Page 36 of Shadowlands Omega

“Then you did not disobey. It was my mistake to assume you would remain put. It was my mistake not to have guards on you at all times. I saw how little you were willing to move around my own chambers. It did not so much as occur to me that you would attempt to leave — not just my chambers, but the castle completely. What were you doing in the village, Kiandah?”

“I…um…I left to help my…family…”

“Family,” he exhales the word with me and looks a little annoyed. “Is there nothing you would not do for them? Jump headlong into fire?”

“It wasn’t just for them.” I flex my hands, trying to retract them, but his hand on my wrist pinches slightly and I’m easily bound. “It was for you, too.”

He balks. “Do not lie.”

“I’m not. It’s…I wanted to make you dinner.”

What iswrongwith me? I feel heat flash in my face and linger, then roll down my neck when his beast pushes at the underside of his chest. I canseeit in the patches of fur that crop up all over him and fade just as quickly again. He blinks at me with huge, round eyes and I can’t breathe. The steam from the bath has started to thicken, creeping between Yaron and me, acting as a buffer, a veil, making the world feel too small, too close, too intimate.

“You wanted to make me dinner?” he says, as if practicing the words in a language not native to him.

I nod.

He shakes his head, clearly flabbergasted. “Explain.”

I speak fast. “I…my family and I are still cooking for you and the Crimson Riders. But we haven’t been able to get the supplies we need because the farmers and butchers and other vendors in the Orias marketplace hate us. They give us only spoiled and rotten things.”

His brows furrow. His jaw sets. “Why did you not inform Radmilla? She would have taken care of it.”

“We did — she did…” I’m losing what’s left of my voice and have to cough into my fist. “A couple times. But it doesn’t matter how sternly she warns the vendors, they claim to deliver fresh produce to the castle. The staff claims they receive rotten stuff. No one takes responsibility. There’s nothing we can do but try to…” I cough again and just leave it at that. Rambling will only hurt my throat and there’s nothing left to say on the subject. Nothing but the one thing.

Looking into his slate-colored eyes, I say softly, “I wanted to plead with them directly so I could make dinner again. I like making dinner and I wanted to make it for you. But I can’t serve you that which we were given.”

His eyes lose focus momentarily and I wonder what he’s thinking…but then his attention snaps back to me and he says softly, “You… You are cold.” His head cocks at the slightest angle, making him look far, far too much like a boy.

“N-no, I’m not,” I reply, my teeth clacking together.

“I can see that you’re shivering. Your lies…”

“I’mnotcold and I’mnotlying, my Lord. I’m scared.” I’m not really that, either, but I don’t know exactly what I’m feeling in this moment. Like the rumblings of a distant heat far, far away, but still large enough to see on the horizon. It feels eclipsing.

His face flashes with anger. Fur sprouts across his chest again before thinning back to a dusting of black hair. I remember the weight of it rubbing against my skin as he fucked me from behind, like I’d ordered him to, nothing but animals. Nothing but equals. I feel that threatening heat on the horizon loom closer and then…he reaches out and snatches me by the hips, yanking me until my butt is all but hanging off of the edge of the stone bench. His thighs part around my legs so that my knees press against his groin and the very prominent erection there.

“My Lord again, Kiandah?” He stares at my lips for a moment too long, long enough for my inner Omega to daydream perilous things. “When we are alone, you don’t need to call me Lord. And youneverhave reason to fear me, Kiandah.”

“But you’re angry with me…”

“Yes.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“So many things.”

I suck in a sharp breath.

And then as quickly as the charged moment slammed into me, he releases me from its prison. He turns my palm over in his paw. “Your hands will recover well, so long as we are sure to clean them thoroughly.” He gently trails his fingertips up my wrist, over my arms, along my clavicle to the buttons along the front of my tunic. He slices through the first with a claw. My shoulders tense. He pauses and inhales deeply, then exhales through flared nostrils that transform, momentarily, into a snout. “Is it bad?”

I don’t have the faintest idea what he’s talking about and can’t make sense of his words at all through how hard my heart is pounding. We’re sitting so close. We’ve been…closer, but not like this. Not with our eyes wide open and all of our senses so finely tuned to each other. I’ve never been this close to anyone before. “W-what?”

“What Ugaros and the other villagers did to you.” His hand brushes over my forehead. Crusted blood flakes onto his fingers and I wince even though he didn’t hurt me. His touch was too soft for that.

“Oh. No. It’s not too bad. Just some bruises…”

His gaze switches between my eyes. It’s too much, the power of his focus wholly on me. I could drown. “Are you lying to me?”

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