Page 86 of Unlikely Omega

Fun…

Not sure the horse feels that way, and the saddle is made for one person, or two, tops. But they place me between them, and pressed between their warm, tall bodies, I let myself doze as we make our slow way across the plain, my back resting against Taj’s hard chest, my thighs and breasts pressed to Finnen’s muscular back. Surrounded by their scents, touching them even through the fabric of their garments, I feel better.

Evening closes like a net around us, and eventually I’m jerked out of my uneasy doze when we stop for the night.

“Where are we?” I mumble as Finnen leans back against me to dismount, the weight of him on me too sweet, sending a flare of pain through me—and then he turns around and reaches for me. I swing my leg over the saddle and slide down, sighing when his arms close around me.

“Maybe the army Commander can tell us,” he sniffs.

“Finn…” I whisper. “Why are you so upset?”

“I’m not upset.”

“He’s jealous,” Taj says, jumping off the horse and looping the reins over the horse’s head, patting the tangled mane.

“I’m definitely not fucking jealous,” Finnen splutters. “Of what? Your stupid blindness to the army’s racism? Your blind obedience?”

“Says the blind man,” Taj mutters, not turning around, pulling his horse toward a tree nearby. Following him with my gaze, I see we’ve stopped near a small stream, flanked by a copse of willows.

“At least I’m naturally blind, not deliberately obtuse.”

“Cut it out, the both of you!” I pull back from Finnen, even if it hurts. “Can’t you be nice to each other?”

“Yeah, take his side, why don’t you?” Finnen stalks by me toward the stream, stumbling twice before reaching it. Then he sits down on the bank and loops his arms around his knees.

“Why is Finnen acting like that?” I ask, exasperated.

Taj turns to grin at me. “Told you. He’s jealous.”

“Of you?”

He opens his arms. “Why wouldn’t he be? Don’t you think he has reasons?”

“Taj.” I keep glancing at Finnen. “You know I really like Finn.”

“I know. I was teasing. I don’t think he has any reason to be jealous, frankly. If anything, I’m the one who is jealous of your relationship.”

“You are?” I swallow hard, glancing at Taj’s handsome face. “Why?”

A shrug. “You seem so comfortable with one another.”

I glance again at Finn sitting on the bank of the stream. “I thought you wanted nothing to do with us. First, you said you had to obey your General, then you came after us in the storm to stop us from escaping.”

“Ariadne…”

“If the Drakoryas hadn’t attacked you, if Finnen hadn’t patched you up, would you have let us go?”

“Yes,” he says without hesitation. “Do you know why my men weren’t with me when I entered the shelter where you were hiding?”

I shake my head. “I wondered about that.”

“I saw the direction you were taking. I sent my men the other way from the start.” He steps closer, takes my hands, gazes down at them. “It’s never happened to me before, to break orders and go on the run. I thought I knew what was right, what was my path.”

“And now?”

“Now my path lies with you. Listen…” He lifts my hands, kisses my fingers, making me shiver. “Meeting with the both of you was a shock on so many levels. It made me question my loyalties. Finnen is right. I turned the other way for too long. I was a sheep among the wolves, when inside me I have a dragon. I am Fae-blood. I can’t turn the other way when my people are being hunted.”

“Is that all?” I whisper, not daring to look up.

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