Chapter 12
“Where have you run off to?” Levi’s voice carried a warning edge to it that wasn’t often directed Oberon’s way.
“Ah, so you’ve noticed my absence?” Oberon settled onto the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb the man sleeping beneath the seafoam-colored covers. Outside, the sound of ocean waves lapping at the shore created a calm he hoped would help ease his omega’s nerves once he woke.
It’d been over twenty-four hours, and there was no sign Fenrir would be gracing him with his conscious company any time soon, however.
Carefully, O slipped the sheet lower, inspecting the damage for what had to be the millionth time since rousing from his rut.
Fenrir’s nipples and areola were still swollen, the bite marks and bruises scattered across his upper body still clearly visible and raw.
He was tempted to roll his omega over and check his hole again, but that would have to wait until after he was done talking with the Dominus.
Some things should remain private between a couple, even if there was no chance of Levi knowing what he was doing through a voice call.
“I told you to interrogate him,” Levi reminded tersely, “not make off with him. The Wardrobe is threatening retaliation, and his mistress—”
“Not his mistress,” Oberon snapped. His fingers traced the outline of his teeth marks beneath the second skin bandage he’d applied to Fenrir’s neck. “He belongs to no one but me.”
There was a moment of heavy silence and then, “You’ve always been relatively cavalier, but I’ve never known you to be hasty. Yet if I wasn’t mistaken, you’ve just made a claim over a man you’ve known for less than a week.”
“I claimed him after knowing him for less than twenty-four hours, actually,” he corrected. Tucking Fenrir back in, he forced himself to rise and cross the room, leaving the door open as he exited into the hallway.
“Oberon. This isn’t a joke.”
“Who’s joking, Dominus?” He started down the stairs, not wanting this conversation to wake Fenrir if he still needed his sleep.
Considering their mutual heat and rut had lasted well over five days in total, and he’d shocked the omega’s system by delivering a claiming bite, that wasn’t surprising. “I’ve marked him. He’s mine now.”
Levi blew out a frustrated breath. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“The better question is whether or not I care.”
“Asking you that would be a waste of energy, since the answer is obvious.”
In the living room, Oberon stopped before the large bay window overlooking the sea.
The beach was covered in a thin layer of snow, the branches of the trees next to the house weighed down by white.
The storm had hit just as they’d arrived, but now that there was a lull, the world seemed still and fresh.
Full of possibility.
If only he had any semblance of a clue what the hell he was doing. That was the one downside to following primal instincts. Sometimes they led you down roads with no clear paths in sight.
“What’s the plan here, Oberon?” Levi said, drawing his attention back to the matter at hand. “A heat contract has now turned into an impromptu mating.”
“Well, he’s no longer property of the Wardrobe, that’s for sure.”
“You expect me to help you now that you’ve gone over my head?” He grunted. “Why should I?”
“If you stopped being so butthurt, you’d realize I’ve done us both a favor.
” Oberon settled a shoulder against the wall, watching the waves swell and disperse down the beach.
“Don’t you think you’ve been moping long enough?
It’s been over half a year. To be blunt, Dominus, get over it.
Or, at the very least, stop taking out your melancholy mood on the rest of us. ”
“Pardon?”
“Yeah, I said it. What are you going to do about it?” Oberon laughed. “You don’t even know—”
“Should I send Baal to the cottage to retrieve you?” he interrupted. “Or would you like to rethink your stance on my melancholy mood?”
Admittedly, he was impressed.
“I own over fifty properties. How did you manage to guess the right one?” O hadn’t had much time to think once coming out of his rut, but that didn’t mean he’d been lacking options.
“It’s only temporary. According to his file, he’s been with the Wardrobe for over a decade. He’ll need time to…adjust.”
“Does that mean you’ve discovered he’s loyal to them after all?” It was clear Levi thought he was an even bigger fool for making this choice if that were the case.
“That still needs to be decided.” Oberon couldn’t tell if the animosity in Fenrir’s voice whenever he spoke of Michelle was real.
Considering how the omega seemed to struggle with his own feelings, O got the sense that mystery wouldn’t be easy to solve.
“I have Claudio doing a more thorough background check.”
“You should have stayed at your mansion,” Levi stated. “There’s far more security there than at some secluded beach cottage on the outskirts of the city.”
“How hard can handling one omega be?” He didn’t buy those words any more than it seemed the Dominus did.
“Fenrir Snow wasn’t always omega, and we don’t know how much training he received at the Wardrobe. Just because he’s been positioned as product doesn’t mean that’s true. Michelle has been plotting for months. This could be her making the first move,” Levi reiterated.
“Whether or not that’s the case, he’s out of her hands now. She can’t have him back.” Oberon would annihilate her and every damn member of the Wardrobe before allowing that to happen. “You’re always complaining I don’t take the lifestyle seriously enough, well, how about now?”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning if you’re going to go toe to toe with the Wardrobe, you can count me in. Actually, you just sit back and relax. Leave this to me.”
“What’s so special about this omega?” Levi wondered. “Surely it’s not his pretty face.”
“It is pretty though, isn’t it?”
“O.”
“What does it matter?”
Levi sighed. “That’s your way of saying you don’t know either.”
“Why do I have to?” He shrugged even though the Dominus couldn’t see the motion. “My instincts chose him. That’s good enough for me. Fenrir Snow is mine. Anyone who challenges that claim will be punished.”
“Even if it’s Fenrir? My guess is you didn’t ask him for his opinion on the matter before gifting him the bite. There’d be no reason to whisk him off if you had.”
“Are you looking down your nose at me, Leviathan?”
“Hardly.” He grunted. “If I ever find someone worthy of becoming my mate, I won’t hesitate either.”
No, he wouldn’t. There was a reason Levi was the Dominus and not anyone else. He was cold and calculating, but also brutal in his quest for control. While the White Frost respected and willingly followed him, it would be a lie to say there wasn’t also fear driving them to stay by his side.
Levi would shoot his best friend in the face without a moment's hesitation if it came down to his life or theirs. In many ways, that was what was needed from a Dominus.
But it didn’t make him unshakable.
“And the omega from half a year ago?” Oberon dared ask, mostly because he felt secure in the distance currently separating the two of them. “He didn’t make the cut?”
“He’s Kian’s younger brother,” he reminded.
“So what? As if that could stop you if you wanted him.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why all the moping?” O pushed off the wall and turned for the kitchen.
If Fenrir did wake soon, he’d most likely be starving.
Fortunately, Oberon had the good sense to order the staff to clean and stock the place while he and his omega had made the long drive.
Fully prepared meals lined the fridge, ready to be heated and consumed.
“The anger has been gone for a while, but you can’t seem to shake this gloom. ”
He pulled a meal from the fridge and got the oven ready as he waited for the Dominus to collect his thoughts and respond.
“Things changed when we found out he lost the baby,” Levi eventually admitted, though it was obvious he didn’t want to. That he wished this conversation wasn’t happening.
Perhaps this was something he should be discussing with Baal, since the two of them were arguably closer than he was with O, but since O was the one here, finally getting him to share…
“It’s not like you’ve ever wanted children,” he reminded.
“Still.” Levi growled, frustrated, either with himself, the situation, or everything. “I feel…bad.”
Oberon paused. “Are you saying you’re experiencing guilt?”
“Don’t be absurd.”
“I’m not the one being strange here,” Oberon said. “How many people do you currently have our Butcher torturing?”
“I’ve lost count. At least five.”
“Yet you’re telling me you feel guilty about some stranger miscarrying on another planet?”
“Don’t downplay it. You know it’s more complex than that.”
When Oberon had located Levi and sent Baal and the others to rescue him, he’d never imagined they’d find their Dominus high and mid rut.
The party who’d broken into his cell while Baal and the others dealt with the larger threats had been understandably caught off guard, and in their frantic haste to remove Levi from danger, they’d foolishly made the call to leave the omega who’d been locked up with him behind.
Levi had been furious when he’d come too and realized. Had slain all four of those White Frost soldiers in his fury. It’d taken months before they’d been able to get the name of the omega he’d been forced to share a rut with, but by then, it’d been too late to do much of anything.
The omega, as it turned out, had also been rescued only a day later. That should have been enough to quell whatever odd guilt Levi had felt toward the man left behind, but his identity had shattered any chance of that.
Shiloh Sobu, also known as the Prince of Eumia.
Their rival.
“If this is bothering you so much, might I suggest a trip to Glyph?” Oberon didn’t know what else to say. Didn’t know how to help him.
“And risk a run-in with Kian before we’re ready to make our move?” Levi clicked his tongue. “No, when next we meet, it’ll be because I’m wiping the Eumia Mafia off the map. Acquiring the Wardrobe will put us one step closer to that goal.”
Kian, the Dominus of the Eumia and Shiloh’s older brother, had notoriously dismantled the illegal flesh trade routes between their two planets. With the help of the Imperial family of Glyph and Synastry, he’d cleaned the streets of decades of built-up sludge and human waste.
The White Frost dealt in loans and money laundering, had steered clear of the sex trade industry themselves.
But that also meant they hadn’t done anything to try and put a stop to it.
It wasn’t until after Levi had been forced to experience it on a personal level that their ideology on the matter had changed.
Whether or not Kian realized he’d had help from the shadows was unclear, but the Leviathan hadn’t done it for recognition anyway.
He hadn’t done it out of the goodness of his heart, either.
“Taking over the Wardrobe is hardly as impressive as unraveling the trades,” Oberon pointed out. “Seems like a waste of time, if you ask me.”
“Do you think your new omega would agree with that statement?” Levi drawled, and O was forced to consider that warning.
Fenrir had been taken from the streets at a young age, groomed and made a slave.
Forced to endure chemical and medical trials until his presentation had been permanently altered from alpha to omega.
For someone like Oberon, who put so much weight in his primal instincts, that concept was horrifying.
“It’s too late to stop the spread of the drugs.” Even if they’d wanted to, they were five or so years behind. “Especially since Altair and Kian control the largest distribution centers on planet.”
“They’re working with relatively weak formulas,” Levi corrected.
“Targeted drugs meant to be used on other species to prime them for an alpha or omega. It’s a last-ditch attempt to save us, but it’s hardly the same potent concoction that was used on Fenrir Snow.
Michelle claims the Wardrobe handed over all remaining doses and all information when Altair demanded it.
Only an idiot would believe she didn’t hide some away. ”
The government didn’t want the public to fear being forcibly altered, so had snuffed out any articles or news of the drugs' creation or use. The trials Fenrir had been a part of didn’t exist as far as the people were concerned.
“There’s no shortage of alphas or omegas,” he said. “That’s the only reason Altair and Kian haven’t shown a more intense interest in the goings-on of the Wardrobe.”
The same heat-inducing drugs O had used on Fenrir had come about from those initial trials, and since those were the types of things Kian was interested in, that was no doubt what the other Dominus had focused on.
“If we had the power to control a person’s presentation, we’d be the most feared mafia on either planet.” It wasn’t the first time Levi had made his plans known to O. “Kian is too narrow-minded to have realized as much himself, but I won’t allow this opportunity to slip through my grasp.”
Oberon didn’t ask if there was anyone Levi intended to use the drug on, if it did still exist in some capacity within the secretive walls of the Wardrobe.
He didn’t really care one way or the other.
It wasn’t his place to question the Dominus. He was merely along for the ride, providing any extra funding needed to keep things running smoothly.
Though, he did occasionally step out of his box and get his hands bloody.
“I haven’t forgotten the task you’ve given,” Oberon reassured. “Or how important this is to the White Frost’s continued success. If my omega knows something, I’ll get it out of him. You just need to keep Michelle distracted for a little longer, that’s all.”
“Oh, is that all?” The sound of an engine cutting in the background came through the line, indicating the Dominus had just arrived somewhere. “You have three days, O. If you can’t find anything by then—”
“Giving Fenrir a claiming bite seems to have altered my emotional state,” Oberon warned. “If you plan on finishing that sentence with a threat toward my omega, I must advise against it. I quite enjoy having you as a friend, Leviathan. I would prefer if that didn’t change.”
A dark chuckle answered him. “Noted. You and Baal have both lost sight of things.”
Oberon thought that was the end of the conversation, but then he heard Levi mutter something else.
“May the gods bless me with never becoming an omega’s bitch.”