Текст книги "The Alpha of Bleake Isle"

Автор книги: Kathryn Moon

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Chapter FiveRONSON

Mairwen jolted up from the cot I'd placed her on, eyes wide and wild and that warm shade of honey that suited her so well.

"What were you thinking?" she blurted out.

I had to check that my claws were staying sheathed after the bickering of Gamesby and Evans. The betas had grown far too bold in the past fifty years. Mairwen was also too bold, but I suspected that had more to do with her nature than a lack of respect or fear for me. And sure enough, she blanched and shrank back slightly as the words left her lips.

"Do you object?" I asked, crouching at her side.

The thoughts flitted across her face almost as clearly as if I were reading the books she'd always had on her person during the courting season. Could she object? Yes; I wouldn't drag her back to the castle with me. But would it leave her with Evans?

"I can keep the old dragon out of your way," I said, because I was more curious to see if she would choose between her own freedom and my bed, than if she would choose between Evans and me.

"I don't object, my lord," she said, and the words were measured and careful. "But I'm very surprised. And so will the rest of society be. I know no one should question you, but they will. You might want to think of an answer for them."

She's smart. I'd realized as much yesterday while walking her home, sharp observations about all of the isle's dragonkin just bubbling out of her. She knew more than I did, had seen more than I had, simply by hovering at the edges of events.

I rose up, and she craned her neck back, unafraid to meet my stare. "You're right. But I know I did make the right choice, Mairwen Posy."

She blinked at me, and a slight whiff of that amber-sweet scent floated up to my nose. I'd been hunting for it on the stage, wondering if I'd imagined it yesterday, and it'd been elusive, almost vanishing. But there it was, a sliver of promise, one that carved a deep hunger in my belly. This woman was an omega—my omega now, for better or worse. Perhaps the rest of dragonkin had managed to overlook her, to leave her behind for a man like Mr. Evans to pick off. I would not.

"Are you well enough to deal with their stares?" I asked, holding out my hand.

She paled again and the hint of perfume vanished, but she took a steeling breath and placed a cool hand in mine. She had a smooth palm and long fingers, comfortable in my grip—a woman's hand rather than a young girl's. I was glad that she was older than the others, even if it was only a handful of years.

The questions from Gamesby and the others were all correct. I'd surprised myself choosing her. The idea had amused me overnight, but it wasn't until I was standing on the stage that I realized I'd decided on her. It wasn't that the others were marked with beta scents. And it wasn't even that I was lucky to know Adelaide's true character.

I simply…liked the little I knew of Mairwen. I wanted to know more. And the thought of uncovering her softness, of taking her into my nest and pressing that secretive form against mine for the rut…

No, that certainly didn't hurt.

I wrapped my arm around her back and placed my hand on her waist, her shoulder brushing my chest and top of her head just coming to my nose. She was quieter now than yesterday, subdued by shock. I would just have to find a way to coax her character out again.

"The longer we stay, the bolder the questions will get," Mairwen warned, glancing up at me. She had thick eyelashes the same dusty shade of brown as her hair.

"I never stay for long," I said. Although in previous years, I'd left in a quiet temper. I'd thought I was being patient at my first selection ceremony, not choosing from the betas' omega lovers, not picking one of their daughters to favor over the other. I'd only just inherited my father's seat—the alpha's challenge had been an easy feat, but nerve-wracking all the same—and I wasn't overeager to ally myself with any family. But four decades later, I realized I'd given the other dragons a tool to use against me.

And now they'd given me Mairwen.

"How did you manage to avoid Evans?" I asked as we neared the tent flap. I was relieved for her, and curious too. Was she so little favored that Evans didn't even care to mark her?

"I threw up on him," Mairwen murmured.

I'd already started to step through the parted canvas as she answered, and her words struck me hard, a sudden bark of laughter rising up from my chest.

It caught the attention of the other dragons and their wives and daughters, all milling together to the left of the stage on the tidy lawn. Few of them had ever heard me laugh, and they stared now as I fought to bury my grin. I glanced down and found Mairwen's smile was nervous, but it would do. I ducked my head to whisper in her ear, aware of the picture of us, of what gossip it might stir up.

"Then I consider myself very lucky you only fainted," I said, brushing my lips against her ear.

She huffed a laugh, relaxing just a fraction into my side. "You should. I'm still a bit queasy."

Noted, I thought. We reached the others, and I spared myself a petty private moment to find Adelaide. She was at Gamesby's side, standing in profile, eyes as wide as the moment I'd walked away from her, a kind of fixed and fragile haughtiness on her face. Had I toppled the island's princess from her pedestal? So be it.

"Brace yourself," I whispered to Mairwen, leaning down and rubbing my cheek across the top of her head once in a token mark. As an alpha, my scent was stronger, my ruts were what brought on the isle wide mating frenzy—betas experiencing a mere echo of my own urges—and I had the knot to offer an omega her highest satisfaction. Now, all of that was Mairwen's.

Her cheeks flushed and her spine straightened—a warrior walking into battle armed with a tight smile and an ill-fitting dress.

A chorus of greetings awaited us, but they weren't the congratulations I expected.

"Quite a shock indeed!"

"What a surprise!"

"How unexpected, my lord!"

The omegas of dragonkin stared at Mairwen with an open and baffled kind of amusement. They understood her ascent to my side even less than she did. And the betas were somehow worse. They had no faith in my choice, and I wondered if I'd made my position less secure, or had given myself an advantage by allowing them to underestimate me. My choice of Mairwen would only lose its irony if there was an heir worthy of my father's bloodline. My bloodline.

Mairwen's arm tightened around mine, and I followed her gaze to where Lord Posy was embracing his weeping wife. Lady Posy was taller than most of the gathered women, although not as tall as her daughter, and she had a scent like a cloud of powdered sugar. She'd been at my very first selection ceremony—a perfect rosy-pink and blonde omega, like Adelaide—and she'd shaken like a leaf as I passed her on the stage.

"Oh, Mairwen! Oh, my lord!" she cried out, turning to face us. It was difficult to tell if she was overcome with delight or sorrow.

Mairwen's shoulders drooped slightly and she slid free of me, crossing to her mother, who swooned into my omega's arms with great elegance.

"Oh, my darling girl!"

"There now," Mairwen murmured, tidying her mother and handling her to stand on her own again. She reached out, wiping away the tears from her mother's cheeks. "This is nice, isn't it?"

Lady Posy's blue eyes were wide and glossy with tears, but she echoed her daughter's smile and nodded nervously, gaze flicking to me.

"Thank you, my lord," Lady Posy said, dipping into a low curtsy. "What a great honor."

It was the first sensible thing anyone had said. "The honor is mine, Lady Posy," I said, loud enough for the rest of the crowd to hear. Mairwen's expression tightened, but she only kissed her mother's cheek and returned to my side. "As soon as Mairwen and I have settled, we'll send for you to visit."

"Thank you, Lord Cadogan," Lord Posy answered, wrapping his arm around his wife.

The betas were gathering around their chosen omegas, and while I should've stayed, offered everyone an appropriate congratulations, Mairwen was shrinking under the stares and my temper was rising.

"Come, Mairwen. It's time for you to see your new home," I said.

Chuckles rose from the beta dragons, an edge of mockery in the sound that made my claws itch in my fingertips. Mairwen took my arm again, nodding up at me, and I led her toward the edge of the gathered dragonkin.

"Good luck, Mouse."

I started to turn, and it was Mairwen who tugged me forward, her own determination stony. But I glanced back at Adelaide's quiet statement, the beautiful omega's eyes narrowed on the woman at my side. Mairwen's jaw was clenched, her chin high. The words bothered her. Was it the intention behind them, or the use of that nickname?

I stopped us at the corner of the field, in full sight of the humans, celebrating around the tankards of ale and wine, and the mingling dragonkin, who were settling the pairings of omegas to betas.

"Are you too queasy to fly?" I asked Mairwen.

Her eyes widened and her steps paused as she turned to face me. "Oh! Oh, I forgot. No, I think I'll be all right."

I nodded. "Good."

For some reason, that made Mairwen wince. "Lord Cadogan, I will…do my best for you."

"I know. That's why I chose you," I said, frowning. She didn't look reassured. It will be better when we're away from the others, I decided.

Mairwen froze as I lifted a hand to her face, cupping her jaw gently, lifting it up. She was shocked by the touch, perhaps realizing my intention, and a little terrified too. But she stretched closer. I won't have to hunch, I realized with an absent kind of approval. I ducked my head, and cheers went up from the crowd of humans. Mairwen jolted briefly, my mouth hovering over hers, her eyes huge. And then her lids fell shut and she rose up to her toes.

The kiss was shy, barely a press from her, and I found myself fighting a smile. I wrapped my free arm around her waist, tugging her closer, and gently pulled her bottom lip between mine. She released a soft note of confusion but answered the gesture with a natural impulse, molding her lips to mine, arching in my arms. That sunny amber flavor was a whisper on her mouth as I licked at her, teasing her with my tongue.

Her breath hitched and her lips parted, and while I told myself I was only taking a chaste kiss for the benefit of our audience, I found myself hunting for more of that rare flavor. Mairwen was softening in my arms, her own hands sliding up to clutch the collar of my coat. She didn't know how to respond as I stroked my tongue against hers, but she shivered and her sweet breath huffed, laced with what I was sure was her perfume.

I pulled away slowly, nipping her top and bottom lip, and Mairwen's eyes fluttered open, a darker shade of honey.

Again, a gritty voice in my head urged.

I ignored it, adjusting Mairwen in my hold, lifting her off her feet and wrapping my other arm beneath her wonderfully soft ass.

"Arms around my shoulders," I said, my wings spreading wide.

Legs around my waist, the dragon in me growled, her plush body as pleasing to hold as I remembered.

Mairwen's arms were loose, her face still slack in wonder from the kiss, but her grip tightened with the first beat of my wings. She bit back a yelp of surprise as I leapt up, and we took to the air with two more rough sweeps of my wings.

"You can hide your face if you're⁠—"

Mairwen was craning in my arms as we tipped and flew, twisting to look down at the ground. I held her tighter so she could look her fill.

"They're all getting so small," Mairwen laughed.

The isle shrank, and I gave into a rare impulse to see how high I could fly us, forgetting until Mairwen was shivering that she wasn't dressed for real flight. She laughed and gasped as I dipped down, allowing the wind to coast us along toward the castle. Mairwen had hooked her ankle around my leg, and I glanced down at her as her eyes fell shut, a blissful ease taking over her features. The wind was ruining the pinched arrangement of her hair, loosening strands from pins, and her cheeks were pink with cold and delight.

The castle staff would be waiting for us at the front entrance, but I wanted to see Mairwen's face as I showed her the view of the sea and the cliffs from this height.

"I'm too heavy for you to carry like this," Mairwen said, but she was still turned toward the view and missed my sneer.

"Don't be absurd," I said, our voices raised to carry over the rush of the wind. "We could fly like this for hours."

A wistful smile spread over her lips at that, and then she clutched my shoulders as I rotated us to the side, flying left of the castle.

"We could travel between islands, if you were dressed properly and I was in my dragon form," I added.

She bit her lip. "I've never been off the island."

"You will. Likely not long after the rut," I said. Once my frenzy had settled, there would be allies to introduce Mairwen to and we would take up our roles on the island, overseeing the relationship between dragonkin and humans, ensuring that the farms were rich and trade ran smoothly.

"Now, look down," I said as we neared the edge of the island.

I helped her turn in my hold, my arm wrapped around the firm structure of her corset. How much trouble would it be to convince her to stop wearing one? The style had been around for decades now—we were overdue for a change, and my mother had been a great influencer of fashion while she'd been alive.

But my mother had been respected.

"Oh!" Mairwen's gasp drew me back, her mouth open as we soared over the edge of the cliff.

The sea was a living creature from this height, its motion like breathing, like it was embracing the cliffs. A bit like sex too. The thrust and retreat. The wet smack against the cliffs; the familiar, reliable crash and sweeping motion. The view, and the soft form pressed chest to chest and hip to hip against me, gathered an easy heat of arousal in my groin. I imagined Mairwen's secretive perfume on the air too.

I flew in a circle for Mairwen until she was shivering from the sharp air, the pink of her cheeks turning red from the abrasion of the wind, and then pointed us toward the castle. Two familiar figures stood on the main balcony overlooking the sea, and I was tempted to carry us up to the high tower where Mairwen would build me a nest. But Niall and Beatrice were waiting, and while Niall might take the hint, Beatrice would hunt us down. She'd been waiting most of her life for me to take an omega, someone to share the burden of running the castle with.

Mairwen tensed in my arms as we started a slow, spiraling fall toward the balcony, her eyes already fixed to the contrasting pair. No one knew quite what to make of Niall. He had the wings of a dragon and the lifespan of one, but none of the scent marking of a beta, and no authority but what I granted him as my second. Beatrice, my half-sister, was one of the rare omegas who'd survived her beta husband. She had no heir and had returned to the castle before the age of forty, practically raising me while my mother and father oversaw the island until their deaths. Beatrice was stooped with age now, but her omega perfume still carried through the air as we neared—soothing lavender and stringent rosemary.

They were the only two people on the island whose opinion mattered to me.

Niall's face was frozen, blank, as I touched down on the balcony, his eyes bouncing between Mairwen and myself. "You made your choice," he said in lieu of a greeting.

I dipped my head. "I did."

Beatrice was already studying Mairwen with her hawkish gaze, no doubt seeing more of the woman than Niall and I had combined, but I was watching my half-brother. I'd told him of Gamesby's plot, but not about Mairwen being there with me. He had noticed her first, and I would've hated for him to point out he'd been right after all. He'd have plenty of time to do so now.

Niall stepped forward as I lowered Mairwen to her own feet, aware of the wobble of her as she caught her breath. My arm was around her shoulders, holding her to my side. The judgment of my siblings meant everything to me, and yet I almost wished I could've spared her from it. Or perhaps I was hoping to spare myself in case they thought I'd made a mistake.

"Omega Cadogan," Niall greeted, bowing to Mairwen.

Her breath caught at the title. It was what the dragonkin on the field should've greeted her with, not "Mouse." She started to curtsy, and I held her tight. Mairwen was my omega now. She curtsied to no one on this island but me.

"Mairwen, this is my brother, Niall, and my sister, Beatrice. Beatrice will help you learn the castle, the staff, everything you'll need after…" After the rut. Until that was over, she would be better occupied. I hoped.

Beatrice didn't bother lowering her gaze, and she bowed rather than trusting her old knees to a curtsy.

"It's lovely to meet you," Mairwen said to them both. Her voice was nice, low and soft when she grew shy like this, almost disappearing under the sound of the sea behind us.

"Niall is of no help to anyone. You needn't bother with him," I said, flashing a grin at my brother, who was still studying the woman pressed to my side.

Mairwen didn't laugh and Niall didn't grin, and the joke was sour on my tongue for a moment, until Niall finally looked back at me, a crooked smile on his lips, his eyes narrowed.

"Says the man who appears to have taken my wisdom to heart," Niall said.

She's the most interesting one here.

I swallowed, my jaw clenching, and at my side, Mairwen stiffened. But it was her perfume that caught me off guard. Whatever she understood of the words exchanged between my brother and I, it had elicited a soft burst of her scent. I turned my head to bow to hers, inhaling roughly, too greedy to let Niall or Beatrice have the whiff of her, fascinated by the strange phenomenon of its rare appearance. What was the key to unlocking her perfume? I wanted it in my possession. The very hint of it seemed to call the rut closer.

"Well. Hand her over to me," Beatrice snapped.

"Not now, Bea," I said, restraining my growl.

Mairwen's volleyed between us.

"Yes, now, unless you plan to lock her up to nest straightaway," Bea said, and before I could suggest that maybe that was exactly what I would do, my older sister held out one strong and elegantly gnarled hand. "Let her find her legs in this place, Ronson."

"We should discuss…matters," Niall interjected, the pair of them piling on me.

If I'd brought Adelaide home, I would've happily passed her off to Bea and went away to work with Niall, I considered.

"I would like to see the castle," Mairwen said, still too softly, but her eyes were bright. Her cheeks were still flushed from flying, hair hazily freed from pins by the wind and the sea. She looked excited now, not pale and frightened as she had when I'd declared her my choice.

You'll do. I wished now I'd thought of something better to say than that. I'd meant to tease her, but the words were a rude precursor, too aligned with the reactions of the others.

"Show her the library," I said to Bea, finally unwrapping my arm from Mairwen's shoulders. Her breath hitched, and her scent wisped into the air again, gnawing down into my stomach and lower.

Books were part of the equation then. Noted.

Mairwen skittered away from me, eager enough almost to offend. Beatrice grunted in agreement and caught Mairwen's hand, tugging her inside. I glanced at Niall and wondered if I could escape with them, follow Beatrice and see the castle through Mairwen's eyes.

"Do you approve?" I asked Niall as the women disappeared.

Niall's lips flattened, and something sank inside of me. "I'm not sure that I do."

My temper flared. It didn't matter what Niall thought. Except even I wasn't certain of my choice. Mairwen wasn't certain.

"I'm not sure that I don't, either," Niall said, relaxing and shrugging. "We'll see. For now, we need to consider what their next move will be, how they will try and use this one."

This one. Mairwen.

"She's too smart for them," I said, and I wished she'd been at my side to hear it.

"Perhaps," Niall said, turning to go inside, leaving me to follow.

My hands clenched at my sides. Mairwen was in safe hands for now, and Niall was right. Gamesby and his ilk wouldn't give up so easily. I had better things to do with the day then chase little whispers of my omega's perfume. I would have plenty of time for that come evening.

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