Chapter 52
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
The moment seems to crystallize, fear clawing my hearts as dread gores into my gut.
My eyes. I’ve revealed us.
And they all saw.
I feel it. Hear it in the terrible, breathless silence sweeping the whole room.
Cylus falls back a step. Blinking wildly. Quietly. Which is somehow worse than bellowing.
Norabi and Mortana both gasp and whoop, each assuming this is a new development. But Cylus is smarter. Too smart.
His gray-blue eyes jump from my face to Sofi’s, his voice too low for the celebrating females to hear.
“How long?” he hisses, somehow shouting in a whisper.
In front of me, Rask snaps a severe look in my direction. Silently asking what our plan is. The gesture might be more meaningful if I didn’t have a wad of dread crushing my windpipe.
“How long have you known?” Cylus demands again.
A quiver darts through Sofi. “Is—what’s happening? Zolkan?”
Gods, I’m a horrible male. I’ve kept her completely in the dark. And now, I fear taking in all the light at once will blind her.
There’s a bright strand of trust in her opal eyes that I cannot deny, though. I have to be honest—and Cylus must be dealt with.
Rask sees my decision and blows out a ragged breath, using his wings to stay balanced as he falls onto his backside and drops his face to his bloody hands. “Should have killed you when I had the chance,” he laments.
At the moment, I don’t disagree. Admitting to this is akin to fastening a shackle around Sofi’s throat.
But what choice do I have? They’ve all seen. Even if they had not, the pure sincerity of Sofi’s gaze would still draw the admission to my tongue. Stripping me down to my soul, leaving my hearts on brutal display.
“You are my mate, stryllas,” I finally confess. The weight of the words lifts from my chest, but lands in my gut. “I am… so sorry.”
More sorry than I could ever say. For lying to her. For not being able keep her safe from this forever. For how this happened in the first place.
“Y-your mate?” she repeats.
Gods, does she even know what that means? I know I haven’t dared explain it…
But before a pit of self-loathing can swallow me whole, Rask lumbers to his knees. Intense silver eyes find Sofi’s. “Just like I told you, remember?” he murmurs, tracing one of the marks on his palm. His first-ever tribute to Stelaris.
“You are Zolkan’s mate, korryna,” Rask adds, the words oddly strained. “And he is yours.”
Mortana and Norabi are both listening now. I clench my jaw, knowing I must show my mate the honor of the truth.
“The gods themselves chose you to be my queen,” I rasp, “But I have been hiding that fact, to preserve what little freedom I could offer you on Khanos.”
Sofi’s eyes well up as she stares back at me. “So you… All this time? Since the day I got here?”
I nod, shame heavy on my hearts. “Yes,” I admit. “Every moment has been agony, but I—nothing was worth taking the last of your choices from you this way. Because now…”
“Our Zortaire has a mate! An omega mate!” Mortana inserts, positively gleeful. “We are saved, praise be, Stelaris!” Her ancient gray eyes fall to Sofi’s stricken face. “You will be Presented. And bonded! At once.”
Sofi’s scent shifts. Reality sets in with every shallow breath that tickles my lips.
I see the moment she truly understands.
She’s mine.
And so, she is trapped.
“There is time to work through all of that,” Norabi puts in, ushering Mortana toward the portal. Her eyes slink between Rask, Cylus, and me, her look meaningful. “Why don’t we busy ourselves spreading the good news, Mortana?”
The crone keeps on clucking while Norabi leads her away. Sofi’s distressed scent singes my nose. Glacial silence freezes the air, and Cylus’s cool eyes burn mine.
“You could have told me,” he says. “I would have helped you.”
I’m not sure what he means. He would have helped me with the ruts? The goring pain in my middle each time I lied to my omega or left her side? Concealing the truth to give her freedom?
Perhaps all of those things, I realize, staring back at him.
Rask’s nostrils flare as he inhales Sofi’s anguish. He starts to reach for her again, both hands flying up as his face softens with consternation. But he suddenly halts, swaying slightly before he sits back on his heels. His wings fall, slumping toward the auridian floor.
Because she is officially my mate, now.
Off limits to any other alpha except me.
I know I should be relieved… but as Sofi’s opal eyes finally spill over, I only taste the bitterest regret.