Savage Prince by Alison Aimes

24

“Don’t take this off.” Maxheim stood outside Nikolai’s bedroom. Tess stood by his side.

The door he needed to send her through was still closed, though he told himself he wasn’t stalling, just being thorough. Several masked guards stood nearby, pretending not to pay attention to the exchange. “Do you hear me, omega?”

Nodding absently, she peered wide-eyed around the hallway, her gaze bouncing from the plush carpets to the sparkling walls and chandeliers to the carved tables, chairs, and decorative flowers artfully placed in intervals along the hall. It was a lot to take in, especially given where she’d come from.

But she’d adjust—and he hoped, over time, come to realize that rather than skirting around them, she could sit in any damned chair she wanted, dirty or not, filled with his cum or not, because they were all hers now.

They’d get to that, though. In the meantime, he had more pressing matters to go over.

Slipping his hand beneath her heavy cloak, he found her wrist and lifted it, latching the small comms around it.

Once done, though, he didn’t remove his hand. Instead, he pushed the band up, his thumb gliding over the fated-mate marks. They were darker and longer now, encircling half her wrist, but they still hadn’t closed.

Why the fuck hadn’t they? He’d thought the bite would have done it.

“Don’t use this comms for any reason except to contact me,” he commanded. “Not to reach out to Byrel. Not for anyone but me. Okay?”

Thankfully, he’d regained her attention.

She searched his gaze, the hood framing her face making her eyes seem even bigger and more violet than usual. “Why are you giving this to me?”

A muscle jumped in his jaw. “Just as a precaution.”

She studied him longer. “You’re worried. Is it the family?”

Now it was his turn to try to cover his surprise. He hadn’t expected her to guess.

She covered his hand with her own. “I’ll behave myself. I promise. I won’t embarrass you or—”

He tugged her close. “I’m not worried about you meeting my family, hellion, and you could never embarrass me.” He kept forgetting that was a sore spot for her and, thanks to how long she’d been a slave and been told she was worth less than others, might always be.

He pushed back her hood and rubbed his cheek across the crown of her head, her hair silky against his stubbled jaw. He told himself to calm the fuck down.

Scaring her was the last thing he wanted to do.

“I know they’re going to be as awed by you as I am.” He pulled back and, looking down, forced a grin. “I just don’t like being apart from you and it’s making me grouchy.”

She smiled up at him. She wasn’t entirely convinced. He could see it in the shadows that darkened her gorgeous eyes, but his teasing had calmed her a bit.

He blew out a breath. “I have to go.” He said it as much to himself as her. “You don’t go anywhere. You wait for me to come get you. No one else.”

He fixed her hood. He had no idea if the temperatures on Abzal would be okay for her or if, after so much time spent on dusty warmer planets, it would feel too cold for her at first, but he wasn’t taking any chances. The last thing he wanted was for her to catch a chill and get sick.

“Anyone tries to take you from this room, you press the red button on that comms immediately and you refuse to go, got me?”

Her head bobbed up and down. “Yes, okay.”

So much for not scaring her. But maybe it was better she be on her guard.

Thanks to the latest development with Prendel and Kuril, things had gotten more complicated.

If he’d known they were going to show up here, he would not have been so gung-ho about coming home.

Though he’d never forget the ride coming here. The memory of fucking her on her hands and knees while he claimed her through the bite made him hard, even now.

“Be good.” He pulled Tess to him for one more fierce kiss and then, opening the door, he shoved her inside and turned away, shutting the door firmly behind him.

Any longer and he might never have left. And it wasn’t just because of her worried gaze.

He wanted inside her again. Wanted her bent over the nearest surface and taking his cock while he clamped down on his bite marks, and she squealed his name.

But that would have to wait.

He could scent the foreign, cloying smells of the rigid Council head, Prendel, and the blood-thirsty Kuril in the air, intrusive and unwelcome.

If they discovered Tess was the one who’d killed the Brotherhood males at the auctions, they’d try to take her away from him. For that reason alone, his palms itched with the urge to barrel into the meeting room where they sat with Nikolai and rip them to shreds.

But that was the kind of hotheaded move someone like him never did, much less contemplated. Before Tess.

This fated-mate business was complicated.

He’d expected the biting claim and the deepening fated marks at her neck to calm him. To allow him to focus and settle into some kind of reasonable state of mind where he could finally give equal attention to family matters.

Instead, he was more worked up than ever.

More protective. More possessive. More determined to ensure no one could take her from him or hurt her.

He was like an Abzalian winter beast with a bone. He could not stop himself from wanting to tear apart anyone who even looked as what was his.

Rather than becoming more in control, he was finding it harder and harder to hold on to even the little bit of restraint he usually managed around his omega.

Breathe. Control.

He’d just have to do better. Keep his concerns locked up tighter. She’d been through enough in her life. The last thing he wanted to do was add to her worries.

“Masks on at all times.” He stared down the head guard assigned to watch over the omegas. “No one comes in and out of these doors.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“No one gets by you.” He knew Nikolai had given the guy the same speech, but he could not help himself.

“Yes, Alpha.”

Maxheim should have been comforted by the twenty guards standing sentry right by the door, with handfuls more stationed along the corridor in twenty feet increments.

The only good news was that at this point all those after Tess were intent on capturing, not killing.

It was a lot easier to defend against abduction than assassination. The latter could happen in an instance, the former took planning and coordination and would be nearly impossible to pull off while she was safe at the compound.

And the comms he’d given her had a tracking device, just in case.

Still, even with all these precautions, there was a tightness to his chest with every step he took away from the guarded room at his back.

He forced himself to hustle down the corridor toward the main conference room where Nikolai was meeting with the Brotherhood Council heads.

Hopefully, Alexi and Damien were already there as well.

The buzzing of his wrist comms drew his attention.

Unidentified source.

His fangs flashed. He recognized the signal.

Byrel.

Apparently, Maxheim wasn’t the only one who’d taken the time while they were last talking to lock on a signal. Byrel had done the same.

Maxheim had hoped the bastard would. He’d wanted some private communication time.

Still striding toward his brothers, he answered. “I’m coming for you, Byrel.”

* * *

Tess smiledat the others in the room.

They smiled back.

She clutched her gift tighter and tried to fade into the background—without touching anything.

Like the tiny ice castle Maxheim had made her, the room had shimmering ice-like walls, massive glittering chandeliers, roaring fireplaces, plush carpets, elegant furniture, and a massive bed even bigger and fancier than the one on Maxheim’s ship.

The whole place was beyond beautiful and refined.

Just like the two omega females gazing at her: two omega princesses, raised in the lap of luxury, their backgrounds a universe apart from hers. Maxheim had briefed her on who would be in the room with her, but she still wasn’t prepared.

Still, she wasn’t one to cower. “Congratulations on your little one’s arrival.”

“Oh, thank you.” Dahlia, the white-blonde-haired omega who resembled a gorgeous snow sprite, sat up straighter in the massive bed, clutching the fussing newborn bundle in her arms. “I’m sorry to be greeting you from a bed, but Nikolai is very insistent I follow the doctor’s orders and get plenty of rest—and to tell the truth,” she offered a wobbly smile, “I’m not feeling all that ready to be on my feet a ton yet.” She bounced the bundle a little more vigorously, but the cries continued. “It turns out Skolov Alphas don’t just turn out big. They start out big.”

Tess smiled. Would it be the same for her and Maxheim? If so—she caught herself before she weaved too many dreams about the future. The present was still far too uncertain.

“Please feel free to grab something to eat. We know you only just arrived and there’s plenty to choose from.” Dahlia gestured with her chin toward a table in the center laden with massive amounts of food. “Nikolai is also rather focused on making sure I eat to regain my strength—and I could use the help putting a dent in that.”

Another preoccupation the Skolov brothers had in common.

“Thank you, but I’m not hungry.”

Especially with the way the other two adults in the room were staring at her.

Even if Maxheim hadn’t briefed Tess during their near sprint down the corridor, she would have known Anya was the Skolov sister few outside the family seemed to know about. She had the same stunning golden eyes as all the Skolovs except Alexi—and the attitude to match. She was tall for an omega, with a regal air, her bloodline clear in the reddish tone of her skin, ruby red lips, carved cheekbones, midnight hair, and, above all, arrogant bearing.

At the moment, she stood next to Dahlia’s bed like a sentry.

In contrast, the beta male in the white lab coat was standing as far away from the bed as possible. Pen and notebook clutched in his hand, the male Maxheim had told her was named Dr. Toth Randalff—though everyone just called him the doc—appeared to be less watchdog and more intent observer. With his grandfather-like round cheeks, bushy eyebrows, and white furry neck and arms, he looked as innocent as the fussing baby in Dahlia’s arms—except for the near fascinated way he was studying her as if she held the secrets to the galaxy.

She forced another smile and tucked her crystal gift into her pocket. It felt safer that way.

Was it hot in here?

It felt hot in here.

Or was it this ridiculously heavy cloak Maxheim had stuffed her into, even though they were inside?

She shoved off the hood and pushed the cloak back, happy to inhale an easier, less cloying breath.

Yes, the cooler air definitely felt better—until three audible gasps sounded at once and she realized everyone was gaping at her, their gazes locked on the fresh bite marks at her neck and the golden fated-mate marks around her throat.

Tension filled the room.