Page 2 of The Ruby Dragon Prince
“I would be so happy if Father would only invite a strong, noble alpha who has traveled the world and who has thousandsof stories to tell,” Obi said, sinking to sit on his bed once he was dressed. “All I want is an alpha who has experienced everything and can tell me beautiful stories and maybe take me away to see the world.”
“I want someone brave and strong who can rescue me from all this,” Misha said, sitting on the end of his bed as well. “Though I don’t think I would ever be brave enough to talk to someone like that myself.”
“I want someone with a fierce heart who would fight back against Father’s wickedness,” I said, sitting on the bench at the foot of my bed so I could put on the tight, calf-length, leather boots that matched my dancing costume.
“I want someone wise and clever,” Rumi said with a smile. “Someone who could outwit Father instead of fighting him.”
“I would be content with someone good and noble and intelligent,” Selle, the brother that was closest to me in age, said. He pushed the glasses he wore up the bridge of his nose as he sank into one of the chairs in the center of our large, circular bedroom. “But I wouldn’t shove him out of bed for being handsome as well.”
We all laughed. It was a given that we all wanted handsome princes. What omega wouldn’t? Beauty wasn’t everything, despite what Father told people, but it was nice.
Apparently, my brothers and I were all astoundingly beautiful. Papa always used to tell us we were like flowers in the garden he’d been confined to after Father cast him aside. I’d overheard the servants in the palace and occasionally Father’s guests say that we were the most beautiful omegas in the land, but that counted for very little with the sort of life we lived.
The six of us were as captive as Papa had been in his last days. We had the appearance of freedom as we wandered the halls and attended festivals and other important events in the city, but it was an appearance only. We were constantly guarded,so much so that none of us felt free to speak our minds when we were anywhere other than in our bedroom, our gilded cage.
I hadn’t minded living a secluded life so much when I was young, but ever since coming of age and falling into heat, the need to be free and to find an alpha was powerful. I resented the feeling that Ineededan alpha. I didn’tneedanyone to be who I was and to live my life. My body screamed otherwise when my heats started.
Like every other omega, when I was in heat, I would have done anything, been with anyone, just to have the heat urge quelled. I would have thrown myself at one of the guards when I was in heat just to have the carnal need that cursed all omegas soothed.
But Father was either cruel or calculating or both. Instead of giving us a way to satisfy our heat urges, when we so much as started to feel a bit warm, he would have us taken away and locked in a cell in a remote tower at the far end of the castle. The three days of our heats were pure agony as we were forced to suffer the pain and anguish of an empty heat.
Father gave us the option of an alpha partner, of course. The entire purpose of his monthly balls was to parade us in front of alpha noblemen from our kingdom and others with the promise that if they played their cards right and gave him what he wanted, he would give them one of our heats.
I had never succumbed to that temptation, but I knew some of my brothers had, especially the older ones. I didn’t know if I would be able to hold out forever myself, since each heat was progressively harder to bear alone. I didn’t blame my brothers who had allowed one of Father’s disgusting favor-seekers to take them. I knew that day would come for me, too, and I dreaded it.
“What about you, Rumi?” Obi asked, drawing his knees up so he could hug them as he sat on his bed. “What sort of prince do you want?”
Rumi had gone to the single window in the room, a window that looked out over the garden where Papa had lived. He gazed out, his body tense with expectation. When he glanced back at us, he had an excited look in his eyes that seemed completely wrong for the misery we were all about to endure.
“I don’t have to imagine a prince for myself,” he said, keeping his voice low and impish. “I already have an alpha.”
The rest of us gasped and sat up straighter.
“You do?” Selle asked, his glasses skewing as he jerked up.
Rumi nodded, smiling as he stepped away from the window. The other five of us got up and joined him in the center of our room. “I’ve fallen in love,” he said quietly, his eyes flashing with mischief.
“With a prince?” Misha asked.
Rumi shook his head. “With a completely ordinary man.”
“But how?” Leo asked. “When do any of us ever get to meet completely ordinary men?”
“Do you remember when we went riding through the city to the botanical gardens last month?” Rumi asked. When we all nodded, he said, “Remember when my horse threw a shoe and I had to stop to have it fixed.”
“I remember,” I said. “I thought a guard waited with you at the farrier.”
Rumi shook his head. “Father’s guard saw to the shoe. I stepped out into the street to breathe on my own. That’s when I met him.”
“Who is he?” I asked. “What sort of man?”
Rumi shrugged. “Just an alpha. He didn’t say who. He had the most arresting, green eyes, and he was wonderfully clever. We bantered, argued, and laughed for an hour before the guard realized I wasn’t waiting quietly for my horse. Once the guard noticed, my alpha had slipped away. But before he left, hepromised he’d be looking out for me, and he said he would come to the palace during the next ball.”
“How exciting,” I said, wishing I had some sort of amazing love story like that developing in my life. “So he’s going to be here to?—”
Before I could finish my question, there was a short, curt knock on our door before it was thrown open. Rottum, the head of our father’s guards, marched into the room uninvited, half a dozen guards behind him.
“You’re to be brought to the ballroom at once,” he said, then looked around, rubbing the bottom half of his face, like he was disappointed he hadn’t caught all of us naked and presenting to him in the mating pose, our holes dripping with slick.
