Dante
It was worse at dusk.
The hour when the world seemed bruised, when the sun fell, when things got too quiet, and the heaviness of every day seemed to disappear. It sat in his mind, a constant burning hum, low and throbbing beneath his sternum like an awful second heartbeat, like a twinging ache that refused to go away.
The bond.
The bond he refused to complete.
You will remember me.
Oh, he did. He fucking did. The crack in her voice, the sob through shaky lips. The salt of tears in the air and then her fucking disappearance, the way she had wafted away from his eyes like dust, like sand. Rejection. His Alpha had howled, and some part of him tore. Some part of him had seemed to die.
She doesn't want us.
She doesn't need us.
She took Valentino.
Valentino's her first now.
Valentino's her pack Alpha now.
Dante was pack Alpha. He should have been first. But there was no leash to pull, no mates to dominate. Dante had let them both go. His fists had clenched, white knuckles, his blood stinking the air.
She didn't fucking understand. It was blasphemy, blasphemy for an emperor of One to take an Omega as a mate. It would be like fucking a goddamn dog. They would be a laughing stock, a goddamn joke, the worst emperors in history. His body shook then, sweat beading cold on his skin.
Dante was the zeus who killed. The emperor that sat alone, the royal who was a fucking freak, an alien who murdered all. His cheeks paled, breaths escaping him in sharp pants. He would become the strongest emperor with the weakest mate. It'd be fine if it were just him, just Dante. Just crazy fucked up Dante.
But he'd dragged them all into this mess.
His six.
His mates were fucked because he let his guard down. It was his job to keep everyone in check, to protect them and the world. And now the turmoil burned, stung on his tongue. The tears. The agony. His sins. Dante had failed as pack Alpha. He should have locked her in a fucking cage—
Altair's hand was on his shoulder, gentle, and he spun, rage flashing in his eyes. "What the fuck do you want?"
"She's on Five."
Dante bristled, spat, and burned. "I don't want to know where the fuck is she—"
"Valentino's locked down all transport, and the portals are down. There's nothing going in and out. If we want to reach them, we'll have to take an airship. He went as far as to push out Kieran and Levi with a fuck ton of pulse beacons."
His mate scowled, annoyance revealed by the tongue to his cheek. The weapon Valentino used was weak, pretty damn superficial, merely an annoyance for his mates. It was just a touch political if they pushed too hard on another planet's territory. And pulse beacons were weapons made to defeat the aliens from Two and Seven.
Already, peace was going to shit.
"They respect his warnings for now. But they can push through if you say the word," Altair's smile seemed almost sadistic. "We could blow Valentino's port to bits."
"Who fucking cares—"
"You're not a bad Alpha."
This had Dante pausing, turning sharply to his mate who was just as besmirched by the Omega, just as in love. He looked at him then, staring into Altair's eyes. The knowing innocent blink was all he needed to see. "You're reading my emotions."
"I know what it's like," Altair drawled, "I know what it feels like to be betrayed like that."
"How can you?" Dante spat.
"Look, Valentino chose her over me, his Aphrodite," Altair snapped. "I have a fucking stamp on my belly that tells me I'm his. I was born to be his. We're meant to be. And he chose her. He picked her first. He didn't even want to touch me when he had his first Rut. That shit's sacred." His laugh was almost mechanical, bubbled out like a curse. "And now? He's blocked me out from Five. I would never have imagined he could do that, but he did. He doesn't fucking care when it comes to Rue." There was a roll of his eyes and a scoff. "But I'm used to it."
Dante glared. "It's—"
"It's not the same," Altair agreed easily, a shrug on his shoulders. "I know," he soothed. There was pity in his eyes, and Dante hated the look of it. "But I get it."
"You like her."
"I do," Altair shrugged.
"You're fucking infatuated."
"I am." Altair's eyes were sharp then. "But you are too." That had him rearing back, his heart pounding hard. Altair's words were sharp, soul deep and too fucking honest. "You want her so bad that it breaks you, destroys everything you believe in."
He couldn't fucking deny it. Lying to Altair was like lying to a goddamn mirror. "We can't have an Omega," Dante snarled, waited for the fucking rage from the aphrodite. The rage that his mates shot his way, stabbing into his chest again and again.
"I agree."
Dante blinked, stared at Altair with wide eyes. His breath hitched. "You do?"
"Logically, yeah," Altair hummed. "Our parents will kill us. If we were a weaker pack, we'd be disowned. Weaker emperors? Stoned by our citizens. It's unheard of. We're leaders, we should do what's good for the people. We choose our birthright over all else. Omegas are third-class citizens, and we should be realistic." He listed the facts off with a smack of his lip. "What's good for the people is having a fuck ton of offspring. A ton of alliances with many different bloodlines. A whole horde of kids to take up our spots when we die, uniting the galaxy. It is our duty."
Dante stared at him then, brows dipping into a frown. Altair had never believed in bloodline matching.
Altair snorted. "I've got a couple of grumpy old farts banking on us taking in their Omegas in. Mating Rue will kill them all. We already struggle to keep those Omegas alive, and with Rue we're going to now struggle to even cum in another. We'd be locked down, tied up to one. It's not right, and we must fulfil our duty. We've always had to." Altair's gaze was far away. "The plan was for Rue to just have a couple of kids who look like us. And now?" Altair barked out a laugh. "Our whole bloodline might end with her."
"You…" Dante's sneer was cold. "You don't fucking believe all that. You're in love with her."
"Yup," Altair nodded. "You're right. Besides we've never had any success with Omegas. Not until Rue. It works out."
Dante hated that he did not deny his accusations, that the word 'love' did not even scare Altair. It had his Alpha growling within him, steaming with a strange sense of inadequacy. "You'd do things your way. You'll listen to Valentino." Like a dog with his master.
"I will."
"So what are you fucking doing here?" Dante snorted. "Are you patronising me?"
"You stupid fuck. You love her too," Altair snarled. "Your Alpha would not have claimed her, knowing the weight of your actions. Your Alpha's honest. And you're not."
That felt like a fucking slap.
Dante was silent then, speechless from words that felt as if they were breaking something inside him. There was a battle within him now, turmoil growing as logical reasoning sizzled with swaying emotions. The silence stretched.
His mind was shifting quickly, glazing now to the fantasies, to the object of his fixation. Rue could stand a foot away, and his eyes would slide over her like water on glass. She only existed in his dreams now, and yet he still felt her presence throbbing in his chest.
The anger, the betrayal, her desperation, her acceptance, her grief, her pain. And then the sorrowful fucking truth. The truth that he buried so deep within himself that he was starting to think it was all a falsehood. And with it was their broken bond, twitching and writhing in flames. He could feel that she was getting better in Valentino's arms. He could feel it when she bit Valentino, euphoria twisting from the depths of his soul. It was fucked up that it had him feeling relieved, thankful, maybe even grateful. Altair's words? They pissed him off. It made his body fucking boil. Why did he have to unearth his pain?
Dante could not speak.
Altair sighed. "But you love your people more. You love us more. Pack alphas lead and protect; they don't get to choose," Altair said. "So you ache, you burn. I…I guess I understand."
Something inside Dante tore. "I fucked up," Dante whispered, floodgates open. "After my Rampage…I believed that I hurt her. That I did something without her…"
"Consent?" Altair murmured.
"I was horrified," Dante scrubbed a hand across his face. "I let myself go. I didn't control myself. I could have killed her. I could have killed everyone. And when I woke from my Rut, from my Rampage, she was claimed by me. How did that happen? How did I allow that to happen? I was sick to my stomach."
"She could have died."
"I was selfish," Dante agreed. "I chose myself over all else again." His mind swam to the room. The walls, the cell, the shaking knowledge that he had almost killed another person he loved again. "I never break my control. If I let myself go, I kill. I hurt her. I hurt everyone. I can't. We can't." His eyes closed. "I'm pack Alpha. I'm an emperor. I have to do what's right."
"So what are you going to do now?" Altair whispered.
Dante blinked, lips parting. But the blare of an alarm on his device was what startled him. A flash of a report pulled up immediately in a blinding crimson. His eyes swept across the page, twisting over the words. Fuck. His rage grew, touched with a tinge of sadness. His soul seemed to crack then, solidifying and twisting, a cage slammed over his heart.
Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Altair's voice wavered, already reading his emotions, tasting the bitter twang. The waver of the greatest mistake they had ever made. "What's wrong?"
His snarl rippled from his throat. "She's actually a Titan." The monsters swam in his head, the books bloodied with a fallen time. The secrets buried in history. "She's a fucking Elder God. A Hera who consumes…" His fingers swept through the report. A city of blood, a world of puppets controlled by monsters. A time of death and suffering led by Omegas. A world of death and broken bonds. His mind spun, breath growing thin, oxygen choked in his throat. "She's got the same fucking ability. I—" Dante spat out a choked laugh. "I fucking knew it."
It was always a mistake.
They were all in danger.
Valentino.
God fucking damn it.
Valentino.
"What?" Altair's voice was sharp with surprise. "What do you mean?"
"It's hypnotism. What you feel, what I feel, it's not a fucking Alpha's command. It's a fucking illusion. It makes us protect her, it makes us choose her." Dante choked out through an almost-sob.
He'd fucked up.
He'd fucked up so bad.
He paced now, fingers running through the articles, the secret tomes, the bloodbath. "She's never been what you and I thought she was. It's her ability that makes us want her. She's just a parasite meant to destroy those in power, to ruin us." His exhale was noisy, twisted as his chest tightened. There were tears burning at the back of his throat. "A queen bee. I see now."
"Calm down—"
"Don't you get it?" Dante howled. "She's fucking burrowing into our bonds and breaking our fucking pack apart. She's a being that can make us feel as if she's our soulmate. And she does it just so she can destroy our bond and turn us against each other to weaken us, to make us do whatever the fuck she wants. She's a fucking monster, and Valentino is in danger."
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