Page 137 of Ruled By The Alpha

My Alpha’s growl rises to rattle my bones.

“I cannot,” I repeat. “I gave my oath to the Mother. No lie will pass my lips. Handfasting you, Lord Justlinn, as much as it would achieve many ends, is a lie. I cannot.”

Justlinn rises and moves back to a spare chair. He sits with the heaviness of an old man. “Kieran, please think on this. If I return to the King with you unmated, it will mean your head. You murdered an Alpha. I understand why you did it. We all do. But the new King’s rule is fragile. The nobles chafe and strain under the cost of decades of war. They look for any excuse. I persuaded him to pardon you with promises of favor from the Northern hai. If we’re not mated, if you do not leave here with me and take your place as lady of Tomarr, he will have your head on a pike before Lamna’s Day.”

I swallow the acid rising in my throat. The King’s pardon was only a stay of execution. I knew this and was resigned to my fate. But then to have my Alpha come for me, call to me, to have even the slightest hope of a future with him...

The scent of sage grows bitter on my tongue.

“I cannot,” I say a third time.

“You must,” Justlinn says.

“No,” my Alpha rumbles. “No one will force my mate to foreswear herself.”

I grip the arms of my chair to keep from going to him. Dropping to my knees and crawling to him. His call is so strong. I’ve never felt anything like it.

Justlinn grasps his forehead with fingers gone white. It likely pains him. “Morgan, think. Kieran, think. Think you Heat-addled, pride-soaked fools. Kieran, the new King, Morgan’s lord and friend, will kill you. If Morgan doesn’t go mad trying to save you, he surely will after having to look day on day at the man who ordered his mate beheaded. I beg the two of you, think.”

As hard as it is to think through the rilling of every nerve, I try. I know the stories. Strong Alphas denied their Omegas have gone mad. I have no doubt my Alpha is strong, his protective instinct well-developed. Do I doom him by staying true to my oath?

I look again to the crouching warrior, meeting his carmine gaze. “What would you have me do?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. The thick, black mass of his hair is caught in a plait that falls down his back, but a few shaggy locks fall over his eyes, reminding me of the boy I met under a sage bush.

“I will support you in whatever decision you make. If you cleave to your vow, it will be my hand that takes your head. I would not ask that of my King.”

Killing his own Omega will surely drive him mad.

“I would not ask that of you,” I say, troubled.

My Alpha reaches out and brushes his thumb over my brow, smoothing the ridges. “We have a little time. Take food and drink with me. Excuse my uncle to find some rest. We’ve had a long ride.”

The room’s air, comfortably cool, thickens in my chest at his touch. Sweat pops through the disturbed layers of powder onmy forehead. I am not innocent; I am not unaware of the ways of male and female, Alpha and Omega. If I am alone with my Alpha, we will do much, much more than take food and drink. If I excuse the old Tuvarr, if I accept what will happen between me and my Alpha, without telling them the truth I thought would lead to my death, rather than the one that likely will, it is a lie of omission.

“I’ve said no lie can sit on my tongue while I honor the Mother. Nor can I let a lie sit in my heart. I cannot offer you an Omega’s Virtue. I thought I was an Alpha for so long and I-I have taken an Alpha’s prerogative—”

My Alpha’s growl rises; my lungs constrict like I’ve taken a blow to the chest. Sweat slicks my face and chest, ruining Rivvard’s careful work.

Then my Alpha shakes himself. “I have virtue enough for both of us.” He looks to his uncle, breaking my gaze for nearly the first time since I walked into the room. “Are you content with this? There may be questions about any son’s parentage, with Kieran so newly Revealed.”

Justlinn lifts his hands in a shrug. “There are questions about the Queen’s virtue though she’s been unceasingly attended since she was five and the kingson is so like his father their scents are identical. We cannot control rank gossip. This is the hand the gods have dealt us.”

My Alpha nods and returns his reddened eyes to mine. “Are we done with business?”

“Yes,” I say. “Please.”

My Alpha’s basso growl gains an approving edge. “Is there somewhere else we can go? Somewhere less,” he tears his eyes away from mine to sweep the small parlor with its delicate furnishings, “breakable?”

My lips quirk around my fangs. “Yes.”

“Justlinn must remain close for appearances.”

“Of course.”

My Alpha rises and holds out his hand.

I take it. At first, it is just flesh against flesh. He has a powerful grip. I can feel the callouses of sword, staff, and shield on his hot skin, as he no doubt feels the same roughness on mine, despite my lady-mother’s efforts with pumice and oil. As he helps me to my feet, a vibration, a connection, grows between us, swelling until it roars in my ears, hammers in my chest.

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