136: Nik's POV

I moved Ada to Phoenix’s bed shortly after she passed out.

It seemed I’d finally gotten her calmed down enough to rest deeply. For days, she’d been sleeping lightly. My brothers and I had spoken about how often she’d tossed and turned for hours before bouncing out of bed and trying to act like she wasn’t exhausted.

Her being in heat made perfect sense for that behavior.

Even though the information had come from Blade and Dagger — and I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them— we had to take it face value. The fact of the matter was that they would know more about her fae side than any of us would. Our experience with the fae was very limited, as were the writings on it. Now we knew that was entirely intentional based on how this Kingdom came to be.

Ada stirred as the door to the room opened. Phoenix stepped in, and I stood up from the chair I was in, “When she wakes up, expect to have to fuck her,” I whispered with a grin, clapping him on his shoulder.

He rolled his eyes. “This is insanely fast for her to be in heat.”

The assessment wasn’t wrong. But it also didn’t matter. I shrugged, “It’s the cards we’ve been dealt.”

“Do we know how long it can last?”

I shook my head, “Darius is supposed to get all of that information from the freak twins and meet up with us later.”

As I started toward the door, Phoenix scratched the back of his head, “You off to do your shady shadow daddy shit?”

A snort was all I granted him in response before exiting his room. The short answer to his question was yes, I was planning on going and collecting my shadows and spies and seeing what new information they had for me. The long answer was that I needed to dress my wounds and relax my eyes for a bit.

My side wasn’t healing still. Eric had to dress it multiple times a day, sometimes redoing the stitches when I overexerted myself. For instance, I had definitely popped a few stitches while fucking Ada. Luckily, she’d been delirious from pleasure and didn’t notice the blood dripping down my leg from my side before she fell asleep.

I limped out of the shared living quarters, hobbling down the hall toward the pack doctor’s office. Eric was waiting for me, gloves already donned and needle already threaded. He pursed his lips at me as I undid my shirt.

“Don’t give me that look, doc,” I shook my head and sat on the exam table, “The tear was warranted this time.”

He cocked his head to the side, “Is that so?”

“Ada’s in heat,” I offered as an explanation.

Eric froze, eyes widening over his surgical mask, “Already?”

“It’s complicated,” I cleared my throat, wincing as he plucked a stray stitch from my side, “Anything new to offer me?”

He nodded, continuing to poke at the wound in my side, “Two omegas came in with burns on their hands this morning. They both said they were trying to light a campfire, and it got out of hand.”

“Have you seen them before?”

Eric shook his head, swapping the pair of tweezers in his hands for the needle, “No, and they live far enough away that it’s questionable they were here in the first place.”

“Where are they?” I sucked in a deep breath as he shoved the needle through my skin.

The doctor remained silent until he tied off the new set of stitches about five minutes late. Finally, as he stood, he pointed at the door leading toward the hospital wing, “Being treated in there.”

“I’ll make it quick,” I tucked my shirt back into the waistband of my pants and pulled my suit jacket back on before heading through the swinging door.

A group of nurses was sitting in chairs surrounding two exam tables, all chatting quietly. As I approached, the nurses all stopped what they were doing and dispersed wordlessly. The two omegas looked up at me, eyes widening. They were young. It always made me pause when they were younger. Something about it always made me wonder how heavily they were manipulated to find themselves in this position.

The younger one of the two was tall and skinny, lanky. He had acne covering his face and was in clothes that were so worn they were practically rags. His lips trembled as I met his gaze and grinned slowly.

The older of the two rolled his shoulders back, meeting my gaze without flinching. I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed silently. He was better dressed with cleaner skin and a slight stubble on his chin. Both of them had dark hair, dark eyes, and a similar jawline.

Brothers. Interesting that there was such a disparity in appearance.

I made my voice low and smooth, putting as much steel as I could into it, “Well, hello. I heard the two of you had quite an incident with a campfire last night.”

The younger one opened his mouth and stammered for a second, but slammed it shut when the older one shot him a look. While the younger averted his gaze, the older responded, “That’s right, King Nikolai.”

“My reputation precedes me, I see,” I tugged on my jacket sleeve, a shadow unfurling in the direction of the two omegas, “I’m afraid I don’t know who either of you are.”

“I’m Gray, and this is Norm,” the older responded, pointing to his comrade. “We were just visiting and ran into trouble with the campfire last night. Some soldiers were nearby and were kind enough to offer the Royal doctors services.”

“Very kind of them indeed,” the shadow danced in front of the younger one, who tried to shove himself as far away from it as possible. “Tell me, Norm. How do you and Gray know each other?” The two of them exchanged glances, and Gray gave Norm an almost imperceptible nod. I wagged my finger at the two of them, “Do not make me separate you or move this interrogation to the dungeon. Do I need to be more direct?”

Gray leveled his gaze with mine, jaw set. His bravery was a product of his age— and lack of wisdom. His voice was firm, “You can be as direct as you like. After all, you are one of the Kings.”

If he hadn’t killed several people by blowing up a trading ship, I wouldn’t have been amused by his boldness. Unfortunately, the wounds on his hand were consistent with someone who had stayed too close to a lit gunpowder keg. Which meant that these two were treasonous bastards. It made the kids snark a lot less entertaining.

My shadows wrapped around Norm’s throat as I kept my eyes locked on Gray and he kept his on mine, “Why did you blow up our trading ship?”

Gray remained silent, eyes locked on mine. As my shadows tightened, Norm bucked and captured Gray’s attention. Norm grunted and blurted out in a strangled voice, “We did it in the name of Velentaria.”