Once Upon A Pack (Royalverse #1)

Chapter 43

forty-three

Since Asher asked me if I planned to “wander upstairs,” that seems like as good a place to start as any.

After all, if Dair is gone … if he left …

My gut cramps as tears prick my eyes. It’s been hard, pretending that his desire to maintain a certain distance doesn’t feel exactly the same as rejection. I’ve done my best, but the idea that he would actually leave never crossed my mind.

Have I brought out the worst in him yet again?

Even if I have—this doesn’t feel like the duke. Dairragh Vreeland doesn’t flee . And he’s faced a lot more pain than most people.

My Omega frantically urges me down the corridor on the top floor of the east wing. Plush, midnight-blue carpet sinks beneath my slight “training heels,” as Jasmine calls them. I still have to focus to keep from wobbling when I walk, but the added speed from my anxiety seems to help.

I sail around the curve, peering at each door I pass. I haven’t been in this part of the palace since my original tour. For the most part, the guys have made my space into our space, so there really wasn’t a need to trudge up the stairs.

Besides, their rooms are nearly identical to the ones I spent months tidying at the manor. Bast’s door hangs open. Asher’s is closed, hiding walls of books. And the last one at the very end of the hall…

Has Duncan in front of it?

Um…

I was not expecting that.

The attendant is stationed there as if guarding the portal. As soon as I see him, I stop short, and he snaps to attention.

… blushing ?

His balding head falls forward on a bow. “Your Highness.”

“Ivy,” I correct absentmindedly. “I was—I just came up to visit the duke. Is he… in?”

The air seems to crystallize around me. Duncan grimaces. “I’m afraid—I’m afraid His Grace is indisposed at the moment.”

Indisposed?

I hear a growl and something squeaky. A bed frame, maybe?

Dread chills my middle. “Is he… alone?”

Could he be with someone else?

Jasmine warned me that many women are jockeying for position with these men. And apart from the time he gave in, Dair has been denying himself for almost a whole month . After the way he used to carry on before, that must be taking a toll…

Surprise slackens Duncan’s features. “Of course he’s alone, Princess. He’s just?—”

This time, there’s a roar . One that sends a skitter down my back and slick dribbling into my panties.

Duncan pales, concluding, “—not himself.”

Confused, I drift closer. Until a familiar scent slams into me.

It’s cranberry and mint and everything I love… but so achingly sharp , it slices the breath right out of my body. I hiss, my teeth rattling as pure alpha need curls in my lungs.

A rut .

It has to be. Nothing else would possibly do this .

My Omega whines, desperate to get to our alpha. She wants to help him, but I also have the distinct sense she’s scrambling. Clueless, just like me.

Figures . Just when I was starting to think maybe I could actually do this…

I clear my throat over a whine, looking at the poor beta attendant. “I suppose I ought to…” My head lolls toward the door. A twinge tightens my pussy at the same moment that a prick of apprehension stings my stomach.

Duncan winces. “I’m afraid not, Your Highness. His Grace is quite volatile in this state and?—”

He continues, but I can’t hear him over the memory of Asher murmuring to me this morning. Essentially warning me to stay away. And, obviously, somebody made this poor man stand guard out here.

“The others were worried he would hurt me?” I demand, throwing my hand on my hip in a gesture that betrays my Omega’s outrage. Because, sure, she doesn’t really know what to do—but how dare her alphas imply that?

Duncan stammers. I plant my feet, indignation flowing through me. “Did Asher and Bast make you promise to keep him locked away ?”

Bless this man’s heart. His eyes bulge so dramatically, it looks like they’re trying to escape his skull. “No, Your Highness! No, of course not!”

Is he lying? If he is, I am going to call Asher right now and give him a piece of my mind.

Dair may not like that he needs me, but he does . And I’ll be damned if anyone is going to lock him up over it.

I’ve never felt rage before. Vaguely, I wonder if this is what my duke experiences every time he loses his cool and orders people to stop touching me. Or threatens their lives because they already have …

All right, so he’s a bit violent on a good day. And he’s warned me that during sex, he can get… rough.

Perhaps the others reacting to his rut like this has something to do with that ? But it still makes my blood boil.

They sent him up here to be imprisoned in his bedroom, alone?! As if he’s some sort of beast! A literal monster they have to chain up and ? —

Duncan’s panicked expression cracks. “It wasn’t Prince Asher or Lord Burns,” he blurts. “It was him . The duke himself. He… he is worried for your safety and asked me to make sure you didn’t happen upon him.”

Dair .

After everything his father put him through, all the violent punishments and confinement… my alpha locked himself in his room and gave someone else the key?

To keep me safe? Or was it actually because he didn’t want me?

I think of his eyes, burning into mine from across any and every room.

And I know .

He’s doing this for me .

But aren’t ruts horribly painful for alphas without their omegas? Especially scent-matched ones. And no matter how much Dair may try to avoid it, we are mates .

As if agreeing with that unbearable thought, a pained groan echoes from behind the door. Steel spreads through my stomach and straightens my spine. “Duncan, open the door, please.”

He freezes. “Y-Your Highness?—”

“Duncan,” I say again, insistent. “Please open the duke’s door.”

Our attendant visibly cringes, sputtering more denials. All the urgency buzzing in my middle suddenly snaps like lightning. A thundering crack that sends an unfamiliar voice swerving up my throat.

“ The door. Now. ”

Oh dear.

Was that a bark ?

Jasmine told me omegas can make them, too, but usually only if one of their alphas or children are in danger. She also explained that they’re actually more potent than alpha barks, because they work on alphas and betas. Instantly.

I guess she was right. Before I can sheepishly drop my chin and mumble out a “please,” Duncan scrambles with the key and unlocks the door.

Dair’s room goes suddenly, deafeningly silent.

I gather what little air I have left in my body and muster one more bark, even though the words tremble.

“Leave us.”

Some vague part of my brain registers that I won’t have to worry about Dair hiding in his own room anymore.

Because it’s in pieces .

I don’t see my alpha at all. Instead, my focus flickers over the carnage he’s created while I attempt to get my bearings.

Torn curtains hang from a broken rod. A slumped mattress on a frame that’s now missing a footboard. The hunk of polished wood got thrown against a wall, apparently, where it splintered and shattered a mirror into hundreds of razor-sharp shards.

Dair’s scent—so sharp and needy —collides with me again. Slick instantly gushes from my body, perfume swelling off my chest as my nipples bead into tight points.

I gasp, staggering back a step. When glass crunches under my heel, my mind restarts.

Where is he? Is he hurt?

A low snarl comes as my answer. Nothing rabid or full of rage, like his earlier sounds. This is more like the noise a cornered animal would make.

I whip my head toward the bathroom and find him there, in the shadows of the unlit ensuite. My heart cracks.

He’s fully nude, his tattoos mixed with reddened abrasions, scratch marks, and cuts. His dark hair hangs limply over his forehead, partially covering his eyes as he gnashes his teeth in a menacing expression.

I was right earlier when I thought he might be gone. Because, in a way, he is. If I’d gotten to him sooner, before the pain took over, I might have been able to help him keep a bit of lucidity.

Now, though? He’s…

Feral .

I do my best to ignore the way his scent makes my entire body quiver, raising my hands as slowly and steadily as I can. Showing him my palms. “Dair? It’s—it’s just me.”

He growls loud enough to rattle my teeth. I swallow an answering whine, trepidation taking root in my middle. Oh God .

“D-do you want to c-come out?”

Dair goes unnaturally still, until his head cocks to one side and his chin tilts up a bit. Smelling the air , I realize. Because, at this moment, he’s basically an animal.

I’m not afraid of that. I’ve always had a particular love for damaged, lost creatures. My duke is no different—so where is this fear coming from?

When another whine tears up my throat, I trace it. Not into the pit of uncertainty teeming where my stomach should be… but much higher. To the ache in my chest.

Rejection.

He’s not coming for me , my Omega whispers, heartbroken. Why doesn’t he want me? He’s not supposed to be able to resist me when he’s like this…

Because that’s what he’s doing. Gripping the doorframe with all his might, chest heaving while he gouges track marks into the wood as if it’s nothing more than soft clay.

He’s holding himself off.

And it hurts .

I see it in the tense lines pulling at his vacant eyes. The desperate throb of his breath. And, lower… his cock is so hard, it’s purple. Leaking fluid in a visible pool between his bloody feet.

I blink at the sight—dark wood floor, pale skin smeared with crimson, a thick puddle of white cum—and something inside me snaps.

But it isn’t snapping in half. It’s snapping together .

Pieces slotting themselves into an instinct that actually makes sense .

Run , it says. Run fast .