Page 16 of Sins of His Wrath

“So… she created a portal? She’s gone back to her people, her land?”

Akoro didn’t bother to respond. There was nowhere else she could have gone.

Oppo was speechless for a few moments. “Fuck, Akoro. This is…” Oppo sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead. “So she is much more powerful than you said. To control thennin-eellithiis unheard of… I can’t believe she called that destructive force of death straight to the palace.”

“She is the only one who could have done it.”

The only sound for a few long moments was Oppo’s heavy breath and the thud of their boots on the polished floor. “We have to convene the council,” Oppo finally said, grimly.

“After the city is secure.”

Oppo sighed, slowly shaking his head, and Akoro could almost feel when the edge of bitterness enter his thoughts. “You caused this, you know,” he said, his voice low. “You forced her to do it. I warned you.”

Akoro resisted responding for a moment until he could get his anger under control. Nothing had suggested that the princess might be powerful enough to do something like this—even she had said herself that her attempt to wrangle wild magic ended in death and trauma. But he knew she was dangerous. His mistake had been giving her free rein. “There was always a risk she’d try to escape again. I warned her not to. I even?—”

His steps faltered as a realization wedged into him, bringing with it a deep horror. He’d cut her with thennol-ttaehh. Wherever she was, she would be heavily bleeding, and if she had gone back to her land, it would be an ugly wound that wouldn’t stop. She’d bleed to death within minutes if it wasn’t stopped or slowed.

“Fuck!” he bellowed the word out into the corridor, a new heightened sense of dread sweeping into the tightly coiled fog in his chest.

Oppo grabbed Akoro’s arm with surprising force and pushed him backward so they were face-to-face. “You’re feeling it, aren’t you?”

Agitation jangled Akoro’s nerves, but the strange look in Oppo’s eyes stilled him.

“I know you are,” Oppo said quietly, his eyes searching Akoro’s. “Every Alpha feels it.”

Akoro growled, shaking him off. “What are you talking about?”

"That hollow ache in your chest. The rage that burns hotter than it should. The way your senses keep searching for her scent even when you know she's gone."

“I know exactly where she is,” he bit out.

“This is why you needed her to accept her place with you, Akoro,” Oppo continued. “When she’s not with you, this is how it will always feel.”

Akoro’s fists clenched, but he resisted launching them into Oppo’s face. “I don’t need her to accept me.”

“And yet you reek of anger unlike I’ve ever scented on you before.”

“Of course I’m fucking furious. She disobeyed me!” His bellow echoed down the empty corridor. “I told her she belonged here, with me, and she deliberately defied me. She pretended to submit, but all the while, she was planning to escape.”

Oppo’s voice was icy. “You told me yourself that she would test us.”

Akoro glared at him, his chest heavy. “Things had changed.”

“Clearly not for her, brother. You forced her to choose between her home and you, and you gave her no reason to choose you.”

“We are true mates,” Akoro ground out. “That comes before anything else.”

Oppo shook his head. “She was your prisoner first. And that obviously didn’t change for her.”

Akoro exhaled harshly. “You wouldn’t understand?—”

“Don’t you dare say that to me!” Oppo’s face contorted. “You haven’t even begun to understand what it’s like to be with an Omega. Everything is different—better—when she actually wants you.”

“Mind your fucking mouth, Oppo,” Akoro said tightly.

“You said it yourself,” Oppo said. “If true mates come before anything else, what does it say that yours escaped and destroyed your city?”

Fury leaped up in Akoro. He grabbed Oppo and slammed him against the wall, but Oppo was clearly angry too because he grabbed him back. “You don’t fucking deserve her! Some of us have been deprived of our mates, and yet you treated her like she was worthless.”

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