Beginning of Chapter 36

Halcyon

Love.

It had not occurred like bricks piled upon scaffolding, like a house built from the ground up with calloused, bleeding hands; sweat beading on his skin from a burning sun, and eyes blurred by its glow. For by the time he knew, Halcyon was so deeply in love there was no way out of it—conscious silenced, resistance futile. There was nothing else he could do but accept it.

Maybe it had begun in that bathroom with his ears soaked in piss, hair wet with the remains of the toilet. Or it had begun when he'd watched her in the library, trying to teach others with a frown between her brows, teeth digging into her lower lip. She'd been frustrated, pens ready to stab into Valentino's tails, profanity-filled annoyance barked from her mouth. And yet when she turned to him, she had always been so gentle. Sweet. Kind. Tender. Warm. Loving.

Something he had yet to experience with his pathetic family then. It had made him feel gloriously special, had his heart skyrocketing and pounding so hard he'd been sick with the affliction. Beautiful, beautiful mercy.

Something in his chest tugged like a hook, pulling him to her, drawing him to her, propelling him to her. His ares knew, his beasts knew that she was the one. And eventually, he knew it too with gut-wrenching acuity.

And yet.

She was an Omega.

His family had used that term to damage his young mind and pulverise his self-confidence. They had used it to stick him into the gutters of undignified suffering, had turned him into a man who had once felt like a bloated sore, weakling. Omega Halcyon, their voices echoed in his nightmares. Weak little sniffling, fat Omega Halcyon. Halcyon who deserved nothing but to be bred and chained to the ground like a dog. Halcyon who will only be a breeding stud. Halcyon who should live in a sty with the pigs.

Being called 'weak runt' had been the gentlest of mercies, a snapped steely remark from his parents. But his brothers, oh, they called him Omega with their feet to his ribs and their fists to his noses. He'd spent his childhood locked out in the barns where they kept their Omegas, crying, begging for help, nails digging against the door for escape. And those Omegas had been filthy, braying, Heat-reduced animals. They'd frightened him, pawing for his cock, salivating over his little body. Touching him.

They were crazed, wrong and dirty.

Omegas.

Women.

Fucking pigs.

He'd been the one to spit that word back into his brothers' faces when he'd ripped their limbs apart, crippling them, destroying them. There would be no one else who could take the throne. He'd made sure of that when he rendered his twelve siblings unable to do anything but live as nuggets of Alphas, as limbless creatures. And had tossed them into the breeding barns with a vindictive sneer.

Weak fools.

His first rule had been to turn them all into royal studs with a pretty laugh on his lips and a childish smile. They would be fed the same drugs they gave to those breeding pigs, in a trough just like the Omegas. His brothers could try to sire royal-blooded children with the Omegas, usurping his throne. Halcyon allowed them that hope, and had watched them sob in the pens, spending their days attempting to impregnate the animals again and again, with broken balls and bleeding cocks.

Torture.

His parents could only stare with deep respect and horror as he commanded that power without an ounce of mercy. Oh, his fathers didn't go down quietly. There had been attempts to collar him in the night with assassins, with poison from poseidons, with Alphas that tried to seduce him. But of course, they all lost their tails, their fingers, and then their toes.

Halcyon was too fucking strong.

They should have known when they'd forced him to mate with Dante. They should have known when the zeus had pressed his hands to his shoulders to protect him and Halcyon lived. Oh, but of course they needed a fucking show, needed Halcyon to fucking blow up before they understood what they had created.

A monster.

His brothers drugged them both with all kinds of aphrodisiacs meant for bigger beasts, calling an assembly to watch what they'd called: The runt's transformation into an Omega. His parents had known when a giggling court had crowded into his bedroom, hungry for death and shame, excited to see a first night of blood, pain and humiliated tears. His brothers wanted him naked, splayed and begging for cock. Maybe that was what had made him go fucking crazy, disappearing into a blood-pounding blackout rage, an SSS-ranked rampage, and Dante helping him along with a lazy, murderous smirk.

He believed himself worthy then, worthy of her, finally able to stand before his moon, Alpha to Alpha. Only she wasn't an Alpha. His head ached. Omega. After all the shit he'd gone through, Halcyon was in love with an Omega. How cruel the world was, to have made his moon an Omega. He'd been speechless at first and had tried not to think about it when she'd swept him into her Heat with more lucidity and power than the Omegas on his planet.

She wasn't dirty like they were.

She didn't seem like an Omega, so beautiful in her pleasure, so exquisite, so elegant. Nothing like those animals. And he'd allowed himself to drown in his love, had been so desperate for hers with Valentino and Altair fighting for her affections that he could forget about what he truly felt towards Omegas, what it meant to be in love with one.

He'd do things right for her, give her everything an Omega needed. He felt like he knew what it was like to be an Omega in this world. And it wasn't her fault that she was one. He still loved her. And there were moments when he just didn't care about what she was, drunk with lust, drunk on love. Making love to a girl he'd always loved had been an indescribable joy he could never truly explain. A connection that had tears in his eyes, and jubilance that made his world go all fuzzy. He thought he hated pussy, but hers was different.

Rue was still his moon.

But he'd been agreeable to the whims of his mate, to Dante's ploy to keep her caged. Surely an Omega would appreciate being safe. Surely, they needed to be captured, to be enslaved for their happiness. And then he was on his knees, silenced by a mere Omega with her rage billowing so sweetly from her skin.

Power.

Rue was always stronger than he was.

He was wrong to forget that, to throw away the years she'd spent convincing him of her strength. The Omega status was not deserving of her. It shouldn't be what he should call her. It should not be what the world should call her. It couldn't contain her. And those days when she'd left?

He'd almost gone insane.

It was indescribable, the despair that he felt despite Levi's reassurance that she was alive. That his shadows were lingering on her skin despite her words. But the seconds felt like years, the hours were decades. And there was a numbness in him, a lack of motivation, an inability to focus. A blackout rage had him destroying their room—a fact he'd hidden from his mates. And when he was done, he'd sat trembling with her clothes in his hands, tears in his eyes, aching in his temples, all drained, all lost, all needy.

Blood on his knuckles.

Rue.

The Omegas on his planet were immediately upgraded, with better living conditions, more space, and more leisure activities. He worked on that in a maniac frenzy, whispered on his lips, wide blinking. No sleep. He was deteriorating so quickly; it scared him. And yet he couldn't let his mates know, didn't want them to know. They didn't need to know how much he loved Rue.

I'm doing good, aren't I, Rue? I did what you asked for. He'd spoken to the walls and pictured her smiles. What more? He'd mumbled, scoured the books, the archaic pictures of Omegas. What more do you need from me? Four days was enough to break him, and when she'd returned like that to their home? He'd struggled to hide his insanity, his need to capture her in his arms and never let her go. He buried it in lust.

His incisors grew dripping hot liquid in his mouth.

Our mate.

His mind whispered.

Mate. Mate. Mate.

He had her so close, so ready, so wanting. Her pussy squeezing around his cock, her back arched, neck bared. He'd stared at the spot where he'd sink his teeth in, to have her bucking against him as he knotted her with his teeth in her neck, mingling their souls. Her cries muffled in his palm as he orgasmed with the lock of a claim on his Omega.

An Omega, Halcyon? You want an Omega? His brother's voice echoed in his ear. Runt Halcyon only deserving of an Omega mate. Runt Halcyon lusting over the weakest being in the world—But Rue was strong, so strong, so fucking strong she could force them to their knees. All seven. And did it even matter what she was?

His lips pressed into a thin angry line.

Rue was his, and Rue would be his for good. If she was an Omega, then she would be his Omega. It felt then as if his love had been poisoned. A reverence was lost from his soul, mind now battling with the associations, the words, with what being an Omega meant. The Omegas on his planet flashed through his mind. The fantasies of Rue with a cock to fuck him were gone. And replacing it now was a generous need to corrupt, to take, to bury, to hold.

His Omega.

His.