discussing. “And I’m fairly certain his Second has aligned Obsidian Sector with the Djinn.”
I stare at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?” The alliance with the Djinn isn’t a surprise, given recent events, but hearing his thoughts on Basalt is certainly a shock.
“And what the hell does this have to do with your sister?” Onyx adds.
“You mentioned Keegan being my spy the other day and again today,” Rio says, ignoring my brother entirely and only focusing on me.
“He’s more than a spy. He’s a fucking chameleon.
He could have left with Taliana at any time, but he chose to stay in Obsidian Sector because he sensed something wasn’t right.
Not just with Helena, but also with Basalt. ”
Keegan palms the back of his neck and glances out the window, his shoulders rigid. “In nearly two decades there, I never actually saw him. Only Wes, his Second.”
“So where’s Basalt?” I ask.
“My question precisely,” Rio muttered. “Everything is being done in Basalt’s name, but it seems Wes is running the show.”
“Still not sure how this pertains to your sister,” Onyx drawls.
Rio finally looks at him, his expression riddled with irritation.
“During the Infected Era, my father and Basalt’s father made a blood vow—the Drakonians of Obsidian Sector would stay out of Jasper Sector and Silver Sector if my father agreed to mate his firstborn Omega to an Alpha in Basalt’s family line. ”
I inhale slowly, the mention of the agreement one that brings back a myriad of memories. Of times when arranged matings were common amongst the Drakonians.
Fuck, they’re still common. Mostly because that generation of Alphas still exists. We’re immortal. Heirs just commonly surpass their fathers in the ranks, our powers naturally strengthening in our offspring when mated to the right Omega.
Hence the purpose of these forced pairings.
Many Alpha fathers have offered me their Omegas, their goals being to align our families and turn their daughters into a princess. They all assumed I wanted a strong heir, too.
They learned quickly that my priorities rest elsewhere.
Thus, I refused all such arrangements.
But now I’m wondering if I fell into one by accident. “Who is your sister?” I ask, my voice lower than before.
He told Taliana to call him Uncle Rio. He claimed she wasn’t related to him by blood. Said “no” when I asked minutes earlier about their relationship.
Except my stomach is churning with dread, my mind spinning with a thousand ideas. None of them good.
“She’s no one you’ve met, her existence one my family has kept secret for the last twenty-five years.
But Basalt’s father recently reached out with a missive that made it clear he not only knows of her but is also very aware of her age.
And he expects her to appear in Obsidian Sector before her next heat. To wed his youngest son, Alpha Wes.”
Keegan’s jaw visibly clenches. Though, I doubt this is news to him, given everything that’s been revealed thus far in this conversation.
He was sent here to see how Gold Sector handled Omegas.
Used his own daughter as bait.
All to test our Alphas and determine if the “rumors” about our treatment were true. Rumors I’m not entirely sure exist because all I’ve ever heard about Gold Sector is how cruel we are, how we bargain our precious metals and stones for Omegas, how fearsome we can be when crossed.
Nothing about what actually happens inside our walls.
So either Riordan has another plant—a spy I’ve yet to unearth—or he was merely guessing. And what a dangerous guess that could have been.
“You want us to help hide your sister,” Onyx says slowly, clearly having mentally waltzed down a path similar to the one I just did. Though I hadn’t quite reached that conclusion yet, it does feel right.
He sent his chameleon-like spy into my territory to see if we would be a good fit. “What would have happened if we weren’t kind?” I ask him, not giving Keegan or Riordan a chance to respond to my brother. “What if we had taken your daughter and raped her like she feared?”
Keegan’s eyes narrow, his aggression mounting in a blink. “I would have killed as many Alphas as I could trying to get her back.”
“That’s one hell of a risk,” I tell him, not liking his response in the least. “You would have died trying, and your daughter…” I can’t even finish the statement, too disturbed by the realization to say much else. “You literally gambled with her life.”
And that infuriates me.
“She deserves better,” I growl, no longer keen on this discussion. “She’s a diamond. A fucking treasure. And you waltzed her in here, days before her first fucking heat, and just hoped these so-called rumors were true. You’re a shit excuse for an Alpha.”
Keegan growls low in his throat. “I would die for her.”
“Good,” I fire back at him. “Because you just fucking might.”
I ash out of his quarters, taking Riordan with me since his face is tied to my damn wrist.
But I don’t go to Taliana the way my dragon desires. Instead, I teleport to the caves I grew up in, needing a moment to calm the fuck down before I do something I’ll regret.
Like kill Taliana’s father.