Page 20 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

I hadn’t really thought about it from the perspective of an omega before, but now, I found it troubling. Once she’d presented, she’d been seen as a bright jewel for her family, but that had turned her into currency, in a way. She could be bonded by an alpha, and whoever that alpha was could have an effect on the way her entire family was stationed. She was groomed to be a queen, from the moment she presented.

So, she was sheltered, kept from danger, but also kept from life and living.

She’d gone to college, but she’d lived at home with her parents. I didn’t get the impression she’d had a lot of friends or done a lot of socializing. She didn’t seem bitter about it, but it bothered me. I wanted her to have every experience under the sun she had any desire to have. I wanted her to live, not be tucked away and looked at like a statue or a bright jewel.

She was a person.

And it was probably just chemicals, just our designations entwining in instinctive ways, but I was already in love with her.

As we got closer, she got quieter. She stared out the window in the car, at the scenery, but her body was tense, on high alert. Her scent told me she was anxious about seeing Dmitri again.

But, of course, I had to seek him out.

He didn’t even meet the car.

There she was, looking up at Karnig Castle, wearing this pretty blue dress with little yellow flowers stitched into it, something that had probably been specifically selected for Dmitri to see her arrive in (although perhaps not, because she’d been expecting him to come and collect her at her home) and he didn’t even show up to greet her.

She stood there, clutching her own elbows, gazing up at the formidable building. It had been built as a fortress in the 1600s. It was squarish and stone, with several square stone towers that thrust up at the sky, adorned with Valhn flags. To get inside, we’d had to cross two moats on wide drawbridges. Now, inside, we were cut off from the outside world.

The palace still meant that we royals were protected, but not from approaching armies, from the press, the paparazzi, and the populace.

I commented on the size of the place, and she shrugged and said, “I’ve been here before.” Which, of course, she had, because this was where she’d come to have dinner with him when he was evaluating her.

That was when I realized she was making a show of looking at the palace because she was trying not to look disappointed that he wasn’t there to meet her.

I was feeling like I might punch Dmitri when I finally saw him.

He was out in the back of the castle throwing knives at a target that he’d had set up.

“She’s an omega,” I said by way of greeting. “You haven’t thought that part through.”

He turned, knife in hand. He’d been ready to throw it. “Johannes, don’t sneak up on me like that. Especially not when I’m hurling sharp objects through the air.”

I folded my arms over my chest. “The wedding is not for three weeks.”

“I know that,” he said.

“You’re expecting her to be celibate for all that time. When she’s just now being flooded with all sorts of alpha scents, more at once than she’s ever experienced, and when she’s an omega. It’s like you’ve devised a torture chamber for her.”

He regarded me, blinked, turned back to the target and threw the knife.

It hurled through the air, end over end, and buried itself in the dead center of the target.

Fuck him for being perfect at everything, really. I hadn’t minded before this, but it was really annoying.

“You can’t fuck her,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “She asked to watch me and Nikolai together. No touching. Just watching. And I think if you don’t give her something, she’s either going to explode or go into heat. You know that omegas have needs.”

He picked up another knife and toyed with it, probing the tip thoughtfully with one finger. “She likes you, then? She feels comfortable around you? She’s confiding in you?”

I furrowed my brow.

He looked up at me. “It’s why I sent you, you know. I want her to… I can’t even talk to her.” He threw the knife again. This time, it glanced off the target and fell on the ground. “I knew she’d like you. Everyone likes you.”

I was sort of stunned by this.

He turned to look at me again, giving me a careless shrug. He pushed his golden-honeyed curls away from his forehead. He was distractingly attractive, not that I ever thought about him like that. (Okay, that was a lie.) He grinned at me, showing off his perfect white-toothed smile. “Whatever she wants. Make her happy. Make her like it here. But… I get to fuck her first. It’s all I want. I have no chance of charming her or anything else, but I’m an alpha, she’s an omega, and biology will do something. You just leave me that, please, and maybe she won’t be extremely disappointed with me. If I’m first, it’ll…” He sighed, the smile falling off his face. He picked up another knife and surveyed the target. “All right?”

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