Sixty-four nights after meeting the General #3
Inge stormed into the office, fire blazing in his eyes. I trudged after him. Espen held me up. We reeked of moonshine. Inge walked right up to his mate. His finger pointed towards Alain’s chest.
“Are you trying to control me?” he asked. The alphas had no time to take in the situation before Inge was in their face.
“What?” Alain asked.
“I can’t go out on my own now? What are we? Omegas or slaves?!” Alain sighed. He took the hand that was pointing at his chest and lowered it.
“Our enemies are at our borders. If you want to go to the market, just take a guard with you,” he said. His tone was soft. I saw how it softened Inge as well.
I felt Axel’s eyes on me, taking in my sorry state. I was leaning on Espen. Espen did not look guilty or scared at all. In fact, his features were brightened by his usual smile.
A sound startled me. Axel’s fist slamming his desk. His eyes were narrowed. They were focused on Inge.
“If you want to be abducted and tortured by the empire, that is your prerogative, but you two dragged my mate into this,” Axel said.
His voice was not raised, but he was angry.
I could tell from the coldness in his voice.
It shocked me a little. I felt Espen’s body tense up against me. Inge was not shaken.
“Your mate? Which mate?! Last I heard you were taking concubines!” Inge said.
“Don’t insult my omega like that,” Axel said.
“I’m not insulting my friend. I’m insulting my brother!”
“Do not interfere in my business.”
“Oh, excuse me my lord. I thought I was working myself to death to help out my family. It appears that I am running this castle for my king instead!” Inge shouted. A quiet anger was apparent in Axel’s eyes. It sobered me up a bit.
“Inge, have you not noticed that we are at war?” Axel asked. Inge stilled at that.
“I know. That does not mean you can undo the progress we made. If you disrespect an omega, what will your subjects do in response? Will they resume old customs? Mate us by force? Use us for breeding, then discard us? Your people look to you, little brother.”
Axel took a breath. When I saw the muscles in his lower arm relax, the veins become soft again, I took a breath as well.
“Have you considered what happens if I die in this war?” Axel asked. I felt my stomach churn. Axel was a legend. A war hero. Invincible.
“You won’t,” Inge said.
“But what if I did?” Axel asked. His eyes met mine.
“My widower becomes regent during the determination of succession,” he said.
A staggering amount of feelings I could not name hit me at once.
I was alert at once, but distant at the same time.
“How can I tie him to this place in such a manner when he has had no time to claim these lands as his home?”
My legs felt heavy. The weight of the situation was falling on me at once, as if at once the stone castle collapsed on my body.
I had been trying to survive. To mold myself into what the situation required.
To remain whole, privately, within myself, while integrating and mingling with my new reality.
“Besides, Gabriel is not like us. My omega might need time,” Axel said. His words filled me with affection. And Axel had been thinking of me. Considering my situation, quietly. Perhaps not wanting to add to the whiplash that was the past month.
But I was still an omega, still a creature of magic.
Unlike Werewolves, rather than biology or instinct, I was ruled by intuition.
Emotions that hit me like a tidal wave. I knew there was no way back.
That Axel was my alpha. Intuition overriding the complexity of my thoughts.
Calm acceptance tingled from my toes up to my skull.
“Time is not the issue,” I said. “Axel and I will handle this matter by ourselves.” All eyes fell on me.
It was hard to put into words what I was feeling.
The ways in which I was different from them.
Axel might have understood. The part of him that was made of magic might have felt it too.
The magic pulling at him, shifting and shaping him into whatever was needed.
Filling the empty space. Deciding his fate for him.
Not just the body, but the intangible parts of ourselves, taking the wheel.
“There is no reason to mate now, or to delay. It will happen regardless.”
All I saw was Axel. And I was all he saw. There was more than a physical pull, or even an emotional one. The threads of fate were tugging at us, willing us to come closer. To touch. “We will mate after the war is won,” Axel said. “Now leave us.”
He took me to our chambers. I knew the others realised what was going to happen after they left us in his study.
The tension tinged the air. Our scents converged.
A release was imminent. When the door shut behind them, Axel carried me over his shoulders to the space that was now ours.
I protested a bit when I was picked up, but the protests stopped once it clicked that the others could still hear me.
I was dropped on the bed. I was sitting up, cloak long gone.
A yelp escaped my throat. I stared into his eyes.
I remembered his anger from earlier. The cold gaze he directed at his brother.
I was not pleased to notice that it got me hot. The corner of his mouth went up.
“You did something wrong, didn’t you, omega?” he asked. His voice was low. It was cold like before, but it lacked anger. He was playing angry. Did I want to play this game with him?
“No,” I said. I turned my head away. He grabbed my silk-clothed hip. His grip tightened more than the last time we were together. It almost hurt, but not quite.
“Apologise, princess,” he said. I frowned up at him.
“Don’t call me princess,” I said. He grabbed my other hip and turned us around.
He sat me on his lap at the edge of the bed.
His strength surprised me. My omega instincts loved it.
That he was not just an alpha with highly compatible magic, but also a werewolf, and thus exceptionally large and strong.
In life I hated feeling emasculated, just because I was short or because of my features.
But with Axel it was different. Instead of feeling like less of a man, I felt like more of an omega.
“I told you that you wanted to be disciplined,” he said. I buried my face in his neck and shook my head to disagree. “I could tell that you needed me to.” He grabbed my behind. At the words, I felt a wetness between my thighs. He chuckled. I kept shaking my head.
“Don’t worry, omega. I promised to discipline you,” he said.
He grabbed my chin with one hand, and made me look up into his eyes.
“I keep my promises.” His teeth grazed my jaw.
I felt sharp canines. They weren’t that noticeable until he was aroused.
They sharpened as if ready to bite me. And he did.
Not where it mattered, but everywhere else.
I let out a sob when his teeth pierced the skin on my chest.
“Alpha!” I let go of a cry I had been keeping inside. He licked the wound left by his bite. It hurt, and I wanted him to do it again.