Chapter 3
Gregory
Sweat dripped from my forehead onto the red-hot metal below. Each hammer strike sent sparks flying, the clang echoing around Adam’s forge as fire magic flowed from my left palm, keeping the steel burning ember-red.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
The rhythm was supposed to clear my mind and bring the usual meditative calm, but each strike only rekindled flashes of this morning.
Evan’s broken scream.
His wet clothes clinging to his shivering body.
The ghost of jasmine and desperation in my nostrils.
And more unforgivable, the memory of my fingers wrapped around his throat.
Fuck.
I channeled more magic, the metal responding to the dragon fire as I shaped it with precise hammer blows. No bellows, no charcoal needed when my very blood burned.
Forget. Just forget.
The sword was almost finished, its edge gleaming with the magic I’d imbued into every fold of steel. Rain had started pattering against the roof of the smithy, and thunder rumbled in the distance. If I didn’t finish soon and get back to my cabin, the mountain path would become treacherous.
I stopped mid-strike and let my head fall back, taking a deep breath. My hair was drenched with sweat and plastered to my scalp. I ran my hand through the wet strands, searching for some semblance of center.
Flames danced in the forge, a devil’s mouth in the dim shadows, and tools dangled from iron hooks on the stone walls. The comforting aroma of coal smoke and forged steel usually soothed my nerves. Today, it offered no peace.
The red haze unleashed by Evan’s pheromones was fading, leaving behind the sick realization of what I’d done.
I’d almost killed him.
The man who’d spent two years chasing me with single-minded determination had seemed ready to shatter into pieces.
Not once had Evan let his scent free like that. He’d always kept it masked, controlled, hidden beneath whatever suppressants omegas used in town.
Night-blooming jasmine with dark undertones, impossibly sweet and intoxicating. The intensity of it spun through my head, so different from the gentle floral notes he usually carried at the flower shop.
And I’d almost fallen for it.
The wet blouse clinging to his chest hadn’t helped. The translucent fabric revealed his pale skin, the peaks of his nipples, and the gentle curve of his ribs.
My cock hardened, throbbing with need as I imagined ripping that soaked material away and claiming what was mine.
The urge to pin Evan down right there by the lake, to bury myself deep inside his tight, clenching core until he screamed my name instead of whatever madness had overtaken him, had overwhelmed me.
It was a need to possess, but also a terrifying compulsion to obey.
Omegas didn’t make alphas like me want to submit. And they certainly didn’t smell like that.
They learned control at a young age, especially those with power in their blood. Scent and magic were intertwined; the stronger the scent, the greater the magic. Noble houses hoarded their omega children like precious gems for this reason, breeding them to pass on rare magics.
Evan had insisted he was nobody. Less than nobody. Magicless.
He would say it with that self-deprecating smile, detailing his inability to coax a single flower to bloom despite working in Genevieve’s shop.
Even Genevieve, the Elder beta whose own earth magic was legendary in the village, couldn’t teach him.
The other villagers had pitied him for it.
An omega without magic was a bird without wings.
No omega with the kind of pheromones I experienced from Evan earlier could be magicless.
Both were bound by blood and birthright.
Either he’d been lying all along, hiding his power for reasons I couldn’t fathom, or some latent power had awakened in him today.
Which meant he was more dangerous than I’d realized.
That’s why I could never trust his sweet words. There was more to Evan than he revealed, secrets hidden beneath that gentle florist facade.
But the true horror, the most devastating truth, was what I’d discovered six months ago when he staged that fall into my arms at the market.
He was my mate.
Recognition had struck like a lightning bolt—undeniable, terrifying, and impossible to ignore.
The moment our scents mixed that day, it was a primal hum of awareness.
A chord struck deep in the soul, and the terror in his eyes confirmed he knew it too.
A bond should be a joyous discovery, but for me, it burned more like a curse I couldn’t acknowledge.
He knew we were bound, but he was blind to the rest. He had no idea of the monster he belonged to.
The Unholy Alpha.
That was what they made me. The knight who burned too bright, who killed too many.
And for what crime? For being the last descendant of the royal dragon’s blood—a legacy the Asterian Empire feared enough to destroy, lest another Dragon Lord from the Emberfall Cliffs rise to challenge their throne, a power they sought to control.
“Well, well.” A thundering laugh boomed behind me.
“I didn’t think going to meet that boy would leave you so shaken, Gregory.
Keep this up, and you’ll end up melting the very walls around you.
” Adam stepped closer. The old knight—who’d taught me everything about combat, and who still seemed to believe he could teach me about life—had worry and amusement lining his weathered face.
“Shaken? Hardly.” The retort was automatic, though my hands shivered from more than exertion. “Focused on getting this finished ahead of the storm.”
If the old man weren’t getting on in years, we’d be the same height. Now he slumped, though his frame was still a solid six-five and built with the muscle of a lifetime warrior.
Adam clapped a firm hand on my shoulder, and the familiar surge of his lightning magic jolted through me, a gesture of comfort he’d used since I was a teenager.
“Oh, son, I know you better than you know yourself,” he said. “You can’t keep blaming yourself for what happened. It’s been five years now. The Empire will not find you here.”
A comforting lie. No matter where I hid, they always found me. The Asterian Empire had slaughtered my entire family when I was a child, leaving me alive to serve as their weapon.
Better to control the beast within than to let it run wild.
Even knowing what I was, what I’d become—a monster, a killer, a man whose presence guaranteed ruin for everyone involved with him—Adam took me in. He hid me here in Mossfen. Though this was a land of flower farmers, it was his home. And against all odds, it had become mine too.
“They found me once already,” I whispered, setting the hammer down with a thud. “What makes you think this time will be different?”
Adam stroked his gray, tightly coiled beard, mulling over my question. “Because their reach is not what it once was. Valoren won its freedom for a reason, Gregory. The Empire’s long-range portals have weakened.”
Tucked away in this newly free kingdom, Mossfen was supposed to be a haven beyond their reach, owing no allegiance to Asterian’s throne. It should have been enough to keep me hidden.
Should have been.
“If they find you, your home is here. And if we need to fight…” He strode toward the open door of the smithy, giving me his back, then peered over his shoulder with a knowing grin. “Then we remind them what happens when they corner monsters.”
Lightning struck overhead, the boom deafening under the tin roof as a harsh white glow illuminated the entire smithy.
I burst out laughing for the first time that day. “What can an old man like you do against them?”
“Enough to put you on your ass before you even blink,” Adam retorted. “Don’t mistake gray hair for weakness, boy.”
His expression sobered, the humor vanishing as quickly as it came.
“But that’s not the battle you’re losing.
When will you open your damn eyes, Gregory, and stop being a fool about that boy?
All you’re doing is hurting both of you.
I’ve seen what happens when mates are kept apart for too long.
That omega is tougher than most, but everyone has limits.
You’ve kept him waiting long enough. How much longer do you think he can take? ”
I shook my head, grinding my teeth. “That’s why I can’t trust this.
He showed up from nowhere. Nobody knows where he came from.
No family, no past. He rented the room above Genevieve’s shop and paid her with coins from who knows where.
And this morning…” I stopped, remembering how wrong the entire encounter had been.
There’d been something else in the air—biting, acrid, with an otherworldly tang that prickled at my senses.
Portal magic.
It had to be my imagination. Had to be.
“He wasn’t himself. The way he looked at me was as if he didn’t recognize me. And his scent…” I trailed off, not sure how to explain it. “It was stronger than any scent I’ve detected from an omega. Almost—”
I let my hands go slack at my sides. “I thought it was another one of his games, that Evan was lying to me. I reached for the fire of truths, Adam.” The raw confession tore from my throat.
It was the ruthless judgment of my bloodline, a searing flame that could force the truth from anyone, even the Emperor himself.
“But I lost control,” I choked out. “The beast inside didn’t just want answers.
It wanted him. The magic surged, feeding on the bond between us until it became an inferno.
I found no lies, only truth, but that clarity lasted barely a second before the fire consumed it, and I burned him anyway.
Hurt my mate. Branded my mark into his skin like the abomination I always knew I’d become. ”
I couldn’t meet the old man’s eyes. Revulsion churned in my gut. I was a monster, through and through, and once again, I was going to destroy anything good I touched.
Holding my breath, I listened as the forge’s hammering faded into silence—the hiss of cooling metal, rain pattering on the roof, the distant thunder—all drowned out by a suffocating calm. I braced myself for a scolding and steeled myself for disappointment.
Adam’s firm grip landed on my shoulder once more.
“Dragon fire has a will of its own, Gregory,” he said in a somber register.
“You know that better than anyone. But to turn it on your mate…” He gave a slow shake of his head.
“That is a wound that may never heal. For either of you. He may never forgive you.”
He didn’t call me a monster. He stated the grim truth, and that cut deeper.
Adam went mute after that, and the silence between us grew heavy and focused. I dared to look at him. The comforting mentor was gone. His face hardened, becoming sharp and distant. When he spoke again, his words carried an urgency that hadn’t been there before.
“Where is Evan now?”