by Zoey Ellis
Victoya froze. “Where did you hear that? It can’t be true. The Mothers would have told you.”
“Would they?” Cailyn spat, her voice hard. “Would they have told me?”
“Why would they lie?” Victoya asked.
“So that we are not distracted on our missions?” Cailyn suggested. “Or to make sure we form a stronger bond with them as parental figures? Or to keep us from finding out about the part of the Alpha/Omega connection that they haven’t told us about?”
Victoya looked doubtful. “I don’t know, Cailyn. It seems strange to me.”
“Does it seem strange to you that not one Omega, even the elder ones, have their Omega birth mothers with them in the Compound? Surely not every single Omega was born from a Beta.”
Victoya’s brows crumpled in thought. “Maybe some do.”
“Do you know any?”
Victoya thought for a moment and then shook her head slowly. “No, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t any.” She took a step toward Cailyn. “I still need to do the wipe, Cailyn,” she said slowly.
Cailyn’s fear surged and she backed away. “No, Toya,” she said. “Please don’t.”
Victoya kept coming, sorrow clouding her eyes. “You’ve been away from us for over a year. You have clearly learned new information but I don’t know how much of that has been influenced by your Alpha. This information could be unreliable. We know what Alphas can do, what they are like.”
“No, we don’t, Toya,” Cailyn insisted. “Not truly. The things I’ve experienced with Drocco… they never told us any of it.”
“They did what was best for the survival of our dynamic, Cailyn,” Victoya said firmly. “Of course that meant we would have had to give some things up. It doesn’t mean we should now distrust everything they’ve told us.”
A moment of panic swept Cailyn. There was no way Victoya would believe her—Cailyn wouldn’t have believed it herself unless she trusted Drocco’s word. She felt for magic. The least she could do was protect herself with a barrier until Drocco returned, but her heart dropped when she realized the charm chain was still around her neck.
Victoya approached her with caution, watching her as though she was going to attack at any moment, but Cailyn reached forward and took her hands in her own. “All right. I understand that you have to do this,” Cailyn began, “but please, please let me ask them.”
Victoya blinked in surprise. “Ask the Mothers?”
“Yes.”
Victoya lifted her brows. “How?”
“Take me to the Compound.” As Victoya began to shake her head, Cailyn pressed on, “Victoya, you know I wouldn’t ask you to amend your mission unless I felt strongly about it. In all the years we have been sisters, I have never asked you to do anything that goes against direct orders. You know how committed I’ve been to the Mothers and my own missions. But I need you to do this for me now. Please?”
Victoya’s eyes darted over her face as she took a breath.
“I’m not asking you to not do the wipe,” Cailyn added. “I’m simply asking that you delay it until I speak to them. I need reassurance from them…” She hesitated for a moment. “When they first told me to stay with Drocco, I felt they had abandoned me. Then they refused to help me when I was stuck in the Western Lands with Malloron. It’s not my Alpha that caused my doubts about them, they have caused it. Please. I need to see them. Afterward, you can do the wipe and return me here, it won’t take long. Just give me an hour with them.” An hour was all she needed. It was unlikely Drocco would return in that time—he would never agree with her going in the first place, but if she could be there and back without needing to worry him, that would be preferable.
Victoya exhaled a breath, her eyes low as she thought for a long moment. Then her eyes darted up to Cailyn’s. “All right, an hour. Let’s go.”
Pulling her by the hand, Victoya led Cailyn to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I can’t use magic in here,” Victoya said, cracking the door open and peeking out. “The twins recreated the charms that block the Talent in this whole area.”
“Oh.” So that was why she hadn’t been able to use magic before. “Drocco said he was sending someone to protect me.”
“All the warriors are caught up in this battle with Malloron on the other side of the Palace,” Victoya said as she eased out of the door, looking in every direction. “It would take time for him to be able to send anyone. This way.” She turned left and hurried along the wide corridor, pulling Cailyn with her.
Cailyn followed behind taking everything in. It was the first time she had been outside of the bedroom in this part of the Palace and it was richly furnished with wall candles, paintings, thick rugs, and tapestries decorating the way. They turned along another corridor and another, their footsteps clacking along the marble floor whenever they turned a corner. Finally, they stopped in the center of a corridor that looked the same as all the others.
“The charms end here,” Victoya said. She stepped back and faced one of the walls. “Help me create it.”
“I can’t,” Cailyn said. “I can’t use magic.” As she spoke, a noise behind her caused her to peek over her shoulder. A gray robed servant meandered along the corridor reading a scroll of parchment. He glanced up and stopped abruptly.
Cailyn turned to see layers of glistening magic forming the portal that would take her to her former home. “We’ve been seen,” she said.
Victoya glanced down the corridor and then turned her attention back to the portal, even more determined. “Nearly there.”
Cailyn glanced back at the gray-robed servant who was now stepping closer, a look of amazement on his face.
Victoya grabbed her hand again. “Let’s go.”
Cailyn stood rooted to the spot, her gaze lingering on the servant as he came closer. He could be her way to get a message to Drocco. She bit her lip, unsure why she felt such a strong urge to tell him. She was going back to somewhere that had once been her home, somewhere that had once been her only safe place. But something whispered in her mind that Drocco could be that now. What if she didn’t remember that when she returned, could she take that risk?
“Cailyn,” Victoya urged, tugging on her hand. “We need to go.”
Cailyn took a breath and turned toward the portal. All she could do was have faith that Drocco would create new memories with her. This was her one chance to find out if there was any truth to his anger and distrust of the Mothers. She stepped through the portal to get her answers, knowing she may not remember them when she returned.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DROCCO
“A portal has opened in the Palace, your Imperial Majesty.”
Drocco glanced at the twins before slashing his hand down to signal the few archers they had to let loose their arrows. Malloron had set himself up in the Great Hall and created a poisonous magical fog that seeped and curled into the corridors surrounding it. He had indeed brought some warriors and they walked straight through, unaffected by it, but anyone else burned within seconds of contact. The twins had created barriers so that it would not spread but Drocco wasn’t happy a more brutal offense plan hadn’t been formed. “Where?”
“Your private wing.”
Drocco turned to them, a horror creeping over him. “Where exactly?”
“East of your bedroom.”
“Come with me,” he ordered as he turned and stormed toward his bedroom, his heart pounding.
“Drocco?” Torin called. “You want to stop this attack?”
Drocco barely heard him. If Cailyn had left, yet again, after everything she’d said, after he trusted her not to leave… His gut twisted at the thought, a slab of dread crushing his mood. He should have waited for her answer. However, when he suddenly realized that Cailyn didn’t have the ability to use magic, he began to run, racing down the corridors until he reached his bedroom.
It was empty.
He held himself tense, trying to think logically w
hile emotions he didn’t even recognize mauled his insides. He stepped around the room slowly, noting everything that was different since he left, focusing his mind to draw on his every sense.
“Drocco!” Torin appeared at the door, the twins close behind. “What’s wrong?”
“Cailyn. It was Cailyn.”
“She used the portal?” Torin asked.
“Find out where the portal was activated and where it led to,” Drocco instructed the twins, who bowed and walked away.
Torin entered the room. “Drocco, we don’t—”
“Collect all the warriors we can spare,” Drocco said, walking past him to the door. “Maybe if we follow close behind her we can catch up.”
“I cannot do that, Drocco,” Torin said quietly.
Drocco stopped and turned around slowly. “Why?” he demanded, stepping closer to Torin.
“I won’t allow you to keep putting warriors in danger to chase your wayward Omega,” Torin said, watching Drocco closely. “We have lost many in the process of collecting her from the Western Lands and within the space of an hour she has gone again.” Torin stepped forward. “You need to accept that she may not be suited to you.”
Drocco stepped closer to Torin, his eyes locked with Torin’s iron gray. “She is my true mate, Torin. She is the only one suited to me.”
“But she doesn’t want to be here,” Torin pointed out. “This is the second time she has—”
“Quiet!” Drocco barked, his every muscle on edge. “She was taken, Torin, she did not leave.”
Torin was quiet for a moment, the resolve in his stance wavering. “How do you know?”
“I can smell her fear in this room,” Drocco said. He pointed to the bed. “Two indents are on the bed where two people sat in here. And she was still wearing the charm chain, she cannot access magic. Someone took her.”
Torin glanced around the room thoughtfully. “Who would do that?”
Drocco snapped. “You don’t trust what I say now? I’m telling you, someone took her. She said she would wait for me.”
Torin’s jaw clenched and he shook his head and turned away. “You are affected by this Omega in a way I cannot understand,” he muttered, shaking his head. “We are being attacked by our greatest enemy as we speak, and you want to run after her yet again.”
“I will chase her to the end of the fucking known Lands if that what it takes,” Drocco said, determined. “I have to get to her. It might seem crazy to you, Torin, but I don’t care. I hope you will be able to understand when you are with your Omega, but in the meantime, you can choose to do your job or you can retire from the Lox.”
Torin froze. “What?” He turned slowly back to Drocco. “What do you mean? I won’t be having an Omega.”
Drocco blinked in surprise. “Why not?”
“I’m not an Alpha.”
“So? You’re a Lox Warrior, Torin. You have been with me from the beginning.” Drocco stepped toward him, shocked. “You didn’t think that my vow to find the Omegas was to you also?”
“No,” Torin said, his own shock clear.
“I have been saying it from the beginning that we will get our Omegas.”
“Yes, but…” Torin struggled to answer. “I always assumed you were really talking about yourself. And anyway, it would be a waste. I cannot give an Omega what an Alpha can.”
“There are many Alpha/Beta couples. Why not a Beta/Omega couple?” Drocco said. “That doesn’t always matter.”
“It matters to me,” Torin said, almost bitterly. “I don’t want to be even half as obsessed as you over an Omega that will never truly be mine.”
Drocco didn’t have a response to that. He couldn’t deny that the draw between Alphas and Omegas was strong, particularly during their breeding states. If one of them was committed to a Beta—even if they were soul-bonded to the Beta through the weaker one-way claiming bite—the risk was always there. Cailyn’s parents were an example of that.
“Your Imperial Majesty.” A servant hovered at the door. “The Lox Talent-crafters would like to see you.”
Drocco indicated for him to lead the way, and Torin followed.
When they reached the Talent-crafters, they stood facing a wall in one of the corridors that led to the kitchens.
“The portal was opened here,” said one of them. Drocco couldn’t remember their names.
“Where does it go?” he asked.
“We can’t tell,” the other one said. “Something is wrong on the other side.”
Drocco’s already tense nerves pulled tighter, to the brink of snapping. “What do you mean?”
“We normally get an idea of where in the known Lands a portal has connected to,” explained the first one. “But this portal doesn’t give us any indication.”
“It feels like…” The second twin hesitated as she tried to explain. “Like, the location is constantly jumping or flickering.”
A thought leapt into Drocco’s mind. “Find out if anyone saw anything,” he told Torin, as he pulled out the location gem. The flickering within it confirmed what he suspected; Cailyn was at the Omega village in the Wastelands. The only person who could have taken her there was an Omega. What the hell did they want with her? If they planned to do anything that would recondition her against him… he bellowed out a series of curses at his frustration.
It took the rest of the afternoon to find someone who had seen anything. As the hours passed, Malloron’s fog seeped, unchallenged, around the Palace while the twins worked on the portal.
Finally, after a few hours, they found a witness—a terrified gray-robed servant. As the man told his story, Drocco stood in the corridor near the twins as they worked, staring at the flickering gem. “So she didn’t want to go?” he asked, when the man stopped speaking.
“She looked… reluctant, your Imperial Majesty,” the man said, his voice shaking. “The other girl was pulling her through.”
“Did you recognize the other girl?”
“Y-y-yes,” the man said. “Her name is Victoya, but she is a nice—”
“Victoya?” Torin asked, shocked. “You are sure?”
Something in Torin’s tone made Drocco snap to attention. “You know her?” he asked Torin.
“No, not really,” Torin said thoughtfully. “She works in the kitchens doing some of the more mundane jobs… I only met her a few times.”
Drocco instructed the servant to wait further down the corridor and turned back to Torin. “If she is a scullery maid, how is it you know and recognize her name, Torin?”
Torin held his eyes. “I’ve entered the kitchens late at night before and she has been in there.”
“That’s all?”
Torin pressed his lips together. “I’ve also seen her cleaning the candle holders in the library.”
“Have you fucked her?”
“No.”
Drocco examined him. “But you want to?”
Torin hesitated. “No.” Drocco wasn’t convinced, but he knew Torin wouldn’t outright lie. Clearly, he wasn’t sure about this girl.
“It cannot be her, though,” Torin added. “This girl is… she can’t be a spy.”
“Why not?”
“She’s just… she’s not…”
“Why can’t you find words to describe her?” Drocco snapped, annoyed. “If you don’t really know her, she could be anything. And right now, she’s looking like an Omega spy that has taken Cailyn.”
Torin nodded reluctantly. “What do you want to do now?”
Drocco stood, his eyes barely seeing his surroundings as he surveyed the corridor. He had promised Cailyn he wouldn’t let her get hurt, and that was exactly what would happen if he allowed her to remain too long with the Omegas—they would turn her against him and once again limit her ability to be happy with her Alpha. They would also cause her and the child potential damage by keeping them from him.
It niggled at him that she hadn’t fought that hard against the girl who took her. What if she had indeed chos
en to go? She hadn’t given him an answer, it was completely possible that she simply left, breaking her word and their agreement, but not in the way he wanted.
The thought turned his stomach, but he had to consider that maybe the Alpha/Omega connection had failed him and she had simply chosen to go to what she believed to be her true home. If that were the case, then nothing he would say to try and convince her would matter. He would be forced to do some of the things she despised, some of the things he already knew would not endear him to her, because whether it was her death or the interference of the Omega Mothers, he could not exist without Cailyn and his child—he no longer cared if that made him a fool. The only hope he held onto was that the sharp scent of her fear suggested she didn’t want to go.
So he would find her. He would look her in the eyes and see if she truly chose to leave, and then take her back anyway, knowing they would never be repaired. And in the process, he would destroy the Omega leaders who had so covertly declared war on all Alphas by turning Omegas against them. He would take revenge for her condition, regardless if she wanted it or not.
He turned to Torin. “It is time for the Lox to collect their Omegas.”
End of Book Two
Thank you for reading Crave to Capture. If you enjoyed the story, please take a minute to leave a review. Your review will help new readers decide if the book is for them. Reviews are crucial in helping to spread the word and I’d be grateful for your time if you could spare a moment :)
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Crave to Capture is the second book in the Myth of Omega series. The next book, Crave to Claim, concludes Drocco and Cailyn’s story.
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Crave To Claim
He will make her choose – and take her anyway