Dazed, I tried to roll to the side as he climbed on top of me.
My vision wavered.
I was losing too much blood.
His arm swung up and I tried to block it.
My arm wouldn’t work.
I couldn’t stop it even though I knew what was coming.
He punched the side of my head so hard that I didn’t even feel pain.
I only saw blackness, strong and swift like a tidal wave.
He’d won.
I’d lost.
Chapter Six
Aric
I watched her leave, making no movement to stop her. I had no intentions on stealing her throne or forcing myself into her life. Instead, I wanted to become her ally. I wanted her to trust me and come to me to ask my opinions when she had a decision to make. We were mates now, and I wanted to ensure that she would be happy with me in the end.
I sighed, looking around her bedroom and at the utter travesty the two of us had created in the rough quelling of her heat. I grinned, thinking about the way she’d screamed my name over and over despite her initial reluctance. In the end, she’d given herself over to me completely and I would remember every moment in the rest of my days.
She was so beautiful. I don’t know how I’d ever been so lucky to be matched to a woman like her.
I was restless though, wanting to do something that might make her smile. I busied myself by tidying her room and gathering the sodden blankets for the servants to wash. A number of them brought me food and drink, including ale, mead, and even a bit a wine. I took a mug to be polite from one of them, but I only sipped on it from time to time for the rest of that evening. It was quite good, but my mind was elsewhere, so I continued to organize her chambers and hide the mess we had made.
After I finished cleaning, I sat down in the chair and took a long drink. I closed my eyes for a moment and just felt the warm embrace of the pair bond that was simmering deep in my heart. It felt foreign, but it also felt like the most natural and most wonderful thing I’d ever experienced in my life.
For so long, I’d been a part of the Brotherhood, ensuring that I carried out my missions to the best of my ability. I’d always had just myself to worry about. I’d risen quickly among the ranks and had been granted sage status some time ago, but now I
had Freya.
Beautiful, perfect Freya. The perfect little mixture of feisty alpha and sweet omega. A powerful force to be reckoned with and entirely unique in her own right. To be equal parts alpha and omega likely meant that the gods had big plans for her.
Our connection felt like a steady flowing river. It gave me partial access to her emotions, allowing me to feel her pleasure, her happiness, and her occasional anxious moments. I took a sip of the honey-flavored mead and then that feeling changed suddenly, catching me off guard.
The bond pulsed hard and for the very first time, I felt her fear and I stiffened immediately. It was so intensely raw, causing a burst of terror to roll over me just as fiercely as hers was. I pressed my hand to my chest, her agony ripping into a deep part of my soul that awakened the primal alpha inside me so rapidly, it left me gasping for air. When I pulled my palm away from my chest, I expected to see blood, but there was nothing there. I sat there in her bedroom, trying to understand what I was feeling when our connection grew more intense, surging with her emotions and her terror and I knew I had to move.
My mate needed me. She might be wounded or worse. I had to get to her, right away. There was no time to waste.
I tore out of her room and raced down the stairs. I burst out into the hallway and ran in the direction the bond told me she was, but it was only a tentative guess. I sprinted until I came across a servant girl and I roughly grasped her arm, stopping her in her tracks at once. I vaguely recognized her as one of the maids who had come into Freya’s chambers during the quelling of her heat, but I didn’t know her name and at the moment, it didn’t matter. Right now, I was just seeing red.
I needed to get to Freya. She needed her alpha.
“Where is the queen?” I roared. “Take me to her.”
The servant girl cried out with something I vaguely identified as pain, her eyes bulging with fear at my thoughtless handling of her.
“You’re hurting me,” she whimpered, her terrified doe eyes watching me with nervous anxiety. I realized what I was doing as the red haze dulled for a second and I forced myself to relax my fingers.
“I’m sorry,” I said gruffly, releasing her at once. “I need to get to the queen. She’s in danger. Now.”
She rubbed the place where I had grabbed and nodded.