Page 23 of Thief

“Therefore we must protect her at all costs. The seer knows everything, and she will prove her visions are true when Eron returns.”

“When will that be?” a Beta female asks.

Veme slides her hand from my shoulder to my butt. She pinches it.

Ouch. I suppress a yelp. “Three days time,” I say.

“Days?” Nolis asks.

A day is a span, but for all they know, it’s a month or a cycle, a turn or a year. Vagueness is my strategy.

Veme slides the door closed and leans against it, taking deep ragged breaths, a hand over her chest. “I’m sorry about the tea and the food,” she says. “I can not have you eat or drink anything other than what’s already in the room. I can not trust anyone. There is no Alpha in the house. We are not safe.”

“What the hell just happened here? He was gonna marry that woman but changed his mind and brought me here. A dick move in my book.”

Veme shakes her head. “Indle has always loved Eron. Eron has made it a rule not to mate with his staff. I’ve never approved of this, but I respect it, more now than I did before. Indle allowed herself to hope, and hope turned into delusions, and delusions turned into bitterness, so here we are. Sit, child. Make yourself comfortable. It’s going to be a longthree of days."

“Spans. Three spans.”

“You’re an optimist. I like that.”

“Optimist and seer aren’t the same thing.’

She winks at me. “Seer was a good idea, don’t you think?”

“You’re lying to them.”

“So?”

I shrug. “We can only hope they believe it.”

10

Eron

The Beta female who betrayed me to the first Alpha that let her sit on his knot is dead. The Horde doesn’t keep females, and certainly not ones who have betrayed their Alphas.

Upon my arrival, the Horde questioned me with fists and words, never mentioning Kate. I took pleasure in that knowledge and endured the beatings. I told them I feed the village by growing crops and fishing. They already knew I stole from the king. And although they smelled the sweet scent of a female on me, blood masked it quickly as they beat my face.

In the dungeon of the merchant's house, I sit on the floor, my back against the cold wall, wondering how many nights Kate spent here. A whip of cold air hits my lungs. Regret. I regret I can’t be with her during her heat, to serve her as the Serpent intended me to. I want to get back to Kate, and I want to do so now. But I can’t. I stole from the king and told his Horde all about it. I didn’t want them wondering if I had anything else to hide in my house. I needed them to believe I’m a thief and punish me for it.

They’re denying me food and water.

They’ll starve me for a while but likely let me live. I am the only Alpha in my village, and the king wants me to breed Betas, in hopes we can produce Alpha or Omega offspring. Unlikely, but possible.

The dungeon’s heavy doors open. I get up on shaky knees. Fuck, I’m so hungry I could eat a boat full of desil right now. I approach the wall, hoping the Horde decided to feed me, and slide open the small window through which the Horde could slip the food if they wanted to.

Nobody will feed me and least of all the male I see. By the size of him, I’m pretty fucking sure he’s the Horde Alpha. He ushers a female inside one of the cells. Before I can come to my senses and confirm what I just saw, his massive frame blocks my view of the female before he slams the door. Was it another human female? I can’t be sure. The hunger makes me delusional.

I keep watching as the Horde Alpha leans his forehead on the door and purrs. The purr is intimate, meant for the female behind the door. Is it a human Omega? I believe I saw an arm with five slender, blunt fingers, much like Kate’s. Or I could be starving and losing my mind.

The male leaves.

The female behind the door yells, but I can’t make out what she’s saying.

“Easy now, female,” I tell her and wait for her reply. She either can’t hear me or won’t reply. “What’s your name?” I ask.

Nothing comes back.

---