Chapter Eight Rosemary

I barely slept that night. After my performance in the dining room I had been sure the alphas wouldn't bother guarding me. Why would they? I was just another beta, totally harmless, and totally without value to them. Guarding a mouse would make more sense.

Maybe they'd put a watch on their precious omega, but why would they bother guarding him themselves? I had gathered they were traveling with at least a dozen soldiers. There was no need for Cantor, the hayfield scented alpha, to be wandering in my corridors at night, or for his packmates to be guarding my brother.

As much as I hated to admit it, Ivan was right to some extent. In this specific situation it probably was safer for him to be the omega. He wasn't really any use to them directly. The danger was from people who wanted to sell us to the king, and a prince pack didn't need to do that. Surely their father would just give them all the money they wanted. At most, they might take us to that waiting prison out of duty or perhaps even a misplaced sense of caring. They probably thought it was safest for omegas to be put in a cage where they could be portioned out, rather than torn to pieces as everyone fought over their share.

Ivan was presenting himself as a male omega. The prince pack were male alphas. At most he could plant seeds in female alphas that would later bear the fruit they actually wanted. The idea of it made me shudder.

Unless they happened to be into other men. But what were the odds of that? I didn't know how men like that were treated in this country, but in Lutin they were subject to the same cruelty as omegas. If they were somehow outed they didn't live long.

At least they had the option of hiding, though, while my scent advertised what I was loudly and consistently.

No, I assumed the prince pack only wanted Ivan for the prestige of handing him in. Maybe they were sticklers for the law and were following it to the letter. That didn't seem important enough to lose so much sleep. Not to guard a weak little beta and a sickly male omega. But what did I know?

Not only did they move him, they also left one of their own pack to guard me! It couldn't just be bad luck that had me caught for a second time breaking into my brother's room. And Sir Hayfield definitely saw me using my lockpicking skills.

My cheeks burned as I remembered what else he had caught me doing. I had been so upset to realize my brother wasn't actually in the room that had reeked of my own scent, that I had lost control of myself. The alpha had been huge before me, his body heat radiating through the dark. He was so pale, almost unnaturally so, his hair colorless, its bare tint close to silver, his face ruddy and oddly softened by the barely visible scruff on his cheeks, giving him a velvety cast. He wasn't a handsome man, all raw-boned and strange, but my body had swayed forward before I could stop it, seeking out the comfort of his warm, sweet, grassy scent. I breathed him in with such a noisy gust of air he couldn't help but notice what I had done.

His scent was heavenly. He smelled the best of all his pack, like molasses and flowers, like summer days spent watching clouds race across deep blue skies, like the comforting embrace of fresh, sweet hay. All I wanted to do was rub against him like a cat.

Steal his shirt. Wear his shirt.

Fuck him on his shirt.

I was disgusting. It's like my pea-sized mind wanted to be caught.

Poor, dumb little omega.

After a broken sleep filled with lusty dreams where I rolled around, deliriously happy, in a barn full of soft hay, I forced myself out of bed. In my unconscious state I had somehow scrunched together all the blankets and pillows that had been on my bed into a soft, shallow depression that was absolutely not a nest. I scattered them as soon as I realized what I had done.

That didn't quite settle my racing heart, so I decided I would pinch the back of my hand every time I even thought about gathering together every scrap of cloth in the room and adding it to the bed.

My hand quickly turned red.

The spell gem in my arm had cooled considerably now. It was barely warmer than the skin around it. I needed to see my brother. If we were going to keep up this ridiculous farce- not that we had a choice at this point- he needed to renew the magic in the gem. The alpha from last night had said he'd been put in quarters close to the innkeeper's daughters so they could look after him.

Ivan was probably thrilled.

Judging by the sky outside it was just past dawn and time for all good innkeeper's daughters to wake up, so I splashed water on my face and dressed as quick as I could. I prepared myself to pick my lock and then beg that pale alpha to let me see my brother. He did seem… nice? Maybe if I cried again he could be swayed.

To my surprise, my door wasn't locked. I was not surprised, however, to find Sir Petrichor waiting in the corridor, smelling like the woods during a summer rain. I inhaled deeply, unable to help myself, and then my treacherous face heated as he smirked at me.

He looked so handsome when he smiled. Even though his cold eyes never changed.

"Sunberry, there you are," he said, as if he'd been waiting for me all night.

"Sunberry?" I said before I could help myself. "What happened to Mudpuppy?"

His dark eyes, a blue that was almost black in the dim light of the corridor, traced down my body.

"Not so muddy today, little Sun puppy ," he said, his voice teasing. The tone was entirely at odds with the intense way his eyes streaked over me. Like he was flaying me with them, cutting past all the layers to get at the naked, shivering thing at my core.

"Not sunny either," I snapped back at him and almost gasped, not knowing where this godsdammed defiance was coming from.

It's not that the defiance had been beaten out of me. I had plenty of it. However, I knew from experience that there was no point in showing it. I used my defiance to feed my ability to act meek and survive. I'd long-since perfected my beaten puppy persona, the one that allowed me to escape the worst my father had to offer. The one that brings whatever faint caregiver instincts alphas have to the fore.

So they don't beat me. So they don't harm me any worse than what will get them what they want. I had years of practice in cowering and silent obedience, of hiding the embers of my true self under a smothering pile of ashes.

So why did these alphas keep drawing my bitterness to the surface? Why did they make me want to fight?

Or even worse… give up.

"You don't like it?" He said, in that same teasing tone, and suddenly his brow creased as if he was… uncertain. Worried? No, that couldn't be right. What did he have to be worried about?

"Um…" I leaned towards him, inhaling again, then caught myself and gave my hand another harsh little pinch. For the Beta's sake, this man would sell me as soon as look at me. These little pet names were exactly that. Names they were giving to their pet .

Nothing to get all swoony about.

"Better than mudberry, I guess," I muttered and hung my head slightly, peeking up at him as if shy and sorry for my outburst. Damn it, I could do this. I could act like I was a cowering little beta around them. That's what they thought I was anyway, and it was barely an act.

"I'm guessing you'd like to see your brother," Sir Petrichor said, stepping closer to me, so that we were less than a pace apart, then less than a foot, and godsdamnit no amount of pinching could seem to convince me to move away from him.

His blue eyes bored into mine as if he knew my secrets and then he murmured in my ear, "It's dangerous to look at men like that, little Sunberry." His breath was so close, it fluttered against my skin and gooseflesh crept up my arms at the feathering touch.

What was wrong with me?

For half a wick I thought he might kiss me and, gods help me, I was going to let him, and then a burst of fluid flooded my underclothes and broke the spell.

I knew at once what had happened. Slick. Yet another delightful aspect of being an omega. No matter my thoughts on the matter- and I had plenty- my body had recognized there was an alpha nearby and started to prepare itself to receive him. Alphas had notoriously large cocks. Omegas needed to grease the way somehow, or be split apart the first time they fulfilled their gods given duty.

It was one of those unspoken omega things Ivan had alluded to but been unable to outright say to his older sister. The spell was supposed to stop me from producing slick, since it was a stinking beacon to every alpha within ten jaunts that a receptive omega was nearby. Sir Petrichor, with his false little endearments and husky murmuring, and his sublime musk, had used up the last of the magic in my spellstone.

Adrenaline pumped through my body, probably making my scent even stronger , and I flinched away from him, then darted several paces down the corridor. As if that would help.

Oh gods he was going to smell it, and then the jig would be up.

"CanIseemybrothernow?" I said, so quickly I wasn't sure how he understood but, without a word, he took off down the corridor after me, swiftly passing my tense, shaking body. I limped behind him on my sore feet, hoping against hope that the heavy wool skirt of the dress the innkeeper gave me was enough to keep my scent contained for a few moments.

All I needed was just a little bit of luck. Just a little.

If not for the damned slick, this would be perfect. I had acted like a scared little peasant, shying away from an overbearing lord. It was perfect for my act.

It's not like I wanted him to kiss me.

It's not like he ever actually would.

I clawed at the gem in my arm. Was it still working at all? Maybe it was neutralizing the scent of the slick, since he hadn't seemed to notice it yet. Alphas were supposed to be able to scent it from a great distance. I didn't know exactly how far, only that it was far, and that it was nothing compared to the distance they could scent an omega in heat.

The only things I really knew about alphas and omegas were bare facts that Ivan had figured out from the scant handful of books he'd found, all of them only mentioned in passing. Lutin didn't exactly want people to study the different dynamics. As far as my country was concerned, it would be better if I didn't exist.

Still, Sinclair- Sir Petrichor, since he insisted on giving me a stupid nickname or three- wasn't acting as if he were about to go into a mating frenzy. He hadn't even looked at me since we started walking. I'd only produced slick a couple of times with the disgusting alphas who paid my father to paw at me, and they had always gone crazy when it happened. I hated my father, but during those times I'd never been more grateful for his shotgun. The heavy weight of it, and the heat of the magic powering it, the certainty of their deaths if they didn't calm down, was the only thing that had stopped those alphas from rutting into me and I knew that.

I also knew the only reason my father bothered to stop them was because he thought it might lower my value if I was knotted before he managed to sell me whole. I suspected Ivan had introduced that notion to our father. Unfortunately my brother was just as susceptible to a bullet as any other man, and all he could do was try to guide my father on the least damaging path and plan for the day we would be free.

Fat lot of good that it did us.

Sir Petrichor wasn't acting anything like those alphas. He was striding in front of me as if he couldn't wait to be rid of me. He didn't even glance up as we rushed down the stairs, through the dining room and into the kitchen. A door at the back of the bustling kitchen led into an open space the shape of a square, surrounded by buildings on three sides. I gaped at the size of everything as we went, trotting to keep up with the much taller alpha. The open space was cobbled, like the main road in Koron, and almost all the buildings around it were two stories high. Were all of these buildings part of the inn? Did enough people exist in the world to justify an inn this big?

I must have stopped in my amazement, because Petrichor made a sound of annoyance and suddenly grabbed my arm. My first instinct was to snatch it away from him, but I stopped when he pinned me with a deep blue stare and made a noise that sounded like a dog growling. Not like a man making the sound of a dog growling, but the real thing.

That made me freeze, as yet another godsdamn gush of fluid escaped me to soak my underclothes.

Petrichor half-dragged me across the square to the only building that wasn't two stories. It looked like what I would call a normal cottage, in fact, like my father's house, except bigger.

The alpha didn't bother to knock, only produced a key and opened the door and shoved me in, quicker than flame, as if he was throwing trash out the window. It was so abrupt I found myself gasping for breath, unable to move, even as he slammed the door and the lock clicked shut.