17. Runa
Runa
Being born and bred into the Stormcrest pack means I’m no stranger to storms. Therefore, I’m also no stranger to the silence right before the second major storm, which applies to more than just the weather.
The silence at the table after Ash’s declaration makes me wish I were anywhere else but here.
My mother takes off her earrings, her rings, the bracelet. She’s ready to shift and fight Ash over his statement.
My father growls low in his throat. “What did you just say?”
“I said Runa is coming with us.”
My father blinks at Ash’s matter-of-fact tone. “I realize rules and regulations escape you and yours, but in my pack, we respect our rules and our elders. Runa is a Stormcrest second-born daughter. She isn’t a princess like her sister, so she must stay with her pack.”
“Maren needs her,” Ash states. “She requested Runa’s presence. She told me so last night. Didn’t she, Runa? Tell them. Tell them you’re coming with me.”
Ash’s fire blazes in his eyes, forcing my omega submission and making the heat that’s lodged in my belly churn hotter. I can’t refuse his setup. He will tell on Maren, and my dad will kill Sven and imprison her, or turn her over to the humans. In his eyes, she will have shamed us all.
Sweat breaks out on my forehead. I dab it with a napkin. “What the Fireborn Alpha means is that I promised Maren I’ll go with her. But don’t worry, it’s temporary. For a week at most.” Ash opens his mouth to protest, but I rush to say, “I said a week at most.”
Ash doesn’t protest. Maybe my omega wrath scares him a little. Mmhm.
“Not a single day,” my mother says. “The audacity to ask for my baby. Runa is indispensable to me, not to mention she’s the only royal Stormcrest omega remaining after Maren leaves with you. If both my girls go with you, we risk our omega bloodline. You know that we cannot allow you to take both.”
“Are you saying I can take only one?” Ash asks.
“That’s exactly what we’re saying,” my father says, looking between Ash and me. “Asking for both is an overreach.”
“Oh, I’m not asking for both,” Ash says. “I’m asking for clarity. Are you saying I can take only one?”
“You and Maren signed the treaty,” my father says. “You can’t have Runa too. Two Stormcrest omegas for a Fireborn alpha will not happen on my watch. Or Soren’s.”
“Runa wouldn’t leave us. She’s a good girl. She knows her place,” my mother says.
Ouch.
“You put ideas into her head,” my father accuses Ash. “Get out of my sight, Fireborn, and don’t return until you’ve found your manners.”
Double ouch.
My parents united around the cause to keep me here. Maybe they’ll find each other attractive again during the fire moon. I’ll have Ash to thank for that.
“May I be excused now?” I ask.
“You may,” Ash says before my father does.
As I stand, I lean across the table. “I didn’t ask for your permission.”
“Not yet.”
Frustrated, I growl at him. “You’re not my alpha.”
“Is that a challenge?”
Yes is on the tip of my tongue. But I shut the fuck up, because challenging an alpha ends only one way: under him. Knotted and forced into submission during heat.
The image of him in my nest comes immediately, my heat betraying me and guiding my dirty thoughts. I can’t fight my biology, but I can fight for my dignity. I storm away from the table before my parents can scent how I really feel about this infuriating wolf.