Page 9 of Impaled By His Omega Prince
“We could, you know,actuallybring one another off if you like?” Lumic’s suggestion made Askara choke.
“No! No, I think not. I’m very good, thank you.” Askara pulled back, pawing at the side of his face nervously. The burn didn’t fade and for a moment, Askara thought he noticed, butinstead, it was something else that flitted across Lumic’s too-confident face.
“Didn’t have to sound so reticent.” Lumic sniffed indignantly, but Askara couldn’t let him hold that poisonous thought.
He took Lumic’s hand for a quick squeeze. “I’m far more interested in romance than I am the thing that Cilan offered you to me for.”
“That alpha’s disgusting. Thanks for that, by the way. The vitalis, too.” Lumic licked his lips with a slow spread of his tongue over pink flesh. Askara’s heart fluttered watching the gesture, knowing that the honeyed taste he savored had been his saliva and a blessing.
Part of the restrictions carved into Askara’s chest stopped him from doing some things. It hindered his magic, ensured his obedience, and forced his lips to tell nothing but truth. “I happen to have a rather reliable source of vitalis.”
Lumic twisted his lips. “Were I not on death’s doorstep, I’d forbid you from administering it. The goddesses are fickle with their blessing on Croatens, more so on the aristocracy.”
The goddesses had always been sweet to him, kind in so many ways. The thought of them denying vitalis’s blessing because they didn’t like a country seemed almost silly to him. Though he was aware he was less worldly than most.
“I’m sure my mothers don’t mind at all.” Askara offered his biggest smile, and Lumic lifted a single fiery-red brow and smirked, the uneven uptick of his lip roguish and pretty. Nobody that gorgeous could have been beyond the favor of the goddesses.
None.
Chapter Seven
Lumic
It was something different every night, a half orc, a dwarf, a damned goblin at one point, though he couldn’t have been certain. The creatures were very elusive, but he found that the more he won, the less they wanted to use him. He could be thankful for that much, at least.
What he wasn’t thankful for was the lack of preparatory medicines he needed. Lumic had been almost two weeks without nightflower, and as any omega over a certain age could tell, the first heat off of it would be rough.
Perhaps the vitalis he had been forced to take every few nights would make his heat more bearable, stave it off, or hopefully do something to keep the wandering eyes of their alpha patron off him. The disgusting prick lingered near his cell when Lumic bathed, staring openly with the least impressive cockstand he’d ever witnessed. But it capitulated when he dropped his pants and decided to put on a show for Lumic to watch, all the while the dwarf two cells down wheezed in pain from a lost fight, vitalis doing its best for him.
Up until that very moment, Lumic had never formed an opinion on testicles. Witnessing the alpha that Askara called Cilan show off hisgoods, Lumic could happily say that had changed. It made Lumic want to believe in a goddess, because certainly any male with smaller balls than a wildercat couldn’t have been virile. Any smaller, and Lumic would have insisted he was omega. As much as he wanted to say it, though, Lumic remained silent and did his best to watch while appearing bored.
Once finished, he stuffed himself away and left Lumic to lounge on the bench. But that peace wasn’t meant to last.
A bustle of feet met the stairs leading into the dungeon. The yellowing light of the wall sconces brightened as Cilan saw fit to turn the flame up, followed in tow by a very familiar male.
“Thank the law,” Lumic said, his chest sagging with relief as he met the dull gaze of his alpha brother, Stamel.
“All in one piece, as I promised, Your Highness.” Cilan simpered and bowed for his brother, and Lumic sneered, but his brother’s expression didn’t reflect anything positive.
“Your price for him?”
“You understand, he’s beendifficult. I’m certain I could ask for a pittance, a dozen vati for the boy.” Cilan, paling as he made the statement, flinched when Stamel laughed, his tone cold and harsh. “Dharni, if you have it. Vati is often easier to track.”
“And how much to keep him… No, how much for him tolosethe next fight?” Stamel didn’t even glance at Lumic, his jaw clenching.
“Name your price, Your Highness.”
“Twenty vati. Another fifty once the corpse is delivered to King Pallosar.” He laughed harshly and turned, a wide grin stretching his stubbled jaw. Their eerily similar red hair shone brown in the torchlight, but for a moment, all Lumic could see was red.
He couldn’t even muster the words to speak, and any rage he showed would only bring Stamel pleasure. His only hope was to not only live but to do so or die trying.
But if Stamel wanted to play games of fate, then Lumic would burn him. As the torchlights they lit dimmed from their departure, Lumic kicked his dinner water cup, shattering the poorly formed ceramic into angled shards. He lifted his shirt and stared down at his chest, all firm lines and smooth skin. The odd scar dotted his flesh. With a deep breath and fierce determination, Lumic carved words into his flesh.
Stamel sold me. Traitor.And as he waited for the next fight, he pressed dirt into the cuts and held part of his filthy shirt to his chest. If he died—he was taking Stamel with him.
***
It wasn’t a fair fight. Two against one. Lumic, armed with a blunt short sword with a rattling pommel, found himself losing ground, stepping back and crying out with every swing. The two alpha fae they had pitted against him had pure glee in their eyes, but Lumic claimed his blood. His shorter stature gave him advantage, and he blocked the errant swing of a sword with one arm holding his own and kicked the feet from beneath his first assailant. Messy brown hair—unwashed and choppy—fell over his face. His companion fared no better, stumbling back at Lumic’s charge, stepping too far into the male’s reach to be hit by a sword.
