Three Alpha Princes for an Unwanted Omega

"Miranda."

The priestess, Miranda froze in her tracks.

She had not expected to hear that voice again. Not after all these years.

When she turned, Amara stood several paces behind her. The sight of her stopped Miranda’s breath in her throat.

For a long moment neither of them moved. Miranda remembered the last time she had seen Amara... the face of the woman she had loved in another life and in a world that no longer existed.

She looked different now. Whatever she had done to herself had taken much from her.

Her lips curved in a humorless smile.

"Amara" she drawled. "I thought you were dead."

Amara’s jaw tightened. "You have some nerve after what you did."

Miranda’s smile faded.

"What I did? What exactly did I do, my love?" she asked, approaching.

"Do not play the fool now. You know exactly what you did. You let yourself be used. You betrayed me and you betrayed your queen. Then you framed me and left me to die." She took a step forward, and the air around her went cold. "Was any of it real, Miranda? Was any of what we had real?"

Miranda looked away.

"I did what I had to do," she said at last.

For centuries, Amara had imagined this moment. She had imagined ripping Miranda apart with her bare hands. She had imagined demanding answers from the woman who had once known every part of her.

Instead, standing here now, she discovered that the anger was not what hurt.

It was remembering that Miranda had meant everything to her before it all went wrong. The woman whose hands had once traced the scars on Amara’s back and kissed every one of them as though they were something beautiful. The woman who had promised her that nothing would ever come between them.

They had not simply been lovers, they had been confidantes... soulmates.

They had served beneath the first Omega Dualis, Morgana, when her reign had stretched across territories that now belonged to different Alpha bloodlines.

They had been young then and Morgana had trusted them both until Miranda decided that Morgana’s power was something she must have.

"No." Amara shook her head, her white eyes burning. "You did what you wanted to do. You were selfish and you wanted her powers for yourself but is it not funny how fate has a way of biting us in the ass when we least expect it."

Miranda’s jaw tightened. "She did not deserve what she had then and she does not deserve it now. I was stupid to believe that getting rid of one would end it all. I wanted you see my side, Amara but you were blinded by your loyalty to Morgana."

Amara laughed.

"You used me!" she snapped, light flashed in her eyes and the corridor shook.

Miranda looked around her.

"What have you done to yourself?" she asked. "You have dabbled in the dark arts, my love. You are no longer the same person I know."

"How dare you..."

"You claim that I used you but what are you letting that rogue do? He has you casting his spells and fighting his battles."

"Oh, on the contrary" Amara smiled. "I am exactly where I want to be but tell me, Miranda. When they dragged Morgana through the gate. When they put her head on a pike for the whole world to see. Did you think of me? Did you think of what you had left me to?"

Miranda’s hands were shaking. She pressed them flat against her thighs and willed them still.

"You know nothing of what happened."

Amara stepped closer until there was barely any distance between them.

"I know enough to know that you knew I trusted you... that I loved you and you let me believe you were on my side while you were whispering everything I told you into the ears of her enemies."

Miranda held her ground.

"She had to die," Miranda said. "You know it as well as I do. She was going to destroy us all."

"And wanting to steal her powers would have prevented that?"

"I would have been able to control it" Miranda barked. "I would have been powerful."

"There she is" Amara’s voice was soft, almost gentle. "There is the traitor I know."

Miranda’s eyes flashed at this.

"You can call me all the names in the world but I did what I did for us. We were priestesses, powerful but the moon goddess goes ahead to bestow such power to the Omega bloodline and no one dares question it? What makes their bloodline special, superior to ours?"

"Changing history did not stop fate, did it? Ayla is under my protection and if you harm a hair on her head, I will end you."

"End me?" Miranda chuckled.

She lifted one hand, her fingers brushing lightly across Amara’s cheek.

"Oh, my love." her voice was almost tender. "You do not have the power to end me. I can feel how weak you are. When was the last time you replenished yourself?"

Amara’s eyes widened at this.

"You do not think you are the only one who has dabbled in the dark arts, do you?"

Amara slapped her hand away. Miranda looked at her palm for a moment before lowering it.

"Ayla is going to right the world." Amara answered. "The way it should have been all along. With the Alphas at the bottom of the chain, where they belong. Where you cannot use your slippery words to control them anymore."

Miranda straightened, regarding Amara with a cool stare.

"I hear she remembers nothing. Tell me, what did you do to her? And what if I told you I could undo it? Make her realize that you are her enemies. Have her trust me. And then end her." She watched Amara’s face. "What, pray tell, would you do about that?"

Amara’s lips curved slowly.

"If you could undo it then it would already be done. I may be weak, Miranda but you were nothing compared to me and you still are nothing. Your puny spells and magic cannot erase mine, you of all people know this."

Miranda’s smile faltered. It was only for a heartbeat but Amara saw it and she knew she had won.

"Stay away from her." She turned. "I will not warn you a second time."