Chapter 20

Hu Yetao didn't pay any notice to what direction or which corridors Oscar was leading him through to get to their new shared living quarters. He was exhausted - mentally and physically - and just wanted to curl up in bed with his mate. Oscar kept shooting him little concerned glances but was saving any questions for when they were alone.

Hu Yetao blinked as they finally stopped in front of an ancient wooden door in a familiar part of the castle. "Hey, is this the third-floor corridor?"

"Yes, do you know it?" Oscar asked as he withdrew his wand and tapped the iron handle.

"Yeah, kind of," Hu Yetao replied, mouth curling into a slight smile.

Oscar looked relieved to see his mate's smile and turned to open the door. "The door will only open for the two of us. Professor Amber said not to key anyone else into the wards because if you're caught out on your heat then you need somewhere to escape to that people can't follow, and anyone could attack you, even close friends who you would normally trust to be alone with."

Hu Yetao nodded solemnly. After today he would never take his safety for granted again.

He followed Oscar through the door, gazing around curiously as he entered and walked to the center of the room. The room was about the same size as the Gryffindor dorm room, except that it had one bed instead of five. There was one large window on the far wall which opened to the outside. The bed was a large wooden four-poster and was covered in a deep green quilt. Hu Yetao smirked but refrained from comment as he continued to look around.

There were two other doors in the room; one was open and showed a small attached toilet, and the other door was closed.

"That one leads to a secondary bedroom," Oscar explained when he saw Hu Yetao glance at it questioningly.

"What for?" Hu Yetao asked, turning to him. His eyes suddenly widened. "It's not for a… a baby is it?"

Oscar laughed and shook his head. "No Taotao, it's not. It's just another room to sleep in if either of us needs some time alone. It locks from the inside, so you could also potentially spend your heat there as well."

"Ah…" Hu Yetao nodded and walked over to open the door. The room beyond was very small and contained a single bed, a single set of drawers, and a toilet area. Hu Yetao frowned; there was no way he was going to spend twenty-four to forty-eight hours in that tiny space, his pulse quickened just at the thought of being locked in there.

He shut the door and turned to face Oscar, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching him. Hu Yetao slowly walked up to him, eyes lowering to the quilt. "Professor Amber didn't choose the color scheme, did she?"

Oscar smirked, following his gaze and running a hand over the soft quilt. "No, I don't believe so."

Hu Yetao smiled and kicked off his trainers next to the bed before climbing up onto it. He lay on his stomach with his head at the foot of the bed, chin resting on folded arms.

"Mind if I join you?" At Hu Yetao's nod, Oscar removed his shoes and lay on the wide bed, mimicking Hu Yetao's pose next to him, elbows touching.

Hu Yetao sighed and closed his eyes. "I'm tired."

"Do you want to sleep?"

He opened his eyes again and laid his cheek on his arms as he turned to look at his mate. "No, not really; I feel exhausted but my mind won't stop whirring, you know?"

Oscar's answering smile was tinged with sadness. "Yes, I know."

"I don't think I thanked you, for earlier," Hu Yetao said quietly.

Oscar's eyes narrowed slightly. "You never have to thank me for helping you Hu Yetao; it's just what we do for each other."

Hu Yetao smiled. "I'm glad you said it's what we do for each other and not it's what you do for me as my Alpha."

Oscar chuckled. "You may be the Omega in our relationship but you're still Hu Yetao; brave, powerful wizard and vanquisher of evil dark lords."

Hu Yetao laughed and felt his heart swell with a warmth that he couldn't put a name to.

"I do feel different since coming into my inheritance though," Oscar continued. "Flight used to always be my reaction of choice, as you know, but now… my fear for your life seems to override any fear I have for my safety. It's… odd. It must be how you've always felt," he added.

"It's not that I'm exceptionally brave or anything," Hu Yetao responded, trying to put it into words. "It's just that I've always felt somehow responsible for a lot of what was happening. Chong Li was after me, he killed my parents because of me. If other people got in the way of getting to me, they became expendable, so I was just trying to avoid that as much as possible."

Oscar nodded in understanding. "Still makes you brave though," he pointed out.

Hu Yetao smiled. "Nah, just guilt-ridden."

Oscar smiled as he blew some fallen strands of blond hair out of his eyes. "You should know that Professor Amber thinks you're rather special. She said the pair of us are special."

Hu Yetao snorted. "Yeah, in what way?"

Oscar's expression turned serious and a slight furrow appeared between his brows. "She thinks we are more in control of our baser instincts than most Alpha/Omega pairings."

"Really?"

"Yes, I didn't think much of it at the time, but I was able to carry you to the infirmary and leave you with Madam Chen Zihan while you were still in heat. Most Alphas are unable to think past their arousal once they get a whiff of their mate's heat pheromones. She also mentioned the fact that you can think enough around Alphas to attempt to stop them, and what's more, you're able to do it while in heat. That's incredibly rare. She said she's never heard of an Omega being able to do that before."