Chapter Fifty-Three
Greylan
“ F uck is right,” I muttered, dragging my fingers through my windswept brown hair. “I’m not terribly surprised, but the timing could have been more convenient.”
Saphyra was radiant, surrounded by mist in the glow of the moon. Her honey scent drifted in the warm moist air, clouding my thoughts.
But what were we going to do?
As much as I wanted to give myself over to the flood of lust pounding through our bond, we couldn’t hide in the woods indefinitely. Not with the Imperatrix looking for us, and not long enough to ride out a full week-long heat cycle.
This was not ideal.
When the Imperatrix’s troops didn’t locate the Queen at the hunting lodge, or at the old capital, it wouldn’t take them much time to turn their attention to the forest. There wasn’t a spare shuttle lying around or any other way off planet. They would know we were somewhere nearby. This was going to be a problem, and soon.
“I’m hoping someone has a plan. Any suggestions would be helpful.” My eyes scanned the darkness for an answer I knew wasn’t there.
It was quiet now, just the rustle of the trees and the lapping of the spring. But for how long? Not long enough to account for what we were facing.
Saphyra pawed at the front of my pants again, but I couldn’t give in to her needs. Not yet.
I threaded my fingers through hers and knelt down to kiss her knuckles.
Lex turned to look at me. “There’s nothing nearby. Not that would work for a heat. The hunting cabin would, but it’s too far away and in the wrong direction.”
Axion set the bag of berries we’d gathered on the flat rock ledge and kicked his boots off. “If no one was looking for us, we could spend as much time in the woods as we needed.”
“Too bad that’s not the situation,” Valyx grumbled against the column of Saphyra’s neck.
The vibration of his words tickled through the bond. My mate liked that. She liked it a lot. That wasn’t helping me, though. My dick had been hard since the first flutter of arousal seeped through our connection shortly after we’d left. But it was escalating, and her fever was like a hot brand hovering close to my skin.
Someone needed to keep their head about them, and it clearly was not going to be the alphas. They were already lost to Saphyra’s intoxicating honey-soaked pheromones. She was slipping deep into a heat haze and rubbing herself all over Valyx as much as their joining would allow.
If there was more time, I’d very much enjoy this turn of events. She was beautiful in Valyx’s arms. Their skin contrasted perfectly. Her soft curves against the hard lines of his muscles and tattoos. Lex’s hands fit over her breasts like they belonged there. I never thought I’d be the sort who enjoyed sharing their partner, but with them, it was natural.
The last of Axion’s control must have failed him because he stripped out of his clothes and sank into the steaming water to join the others.
I shook my head, clearing my rambling thoughts. Saphyra’s heat was getting to me too, but I was the only one left to come up with a plan.
The three alphas crowded around her, kissing and licking the sweat off her skin, giving into their primal instincts. Her honey sweetness was intoxicating. Even as a beta, I was affected when her pheromones were this thick, but I grit my teeth and focused on the issue at hand.
There was something I’d learned in medical school. My memory was faint, but there was a specific wildflower refined for medicinal use. One of those uses was to make heat suppression serum. I was out of the serum, but the plant was native to planets in this region of space. What would it do in its raw state after an estrus was already in progress? I was unsure. It was the only option we had, though.
Something had to be done. If I did nothing, we’d be captured and back on the Hive, or worse. Probably worse for most of us.
Saphyra’s needy whine was cut off as Axion’s mouth met hers, silencing her briefly.
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t get into any more trouble.” My fingers slid from Saphyra’s grip, and I got up.
Lex glanced at me with a grateful glare. The mixed emotions playing on his face were unsettling coming from an alpha on the verge of rut. I didn’t know what to make of it. Was he upset that I was leaving, perhaps? Thankful that I was doing something to help when everyone else was mindless with lust? We’d be lucky if they didn’t all end up drunk on pheromones, with only their instincts to guide them.
Their deteriorating condition spurred me to action. This would be a difficult task at the best of times, and this certainly was not that. At least my mate was in good hands. An alpha protecting an omega in heat was just about the scariest thing I could think of. Not to mention three.
I grabbed the portable light from Axion’s pile of clothes. He wouldn’t miss it. His face was already buried between Saphyra’s breasts and she was gasping with appreciation. I adjusted myself in my pants before heading back down the trail toward the berry-lined meadow. If the plant was anywhere, it’d be in that field.
There’d been some fluffy white flowers closer to the capital, coming up in tall patches when the suns were bright. That had looked promising. But those were hours away now.
I didn’t know if this would work. In clinical use, the blossoms were distilled down, but fresh? There was no telling. It should calm her enough to travel once the first surge of hormones was expended.
I left my mate moaning and splashing with her alphas, knowing that they would take care of her no matter what. I just hoped I could figure out a way to fix this before it was too late.
The warm pulse of arousal brushed insistently against the bond. It lessened the further I walked down the mottled moonlit path, but never faded completely. I wanted to stay and take care of my mate, my omega, but the alphas would satisfy her needs better than I ever could.
I was nothing more than a simple beta. I couldn’t hunt or fight, purr or growl, but I did have knowledge, and that was what we needed most right now.
While the others gave into their primal sides, slaves to their nature, I kept my head and devised a solution to get us out of here and back to the relative safety of the underground capital.
The berry bushes loomed like creatures of the night, shadows outlined by silvery moonlight. Past their imposing bulk laid the meadow I’d come to search. I was grateful that the cloud cover had broken up into feathery wisps, allowing for better visibility in the dark.
My attention was drawn to the wide valley below. A thick blanket of fog obscured the entire area. From my vantage, it looked like the surface of a calm gray sea, but that was far from the reality of what was happening shrouded beneath the mist.
Flashes of multicolored luminescence mirrored the shield across its still surface, but more concerning were the glowing orbs of white bobbing in the distance.
Search vessels scanned the ruins in the murk of soupy darkness. Their sensors and spotlights hindered them more than helped in the fog. The dense haze would be reflecting everything right back at them. They’d be chasing their own shadows as long as the weather held.
That would buy us time, but it would only matter if I could find this plant.
Satisfied that their hunt was at an impasse, at least until morning, I trudged my way through the weeds, keeping a keen eye out for splashes of color in the otherwise dark overgrowth.
It didn’t take long to locate the tall stalks crowned in white. I flipped on the handheld torch to confirm my suspicions, but it was easy to see the yellow sponge-like orb circled by delicate, pale petals. Star flowers. The milky blooms opened at night when the ambient illumination was bright enough, which certainly made picking them out of the weeds easier now.
The frond-like leaves tickled my hands as I held the stems to pluck off the buds. The roots had medicinal properties as well, but there was no need, and no time for that tonight.
Without a moment to spare, I harvested what I could, turned off the lamp, and headed back to camp. Before leaving the field, I cast one more glance down the mountain. The ships hadn’t moved at all. Once more, Verden’s strange weather patterns were assisting in our plans.
I shook my head. That made no logical sense. The planet was just a spinning rock flying through space, not a sentient being, and it certainly couldn’t conjure up a cloud bank to cover our escape. That wasn’t scientifically possible, but I was beginning to wonder.
The cheery glow of the fire and the soft moans of my mate greeted me when I arrived back at camp. I’d put a kettle on to boil earlier, and it was ready, so I tossed the flowers into it and let it simmer. There was no way to distill it properly out here, but this should work, in theory.
Saphyra’s pleasure rolled down the bond in waves. They were just up the hill, splashing in the natural stone pools. Moonlight glinted off wet flesh and water lapped against the rock ledges. I adjusted the waistband of my trousers.
It was killing me not to run up there and join in, but this needed to be done. They were all lost to their hormones, and no help to me.
One of us had to keep a level head.
That would be me. The simple beta with no military training. I’d studied hard while on the Hive, and this was what I’d gone to school to do. To manage omegas and, when necessary, their alpha counterparts. If someone told me then that I’d fall in love and form a mate bond with my charge, I would’ve laughed them out of the room. It just wasn’t done on Altaira.
The only omegas left on the surface of my home planet were infertile cast-offs from the Hive. Usually trained as courtesans, or sold as chattel on the flesh market, and all of whom were certified as sterile by fertility specialists. Not that they could get pregnant on Altaira from my understanding. That was why the Hive was built. Not a single omega child had been born on the surface for generations. Not since the last omega queen.
As I waited for the tea to steep, my mind wandered, wondering if Saphyra would grace us with children now that we were free of that place. If I thought the alphas were protective now, I couldn’t imagine how they’d react to being fathers.
The image of a chubby little cherub in Valyx’s tattooed arms brought a smile to my lips. That would be something to see, but we’d only be alive to see it if the infusion worked.
I pulled the kettle off the fire and portioned out the bubbling liquid into mugs. It wouldn’t hurt to get some of this into the alphas, either. The possibility of rut lingered a bit too close to the surface with all of them these days.
With some luck, the fog would delay the search until morning at least, and the herbal concoction would see us safely away by then. I cast a longing look at the sleeping pallet, but the stroke of pleasure through the bond and whimpers from up the hill captured my full attention. I was tired, unused to the activity of the day, but there were more important things than sleep.