“It’s true. He doesn’t know humans as I do.” Arit’s shoulders drooped. “I travel through the mountain passes to trade with smugglers, as our peoples have done for generations. I’ve picked up human ways, including their manner of speaking. Dad stays at the lodge rather than defy the capitol. He has no familiarity with their customs anymore.”
Outrage writ across his features, Benjic stiffened his spine and pivoted to face Emyn. “You showed him the trail through the mountains?”
“Of course not,” Emyn said on a low growl. “The pass is dangerous. I would never risk my son to it.” He glared at Arit. “He discovered a path through the Urals with friends during his teens. I haven’t been able to break him of joining them in summer pilgrimages.”
“We closed the borders.” Benjic’s mouth compressed to a grim line. “He could be arrested.”
“I wouldn’t try prosecuting me or any of the others unless you crave riots in the borderland.” Arit glowered. “The funds for heating oil we earn in the lands of men keep our village alive through the winter.” He stared at his sire. “Goddess knows the capitol doesn’t care if we freeze.”
“Enough.” Nick smothered a laugh when Arit started at Nick’s harsh tone. “No one will be arrested. The point is, although I prefer Nick, I was Nika once, too. Either is fine.”
“You wish to be Nick.” Arit frowned. “You should be Nick.”
“As long as I am not Your Highness’ed into oblivion, I’m satisfied.” Nick shrugged.
“Nick,” Emyn said, shooting a glance at his son to confirm he’d pronounced it correctly. When Arit nodded, Emyn curved his lips into a smile. “I think we can manage that.”
“If you could manage it while also pointing me toward a shower to scrub off the travel grime before dinner, that would be lovely,” Lydia said.
“Certainly.” Emyn blinked. “I’ll—”
“—let me show them to their quarters.” Arit squared his shoulders. He also glared at Benjic. “I’ll deal with the security detail after our guests are settled.”
Arit’s father sniffed his disdain. “I’m perfectly capable of doing my job.”
“As am I.” Arit’s fingers curling to form fists at his side.
Emyn’s eyes narrowed on Arit, then abruptly widened. His attention ricocheted between Nick and his son. “Uh-oh.”
Arit chopped a rigid hand through the air. “That has nothing to do with it.”
“That has everything to do with it.” Benjic grinned smugly at Emyn. “I’d like my quarters near the security team. I’ll require constant communication with the capitol as arrangements there proceed. I’ll need ready access to secure commlinks.”
“I suppose granting our son’s potential mate privacy from a chaperone on the lodge’s upper floor is no never-you-mind to you,” Emyn quipped.
Benjic chortled. “Quite.”
“Arit won’t yield to temptation because you’ve cleared the field for him to wallow in their heat. I’ve taught him how to deal with unwelcome heats and had I not, that you wish for the mating alone would prompt his wariness. You grasp that, don’t you?”
“Oh, I understand.” Benjic jerked his chin at Nick. “He’s been raised outside the tribes, though.”
Nick choked down his laughter. “You think I’m weak.”
“Untutored,” the elder corrected. “Living among men, you’d have no experience with mating.”
As if intermixing with humans made any difference. Rolan and Lydia had begun their dance toward a potential mating, hadn’t they? As a human, Lydia knew little about mating, but only a fool would bet against her getting exactly what she wanted. Nick pushed down his disappointment with wrong-headed stereotypes still endemic in the tribes. Their failure, after all, was his opportunity. “You believe I would succumb to a mating heat simmering between us if surrendering was not my choice?”
Arit’s forehead furrowed to a sharp V. “You sensed the quickening?”
“A 2x4 would’ve been less subtle.” Nick smiled, though his disappointment redoubled. Did they underestimate him so much? Apparently. Not for the first time, Nick wondered if allowing the mistaken assumption that he was an omega—and a woefully unprepared and damaged one—continue. The fiction had allowed him a lot of breathing room in the capitol, where the tribes had failed to anticipate Nick acting and reacting as any alpha would. They hadn’t watched him as closely…but at what cost? “I’m not as clueless about my tribal blood as some wish to believe. You’d be wise to remember that.” His stare found Benjic. “As would your sire.”
“He isn’t my sire.” Arit snarled.
Benjic rolled his eyes. “Technicalities.”
“Empires have fallen because of such technicalities.” Nick forced a chuckle. “Including my own.”
“No capitol mating pact will be fulfilled, regardless of our heat,” Arit said. “I’m not his pawn.” He glared at Nick. “You shouldn’t let him manipulate you, either.”
“Nick is the most methodical person you’ll ever meet and will do nothing unless it suits his purpose, so we are agreed.” Lydia beamed. “Our rooms, please.”
“Are all humans as delightful? I begin to understand my son’s affinity with breaking the council’s border laws to trade with them.” With a gallant bow, Emyn offered Lydia his arm. “Allow me to escort you to your quarters.”
Arit hurried forward. “But—”
“Take His Highness to the imperial suite, son.” Emyn patted the arm Lydia had looped in his, and when she scowled at him, his smile widened. “I mean Nick. Show Nick upstairs.”
That earned him a grudging though decidedly regal nod from Lydia. “Nick, go. Rolan and I will see you at dinner.”
“Wait. What?” His brother blinked at her as Lydia and Arit’s dad ascended the sweeping staircase. He nevertheless followed them. “You’re okay with leaving Nick alone with…” He narrowed his eyes on Arit. “…that guy?”
“With Arit’s sire pushing the mating, His Highness’s virtue couldn’t be safer,” Emyn said as they climbed.
“Virtue?” Lydia barked with laughter. “Oh, he thinks Nick is a virgin. How precious.”
Rolan, however, would not be distracted. Though he trailed Lyd and Emyn up the stairs, he tossed a warning glare over his shoulder—at Nick. “Behave for once.”
Nick curved his mouth into a wolfish smile. “You know me.”
Because Rolan did, he stabbed a condemning finger at Nick. “No seductions. I mean it. Leave the boy alone.” When Nick didn’t immediately concede, he sighed. “At least for the next hour. You can manage an hour without jumping him, I promise.”
“Yes, sir,” Nick said, voice ripe with his amusement.