Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Freya’s Bedroom, Shadow Court
Freya
Naked, I scrub the sponge over my skin, until it is raw.
The cold water in the basin is veiled with bloody ribbons that unfurl from my fingers, but I still can’t quite get the blood out from underneath my nails.
I growl, as my eyes sting with frustrated tears.
I toss the sponge down into the rust-tinged basin. The water splashes, slopping over the edge.
“The troll sucking coward.” I slam the ruby, pearl, and jade dragon embroidered screen aside. “How dare he send me away?”
The only thing that I am still wearing is my bat circlet. I couldn’t bring myself to take it off when it represents my wedding merely hours earlier to Lanlin.
I meant my vows. They weren’t fake.
Does Lanlin believe that?
I threw myself into the Void with him. He forgave me for my first betrayal.
But now, will he ever trust Daire and me again?
How terrifying must it be for Lanlin to be torn from the horror of the Void into his enemy’s kingdom? I know how frightened I was to travel to his kingdom, and I didn’t travel there in cursed shackles.
My mouth twists.
Of course, Daire did travel into Lanlin’s kingdom as an enemy wearing that cursed silver on his face.
I raise my wrist to my mouth and kiss over the Ankh mark.
I wait with bated breath.
Nothing.
A cold ball forms in my stomach.
I can sense Lanlin’s despair washing through the bond. It’s sickening.
Pulse pounding, I raise my other wrist to my mouth and bite on the delicate snowflake. I know how to gain Daire’s attention.
Instantly, Daire gently bites back.
My shoulders relax.
Is Daire still with Lanlin? My roguish fae is always scheming, but he has made a deal to serve all three of us.
Doesn’t that mean he will protect us?
I stare around my bedroom, which is the first room of my own that anyone has granted me. Before Aurelius gave me this room, I’d lived in shared rooms in the Moon Court.
Now, however, it doesn’t feel like it belongs to me.
Aurelius hasn’t moved anything. The bedroom has been cleaned, however, and kept pristine like it was waiting for my return.
I hate how much I have missed Aurelius.
When I saw him sprawled on his throne-like couch in the banquet room, I barely held myself back from running to him.
I could sense how much Aurelius needed me. His pheromones were out of control.
He needs my touch and scent.
I do trust him…when it comes to me. But how can I trust him when it comes to his greatest enemy?
He fucking hates Lanlin.
I cross my tiny bedroom, which has stone walls, floor, and beamed, arched roof. The thin light of dawn spears through the window.
I can’t hold back a smile when I sniff the sweet, floral scent of roses from the fresh bouquet that has been placed in a dragon vase on the table beside my bed.
Is that an apology? Or a welcome home gift from Aurelius?
The oak shrine for my parents, carved in the shape of two wolves, stands in the far corner.
Aurelius carved that shrine for me, when he learned that I had never had anywhere to grieve for my parents. It was one of his many small acts of kindness and courting, which I barely noticed when I first traveled to Bael.
Now I see those acts for what they are, as clearly as I see Lanlin’s similar gestures.
Aurelius isn’t good at showing his emotions, but I finally realize that he has been trying hard in his own way…trying in a way that he never has before because no one has shown him love.
This is new to him.
My expression softens.
My possessive fool of an Alpha.
I reach to stroke over the dress that Aurelius has gifted me. It lies on the end of the bed.
The robe is wool but glitters with thousands of golden threads, which have been woven through it. It’s the type of dress that is fit for a Dragon Empress.
Aurelius’ Empress.
I snatch back my hand.
I can’t wear this dress, not so soon after I was clothed in the traditional wedding outfit as Lanlin’s Queen.
I snarl, shoving the dress away from me and off the bed.
I crawl to the bottom of the bed, wrenching open the plain pine chest, which rests at the base.
I grin down at the long, scarlet dress that is still folded neatly where I left it.
The dress glows with the fae runes that I drew on it with my own blood when I escaped Fang Kingdom. They hide my scent.
Aurelius insists that I am a spy. I have always been a thief.
So, I’ll wear a dress that allows me to practice my talents.
Who says that I am either a spy or thief for the Draca Kingdom alone?
I pull the dress out and start to wriggle into it. As the cotton dress settles on my skin, falling off my alabaster shoulders to reveal the glittering emerald wolf head tattoo of my Omega Mark, I start to feel more like myself again.
I wrap the sash around my middle, before reaching for my dagger that I had hidden under my pillow, fixing it at my waist. Then I also pull out the tiny stone, the anti-metallicum that I hid next to it, and slip it into my pocket.
I should tell Lanlin that I now hold the only weapon that may be able to undo Maximinus’ magic.
Yet this is my one true weapon. It makes me the strongest player in this entire game, a secret one that others don’t suspect.
I can’t give up that advantage yet, especially since I’m not certain that Aurelius will save my pack.
This dress is the only thing that I have from Fang Kingdom.
I am the Omega Wolf Queen. I must remind Aurelius of that.
I smooth down the sash, before I march out of the bedroom into the study at the heart of the royal nest.
My soles are cold against the marble floor.
I hurriedly scan Aurelius’ oak desk, shocked with how piled high it is with official papers. As always, they are neatly ranked, but Aurelius has always been overworked, often falling asleep at his desk.
I have never seen so many papers.
How can Aurelius keep up with this level of work?
Is Maximinus deliberately burying Aurelius in paperwork? Or has Aurelius been falling behind because he’s been separated from me?
I start for the door, determined to return to the Silver Banquet Room and retrieve all my Alphas, even if I have to kick Ignatius’ ass, but then my nose scrunches up.
The delicious scent of leather and smoke flows over me, along with dominant pheromones.
They are the pheromones of an Alpha who is close to feral — Aurelius.
Following their scent, I twist to the large, columned windows at the back of the study, which look out over a manicured rose garden, which is in full bloom.
I square my shoulders.
There is an old Omega saying: Cross an Omega and feel their fangs in your knot.
I stalk out into the thin dawn light.
Despite the rage, which is keeping me standing through my exhaustion, I still enjoy the sunlight on my upturned face.
I became used to the moon in Lanlin’s nighttime court, while snatching moments alone with Daire during the day.
Yet a wolf thrives in the sun.
I glance around at the cypress trees that flank the garden and the manicured rosebushes. The blooms are large and glossy but with sharp thorns.
The scent of the roses is heady.
I prowl further into the garden, following the trail of Aurelius’ pheromones.
He is standing underneath an ancient, twisted olive tree that stands in the center of the garden. He is hugging a large tabby cat to his chest, scratching it behind its ragged ear, while it purrs.
Unable to scent me, my appearance takes Aurelius by surprise. I watch how his tawny-flecked amber eyes widen with surprise.
I want to startle him more often.
We both freeze and stare at each other.
Aurelius looks torn between dropping Five and simply pretending that he’s invisible.
Seeing my dragon petting Daire’s cat, Five, as well as noticing that Five’s coat is well brushed in a way that it never was when she lived in the dungeons, deflates some of my rage.
Aurelius has been not only taking care of Daire’s pet, however, but has rescued the stray and offered her the type of luxurious life that she has never experienced before.
He’s good at that.
One of Five’s eyes was blinded in a fight, but she narrows her other one at me like she’s assessing whether I am a threat to Aurelius.
It looks like a cat’s loyalty can be bought by whoever feeds them treats.
It’s not so easy with Omegas, although I am swayed by chocolates.
I cross my arms. “Five likes you.”
“She has good taste.” Aurelius strokes underneath Five’s chin. “I’ve learned to be careful of her sharp claws.”
“What about mine?” I stalk closer to him, weaving between the rosebushes.
Aurelius ignores me, gently lifting Five to sit in the lowest branch of the olive tree.
Then Aurelius tips his face up to the sky. The light gleams off his armor, broad shoulders, and the planes of his strong face. His golden tumble of hair and horns glow.
Why does he have to be so fucking gorgeous?
He looks like a sun god.
Instead of replying, he continues to look up at the sky.
“While you were gone, I would come out here into Mother’s garden at this time each morning, before my duties began.
Five would often join me, but I knew that I would be alone because this is the one place where everyone else is forbidden.
It’s my sanctuary.” I shift, uncomfortable.
Maybe I shouldn’t have stormed in here without permission.
As if sensing my thought, he continues, “You are allowed into this garden because you smell just like these roses, even if you’re punishing me by hiding your scent from me right now.
I deserve it. It is fated that you would become my sanctuary in this venomous court.
And every dawn that I looked up at the sun, while we were apart, I would wonder whether you were looking at the same sun too.
I felt connected to you, and it helped me hold onto my senses, rather than fall feral. ”
Suddenly, I realize that fine tremors are running through him.
Aurelius is going to collapse like he once did before in his study.
A bonded dragon can’t cope without their Omega.
Does he think that he’s fucking indestructible?