Page 29 of The Omega Thief

“Let’s sit.”

“Let’s not,” Attiker shot back completely forgetting who he was talking to.

Raz sighed and sat anyway. Attiker wrapped his arms around himself. “Am I still going to die?” Was that what they weren’t telling him.

“No,” Raz said. “Because of my Fenrir, you’re recovered. It will take another couple of days for you to regain your strength, and we must stay reasonably close, but you will be well.”

“Then what aren’t you telling me?”

Raz stared at him for a moment. “Your wolf was very young. When you were poisoned, he didn’t understand that together, you would be able to rid yourself of the fever white, and that the real risk to you was our absence.”

“Was,” Attiker repeated, the thorn in his gut growing gnarly.

“My wolf cannot sense him. He was still able to heal you, so we think he remains, but it’s like he’s retreated. I was afraid he’d sacrificed himself, and while he tried to draw all the poison into himself to save you, it’s doubtful my Fenrir would have been able to save you at all if your wolf wasn’t still there.”

Attiker sat. He wasn’t sure his legs could hold him, and he remembered that odd, empty feeling when he woke. “Do you know that for definite?”

Confusion clouded Raz’s eyes.

“I mean, are you sure your Fenrir healed me? If my wolf took the poison, but died, I would recover, surely?” He swallowed. “Just without a wolf.”

“No,” Raz snapped out and stood.

Sadness crept over Attiker. It had been good while it lasted, he supposed. “I don’t feel like my wolf is there.”

“How would you know?” Raz asked sharply.

“I suppose I don’t,” Attiker allowed. “Except if it’s true, I’m not an omega anymore, and our bond is broken. Which is good for you. You can find someone more…you.” And he could go back to being just plain old Attiker Lynch. Ordinary. Sometimes seeker.

Sometimes thief.

Chapter thirteen

Razcouldfeelhiswolf in his head searching for Attiker’s, nearly tasting the frustration and the anger pouring off him. His wolf was just as much an alpha as he was, and he didn’t like it. His wolf didn’t understand it. And to be honest, neither did Raz.

Attiker gazed at him, but without a word, Raz climbed back onto the bed. He had the entire palace waiting for him to get back to work. Pinkerton was buried under trade agreements. Carter was desperate to organize the ball, which was the official end of the choosing ceremony, and when Attiker would be introduced to the court. He’d already heard the rumblings of discontent because Raz was absent, and he couldn’t explain why. He could hardly say he’d lost his omega within hours of finding him…twice.

Thakeray had told him the guards that had seen them arrive were sworn to secrecy, but what if someone else had been looking from one of the palace windows?

He shoved that thought away and concentrated on something else that was bothering him. “Tell me about Jeremiah Grape.”

Attiker looked almost relieved at the change of subject and settled back. They weren’t exactly touching, but Raz would worry about that later. “He’s a seeker, same as I.”

“But not as talented, Laronne tells me.” Attiker flushed slightly, and Raz smiled. Laronne definitely knew of Attiker, and he’d tasked him to find some very difficult things over the last few years. Apparently, there was a lizard native to the Endless Desert. But for those who knew where to look, in rare circumstances, could sometimes find them here. The lizard shed its skin on only one night per year during the Season of Light, but the skin itself had magical healing properties. One of the main reasons that soldiers returning from battle ultimately died was the inability to heal wounds that became infected because of the conditions the army had to live in, and the fact the injured had to be transported. In war, oftentimes, the only thing to be done was to amputate an injured limb, and keeping that clean while the army was on the move was sometimes an impossible task. Laronne had told him bluntly that the single biggest loss of life in battle wasn’t the injury sustained, but the inability to tend it afterwards in such conditions.

He was well aware of how fortunate he was that his wolf healed him, but not everyone was so lucky.

His father had been trying to encourage Laronne and his colleagues to research solutions, and they were trying to see if they could grow the lizard in captivity. It had met with zero success so far, and the only seeker who’d brought back a live pair had been Attiker.

Attiker huffed. “I can understand Grape hitching to a wagon.”

Raz opened his mouth to clarify, but Attiker carried on. “Like the nonsense with the Lapiz blooms. He knew I’d been arrested and tried his hand at making a quick half a mark, but kidnapping me to use for information or leverage?” He turned troubled brown eyes on Raz. “That isn’t him, especially, I suppose, if we believe Eryken told the truth.”

Raz tried not to get distracted by Attiker sayingwe.

“What did you hear?”

Attiker frowned. “It was to do with you. Something about getting you where they wanted you to be. Are you going—” Attiker shook his head. “No, of course not. It’s not a journey.”

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