Chapter 15 #2
“About your origins?” Like before, Oberon easily picked up on Fen’s train of thought. “That was definitely a shock. Seeing you conjure a tiny blizzard was surprising. Don’t blame me for how I reacted, yeah? Anyone in my position would have contained you the way I did.”
As much as he hated to admit it, that was fair. If their roles had been reversed, Fenrir certainly wouldn’t have stood by and waited for the other guy to attack him.
“Since you seem to finally be in full control,” Oberon said, “let’s talk about the important stuff, shall we?”
“Is there something more important than the fact I can shred you to bits with a wave of my hand?” Fenrir drawled. “Or that I promise I won’t if you just let me go?”
“Don’t get cocky, precious. It’s too early for that.”
“Some might argue it’s too late.” He tugged pointedly at his chains. “You have me where you want me, King.”
“On the contrary,” he disagreed swiftly.
“I want you back on my dick. Preferably riding me as the sun sets. I want you cuddled at my side. Want you sharing a shower with me in the morning, and seated across from me at the breakfast table. It’s honestly insane how much I want from you.
How fast these desires formed within me.
Before now, no one would have ever accused me of being domesticated, omega. ”
“You…” That didn’t sound like they were waiting for men in white to haul him off to a lab. “Are you planning on fucking me again before the Butcher gets here?”
“Fiora?” Oberon blinked at him. “What does she have to do with anything?”
“You called her.”
“I did. She’s a biological anthropologist. I needed to know what you are so I could come up with a plan.
You were about to turn the entire house into an ice box.
” He gave Fenrir a lengthy once-over, as though seeing him for the first time.
“You aren’t afraid of this thing between us.
You’re scared that I’ll hand you over to Fiora. Why? Are you afraid of torture?”
“I’m—”
“No,” he answered for him. “Is it because she’s a doctor and a scientist? Oh. You’re afraid I’ll let the White Frost experiment on you. Precious. This isn’t the Wardrobe, and I am not Michelle. I told you. You aren’t going anywhere. You’re only allowed to be with me.”
“You’re so full of shit.” There was no way the Oberon King wanted any of the things he’d listed prior, especially with someone like Fenrir.
“We don’t need to play this game. Just tell me what you really want.
I’ll decide if it’s worth giving or not.
You don’t need to pretend this is anything other than what it really is. ”
His brow lifted. “What is this?”
“I’m product,” Fen sneered. “You’re a buyer. That’s all. You got your kicks, had your fun. I wouldn’t still be here if not for—”
“The animosity between the White Frost and the Wardrobe?”
Unbidden, his gaze slipped to the alpha’s empty wrist. O had a bad habit of forgetting to attach his multi-slate.
“Are you considering calling for help?” Noticing where he was looking, Oberon held up his hand and twisted it in the air mockingly. “Too bad. Even if there was a way for you to get it, it’s not on me. Do you even have a number to call if it was?”
“No.” Fenrir rested his head back on the pillow, tired of straining his neck.
He needed a plan. Under the guise of flexing his fingers, he tested his power, trying to see if he could summon even a fleck of ice.
There was a zap at the center of his chest, but it sputtered out before he could get a solid grasp on it.
Whatever Oberon’s aim had really been, he had successfully drained most of Fen’s energy.
It would recover, but what to do until then…
“In case you’ve forgotten this detail as well,” the alpha said then, “we’re no longer in the city. I don’t imagine the Wardrobe allowed you to travel much while you were…under their care.”
Fenrir snorted. “Of course a mafia member would consider them treating me like property care.”
Oberon tilted his head, and it was impossible to miss how his attention intensified. It was painfully obvious that whatever kindness the alpha had been affording Fenrir, it was over now. “Is this the part where you try and convince me you aren’t working with Michelle?”
Finding out that he was a Shout was already bad enough, but it was clearly past the point where denial might have been considered. Having no clue what he’d revealed this past week when he’d been consumed by dangerous levels of energy and pheromones, Fen also couldn’t pick an angle.
He wasn’t getting out of this.
“Are you going to kill me?” he asked blankly.
If he meant it, and they weren’t going to use him for research into Shout/omega hybrids, then there was only one other logical option.
“If you were hoping to use me as a hostage, let me save you some time. My mistress doesn’t give two fucks about me.
She won’t give you anything to have me returned. ”
“If she ever tries to lay a hand on you again, I’ll cut it off,” Oberon growled, the vehemence in his tone momentarily surprising Fenrir. “Hell, I already want to after reading your file, Wolf.”
Fenrir winced and then pulled away some, not managing to get far while chained to the bed. The reaction was fairly out of character for him—he hadn’t cowered before anyone not dressed in a lab coat—and he couldn’t figure out why he was so concerned about the alpha’s mood.
Even Michelle’s ever-changing temperament hadn’t affected him to this degree.
“I’m White Frost,” Oberon continued, obviously misinterpreting Fen’s reaction. “It was easy to gather intel on you once I knew it was necessary. There’s nothing you can hide from me. What was that about saving some time?”
“What do you want me to say?” Fen was a terrible secret agent?
Sure. He’d give the alpha that. In his defense, this was the first time he’d been let off the estate without a team of guards surrounding him.
All things considered, he thought he’d done a pretty good job. Unless… “How long have you known?”
“That you’re the Wolf everyone whispers about?” Oberon crossed his arms. “The Leviathan told me the night of the party.”
Fen frowned at him. “That was before we—”
“It wasn’t like I was going to return you after dropping eleven million coin.”
“So you did do something to me during my heat.” If the alpha and his Dominus had known from the start, all the more reason to suspect them. “I wouldn’t have suffered from an influx unless you had. I don’t do that anymore.”
“Not for over a year, correct?”
“Since you already know, why bother asking?”
“Because I want to see if you’re ready to tell me the truth.”
“That’s rich, coming from you.” The bastard still hadn’t answered his question. “Was the heat inducer spiked?”
“No. Why would I do something like that?”
“I’m struggling to understand why you’ve done any of the things you have.
” He pointedly glanced around the room, the muscles between his shoulders protesting.
How long had he been stuck in this position?
“This doesn’t look like a prison owned by the White Frost. Where is your General?
Don’t tell me he’s hiding under the bed. ”
“We’re alone here, precious. I would never allow anyone to see you like that.”
“Like what? Forced to ride a toy until—”
“The first time I restrained you, it was without sexual—”
“Choose your words incredibly wisely, King. Even if you did it to help get my energy under control, that doesn’t change the fact you left me attached to a sex object for days on end without my consent.”
“Consent?” Oberon chuckled viciously. “This is Synastry, Wolf.”
“I don’t like being called that.”
“By me?”
“By anyone.”
“What does it mean?”
“That I’m her pet.” Hundreds of years ago, the alphas of their species supposedly kept wolves as companions. Now, only the Imperial family sometimes kept them, but ever since Fenrir had recovered, Michelle had taken to keeping him at her heel.
“The Wolf is said to be seen with the Mistress of the Wardrobe more than her right-hand man, Trick P’at.
” Oberon twisted so that he was fully facing him.
“Yet his identity has been carefully kept under wraps all this time. We first got wind of you about a year ago, when the whispers began, but even our hidden soldiers couldn’t catch sight of you. ”
“I wasn’t allowed to leave the fifth or fourth levels of the estate,” Fenrir explained. “Those are her private floors. No one is allowed up without permission. She even keeps a separate cleaning team.”
“From the sounds of it, that means it was just the two of you and possibly a handful of guards at the exits. So, why didn’t you make use of your power and free yourself?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“I’m failing to see how that could be the case.” Oberon took a step closer. “When your energy spiked, you destroyed my living room. It kept snowing indoors on and off for three days. Then you passed out, and I moved you here.”
The bed he was lying on wasn’t wet—unless the puddle of drying come and slick counted.
“Seems like this room was safe,” he said.
“The point is, if you have the power to conjure a storm, surely you could take on Michelle, alpha or not,” Oberon persisted. “They say the Wolf is the only male she’s ever shown an interest in.”
Fenrir clicked his tongue. “Don’t believe everything you hear. She and Trick have been screwing behind the scenes for close to a decade.”
“How do you know that?”
“They’ve told me.” If his arms weren’t bound, he would have shrugged, wanting to downplay it so he wasn’t misunderstood.
“It wasn’t because they trusted me. It was because they trusted that I would never get out from under their control.
The fact I’m a Shout mix breed is the only reason they’ve kept me this long.
Michelle used me to deal with business setbacks and traitors.
Invite them to her personal floors at the estate, introduce me as a docile omega, and let me get close.
The Wolf rumors were meant to help bolster the illusion.
People let their guards down when they think they’re in the presence of a pet.
Guards they would be wary of. But they paid me no mind. ”
“You killed them.”
“That was my purpose. A weapon to be turned on her enemies.”
“Like me.”
“You weren’t supposed to be there that night.”
“Ah,” Oberon hummed. “I get it now. That’s why you tried so hard to ignore me at the auction. Let me guess, Note Hex was your target all along? That means you’d failed right from the start. It’s interesting that Michelle allowed me to take you at all.”
“There was no set target,” he confessed. “It just had to be a member of the White Frost. Michelle has felt threatened by you guys ever since the Dominus of the Eumia joined hands with Imperial Prince Altair.”
She’d feared the Wardrobe would be next in their crusade to rid the planet of illegal substances. The fact that they were located in a city far from the capital had worked in their favor thus far, but there was no telling how long that would last.
“It’s no big secret that Altair plans on scrubbing the streets of Rebirth and drugs like it once he takes the throne,” Oberon said. “But the White Frost and the Eumia are far from allies.”
“That’s the problem. It’s no great secret that your Dominus frequently finds himself in competition against theirs.”
He didn’t deny it. “When the Wardrobe was ordered by Altair to cease production and hand all of their research over, they did so without a fight.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“No,” he agreed. “Only a fool would.”
Was that what this was about then? Had the alpha been ordered by the Leviathan to work Fenrir over? Were they hoping to get their hands on the drugs before Altair and the rest of the competition could?
They didn’t have much time.
There were other planets in the universe that housed species similar to theirs, and one in particular that could benefit from the effects of Rebirth.
But could Fenrir risk telling this alpha about that?
As soon as they’d gotten what they wanted out of him, they’d discard him. There was nothing to help him prove he’d switch loyalties, and people like the mafia didn’t waste time on anything other than absolutes.
No, Fen could only tell him what was needed to keep the conversation going.
He’d keep the alpha talking long enough to recover some of his energy stores.
And then he’d trick the man into touching him long enough to send an ice spear straight through his heart.