Chapter Eight #3
“True.” I leaned back slightly. “The larger question is why the tower allowed us inside. And how the king moves through it so easily.”
Thane’s mouth tightened. “You feel the bond. Perhaps the tower sensed it as well.”
I had already considered that.
The tower behaved as if it were aware of Aveline’s needs before she spoke them. It had allowed us through the wards that should have kept every outsider away.
My alpha had reached its own conclusion.
The tower had recognized us.
Possible mates.
Aveline’s scent had already begun to braid itself into my senses, settling somewhere deeper than reason. My alpha responded to it with certainty.
“We don’t have time for bonds,” I said. “Or mating. We have a war to fight.”
Thane’s gaze narrowed. “You feel it too. She’s our match.”
I stood and crossed to the narrow window overlooking the forest.
The trees moved in the morning wind, their autumn leaves drifting toward the ground.
Winter would follow soon. The rebellion did not have the numbers for another failed campaign.
Our intelligence suggested the king was preparing a final offensive.
This battle would decide everything. We could not afford distractions.
My alpha ignored every one of those calculations and demanded something simpler. Go upstairs. Claim her. Bind her to us so no one could take her away. I forced the impulse down.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Too many people are depending on us.”
“What if we’re stronger with her?” Thane said. “What if she’s the weapon we’ve been looking for?”
His words landed exactly where I had been avoiding. Every sign pointed to Aveline. If I was wrong, we were wasting time here. If I were right, we would have to figure out how to use her.
The thought sat poorly with me. She had already been used too many times. Another thought followed close behind it. I wanted to protect her. And I wanted to claim her.
“We still don’t understand how any of this fits together,” I said. “The tower. Aveline. The bond forming between us. We need answers before we move.”
“We may not have that luxury,” Thane said. “Her next spike could come soon. A full heat could follow. We can’t let her face that alone.”
I turned and leaned toward him. “You will not force her into anything.”
Thane rose immediately, shoving me back a step.
“I’m insulted you even suggested that,” he said. “But you know the bond is growing. Would you deny it?”
I could not deny what I felt. Every alpha wanted an omega. It was written into us. Alphas could mate with betas, and most did because omegas had nearly vanished from the Unseelie lands. But those pairings rarely produced another alpha.
Never an omega. Our society was thinning itself out. To stand this close to an omega. To feel a bond forming between us. To feel it shared with Thane. It was difficult to ignore.
“I’m not denying it,” I said. “But we may need her to defeat the king. Bonding her now could cost us that.”
“Fate doesn’t care about plans,” Thane said.
I grunted and turned back to the window.
In the quiet that followed, a memory surfaced.
My mother’s voice. The rustle of vellum as she turned pages late into the night.
The scent of ink lingering in the study.
The way she taught me to read texts the court called heresy because she believed truth mattered more than obedience.
“My mother was an omega,” I said. “A seer. Her power deepened after she bonded with my father.”
Thane said nothing.
“The king collected magic-users. You know that. You were one of them.” I rested my hands on the stone sill. “But he also collected omegas. My mother was both.”
I continued before the memory could stall.
“She had already given birth to two alphas. The king wanted her as his mate. She refused to reject her bond. My father refused as well.”
I looked back at him. “So the king came for her.”
Thane waited.
“She jumped from the watchtower before he could kill my father or take her.”
Silence followed that.
“My mother spoke often about a prophecy,” I said. “Not the one the rebellion repeats. A different one.”
Thane straightened slightly.
“A hidden omega. A living key. Wards undone. A throne shattered.”
He held my gaze.
“She believed the threat was not that an omega would destroy the world,” I said. “She believed that once an omega’s power was fully realized, certain systems would stop working.”
“Suppression systems,” Thane said quietly.
“Yes.”
I touched the bracer on my wrist without thinking. The mark beneath it remained warm.
“The king didn’t imprison Aveline because she was dangerous,” I said. “He imprisoned her because he could not allow her to choose. Not her bonds. Not her allegiance.”
Thane’s jaw tightened. “She said she wasn’t afraid of us,” he murmured. “She was afraid of what she had been told she would become around alphas.”
“And now the evidence in front of her contradicts that. Not because we are safe men. Because the tower itself is responding differently.”
Thane leaned forward. “You think the tower recognizes potential bond mates.”
“It let us in. It reacted to my touch. It reacted to you. It has sustained her for decades.”
“And she notices everything.”
“She watches closely,” I said. “A person who has spent that long alone learns to do that.”
Thane studied me. “So say it plainly.”
“When she’s ready.”
His expression sharpened slightly.
“She has spent her entire life being controlled,” I continued. “She just endured a spike alone. She believes her touch could kill anyone who comes near her. She is upstairs trying to rebuild herself after that.”
I met his gaze. “I will not be another man who walks in and demands more.”
Thane looked at me for a moment. “That would be new.”
“People change.”
He nodded once.
Above us, the water slowed and stopped. The tower’s hum continued beneath the stone.
“Then we find information,” Thane said.
“And we plan.”