R POV

My mother held me the whole way to Baba's home from the airport. I could not recall Janine being this nurturing, but it felt nice as she stroked my hair while I fell asleep. She had not spoken much to Baba at the airport, things looked tense between them. He was still distant with Lissa and I. Sometimes I felt like she was the moroi daughter he never had and I couldn'thelp but feel a little jealous.

Baba looked like he was going to have a stroke, I had never seen the formidable Abe Mazur/Zmey look so mad, but I hadn't grown up with him.

Baba's home in Istanbul was a restored Ottoman mansion that overlooked the Bosporus. It included bathing pavilions and large crystal chandeliers. The house made his dress style look demure, every room was ornate with colourful etching adorning the walls.

"Pavel, please arrange for Doctor Kaya to be brought to me and ask Katia to bring me a large scotch in my office." Abe said as he walked up the stairs.

"Come on girls, let's get you something to eat. Princess, would you like a feeder to be brought to you?" Mum moved us towards the kitchen while Pavel organised guardians to move our luggage upstairs.

While Lissa was with the feeder, mum took the opportunity to check on me. "Rosemarie, I was so worried about you. How are you?"

I squeezed my mother's hand. "I'm okay mum. Dimitri and the others protected me. I miss Dimitri and it hurts to be away from him." I touched my chest, I felt a pain in my chest since I woke up, initially a dull ache, but it was getting sharper and sharper.

She watched me carefully as I spoke, making sure I wasn't lying. "Did he take advantage of you?"

"Never!" I said indignantly. I pulled his necklace out for her to see and she gently touched the rings. "He is my mate, I promise you that he only ever has my best interests at heart. He wanted to court me properly with you and Baba's permission when I turned eighteen. He is the best man I have ever known and I love him."

"Did he press you into anything? Did he force himself on you during your estrous?" She asked.

I looked at her in shock. "No! If anything I forced myself on him."

Mum looked shocked. "What do you mean? During your estrous?"

I dropped my head and looked at my hands. My voice was so quiet. "No, before that. The downside of me not knowing that I was omega, I had trouble controlling my urges before the estrous. I was relentless in making him admit his feelings for me and pushing our relationship."

"Did he mark you?" She asked me. My hands felt the mark in the crook of my neck, it made me shiver with delight.

"Yes, and doing so he has marked me with his scent. I will never have another estrous like that again."

She sat back and thought about it for a while. "That's something I can appreciate, I suppose. Did anyone else touch you?"

I shuddered. I had vague memories of Charlie pressing himself up hard against me. Grabbing my ass and feeling his hands work up my dress while I felt disoriented.

"One of the alpha's in my year felt me up while I went into an omega drop. He had his hands all over me until Eddie and Lissa got to me." I crossed my arms, trying to soothe myself from the awful memories. I felt ill from the thought of his vile hands all over me, I suddenly had the urge to rub myself raw in the shower.

My mother put her arms around me and pulled me close. She kissed me on the top of my head and brushed the hair from my face. I felt calm and settled, this felt familiar. Perhaps this was what she did when I was a small child. I couldn't remember, but it felt nice and soothing.

I slumped against my mother's chest and started to cry. I let out all the stress and fear from the events at the dance, the feeling that I was going to be violated by a rabid crowd and the feeling of Charlie putting his hands on me.

I also cried because I had been ripped from Dimitri's arms and now I am in hiding from the Moroi government. I didn't know if I was going to see my mate again, especially if my father had anything to say about it.

Mum started singing to me in Gaelic while holding me in her arms. It felt familiar, like I had heard it before and I felt soothed in my mothers arms. "What is this? Have I heard it before?"

"The song is called 'Bà Bà mo Leanabh Beag'. It is a Scottish lullaby that originates from the times of the potato famine. My mother sang it to me when I was a bairn and I sang it to you when you were a wee one." She said as she continued the second verse.

I let myself relax against my mother and listened to the lullaby, letting it soothe me. My tears stopped and I felt at peace.

"How are you feeling sweetheart?" Mum asked me. I sat back and looked at her.

"Better, but I'm afraid I will never see my mate again and it is breaking my heart." I rubbed my chest again, I could feel a deep feeling of loss and sorrow that had settled inside me. I knew it was as a result of the absence from Dimitri, he felt so far away from me.

I could feel Lissa hovering outside the room and I pressed into her mind. She had heard my mother singing and didn't want to interrupt our moment together.

My mum kissed my head and moved from our embrace. "I'll try to speak to your father, but he is very upset at the moment."

I shrank back, I didn't think Abe Mazur would let my alpha live, let alone see me ever again.

GAP

Abe POV

Pavel led the doctor into my study. I had already thrown two whiskey glasses around the room, they both stepped gingerly over the glass shards on the floor. Janine followed in behind her, her trained eyes assessing the scene and the expression on my face. Usually I was not a man to be trifled with and in this circumstance I was absolutely livid.

"Dr Kaya, you promised me that my daughter would be safe." I started with a warning tone.

"I provided you with the necessary precautions to help your daughter pass as Beta -" She started.

"Then what the fuck happened." I snapped. I was in no mood for her bullshit, just answers.

"No one could have predicted that she would mate with an alpha. To be frank Mr Mazur, this was not an event that I could have predicted. Alphasrelease special mating pheromones and the best that I can understand, this shifted her estrous. Her estrous was off by a week, but I'll have to do tests. We haven't seen a recorded case of an Omega/Alpha pairing for over a hundred years. This pairing simply doesn't happen, although I have theorised that Alpha and Omega are the ultimate pairing, given their anatomical adaptations. I'm surprised that the Moroi government hasn't tried this to replenish the guardian numbers." She rambled.

"My daughter was raped by an alpha because she went into estrous at a school dance. The only thing that I can feel good about is that it wasn't a group activity because the alpha took her for himself. How do I look my little girl in the eye after she has been ruined." I roared. I was shaking with anger, finally accessing my emotions for the first time in days.

Dr Kaya cowered, perhaps wondering whether this was the last day of her life.

"Abe" Janine spoke with a warning tone as Lissa and Rose burst into my study.

"It wasn't Dr Kaya's fault, this was orchestrated by Victor Dashkov and his daughter Natalie who swapped Rose's pills." Lissa said. I felt my face grow red when I heard what the Dashkov's had done.

"And I wasn't raped Baba. It was consensual." Rose yelled. At least she feels that way.

"He abused his position of power over you. In the end he is no better, he got you in bed and didn't have the decency to court you properly." I turned to Doctor Kaya. "Dr Kaya, my apologies. Please test Rose's blood and the pills, I need to know whether the contraception was swapped out too."

Dr Kaya nodded and gestured to Rose to sit down to provide blood samples and she did with minimal protest. Dr Kaya left quickly with her samples, no doubt wanting to avoid incurring more of my wrath.

I turned to Lissa. "Please tell me what you learned from Mr Dashkov."

Lissa filled in the blanks from her encounter with Victor. "Mr Mazur, what will happen with Victor? Where is he now?"

"He is safely locked away and will never harm you girls again." I said. "Now, we need to talk about the secrets you two kept."

Lissa looked down, her face displaying the guilt she felt. "I'm so sorry, I was keeping Rose's confidence."

"It wasn't hers to tell." Rose said boldly. "I am almost an adult, I can make my own decisions."

"That may be, but he was your teacher and should not have been propositioning you." I returned. "He took advantage of your situation and exploited you. It is my job as your father to protect you."

She looked like I had slapped her. "Then where the hell were you for the most of my life?"

She stormed out of my office and Lissa stood there awkwardly. "I'm sorry for not telling you sir. It was very difficult to see Rose when you weren't around on campus and we were rarely alone, Natalie manipulated that fact."

My heart broke a little when I heard Lissa call me sir, I wanted her to feel like she was with family, just like her family had been there for Rose. "Lissa, please sit down. I put you in this position and it wasn't your responsibility to look after Rose."

She nodded her head, but I could tell that she still blamed herself. "But she looks after me all the time. I can't believe I fell for Victor's lies all these years."

"Even I didn't see Dashkov's true intentions and I am usually two steps ahead of everyone." Janine fixed me with a look, but I continued. "The question for you Lissa is, what do you want to do now? I can return you to school if you would like or you can stay here. But we must take some careful steps, you are the Dragomir princess, they will want to know what happened to you and they will push for your return."

I started to run the various possibilities through my mind, who I would have to target to achieve various end goals for Lissa. The last dragomir needed to be on the royal council and participate in moroi society, she couldn't avoid it. Rose wouldn't put up with a lifetime in hiding, we needed to figure out options for both of them.

"I want to stay with Rose" Lissa said. She was resolute in her opinion.

"Of course, but we need to communicate your safety to court and you may need to make a statement regarding your kidnapping. Otherwise, the Dashkov's could get away with this."

Lissa nodded. "We need to do that, otherwise he could attack another spirit user like Oksana."

I smiled, she was so thoughtful and considerate. I felt like Lissa had an innocence that the world would try to corrupt, so I made it my mission to make sure she had the skills to protect herself. She was the lone member of her family, which was what I had been before Rose was born, she needed to learn how to protect her family.

Although, from what I heard from Pavel, she was much more capable than I gave her credit for. "I will have a laptop brought up to your room, I heard that there is a young man who is anxious to confirm your safety for himself. He hasn't stopped badgering Alberta and Principle Kirova."

Her cheeks flushed and she nodded her head in thanks as she practically ran out of the room.

GAP

D POV

Once I left Rose with her father, I had made the trip to my room to change my clothes and pack my things. I had been called into Alberta's office for a meeting. I didn't know what to do or where I was headed without my Roza.

"Belikov." Alberta called from her office.

"We don't have long, Abe Mazur wants your head on a block and we are both going to get called into Headmistress Kirova's office soon. Is Rose safe?" Alberta asked, looking worried.

"She is safe with her father." I said. Every second I felt a growing ache in my chest as I felt her getting further and further away from me. I didn't think that she knew that we were forming a pair bond, but I had seen subtle signs for a while now. Occasional glimpses into her feelings and it felt like something burst wide open when we were entwined.

"I need to know what happened once you took her. Will this happen again?" She asked me.

"We confirmed our mateship, she is marked and will not have a response like that again. What about Vasilisa, what happened to her?" I asked. I was wracked with guilt that I was not there for my charge.

"She was abducted from her room, Mr Mazur had trackers on both girls which lead to their recovery. He told me that Victor Dashkov was involved, we have his daughter confined to her room and guarded."

I felt relief that my actions had not hurt Vasilisa and she was safe. "What about Dashkov?" I asked.

"His whereabouts are unknown." She said, but I suspected that she knew something that I didn't, I doubted that Zmey would let him live or at the very least have his freedom.

"I failed the princess and my mate." I said.

Alberta looked at me with a hard expression. "You listen to me Belikov because I will only say this once and your future depends on this. Even if you hadn't taken Rose away, Vasilisa would have still been taken. She was taken from her room in the middle of campus, your responsibility is to her when she is outside these walls of safety, in here that safety is my responsibility."

"But I did take Rose as my mate and I shouldn't have. I couldn't control myself and I marked her before she was even eighteen." I felt myself sag with the weight of my guilt.

"I made the choice to call you to take Rose out of a dangerous situation, I am not stupid. I have a particularly good sense of smell, I could smell you on each other. I kept an eye on your interactions and knew when you visited her at night. I saw the signs that you had appropriately courted your mate, she was wearing your necklace,your token of mateship.

I wouldn't have put her in your care if I wasn't sure that you would protect your mate with everything that you had. You can't help the age of your mate when you find them. You know that she would be mad at you if you threw away your future. So take your self pity and shove it deep down, we are going to go into the headmistress's office and you will not incriminate yourself." She said fiercely.

"Why are you sticking up for me? Shouldn't you be running me out of the school?" I asked.

"My priority is in the best interest of Rose and I know how loyal an Alpha is to his mate. The Headmistress knows that you are mates, I told her and Abe earlier. So pull your shit together and work with me and we might get you out of this relatively unscathed."

We entered Headmistress Kirova's office, she gestured for me to sit down in the uncomfortable, yet elegant chair in front of her desk. It was a subtle way of enforcing her power over others.

"Mr Belikov, could you please enlighten me on the events from this evening to your best recollection." Kirova asked.

"I was in my room when I heard over the radio about an estrous situation. I received a call from Alberta requesting my assistance. I made my way over to the gym where I saw a crowd of men surrounding Alberta, female guardians and some of the female novices. I sent out a pulse of my aura which cleared a path for me to reach Alberta. She instructed me to take Rose and get her out of the immediate danger. I guarded Rose on the east ward perimeter and I handed her off to her father when he arrived." I stated, omitting certain facts.

She looked at me in silence for a minute as she processed the information. "Why would Guardian Petrov choose you to protect an omega in estrous?"

"I would suggest that you ask her. I am not privy to the reasoning of my captain's decisions and opinions." I replied, face not offering any hint of weakness or stress that I felt internally.

She turned to Alberta, "Guardian Petrov, would you care to enlighten me."

"I placed her in his care because they had both disclosed to me that she was his mate, but they hadn't acted on it. He is the strongest alpha I have ever met and I knew that he would keep her safe." Alberta said coolly.

"And what did you do with Novice Hathaway in this Cabin." Kirova pressed me.

"I kept her safe and guarded the cabin." I replied, remaining stoic.

She glared at me, but I held strong. I shoved the feelings of inadequacy regarding the loss of my mate, possibly forever, and held on to the notion that my mate was safe with her father.

"She is underage, and I am facing the wrath of the royal council and Abe Mazur." Kirova challenged me.

"And she remains unharmed and now in the protection of her father. The true culprit is unknown to us currently, but I would expect that the culprit is going to take the brunt of Mr Mazur's wrath. As for the council, you can state that I responded to the threat and assigned guardians to manage the situation, while you alerted the student's father of the incident immediately." Alberta responded while I remained silent.

"The royal council will be angry about an omega who is not under the protection of the court. And what should I do with him?" She asked, pointing at me.

"I suggest that you direct the council towards Mr Mazur to manage the situation with the omega. As for Guardian Belikov, he has racked up quite a lot of leave, I suggest he takes personal leave until the end of the school year while his charge is away." Alberta suggested.

"What will the royal council say about an alpha taking a student." Kirova asked. I suppressed the urge to shift my position as they discussed my fate.

"The facts are there, we sent a mated alpha to secure the omega while the campus got under control. Guardian Belikov relinquished the student to the care of her father. As for Miss Hathaway, I recall you have a preference for keeping her out of your school and I believe that your wish has been granted." Alberta laid out the facts without emotion.

Kirova sat there thinking for a minute, while I held my breath. "Well, it would avoid scandal for the school and an Alpha's mate is not strictly part of public record. If this becomes a scandal for the school, I will not hesitate to hang you both out to dry."

I had to admit, this was better than I expected. Even I couldn't suppress the surprise displayed in my eyes.

She turned to me, "Mr Belikov, you will leave the school grounds within 48 hours. If I get pressed by the guardian council, I will not hesitate to sacrifice your career in place of my own. Alberta will sort out your leave paperwork and I hope I never have to see you or your omega ever again."

The headmistress directed us out of her office while she headed to her personal bar for a drink.

Alberta gave me the forms to fill out when we returned to her office. "I'll back date your request, state that while the princess was at school you took the opportunity to see your family in Russia until the end of the school year."

"Thank you Alberta. I don't know how to repay your kindness." I was touched by her kindness.

"Don't worry, you will see her again."

I nodded to her as I headed to my dorm, I needed sleep before I left St Vladimirs for good.

GAP

Abe POV

I was so angry, all of that time and preparation wasted in a single night. Now my daughter wasn't speaking to me and I made poor Lissa feel unwelcome. Her family took Rose in when Janine and I were not able to be around and they made her feel like she was part of the Dragomir family.

When I got the first reports from my team, they told me that Lissa had sat there guarding the door with a kitchen knife. To know that this royal moroi princess went on guard for my daughter, it endeared herself to me immediately. Lissa had very few people in the world to look out for her and as far as Janine and I were concerned, she was family.

I heard my office door open, I knew it was Janine. Only Janine or Rose would enter my office without knocking and Rose was still furious at me to talk to me.

"You should speak to our daughter when you finally calm down." She said, when she stood in front of my desk. At 5 foot tall, Janine only reached my eye line, but she always had a presence.

"How do I look her in the eye when she was violated by that man." I asked.

"You haven't even spoken to her. I know our daughter a little better than you. May I remind you, when has she ever done anything that anyone has told her to. She knows herself and what she wants and she hasn't listened to anyone since she could walk."

"Just because she thinks she was consenting, doesn't mean that she wasn't taken advantage of."

"Again, talk to her Abe, instead of assuming what she is thinking. Once you stop throwing a pity party, then we can focus on what our daughter is going to do for the rest of her life. Her life that she knew is over forever, her career is over."

"I wasn't going to let her waste her life, she is destined for better than that" I said flippantly. I realised very quickly that I chose my words very poorly and Janine's face hardened instantly.

"A guardian is an important job, we are duty bound to protect our world from the scourge of the Strigoi. I haven't wasted my life and she wouldn't have wasted hers. I suggest you occupy your time extorting money or punishing the real perpetrator of Rose's potential rape." Janine snapped at me.

The door slammed hard as she stormed out of my office. I knew I wouldn't be welcome in Janine's bed tonight.

AN:

Did you know that there is a line in shadow kiss where Adrian says to Rose "Even you couldn't get away with killing the queen."

What an impressive amount of foreshadowing for Last sacrifice!