Page 16 of Fever

“Anna’s very pregnant this morning.”

“And Raven?”

“He’s in raging labor.”

“Fucking great way to start the day.”

“Oh, it’ll get better when I’ve exhausted all my options.” Dreikx flings the inder across the room.

Mike and I stare. Never in all my years have I seen Dreikx show his temper. I gloat. “Temper, temper.”

“Excuse me,” Dreikx says and gets up to pick up the ceramic pieces. “I’m frazzled. The unknown bothers me, and not being able to locate the yacht isn’t helping.”

He’s talking about the abomination who sails the Pacific and who sent his army after my aunt but never showed his face. “We’ll find a way.”

“We?” he asks with more force than usual. “You’ve an Omega to bond. Zero brainpower is going elsewhere. So it’s all up to my lonesome to figure out what’s the matter with the gate.”

“I’ll find you later,” I promise and head back upstairs.

Chapter 7

Leah

Anna, the princess of Regha, as people in the Stronghold call her, works as a personal assistant to the prince of Regha. Which, I admit, is odd, but whatever they’ve got going isn’t my business. Anna can barely walk, and last night, Raven insisted she stops working as of today. Anna called Tabby to vent about his decision, and Tabby, who’s a client turned friend, jumped on the opportunity and recommended me for the position. She gave me wonderful references. I appreciate it more than she knows. I need the money. The last great contract I had was the one for her birthday party, and it will pay the mortgage for three months. After that, I’m out of cash.

Besides, if I work here, I’ll have access to whatever gate control the male who has my mom needs. A pang of guilt squeezes my heart. Anna is a nice woman. Tabby is my bestie. I’m going to betray them all and probably die in the process. Still, I can’t not do anything. I have to figure out what this control thing is he wants and how I can get it for him.

In the prince’s office, Anna and I lounge on the couch, her back turned away from the windows that make up a wall facing the Pacific. The beautiful view is interrupted only by the prince’s work chair, which actually looks like a serpentine throne. The prince sits on his throne, and the king stands by it, facing the view. Neither of them speaks, though their Alpha presence and mood register very clearly in my Omega brain. I keep my mouth shut and sit there. Which only gets my brain working on what Fever looks like in the nude. A column of stud piercings lines his massive cock, starting from the thick base and going all the way to the top. I’ve heard of a Prince Albert piercing, but this isn’t it. There’s nothing on the huge mushroom tip. In a way, the studs make his cock ribbed. Fourteen and a half inches of ribbed pleasure. My pussy flutters and, oh my God, I release lubricant.

I know the Alphas smell it. I am so embarrassed, I want the couch to swallow me. Thankfully, neither of them behaves as if they smelled me.

The prince furrows his forehead and reads from the holograms erected upon his desk, rattling off eerie sounds as if displeased with what he’s seeing on those things. To me, they look like lines and coordinates, and I don’t know what to make of any of it, but I do pray the holo isn’t the gate control. The hologram seems firmly attached to the big heavy desk that matches the throne chair, both of which are inside the prince’s office, the most guarded place on the planet, especially now that all the Omegas are housed next door and his wife is expecting a baby.

The doors slide open, and Sotay enters. No “hi,” just “There you are,” as he drops to one knee before Anna. He makes kissing noises, “What’s the big boy doing today?”

“The biggest.” The king speaks for the first time, and I startle at his deep baritone voice. He doesn’t turn, eyes still on the horizon.

Anna laughs and stretches out her hand. Sotay passes her the Telean drink I’ve come to like, then squeezes her shoulder. “Hang in there.”

He grabs a visitor’s chair and sets it by the couch. Gently, he picks up Anna’s swollen feet and sets them onto the chair. This leaves the middle space on the couch for him to sit.

He’s massive and smells like sex, cinnamon, and now also soap. I want to lick him. I cross my arms over my chest. “You’re blocking my view.”

He hands me a cup of inder. “There’s nothing more spectacular than me to look at.”

“Dear Lord, where do you get off?”

He slides me a knowing look. “Inside—”

“Don’t say it,” I interrupt, heat crawling up my cheeks.

“Pussy,” he says.

Anna laughs. Even the prince chuckles and looks up from the notes he’s taking. “It’s nice to have you back, cuz.”

“Blow me,” Sotay says.

“Leah, dear,” the prince says, that yellow serpent tattoo above his eye pointing right at me. “Sotay has been absent when we need him the most. This is why you were brought to the Stronghold.”

---