The Alpha King (Kingdom of Askara #1)(37)
He smiled absently at the guards stationed outside. He nearly asked them if they had seen Kit but him losing his mate would be too embarrassing. He ran a few steps and leapt into the air, landing on all fours shaking his coat out and inhaling quickly. He smelled Kit nearly straight away and cocked his head on one side. Kit seemed to have gone towards the cottages of the licensed humans. He crept silently through the woods, following Kit’s scent, and made sure to stay away from the humans who were up and about. The humans were used to seeing the wolves, but Luca’s pure white Alpha-marked wolf was very distinctive, and he didn’t want anyone to see him.
He mulled over what his mother had said. She had made her preference for Tara abundantly clear. Not that Luca cared. Adrienne had been a cold, heartless bitch all his life, and he had given up trying to change anything about her. Not that he ever had much interaction with her as a child. He had learned to stay out of her way pretty quickly after seeing the way she treated his father.
Adrienne had never pretended to be faithful after Luca and Kieran were born. She paraded her lovers in front of his father constantly and Luca had seen his father’s quiet humiliation daily. It was true that omegas were under no obligation to be faithful as the Alphas they mated, but if his father ever had an affair no one knew about it. Once the required sons were born that was the end of their official commitment, and that was, he supposed, part of the reason why a breeder was so accepted as well. No one had seemed more astonished than his parents when Iris and then Taheesha were born. One of the reasons no one seemed to care about infidelity in werewolves was that an omega was physically unable to breed pups with anyone else once the mating had occurred. It was a contraceptive fail safe that seemed to give them a license to fuck whoever they pleased. Werewolves merely had to be careful with humans. Not that the werewolf would suffer if the human got pregnant. It would be deemed the human’s fault and punishment was swift and deadly.
Luca stopped suddenly as Kit’s scent grew stronger and was mixed with another. He stifled a growl and stepped out of sight. Kit was with someone else. Human. Male—of course it would be Asher. He heard the voices as they grew nearer.
“I don’t know what to say, Asher.”
Kit sounded so sad and Luca watched them both as they rounded the corner on the path. Asher stopped. The man walked to a fallen log and sat down. “I never thought how painful it was going to be,” he murmured. Luca took a quick inhale as he saw Kit sit next to him, place a hand on top of Asher’s and Asher clutched it tight.
The hair on the back of Luca’s neck rose and his anger and jealousy simmered. What was Kit doing? Then he reasoned, Asher was his bodyguard. Luca himself had told Kit if he went anywhere, he must have Asher with him, and he knew Asher would protect him. He supposed that made for a close bond. Luca inclined his head to one side, listening intently. He growled, but he was far enough away that the humans didn’t hear him.
“Loving someone I can’t have is killing me,” Asher’s voice was low and full of gravel.
Kit leaned in close, their heads nearly touching now as well as their hands. “I understand Asher. Believe me.”
Pain knifed Luca. Asher? Asher and Kit? He gazed at Kit. He could feel the sadness radiating off him from here. Had his mother been right? He crouched and immediately shifted back to human form. If he had stayed in his wolf form another second, Asher’s throat would be in his jaws. He thought... He thought Kit loved him, but he had heard it with his own ears. How foolish had he been? Worrying all the time about bedding Tara when Kit himself lusted after someone else.
It made sense he supposed, in an awful way. Asher was human. The big man had been with Kit nearly every waking moment since he had rescued him from Gareth. He shook his head in disbelief as Kit put his arm around Asher and the big man leaned into him. He swallowed the growl he could feel trying to escape his chest, and turning in complete disgust, he left. Within minutes he had run almost to the eastern edge of their pack lands. He was tempted to shift and just keep going.
By the time he returned, Sam was searching frantically for him. Apparently, kings weren’t supposed to wander off on their own, but Luca was too angry to care. “I want to replace Asher as the omega’s bodyguard,” he ordered Sam without even bothering to acknowledge Sam’s greeting. Sam’s eyebrows rose and he looked like he was going to ask not only why, but why Luca hadn’t used Kit’s name, but Luca carried onto the tables where breakfast was being laid out, not waiting for a reply. “Sam, who’s in charge of the seating for the games?” He tore into his breakfast, and just managed not to snarl at the kitchen servants.
Sam looked at him, puzzled. “Tara and Danni have been organizing it, but you and Kit will sit with Iris, Taheesha, and the rest of the Alphas. I’m assuming you want her Highness in there as well. The rest of the she-wolves and omegas will be in the guarded area to the left.”
Luca flung his unfinished meat down, stood abruptly, and headed into the pack house, nearly running into a gaggle of she-wolves all sitting in the small dining room just off the main entrance. They all stood and curtseyed as he walked in. He looked at Tara, who was with his mother. “Tara, I would be pleased if you would sit next to me to watch the games today.”
Tara’s mouth parted in surprise. “Of course, your Highness.” He ignored the giggles in the room, his mother’s glee, and stalked out. He had two hours to get dressed, and god help anyone who thought to make a fool of him today.