Oshali waited impatiently for the girl to return. In the meantime, waves of need trembled intermittently through her, each one stronger than the last. She clenched her teeth, cursing the queen. At this point, she couldn’t trust what the queen had said about Tyomar stealing her, but she hoped the queen wasn’t lying about dragons been spotted near the province. Did that mean that Tyomar had returned? And had he come with his brothers? Or did it mean that the dragons themselves just turned up because they were roaming? It was unclear. From her understanding, the dragorai-dragons wouldn’t show up so far south of their own territories without their alpha counterparts, but she was at a loss as to why any of the other dragorai would come south at all. It was only Tyomar who had come with her.
A little while later, she was crouching on the floor clutching the bars of her cell, tensing as waves of need flared through her. She tried to fight it, but it wasn’t something she could resist against forever. Slick was already gathered between her legs, and her nipples were taut in preparation for the alpha who was supposed to sate to her needs.
In the Mheyu sanctum, heats were not a frequent thing, although Oshali was unsure what the guardians did when someone was in their heat. She suspected there was some kind of suppressant to stop omegas from randomly going into heat and causing havoc among the alphas in the sanctum, but it wasn’t something that had ever been made clear to any of the fosters, and Oshali never thought to ask. She’d never had a heat before. This was her first one. She did know, however, that the Mheyu Gowns suppressed an omegas heat.
“Hey.” The girl slipped through the door with a bundle in her arms. “Are you all right?”
Oshali looked up and pulled herself up using the cell bars. “I’ll be fine. Are we ready?”
“I found this sack thing in your room and I put your cloak in,” the girl said, holding up the travel pouch.
Oshali’s eyes widened at her. “You picked up my traveling pouch but not my dress? I’m naked in here!”
The girl scowled. “I can’t walk around with Mheyu-colored clothing, and they wouldn’t both fit. I thought with the cloak you could at least cover with that and you wouldn’t look like, you know, a Mheyu guardian.”
Oshali exhaled through gritted teeth. Any chance of suppressing her heat was nonexistent without her dress, as well as any extra magical protection. “All right, thank you. Are we ready?”
The girl nodded, looking at the cell nervously. “I don’t have any way to get you out of the cell though.”
“That’s fine. Stand back.” Oshali began casting, hoping that she wasn’t restricted. But magic flowed steadily, swirling around the lock and crushing it. She stepped out the cell and wrapped her cloak around her shoulders sighing in relief.
The girl beckoned her out of the room, and she followed her through a number of corridors, hidden passages and crawl spaces. Thankfully, the girl knew how to completely avoid the guards. It seemed like she’d been with the queen for quite a long time and worked all this out.
Finally, they reached the exit to the west gate but it was guarded by two of the queen’s elite faction. The girl groaned silently. She pressed up against the wall and shot a look at Oshali, pointing to the ground, her eyes wide.
Oshali frowned. How in all seven hells was she supposed to know what she was saying? Before Oshali could whisper that to her, the girl stepped out into the corridor.
Oshali watched her approach the warriors, greeting them casually before launching into a series of smooth, hard-hitting, punches and kicks. Oshali’s mouth dropped open as she watched her incapacitate the warriors within moments.
The girl beckoned and Oshali joined her at the doorway in shock. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
Oshali pointed to the unconscious females on the floor.
The girl snorted. “If they had been prepared for it, it wouldn’t have been so easy. Let’s go.”
They dashed through the exit into the courtyard.
“Over to you,” the girl breathed, her eyes wide as she watched for more guards.
Another wave of need made Oshali doubled over. “All right,” she panted, bracing herself on her knees. “I will. In a moment….”
The girl stepped closer and leaned down to look at her. “You’re in your heat,” she exclaimed.
“I know,” Oshali said, through gritted teeth. “The queen induced it.”
“How do you expect to get us out of here if you’re in your heat?” the girl asked exasperated. “We’re not going to make it.”
“We will. Just give me a moment….”
Once the wave subsided, Oshali examined the courtyard, taking in everything she could about the environment. It was small and empty, with only a few trees and plants in it. There was one entrance to the house, which was the one they came through, and one gate to the external courtyard which was locked. The walls were high and had a flat top they could stand on.
Oshali sighed. She would have to use significant magic. She hadn’t wanted to rely on it too much because of what happened when she had tried to escape Tyomar. He told her that the magic in the realm was worn and overused, so it was effectively less potent than the magic she’d been using at the sanctum. Only older incantations could evoke the richer magic, but that required the ultimate precision, which Oshali couldn’t guarantee right now.
It was also likely that the queen would detect the use of magic, and they would struggle to get very far. But sometimes, it wasn’t possible to find a perfect solution.
Before her urges returned, she grabbed the girl’s hand.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Uraya.”
“Hold on, Uraya. Don’t let go of my hand, no matter what happens.”
Oshali began to cast. Magic began to build around them, lifting them into the air and carrying them over the wall.
“Don’t stop casting,” Uraya muttered, her eyes locked to the ground. “Don’t stop casting!”
But Oshali knew that the next time a surge of her heat gripped her, she wouldn’t be able to continue. She took them to the top of the wall, placing them down to wait for the next wave of her heat to pass.
“Why are we here?” Uraya asked. “We can be seen. The queen will send her guards.
“She’s going to send her guards anyway,” Oshali said. “But I need to rest before we start the next one, and I need to plan our next move in case I endanger us when my heat hits.”
Uraya looked at her skeptically, but nodded. Tugging Oshali’s hand, she led her down the top of the wall and around the circumference of the courtyard to a tree that would obscure them if anyone decided to look up.
“Good plan,” Oshali whispered.
She looked over the wall to see where they were, but her stomach dropped as she realized the whole area was flooded with the queen’s guards. All three factions were everywhere. Clearly she was expecting an attack, probably the dragorai. And even though Oshali doubted why they would, the excessive guards suggested that the queen was concerned.
“Are the dragorai here?” she asked the girl.
“I heard that scouts have seen them,” she said. “I haven’t seen them myself.”
“Where were they sighted?”
Uraya pointed to the left side of the courtyard.
Oshali steadied herself and tried to access the tracker to alert Tyomar. A few moments of concentrating, and she couldn’t even locate the tracker to try to meddle with it. She sighed. Of course, Tyomar wouldn’t allow her to do that.
She examined the area on the outside the wall again and wondered if she could simply throw them right over the guards to the street on the other side. It was a dangerous thing to try. But at this point, it was worth it. If she or Uraya ended up back in the clutches of the queen, they were worse than dead anyway. The fall could be the better option.
The surge arrived, the strongest yet, tearing through her body and heightening a desperation to be satisfied. Oshali urgently needed to rub between her legs, but she couldn’t do it in front of Uraya. It was bad enough that her scent had changed to try to attract males, and she probably stunk. This was so embarrassing!
But Uraya did not let go of her hand. In fact, she squeezed harder the more Oshali tensed, trying to battle the desperation for sexual fulfillment.
As it faded, the girl was looking at her, worried. “You only have a few more rounds before you will be fully in your heat,” she whispered, “and when that happens you’ll beg for any alpha.” She glanced at the guards below and back up to Oshali, her eyes wide. “Any.”
Oshali immediately began casting, maneuvering the magic as quickly as she could around them and lifting them up high into the air. Using repetitive, punchy rhythms, she nudged the magic into throwing them in a somewhat controlled manner across the space, although they couldn’t stay upright with that kind of speed. They turned and jolted like dolls being thrown around. Oshali desperately tried to keep the casting going and keep hold of the girl, but halfway across, she could feel the urge returning and she knew she wasn’t going to make it. She was so disorientated, could hardly see where they were, or if there was another wall she could land them on. But just as the urge began to crest over her, something hard slammed into her body.
She shuddered, groaning as the girl’s hand was yanked out of hers. “No,” she moaned.
The leathery feel of whatever caught her panicked her a bit, as did the hard edges pressing into her. Oshali tried to move and take in her surroundings, but the thing was around her torso. As she looked around she almost screamed. She was in the clutches of some kind of beast, who held her in its foot, loose enough not to squeeze her, but tight enough that she couldn’t move. She looked around for Uraya but couldn’t see her.
“I thought we discussed that you were not going to fly aided only by Thrakondarian again, little cloak.” Tyomar appeared, buoyed by magic as he soared alongside her.
Relief filtered through her at the sound of his voice. “Is this your dragon?”
“Yes.”
“The girl… who was with me?”
“My brother has her.”
Oshali finally relaxed in relief. And when she stopped resisting, the desperate urges set in.
She squeezed her arms close to her body as she shuddered.
“Oshali,” Tyomar barked out her name, alarmed. “Why do you smell like that? And why the fuck are you naked?”
“Please,” Oshali muttered. “I need my Gowns. Get me my…”
A powerful growl tore out of his throat, sending vibrations of pleasure through her body, tweaking her nipples, and tingling between her legs. “Stop,” Oshali pleaded. “Don’t make it worse.”
Tyomar pried her out of his dragon’s foot and held her close to him, and Oshali whimpered, breathing in his scent as he twisting through the air. Finally he landed on something solid. When she opened her eyes, they were moving through the air on fairly flat surface that undulated underneath her. His dragon.
Tyomar tore off Oshali’s cloak and pressed her down onto the dragon’s back, opening her legs and yanking her underneath him.
“You can’t take me here,” she gasped. “Don’t.”
“You need it,” Tyomar said darkly. “In a moment you will beg me for it.”
“Not on your dragon.”
“Why not? He would be honored.”
Oshali lifted her head and looked him in the eye. “You left me.”
But before she could continue, desire burned through Oshali so hard that she lost all train of thought. Dropping her head back down, she writhed, opening her legs and pleading for her alpha. She was no longer able to think about anything but her need for the alpha whose desire she could scent all around her.