Fifteen Nights after Meeting the General
The binds in the Oaklands were made of metal, while the empire used rope.
All the riches in the world could not have made that wicked king use a method that did not mark a prisoner's body. My metal binds only left marks when I resisted. I never had such ambitions. I wasn’t dense enough to try and fight steel.
Where the binds grabbed me, my skin got close to frostbite, but my wrists burned more than they ached.
It might have been a sign that General Axel was merciful, despite his lack of decorum.
I had no wounds littering my body, and I was well-fed compared to even my life at the seashore. I had nothing to complain about.
A linen tunic, more modest than the rags I arrived in, covered me from my neck to my knees.
My bare feet touched the rough stone floors that led to the Grey Hall.
Two guards with mild scents flanked me on each side.
Not alphas. Not omegas. Just werewolves of the more common sort.
They all but dragged me to my fate, hoisting me up by my armpits.
All I could do was steady myself. The wooden doors that would lead me to the General's verdict came into view—a grand entrance carved with gruesome battles no one lived to remember.
Bile rose from my stomach to my vocal cords, burning a hoarseness into my voice that I would have to repress.
Two guards tugged on those doors as if they were as light as the flimsy little shutter in the tower.
The doors opened to reveal grandeur and emptiness.
Imposing and glorious, stone blocks so massive that humans could not have carried them.
A hall only werewolves or giants could have made.
Scattered throughout the place were guards in their leather armour and advisors decked out in furs.
The stone chair in the back of the hall could have actually been made for a giant, yet it did not manage to make Axel look any less imposing.
He should have drowned in the vastness of that throne.
Why could he not give me that small satisfaction?
Why did he have to look so comfortable, so proper, seated there in a fur coat that was as white as a snow leopard?
Perhaps it was a snow leopard. He certainly seemed the type to boast of his prowess as a hunter.
I could not imagine wearing the skin of a beast I had ripped apart with my own claws.
His advisor Alain stood to his left, holding a scroll.
His purple silk robes were nothing like the furs that adorned other alphas.
A beastly man that was tall even for an alpha werewolf stood to Axel's right.
Fresh scars as well as healed ones decorated his face.
A single canine tooth stuck out of his lower left lip.
Behind the men hung a tapestry as crimson as the scar on the big man's chin, embroidered with an oak tree.
General Axel was staring at me as he had two nights ago.
I couldn't tell if he wished to murder me or wished for something else entirely.
I met his eyes as much as I could, but it was impossible for me to relentlessly stare at him, the way he stared at me.
Something pulled my gaze towards the floor.
An invisible force that I knew was a curse that came with being an omega.
"Approach." Axel spoke louder than he had in the tower. It reminded me of the speech I had overheard—chilling and rough. There were comfortable tingles running down my spine. I walked towards him, stopping a few steps shy of the steps leading up to the throne.
"Speak." For someone so adamant about not being a king, he sure loved to give commands.
"I wish to be unbound first, my lord." I was not sure what came over me when speaking to the alpha like this in his own throne room. Surely he would be less charmed by my insolence in front of so many of his most influential subjects. Alain’s widening eyes seemed to agree with me on that.
There was no movement anymore from any of the alphas scattered around the hall, nor were there whispers.
I half expected to be berated or sentenced to death.
When I met the General's eyes, I saw only amusement.
"You’re a prisoner." Axel was humoring me.
It was certainly better than the alternative.
In a way, it was quite exciting, speaking to an alpha—not being seen as just another man, as much as an omega.
At least, now that I was in my right mind.
I was treading a thin line, but certainly a line I had never been able to tread with anyone before.
"The metal is cold." I scarcely recognised my own voice.
I was whining like a child. "That is no way to treat an omega.
" For a moment the tactic seemed to work, when Axel's eyes no longer showed amusement as much as interest. Before I could make use of his lack of self-control, he went back to being stoic.
It was preposterous how he was pretending to be nothing but a werewolf when I affected him so.
"So you are an omega?" It was Alain who spoke. He made me break eye contact with the Flaming General. Such a fitting nickname. The worst kept secret in the Oaklands.
"Yes," I admitted. I made myself sound pitiful. I purposely addressed each and every one of the advisors in that room, looking them in the eyes, just to get a rise out of the General. The Oaklands treated their omegas well. General Axel himself had a reputation for protecting them fiercely.
"Although you knew that already, my lord," I added. And I could make things worse. "Seeing how you accosted me in my chambers two nights ago."
The whispers grew louder, and General Axel frowned at me. It was a weak moment for both of us, that night in the tower. Him, an alpha who had probably never met an omega made of magic before. Me, a virginal omega barely out of an early heat. He gripped his armrest until his fingers turned pink.
"This is my castle," he said, peering around the room as he spoke, addressing his alphas as much as me. "I do what I want."
Alain disagreed, judging by the glare he sent his Lordship's way. The General raised an eyebrow at Alain when he should have been paying attention to me. That certainly wouldn’t do.
"I wonder how it is you could tell I was an omega when no one else could," I said. A full-blooded werewolf certainly couldn't have known my rank. Everyone in the hall was aware of this fact.
"Silence!" Axel's voice cut through the air. "Don’t waste my time." Even if the General enjoyed discourteous omegas, I knew of his reputation. Powerful men are prone to mood changes and temper tantrums, and I wouldn’t lure him out if I couldn’t put him back in his place.
I weighed my options. Honesty was the best course of action, seeing as I had committed no crimes.
"As you know, I am from Auriyonne, my lord."
"Why keep prisoners here who have come from the empire?" the burly alpha with the wounded face said. "It is safer to sentence him to die."
"I am also from the empire, Boris," Alain was quick to point out. At least there was one person here who would rather not see me hanged. "So is our General." This came as a surprise to me.
"But this boy is not a wolf," the other alpha, Boris, said.
A moment of silence fell over these halls.
With his chin resting on his hands, General Axel was inspecting me.
He was yet to make a decision on my fate, but he sure seemed interested in me thus far.
His dark eyes never left me for any reason other than a brief glance at his advisors.
"What are you, omega?" he asked. I basked in the attention. His gaze told me that he still liked what he saw when he looked at me. As long as his eyes were on me, he had a reason not to harm me.
"I will get to that, my lord," I said, taking a step forward. "As I said, I am from Auriyonne, the drowned town." I looked down at the floor, a sign of submission. “I spent all my life down south, until your savages took me from my home.”
“Why were you on the empire's watchlist?” I lifted an eyebrow at him.
“Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the emperor hates magic.”
“So you are magic,” Alain said.
“Does that surprise you, my lord?” I asked the General. “Couldn’t you tell?”
“Don't.” He gave me a warning. “Reveal yourself.” And he gave me a command.
It was better to comply, I knew that much.
I closed my eyes and focused, revealing my true colours.
I could see my streaky bangs give way to copper curls, more pronounced than the honey colour I used as a disguise.
Red hair was uncommon in the Empire, and nonexistent in the Oaklands.
"An enchanter." Axel’s accusation reverberated through the hall. It caused an increase in both whispers and stares, which was wholly uncalled for.
"I am not!” I said. He could not accuse me of enchanting him simply because he had no self-control! He looked to his purple-clad advisor for wisdom.
"He speaks truth. Enchanters do not have green eyes," Alain told him. Alain was turning out to be my sole ally in these halls. I was surprised by how little knowledge General Axel had of magic. Although, considering there were not many of us, most knowledge would be hearsay anyway.
The General's piercing gaze was focused on me again. I could only meet his eyes for short bursts of eye contact then. It was obvious he was pulling rank on me with his arrogance, and I was not used to alphas yet.
"What are you?" he asked.
"I am a druid," I said. General Axel straightened his back at this. He looked me up and down with renewed interest.
"A healer?" he asked. "The Empire is home to more than one druid?" He was addressing Alain again.
"I am surprised as well,” Alain said. "But he is not lying, he appears to be a druid."
The General stood up and his fur boots moved towards me.
Step by step he descended from his throne, until he was standing right in front of me.
I was reminded once more of the stature of an alpha, especially one that is part werewolf.
He was like a giant compared to me, not only because of his height.
He was broad and muscular and I was small even compared to human men.
It was not fair, he should not have been the size of a full-blooded werewolf when he wasn’t one.
"Acting like a threat," he all but whispered. I had to avoid his gaze. "When you are an omega healer." He said it as if it was a joke, or a lie, or a crime. I was once again being accused.
"I never said I was a threat." My voice was shaking. "You just assumed I was."
He was far too close to me now, and yet he stepped further into my space. His voice was low and dangerous. "Careful, omega." His words should have scared me, but they caused an embarrassing tingle in my lower stomach. All I could do was hold back a whimper.
"Apologies, my lord." And I looked up at his face, at the scar on his left eye, at the shaggy black hair barely grazing his shoulders.
And he looked at me, at whatever it was he saw when he looked into my hooded eyes.
And instead of taking a step back, I took a step forward, as he reached out to touch a strand of curly red hair.
"This creature withheld his magic from you. He cannot be trusted." It was Boris who broke the spell between us. "He remains an enemy.”
"He is not a human, nor is he any other sort of dangerous creature.
He is not skilled at being an enemy, even if he is one," Alain said.
General Axel took a step back, as did I.
He looked over at Alain, and looked me over once more, before reaching a decision.
I was sure he was not going to let me go, nor cause me any harm.
My eyes met the General’s, and I did what I could to avoid looking away. "You have to earn your keep, omega."
The way he was looking at me and the words he spoke did not bode well for me.
I remembered the lowborn omegas in silks parading through the courtyard. Seducing high-born mated alphas, accepting whatever gifts were thrown their way. I would not become a courtesan.
"I am not a whore."
“I can tell.” And he looked at me like he wanted to devour me.
Like I was the pinnacle of amusement, a one-man show with a happy ending.
It was an admission to that which everyone knew already.
Unlike other werewolves, General Axel could tell my innocence from my scent.
Not to mention it was an entirely inappropriate thing to say to an omega.
“My Lord.” Alain’s words must have been a warning. General Axel looked at his advisor. Alain took a step back. Slowly but surely the General made his way back to his throne. He took his time getting comfortable in his chair, while I tried not to lose faith in his judgement.
He looked at me once more, impassive and perhaps even bored. It seemed as though minutes were passing without him uttering a single word.
"You’ll work in the infirmary," he finally said. And so, my fate was sealed. “But don’t use your magic.”
“Yes, my lord.” It certainly could have been worse.