Page 43 of The Blind Hordesman

“Kiki,” Seer says.

Dreikx clears his throat. “The bathroom is through here.” He points at a wall that parts as if it heard him. “Shower space, clothes, toothbrush.”

“And toilet paper,” Seer’s dad adds. “Regha’s finest. Refreshes the asshole in a single swipe.”

I nod and crawl over the furs that feel like suede under my palms. My heavy breasts sway, my empty channel pulses, and lubricant leaks onto my panties. I sweat profusely and only then realize I’m crawling instead of walking, and I don’t even care. I move on toward the parted door.

“I would like to point out,” Dreikx says. “there is rope tied to the Omega’s ankle.”

“I know,” Seer says and stands. His leg brushes my arm, and I look up, gaze meeting the bulge under histil.

He bends and unties the rope, kisses me on the lips. “Go on, Kiki. Ignore them.”

I crawl the rest of the way into the bathroom, then turn to watch the door close before Seer’s murderous gaze. His chest looks better, but his armor, still erect, hasn’t re-formed over his chest. I hope the damage isn’t permanent, though, knowing Father, it probably is.

In the bathroom’s mirror, I fix my hair, then notice my pupils have taken over my eyes and my Sewa markings show. In heat, the venom in our blood activates and sticks to the walls of our blood vessels that surface on the skin. Sewa Omegas, like my grandmother, present with myriad green webs, mainly on the face and neck. Naturally born Omegas also present with other colors they call markings, but I don’t.

I do my business and shower under some sort of thing that scans my body and makes it feel washed and wet without using a drop of water. There’re no towels, although granted, I don’t need one. I dress in a simple thick beige tunic that ends above my knees and thigh-high wool leggings. No underwear.

Before going out, I fix my hair. It feels fluffier and silkier than ever. I think my body has prepared for breeding. For the first time ever, I feel…beautiful and even proud of the dynamic that’s always made me feel trapped. Father has made many people, and they all moved around with him, in and out of the hive. Except me and my sisters. We stayed on the ranch. If the Death Hordesman hadn’t come, I would have spent my entire life in one place, reading about the world in the magazines, papers, and books.

Liquid slips and trails down my thigh. I rub my thighs together, pointing at the door the way General Dreikx did. Nothing happens. There’s no handle to twist, pull, or push, nothing. “Open,” I say. The door opens, and Seer stands there, eyes on me, never quite locked with mine. I could be an absolute ogre, and he couldn’t care less. There’s something utterly beautiful about not giving a shit about what people look like, but only about how they make you feel.

He steps aside so I can pass, and as I do, I run into the Alpha who sat at the desk before. His massive chest before me makes me stare and stare at it. When he purrs, my knees go weak, but Seer holds me up against him. He pulls me back and away from this Alpha who pays Seer and his horrible warning rattle no mind.

“We haven’t met,” he says. “Seer, do introduce me.”

“Kiki, meet my uncle Tayseer, King Father.”

I’ve heard stories about this one. Never thought I’d meet him. Or any of them, for that matter. How naïve and stupid of me. I should’ve run after Father punished me for running away the first time. I should’ve kept trying. I shouldn’t have settled like Grandma settled. She retreated, let him go in his crazy pursuit of power, let him issue an order for Swarm to kill his Omega right after he got his first male child. But she told me all the stories. Perhaps she told me so I’d run, so I’d have a chance. I never took the chance. I never risked my perfect little life on a remote ranch in the middle of nowhere. “Nice to meet you, King Father.” It feels so strange saying this to another male, but also good. Like a little piece of revenge.

He slips off his leather gloves and traces the network of markings on my temple. I groan and lean into his palm. Seer rattles louder, but this Alpha smiles. “And nobody thought it important to tell me she is a Sewa Omega?” He glances at Arkin.

“I didn’t know,” Arkin says. “She wasn’t marked like this before, and she’s entirely human.”

Tayseer inhales. “Ah, but the scent. Seer, my boy, can you not smell it?”

“I can,” Seer bites out.

Tayseer smiles wider, eyes locked with mine. “Your father and his father before him,” he says, “and your great-grandfather are not Sewa males. Your mother is clearly human. Pray tell me, from where do you carry Sewa blood?”

“My grandma.”

He looks at me as if I’ve grown horns. “Your grandma?”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“I feel as if this is the story I’ve been waiting to hear for a very long time. Tell me.”

“Later,” Seer barks.

The Alpha tsks. “Now.”

“Later,” Seer repeats a little more forcefully.

I want everyone out of here, and if this will get them out of my hair, then Alpha Tayseer can have the story. “The former Regha King, Domins, and his father before him have been tireless in hunting and killing Sewa males. As you well know, I presume. During one such raid, Domins raped my grandma. She escaped, and during her hiding from Collectors, who wished to return her and enslave her to the Alpha who raped her…” I pause here, hoping he understands I mean him and those like him. “She stumbled into what we now recognize as the space gate that shouldn’t have existed on Regha. Pregnant with my father, she landed on Earth and found a way to survive with the humans who took her, namely the human government. Father was born in one of their secret facilities.”

“Continue,” the Alpha says.

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