Page 50 of Phoenix Chosen 3

Airos and I both look at him.

“Ignore me,” he says, waving his hands.

“He seems to be taking this all rather well,” I say about Jackson. “Should we be concerned about the state of his mind? Rather… should we be concerned about getting that magic lightning stone shoved into our necks when we’re asleep?”

“It’s a stun gun, not magic,” Tyler says.

“Whatever it is, the man’s Gaean ways are even stranger than yours, Tyler.”

“Is this a scoundrel’s intuition?” Airos asks me with a grin.

“Call it whatever you want. I’m being cautious. He has yet to prove his trustworthiness to me.”

“He’s Chosen,” Airos reminds me.

“So are you.”

He gasps. “Are you calling me untrustworthy, Kalistratos, thief of Athenos?”

Tyler laughs, and I snort. “Just about, you phony monk. If I may remind you, you tried to kill us when we first met.”

“An honest mistake,” he says.

“You dropped a mountain on us!”

“I am sorry about that… but you didn’t die. Anyway, Tyler, what do you think about our new companion? He’s from your world, and you have keen judgment.”

“I hear what Kalistratos is saying,” Tyler says. “I don’t know. It’s hard to get a read on the guy, but what I will say is, speaking as a former security guard, if Jackson were to show up at my work, I would probably keep my eye on him. We barely know him. But there is something weird that he told me…”

“What is it?” I ask.

“Uh… let me start by asking this. Are all alphas men?”

“There are female alphas,” Airos says.

“Oh. Are there women omegas?”

Airos and I both shake our heads at the same time.

“No,” I say.

“As far as my knowledge extends, no,” Airos concludes. “An omega is a male who can bear the offspring of an alpha. Aside from the Erpetosi, all clans have omega males and alpha males.”

“The frogs don’t?” I say. “This was not known to me.”

“No. The Erpetosi have no such hierarchy. Every member of their clan can spawn, regardless of their sex.” Airos clears his throat. “But for the rest of us, omegas are the only males who can breed.”

“Okay,” Tyler says. “Another question. Was mating a part of the Phoenix Chosen prophecy? Are the Chosen Omegas supposed to be mated to their guardians? Or are Kalistratos and I special?”

“You may know more than I about the Phoenix Chosen prophecy, Tyler,” Airos says. “You and Kalistratos met Lord Aethereos and heard the words straight from his mouth. All I can relay is what I’ve pieced together over the past twenty years.”

“Tyler, why are you asking all of this?” I say. “What did Jackson tell you?”

“He said that he isn’t gay,” Tyler says.

I look to Airos for interpretation, but his face gives nothing away. He doesn’t know either.

“…Geiii?” I say. “Tyler, please. Speak words we can understand.”

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