I gape at him. “M-me?”
“Yes, Clove. You.” He presses his lips to mine, his kiss gentle yet maintaining an air of dominance at the same time. “You’re our missing jewel, the Omega we’ve been waiting for. We never expected to find you here, but that just makes this mean more.”
“You’ve been searching for an Omega?”
He nods. “Tieran has visited a few Carnage Wolf packs to meet eligible Omegas. There’s really only been two that he’s met, but they were both clearly taken with other Alpha clans, and while Tieran had the power to claim whoever he wants, he didn’t feel right about them.”
I blink. “I… I thought he was betrothed to Alpha Bryson’s daughter? Did he visit these packs before or after…？” I almost finish with the words, he slaughtered her, but the dark gleam in Caius’s gaze has me trailing off instead.
“He was never betrothed to the Nantahala Wolf. Our kind can’t take other wolves as mates. A Carnage Alpha needs a Carnage Omega, something Bryson knows very well.” He utters the name with fury, causing my wolf to shiver beneath my skin.
She doesn’t like his anger.
Neither do I.
But I also know it’s not directed at me.
“That’s Tieran’s story to tell,” he continues. “So I’ll let him do the honors. But you need to understand that Carnage Wolves and Nantahala Wolves are not the same.”
I try to dip my chin to tell him I understand, but his hand on my cheek stops me, his gaze intently holding mine.
“We value our relationships, and that includes cherishing our mates.” He nips at my mouth, the gesture more playful than cruel, his mood shifting from angry to relaxed as he pulls back to gaze down at me.
“Most packs have an Alpha and a Beta and a few other official roles, but that’s not how we operate,” he continues. “We have an Alpha clan at the top, meaning we typically have at least three Alphas in charge of a pack. There’s always one that’s stronger than the rest, but that Alpha chooses the strongest among us to support him.”
“So similar to the Alpha-Beta dynamic where the Beta takes over if the Alpha is away,” I translate.
“Similar, except our Alpha clans are even more closely knit. We can actually develop the ability to speak between our minds once we’ve found our Omega mate. She’s the heart and key to everything. That’s why you’re so important, Clove. You’re our heart, or you will be once you go into a proper heat cycle.”
I frown. “This wasn’t, umm, proper?”
He chuckles. “No, gorgeous. Estrus usually lasts at least five days, sometimes even up to eight or nine. You only touched the cusp of your potential. We think it was brought on by finally connecting to your wolf, but we’re not sure why it stopped. Once you fell asleep, it sort of… dissipated.”
“And that’s not normal,” I say, reading between the lines.
“No, it’s not. But your situation isn’t exactly normal, either.”
“Because I’m a half-breed.”
“A half-breed who suppressed her wolf for…” he trails off, his gaze sharpening. “How old are you, Clove?”
“Twenty.”
His eyebrows lift. “You suppressed your wolf for twenty years?”
I swallow, my chin attempting to move in the affirmative again, but his palm is still holding my cheek.
“Fuck,” he breathes. “I mean, technically it’s more like fifteen, I guess, but Jesus, Clove. That must have hurt a lot.”
“It’s what we’re taught to do.” I don’t say it defensively. It’s more sad as it comes out because I’ve realized how wrong it is over the last few days. How it’s used to control the Nantahala females, not help them prosper.
I suddenly feel thankful for my fate.
Which then elicits a guilty pang in my chest.
Because my fate is directly tied to my mother’s death.
“That explains your brief introduction to estrus,” Caius says, his thumb tracing the hollow beneath my eye. “You’ll likely go into a true heat soon. Maybe within the next few days.”
“Nantahala wolves don’t really go into multi-day heat cycles,” I say. “I mean, they have their fertility periods where they mate, but it’s not… it’s not for eight days. Maybe a full day or two, and once every few years.” So that’s probably why my estrus only lasted a few hours. That’s more typical of my kind.