Chapter 1

It has been a year or more since I last saw Alex. We were once very close, first as children and later during our time in the high king's court. More recently, life and circumstances have caused our paths to part.

He's married now, and he and his wife live on a small estate nestled deep within the protection of his brother's kingdom. Their modest home has a cozy charm to it. Ivy creeps over the cream stone walls of the two-story dwelling set against the backdrop of a small wood. There is a small holding to go with it, with arable land, an orchard, grazing for sheep, and a village close by from which he can hire workers for his land. A small formal garden and an orchard, stable blocks, and numerous barns complete the main building complex.

A stablehand is swift to collect my horse, and I'm greeted by Alex and his wife, Clara, on the steps of their home.

I try not to breathe as Clara breaks all decorum and throws her arms around my neck. "It's so good to see you, Frederick!"

Alex only chuckles and shakes my hand when his wife, now blushing, relinquishes her hold.

"Do you have the letters?" Clara asks, not even pretending she is excited to see me anymore as she searches my riding coat with her eyes, like her sisters' correspondence might appear through her will alone.

I pat myself down, frowning. "Oh dear."

"What? Where are they?"

"Clara!" Alex all but groans. "At least let the man get over the threshold before you accost him for news."

"He promised to bring the letters." She pouts prettily.

"I fear I might have left them back at my residence in the capital," I muse, fighting down laughter at the sudden mutinous set to Clara's jaw.

"No." She shakes her head. "I am not falling for that. Hand over the letters, scoundrel, or you shall be sleeping in the stable without supper."

I like the way she calls me scoundrel a little more than I ought.

Alex laughs. "I would come to your defense, but my wife is not known for her leniency where news from her sisters is concerned."

My smirk blooms and I join him in laughter as I take the two letters from my inside pocket with a flourish.

She snatches them from my hand, leans up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek, and then turns about to disappear back into the house, calling over her shoulder, "He may enter."

My cheek still tingles where her soft lips pressed. "Your sweet wife is magnanimous," I say dryly, dragging my eyes from her ass—I'm confident there is no padding needed in her silk gown.

Alex claps me on the shoulder. "Good to see you, Frederick. Come in and be welcome. I'm sure as soon as Clara has read the letters two or three times, she will remember we have a guest."

Their house is as charming on the inside as it is on the out. Large enough to be comfortable and small enough to be intimate. Clara is beaming after reading the letters—one from each of her sisters, Rebecca and Rosalind. I know how she cherishes news from them, genuine news, for one cannot trust the messengers since her oldest sister came to power and set in motion events that changed all our lives.

I push aside the dark anger I still feel even after the passage of several years.

Not that I still covet the mate I might have had when Rebecca was snatched away, but more that I hate the injustice and damage it did to the rest of their family. Rebecca is happy now, and that comforts me.

But as we enjoy a fine evening meal in their beautiful dining room with the elegant rosewood table and chairs and the crystal candelabra that bespeaks their modest wealth, it is not the omega I almost claimed who captivates me, but her beta sister… Her happily married beta sister, who happens to be my best friend's wife.