Page 62 of The Other Omega

Samir laughed from across the lounge.

For a while, nothing outside suggested anyone lived here. Only dark rock, snow, pine trees, and waterfalls remained, with clouds drifting through the valleys between the mountains.

I didn’t even recognise the first signs of life. At first, I thought the little squares of light scattered across the rock were reflections, but the closer we got, the clearer they became.

Windows.

Hundreds of them. No, thousands.

The city wasn’t built on the mountain. It was carved into it.

“Whoa.”

“Welcome to the High Mountain Kingdom, daughter,” Matthias said as I leaned closer to the window. “Few places can compare with its majesty.”

“It’s incredible,” I whispered.

People walked along paths cut into the mountainside, some carrying bags and parcels while others sat outside cafés, drinking and talking as though there wasn’t a deadly drop just beyond the stone railing.

No. I wouldn’t be sitting there.

Bridges crossed between neighbouring mountains at different heights, and huge round glass domes projected from the rock with entire gardens growing inside them.

Then I noticed just how many ships were in the sky.

Dozens travelled through the valleys in organised lines at different heights. Smaller ships followed one route while larger ones travelled above them, each keeping its distance from the ship ahead. Some broke away towards landing platforms along the mountainsides, while others continued deeper into the range.

Oh my God. The Fifty-Six didn’t mean fifty-six little settlements. It meant fifty-six of these.

An hour passed, then another, and somewhere along the way I stopped trying to keep track of how many mountains we passed. High Mountain finally appeared ahead of us, rising taller and broader than every peak around it.

“Is that High Mountain?”

Matthias followed my gaze. “It is indeed.”

At nine thousand metres high, it was the tallest mountain in the kingdom and its capital, where each of the Seven Founding Houses kept its ancestral seat. It was even taller than Mount Everest, and I was pretty sure that was the tallest mountain on Earth.

My stomach tightened. This was it. I was about to meet the five men I might actually spend the rest of my life with.

As we drew closer, streams of ships split away towards different parts of the mountain. We left the main flow and began descending towards one section of dark rock.

Midnight-blue banners came into view beside enormous entrances carved into the mountainside, each bearing the silver snow leopard of House Vaelor.

A vast landing platform waited for us, broad enough to receive several ships at once. Hundreds of soldiers stood across it in perfect formation, their midnight-blue military coats broken only by flashes of silver whenever someone moved.

I leaned closer to the glass. “Are we getting arrested?” I joked. Mostly.

“They are assembled to welcome a new Omega into their House,” Samir said. “It is considered a great honour.”

“All of them?” There were hundreds. I started counting in twos, but gave up at eighty-six. There were many more.

“Every one of them. They are welcoming not only a new Omega into their House, but the future mate of the General of the High Mountain Army.”

Samir continued. “You will take your place amongst some of the highest-ranking families in the kingdom. Yours is a most fortunate mating.”

Well, my new Pack definitely had the power to protect me. I just needed to give this everything I had. There was no way I was going back to Kharith and absolutely no chance I was getting any closer to Mireya. Our mating had to work. More than anything, I needed to make certain they never wanted to send me back.

I looked down at the midnight-blue skirt spread around me. So much had happened in the ten hours since we’d left that I didn’t feel quite as fresh and beautiful anymore.