Page 41 of The Blind Hordesman

“Not now. See if a Telean can fix my ax.” I reach behind Kiki, and sure enough, my axes lie there. I pick one up, notice it’s lighter, definitely damaged. I slide it toward Arkin across the floor.

“I’m not your delivery boy.”

“But you will be when I’m king.”

“What?” Kiki says.

“They want to crown me. Imagine that. Bad temper, prone to outbursts of bravery and madness. Unpredictable.”

“Unlike King Father, who is calculating every move,” Kiki says.

“Kiki, you have to stop calling him King Father and start calling him the imposter. There’s only one King Father, and his name is Tayseer.”

Kiki moves. Her soft belly and breasts press against my arm, and my dick stirs. Her scent, this close, overpowers the smoke. I lick her cheek. Kiki bends to whisper in my ear, though she knows Arkin hears her just fine. “I’m not going with this Collector.”

I pat her knee. “I said that already.”

“Why is he still here?”

“I don’t know. Let’s ask him. Arkin, why are you still here?”

“I stay with the Omega. The mission failed, and I stay and ensure her safety while you battle like the lunatic you are, and I sure hope you don’t make her a widow.”

“You’re not staying in my ranks.”

“Iamyour ranks, Seer. There’s nobody left.”

“Get out, bro.”

“When the Omega goes, I go.”

“Which is never,” Kiki pitches in. “We’re stuck.”

Chapter 16

Kiki

Seer and Arkin’s bickering puts a smile on my face. My sisters and I used to bicker like that in the times before Janice and Helen decided I no longer belonged with them, around the time my first heat cycle came at the age of thirteen. King Father—the imposter—came to witness my first heat. His Telean medic swabbed my uterus, and Grandma later told me it was to ensure I could breed. When the results came back, Father decided to make more like me. When that failed with Janice and Helen turning out as Betas, he cloned me.

Seer strokes the top of my hand. I fix the fur at his back, looking around for more fur. I grab the worn red one he seems to like most and put it to my nose. It smells of something dreams are made of. I rub my face with it, moan, then stop, remembering the Collector is watching me.

“Your Omega wants to nest,” the Collector says.

“Get out so she can nest,” Seer says.

His brother snorts.

“Are you gonna hold a vigil over us?” Seer asks.

The Collector Alpha settles behind Seer’s desk and props his feet up. When we returned, Arkin arranged this room for Seer to be brought into. It’s exactly the same as the tent minus the flap separating the tent’s two parts. It’s those little things that I find strange, although I believe I figured it out. I just don’t know how to broach the elephant in the room with Seer since he seems to go out of his way to either hide his blindness or simply behave as if it’s not something anyone needs to know about.

“Did you just put your feet up on my desk?” Seer asks.

“Mm-hm.”

“Get my drawing while you’re there.”

The Collector stretches out his powerful body and grabs the sack next to the chair. He pulls out the only piece of paper salvaged after the attack on my home. He unrolls it, then holds it up so I can’t see his expression.

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