Page 55 of The Omega Slave

“Who are you?” Tsaria whispered.

She smiled. “Kamir’s sister, Veda. I am very happy to meet you again.” Tsaria didn’t manage to swallow this time, and tears leaked unbidden. Before he knew what was happening, slim but very strong arms surrounded him in a hug he remembered from his flight from the palace dungeons. He tried to remain stoic, cautious, but his heart hurt so much and after a moment, he clung on. He’d have loved a sister.

“I need to get to the palace,” he croaked out.

Veda stepped back and let him go. “Why?”

Tsaria frowned in confusion, but Veda spoke again before he had the chance to. “I’m not saying I don’t think it’s necessary. The exact opposite. I just want to know whyyouthink you need to go.”

And here it was. “Because I love him,” Tsaria almost whispered. “And because I need to tell him that. Because he doesn’t think I do. Because I…failedhim.”

Veda hugged him again. “Good answer,” she said, but then her men made Tsaria get back in the cart, surrounding it as they led it off the trail before they decided to stop and camp.

Before Tsaria had much time to think about his declaration, he was sitting nursing a mug of some sort of stew. He doubted he could eat, but Veda simply said that as soon as they had eaten, they were pushing on to the palace. “We’re waiting on information,” Veda explained, “And a safe place to hide. It isn’t that we don’t think it’s urgent.”

“You’re just going to ride in?” he asked doubtfully.

Veda smiled, but it wasn’t as confident. “No, we’re working out a distraction.”

“Meaning?”

She leaned forward. “Kamir has to shift. It’s the only thing that will work. If we just take him back, then the punishment for the villagers stands and they will kill the children. We have men in every one, but the soldiers could overwhelm them.”

Tsaria hung his head. This was his fault. “I don’t know how to make him change.”

Veda tipped her head to the side and considered him. “What happened last time?”

“We-we just touched.” It had been so much more, but he didn’t know how to describe the feeling.

“Did you?” she asked softly.

He met her understanding gaze. “I never felt anything like it.”

Another man Tsaria didn’t recognize came and sat beside Veda, and brushed a kiss on her cheek, handing her a mug. He passed the other to Tsaria and he took it, recognizing the smell of tea, grateful not to have to eat the stew or answer her question when he didn’t know how. “I have a rider on his way with information,” the man said, then stuck his hand out. “Name’s Draul, and I’ve met your emir. He’s not bad. Needs a bit of backbone, but between you and Attiker, I’m sure you can set him straight.”

Veda grinned. “Another territory to cross off your list.” He laughed, then sighed.

“The next won’t be easy.”

Tsaria frowned in confusion. “You have a list?”

He smirked, and Veda giggled. “I won’t be able to join you right away.” She put a hand to her flat belly meaningfully.

Draul hesitated. “Don’t bite my head off, but I’m not sorry you won’t be there. Abergenny is a huge mess, and it will take weeks to get there.”

She noticed Tsaria’s confusion. “Meet my mate, Draul Eryken.”

Tsaria gaped. “Leader of the anti-shifter alliance.” Everyone had heard of him. He should have known with his first name, but he wasn’t expecting to meet a hugely famous human rebel leader. “I don’t understand. I thought you hated the wolves.” How was he a friend of Attiker?

Draul sipped his tea and Tsaria took a sip as well. “Yes, until meeting Attiker, I wanted nothing more than to remove their royal arses, but I found out that sometimes they’re exactly what’s needed for the people. I was wrong about Raz, and he proves it every day. Someday it won’t be birthright that dictates who’s in charge of other people’s lives, but that might not happen in my lifetime.” He shrugged. “In the meantime, I want to make sureempty bellies are filled and if people want to trade their bodies, they do that by choice.”

Tsaria froze. “Choice?”

“I have no issue with adult sex workers, so long as they choose it and get paid,” Kamir said. “What I have trouble with is anyone forced into it because of poverty and drugs. Fever white won’t ever go away, despite what some wish. But most take it as an escape, a promise of a better life even for a bell and only in their imagination. Who wouldn’t want to escape from drudgery?”

Tsaria met Draul’s brown eyes and recognized the pain he had seen in many others. He was speaking from experience, and his heart ached for him. He glanced at Veda. “Should I offer my congratulations?”

She smiled and patted her belly affectionately. “This one’s for Attiker and Raz. I’m merely a surrogate because despite them working on it and him being perfect, Flynn doesn’t have a wolf because Raz definitely can’t sense one, and that’s so enshrined in the Cadmeeran constitution, even the humans might object. Raz and Attiker are hoping for a compromise, but we’ll see. It’s interesting times.”

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