Chapter Nine Rosemary

I froze, my eyes adjusting to the dim light of the enclosed space, my lungs working overtime. I wasn't sure exactly what had happened. The alpha had almost seemed like he was flirting with me, cold eyes or not, then suddenly he'd marched me across the inn like I had offended him somehow. Was it because I'd pulled away so abruptly? Did I anger him with my rejection?

Real fear crept into my blood. Maybe he'd just moved me from one jail cell to another. Maybe they'd realized the beta didn't need a whole room at the inn to herself, and I was surrounded in the dark. Maybe they were about to put another manacle on me. I cringed into myself, ready to fight and scream and… And then my eyes adjusted and I spotted my brother, his face pale, all bundled up under a gigantic mound of blankets on a bed in the corner of the room. The very ordinary room, that was only dark because the curtains were drawn.

"Rosie! Thank the gods you're safe," he rasped and held out his arms.

I flung myself into them, knocking him back into his cornucopia of pillows. Ivan was alive!

I automatically took a big sniff, wanting to breathe in the calming chamomile scent of him, but I caught an acrid noseful of old flowers. My scent. The cloying, sharp stink of it almost made me choke. Gods, why did alphas like it? It was disgusting.

"What the hell, Ivan," I said, thumping his arm as gently as my anger allowed. "What the hell were you thinking?"

I checked over my shoulder in case anyone else was in the tiny cottage, before I elaborated in a low voice. "You should have asked me, godsdammit. I never would have agreed to…"

"Which is why I didn't ask," he interrupted. "There's no need to get upset, Rosie. What can they do? Who cares if I smell like an omega? If they try to sell me off somewhere I'll let the magic fade and make everyone think I was just a strong smelling beta." He shrugged, as if this were all so easy. "It's not like I have any other characteristics of an omega." He shuddered suddenly. "Thank the gods they didn't actually check."

"But they could separate us," I protested. "And who knows what they really do to male omegas here. Or if someone from home hears about it… they'd kill you."

He shrugged again. "How would anyone hear? And who gives a shit about that place. They can all go to hell. Except maybe Colin and only because he got word to me that you'd been taken."

He punched at the pillows as if trying to subdue them. It really was a lot of pillows. My fingers itched to touch them, but I sat on my hands and tried to ignore the impulse.

"If it weren't for those goat-bred gods-ditched pricks you'd have been able to escape a long time ago."

"We needed the stone to hide my scent," I argued, not wanting to have this argument again. He acted as if every other person in the world wouldn't also treat me like crap if they caught me. Give the boy ten thousand pillows and suddenly every omega is a diva.

"Yes, and we needed to use me as alpha bait."

I thumped him again, hard enough to sting this time. Then I felt a bit guilty because he did still look quite fragile. I didn't let the guilt show in my voice though. "Fuck off , I wouldn't let you. The only reason you're doing it now was because I didn't know you were going to do it."

"Ow, Rosemary," he grumbled, sounding much more like an alpha than an omega. Or maybe just a grumpy beta. "Just calm your tits, OK?"

"That's the bloody Phoenix Pack, " I hissed. "They'll sell either of us to their father in a heartbeat. Tricking them only makes this whole thing worse."

"It'll be fine Rosie, just breathe, OK? Don't get all omega on me." He grinned weakly. I knew he was just teasing me to set my mind at ease, but I thumped him gently again for good measure. He only rolled his eyes.

"So emotional ," he said. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, or scream with rage, so I held it all in and heaved a sigh instead. I wrapped my arms around my stupid, brave, reckless brother and squeezed him.

"OK, lay this plan on me."

"Honestly, it's not much of one," he admitted as he drew back, then grasped my arm with gentle fingers. I watched his face as he pushed raw magic into the spell gem there. Sweat beaded on his brow from an effort that should have barely registered to a mage as accomplished as him.

"You haven't recovered yet," I pointed out, my voice strained. I knew he'd pushed himself, particularly redirecting the mudslide so it didn't outright kill us, but I had no idea it was this bad. He'd never taken more than a few candles to recover before.

Had he suffered permanent damage?

He shrugged. "Getting a fever didn't help, that's for sure. Another day of rest and I should be fine."

I peered into his eyes, looking for the lie, but he looked back steadily. A bit of tension left me.

He scooted higher in the bed then dragged up his shirt. I gasped as I saw the dozen spell gems laid under the skin of his ribs. He'd shown me several in his arms to convince me to let him place my own, but I had no idea he had so many.

"What the hell, Ivan? Isn't that dangerous?" He batted away my hand, which had automatically moved to touch the small bumps.

"Nah," he said. "Pretty standard these days. Honestly I've seen mages so bumpy you'd swear they were reptiles. I've heard that's how pack Gorgon got their name. That and they claim to become hard as…." He trailed off as I wrinkled my nose.

"You really want to finish that sentence in front of your sister?"

Ivan barked a laugh and then pushed a bit of magic into one of the gems. Almost immediately his scent- my scent- got stronger. It made my eyes water, too sweet, too floral, too omega . I never noticed it when it was coming out of me, but coming from my brother it made me want to plug my nose.

"Do I really smell that bad?" I choked out.

Ivan glanced at me with surprise at first, but then his face cleared. "Ah… you're probably reacting because it feels like there's a different omega here."

I sat back as his words sank in. "You mean… you mean I'd always feel like this with any other omega? I can never be friends with one without my nose burning like this?"

He laughed at me. "It's not that bad. And, no, it's not that it's an omega, exactly. You react to omega scents the same way you do to any other scents. If they smell good you're compatible." I started to object, suddenly disgusted at the thought of how much I liked his own gentle scent, and he held up his hand. "Compatible just means… compatible in life. Not in bed. Like… how much you'd get on with the person." He cocked his head as he examined me. "It's something that can change over time. Like how you once thought Adam was the best smelling person in the world, and then you finally realized he actually smells like old socks soaked in pickle-water."

I didn't want to think about that, so I ignored it. "So you're saying I'm not compatible with… myself? Like, if I met myself in the market we wouldn't get on?"

Ivan's eyes softened. "Rosie, you have to admit you don't like yourself very much right now. You're too hard on yourself over things you can't control."

Well. That was something else we were supposed to ignore, thanks very much.

What I couldn't ignore was the horrible sickly-sweet stench rising from my brother. I needed to get away from him before I vomited. I missed his own gentle herbs and chalk scent so badly. I scrambled off the bed then winced as my bandaged feet hit the floor a little bit too hard. Ivan glanced down at them and scowled, but didn't comment.

"I need to see you every 24 candles if possible," he continued, realizing I wasn't going to suddenly start spilling all my trauma. "This spell needs your proximity to harvest your scent or it won't work."

Harvest? Gross .

"Sure, OK," I mumbled, but then my head shot up. "Wait, 24 candles? We'll be gone by then anyway." I lowered my voice, realizing I was being too loud. Was Sir Petrichor listening at the door? Godsdamnit, I was terrible at this cloak and dagger stuff.

"We just have to sneak out," I said in a whisper. "I can pick the locks now I know where they're keeping you."

"And how's that working out for you so far?" he asked with a pointed look, as if he knew all about my last two attempts at escape. I clenched my jaw and glared at him defiantly.

However, I said nothing. He had a point.

"That's what I thought," Ivan said. "Unfortunately, like you said, this is a royal pack. They're not idiots. Even if I'm not exactly what they want for themselves, I'm still…" He lowered his voice even more than I had. " Supposedly an omega. They won't just let us go."

I suppressed a shiver. Had they said something to him about what they wanted or was he just guessing? I didn't know much, but I did know that every alpha wanted an omega for themselves. Within packs that desire rose to a fever pitch. It was how the king here controlled his people. He had all the omegas. He had all the cards.

"So what do we do?"

My brother shrugged again. His face was strained with exhaustion. "We wait. We let your feet heal properly, and we let my magic refill. We let them think we're mild and submissive and dumb as rocks." He winked at me and a small smirk crooked my lips. Ivan knew all too well what my default persona was when I was backed into a corner. He'd witnessed it for the last five years.

"We're at least 10 days from the capital. We'll probably need several more days rest here too. They'll get bored and complacent and then…." He paused.

I held my breath, expecting him to deliver some kind of masterpiece of strategy.

"We escape ."

Well damn, why didn't I think of that?

"That's it? That's your grand plan." I roll my eyes. "‘We escape' . Well thanks, little bro, glad I've got a genius here to save me."

"If you've got a better idea, my sister, I'm all ears." I thumped him again, half-heartedly this time, but the truth was that right now I have nothing and he knows it.

I can only hope the pack thinks so as well.