7

nikolai

"HOW'D IT GO ?" I was lounging in Dmitri's bedchamber, tablet on my lap. I'd been in the middle of playing some ridiculous online game, something where you had to try to line up little dots and not let them fill up the screen. It was mindless and occupying, and I wasn't allowed to go to formal royal functions, so I couldn't be at the luncheon.

Dmitri stormed into his room, tearing at his tie, his scent like a coming thunderstorm.

"So, very well, I take it," I said lightly, giving him a little grin.

He tossed his tie over a chair that sat opposite the one I was lounging in and then hurled himself down in the chair. "He was right. She smells like everything you've ever wanted wrapped in bacon and dipped in chocolate."

I wrinkled my nose. "Bacon and chocolate?"

He lulled his head back and looked up at the ceiling. "Why do I do everything wrong, Nik?"

"Um… because you're a colossal idiot?" I said with a shrug.

He laughed, looking at me. "I just said that actually." He passed a hand over his face. "She hates me."

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you," I said.

"I did it wrong," he said. "I should have… Fuck, I should have gone to get her, not sent you and Johannes. She probably thinks I snubbed her. Her family probably thinks…"

I didn't say anything.

He groaned. "You think so, too?"

"I think I told you that. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. She's here now, and you're going to be married, and you're going to bite her, and she'll like you after you bite her. The bonding thing, it's, you know, biology."

"Why doesn't anyone tell me these things when I'm planning them?"

"I did tell you," I said.

"I don't think you did," he said.

I snorted.

"Anyway, I mean, not you. You'll say anything to me. But other people."

"I don't know," I said. "But maybe it's because you yell a lot."

"I do not," he said dismissively.

I went back to my tablet.

"Do I yell a lot?" he said.

I just laughed. "Everyone's afraid of you, yes."

He scooted down in his chair. "Well, that's fine. Better that way, really. You agree?"

I shrugged. "I suppose."

"Everyone's afraid of you," he said.

"True," I said.

"But you don't yell," he said ruefully. "You have this whole air-of-mysterious-threat going on. That won't work for me. I have to yell."

"All right," I said.

He pointed at me. "You're agreeing with me, but I get the strong impression that if you didn't, you wouldn't say it out loud."

"You don't care what I think," I said. "You're going to do whatever you're going to do. You don't want advice. So, I don't give it."

"Well…" He sat up straight. "I think I do, though. Want advice. About the omega, because I don't know what to do with her."

"Well," I said archly, "when an alpha and omega love each other very much, the alpha's cock gets an enormous knot and he needs to get it stuck right inside her very wet—"

"Shut up."

"You need advice from Johannes," I said. "I don't know anything about omegas. I don't know anything about women."

He nodded slowly. "Good point." He got out his cell phone and typed furiously.

"What are you doing?"

"Summoning Johannes," he said.

"Summoning him?" I said.

"What's that tone?"

"You…" I cleared my throat. "You like Johannes, right?"

"Everyone likes Johannes," he said, putting his phone away. "He's that sort of person, the kind of person you like. He's easy to be around, and he's always smiling, and he's fun. Yes, sure." He eyed me. "Why?"

"I think you two need to… talk," I said.

"About what?"

About how he wants to run off with your omega. "Just things," I said with a shrug.

"Things," he repeated.

"Look," I said, "you know that I love him."

"Okay," he said, looking uncomfortable.

"I love you too," I said.

"Okay, Nikolai," he said, shifting in his chair. "We have a thing, and it's good, don't get me wrong—"

"I take back the L-word," I said witheringly.

"I didn't mean it like—"

"Shut your mouth," I said. "This is important. He's not happy, and I think he's fixated whatever the source of his unhappiness on you in some way, and—"

"Me?" Dmitri vaulted out of his chair. "What do I have to do with Johannes's happiness? And anyway, who's happy? I'm not happy. You don't get to be happy when you're the prince of a country. Happiness is for commoners."

"Dmitri."

"No," he said, shaking his head, going across the room to look out the window. "Suck it up, Johannes. Grow some balls."

"Okay, I'll look into that." Because, of course, Johannes was coming into the room right at that exact second.

I turned to look at him and Dmitri turned to look at him, and Johannes sauntered into the room, lifting his chin in a way that made look arrogant and pissed off and incredibly attractive.

I jumped to my feet. "I was just talking to him like I said I was going to."

"I told you I would talk to him," said Johannes to me, annoyed. "And I already did."

"You did?" I said.

"You did?" said Dmitri.

"Yeah, earlier, when you were throwing knives." Johannes folded his arms over his chest. "Why'd you text me to come up here? What do you want?"

Dmitri folded his arms over his chest, surveying Johannes. "Look, whatever I was saying when you walked in, I didn't mean it like that. It was more about me than you."

"Yeah, definitely, because when I talk about myself, I often mention other men's balls. Got it." Johannes smiled, but the smile was a little on the nasty side.

Shit. I needed to do something, get in the middle of this in some way. I set down my tablet and put myself bodily between them. "Okay, look, actually, Dmitri needs your help."

"Does he." Johannes's smile was starting to look like a sneer.

Dmitri glowered at him. "Forget it. I don't need you here after all. Sorry to have disturbed you."

I looked back and forth between them. "Okay, but Dmitri, you said you wanted advice about the omega—"

"Oh, the omega?" said Johannes. "I made plans with her for this evening already, not that you bothered to ask her when you ordered her to spend time with you alone later."

Dmitri let his hands drop. "Oh."

"You did say I should make her happy and charm her and do all the things you don't think you can do," said Johannes.

"Yeah," said Dmitri. "I did." He furrowed his brow. "Well, I should give her the choice—"

"No, she will feel as if she has to choose you," said Johannes. "Tell her something's come up, and that you need to reschedule. Then there's no pressure on her."

"Um, wait, you're going to cancel your plans with her?" I said. "After you didn't go meet her parents and didn't meet her when she arrived and did whatever you did at this luncheon, which sounds like… what?"

"He yelled at everyone and then at her and then walked out," said Johannes.

Dmitri's face fell. "She… it's just that her scent is… it's hard to think straight when I'm near her."

"Oh, well, yeah, granted," I said with a little laugh. "She's completely changed Johannes's personality, so we're all idiots in that way."

"She hasn't changed my personality," said Johannes.

"Well, something has," I said.

Dmitri nodded. "Yeah, okay. Well, I'll reschedule with her."

"I don't know if that's a good idea, though," I said. "Let me talk to her."

"You just said you didn't know anything about women or omegas," said Dmitri to me. He turned back to Johannes. "I'll send her word that we need to reschedule, and Johannes, you smooth things over. Explain to her that I'm, you know, just flustered. You can make that sound good, right?"

"Sure," said Johannes.

aurelie

I WAS IN my room, pawing through my closet. All the clothes I'd brought with me had been hung up in the closet by the staff, but I didn't think I'd brought a single thing that I could wear clubbing.

Because apparently, that was back on.

I'd gotten a text on my phone, and I hadn't even recognized the number. It just said, Turns out I can't meet with you tonight, but Johannes is going to take care of you.

So, that was Dmitri, and I guessed I had his cell number now.

I guessed I should text back?

What should I say?

I settled on, Of course. I'm sure you're a very busy man.

He texted back, You'll have more fun with Johannes, anyway. We'll reschedule.

Great.

Then, I sat down hard on my bed and actually cried.

I think it was just the stress of everything. I was overwhelmed. My whole life had been overturned in a few days, and I was apparently failing miserably at connecting with my soon-to-be husband.

It would have been one thing if he hadn't walked out of the luncheon, but then, this? Canceling on me? It felt like a slap in the face.

I should have known better, though. He was just this way. He'd been this way all along. I was an idiot to have expected anything different.

I got a text from Johannes a few hours later, saying, Hey, this is Johannes. Hope you don't think it's weird that I got your number. I hear it turns out you're free tonight after all?

The sheer difference in the texts stunned me. Johannes was considerate. He introduced himself. He acted like it mattered if I wanted to consent to his having my phone number.

I cried again.

Anyway, we texted back and forth, making plans, deciding on times and travel arrangements. It was all decided. I'd spent the rest of the afternoon and evening anticipating the outing.

Now, I was trying to get ready, and I didn't have anything to wear.

I was dangerously close to crying for a third time when someone knocked on my door.

I went over and opened it.

It was Ilse. "Hey," she said, "I overheard you saying you've never been clubbing. Johannes is great, but he has the obvious disadvantage of having a penis."

"That's a disadvantage?" I said, laughing.

"And so," she continued, "he knows nothing about what a woman needs to prepare for a trip to the most exclusive club in Koch. You want help deciding what to wear?"

I had never been so relieved in my life. "Yes, please. Thank you so much."

She swept into the room, tall and blond and poised and elegant, and the relief got even more intense.

The thing about being an omega is that everyone is always looking at me. I don't think they can help it. It's about scent and instinct. Even betas are affected by it, though they may not be entirely aware of it. They look at me, and they judge me.

Lots of times, they judge me favorably, to be fair. To be an omega is to be doted on and coddled and that sort of thing. But whatever the case, it's pressure. Even though I'm an omega, I'm a little bit shy.

If I went anywhere with Ilse, though, everyone would look at her. I was sure of it. Her alpha presence was so intense that it would blot me out. She was a bright star shining and I could simply be her shadow.

She sorted through my closet, making faces.

"I know," I sighed. "I didn't think to bring any clothes like that. Well, to be fair, I'm not sure I ever owned any."

She tugged out a pair of jeans. "These can work," she said.

"Okay," I said. I hadn't been sure how casual I could be for this outing.

"What's your shoe size?" she said.

I told her.

"Well, that will never work," she said.

"What won't?"

"You can't borrow my shoes," she said. "You have tiny omega feet." She grinned at me, as if this was very, very cute and she liked it a lot. She got out her phone and began typing on the screen. "Come with me. Bring the jeans."

"Um? Okay?" I picked up the jeans and we went out of the door into the hallway. She texted and walked and I trailed after her. We went around bends and up a staircase and then emerged into another room very similar to mine, with a four poster bed and a fireplace and fancy coverlets on the bed. There were dead animal heads on the wall in here. They all had antlers, but none of them looked like deer. One might have been an elk, another maybe a moose?

I looked up at them, tilting my head sideways. Was it hard to sleep with them staring at you?

She laughed. "I know, I know. But I brought those with me." She pointed. "Shot them all myself."

"Oh," I said, turning back to her, eyes wide.

She shrugged. "I suppose I'm proud of myself, but let's be real, here. My father never paid any attention to me and only paid attention to my brothers, so I became everything my father wanted in a son, just hoping he would look at me. Never did, and then I presented, and he was suddenly interested because of the connections I could make for the family, and…" She shrugged again. "Well, at that point I suppose I saw him for what he was."

"So, do you still hunt?"

"Now that he's not around and I'm not trying to curry his favor? No," she said. "It's a very cold, uncomfortable business, hunting. And it has to be done at the asscrack of dawn. Don't miss it."

I laughed.

She went to her closet and tugged out three different very sparkly tops.

"We're not the same size at all," I said to her. "You're much taller than me—"

"Well, I know, but you have that omega rack of yours," she said, nodding at my breasts, "and so these might fit fine, because they have some give to them." She held one up, showing me that it was gathered, the fabric falling in shimmering folds.

"So, try them on," she said.

I felt self-conscious. To be fair, I wouldn't feel comfortable changing clothes in front of anyone I'd just met, even if this woman hadn't sort of low-key flirted with me.

"I'll turn around," she said, doing it. With her back to me, she kept talking, "but you should know… I don't know if you can scent it. Probably not, since you're not used to these things, but anyway. I'm bonded."

I stepped closer, filling my nostrils with her scent, and I did sense it, now that I knew what she was talking about. Her alpha scent was there, but it was different. Closed, somehow. Finished. "You can't mean that the King let you bite his omega?" I said.

She snorted. "As if this was the King's decision. It was Cole's, obviously. It was what Cole wanted, and the King moves heaven and earth so that Cole can have anything his heart desires, as do I."

"I thought… in Valhn, that alphas weren't much for sharing in that way."

"They talk a good game, but every alpha on earth who bonds an omega becomes attuned to their mate in a way that means that they want what's best for them, so alphas in Valhn very often allow other mate bites, truth be told. I think it's disgusting that it's all hush-hush, of course. It's perpetrating this unrealistic idea on every generation that comes after, that it's possible for one alpha to be enough for an omega, and everyone knows this isn't true."

I pulled the first sparkly tank top on. "Okay, you can turn around."

She did. She came for me, turning me in the direction of a full-length mirror which was on the back of the door of the closet. "There you are. That would work. It fits you."

I gazed at myself. It fit, sort of. On her, the top would have been loose and gathered. On me, my boobs took up all the gathers, which had the effect of making my breasts look even larger than they already were. "I don't know," I said. I turned around to look at the other shirts.

"I can promise you, Johannes would like you in this," she said with a little laugh.

I looked up at her, biting down on my bottom lip.

She patted my cheek, gentle, affectionate. "I think you'll get him, all of him, my girl, even his bite. Have faith. It's all going to work out."

I laughed. "So, I'm that transparent?"

She laughed, too. "We have a different sort of approach to love and commitment than betas do. It's all quite complicated from their perspective, but from ours, it's very simple. We revolve around omegas. Please the omega, and everyone's pleased."

I laughed. "Happy wife, happy life?"

She nodded.

I stripped the tank off, deciding I didn't care if she saw me in my bra. "It just doesn't seem fair, then, though. Why is everything about me?"

"Fair?" she said. "Who gave you some idea that things were supposed to function like that? Is anything in nature fair?"

I considered that, picking up the next top, which was made of a clingy, stretchy fabric, but had long, flowing bell sleeves and sequins all over the collar and sleeves.

"Nature makes some creatures prey," she said, gesturing to the animal heads on the wall, "and some creatures predators. Is it fair that deer don't have teeth and claws to protect themselves? Is it fair that wolves can't survive on grass, like deer, that they are forced to put considerable effort into chasing down and slaughtering their prey in order to survive? Is any of that fair?"

"No," I said, pulling the shirt over my head. "No, I guess humans made up the idea of fair, didn't we?"

"That's true enough," she said.

"We try to make things fair," I said. "With the way we structure things in civilization. We at least try. I don't want to be a spoiled brat who forces however many alphas I can attract to cater to my every whim." The shirt looked good. The stretchy fabric hugged my breasts and waist, but I felt balanced because of the sleeves. I surveyed myself in the mirror. "I like this one."

"Yeah, it's good," said Ilse, coming up behind me. "Okay, you'll wear this." She grinned at me. "And you mustn't think of it that way. You can't understand how gratifying it is to please an omega. This is my purpose in life, you see. Even this, giving you this shirt for tonight, sorting this, it fills me up in a way I can't quite explain. It's what I was made for. Don't worry about your alphas. They want to serve you. It's what they were designed to do."

I considered that. "But then… what am I designed to do? Just to be placated? To have an unending well of needs that can never be fulfilled?"

Ilse smiled at me. "Does that sound awful?"

"A little bit," I said. "Yes." It was passive, for one thing. I wasn't sure I wanted to be passive. Maybe I wanted to do something active for myself now and again. And I couldn't shake the feeling it was selfish and somewhat megalomaniacal. I was an omega, and did that mean I had to be a demanding person? Did my alphas want that from me?

"Hmm," she said. "Well, I'm going to get Cole to talk to you at some point, then."

"Does Cole do things for you?" I said.

"Besides give me a purpose in life, anchor me to the earth, and make me happy?"

I snickered. "All right, all right. I see what you mean." I surveyed myself in the mirror.

"It's about something else, isn't it?" she said.

"I was hoping… with Dmitri… that maybe I could help him in some way. But I only seemed to make him, well, worse."

"Oh, Dmitri, he's…" She shrugged. "You can't worry about him."

"I have to," I said, turning to her, very serious. "He's definitely going to be my alpha."

"Yes, I suppose."

I turned back to the mirror. "You think I should order him around? Make him do things to please me?"

She laughed softly. "That wouldn't be an awful strategy, I don't think."

"I think he'd hate that," I said.

"Maybe." She shrugged. "He is an alpha, however."

There was a knock on the door. She went over and opened it. She held up a pair of strappy shoes with a chunky heel. "Try these on."

"Where did these come from?" I said, crossing to take them from her.

"This is what I was texting about when we were on our way here," she said. "What? You think being an alpha princess doesn't have perks?"

I grinned at her.

johannes

THE OMEGA MADE a lot of noise about being shy.

She said she didn't like crowds and that she didn't like when people looked at her and that she was happier at home. She talked so much about it on the drive over to the club that I started to get worried that I'd made a mistake setting this up at all.

But then, we got there, and she wasn't even finished a fourth of her drink before she was eyeing the dance floor with a glint in her eye that looked downright eager. Before I could say anything, she whispered something to Ilse, who gave me a look of near triumph, and seriously? She had an omega, what was she doing with mine?

The two women went out on the dance floor together and they were there for a long time before Aurelie came back to me, giggling and happy and scenting like a field of wildflowers, and pulled me out to dance with them.

We didn't even drink that much, honestly. I pulled us in for shots maybe three times, when we also downed large glasses of water, and I think we sweat all the alcohol out of us.

By the time we got home in the wee hours of the morning, we were all laughing and pleased and happy. The evening, rather than a night of debauchery, had felt practically wholesome, just good exercise and upbeat music, nothing even remotely rebellious.

I liked the omega.

In the car on the way back, she sat in the middle and leaned up against me, her face pressed into my (albeitly sweaty) chest. We were all sweaty. I don't think any of us minded. I wormed my arm around her.

She yawned and stretched and preened. "Ilse says I should just start ordering Dmitri around," she said in a sleepy voice. "She says that alphas are designed to please omegas."

"Don't think about Dmitri," I muttered.

"What came up for him tonight, do you know?" she said. "Why couldn't he see me?"

I didn't say anything. Nikolai had cornered me earlier and given me a long lecture about how I was screwing everything up for no good reason, and I'd gotten pissed at him and told him not to come along tonight, which wasn't typical, because he usually did come along.

Now, in the wake of the dancing and the wholesomeness and the scent of wildflowers, I felt things draining out of me.

The omega wanted Dmitri.

What?

I was going to deny her that? Wasn't that what I was doing? Nikolai was right that I couldn't have her to myself. I didn't even want her to myself. I… whatever it was that was going on with me, with the jealousy and everything else, it wasn't fair to hurt the omega because of my issues.

"It's my fault," I said softly, into the crown of her head. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," she said.

"It is. I told him to do it."

She lifted her head to look up at me. "What?"

"What?" echoed Ilse, who was laughing on the other side of Aurelie. "What's going on with you, Johannes?"

"I don't know," I said. "I thought maybe it was the omega, but it's… I wouldn't blame this on you. You're too sweet and good to be causing this. This is just me being a dick, I think."

"You're not a dick," said the omega, sure of this, laying her cheek back down against my chest.

I sighed. I kissed the top of her head. "Dmitri wanted me to tell you that he's just flustered."

"I think I knew that," she said. "I am, too."

"I…" I sighed. "I don't want you with him." It all came out in a rush.

"Johannes!" said Ilse, not laughing anymore. "What the fuck?"

"I know," I said softly. "I know."

"What do you mean?" said Aurelie, yawning again. "Like, at all?"

I didn't answer.

"Well, I signed a contract," she said.

"He's…" I paused for a long time. "He's not a bad person, in the end, Aurelie, but he's a complicated person with complicated issues. I mean, maybe everyone is that, but he's also going to be the King of Valhn, and I don't know why he picked you. I can't help but feel, if he had your best interests at heart, he wouldn't have forced you into this life here, with him, and with all his—"

"Like there's some life for her that's not royalty," broke in Ilse. "We have designations. We don't get an easy life. And you can't be serious. You think an alpha would be attracted to an omega and then decide, like, this omega shouldn't be around me for her own good? Would you do that?"

"I think so," I said softly. "We could, like, fake your death, Aurelie, and send you somewhere, anywhere, and no one would know who you were and then you could just be , you know, and—"

"I don't want that," she said with another yawn.

"You sure?" I whispered.

"Mmm," she murmured, and then… adorably… she started to snore.

I gathered her up into my arms and held onto her for dear life.

I could scent something about what she'd said, though. It wasn't a lie—I couldn't scent lies, anyway—but there was something… something off about it when she said she didn't want it.

I simply wasn't sure what that meant.