His Forbidden Omega (The Royal Omegas Book 1) Read online

  I knew the omega was right. My female’s scent was strong enough to light up the entire midnight desert. There wouldn’t be a male in the vicinity who wouldn’t want to mount her. Just like my men had.

  Shit.

  These females were my only hope for getting her somewhere safe before it was too late.

  “Very well. You can take the dagger from my boot for a weapon.” I had another one at my waist and a third strapped to my back at all times.

  The omega narrowed her eyes. “We don’t need weapons. Come. Tavia will lead, Ashla will have your back, and I, your flank. We must hurry.”

  Out in the open air, the scent seemed to grow, billowing out before us as we walked quickly and silently across the sand, passing quiet dwellings and closed businesses that were hardly more than shanties. The desolation of the place the omegas called home was glaring in the face of the grand war celebration I’d sat through earlier. I wondered how it felt for one like my rose to spend their days working in the city only to return to this dreary existence every night. To the drafty, dirty shacks to sleep.

  The injustice of it nagged at me.

  My father would have called it weakness. And it was. The omegas were segregated in The Division for a reason. A good goddamned reason.

  Traitors.

  Betrayers of the crown and shifter kind.

  It was because of them we were hunted by the humans that remained on the continent. Because of them we were forced to close off our city and resort to the technology that kept us alive through the worst famines of modern times.

  The betrayal of one group of omega defectors had sent our way of life spiraling into something altogether new.

  It was too long ago. I couldn’t remember it. I only knew it took my mother from the world and left my father an angry vengeful beast. The Cold King he was known as, because he never ruled with his heart. Only his mind. Only with calculated strategy. He saw everything in black and white. Right or wrong. Never any room for gray.

  The gray was pushed out of our city every night to wither away, punishment for the sins of generations past.

  I stared down at the female in my arms. Her lips pressed tight into a line trying to hold back her whimpers. Her body throbbed, growing in frequency until she shook with the effort to refrain from crying out.

  “Use my shoulder to muffle your sounds, female,” I whispered.

  She pushed her face into my jacket to let out a cry and her pain seemed to ease. Lowering my mouth to her temple, I pressed a kiss there. It was almost a thoughtless action. Natural. Instinctual. And she calmed even more.

  “Thank… you… King.”

  The wind kicked up, sending the dust into a gray cloud around us.

  Gray. No room for gray.

  My father had taught me to see things the same way he did. No tolerance. No middle ground. But now, I’d seen her. A rose. Damaged and broken, but a rose nonetheless. Soft and sweet and giving me a reason to care. How was I supposed to go back to the way it was before?

  An omega’s heat lasted four days.

  I just had to make it four days and things would return to normal. I had to believe it. This haze of need would be gone and I could be the king my people needed once again.

  The omega beside me whispered, “We’re almost there. Just over that rock base.”

  I followed the one called Tavia, counting down the steps until I was alone with my female. The wind was a measure of relief against her overwhelming scent. Every dry gust, carried the earthy cinnamon that I wanted to devour away from me for precious seconds. Long enough for me to keep from laying her out on the sand and stripping her bare.

  Almost there, almost there...

  “We’re being followed,” the omega behind me murmured. Ashla was her name. She was quieter than the others but didn’t hesitate to help get my female across the desert.

  There was nothing in it for her. Not for any of them. But they left their shanty in the middle of the night to help get my rose to a safe place.

  These omegas cared for each other. Like family. Or maybe they just had each other’s backs because it was the only way to make it out here in the Badlands. Still, it was something the people of Luxoria didn’t have. There was no supporting your brothers or sisters. No helping for the sake of helping. Only for what or where it could get you.

  The omega beside me glanced over her shoulder, scanning the dark expanse of the desert. “They’ve nearly caught up to us.” She stopped walking. “Fuck. Scratch that. They have caught up with us.”

  Suddenly Ashla was in front of me, pressing her forearm to my female’s face. “Lick me. Do it. Now, Zee.”

  My omega looked confused.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded.

  “It’s the only way to dilute the scent. Spread it to us, and we’ll lead them away. It will only work once she’s underground, but if you hurry…”

  “Lick, female,” I growled down at mine. She frowned but obeyed, her tongue darting out to lap a trail up the omega’s arm.

  “More,” Ashla said. The others had already crowded near. Tavia rubbed her hair all over my female, absorbing what she could from touch. “Your turn, Charolet. Hurry.”

  “Lick,” I told my female again.

  A wolf howled in the night, too close. But that was only partly what had the hair at my nape rising in warning.

  A wolf. An actual wolf.

  A wolf when there should be no wolves. Not in animal form anyway.

  “They’re here,” Charolet hissed. “Coming up over the ridge. Get her underground. Now.”

  Tavia pushed me toward the rocks where the shelter was supposed to be. “Go. You’ll see the opening under what looks like a piece of roofing tin. It locks from the inside.” I charged forward but she stopped me with a hand on my sleeve. An action that could bring a death sentence with one word from my lips. “Please,” she pleaded, “be kind to my sister. She’s all I have in the world.”

  And with that, she turned back to the other omegas while I ran for the shelter, haunted by the feeling that everything I held in my arms was dangerous.

  My female was dangerous. A ticking bomb ready to explode. Dangerous to my people, to herself. But most surprisingly, to my very own fucking heart.

  ***

  The shelter was hardly more than a hole in the ground with a rickety ladder descending into the darkness. And fuck, we didn’t have time for a ladder. Not with the wolf howling in the not so far off distance.

  “Hold onto me tight, female. Tight as you can.”

  “Mmm.” She groaned, her body undulating against mine as she wrapped both arms around my neck. Her lusty movements made me feel wild and her scent soaked into my brain, making it hard to concentrate. Made my wolf feel closer to breaking free than ever before. I could feel it pressing against my bones, wanting out.

  Impossible.

  Shaking, I climbed down the first two rungs, just enough to pull the hatch shut behind us and lock it. With the barest hint of moonlight, I could see the thick seal around the edges, looking out of place on the rough metal door. To keep the scent in. Smart. The omegas were smart.

  Not wasting another second, I jumped into the unknown, bypassing the rest of the ladder and landing on my back with my female on top of me. Her audible oof from the impact was all I heard in the darkness. And even it somehow sounded sexy as hell.

  Luckily, we’d landed on something soft instead of packed dirt or concrete. I blinked, letting my eyes adjust. It was pitch black inside the shelter, but my shifter abilities allowed me to see better than any human. In this moment, they seemed even sharper than normal. I could see the faint outline of the bedding we’d landed on, and beyond it, the dull functional walls of the shelter.

  My omega’s eyes glowed above me as our gazes clashed.

  “King,” she whispered, her warm breath making me feel dizzy with desire.

  “Tell me your name, female.” I needed to know it. Needed it on my lips. Needed to say it over and over until it was
as natural as breathing.

  “I’m Zelene.” Her voice shook with fear so strong it was palpable, but her body moved on its own, legs straddling my waist, thighs squeezing against my hips. Hot center grinding against my cock. “Will… you… kill me for what I’ve done?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I…” A strangled needy sound rose up her throat. “… didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  I surged up, flipping her onto her back. I was alpha. Not meant to be under an omega. I was powerful, I was king. And I intended to show her every bit of that power by the time we left this place.

  “Didn’t mean to,” I purred, loving the way her chest lifted and fell with each of her labored breaths. It hypnotized me. “Didn’t you dress pretty and come into my castle as a beta instead of a servant?”

  “Yes.”

  My hand grazed the fine skin of her jaw, helpless to keep from feeling her now.

  “Didn’t you dance with me as if you deserved to?”

  “Y-yes.”

  Shame filled her expression, mixing with the lust and fear. My cock considered it a winning combination.

  “Didn’t you steal my breath with your smile?”

  “Yes?” She frowned and my thumb smoothed along her lower lip, remembering the feel of her mouth.

  “Didn’t you kiss me with those sweet fucking lips?”

  “No.”

  I narrowed my gaze in challenge. “No?”

  “You kissed me,” she whispered.

  Her boldness shocked me, though it shouldn’t have after the stunt she pulled. She kissed me back. She had let me taste her. I wasn’t letting her deny it now. Not here, when we were finally alone and no one could judge us.

  “Didn’t you want me to?”

  “You’re impossible to deny right now, with my heat battering away at me.”

  “You weren’t under your heat when we kissed. Don’t pretend you didn’t want me, omega.”

  “But I am in heat now,” she argued, her voice trembling.

  “And you want me even more.”

  She shook her head, eyes going wet as she bit hard on her lip, pulling it away from my thumb. “Not want. Need.”

  “Want,” I insisted.

  I knew the difference. I wanted her the first time I saw her in the ballroom. I needed her when I scented her heat. The two feelings mixed together, twisting into something that had its own name. But I wasn’t ready to think about that yet.

  I dragged my fingertips down her throat to the edge of her collar, feeling her hard swallow beneath my touch. “I won’t touch you because of need, woman. Not even to ease my own.” She had to want it as much as I did.

  “It hurts,” she breathed.

  “I know. Tell me the truth. You want a king. You want to be the omega who brought the shifter king to his knees in a dirty Badlands shelter.”

  “No!”

  “You want a king’s cock between these legs,” I said softly.

  “No,” she snapped, choking on a sob as her body tensed in another painful contraction that pushed her hips into my rigid erection. “I just want you to look at me like you did in the royal office. Like I’m beautiful and desired and… and worthy. And if my heat hadn’t started, maybe I could have pretended I was someone else in a king’s arms for just a little while longer. Because trust me, that single dance was the highlight of my fucking life.” Her words came rushing forward as if her body needed to expel them to relieve the pressure. “But that’s not how things happened, and I tried to leave. I tried. But you followed. So if you aren’t going to touch me, if this is your way of torturing me before you have your soldiers end me… then… then just leave. Leave and let me suffer through this alone.”

  There she was. There was the female I recognized from the ballroom. The one who had fooled me into thinking she was more. Mine. My wolf repeated the claim again and again inside my mind.

  Sweet, stubborn omega.

  She didn’t mean to, but she’d just given me all the information I needed.

  I eyed her in the darkness, gaze digging in to reach the parts of herself she didn’t want me to see.

  “You. Want. Me.”

  “I want you,” she choked out.

  Her eyes were pained and somehow, I knew it wasn’t only physical. My female had a ragged heart that needed attention. It had been beating through the cuts and bruises life had given her. Maybe even I had given her without understanding.

  Instinct demanded I soothe her. And for the next four days that was what I intended to do. Consequences be damned.

  “Prove it,” I demanded.

  “How?”

  “Kiss me.”

  Vibrating with repressed need, she eased forward to meet my lips, but I stopped her.

  “Wait.”

  She went still, waiting for my command.

  “Kiss me as if there were no alphas and omegas, and nothing in between. As if there was no king, and we were just a man and a woman finding each other for the first time, no future to worry about except the one we could create. Kiss me… like a rose. My rose.”

  She stared at me, blinking, while I held my breath to see what she’d do. Do it, female. Show me what you’re made of.

  With a desperate sound, she surged up, her mouth slamming down on mine in a hard kiss before her tongue forced its way in to tangle with my greedy one. I didn’t want to leave any corner of her mouth unexplored. She tasted like sin and silk. Forbidden and so, so smooth.

  Mine.

  I found her hand, bringing it over her head to keep it from wandering. I needed to keep control, and I was so damn close to losing it. My mind, my station, my senses.

  My humanity.

  My insistent inner animal was pushing me to the edge of breaking. What would happen if I gave it full control?

  Zelene sucked on my lip, pulling it between hers and earning my growl of approval. But to my surprise, in the next breath, she bit it hard enough that I tasted blood.

  “Fuck.” I jerked back, staring down at her. Her eyes glittered with challenge.

  “How’s that for proof?”

  Like all roses, mine had thorns.

  Grabbing the collar of her thin dress in both hands, I jerked hard, ripping it clean down the center to reveal her small breasts. The tips were swollen and proud, and my mouth watered for a taste.

  I dove for one, lashing it with my tongue once, twice before pulling it between my lips to suck and toy with.

  My rose cried out at the contact, half-pain, half-pleasure, and her fingers threaded in my hair to keep my head where she needed it.

  “More, more,” she begged.

  I moved to lave her other nipple before winding a trail down her ribs, kissing and licking the scent from her soft skin, swallowing it down like medicine for my soul. Fuck. When her legs were spread wide and her wet sex inches from my mouth, I couldn’t go slow anymore.

  I dove for her throbbing center, licking up her juices and sucking her clit between my lips. Her taste was better than honey. As her hips writhed against my mouth, I pushed my tongue deep into her, desperate to drink her down, her moans urging me on. I fucked her with my mouth until her body tensed tighter than a fist, and she let out a scream as pleasure ricocheted through her.

  I jerked back, rising to my knees above her. She needed my cock. Needed it now.

  Sliding a finger between her wet folds, I found that tight pulsing hole and pressed inside, testing her. But to my shock, I hit the tell-tale barrier that told me she was…

  “Fuck,” I snarled, sucking in a hard breath to get my bearings.

  Take her. Take her now, my wolf demanded.

  I wanted to slam into her hard. Bust through that barrier in a way that made her irrevocably mine. I was King fucking Alpha. It was damn near my right. If I want it, I take it. And I wanted Zelene more than anything.

  But…

  I wanted her to give it to me.

  “King?”

  I sucked air, trying to keep steady, and press
ed my palm against her throat.

  She was a virgin. My female was untouched by any man before me. The satisfaction that brought me was like nothing I’d ever experienced. Not in battle, not in my bed. Not even with that first kiss we shared in my office.

  My wolf told me she was mine. This just proved it.

  “Tell me what you want.”

  I felt her swallow against my hand. The action was one of trust.

  “You,” she whispered. “Just you. Right now.”

  “Are you sure,” I asked her. I would only ask once. She was only getting one chance to change her mind about this.

  “I’m sure.”

  Relief swept over me like a wave. She shouldn’t trust me. Especially not this much. But she did, and it made the alpha in me want to beat his chest.

  “Are you?” she gasped when I released her throat. “I’m fertile…” The words faded out on a whimper that sounded so much like the animal she housed within. “You know what this means, king.” Her legs sawed desperately around my hips.

  Was I sure?

  It was forbidden. So fucking forbidden. I could lose my crown for this. I could lose everything.

  The heat from her core burned my cock. I needed to bury it in her, fast and hard and firm. I needed to stay there until my knot swelled with seed, and she milked it from me. Brand her with it like she branded me.

  Forbidden, forbidden…

  But instinct raged within me.

  Worth it. She would be so fucking worth it.

  With a roar, I surged forward, spearing her center to take what she was so ready to give.

  There was no going back now. King or not, forbidden or not…

  The omega was mine.

  Chapter Eight

  Zelene

  Tonight, the king was supposed to be celebrating victory. But right now, he belonged to me.

  The power of that knowledge mixed with my heat made me high as he thrust inside me. Hard and fast and mad with need. This is what I’d craved, month after month as I sat down here alone in the dark, writhing in the filth, dreaming that someone would come and take the need away from me. I’d never given myself the luxury to think about want, as His Majesty demanded I do. He was used to putting himself before everyone else. For me, that was a death sentence.