Page 85 of The Queen

It was quiet now, just the rustle of the trees and the lapping of the spring. But for how long? Not long enough to account for what we were facing.

Saphyra pawed at the front of my pants again, but I couldn’t give in to her needs. Not yet.

I threaded my fingers through hers and knelt down to kiss her knuckles.

Lex turned to look at me. “There’s nothing nearby. Not that would work for a heat. The hunting cabin would, but it’s too far away and in the wrong direction.”

Axion set the bag of berries we’d gathered on the flat rock ledge and kicked his boots off. “If no one was looking for us, we could spend as much time in the woods as we needed.”

“Too bad that’s not the situation,” Valyx grumbled against the column of Saphyra’s neck.

The vibration of his words tickled through the bond. My mate liked that. She liked it a lot. That wasn’t helping me, though. My dick had been hard since the first flutter of arousal seeped through our connection shortly after we’d left. But it was escalating, and her fever was like a hot brand hovering close to my skin.

Someone needed to keep their head about them, and it clearly was not going to be the alphas. They were already lost to Saphyra’s intoxicating honey-soaked pheromones. She was slipping deep into a heat haze and rubbing herself all over Valyx as much as their joining would allow.

If there was more time, I’d very much enjoy this turn of events. She was beautiful in Valyx’s arms. Their skin contrasted perfectly. Her soft curves against the hard lines of his muscles and tattoos. Lex’s hands fit over her breasts like they belonged there. I never thought I’d be the sort who enjoyed sharing their partner, but with them, it was natural.

The last of Axion’s control must have failed him because he stripped out of his clothes and sank into the steaming water to join the others.

I shook my head, clearing my rambling thoughts. Saphyra’s heat was getting to me too, but I was the only one left to come up with a plan.

The three alphas crowded around her, kissing and licking the sweat off her skin, giving into their primal instincts. Her honey sweetness was intoxicating. Even as a beta, I was affected when her pheromones were this thick, but I grit my teeth and focused on the issue at hand.

There was something I’d learned in medical school. My memory was faint, but there was a specific wildflower refined for medicinal use. One of those uses was to make heat suppression serum. I was out of the serum, but the plant was native to planets in this region of space. What would it do in its raw state after an estrus was already in progress? I was unsure. It was the only option we had, though.

Something had to be done. If I did nothing, we’d be captured and back on the Hive, or worse. Probably worse for most of us.

Saphyra’s needy whine was cut off as Axion’s mouth met hers, silencing her briefly.

“I’ll be back soon. Don’t get into any more trouble.” My fingers slid from Saphyra’s grip, and I got up.

Lex glanced at me with a grateful glare. The mixed emotions playing on his face were unsettling coming from an alpha on the verge of rut. I didn’t know what to make of it. Was he upset that I was leaving, perhaps? Thankful that I was doing something to help when everyone else was mindless with lust? We’d be lucky if they didn’t all end up drunk on pheromones, with only their instincts to guide them.

Their deteriorating condition spurred me to action. This would be a difficult task at the best of times, and this certainly was not that. At least my mate was in good hands. An alpha protecting an omega in heat was just about the scariest thing I could think of. Not to mention three.

I grabbed the portable light from Axion’s pile of clothes. He wouldn’t miss it. His face was already buried between Saphyra’s breasts and she was gasping with appreciation. I adjusted myself in my pants before heading back down the trail toward the berry-lined meadow. If the plant was anywhere, it’d be in that field.

There’d been some fluffy white flowers closer to the capital, coming up in tall patches when the suns were bright. That had looked promising. But those were hours away now.

I didn’t know if this would work. In clinical use, the blossoms were distilled down, but fresh? There was no telling. It should calm her enough to travel once the first surge of hormones was expended.

I left my mate moaning and splashing with her alphas, knowing that they would take care of her no matter what. I just hoped I could figure out a way to fix this before it was too late.

The warm pulse of arousal brushed insistently against the bond. It lessened the further I walked down the mottled moonlit path, but never faded completely. I wanted to stay and take care of my mate, my omega, but the alphas would satisfy her needs better than I ever could.

I was nothing more than a simple beta. I couldn’t hunt or fight, purr or growl, but I did have knowledge, and that was what we needed most right now.

While the others gave into their primal sides, slaves to their nature, I kept my head and devised a solution to get us out of here and back to the relative safety of the underground capital.

The berry bushes loomed like creatures of the night, shadows outlined by silvery moonlight. Past their imposing bulk laid the meadow I’d come to search. I was grateful that the cloud cover had broken up into feathery wisps, allowing for better visibility in the dark.

My attention was drawn to the wide valley below. A thick blanket of fog obscured the entire area. From my vantage, it looked like the surface of a calm gray sea, but that was far from the reality of what was happening shrouded beneath the mist.

Flashes of multicolored luminescence mirrored the shield across its still surface, but more concerning were the glowing orbs of white bobbing in the distance.

Search vessels scanned the ruins in the murk of soupy darkness. Their sensors and spotlights hindered them more than helped in the fog. The dense haze would be reflecting everything right back at them. They’d be chasing their own shadows as long as the weather held.

That would buy us time, but it would only matter if I could find this plant.

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