Chapter 57
Chapter Fifty-Seven
ALARIK
T he desert night stretched vast and endless around them, an ocean of silence and shadow. And yet, Alarik felt suffocated.
The cool air did nothing to temper the heat burning beneath his skin, nor did the distant scents of sand and spent torches ease the storm inside him. It roiled and churned, pressing against his ribs, demanding release.
He needed to hurt something.
He needed to drive his fists into Castiel’s smirking face until bone cracked and blood spilled, to gauge the arrogance out of his eyes, to make him understand—truly understand—that he had lost.
But Castiel didn’t look like a man who had lost. Even now, shackled and subdued under Captain Marzius’s watchful eye, he wore that same insufferable smile, as if he were still in control, still playing a game only he knew how to finish.
Alarik’s fingers curled into fists, aching for the hilt of his dagger.
One cut—slow, deep, final—and it would be over.
He shifted his gaze to Reiya, standing between him and Kaelen. She looked steady and composed, but he saw past the mask to the slight tension in her shoulders, the weariness in every move. The way she held herself together because she had no other choice .
That— that pained him the most.
She shouldn’t have to endure this, shouldn’t have to fight, to scheme, to survive while they’d been too far away to protect her.
His jaw clenched, his breath slow and measured, forced through grit and restraint.
They should’ve reached her sooner.
The torchlight flickered, casting shifting shadows across Castiel’s face. He looked at ease, despite the chains, as if this were nothing more than an inconvenience rather than his downfall. As if he were still waiting for his moment to strike.
Alarik’s nails dug into his palms. He wanted to strip that confidence from him and force the truth from his lips.
What would it take? A threat? Starvation? Torture?
He exhaled sharply, forcing himself to still.
He couldn’t lash out in front of Reiya, not like this.
Beside him, Kaelen’s voice was cold, measured. “Take him straight to the palace. No stops. He doesn’t leave the dungeons until the king decides his fate.”
Marzius nodded. “Understood, my prince.”
The soldiers moved and Castiel didn’t resist. His gaze flicked toward the horizon, detached and distant. His willingness was troubling, like it was the inevitable next step in whatever scheme he was playing.
Alarik watched as the torches shrank, swallowed by the dunes.
Still, the unease lingered.
“It’s over,” Kaelen murmured, breaking the silence. “And without bloodshed.”
He exhaled slowly, but it didn’t feel like relief.
“Is it over?” Reiya’s voice was quiet, but it cut through the night just the same. “Truly over?”
Neither of them had an answer.
But if he was honest with himself, he’d say they were just beginning.
Kaelen turned toward her, gentling his voice. “For now, it is. You’re safe. The Xians are safe. So many things could’ve gone awry tonight, but somehow, they didn’t. ”
She tipped her head slightly but didn’t look at anyone. Her gaze lingered on the horizon, as if waiting for something else to happen.
Alarik watched the way she held herself so still. The way her fingers trembled faintly as she ran them over her wrist. He saw the exhaustion pooling in her eyes.
Their Omega was unravelling, thread by thread.
And yet, she smiled as she looked at them—soft and faint, but warm. “I knew you’d decipher the crumbs I left behind.”
“We had to gamble,” he admitted. “We doubted, but ‘true north,’ coupled with Mei Mei’s pendant, gave us hope. You gave us just enough.”
She stepped closer, taking their hands in hers, her fingers cool and delicate as she squeezed gently.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For trusting me to handle it my way. I know how hard it must’ve been—for Alphas to hold back when every instinct told you to act.”
Alarik exhaled sharply, closing his eyes for a brief moment. He didn’t want to think about earlier when all he could do was wait, and watch. She didn’t know how close he had come to losing control.
How his hands had itched to tear through every obstacle between them. How his blood had screamed at him to take action, to protect, to claim, to fight.
It had taken everything in him to allow her to be taken.
And he had to keep sane enough to persuade his brother to do the same.
Kaelen’s fury had burned bright, hot and reckless, demanding action. His own anger was colder, deeper. It settled in his bones, patient and calculating, waiting for the right moment to unleash itself.
Reiya had forced them both to hold back when every instinct screamed at them to tear the world apart for her. She’d asked for trust, and against every primal urge, they’d given it to her.
And she had shown them, again and again, their trust would never be misplaced.
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him, grounding himself in the feel of her—real, whole, here .
His forehead dipped to hers, and he inhaled her in.
Her breath shuddered softly against his lips, but she smiled and rubbed her forehead against his—a gesture so simple, so natural, so hers.
The tightness in his chest finally loosened.
But even as the moment settled between them, his mind refused to still.
She must have felt his tension, because she pulled back, the sombre expression returning.
“Hassamir and Anna?s are in league with Castiel,” she said, answering the question he hadn’t spoken aloud. “But you’ve likely figured that out.”
Alarik stiffened. Father and daughter—treacherous, scheming sandshrikes. They’d taken Castiel’s offer of resources, his aid, and bartered Reiya’s life for their own grasp at power.
Fury flashed through him, hot and blinding, but he dragged in a slow inhale, forcing the fire to settle.
“We have them in custody now,” he told her. “Hassamir surrendered quickly. Anna?s didn’t. She has more spine than her father, I’ll give her that.”
Kaelen scoffed, shaking his head. “Not that it’ll save her.”
Her fingers curled slightly against his chest. “Castiel didn’t tell me everything, but I know this—he’s not working alone. The coup was just a means to an end. He wants to dismantle the entire caste system, and he believes Omegas are the key.”
“What does he plan to do with them?”
A shadow flickered over her features. “Up till the end, he wouldn’t say.”
Kaelen’s expression darkened. “Only that it’s something monstrous. So monstrous that, in his mind, death at sea was kinder than letting you face it.”
Alarik’s stomach twisted. He thought he’d burned through all his rage tonight, but somehow, hearing it made it surge back tenfold.
His brother exhaled slowly. “Whatever it is, we’ll discover it, and deal with it piece by piece.”
He nodded, still trying to push down the sickening weight in his chest. His hands ached to keep her in his arms, to comfort her, to do something—but she’d need space to process, to breathe, not smothered in the aftermath of a fight.
So he watched her instead, taking in the subtle shifts of her posture, the way her fingers trembled slightly when she ran them over her wrist, over and over.
The way she swallowed, as though her throat was suddenly dry.
The way she exhaled slowly, as if steadying herself, but?—
Her scent changed.
At first, he barely noticed, still too caught up in the night’s events. But then it grew, sweet and potent and headier than before, curling through the air with a warmth that didn’t exist moments ago.
Alarik’s pulse stuttered.
He turned to her fully now, his senses sharpening.
“Reiya?”
She met his gaze, her blue eyes lambent with a fevered glaze.
“I—I’m alright,” she said, but the hitch in her voice gave her away.
Beside him, Kaelen stiffened.
Alarik didn’t need to glance at his brother to know he’d caught it too—the subtle shift in her scent, the faint tremor in her hands, the delicate flush creeping up her neck, blooming across her cheeks.
Recognition slammed into him like a fist to the chest.
Her Heat had arrived.
She seemed to realize it at the same moment. Her lips parted, sharp breath shuddering through her as her knees wavered, balance faltering for the first time all night.
He moved without thinking, hands closing around her arms to steady her—but the moment his skin met hers, a jolt ripped through him. His body tensed, need surging up with feral force, instinct roaring awake.
Her eyes fluttered shut, a soft gasp slipping past her lips as she pressed closer, needing him.
He bit back a curse, every muscle straining with the sudden, brutal urge to drag her against him, to pin her to the cave wall, to feel the clutch of her thighs and the desperate clench of her body around him.
But not here. Not like this. Not in some barren cave, with cold stone at her back and no softness to catch her .
Kaelen’s voice cut through the haze, tight and low. “The strain from the abduction—it must’ve brought it on.”
Alarik’s gut clenched. Of course.
The kidnapping. The fear. The exhaustion.
She’d been running on sheer will, pushing herself past every limit, and now that the danger had passed, her body was seizing control—dragging her under.
Reiya whimpered, fingers tightening around his sleeve as if the ground beneath her had given way, head drooping onto his shoulder
Alarik’s grip tightened. “We need to move.”
Kaelen was already striding toward the horses. “We’ll take her to the nest.”
Alarik nodded sharply, gathering her into his arms in one fluid motion. She didn’t protest, but the soft, breathless sound she made as she melted against his chest shot straight through him, sharp as a knife, deep as a pulse.
He ground his teeth, swallowing the need threatening to tear free.
Without another word, they mounted, Shahram and Ruhasul thundering into the night—carrying them across the desert, toward the only place safe enough for what was coming.
Toward the place where they would finally claim her.