Cassian caught my gaze as I loaded the weapons into the Humvee. He stalked over, looking grimmer than normal.
“The king send you to keep an eye on me?”
He polished an apple on his leathers and the crunch of his bite rang heavy in the early morning calm. “Something like that.”
I smirked. “Figures. The mighty sure fall hard when a female has them by the balls.”
Cassian raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think it’s his balls she has. The king’s mated. Bonded. A real bond like we haven’t seen around here in a long time. I think Queen Zelene has his heart.”
“His heart.”
“Yes. Thing that beats in your chest. Thump, thump. Boom, boom.”
I scowled. “I’m familiar with the organ, thanks.”
Cassian straightened, staring past my shoulder, and I turned to see what caught his interest. Two omegas headed our way. I recognized them both. Charolet, who was now one of the queen’s ladies, and the one omega I definitely didn’t expect to see again before leaving.
Tavia.
Neither of the females were wearing proper castle attire. Instead they wore… fighting leathers?
My inner wolf bucked in warning as the two omegas stopped beside the vehicle. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from Tavia and the glare that seemed permanently etched into her face.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Reporting for duty. Sir.” Her tone was anything but respectful, yet that wasn’t what bothered me most.
“Your place is in the castle,” I said, turning away from her to finish packing.
She followed. So did the other omega. So did Cassian.
“Not this time,” Tavia argued. “We’re going with you to hunt the humans.”
My gaze snapped to hers. “Like hell you are.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Like hell. Yes. That’s probably what it will be like out there with you.” Clearing her throat, she gestured to her friend. “You know Charolet.” The female in question gave a hard nod. She looked the part of a soldier, even if she was just playing dress-up. “You might have seen her before, fighting on the frontlines, but I doubt you knew her name.”
The dig wasn’t lost on me. She thought I cared nothing for the people I’d taken charge of. That I knew nothing of their struggle. She was wrong, but there would be no telling her that. Because anything I thought I knew about them didn’t make up for the fact that I’d made their existence hell.
I shook my head and continued walking. “I have my army already. Don’t need extras. You’re both dismissed.”
Tavia laughed with true amusement. “Dismissed? No, sorry, Lord Da—I mean just Dagger. King Adalai has decided the army should consist of omegas too. So here we are. You have me and Charolet.”
The king had said nothing of this to me.
“It isn’t necessary,” I muttered.
She leaned close as if she was going to share a secret with me. “You don’t get to decide what’s necessary anymore. And whether it is or not, we will accompany you to hunt the humans and find our missing people.”
I looked to Cassian, who had given up eating his apple. He covered his surprise better than I did.
“Could be helpful,” he offered. “They might know more about the mutants than we do. They knew them before the humans got a hold of them.”
Tavia jerked her chin toward Cassian. “Listen to this one. He’s smart.”
This one? Cassian mouthed, looking flabbergasted. Before the abolishment of The Division, an omega would be brutally punished for talking to an alpha like that. Especially one who was also a royal.
“So is your mouth,” I snapped back. “You’d be wise to watch the way you talk to an alpha.”
Tavia narrowed her blue eyes, and the way she didn’t back down had me growing hard below the belt. Shit. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. An alpha demanded submission, but I was turned on by her defiance.
“Is that a threat?” She stepped closer until our chests were nearly touching, staring up at me like a little piece of dynamite that could explode at any moment.
The animal in me wanted to make her blow. Make her hate me even more.
“Not a threat, firecracker,” I growled low. “A suggestion.”
“Oh. Well. In that case, no thank you. I’ll talk however I wish, now that I’m free to do that.”
Charolet looked amused. Did she think this was funny? What was Adalai thinking sending the queen’s sister on this mission. Especially her. How was I supposed to do my job when she was so hell-bent on challenging me?
“Sun’s up,” Cassian interrupted sounding nearly as disturbed as I was. “We should get moving if we want to find a safe place to camp before dark.”
Tavia’s lips tweaked sarcastically. “Yeah. We should get going. I don’t like wasting time.” She brushed past me, her familiar spicy scent engulfing me as she strutted over to the vehicle and climbed up the back to find a place on the bench seat.
“Hello, boys,” she said, greeting the gawking and scowling men who were chosen for the mission. She plopped down between two hulking betas while Charolet followed her lead. And then she stared out the back of the truck, shooting me a prim smile.
“Fuck me,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” Cassian agreed. “Fuck you. I wouldn’t even be here if you’d done your job.”
“My job,” I scoffed. “What exactly was my job?”
“You were in charge of the Badlands.”
“And what do you think that means exactly?”
Cassian glared. “They were under your authority. If something was wrong over there, you should have reported it.”
I nodded, looking past the city gates out to the dusty dilapidated desert. “Report it. Would it have made any difference, to any of you, if I had come to the council and said that omegas were missing?”
Cassian didn’t answer.
“Would the king have sent out search parties? Would you have collected the western army and sent them looking? For omegas? How about Solen and Evander. Would either of them have lifted a fucking finger to help?”
Still nothing.
I turned back to him. “See, what all of you assholes seem to be forgetting is that until the King mated Zelene, no one cared about omegas. And now that the law has changed, you’re each looking for somewhere to place the blame. That’s the real shitty part that none of you are ready to accept. We all failed them. We all failed.” I climbed behind the steering column and started the electric engine. I waited for Cassian to take the seat next to me, and then set my course for the empty desert beyond the Badlands.
Let them all blame me. I blamed myself anyway.
But the truth was, we would all pay for what we’d done to our pack.
Chapter Four
Tavia
Firecracker. The word stuck in my head. Dagger better handle me with the same kind of care as one of those explosives the royals loved to ignite over the castle when they wanted everyone to know about their war victories. I was just as dangerous and unpredictable.
I caught him stealing glances at me in the rearview mirror as he drove, and reminded myself I couldn’t let him catch me off-guard. Watching his every move was only part of why I was here. More than anything, I’d vowed to save my people. For now, this would have to do.
Watching him.
His dark hair blowing in the hot breeze. The way his shoulders flexed and tensed under his military leathers. How could such a horrible man be so attractive? Maybe he had a tiny dick and his looks existed to make up for it. He shifted in his seat and the thick muscles of his neck flexed, making my mouth go dry.
Nope, I wasn’t distracted at all. His little smirk reflected in the mirror, telling me he noticed, and I dragged my gaze away to the window.
Nothing but desert surrounded our caravan. It was only a few vehicles. His Majesty insisted he was sending his best men. That was how Cassian had been roped into this. The Western Army that he commanded was made u
p of mostly betas and younger alphas who enjoyed the same privileges afforded all residents of Luxoria. Now their leader was being punished for Dagger’s ineptitude.
I took stock of the men in the vehicle with me. I didn’t know them by name, or whether they were the good soldiers the king believed them to be. I had to trust the royals, something that didn’t come easily to me.
Charolet put her hand on my shoulder.
“Do you know where we’re going?” she whispered in my ear.
Omegas had no formal schooling. We’d learned to read by candlelight, with whispers and long forgotten texts. Any skill that wasn’t for the purposes of fulfilling our duties to the kingdom came from the school of hard knocks. But everyone I knew dreamed of a day we would have opportunities. We intended to be ready when it came.
Still, I’d had no idea the desert was so big. So desolate. My world had never existed outside of the constraints of the Badlands and Luxoria. Survival.
Giving just enough of a shake of my head to answer Charolet, I leaned forward. Like this, Dagger couldn’t meet my gaze without flipping the vehicle into the sand, but I could feel his judgment.
“Do you have any idea where we’re going?” I asked.
Cassian snickered. I wished he was leading this mission instead of Dagger. No one was missing from the Western Borders.
“Of course I do.” His answer was meant to put me at ease, or back in my place. Instead, it enraged me.
“How long have you known where the humans were conducting experiments on the omegas?”
His fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “I don’t know the location of the labs. Only where the city is. Once we arrive, we’ll employ the intelligence we’ve been gathering—”
“So you knew all along this was happening.” My jaw was so tense I feared I’d snap the bone. “And you ignored our reports. Our pleas for help.”
Dagger slammed on the brakes, and in a cloud of dust, our car veered away from the caravan. Good thing we weren’t the lead car. The royals, even in a military role, would let beta soldiers ride the front lines. Royal Alphas never moved without protection, even if they could crush their enemies with a snap of their finger. The cars behind us followed suit, and it was a miracle he didn’t cause an accident.
He turned to face me. “I reported every incident, Tavia.” No cute nickname this time. “It was only when the queen made this issue a priority that a mission was set up.”
“The humans will use your technology against you.” My heart thundered in my chest, and sweat ran down my spine. It wasn’t any hotter, but these leather outfits were brutal. No wonder the alphas were such dicks all the time. Being this hot made me cranky. “The omegas they captured aren’t loyal to you. They’ll do whatever it takes to survive.”
He narrowed his gaze, and that sweat ran cold inside my jacket. I couldn’t let him think he had any effect on me whatsoever. “The only thing I care about is if the omegas inside this truck are loyal to me. Can I trust you to fight for me?”
Trust was the thing I said I’d never give the alphas. But out in the desert, in this caravan, it was different.
I wasn’t fighting for him, I told myself. I was fighting for all my missing friends. And the wolves that had been turned into monsters, so they could find some peace.
I nodded.
“In the army, we work together as a team. You fight for the man next to you and in return, he fights for you. Division is weakness.”
“Don’t I know it,” I sighed, but then I shielded myself. He didn’t have to take it the next step. Weakness equaled death. “Another omega was taken recently. I just found out about it last night. They’re still capturing omegas from the Badlands.”
Dagger swallowed hard. This was new information, and I shouldn’t have blindsided him with it like that. In a perfect world, I would’ve followed protocol. But I was learning the rules of this new role as I went along. The old ones hadn’t worked.
“We’ll let the troops back in the city know.” He faced front and put the truck into gear. As far as he was concerned, this conversation was over.
But it wasn’t. “Who’s watching over the Badlands now?”
He shook his head. “Maybe you should’ve stayed behind.”
So he had no idea. But it wasn’t his job to question the king. Only to carry out his orders. Adalai didn’t tell him everything. Dagger hadn’t known Charolet and I were coming. That gave me some comfort, that there was actually a plan in place to watch over our home.
“I trust my sister to do the right thing for our people,” I said. Now the conversation was over.
I sank back in my seat, but I didn’t relax. I kept thinking I saw the human city come into view, but it was only a mirage, one of the beta soldiers explained. The desert played tricks on you when you were there too long. I appreciated that he’d accepted my role in this mission without resenting that I was the reason he was here. Most betas were decent, even if complacent.
But inside, my wolf snarling. Growing impatient, and dying for a fight.
Not a good sign.
In the distance, beams of steel rose from the sand. The sun’s reflection made it look like a fire, and we drove straight for it. As we got closer, the objects became clearer. Real.
My heart leapt into my throat. Showing up at the human keep unannounced might be standard operating procedure for the royals and their army, but as an omega...we’d only come here as prisoners. And the ones who survived didn’t leave the same way they came. In the Badlands, I knew the rules, but I had no idea how to play this game.
Everyone exited the vehicles. I slid off the seat and waited for Charolet. She was the last one out. Her dark eyes were wide, and her lips parted.
I offered her my hand to help her down. “Zelene will kill them if anything happens to us,” I whispered in her ear.
She didn’t respond right away, instead sizing up Dagger and Cassian. Her gaze lingered a little longer on him. “What happens if we go into heat?” she asked.
Shit. So many things had happened since Zelene’s heat, I’d put it out of my head. And with the end of The Division, I didn’t feel so vulnerable anymore. I’d forgotten to worry about the inevitable hormone flux that put us in danger. Living together in the tiny shack had put all of us on the same cycle. Zelene wasn’t always the first to experience her heat, but it was often a domino effect.
And if being near alphas tripped it...my wolf writhed inside me. “Is your heat coming?”
“Not yet.”
I sighed. “We do the same as we always have. We protect each other.”
She managed a smile, but it wasn’t long lived.
“Tavia. Charolet,” Dagger barked. “If you want to be a part of this mission, you better keep up with the seasoned soldiers and come listen.”
I groaned, but we joined the group at the front of the vehicle.
“We will make a peaceful approach,” Dagger said, and I wanted to protest. The humans had turned our friends, our family into mutants. That was, if they weren’t lucky enough to die in the transformation. But then I realized for the first time, he really was on our side. “Don’t assume anyone is too far gone to save as long as they’re alive. We have a trained team of medics, and a truck full of medical supplies. Once we assess the situation, you’ll be given your assignment. You’ll take orders from me or Cassian only.”
“Not the queen’s sister?” someone behind me snickered. “She has higher rank than you.”
Dagger glowered. “Orders come from the Alpha Commanders only.” No one reminded him that was no longer his title.
Cassian started walking and the soldiers followed. All but Dagger. Charolet clutched my hand as we started moving. Anyone who noticed would either think it was a show of unity or one of fear.
“You.” Dagger had been waiting for me. Charolet and I stopped dead in our tracks. With no one as witness, Dagger could make up any story to explain two omegas didn’t come back. “Don’t leave my side.”
“Never,” Charolet promised.
Chapter Five
Dagger
Tavia held onto Charolet as if the woman was her lifeline, and tipped her chin high to offset the obvious fact that she was afraid. The omega was brave. Probably more so than most of the warriors the king had sent with me.
Which was why I needed her allegiance.
“Look,” I said, ignoring the other omega. “I can’t have you questioning my every move. Especially not with half of my men already doubting this mission.”
She scoffed. “Am I supposed to be sorry that I’m a thorn in your side?”
She thought this was a pissing contest, but I didn’t have time for her pointless barbs. Did she take this mission seriously or not? That’s what I needed to find out.
I leaned forward, getting in her face, to growl low, “Do you know what I’ll have to do if my authority is questioned here?”
Her throat bobbed in a tight swallow, and I cursed the wolf locked inside me when it wanted to lick her neck.
“If you keep this up, I will have to be the asshole alpha that you hate, woman. I’ll have to fight my own men to prove my place. All it will accomplish is loss of valuable soldiers for the sole purpose of keeping order. Or…” I blew out a breath, trying to get her scent out of my lungs so I could set things straight.
“Or what?”
“Or we can do things the easy way,” I offered. “Stop fighting each other and work together.”
“That’s what we’re doing,” she said.
“No. What we’re doing is trading barbs. The queen’s omega sister and a disgraced royal. Who do you think will gain the army’s loyalty?”
Tavia stiffened, but I could see her mind working. And she was smart. She would come to the same conclusion I’d come to.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
I nodded my agreement. “It will divide our small ranks until we are useless. We have to work together or we won’t find what we’re looking for.”
His Defiant Omega (The Royal Omegas Book 2) Page 2