Chapter Fifteen Rosemary

" You were supposed to stay inside to help guard the beta."

The voice was hard and stern, but level, like a village elder scolding a child. It had a sharp vibration to it that made my muscles twitch, wanting to show my neck to the angry alpha. To let him assert dominance, to prove that I was submissive. I fought to keep myself still and my eyes closed, as if I were still unconscious.

That was Sir Midwinter's voice. I might learn something important.

" It was a direct order, Carlile. "

" Who cares whether the beta was captured?" This voice was whining like a child caught stealing apples, but it was a grown man speaking, and his voice was almost as deep as the first one. Which alpha was Carlile again? I gave a careful sniff and thought it had to be Sir Lilacs. He was the cocky, younger-looking one, who I assumed was related to Midwinter and Lemonblossom.

" Why would they target her at all? It must have been a mistake," he continued, and I wanted to smack him. Indeed, why would anyone care about a beta? "We're supposed to be concentrating on omegas."

Irritated, I fought an internal battle, wanting desperately to show him just who was making a mistake. Godsdamned alphas with their one-track minds. My caution won out, however, and I remained still, trying to keep my breaths even and slow, careful to hide all signs of the irritation coursing through me.

" Obviously they wanted her for something . They sent three men after her." This voice I recognized immediately, even as stiff and offended as it sounded. Sir Cucumber… no, Bastian . I felt my face twitch as I recognized his voice, and the room fell silent.

Oops.

I mentally slapped myself. I had plenty of practice in pretending to be asleep. What was wrong with me lately that I suddenly couldn't control myself worth a damn? All this danger should be sharpening my abilities, not removing them entirely. I relaxed my face to the point that my mouth fell slightly open in what I was certain was a very unattractive way. Well, that was just too bad. I didn't want these alphas to see me as attractive anyway.

" Lynter was nearly killed because you left him alone." Bastian thumped the wall for emphasis. Something deep inside me eased at the news that Lynter was alive.

" There was only one there when I left," Carlile said. The whining quality of his voice had disappeared and he suddenly sounded genuinely apologetic. "I knew Lynter could handle one. I really thought there would be more going after the omega." He paused, then murmured softly, "I made the wrong call."

" Perhaps they wanted her in order to blackmail the omega," Cantor said, seeming to ignore Carlile entirely. His lovely, sweet hay scent crept into my nostrils and I suspected he was leaning over me. I wanted to breathe in deeper, but didn't dare in case they noticed.

Trying to distract myself so I didn't reach up to cuddle the gentle alpha, I slowly picked out their scents one by one. Cool, floral cucumber and fresh summer hay were Bastian and Cantor. Oranges and pine trees, with an edge of snow for Davos, Sir Midwinter. And bitter lilac flowers, tinged with smoke. The smoky part of Carlile's scent was acrid now, but I couldn't bring myself to care about how stressed he was, since he was the prick who didn't care whether ‘the beta' was captured.

Petrichor reached my nostrils last, almost making me flinch as I abruptly remembered my dream of Sinclair as a giant spider.

And what the hell? Why did that memory suddenly make me want to squirm under my blankets? I should be terrified of that asshole. My brain had dreamed of him as a literal venomous spider. Had tangled me in his web, placed me at his mercy.

That was a warning… right?

Sinclair hadn't said a word so far, but his scent mingled with the others, knitting them together into a lush scentscape I had to fight my body to breathe in only small, serene gulps.

Lynter didn't seem to be in the room. I wondered why they were gathered here, with a supposedly unconscious beta, instead of surrounding their packmate, or the all-important omega. Maybe Lynter had been put in the omega palace to recover, like the important person he was, and they couldn't risk those important people overhearing their important alpha debates.

Wow. Maybe I was just a tad bitter about this whole situation.

Acknowledging that didn't seem to make things any easier. Burning with outrage, I forced myself to listen and not just imagine myself kicking all these alphas between their legs. It would serve them all right.

Except maybe Cantor. He could keep his genitals intact. And now I was starting to blush. Crap. He still seemed to be very close to me, as if the big, lanky alpha was hovering.

" Would they be that stupid? They have to know we wouldn't pay a ransom for her," Carlile said, as if his balls had some kind of magical shield protecting them from my foot. "Capturing her would do nothing for them."

" It's possible they didn't know where we were keeping the omega," Davos said, thoughtful now, all his alpha growling apparently spent. "It doesn't matter, pup. If I give you an order, I expect you to follow it."

" I apologize, brother." The smoky notes in Carlile's scent had turned so bitter I had to fight to stop my mouth from puckering. "I should have known better. I'm still learning how to be pack."

So Carlile was new to the pack. It made sense. He was obviously younger than Davos and Lynter, who seemed to be his biological kin. I filed that fact away in case I could use it.

" I'm in charge of this expedition," Davos said, his voice still level but about ten degrees colder and once again laced with alpha command. "I am also your superior officer, and you've had enough training that you should follow my orders regardless of whether you are part of my pack or not. If you don't like it you can return to father and take it up with him. Now, go to the courtyard. We'll have an extra training session today."

Without another word, someone, I guessed probably Carlile, stomped to the door and slammed it on the way out. OK, so maybe he was much, much younger than his brothers. Or he'd never learned how not to act like an angry teenager.

" Why did they target Rosemary?" Cantor asked quietly, as if he hadn't heard any of what they were saying. It took everything in me not to react as he shuffled even closer, and began to stroke the hair away from my face.

I didn't know if I wanted to shove the man away from me or snuggle in closer. No one had touched me so gently in such a long time. A whimper rose up so swiftly I had to half strangle myself to silence it when he lifted his hand away after only a few moments. I hoped I was keeping my face still, and not showing the aching chasm of emotion in my chest, but I knew it was starting to be a lost cause.

" She's not one of your pets, Cantor," Davos said, kindly, and my heart was just about to warm to him when he continued to run his mouth. "She's just a random beta. I don't want to upset the omega, and that's the only reason we're keeping her with us for now. Don't get attached or you'll do something foolish and I'll have to discipline you as well."

Now I was furious again. These alphas were giving me whiplash. The pack leader's voice was filled with disdain, either for me or for Cantor, who was obviously way too good for this stupid pack.

" Rosemary is a good kid," Bastian said, getting points for not calling me ‘the beta' but, really, I didn't think he was more than a handful of years older than me. "I don't think we need to be…"

" What do you think about all this, Sinclair?" Davos interrupted Bastian, like the enormous asshole he seemed to be.

Someone, I guessed either Bastian or Cantor, started to stroke my hand where it lay on the bed.

" I think we stick with our plan and leave the day after tomorrow."

Sinclair's voice was soft but flat, as if he couldn't care less what they did.

" You saw the tail end of the fight, didn't you?" Davos pressed him further. "How did Lynter end up on the ground?" Heavy footsteps trod around the room and I guessed Davos was moving closer to Sinclair. "Three bandits shouldn't have been able to get the drop on our best fighter." He paused, and then his next words sent ice down my veins. "Did this beta ambush him? Get him from behind, maybe? She might have been working with the bandits."

Sinclair chuckled and my pointer finger was softly rolled between two digits, as if receiving the gentlest of massages. A gust of rich rainfall in the forest hit me and I suddenly realized it was Sinclair who held my hand.

My treacherous body rejoiced even as my brain recoiled. I fought to remain relaxed, but dear gods, an omega could only take so much.

" This little girl?" He snorted. "No, she arrived after he had been struck. She shot a little bit of magic at the bandit, then hit her head, fainting from terror after Lynter collapsed." He spoke as if recounting a day at the market, with no emotion, and no sign that he was lying through his teeth. "It was a lucky blow that felled Lynter, that's all. It happens to all of us. I took out the last one standing after they both fell unconscious, but the bastard must have gotten away while I was tending to our packmate and the beta."

What the actual fuck? I searched my memories of the fight, which went very, very differently from what Sinclair had just recounted to his pack leader. I had been woozy and panicked at the end but I was sure it had been my magic that ended the fight. And I certainly didn't faint from terror , not even when I witnessed the damn blow that opened his packmate up like a gutted fish.

Had he made up this version of events because he didn't know what happened? Did he want the glory? Or was he hiding the truth for reasons of his own? I recalled the sound of a sharp inhale just before I fell unconscious. That must have been him.

If Sinclair had been there for the end of the fight, he had seen what actually happened. I didn't exactly understand it myself, but… I knew enough to know it had not been Sinclair who took out the last bounty hunter. He wore blue, which meant his magic was blue, not the strange brown-yellow that had shot from my hand.

So why was he lying to his pack leader? What the hell was going on?

" Poor Rosemary," Cantor murmured and smoothed back my hair again. "When is she going to wake up?"

Something deep inside my mind rejoiced that I suddenly had two alphas gently touching me, at my head and my hand. Two mates that… No. No no no!

Not mates . Never!

I couldn't bear it anymore. Deciding it was past time to wake up and throw all these baffling, dangerous alphas out of my room, I was about to open my eyes when someone hammered on the door. The sound made me jump, and I was startled all over again when Sinclair squeezed my hand… In warning?

" Not yet," he whispered to me, so quietly I barely heard him, and for some unfathomable reason, I closed my eyes again. No one else seemed to notice that I'd moved. When I took a quick peek under my lashes, all eyes were on the door. Even Cantor had stepped back, taking up a defensive position over my bed that bruised my aching heart all over again.

" Let me in! I demand to see my sister!" Ivan bellowed from outside. He sounded furious.

Not very omega of him.

" These two are more trouble than they're worth," Davos muttered under his breath, and I wished with all my heart that he really believed that.

" I don't have time for this. Sinclair, deal with it," the pack lead ordered. "Interrogate the beta when she wakes. Maybe see if you can get anything out of the omega. Those bounty hunters knew something we don't and I want to know what the hell is going on. I'll be in the courtyard putting Carlile through his paces if you need me." He paused and I kept my face smooth, although I still wasn't sure why I was obeying Sir Petrichor.

Ivan was still pounding on the door.

" Cantor, Bastian, you're with me," Davos said. "You're not going to sit here and moon around a pretty girl all day."

I heard him stomp across the room and fling open the door so suddenly that Ivan let out a grunt and scrabbled for purchase to stop himself from falling through it.

" You can stay here until lunch, omega, but after that you will return to your quarters."

" Yes, commander," Ivan said in a simpering tone that set my teeth on edge. Did I sound like that? As my own sickly, sugared scent reached me I wondered how much I really wanted to keep Sinclair on my side, and whether it was worth swallowing back a bucket-load of bile.

To my shock, and secret delight, Cantor pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, his scent washing over me like a summer zephyr, easing away my sickness, and then he and Bastian both shuffled out.

The door had barely closed when Sinclair spoke. "That's enough of that, omega. I know you've been awake for a while."

Icy panic shot through me. He didn't mean… he was talking to Ivan, right? Or he'd said omega, but he really meant beta . He didn't know. He couldn't know…

Ivan picked up my other hand and squeezed it hard as I opened my eyes to the two men looking down at me.

" I'm… I'm a beta." My voice came out squeaky, and absolutely did not sound like an omega whine.

" You need to renew her spellstone again," Sinclair said to an open-mouthed Ivan. "It was barely hanging on just now with the way my packmates were doting on her." I realized he conveniently left off the fact that he had also been holding my hand.

He was still holding my hand. Why wasn't I pulling back?

" A few more moments and she would have given herself away entirely."

As if to demonstrate, he lifted my hand before I could stop him and gently bit the tip of my index finger.

Heat flooded my body at the intimate gesture and I snatched my hand back, but it was too late. I could almost feel the rest of the magic drain out of the stone, and suddenly my true perfume was filling the room as slick flooded my underclothes and soaked into the sheets below me.

To my surprise, Sinclair shuddered as the scent reached him and his nostrils flared. It was the first time I'd seen him express any real emotion.

From his tortured expression I couldn't tell if he hated the scent or…

" For fucks sake, Rosie," Ivan muttered and sent such a sharp surge of magic into the spellstone that I flinched, worried the heat of it would burn my skin. "I told you to be careful. You can't get emotional or… or… do omega stuff. It uses up the magic too quickly."

" What do you want me to do?" I snapped back, glaring at him. Apparently we were just going to accept that Sinclair knew everything. Fine by me. "I'm constantly surrounded by alphas. You think this is easy for me?"

" You should've just stayed in your room," my brother raged back at me. "If you'd just stayed where you were put, this wouldn't have happened in the…" He trailed off at the expression on my face.

My brother sighed, the anger draining from his face.

" I'm sorry, Rosemary," he said, gently. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant you should have stayed in this room and not tried to face down three armed men."

" There were only two left when I got there," I mumbled, but I didn't look him in the eye.

I couldn't.

I knew some part of him blamed me. How could he help it? Maybe not for being an omega, but he certainly could blame me for trying to escape our father without him there, and having the manacle soldered on before he could arrive and save the day for me.

We might have gotten away years ago, if not for that. I had stolen years of his life, time where he could have been in the capital of Lutin, starting a family and learning to be a proper mage.

I'd forced a manacle on him as well.

I owed Ivan everything . I had no right to feel bad that he knew it.

" What do you want?" Ivan turned to Sinclair. "You haven't told anyone about… about my sister being what she is, which means you want us to buy your silence. So? What will it take?"

" Is that what I want?" Sinclair asked, his blue eyes back to their cold, unreadable state.

" What color is your magic, Rosemary?" the alpha asked suddenly. "I assume you have some, although omegas often don't. If your brother's raw power is any indication, I'm guessing you have at least a trickle."

" More than a…" I bit my lip, and chastised myself. Did I say that out of pride, or did I want to impress this alpha? Either way, I needed to learn how to keep my mouth shut and not give him anything he didn't already know.

Still, right now we had no choice but to answer his questions. And I couldn't see the harm in telling him the color of my magic. The color didn't mean anything.

" It's violet," I said. "But I can't use it when the spell is in place."

" It springs from your center, just like your scent," Sinclair said, nodding. "If that's the case, then how did you cast magic to save my packmate last night?"

Ivan froze, as if in shock, and I glanced at him warily.

" I don't know," I said. "It wasn't violet though. It was… kind of a yellow-brown? Maybe I somehow borrowed Ivan's magic from the spellstone? Or maybe Lynter woke up enough to use his magic." The beam had looked a little bit like Lynter's magic, but I knew in my heart that it hadn't been him. The magic had come from me. I had felt it stream out of me the same way my own magic always did, color or no color.

" Ivan's magic is brown though," Sinclair said and I wondered how he knew. Had Ivan performed magic in front of this alpha, or could he just see more than he let on?

" What did it feel like?" He pressed.

I shrugged.

Exhaustion was creeping up on me. I was pretty sure it was still very early in the morning, and my eyelids felt like they were being weighed down.

" I don't know," I said. "I was afraid they would kill him, after he fought so hard to protect me… I was…" I yawned. Even recalling the memory of that desperate moment didn't seem to be enough to stave off sleep. "I was holding his hand and I just… instinctively tried to do a spell I guess? It felt the same as always, but maybe a bit stronger. I don't know many spells so I just did the one I use to dust the ceiling."

Ivan snickered and I jabbed him in the stomach, just hard enough for him to make a small sound in protest.

" Shuddup," I said, my voice slurring. "It came out way stronger than usual." Did I already say that? "And it was… cloudy. Yellow and brown mixed together, like gold with a bit of mud on it. So… I dunno." My eyelids fell.

" Hmmmm," Sinclair hummed, the noise halfway between an alpha growl and a purr. The gorgeous vibration seemed to seep into my very bones, sending soothing waves of warmth down my spine. It relaxed me so much, I didn't make the slightest protest when the alpha grasped my hand again.

" Little Sunberry," he crooned, my nickname like velvet in his voice. "Can you try again now? Do a spell for me , little omega."

I whined as the need to obey my alpha and the need to sleep clashed, but obedience quickly took precedence. Cracking my eyes open, I lifted my hand from Ivan's grasp and tried my best to summon my magic, aiming a bolt of it at the corner of the room.

Nothing happened.

" Try again, omega," Sinclair said sharply, his voice edged with alpha command this time, and I obeyed without a shred of resistance.

Without a shred of success either.

" Hey, you can't order her around like that," Ivan protested and then swore as I began to tremble.

Tired as it was, my body knew what an alpha bark meant. It knew what was coming. I shook and whined, the noise a high pitch of distress that I'd never made before, not even when my father let the alphas have me.

But Sinclair only looked at me, his dark blue eyes flashing with an emotion I couldn't begin to guess, and dropped my hand back to the bed.

" Sleep, omega," he said, the bark still in his voice. My eyes slid shut, even as I tried to fight the command. There was no fighting that tone though. Not for an omega. Not even one sealed up tight by magic.

Sinclair and Ivan started talking again, but I couldn't hold on. Cursing all alphas to hell, I fell asleep.