“Stay here,” I growled, and hurried off the wall to collect my men.
If this was a mistake, then let it be one made in love. Let them talk about it for years to come. Because nothing had changed. Right or wrong, king or sucker, I loved my omega queen.
Chapter Fourteen
Zelene
Like hell would I stay here while those things were capturing and destroying omegas.
I hated that I wasn’t sure I could trust Adalai to do more than protect his own people. He needed to fight for the omegas. Now. Before he lost their faith forever.
Omegas had been going missing for years. But this was the first sign, the first real proof that it wasn’t an accident. Whatever had been done to them, it was for the sole purpose of taking down the Weren. And if the humans hadn’t infiltrated the city, they might have gotten away with it. But they wanted to be seen by the king. Simply capturing omegas hadn’t gotten the attention of the pack, until now. It was a statement, loud and clear.
The humans intended to win this war. And they would use our own people to do it.
Tavia came skidding around the corner, with Charolet, Rielle, and Ashla close behind. They were out of breath and their pretty hairdos had tumbled from the constraints of their pins.
My sister had her hand on her heart, like she was afraid it would fall out of her chest if she didn’t. Or even more urgent, that the mutiny would bring on her shift. Any ordinary alpha marksman in Adalai’s army would shoot her first and ask questions never.
“Zee, you know you can’t trust him,” Charolet said.
“That’s not entirely true.” I expected four sets of eyes to roll at the declaration. “His mother was an omega. He has omega blood running through his veins. He just has to remember that.”
“It’s Dagger we really have to worry about.” Tavia’s gaze shifted to the chaos below us. “If he’d instituted proper security in the Badlands in the first place, if he’d taken the missing persons reports seriously... But it was just omegas disappearing. So big deal, right? Adalai appointed someone to defend the Badlands who hates omegas, and now it’s coming back to bite him in the ass.”
My jaw ticked in irritation. She wasn’t familiar enough with Adalai to address him without his title, even as his sister in law, yet this wasn’t the time for an etiquette lesson. But one thing was clear. None of them respected the royals either. It went both ways. If we had any chance of surviving this battle, we all had to fight for each other.
Charolet scoffed. “Dagger’s freaking out that the king took an omega queen. Thinks it’s a trap. Funny because I doubt the humans have any idea how much Dagger hates what he’s been assigned to protect. They don’t know that this empire is one breath away from taking itself out.”
“I wonder when he pissed off the king,” Rielle added, and then looked to me. “He must have, right? Because the king seems to have some issues about omegas too. Besides you, I mean. Obviously.”
We didn’t have time for me to give them a history lesson. “Which one of you has worked in the laundry caverns?”
Ashla raised her hand in the back.
“Can you lead us there?” As omegas, we were only allowed in certain areas of the castle. When I worked in the kitchen, I didn’t come to the living quarters like Ashla did to bring the king’s clean clothes to his wardrobe. As queen, I’d been given a perfunctory tour that excluded the service areas of the castle. It had never felt like more of a handicap.
“Sure.” Her forehead wrinkled with doubt. “Only if you tell me why.”
“Because we can’t kick ass in these dresses, and we need to kick ass. We’re headed to the Badlands, to the front lines, because the omegas won’t face these beasts alone. Not on my watch.”
Their nods of agreement lent me some of the confidence I’d lost.
“Follow me.” Ashla turned on her heel and headed down the hallway.
“Zee.” Tavia grabbed my shoulder, and the other omegas stopped when they realized we were no longer following them. “You can’t just go to the Badlands anymore. You’re queen now. You’ve got a target on your back bigger than any other in this city. Can you imagine how pleased the humans would be if those...things captured the omega queen?”
“You sound just like Adalai, thinking I shouldn’t fight.” I knew she’d hate that, and it might be the only thing that changed her mind. “But I’ve always had a target on my back. As an omega, I’ve never been safe. As unmated omega women who go into heat, we live every day in danger of abduction and so much worse. We’re not just battling the mutant wolves, Tavia. We’re proving to every single person in Luxoria and beyond that omegas are strong, powerful, and worthy of respect.”
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. Just that we have to take precautions,” she muttered as we followed Ashla into the increasingly dark hallways. We’d crossed into omega territory in the castle.
The laundry caverns were in the basement. Dank, damp, and humid, it was one of the most labor intensive omega jobs in the castle. But the caverns also handled the laundry for the King’s Battalion. I didn’t have to tell Ashla where I wanted her to go. She led us right to a row of perfectly pressed uniform shirts and pants.
“The smaller ones are at the end of the row,” she said.
“Grab whatever,” I instructed to the ladies. “Where are the boots?” They were shined here too.
“Along the wall.”
We’d be at a disadvantage, in clothes and shoes that were too big for us, but once we shed the beautiful gowns that had seemed like a dream just weeks ago and the jewels we never expected to have access to, we’d blend in with almost any other omega. Or at least, that was what I hoped.
Lucky for us, shields and daggers were also polished in the caverns.
“You can’t take those!” The old omega man charged with their care waved his hands, trying to stop us. “You don’t belong in here.”
“I’m your queen. I’ll take what I need.” I hated pulling that card on him, but I didn’t have time to argue. The man’s hands were still in the air when he sank to his knees. “And I’ll make sure what’s happening in the Badlands, your home, will never happen again after tonight.”
“Bless you.” His words shook, like he wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing.
“I promise you, things will only get better.” I took a shield, but the man rose and shook his head.
“This one will work better for you.” He handed me a smaller shield. “The other one is too big, and it will knock you off balance. Hold it over your head and your heart. You shouldn’t be fighting, Your Majesty.”
“If I don’t fight for us, who will?” I didn’t miss the tears in his eyes. “Thank you.”
The chaos was worse on the ground. Fires burned in the streets, windows were smashed and desperate omegas were taking full advantage of the easy access to goods. When all this was over, I’d make sure they weren’t punished. There were too many fist fights, too many men and women who’d gained access to weapons to try to put a stop to it now. I’d only been queen officially for hours, but I already felt like a failure. First, we had to make our city safe from outside forces. Then, once we gave everyone a sense of security, we could work on decades worth of trust issues on the inside.
No guards protected Luxoria from the Badlands tonight. They’d all gone to fight. We slipped into our homeland easily, and my heart broke again when the girls gasped. Nothing was as we left it. The fires were much worse here, and everything was destroyed.
I was frozen in place, my feet screaming from blisters. “The Badlands are destroyed.”
“The Badlands are never destroyed,” Charolet said. “Omegas get knocked down but we rise again and again. Now let’s find and kill these fuckers and show whoever sent them that all their hard work was for nothing.”
A roar like a siren rolled over the Badlands. The animalistic sound had come from the mutant beasts. They were nearby. My heart broke knowing they were once omegas like me. We thought the miss
ing ones had been killed. But this was so much worse. They’d been turned into monsters, fighting against themselves and everything they once loved. Now, they would either die, or we would.
It was a lose-lose situation.
I led my army right to the sound. We might have new stolen uniforms, but we’d been fighting for each other for years. I had the utmost confidence in these women. Even more than if I’d been given access to Adalai’s entire army. There was no one I’d rather fight with than Tavia, Charolet, Rielle, and Ashla.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t scared. I was terrified. Lifeless bodies were strewn in the streets with loved ones crouched over them, crying for help. Others charged toward us, urging us to return to the castle.
“Your Majesty, you can’t go there,” one begged.
“I’m Zelene, just like I have always been. I’m still an omega. I will still fight. I will always fight.”
I pushed past them, trusting my girls would follow. My promises might have made the omegas feel good when I stood on the castle balcony, with a glittering crown of jewels on my head, but they meant nothing if I didn’t fight along with them.
Actions over words.
My heart stopped in my chest when I rounded the next corner. Through the smoke, I met the gaze of one of those horrible mutant beasts. Its eyes were red, and shot little lasers that reflected on my shield. The humans were so confident that none of us could beat their manmade beasts they didn’t even try to be subtle.
“Oh, gods,” Tavia gasped. “There are so many of them.”
I’d been so fixed on the beast with the glowing eyes I didn’t see that he had friends. The street was filthy with them, their tangled bodies snarling and hungry. Fur matted and bloody against their flanks. And the smell, like rotting meat and so much spilled blood.
I wanted to puke. I wanted to run. But I couldn’t. I was the queen. I had to stand and fight.
I wondered where Adalai was. But it seemed too indulgent to think of him now. I could only hope he was safe.
The first beast, which had to be their alpha, grinned at me, showing off his jagged, broken fangs. A drop of drool darkened the dirt below him, an ominous warning in itself.
Time stopped.
I charged toward the beast, oblivious of the omega’s cries for me to stop, trying to remember what the old man told me about the shield. Protect my head and my heart, right?
My sword was pointed right at the mutant wolf. It jerked as it moved, not used to challenge, but it didn’t shy away from it. I would break this thing into pieces and send it back to its humans in a box.
But the wolf landed the first blow. He sent me tumbling into the hard earth with a cloud of dirt rising around me. A drop of drool landed on my leg, seeping through my pants. It was way too warm, but I couldn’t stop to think about what it was doing to my skin.
I pulled myself up, body screaming, and angled the sword at him. Head, heart...I aimed for his throat, the blade slicing through the air before one of the other wolves caught it in his mouth and pulled it out of my hand.
“Zelene!” My sister yelled, and I cringed.
“She’s the queen.” The wolf who had drooled on me snickered. “The omega queen. Who would’ve thunk it. Today’s our lucky day.”
“Powerless and on the dirty ground before us, just like she should be,” another wolf said with a sneer.
One of the girls—I couldn’t afford to look back and see which one—tossed her sword at me but it was intercepted before I could reach it. Now I was surrounded by a pack of mutant wolves who would do anything to bring the queen back to their humans.
“Don’t you dare hurt her.” That was Charolet.
“It will be your turn soon enough, pretty,” the mutant alpha chided. “You get a front row seat to see what we’ll do to all of you.”
One of the wolves took that as an invitation to rip my pant leg. I kicked him right in the face. Bad move, because the other mutants descended, demanding retribution for my sins. My stolen uniform was in tatters, and the alpha sunk his nasty fangs into my thigh…
The last thing I remembered feeling was omega hands on my shoulders, pulling me through the dirt. I wanted to scream but the only people who were coming for me were already here. Adalai was off fighting his own battles.
Adalai.
I hoped if we never saw each other again, he’d remember his promise. To unite the Badlands and let the omegas live in peace.
Silhouettes of wolves were knocked to the ground around me, but I didn’t know if that meant I was going to live or die.
I wanted to live. Desperately, wanted to live.
But if it meant revolution for my people… for that, I was ready to die.
Chapter Fifteen
Adalai
I roared as my sword sliced through my human enemy’s armor. Omega wolves fought beside me, attacking with claws and fangs, while my alpha soldiers battled with sword and shield, and machine guns fired from the city walls. Together, we pushed the humans back from the city gates, but my mind was on the monsters I’d seen from the wall. The half shifted beasts that crushed everything in their path. Where were they?
I already knew the answer.
The Badlands. They must be targeting the Badlands.
I promised Zelene I would help her people. And I intended to keep that promise.
Calling to Evander and Solen to hold the line at the gate, I fought past quarreling soldiers until the expanse of sand that stretched to the Badlands became dust under my boots. I ran for the largest gathering of people, avoiding the downed bodies. The only way to help them now was to chase the beasts and humans out of their land. Drawing closer, I found Dagger’s army fighting in a tight formation, but with the thick smoke in the air, I couldn’t see what they battled.
I’d bet it was one of the mangled beasts from earlier.
Terrified omegas ran past me, women and children. Goddamn it, there were children. Of course there were. Why hadn’t it mattered to me before? Didn’t think they were in this kind of danger, my conscience argued, but I couldn’t be sure that was the truth. I’d been calloused. Not until Zelene did I understand. Meeting my queen was like pulling blinders from my eyes. I saw everything differently now.
Several humans caught me just outside of the circle but I dispensed of them quickly and rushed into the fray of soldiers and wolves to help. In my head, I could hear the words of the wolves and recognized their voices.
These were Zelene’s friends.
Tavia and Charolet and Rielle and Ashla. What the hell were they doing out here?
Shit. My rose would never forgive me if something happened to them. I’d never forgive myself.
I found Dagger, glaring my warnings at him. The Badlands shouldn’t have been exposed like this. It was a mistake, another one on my watch. When this was over, he would have to earn back his respect.
Alpha and omega, side by side, we fought the enemy away. But when we closed in on the mutant beasts, it was obvious their attention was focused on something else. They had surrounded something that lay on the ground. They pawed at it, cackling and snorting.
What is it? my animal growled as I fought my way closer, pushing men and wolves out of the way.
And then I saw.
A bloody hand stretched out on the sand. A hand I knew well.
“Zelene!” I roared, my wolf clawing at my chest to be let out. But I had to stay in human form to carry her out of here.
The mutants turned their attention to me. And rightly fucking so. I intended to be the last thing they saw before they lost their heads. Not wasting even a breath, I drove my sword through the nearest beast, slicing him wide. He fell to the ground in a heap, gasping for air. He wouldn’t last long.
Twisting, I took on the next one, and the next one while the omega wolves and soldiers pressed in on the humans, until the enemy began to retreat.
When there was no one left to fight, when it was only alphas and omegas, I ran to Zelene. Falling to the ground, I swept her
into my arms, furious and terrified at the same time.
“Rose. My rose.” I shook her gently, and her eyes opened with a start, a vicious snarl in her throat. Her claws poked out from her fingers, slicing across my jaw. Blood trickled hot down my neck as recognition flooded her gaze.
“Adalai?”
“It’s me, Zelene. The beasts are gone.”
Her eyes closed in relief. “Oh, thank gods.”
“What were you doing out here?” I growled and her eyes came open, flashing the same combination of anger and fear I felt myself.
“I… I couldn’t sit back and watch. My people were getting hurt. You were getting hurt.”
“You didn’t trust me,” I accused.
Shame filled her eyes for a brief moment. “You didn’t trust me either.”
I sighed, pressing my forehead to hers. “We can’t doubt each other anymore. Not if we’re going to unite the pack.” I knew what we needed. I needed to get her into my bed and finish claiming her. Connect with her like we had in the bunker. Body and soul. Where I could feel her devotion and she could feel mine.
We were the link that bound the two pieces of our pack together. We couldn’t let our friends on either side influence what we were building.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered so quiet only I could hear her. “I was scared.”
“You care more about others than yourself.” I couldn’t help the edge in my voice. My mate had put herself in danger. What those beasts would have done to her…
“Isn’t that what makes a good queen?”
I thought of my mother. The best queen I had ever known. She would have done the same as Zelene. But that didn’t mean I had to like it. I pressed her close to my chest, tucking her head under my chin. Her pained gasp brought my attention back to her wounds.
“Where are you hurt?”
She shook her head, trying to sit up. “Just some cuts and scrapes.” But the way the lower half of her leg was twisted at an awkward angle told me it was broken.
His Forbidden Omega (The Royal Omegas Book 1) Page 11