Chapter 36 Do’s And Don’t’s

Kari glared at the commanding tone but Ryedir drew up to his full height while his voice dropped. His voice was soft and deep but no less authoritative.

“We will be outside of the safety of my domain and it’s exceedingly important that you follow my rules while we are away. Remember that everyone who sees this collar,” he stood close enough to reach up a hand to trace his fingers along the soft leather at his throat, “will know you are my pleasure slave and will treat you as such. Which means that they will mostly ignore you or they might look but not touch. Other servants and slaves at the palace may approach you and will most likely treat you with indifference or even malice. I need you to not react and carry on with whatever task you were doing. As you do here, you will stay with me and serve me. Once in the capital, you will have to sit at my feet when not serving and you will not interact with anyone. You are to be a pretty pet- seen but not heard.”

Kari glared in indignant anger but Ryedir carried on, not letting him speak.

“This is for your safety. If you stand out and draw people’s attention, then they will push for more. They will get curious and you could easily find yourself in the same situation as the other day- facing off with an assassin. This is most important during our stay in the small villages on our journey inland as well as during the wedding ceremony and subsequent feast. There is more safety in the palace proper and away from all the prying eyes at court, so you will be able to relax more there. Members of my family are also fine to relax around since they will not let anything happen to you. Speaking of which, there are seven- soon to be eight- Lezzkers so you should start getting used to calling me Rye. You are to be my mate after all.”

The omega stared at him in shock for a moment. “Rye?” His voice came out in a choked whisper and he immediately flushed red. That felt very…intimate. The alpha smirked at him, clearly pleased with him trying out the name.

“It sounds good when you say it. I should have gotten you to do so sooner.”

Kari frowned at that, all thoughts of embarrassment fled. “I don’t understand. You call me yours, say I’ll be your mate then still expect me to make my choice and order me around as a slave. The way the household staff talk, it’s as though they are expecting a damn wedding once we are mated. Yet you still call me property. How am I supposed to choose? What will really happen if I choose you? You treat me like a lover one moment and a slave the next. I don’t get it.”

“I need you to choose.” Ryedir moved in closer until their noses almost touched and it was all Kari could do to hold his ground as the alpha loomed over him. “I need to have you willingly or not at all. You are mine, as much as you deny it, but I need you to acknowledge it. I need you to give yourself to me completely. I don’t care for your reasons so long as they are your own and not given to you by someone else based on what ifs and maybes.”

“Why? I’m your property already, so why?”

“And have you waste away as you lose your will and power when your choice is removed? Or even if that doesn’t occur, what if you doubt me? How can I say I trust you when you don’t trust me? How can I have you stand next to me if you doubt? And worse still, what if you are a bearer and we have children? They will be targeted and any hesitation at all could cost their lives."

“I need you to choose based on your own reasons. You’ve spent two months with me, you’ve seen me interact with my staff, with my other slaves, and with you. Make your own choice and embrace it wholeheartedly. But Kari, make it soon. It has already been two months and the days are counting down. If you wait too long and make it once the heat has seized you, it will be too late. I cannot trust the judgement of an omega in heat.”

Ryedir gave him one last lingering look before turning to the door. He paused in the doorway as though to speak one last time but in the end said nothing and left Kari standing frozen in the middle of the room.

That was a perspective he had never considered. All this time and he had never once been able to see it from Ryedir’s perspective. Is that why Oran had given him to Lezzker as a pleasure slave? For safety, so he could decide on his own without outside forces trying to interfere? So he would know the people and culture and be ready to step up to stand beside Lezzker once he was ready?

Because the man was a Niamrean prince in line for the throne and Ryedir had said before there was no illegitimacy here. Any children of theirs would join the line of succession too. That made them targets. But right now, as a slave s marked by the collar of ownership, he was ignored, barely worth a mention or a second glance.

The collar kept him safe as much as it irked him.

But what if it was taken off? What then?

For all that his mind swirled with thoughts and emotions, he knew he would get eaten alive by the Niamrean court right now if Ryedir’s interactions with merchants and that alpha from the other day were anything to go by. Perhaps it wasn’t as simple as he had previously thought.

But still, what did he really want?

His heart screamed one thing and his mind another.

He wasn’t an omega to be ruled by instincts and he valued his freedom but then, Ryedir had never said he would take it away. It was only implied by how the Alpha/Omega bond worked. Hadn’t he always assumed that he would settle down at some point? Make a home somewhere and maybe have a family?

Was that not what Lezzker, in essence, offered?

Kari wanted the other man. He couldn’t deny it. Not now. But he wasn’t ready. Not yet.

Because when he decided to stand beside Lezzker- no, Rye- then he wanted to do so with his shoulders straight and standing tall.

Right now, he was just a weak little omega, confused and lost in this new world he had found himself in. But he would change that. He would be someone that could be proud to say he was Rye’s mate.

And that Rye was his.