I sighed, lowering myself into the chair slowly as not to make any noise. I didn’t want to wake Ashla when she was finally sleeping. Giving her one last look to make sure she was sound, I began typing my message to Adalai.
My territory was compromised. Have taken the package to a safer location. Awaiting your instruction.
He’d know what I meant by safer location, though even he didn’t know exactly where this place was. No one did, and it would remain that way.
I stared at the screen, waiting for an answer but not expecting it to come so quickly.
The castle is secure, Adalai replied, and my heart sank. Would he ask me to bring Ashla back? It wasn’t safe yet. Not for me, and especially not for her. The mole needed to be uncovered first.
Quickly, another message came through. The resistance is contained, for now. Stay where you are until I send word. Updates daily.
I blew out a breath as relief hit me hard. Here, she was safe, like I’d promised she would be.
Understood, I wrote back.
Leaning back in the chair, I let my eyes drift closed. I was damn tired, and for the first time since leaving my outpost, I felt safe enough to rest. The castle was holding their ground. Ashla was hidden. The beta resistance was temporarily quiet. If sleep was going to come, it would be now or never. The leather chair was more comfortable than the desk chair but I couldn’t find the energy to switch.
I began to drift off, when I was jerked awake by a sound that shot straight to my cock. Ashla whimpered, demanding all my attention as I opened my eyes to find her still fast asleep in my bed. I stood from the desk, staring at her as if I could will that sound into existence again. But she remained silent.
I approached the bed, realizing it was a stupid idea when her sultry scent filled my nostrils. Her heat was growing stronger. It would be upon us soon and the idea of meeting her need made my chest tighten with pride. She was mine to care for, and I would see her through this.
But first, we would sleep. Sleep until we couldn’t anymore. Because when the heat came, there’d only be rutting and carnal need that would keep us up for three days straight. I licked my lips, already imagining what she tasted like.
Kicking off my boots, I shed my coat at the same time, leaving my uniform pants in place. I didn’t want her freaking out about nakedness when she found me so close. Peeling back the covers, I slid into the bed beside her, keeping some space between us. Not enough and too much at the same time. This way, I was near if she needed me. When she needed me.
Knowing I’d be cooling her heat in the most primal way, and that we could do so freely, safely, without interference was enough to lull me to sleep. Mate is safe, my wolf chuffed inside, more settled than it had ever been before.
Ashla
CHapter Six
Delicious heat swept over me, and for once, I didn’t resist it. My heat had always been scary. A time of anxiety, not knowing if I’d be able to find safety, and who was aware of the changes in my body before I was. As omega females, we took measures to stay one step ahead of those opportunists. Those thieves. There was no need to glorify the situation anymore. We could expose it for exactly what it was.
It was time to reclaim my heat.
I was in that place between sleep and consciousness, the place that embraced me tightly and didn’t want to let me go. I didn’t resist that either. Since I moved into the castle, I’d been flirting with the fantasy of safety, of stability, but I never let it get close enough to let all the good feelings it offered sink in. Under this thin veil of sleep, I was finally ready.
But that peace didn’t last long, and this dimension had me firmly in its grasp. My skin melted away, and I was all wolf, running through the Badlands, but it looked different. It looked like it did when I was a little girl. There were still hints of opulence and prosperity that the dust and hard times had yet to blast away. The heat made me think this was the beginning of a renaissance, the first signs of progress of the program that Tavia and Dagger had enacted. All my omega friends, the women I’d considered sisters had all used their turn of fortune to do good for others, even if they had a funny way of going about it. We had to work through the anger that we’d pushed down for so long before we could help bring the peace the King had promised to the region.
Still, we worked at the whim of the King. But did he finally have our best intentions in mind?
What would my mark on this renaissance be?
I was no longer in the Badlands, and the wall that had separated us for so long dissolved as I ran past it. The guards that had once held me back cheered me on.
The city was full of wolves, and none of them were omegas. Betas and alphas had all shifted, and the city was in chaos. Wait, was I back in the Badlands? Storefronts crumbled and burned and wolves fought over scraps, betraying their own family for one more fleeting chance at survival.
But I wasn’t afraid. For the very first time in my life, I let myself feel my
