Three Alpha Princes for an Unwanted Omega

Ares woke to the sound of his own name.

He lay on a cot with his chest bare, a damp cloth sliding down his ribs, the ceiling swimming above him in the candlelight. For a moment he did not know where he was. Then the pain came back, and he remembered: the coronation, him falling and the thread snapping inside him like a bowstring cut.

He had never known a thing could be torn out of him and still leave him breathing.

"What did you just say, Miranda? The mate bond to Ayla is broken?"

Ares turned his head as the room swam into focus.

His father stood with the priestess while his brother, Cassian sat on the next cot, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor between his boots. Damon leaned against the far wall.

Miranda nodded.

"How?" Kieran thundered. "Only a rejection and an acceptance from both parties is able to break a mate’s bond."

"That is what I thought as well, my lord." she answered. "But this... this is unlike anything I have ever seen before."

"And what does the moon goddess have to say about this?" Kieran asked "You are the priestess of a powerful pack, Miranda. You cannot be useless too."

"My lord, I am doing all that is within my power to find out how this has happened." Miranda’s head bowed. "If you would excuse me..."

She turned toward the door when Cassian’s voice stopped her.

"Can death break a mate’s bond?" he asked.

"What are you saying?" Damon pushed off the wall. "That Ayla is dead? She is not. I would feel it if she was." He looked at his hands. "I would feel it."

"Answer him." Ares’ finally spoke. He sat up, the cloth sliding from his chest to the floor. "Can death break a mate’s bond?"

"Yes, it can" Miranda finally answered.

"Cassian appeared stricken.

"Fuck," Damon muttered.

"Are you trying to tell me Ayla is dead?" Kieran’s voice had gone dangerously low.

"I cannot be sure, my lord." Miranda held his gaze. "But the death of one’s mate can end the mate’s bond. It is the only way it breaks without a rejection."

"Then we should be able to feel it when a mate dies." Damon said. "We should feel that. It cannot just..."

"Maybe we did." Cassian’s voice was hollow. He was still staring at the floor. "Maybe that was the feeling... when the bond broke."

"No." Damon rose to his feet and staggered, he pain of the severance still dragging at his limbs. "No. She is alive. I know she is." He said it like a prayer. "She said she is an Omega Dualis, she is powerful...how can she be dead?"

"What if this was the rogue king’s plan all along?" Cassian muttered.

"Why would he send us a letter, then? Why the talk of peace?" Damon whirled on him.

"To throw us off." Cassian finally looked up, and his eyes were red. "Give us hope. That is his game, is it not? He has been playing it since the start."

"I cannot believe you would even think that she is..."

"Sons." Kieran’s voice cut through their argument. "Enough."

"Miranda herself is not sure Ayla is dead." Kieran’s eyes moved from one son to the next. "She will consult the moon goddess, and she will tell us what this means. In the meantime, you all need to rest." He turned to the priestess. "Go. Find your answers. Bring them back to me before the moon sets."

Miranda bowed and slipped out.

"The council and I will think of something to send forth to the people," Kieran continued. "To assuage their fears. Although I fear nothing we tell them now will be of use. Not after what they have had to witness these past weeks."

Ares rose to his feet.

"I should speak to them," he declared. "Now that I am Alpha, they will be expecting me to address them which I would have done before..." he did not need to finish his sentence.

Cassian’s mind whirled with different thoughts.

He would know if she was dead... she was part of his body now the way the sun on his skin is part of the day. If she were gone, he would have felt the moment of it. He would have felt her go.

But what if he had?

What if that was the moment? The pain in the hall, the thread snapping in his chest. What if that had been the moment?

He pressed his palms together. No. She could not be dead.

"Cassian." Ares’ crossed the room, stopping in front of him. "Are you with us?"

Cassian’s throat bobbed. "I just..."

"She is not dead." Ares said.

They all looked at him.

"How can you be so sure?" Damon asked.

"Because I would know if she was." There was absolute conviction in his voice.

"Ayla is alive." Ares met each of their eyes in turn. "And she needs us. So we are going to find her and we are going to help her."

"How? We do not even know where..."

There was a knock on the door at that moment.

"Enter"

A guard walked in, bowing his head to them all.

"A message for the Alpha... the rider says to say Lucius Veyr." the guard said.

Damon frowned.

Veyr, he mouthed.

Something about that name sounded very familiar to him. Where had he heard it?

Kieran nodded to Ares who stepped forward and took the letter.

He opened it up and read.

"It is the rogue king" He said. "He introduces himself officially as Lucius Veyr and he says he has decided on the meeting place."

He raised his head to look at all of them.

"He wants to have the meeting here, in our court and he hopes we will show him hospitality as we discuss peace."

"Here?" Damon’s voice was flat with disbelief. "He is coming here?"

"He is coming here," Ares echoed.

"What are we going to do now?" Cassian asked the obvious question.

Ares folded the parchment in his hand before he looked at his brothers. "We will ready ourselves to receive him."

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