Page 1 of The Omega Thief

Chapter one

“Thenextomegawannabethat walks through those doors and insists they felt thecalling, I expect to see them roasted on a spit for lunch when they fail to shift,” Raz almost roared at the head chamberlain, whoeeped, then scuttled backward through the double doors.

Raz eyed his grandmother, the dowager Queen Mother, rather frostily—even though he loved his grandmother very much—and threw himself into the nearest uncomfortable chair a little dramatically. The King Ishnay seven-hundred-year-old furniture creaked rather alarmingly.

“Raz’mar”—Grandmother always insisted on full-naming him—“if you wish and have the ability to rewrite three thousand years’ worth of history and tradition in one afternoon, by all means, be my guest. I have an important meeting myself that I have had to cancel as we have left this matter unresolved for three days.”

Technically, two and a half, as it was only midday, but he didn’t point that out. Raz also didn’t comment on the nature of Grandmother’s important meeting because it probably involved her assistant, the Duke of Shemar, and what position she could tie him up in.

And he didn’t mean that figuratively, either. He’d long since given up on wishing he could gouge out his eyeballs after spending a few summers with her growing up.

Raz sighed. He knew he was going to have to go through this. The law dictated a king couldn’t be crowned without bonding an omega first. And it had to be a first bonding, which also translated to a first shift. Omegas were tricky like that. While every other shifter on the entire damn planet could shift without fuss, always before their thirteenth birthday, omegas were “special” and could only shift for the first time in the presence of their destined alpha.

“And we’re down to the third-ranking nobility,” his grandmother said, observing the room. Not that he cared, but as the future king of Cadmeera, he was expected to marry well, ideally, to a prince or a princess of one of their neighbors to foster relations between countries. It was just depressing to go through this for so long and to be forced into it. He had enough problems with the latest threat from the Anti-Shifter Alliance, who were gaining a foothold in Cadmeera.

And the choosing should have been a formality, dammit. He should have had a few years to pick a mate, not have this thrust upon him. For a moment, the grief over his parents’ sudden death threatened to spill from his eyes, but he forced it back as the door opened after a light knock. The palace chamberlain nervously poked his head through the gap, clearly not feeling safe enough to risk his whole body.

“Yes, Carter?” Grandmother asked mildly.

“The Duke and Duchess of Warden have arrived. They offer their apologies, but they were delayed—”

“Yes, yes,” came a strident voice from the anteroom. “Let us in. There’s a good fellow. We’ve kept His Highness waiting long enough.”

Raz saw the twitch of his grandmother’s lips—which could either indicate amusement or annoyance—before the door opened, and two very handsome people walked in. The stunning pair were clearly brother and sister, and while Raz secretly preferred male company, as far as his bonded mate went, he knew it could be either one. He inhaled unobtrusively as they came into the room, trying to scent something, anything, and caught a whiff of something interesting that made him take a little more notice.

Fenrir shifters had the most amazing sense of smell out of all the different wolf shifters that existed in the five kingdoms. It was usually how they first sensed their prospective mate, and Raz could smell a strange mix of burning wood, citrus, and a faint hint of almond, like the apricot kernels that grew in the summer garden outside his bedroom window. The smell seemed to permeate his body, twisting and clinging to him in a most interesting way.

He couldn’t tell which sibling the scent was coming from, though, and he eagerly stood as they both bowed in unison.

The chamberlain, more confident Raz wasn’t going to eat him, performed the introductions.

“Highness,” the duke spoke. “Please excuse our tardiness. We stopped to peruse the market as my sister was wanting a gift for Her Highness.” The duke smiled at the dowager queen but then hesitated, and annoyance flashed across his face. “And one of my sister’s bodyguards caught a thief about to steal her purse. We—of course—had to see the blaggard taken to the palace dungeons so as not to ruin your festivities, and it conspired to delay our arrival.”

Raz blinked. The duke was clearly not one of those people who used five words when he could think of fifty, but it was embarrassing they should have fallen victim to a petty thief when he was trying to impress his visiting neighbors. So much for the honor weekend. “My apologies, but the guards could have dealt with the matter. You didn’t need to go to any trouble.”

“Highness, the guards seemed to think that you wouldn’t even want the thief detained, and I’m afraid we had to insist on an arrest.”

Raz glanced at the duchess as it had been the first time she had spoken. She was classically beautiful, as his grandmother would have said. Long golden tresses twisted into a knot and all piled on her head, and he wondered how many hours a day it took her to become this polished. But then, he supposed if he were meeting a prospective spouse and that spouse happened to be a prince, he’d do a bit of polishing, as well. He wore his own uniform, and while the blue reflected that of his army, his scarlet sash denoted his royal status.

“We would usually leave such a thing to the captain of the guard to decide whether the matter needed to be brought to a magistrate,” Grandmother commented. “Especially as my grandson has other responsibilities this weekend.”

“Traditionally, the choosing ceremony involves a type of honor system,” Raz explained. “The whole city celebrates, and we have travelers from all over the country visiting. The palace releases those who are first offenders, and the crime rate is incredibly low, at least for the festival.” That always stunned Raz, but as his father always said, those violating the weekends, upset the natural order of things, and it was often the criminals themselves that undertook to discipline their own. The tradition was as old as their kingdom, and no one wanted to see it gone. There was apparently still honor among thieves, even if this thief had decided to ignore it. “We would not, of course, forgive any crimes against the person,” Raz added.

“It was most certainly a crime against my person,” the duchess nearly wailed, and Raz stood up straight.

“My lady? You were assaulted?” That was a completely different matter, and Raz couldn’t allow that to slide. The kingdom was set to finally enjoy peace after the war with Rajpur under his father’s rule, and he wouldn’t have anyone thinking he wasn’t as capable. “Carter, please summon the captain of the guard.”

“I’m sure we wouldn’t want to put Your Highness to any trouble,” the duke immediately demurred.

“Nonsense, my lord,” Raz assured him and looked to his sister. “We take the safety of our visitors very seriously. Do you need medical assistance?”

The duchess blushed very prettily and lowered her head, murmuring her polite refusal. Her brother patted her on the hand lightly, and Grandmother asked after their parents, whom she knew and had met. Raz took the few minutes to study them both. They were both blond, blue-eyed humans, and Raz idly wondered what they would look like in their respective wolf forms. The fierce Fenrir shifters were the largest breed in existence and what had originally made their family the clan leaders of their territory, now officially a kingdom for the last few thousand years. Things were much more civilized now, but tradition still held firm, and Fenrirs had ruled in Cadmeera for seventeen generations, making it one of the most powerful nations on all their world. There were plenty of non-shifters, on their world, but the ruling Fenrirs only ever mated with wolves, specifically omegas.

A knock on the door signaled Captain Thakeray’s arrival, and the servant let him in. He walked straight up to Raz and bowed low.

“Your Highness?”

“I understand her ladyship was assaulted, Thakeray. What has been done?”

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