Chapter 36
Darion
Darion had chosen to eat his morning meal in bed with Kyntha, both thoroughly sated after a night unlike anything he’d ever experienced.
The omega’s heat scent had clung to him so viciously that his cock refused to soften after coming again and again. It wasn’t until nearly dawn that he was spent.
He wasn’t a complete fool—he knew his body was mistaking Kyntha for the omega. But his mind was focused on his future mate, and his heart was hers, as well. And he let her take everything the omega had tried to steal for herself.
Kyntha went right back to bed after eating, tired but deliriously happy, and Darion kissed her on his way out, feeling more at peace than he had in weeks.
Everything was as it should be, and there were no conflicts in his heart to confuse him.
At least, until he entered the training yard.
The wolfkin were not practicing. They stood in clusters, talking and whispering amongst each other like young she-wolves.
“Get to your positions,” he barked.
And then the wolfkin turned to face him, and he took a step back in surprise.
He was greeted by dozens upon dozens of angry faces, marred by broken noses and blood they had not bothered to clean.
“What is the meaning of this?”
No one answered.
Some of the wolfkin crossed their arms, others spat on the ground, while still more simply narrowed their eyes and snarled.
He could hear his father’s footsteps before he smelled him.
“Council Chambers. Now.”
His father’s voice was controlled, but the thread of rage woven between his tone and words was enough to feel the threat. The disappointment.
And to be addressed like that in front of the wolfkin was humiliating, a father speaking to his son as if he were a mere pup and not days away from taking over the clan.
He trailed his father through the castle, wondering what could have possibly angered him and the wolfkin. What could have injured them.
Had the Bloodmoons attacked some time in the night? No, he hadn’t been so far gone in his furs that he would have ignored the horns.
Was there some discord among the betas? Another formal grievance?
The guards outside the Council Chambers also each sported a broken, bloody nose, and snarled as Darion passed. He couldn’t keep his hands from curling into fists at his side, and decided to deal with the impertinence once this was over.
It was only the Sabletail alphas in attendance this morning, and he was almost surprised to not see Reinn, the smarmy fuck. That meant this was a private clan matter.
Once the door was closed, Darion spoke, too confused and bordering on nervous to wait for someone else to begin. “Why do all the wolfkin have broken noses?”
“In protest of you!” his father barked, slamming his fists on the table.
Darion froze. “Me?”
It didn’t make any sense. He thought himself a fair alpha, and nothing had changed among the wolfkin since last night. There was nothing he could truly think of that would turn them against him in such a bizarre manner.
His Uncle Norden had a hard gleam to his eye. “Because of your refusal to tend the omega.”
And just like that, his confusion turned to fury, a low growl building in his chest. Why did they all favor the lying she-wolf so much? “She brought it upon herself.”
“How?” Eidan demanded. Darion turned towards his older brother, who looked like he hadn’t slept a wink all night. “What could Fern possibly have done to suffer such a fate?”
He would not tolerate his brother’s soft-hearted approach to the omega, and responded quickly. “She induced the heat.”
Darion thought that was explanation enough, but the blank, angry stares said differently.
His Uncle Karn snapped, “For the gods’ sakes, Darion, would you punish a rose for wanting to bloom early? Explain to us why this is a problem, because all I see is an omega in need of her alpha and ripe for breeding.”
He was about to explain, but then stopped, remembering that his family did not know about the promise he’d made to Kyntha. They would find it foolish. Overly indulgent. They wouldn’t understand.
“She is acting out of spite because I prefer my future mate, and she wanted to occupy my time and attention before the ceremony to hurt Kyntha.”
His father slammed his fist on the table. “And this is precisely why we advised against you taking the omega as your Naravekh! You do not have the ability nor the desire, for some strange reason, to adequately care for both, and our entire clan is now in upheaval.”
“But why?”
“Her guard,” Eidan answered, his body tense. “Fern’s scent, so laced with pain and despair, made it impossible for him to stand his post without collapsing into agony himself. He broke his own nose so he could do his job.”
A lump formed in his throat. He had scented her from the hall yesterday, but hadn’t considered how it might affect those who walked by or were stationed near her room.
He was about to suggest bringing her to the dungeons until it passed, but that seemed a touch too cruel.
“An untended omega suffers until her body begins turning against itself,” Eidan continued. “And so the wolfkin broke their own noses in solidarity for their omega suffering in isolation, and for their brother in arms, forced to ensure her safety while her own alpha does nothing.”
“It is not nothing, it is a consequence! She manipulated her own body against me.”
The punch came so quickly, he did not know he’d been hit until he fell back against the wall.
Eidan stood before him, fist cocked and ready to hit him again. “She’s an omega! Her body is doing what it’s supposed to do! You’re the only one who’s manipulating her into acting unnaturally, making her believe her instincts shameful.”
They bared their teeth at each other, brother against brother, ready to trade blows until his father spoke again.
“You have failed her for the last time, son. I will ask Alpha Cyran to tend her through this heat and take her back to Ironcoat Castle after the ceremony to be his mate.”
A brief image appeared in his mind of the silver-haired bastard mounting the omega while she moaned in pleasure and it was too much, causing something savage to rise inside him.
He would not cede her to anyone, especially not that prick.
“No!” Darion roared, pushing Eidan out of the way to better address his father. It mattered not that he did not want her as a mate. She belonged to him. “She is mine. I marked her, I—”
His father walked around the table, and Darion silenced himself. His father stopped mere inches away.
“The clan is fractured, son,” his father said, so close he could feel his father’s breath on his cheek. “And you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Darion blinked, wondering how the hell he could fix this. Physically, of course he would prefer to be knotted in his omega at the moment, but that would mean rewarding her. It would mean she knew now exactly how to get whatever she wanted.
“Tend her, breed her, and pray the wolfkin may forgive you.”
It infuriated him, but if this was what the clan needed, he would do it. They were more important, and he could find a way to punish the omega later.
“Aye, Father.”
He turned and left the Council Chambers at once, fuming and trying to think of a way to apologize to Kyntha. That despite his promise, despite what the omega had done to her and him, he would still tend to her.
I will do what is needed and no more, he told himself, ignoring broken nose after broken nose. Ignoring hard stares and harsh whispers.
There would be no comfort. No sweet words. No touching beyond…
He turned into her hallway and felt it.
Darion stumbled, holding out a hand and leaning against the wall for support as her scent penetrated not only his lungs but every pore of his skin.
Her misery, her hopelessness. The despondency.
It felt like wading through thick mud as he walked, each step harder. Each step threatening to falter and bring him to his knees where there would be no hope of rising again.
The guard stood steadfast outside of her door, nose broken as Eidan had reported.
His eyes glowed in the low light, his pupils blown, while his hand gripped on the pommel of his sword so tightly it looked like he could snap it off.
At the sound of his steps the guard whipped his head towards Darion and growled.
The guard’s wolf was right under his skin, taking over what he could to help the man survive.
“What are you doing here?”
The guard’s voice was so low, Darion would almost mistake him for an alpha.
“You have served the omega well, but I will tend to her heat. Stand aside.”
The guard braced himself, as though he meant to defend her from any intrusion, including her own alpha.
“She is finally about to receive relief, no thanks to you. Be gone before you make it worse.”
Now it was Darion who growled, baring his teeth. “Who attends her now?”
“The healer,” the guard spat. “He’s found a way to help. Leave her be.”
“Stand down!” Darion ordered.
The guard drew his sword. “I promised to defend Lady Fern against all threats, Alpha Darion. And today, that threat is you.”
A broken sob broke through the door, and Darion clutched his chest.
Solas’s Hells, her scent was twisted. When he’d been here yesterday, it was full of pheromones, meant to entice. Meant to encourage days on end of constant consummation until breeding was successful.
But this?
It felt like death.
“I will not say it again, stand down!”
The alpha command seized the guard’s muscles, and he dropped the sword.
Darion moved him easily to the side and opened the door, bracing himself for her more concentrated scent.
But what he saw instead was the healer on the floor with her, helping her drink something from a small bowl.
She looked so small, as though she’d lost almost a quarter of her weight in one day, and she’d already been small to begin with.
Her skin had taken a pallid tone, her lips were chapped, and her eyes were dull.
“Small sips,” the healer said quietly, sweetness in his voice the omega did not deserve.
The healer was ignoring him.
“What is it you give her? More willow bark?”
He looked at him, his brow pinched. “What does it matter to you?”
Darion was losing his patience with the clan. How had they all turned against him in the matter of a day? Most of the wolfkin barely knew the omega. Had ignored her as the Ashpaw.
And suddenly she was worth disrespecting their alpha over?
“You’re the one who gave it to her to begin with.”
Now the healer simply looked confused. “Why…”
Understanding widened his eyes, but they quickly narrowed again. “Is that really what you think happened?”
“My lady told me,” he said, gritting his teeth, “that the omega left your ward with willow bark. That you helped her into this situation.”
The healer blinked, then chuffed, shaking his head and looking up to the ceiling, muttering to himself before bringing his gaze back to Darion again.
“I’m glad to hear you started to read the book I recommended, Alpha, but it’s only too bad you ended on the first paragraph.”
Darion froze. He remembered something, shortly after claiming the omega as his Naravekh, about a book the healer had wanted him to read so as to better understand the she-wolf’s nature.
Where had he left that book? And was that the text Kyntha had referred to?
“Because if you’d continued, you’d have found that the researchers later discovered omegas didn’t chew on willow bark to induce their heats, but merely to relieve the symptoms preceding them.”
Darion looked down at the omega, and his mouth ran dry. He tried to swallow, but found his throat refused to cooperate.
“She… she still could have thought…”
The healer rose up quickly, cutting the space between them and poking him hard in the chest. “She came to me thinking she had some human illness. I told her she had all the signs she was falling into estrus and she didn’t even know what that was!”
Darion desperately searched the healer’s face for a hint of deception, but there was none.
Only hatred and frustration.
So if he wasn’t lying… if the omega really hadn’t induced her own heat, nor even tried to…
Then this was natural.
She’d done… nothing wrong.
And she was suffering because… because…
Because he’d blindly believed Kyntha once again without doing his due diligence.
Had Kyntha…?
No. She couldn’t have been lying. He would have sensed it.
But she allowed her own jealous heart to rule her, and he in turn had allowed it to rule him.
“And you know what the saddest thing about this is?”
Darion blinked, feeling a hot stinging sensation behind his eyes.
“She knew you wouldn’t tend her, and asked me to find a way to suppress it.”
He blinked again, longer this time. “And did you?” he asked, his voice almost cracking.
The healer snorted derisively. “I did what I could. She’s just taken a powerful sedative, a twilight sleep. She is awake, but only barely, and will not remember the pain when it ends.”
He began to pack up his things, checking on the omega again, whispering to her quietly.
She seemed lucid, but muted as she nodded to him, and Serich covered her nakedness with a blanket.
Then he rose and headed for the door, only stopping to address him.
“But just because her mind will forget, do not think the body is so forgiving.”
He leaned in further.
“You would be lucky if she ever went into heat again.”
Darion fell to his knees, barely hearing the door slam shut behind him.
“Gods…” he whispered. “What have I done?”