“We knew this was a possibility,” he said firmly. “Anastasia is the Innocent Omega the prophecy speaks of—it’s not surprising that her Heat Cycle hasn’t started yet. But we have time to get it where it needs to be—we all know how fast the process goes once it’s set in motion.”
This sounded ominous to me—how exactly were they going to “set my Heat Cycle in motion?”
A minute later I got my answer when Sorenson said,
“Strip them both naked.”
“What? No!” I gasped and Jake roared at Sorenson and Tainer,
“If either of you touches her, you die!”
“Now, now—be calm, Jacob,” Sorenson said mildly. “We are perfectly aware that it is blasphemy for a male Were who is not of the Royal blood line to lay hands on a Royal Omega. That’s why we brought Ophelia with us—to help with these kinds of delicate situations.”
“That’s exactly why I’m here,” Ophelia agreed calmly.
“Please don’t do this!” I begged. But she was already unbuttoning the top of my flannel PJs to bare my breasts. I tried to stop her, knocking her hands away and yanking my top closed again.
Ophelia caught my hands in what felt like an iron grip and gave me a hurt look, like I had betrayed her somehow.
“Now, Anastasia, I thought you were excited to conceive,” she said, frowning. “Why are you acting like this?”
Okay, I couldn’t keep this charade up any longer.
“Of course I’m not ‘exited to conceive!’” I shouted at her. “I’m nineteen—I’m not ready to be a mother yet! And Jake’s my stepbrother!”
“I’m more than her stepbrother,” Jake put in quickly. “My father—the ‘Absent Alpha’ as you call him—had us do a Blood-Mingling Adoption. You know what that means—under Were law, Ani is as much my little sister as if we were born to the exact same parents. If you make us go through with this, we’ll be committing Incest—and there is no greater crime in the Were world. Not even murder! It’s one of the Unbreakable Laws.”
Wow, I hadn’t known all that, but the revelation certainly seemed to give Ophelia and Tainer pause. Tainer frowned and shuffled his feet in their size sixteen clodhoppers and Ophelia looked from me to Jake and back again uneasily.
“Are you two really blood brother and sister?” she asked in a low voice.
“Yes, we are,” Jake said firmly. “And you know perfectly well, the only crime worse than a male knotting his own sister is for him to fill her with his seed and make her pregnant. It’s blasphemy—debauchery of the highest order!”
The only one who didn’t seem put off by this was Sorenson.
“All right now,” he said heartily. “Why have we stopped? I ordered that they were both to be undressed.”
“But…they did the Blood-Mingling Adoption,” Tainer said uncertainly.
“She’s really his little sister,” Ophelia added.
“Don’t be ridiculous—of course, she’s not!” Sorenson said, frowning. “The Absent Alpha has made a false ceremony and a false adoption. He has vacated his position as the head of our people, which means he has lost his ability to do any ceremonies of power. The adoption he performed is null and void—it doesn’t count!”
“That’s a lie!” Jake growled. “My father is a very powerful Alpha and his power doesn’t depend on serving your crazy cult as your leader! I felt the tingle in my veins when he brought Ani into our family and caused us to mingle our blood together—the adoption was a binding one. She is my little sister and if you force us to do this, we’ll be committing incest!”
“You know who else committed incest?” Sorenson asked, raising his eyebrows. “The ancient Egyptian pharaohs. They married brother to sister for generations to keep their bloodlines pure—some even say that the First Wolf was descended from them.”
“All that inbreeding is why they ended up with so many kids with deformities,” I snapped. “You know they did CAT Scans of King Tut’s mummy and found out he had all kinds of problems? He had a club foot and a twisted spine and buck teeth and—”
“Oh, come now, my dear,” Sorenson interrupted me in a condescending tone. “You’ve only had a single drop of each other’s blood—your child will be healthy and strong.” He raised his voice, speaking to both Ophelia and Tainer. “What matters now is the prophecy,” he told them. “If these two do not breed—if the Innocent Omega does not bear the child of the Alpha Heir in order to carry on the line of the First Wolf, all Werekind will wither and die—we shall dry up and blow away like chaff before the wind!”
“Oh please—what bullshit!” I exclaimed. But it was clear that Tainer and Ophelia were back under Sorenson’s spell.
“He’s right—they got to breed,” Tainer muttered, glaring at Jake and me.
“Or we are as chaff before the wind,” Ophelia murmured reverently. She went back to unbuttoning my pajama top.