The Alpha King (Kingdom of Askara #1)(50)

Asher went to help Kit climb on the seat of the cart, but Luca stopped him, and gently picked Kit up instead, his hands coming to rest tenderly on Kit’s rounded belly before he let go and jogged towards his own horse. Luca and Sam—of course—would be riding at the front of the line along with Nial. Kit knew it wasn’t a sense of importance that drove that decision in Luca, it was his sense of responsibility. He would never expect his men to go anywhere he wasn’t about to lead them. That was going to have to change as Luca became King, and the thought amused him.

Molly finally pressed a bag into Asher’s hands. He tucked it behind their seats. If Kit hadn’t been turning, he would have missed it. “What’s that?” he asked curiously.

Asher grunted non-committedly, so Kit peeked, which made Molly sigh loudly. He stopped looking as soon as he removed the small baby blanket.

“Don’t show Luca, please,” Molly groaned. “I know he thinks he has plenty of time, but I want you prepared.”

Kit giggled and Asher looked pained. He knew Asher had gone to Molly’s last night after they realized she wouldn’t be traveling with them. Kit knew Molly had given him emergency advice, but the plan was to be in Neira well before the baby was due. The problem was they still didn’t know how the baby was going to be born, and Kit was trying not to worry. It wasn’t as if he was the only male omega to give birth, just the first in hundreds of years.

They didn’t stop to eat the first day, but munched as they were traveling. Kit knew Luca and Sam wanted to get as much distance as possible in the first two days while everyone was at their most rested, and they were still in their own territory. Kit watched as two wolves loped alongside the horses up front. “That’s amazing,” he murmured and Asher nodded.

“It’s Nial’s doing. All the horses we are using are trained to be used to having a wolf run alongside them. The problem is that we have nearly had to train the flight response out of them.”

“What do you mean?”

Asher rubbed the permanent scruff surrounding his chin. “Horses need to know they aren’t predators or they will never accept them close. The only problem is that means they think all wolves aren’t predators.”

Kit frowned. “But I thought the danger was the human militia?”

Asher huffed. “Kit, I don’t want to frighten you, but you have to know, there are a lot of wolves who don’t like have their status quo upset.”

“You mean me,” Kit said bluntly.

“In so much as you are human, yes. There are lots of wolves scared the humans will revolt the same way that the wolves did all those centuries ago, and they think that their King is being soft on humans.”

Luca finally called a halt for the day as they approached the border with Perse. He wanted everyone rested and prepared to travel into another territory very early tomorrow when their journey would start to slow down considerably. It would be impossible to travel through Perse without meeting Alpha Erindell and his ruling council, especially as they were dealing with the recent village massacre as well. Tensions were high and while Gabriel’s contact insisted Luca would be welcome, Kit wasn’t sure he would be despite Gabriel’s reassurances. Luca was hoping they wouldn’t be delayed too much, but getting Erindell’s support was important. Sam had joked to him and told Luca he had to start playing politics. Luca had been horrified, but Kit was hoping he could help with that. At least, thanks to Gabriel, Kit hoped he wouldn’t come as a surprise anyway.

Kit watched the men all unpack tents, light fires, and get the cooking started. Luca had sent two different shifters to scout as soon as they had decided to stop to make sure the area was safe before he would even let Kit get down from the cart.

Kit whined. He had an uncomfortably full bladder and sitting on the seat for seven hours, even with cushions, was hard on his back. He needed to stretch his legs, and even though Luca had halted everything so he could get down a few hours ago, Kit had worried it was causing too much of a delay so he hadn’t asked again, merely peed into an old plastic bottle in the back of the cart.

Luca, I need to get down now.

Give me a minute.

Kit didn’t even bother with a reply. Luca was up front with Nial, who was checking on a horse they were worried was going lame. It seemed to have stood on something sharp, and a lame horse on day one wasn’t a good sign.

Kit sighed and stood up. Asher had gone around the other side of the cart and was helping unload it. Kit put a foot on the small step that had hurriedly been fitted to the cart. He could climb down, for goodness’ sake. All this treating him like a delicate flower was getting on his nerves.

He turned around to climb down and took a step. The large hand on his ass made him squeak. “You have to be careful,” Kit whispered to his unseen helper. “If your King sees you touching my ass he will likely execute you.”

The rumbled laughter vibrated in his ear. Kit smirked and allowed himself to be lifted down and turned until he was flush with Luca. “I need to pee, bad,” he whined and Luca let him go, pushing him towards the bushes.

“I’ll wait here,” he said implacably and folded his arms. Kit sighed in relief moments later, and stepped back out of the bushes, straight into Luca’s arms.

He rubbed his head on Luca’s chest. “I missed you.”

“I might start alternating with Asher for part of the day.” Kit beamed at that, which of course made Luca laugh.