The Alpha King (Kingdom of Askara #1)(59)

Luca stood, easily cradling Kit. Sam moved so fast to get to Asher the moment he had seen him hurt and he now sat cradling the other man, the worry obvious in his face. Sam whispered something and Asher nodded, his color returning. Kit heaved a sigh of relief.

Christoph was silent.

“Tea will ’elp him settle,” Attica piped up, looking at Kit, and he glanced at Christoph nervously. Luca raised his head calmly to Christoph. The man glanced at his son, nodded once to Luca, and took a cautious step towards Darrin. Kit watched.

“Son?” The one word, unsure of its welcome, was heartbreaking, but Darrin stumbled and ran to his father.

Christoph clasped his son. “You’re alive,” he choked out.

Within ten minutes, they were all huddled around the fire sipping tea. Christoph’s men were quite happy to follow his lead and the other gamma who had helped Nial was tied up in strong chains next to one of the carts. Taheesha sat next to Kit after dressing Asher’s cut properly, with Luca on Kit’s other side. Asher had pronounced his wound as only a scratch, but Sam had barely moved from his side. Christoph was having trouble getting his head around the fact his son was mated to a werewolf. “We understand the male omegas...” He looked at Kit in confusion. “I thought you used surrogates and I thought mating with humans was prohibited, and one of your oldest laws? Doesn’t it kill the human if you separate, or is that just omegas?” He looked at his son, who had moved nearer to Sascha, unable to be away from him.

“No, I’m just a regular human, but I trust Sascha with my life.” Darrin smiled and Sascha squeezed his hand as if to imply he was anything but.

Christoph eyed Sascha. The werewolf’s arm was slung protectively around Darrin. He cleared his throat. “I heard the human dies if the werewolf does,” he pressed further.

“That’s not true,” Gabriel interrupted hotly then he glanced apologetically at Luca.

“No, go on,” Luca said.

“I am a historian,” Gabriel continued. “I can even show you the documents to prove it. It’s not the human that dies if the wolf rejects the mating...it’s the wolf. That’s why they banned wolf and human mating, and that’s why they’ve buried the truth so deep through the centuries it has been forgotten. You don’t need guns, all the human has to do is reject the wolf and the wolf is dead within days.”

All the camp was silent. Christoph looked at Luca. “You knew this?”

Luca nodded. “Gabriel told me earlier. Human and wolf matings are rare and extremely powerful.”

“You are giving the humans a huge weapon,” Christoph said slowly.

Luca shrugged. “By telling people we can die of a broken heart?”

Kit couldn’t help the hurt noise he made in the back of his throat. Luca bent down to kiss him, his gray eyes looked so trusting, so full of love. Kit knew Luca wasn’t just trying to prove his trust to Christoph, he was promising it to Kit as well.

He smiled and clasped Kit’s hand and bent his head, pressing a kiss on his palm. “You hold my heart in your hand,” he whispered. “But then I think you always have.” He looked back up and raised his voice. “How can we work together without trust?”

Kit yawned, and suddenly had an image in his head of two wolf cubs playing in the middle of the woods. He smiled to himself. Did that mean they were going to have two children? Kit watched the images of the two pups in his mind, one white and one jet black. The white one moved away and then snarling, the black one pounced. He heard a man’s voice call out to them. “Luca?” The white one turned and Kit frowned in confusion. As he watched the pup, it shifted into Luca—but Luca as a man, not as a child. It was really odd, and he didn’t like the threat of the black one. It didn’t seem to be a game.

Christoph spoke, pulling Kit from his thoughts. “You’re certainly not like the wolves from Niandes.”

“We understand the Alpha is old and leaves all decisions to his beta-commander,” Sam said.

Christoph nodded. “The old wolf was bad, don’t get me wrong, but bad as in ‘all Alphas just don’t care about humans’. This one is a sadistic bastard.”

Luca wrapped his arms around Kit more securely. Taheesha had curled up so she had her head in Sam’s lap. Asher was the one who explained to Christoph all the changes Luca had made so far.

“So where does this leave us?” Luca interrupted him. “Will we remain enemies, Christoph? or will you march to Neira with us?”

Christoph looked at Darrin. “I would wish for a world that doesn’t cause my son to rather let me think he is dead than to risk telling me who he loves.” He looked at Luca. “I like what I hear so far.” He leaned forward and put his hand out to Luca. “I would like to try.”

****

It was a miserable next few days for the humans. The snow came in sparse flurries the first day and then thickened and started to settle. They didn’t have enough horses for everyone so Luca made the majority of the werewolves shift and run, but it was slow going. He caught Kit rubbing his back a few times, didn’t say much because there wasn’t much he could say, but at least Taheesha and Kit were now together, and Taheesha, properly fed, was an excellent source of heat for Kit. In fact, Luca spied Asher, who was driving the cart, moving closer to her a time or two.