8. The Accident
THE ACCIDENT
I was never one to back down when threatened. I hardened my expression, saying, “Calm the fuck down, will you? I was merely suggesting that you watch out for dangers!”
“Then I should also suggest that, rather than seeking our help, your father should have just given up the alpha who stole Count Kaelith’s daughter and broke the peace treaty. A decade-long bloodshed could have been avoided!”
It was not the first time I heard a similar argument, but it was no less infuriating.
Of course Nocturne would blame us rather than the vampires. It was true that an alpha warrior from my clan broke the treaty, but the truth was far more complicated than that.
The werewolf who “stole” Kaelith’s daughter was Alfhild, an alpha female, one of our greatest warriors.
She saved my father’s life on more than one occasion.
She fell in love with Kaelith’s daughter Lucille, who reciprocated her feelings.
Alfhild went through the whole intricate, tedious, and pedantic process of proposing marriage to Count Kaelith.
She did everything right, but Kaelith refused all her attempts, wanting to send Lucille to the Vampire King Solomon, to be his concubine so that he could gain more power in the Sanguine Court.
The thing was, Lucille was pregnant with Alfhild’s child at the time (and yes, female alphas can impregnate other females and omegas). Count Kaelith was going to force her to abort it. To save their own child, Alfhild and Lucille eloped.
Kaelith was enraged. He demanded that my father hand over the pair, but my father didn’t want to betray his dearest friend’s trust. He offered a hefty amount of gold and treasures to appease the vampire court, but it didn’t work. The vampires attacked the village where my mother and I lived.
At the time, I was taken to Jarlstead to be trained as my father’s heir, so I was the only one who escaped the bloody massacre. All the villagers were slaughtered, including all the cubs and omegas. My mother was among them.
I wasn’t there when the slaughter happened, and I didn’t even get to see my mother’s body, because they were all burnt to ashes after the vampires were satiated from their blood feast. But I had been having the same dream over and over, as though I was present when my mother was murdered.
I sometimes wondered if my mother was trying to tell me who her murderer was so that I could avenge her.
It was only the beginning. The vampires had been waiting for an opportunity to breach the treaty so that they could invade werewolf lands with full legitimacy. Count Kaelith was even awarded handsomely by their king for this very reason.
And now, these arrogant southern bastards who probably hadn’t killed a single vampire in their lives, dared to imply that we started all this, and that we deserved all the death, including my mother’s.
I barely held back my temper and hissed, “So you think my father should have betrayed his best friend, sent both her and her cub to a very painful death?”
“If it’s one or two people’s lives against hundreds, then yes! This is the duty of a jarl! He should have done what’s best for the clan rather than putting his personal honour first!”
“The vamps slaughtered a whole village without warning! Cubs included!”
“Still, it was your clan that broke the treaty first!”
The last string of self-control in my head snapped.
I let out a growl and swung my fist at him.
He blocked it, having anticipated my reaction.
We wrestled like two mad dogs, splashing water everywhere.
In the chaos, I couldn’t tell who had the upper hand.
I landed a few solid punches on his face and his chest. He had also given me several solid blows.
At a certain point, we grabbed each other, trying to hold the other one down on the edge of the pool and end the brawl. I was almost successful at pinning him down when he suddenly winced in pain.
I realized I was putting too much pressure on his right side, which was heavily bruised from when the serpent had swiped him against the tree.
I immediately loosened my grip, not wanting to exacerbate the damage, but that was exactly the chance the brat had waited for to overpower me.
He grabbed my right wrist and twisted my arm behind my back, then shoved me face down onto the top stair that was slightly higher than the water’s surface.
I growled in frustration, trying to buck him off me, but his grip was tighter than a vise, and his knee pressed into the small of my back.
No matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t turn myself over.
When he also caught my other wrist and twisted my left arm behind my back as well, I finally stopped struggling, just lying there, catching my breath like a stranded fish.
His panting was also heavy and hot, with a hint of the wine on his breath. His naked body was so hot that the heat was burning my skin, and I could practically feel his heartbeat through the vibration of his chest.
“Stay down!” he commanded, though slightly out of breath.
“You tricked me!” I gritted my teeth.
“For a fierce northern warrior, you have a surprisingly soft heart.” He chuckled. Small puffs of air tickled my left earlobe. “Why do you care if I was in pain? Winning is everything when fighting.”
“I have honour! Unlike you!”
“You northern clans and your honour ... It’s impractical,” he commented, shifting his body slightly. For a brief moment, I felt his erection brush against my thigh, and it made my skin prickly in a ... strange way, like static currents were coursing through my body.
I didn’t want to admit it, but I could feel my own reaction, too. It must have been the excitement from the fight ...
Turning my head to the side, I glowered at him as much as I could, yet I was unexpectedly sucked into his beautiful dark eyes. His grip on my wrists had already loosened, but for some reason I couldn’t explain, I stayed there instead of kicking him in the balls, as I was supposed to.
I should have hated this position, to lie beneath another alpha, yielding my dominance and submitting like a beta or an omega.
Everything I’d learnt since I was a little boy told me this was wrong, and I should have punched him in the face or kneed him in the crotch to take back my control.
But for whatever reason, maybe it was the wine, maybe I was exhausted, I just didn’t feel repulsed ... On the contrary, it was ... thrilling.
He suddenly turned me over, his fingertips sank into my shoulders, his eyes staring at me with such rapt focus, as though he was in a trance. He raised a hand and brushed a strand of wet hair away from my eyes, and said in a husky voice, “I like it when you look at me like this.”
“Like what?” I was slightly surprised by how raspy my own voice was.
“Like you’re either going to claw my eyes out,” he purred, “or about to kiss me.”
“Why don’t you find out?” I said, hearing my own frantic heart thump. Then I did something I really shouldn’t have done. I moved my head to the side, just a little.
That small, barely noticeable gesture of baring my neck triggered something within Damien.
He let out a predatory growl before seizing my mouth with his.
We bit into each other’s lips and tongue until the taste of blood filled our mouths.
I felt his hand wrapped behind my back, pressing me firmly against his scorching hot body; every inch of skin rubbed against each other.
My hands roamed hungrily on his back, feeling the texture of those thick, firm muscles shifting under my fingertips.
It felt so different from hugging an omega or a beta; his back was thick and strong, with subtle roughness of scars, and there was nothing soft about him, but it was strangely satisfying and addictive, and I couldn’t stop my own hands.
He ground against me, rubbing our lengths together, and it was maddening. I groaned loudly, pushing my hips up to chase the sensations. We moved rhythmically against each other, and our heavy panting sounded ragged and primal.
His hand trailed down my back and grabbed my buttock, rough and possessive. No one had ever touched me like that before, and part of my brain was screaming at me to kick him in his nuts and show him who was the real alpha, but I just ... didn’t want to.
I also didn’t stop him when his fingers began to poke around my entrance, where no one else had ever touched before, making me jolt.
It was the strangest thing, ever, letting another male alpha, whom I was fighting only moments ago, touch somewhere so private, so inappropriate.
Yet, I felt excitement buzz through my body like never before, so much so that I shuddered, and a throaty, yearning groan escaped my mouth.
“Do you like that?” Damien hummed into my ears.
“Don’t fucking talk, hmm …” I inhaled sharply when his finger breached into the uncharted land.
My fingers dug into the skin on his shoulder, holding him tight as though grabbing a floating log on a river. He shushed softly in my left ear, his other hand cupping the back of my head, rubbing gently, saying, “Shh, relax, it’ll feel good, I promise.”
His gentle scalp massage somehow eased my nerves, and I clumsily tried to relax. I’d told omegas or betas who had lain with me to relax before, but now I knew how challenging it was, especially now being on the receiving end for the first time.
His finger went deeper than I thought a finger could go.
It was a little uncomfortable and weird, not the usual kind of pain that I was used to.
I held my breath, my eyes tightly shut from shame, knowing that I was allowing another alpha to do this to me, but the shame somehow made me want it all the more.
But then, suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot straight up to my brain. I made a whining sound before I could hold it back, and it was so foreign that I couldn’t believe it came out of my mouth.
“Found it,” Damien whispered triumphantly into my ear.