Page 69 of Sins of His Wrath

Akoro scowled. His brother always got too close to the truth when it came to his intentions with Naya, but that wasn't why he came here. “I need you to help me understand her.”

Oppo stiffened. “If you want me to manipulate her instincts, I won’t. It’s unethical?—”

“I said understand her, not trick her,” Akoro thundered. If he needed to manipulate her later, he would, but that wasn’t appealing right now. This wasn't about dominance. This was about something he rarely faced: uncertainty.

Oppo’s eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s not what you’ve said before.”

Akoro held his gaze, a strange feeling constricting his chest. “She smiled today.”

Surprised hit Oppo’s face. His brows shot up and stayed there. He didn’t speak for a few moments. Then he got up, a smile spreading on his face, and walked to stand next to his brother. “That’s good, Akoro.” He clapped Akoro on the shoulder. “That’s very good.”

Akoro let out a rough breath. “Not really.”

Oppo frowned but said nothing, seeming to sense Akoro hadn’t finished.

Akoro’s jaw tensed. He wasn’t sure how to say it, how to voice the tangled mess of irritation and possessiveness that had been gnawing at him since the trip with her this morning.

“In her land, Alphas and Omegas are encouraged to unite with their true mate,” Akoro said. “True mate couples are the envy of everyone across her Known Lands. They are seen as the height of love and devotion, their union believed to bring prosperity and balance not just to each other, but to the land itself. I couldn’t understand it when I first went there—these people have no religion, no Voice, no gods, no sacred rites, nothing that binds them as a people—except this. Finding their mate is akin to being blessed. It’s why the ruling couple are so beloved. So that should have made it easier for her to realize that she is supposed to be with me, but she rejects it. She gives me her body and nothing else.”

Oppo sighed, his voice heavy with quiet resignation. “What did you expect, Akoro? I told you many times?—”

“She did before,” Akoro said sharply, memories of their time together during her heat were burned into his mind—the way she had melted into him, trusted him. Her soft sighs, her tender touches, the way she'd looked at him as if he were her entire world. “In her heat she was incredible. She was affectionate, attentive, truly mine. Even afterward when she was withdrawn, it felt real.” His voice lowered, turned rough. “And now she pretends our connection is nothing, says that she’ll never be happy. That she’s whoring herself for her land.” The crude word felt so foul when applied to Naya, a desecration of the truth between them, but it captured the bitter sense of transaction that lingered their bed.

Oppo winced. “Does she know that you don’t bed whores? Or anyone much since your younger years? Did you explain?”

“She has no interest in that,” Akoro said. “She is happiest when she’s is pleasured and knotted. So that’s how I keep her.” That was a half-truth. There was more to her happiness, but he couldn’t give that to her until after he had done the thing she was most against—conquer her land. Maybe delaying it was making things worse.

Oppo got up and joined him at the window, watching him carefully. “You realize that’s not sustainable? Omegas need more than that to be truly happy. So do you.”

“That’s why you need to tell me how to understand her,” Akoro insisted. “You know Omegas best.”

Oppo shook his head. “That’s not the way it works, Akoro.”

Frustration clawed at Akoro’s patience. What was so hard? All he had to do was tell Akoro what to do. “Then how does it fucking work?” he said sharply.

Oppo fell silent.

His window overlooked a quiet part of the city where there had been less damage. They watched a group walking in the direction of the square. Toddlers ran around the adults’ legs, slowing them down. Their laughter rang out, among the destruction and death, his people always found reason to lift their spirits.

Finally, Oppo spoke. “The way we were raised was not normal.”

“We know that,” Akoro growled.

“You had to become a hardened Alpha too young, Akoro. You had to deal with something that most…” His voice petered out.

Akoro said nothing. They’d only ever talked about what had happened once, and he didn’t particularly want to talk about it again.

“It made you different from everyone else, and I don’t mean in the ways that you are king.”

Akoro frowned. “Then what do you mean?”

Oppo sighed. A thick silence stretched between them. Moving back to the table, he sat down. “I don’t know your Omega, I only know her nature. Everything you need to know is outside of that.”

Akoro dropped down onto the chair opposite him, his eyes narrowing. That didn’t align with anything he’d witnessed about his brother’s knowledge. He leaned forward and issued a demand, his voice low. “Oppo, tell me something useful.”

Oppo in a closed his eyes for a moment and drew in a breath. “When we were in the Archive earlier, she found out about the Nnn-kaa Sands.”

Akoro’s frown deepened.

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