Alphas of Pandora, page 29
Overcome with need for him, Aura climbed up his body until her arms wrapped around his neck and she was poised with her legs spread over his stiffened cock. Her nails dug into the skin of his shoulders as if it were her only anchor over a precipice and she clung for dear life.
“Please,” she whispered against his lips, finally giving him what he asked. “Kiss me.”
His gentle kiss was in stark counterpoint to the force of her body falling onto him as quaking legs collapsed beneath her. She kissed him back with the all-consuming passion she shouldn’t have been capable of without the heat cycle clouding her mind. Her body arched against his and the kiss deepened, as if they both tried to crawl into the other and merge themselves completely.
Their movements grew erratic as his knot swelled and caught against the curve of her pubic bone, trapping him inside of her. His mouth shifted away to brush across her cheek before moving to her ear and speaking to her in a sharp whisper. “Come for me.”
And there was no choice but to comply, her body responding without giving her mind a vote. Climax sent her hurtling toward the stars as a low scream was wrenched from her throat. Her pussy clamped down hard around his knot, creating the painful pleasure that sent her even higher into euphoria. Castor’s matching shout sounded distant as fluid from his knot gushed into her womb with each spasm of her inner walls.
His arms came around her as they both fell back against the surface of the bed, exhausted and replete. Still joined, she lay above him with her head resting on his chest so that his heartbeat pounded against her cheek.
Aura fell asleep after some indeterminable amount of time passed in which she floated on a wave of satisfied desire and confusion. Castor’s breathing had slowed, but he remained awake beneath her, mind whirling with conflicting thoughts. Together, they were like fire and ice or oil and water, so fundamentally incompatible that it made a twisted sense for them to be so inexorably drawn together.
And both of them were lost.
Thirty-Four
Going outside was out of the question. But as another day passed, it became clear that Castor grew more and more impatient and concerned. He stalked around the interior of the small cabin with restless energy as Aura watched him from underneath lowered lashes. It was hard not imagine herself trapped in a cage with a crazed animal, even though she he wouldn’t turn that barely contained violence on her.
“How long can we stay here?” she asked finally, after watching him pace back and forth for the better part of an hour. “You can’t have enough rations for more than a few days.”
“It isn’t the rations that are the only problem.” He strode to a boarded-up window and peered between the slats. A streak of sunlight landed across his eyes and he squinted against it. “Faseer will have sent out multiple search parties by now. The longer we stay here, the more inevitable it is that they will find us.”
Aura rose from the bed and approached him, peering over his shoulder into the desolate field outside. There were scattered trees in one direction and a battered stone road that likely led to the nearest populated area in the other. She knew they were near the edge of the Forbidden Zone, but it was impossible to tell how close from this limited view. “I asked you how long.”
“Somewhere between minutes and weeks, give or take.” He seemed to notice how close she stood to him and retreated to the far side of the cabin. “Pray that Legion and his man return quickly for us.”
“If they return at all,” she pointed out, returning to the bed to give them both as much space as the small cabin would allow. Something had changed between them. She felt him retreating from her. “For all you know, they’ve left us here to rot.”
“Unlikely. I’ve made at least one miraculous return in the past so I doubt even a man like Legion would consider betraying me to be work the risk.” He held up his hand and indicated the dark band wrapped around his wrist. “This is a transponder that broadcasts my location. If Legion and Adrian don’t survive their trek through the Forbidden Zone, others from my security team will come. The question is how long that will take and if we will still be alive when help arrives.”
“No one would ever accuse you of being an optimist.”
“I am always practical. You should have figured that out by now, at least.”
“But you talk as if it doesn’t matter what happens to you.” Her tone was droll as she settled back onto the bed, but a spike of fear moved through her. She regarded the man who was her mate, looking for any trace of emotion. It took considerable effort to resist the urge to craft a nest out of the grimy bedding, if just to make herself feel better. “They want me as a prisoner. If the Vigilians find you here, they’ll kill you. Faseer made it clear that he would welcome a war.”
“Did he?” Castor regarded her with a curious gaze that lingered on her lips which had twisted into a frown. “Is that your way of encouraging me to attempt a journey through the Forbidden Zone without you?”
“No,” she said quickly, unsure if it was the truth or a lie. It did not sit well with her that so many lives had been risked just to correct her mistake. “But I wouldn’t put it past you. You do have that pretty Beta princess to go get back to you.”
A brief smiled touched his lips before his features settled back into the neutral mask. “You might be surprised.”
As silence reigned, it was difficult to keep her gaze from wandering to him. She could only hope he didn’t notice the near-constant appraisal. She told herself that there was nothing aside from him in the room to divert her so it was only natural that he would draw her attention. It was only boredom that dragged her gaze back to him, time and again. But it was more difficult to ignore the thoughts that sprang to her mind whenever she regarded him as her mind spun out an impossible future. They could never be together, not when the circumstances seemed designed to torture her. She would not be the woman he visited at night in the shadows while he publicly tied himself to someone else.
But he hadn’t married the Vigilian princess, a traitorous part of her mind whispered. He had sacrificed a political alliance and practically tore the city apart in his single-minded focus to recover her. But now that he had her back in his possession, what were the chances that he wouldn’t drag her back to the same circumstance that caused her so much pain?
So she decided to push at him. His brooding silence and the fact that he barely spared her a glance was unsettling, and she wanted a reaction, any would do. One part of her wanted his attention, and another wanted to prove to herself that he was the monster she needed him to be to protect herself.
“Did you know about the Omega auctions in the Warrens? There were dozens of empty cages so I can’t help but wonder how many poor women have passed through there, especially since you started the round-ups.”
“I’ve heard rumors. The Guardians are on orders to arrest anyone suspected of illegally trafficking in women, Omega or otherwise.”
“You can’t really think that’s good enough,” she pressed. “The men who took me didn’t seem all that worried about being caught.”
“I can’t be everywhere in the city at all times. There will always be a criminal element,” he pointed out. “You didn’t seem to have a problem taking advantage of my oversight. In fact, you seemed quite happy to hide yourself from me with those rebels. Aiding an Omega in avoiding presenting themselves to the Crown is also a crime, you know.”
Aura glared at him. “Fighting oppression shouldn’t be a crime.”
“Oppression?” Castor tilted his head to the side and regarded her with interest. He didn’t seem upset or angry, more amused at her obvious attempt to needle him. “I would see you protected. You have witnessed here in Vigil what happens when Alphas truly treat Omegas as property. You can’t tell me that what they subjected you to here is preferable.”
Of course it wasn’t. The Vigilians had strapped her to a table and forced her to be a medical experiment. They had brought her to this gods forsaken planet in the first place. As awful as Castor could make her feel, he had never subjected her to the horrors that those others had planned for her. But she couldn’t admit that to him, not when he looked so smug. “You wanted me to spend the rest of my life locked in a cage and you didn’t care how I felt about it.”
“All of us are in cages,” he murmured, but an approaching storm raged in his narrow gaze. “It’s only a matter of how gilded.”
“Not you,” she shouted, hands clenching into fists as she fought the urge to physically attack him. “You get to stomp around like a wild animal and do whatever you like. It’s disgusting. You disgust me. Drag me back to your palace if you want, but I’ll only run again. I will die before I submit to you.”
She had meant to force a response from him, but only succeeded in frustrating herself. He continued to watch her with an inscrutable expression as angry tears tracked down her face. It was impossible to tell from the seemingly relaxed set of his body, but he held himself still with considerable effort, fighting every urge to tame the over wrought Omega, both for her sake and his own.
“Did you know that there has never been an Omega queen?” He asked, the question obviously rhetorical as her mouth stayed clamped shut and tears streamed down her cheeks. “I don’t see how you could. The restriction was codified into law by my great-grandfather, King Servio, but it’s been tradition for as long as living memory.”
Aura bowed her head, but did not respond.
Castor approached her slowly, an intense light in his eyes. He stopped just out of reach and knelt on the floor at her feet, positioning himself so that she was above him. “Many thought that it was an excuse to maintain a harem of Omegas, but that’s not true. The Alphas in my family forge particularly strong bonds with their mates, so much that it overwhelms everything else. It’s like an obsession. It’s a weakness that has plagued every male in my line who has taken an Omega for a mate. And it threatens our ability to rule. My father would have lost the kingdom over my mother, if his advisors had not stepped in. Her death cost him his sanity.”
Forcing back angry tears made her eyes burn and her vision blurred as she glared down at him. “Of course, it was the Omega’s fault. An Alpha succumbs to his urges, but his mate is to blame.”
“It isn’t about blame. But the same cage that you rail against has closed around me.” His hand ghosted over her thigh, not quite close enough to touch. The air shifted across her skin, making her shiver. “You have no idea how much I want to throw you over my shoulder and disappear into the wilderness.”
Aura hated how attractive that idea sounded to her, to be alone with him in peace. She wanted to rail against the desire that felt as if it was being forced upon her. The urge to throw herself into his arms was as overwhelming as the one to rake her fingernails down his face until he bled. She hated him for being the physical representation of what had been done to her, but when she stared into his stormy eyes all she could feel was desire.
“Have you given this same speech to the other Omegas in your harem,” Aura asked, voice caustic. The bond whispered through her mind, urging her to trust him, but she forced herself to fight it.
He pulled on a thin gold chain that was around his neck, revealing the ornate ring hanging from it that had been hidden under his shirt. “This is the Queen’s signet. I would offer it to you, if I thought you’d take it. But I have already decided that it will never be worn by anyone else.”
She so wanted to believe him, to believe that the promises of love and shelter that she felt through the bond were real and not a figment of twisted biology. But if she let go of the anger, she feared what would be left behind. “I don’t believe you.”
“That is your choice.” Castor tucked the ring on its chain back into his shirt, seeming unsurprised that she had not attempted to take it. He rose to his feet and returned to the spot near the boarded window, the same place he had been standing sentry for the last several hours.
But Aura wasn’t done demanding answers to her questions, not by a long shot. “What about the Omegas that you ordered the Guardians to round up and bring to the palace? Don’t say that you were simply searching for me, because I know for a fact that none of them were released. I heard plenty about it at the safe house.”
His lip quirked, but he did not look away from the gap in the boards over the window. Instead of answering directly, like always, he posed another question. “Did you imagine that I searched for your replacement, filling the harem in an attempt to soothe my soul?”
“Your cock, more likely,” she rejoined, eyes narrowing. “That sounds like an admission of guilt.”
“Would you like to know what became of the Omegas that were brought to me?” he asked, a dark amusement shining in his eyes. “I’ll tell you if you ask.”
She wanted to tell him that he could go to hell and take all the women he’d fucked with him, but curiosity stilled her tongue. Because if she were being honest with herself, she desperately wanted to know what he had done to the Omegas, or allowed them to do to him.
Aura refused to acknowledge that the emotion she felt could be jealousy. It felt much better to convince herself that she was simply angry on behalf on the other Omegas who’d had their freedom taken from them in the way she had. It only made sense to assume the worst of him. “Tell me.”
“It has been difficult to muster the support I need to change the laws regarding Omega’s rights, but I have absolute jurisdiction over the royal grounds.” Castor’s voice was toneless as if he was describing the weather outside. “So I created a district in the upper levels on a piece of land that my family has owned for generations. By royal edict, no Alpha can step foot inside. The Omegas were brought to me because I was searching for you, but I gave them all the choice to return to their homes. Every one elected to say, even a few who had been mated.”
“That should tell you something about the way your world works,” Aura groused.
“Indeed.”
She hated the swollen feeling in her chest at his disclosure. If what he said was true, Castor had done something that no other king ever had, protected Omegas instead of exploiting them. Assuming she believed him. “I felt your anger through the bond. It was enough to drive you mad. I refuse to believe that you set up some sort of Omega sanctuary in the midst of that.”
“That wasn’t anger, it was fear. For you.” At the look she cast him, he amended with a shrug. “And perhaps anger that you would so recklessly put yourself in danger. You can believe it or not, but if we make it back to the city, then you can see for yourself.”
“And would you let me stay there with the other Omegas, if that’s what I wanted?”
“Royal edict prevents any Alpha from stepping foot in the Omega district, myself included. I wouldn’t be able to stop you.”
It was an enticing idea, even though she had no reason to believe that he spoke the truth. Or that he would allow her to slip through his fingers again, regardless of any royal edicts. She didn’t understand this Castor, even though he was standing right in front of her. This man was too calm, too accepting, too unwilling to rise to the occasion no matter how much she needled him. And she could feel little of him through the bond since her heat cycle broke. She wondered if he had done something to keep himself from her, building metaphysical walls to hide behind.
But what would he want to hide from her?
Even now, he withdrew from her physically as if everything that had occurred between them was a figment of her imagination. She thought he would be all Alpha posturing and threats, but the calm mask he wore now was even more disturbing. If he would act like the imperious Alpha who forced her to submit, then it would be a simple thing to convince herself that she didn’t want him and couldn’t love him.
It had to be a trick.
Before she could formulate an appropriate response, a loud buzzing sound filled the air. It grated on her nerves and set her teeth to shaking. “What is that?”
“Quiet,” Castor commanded, voice sharp. He peered through the gap in the plywood, angling his body as if concerned that he might be seen from the other side. “It’s a surveillance drone. It’s the first I’ve seen and soldiers won’t be far behind. We can’t stay here much longer.”
A strident tone entered her voice. “Where are we supposed to go?”
As much as the thought of being trapped her worried her, going out there was much worse.
“I was hoping that Legion would have returned for us by now.” The buzzing finally ceased as the drone flew away and Castor eased back from the window. He regarded her with narrowed eyes. “But there’s no choice about it now.”
Aura certainly did not like the sound of that. “We have to leave.”
“At nightfall,” he agreed. “We’ll get closer to the boundary lines to the Forbidden Zone and hope that Legion returns before the Vigilians catch up with us.”
“That doesn’t sound like much of a plan,” she groused, ignoring the small stirrings of anxiety in her belly. It was difficult to know where this urge to challenge him was coming from, but it made her want to fight at every turn. Even when he was right. “It makes no sense for us to be out in the open with drones flying around.”
Castor sighed. “The other option is to stay here. They will search all these cabins, this one included, and drag you back by your hair.”
He was correct, of course. But that didn’t stop her from firing back. “And when Legion comes back to rescue us, we won’t be here. What then?”
Castor lifted his arm to indicate a dark band wrapped around his wrist. “I’m wearing a tracking device, remember. Legion will be able to triangulate our location as long as I’m wearing it.”
