Akhutenan had known Enzo Casas since he was a child. He wasn't much older than him, and at one point, as child, he thought there was something he knew about the world that Akhutenan would never know.
And then, Enzo left the Sonhrai Capital Wadj, one of the oldest academies in the empire. The main teachers were masters in their fields of mathematics, shipbuilding, housebuilding, stone carving, woodworking, and literature.
He realized then, as he buckled under the pressures of his grandfather and his father's easy life, that Enzo Casas was clever, intelligent, and well-read but foolish.
The only reason a man wants to be a soldier is to prove something to his people.
He wasn't a prince, a duke, or anywhere in line for the throne without more than half of the empire dying off overnight.
It was as if the young man was obsessed with the ideals of grandeur as he greased hands with the mercantile districts, played games with the locals, and held debates with the scholars. His fingers were in every pie.
The unanswered question wriggled in his mind for years like a worm in a half-eaten, rotten apple. Until now, he understood.
A sharp blade sliced over his cheek like wax as he dodged another swing from the Zhuong soldiers' swift jabs. His elbow swung up and knocked the weapon out of the soldier's hand, locking his arm out to cleave his neck clean off.
He was fighting for his life in a way he hadn't had to do before. There was strumming in his blood and adrenaline spinning in his heart as his hands swung through the air with the wind's sharp push as he punctured hearts, snipped at jugulars, and listened to the gurgling of his enemy's death throes.
It was the rush of relief when he won. A fire he hadn't burned before stirred and the misgivings he may have had about war were distant.
It was about achieving under insurmountable odds with your own two hands, your mind, and a will to live.
He yanked the sword out of someone's chest with a crack and sighed.
It was over.
With his two equally trained companions, if not slightly better because of their acuity and what felt like their well-practiced, recent bouts with death, spurred the battle into something of a game. A game of skill.
This was not their first battle to the death, perhaps, not even today.
As the battle dwindled down and the Zhuong's Crown Prince's guards could handle the few stragglers, he followed his two new battle companions to where the Crown Prince sat. They were inattentive as his eyes flitted between them and the ambassador's dead body beside his feet. His hands roughly searched the robes as his peripheral vision noted no change between their movements and eyes before his hands caught three missives.
He raised them and thumbed the small sheets open, reading their contents. His face turned pale as he read what had happened to his brother at the wedding and hurriedly tucked the sheets within the pouch tucked at his hip, as the guards brought attention to Akhutenan. For such sharp and well-measured writing, it felt the missives were more threatening than warning.
His eyes couldn't catch what the third had written, where the first two were bad enough the third had to be worse. An assassination plot on Jata Niara and his brother's disrespect, as part of the Zhuong's plot to infiltrate Sonhrai, is only justified as a coincidence. It was polite to offer congratulations to "allied" nation and then leave. If someone took advantage, it wasn't on them.
Anything that happened in their departure could be attributed to others.
Even the so-called burning of their granaries, which the Prince threatened them with. He doubted the Sarakhs would be so audacious, but he wouldn't be surprised if the sly scribe ignored the acts of others in that.
Not that it mattered.
The Zhuong Crown Prince was furious, but the most Akhutenan could read, outside of the energy of anger and heat emanating off, was his tight smile and furrowed brows. There was no attention brought to the granaries or even a wisp of it.
Burning the granaries had never been the point.
Drawing out him and the ambassador was but Akhutenan was too exhausted by this political intrigue to care.
Royals were not normal people.
"Your countermeasure failed, Prince Yeong-su," the male warrior said as he slipped his serrated and rather heavy-looking sword into its sheath. He slipped the wrapped cloth around his mouth under his chin and carried a humorous, mischievous expression underneath it. A pale but rather handsome face appeared with an angular jaw. "You should give the Sonhrai more credit."
The Crown Prince snorted. "The Ambassador is dead and that's all that matters to me. No credit to be doled out."
"And the Jade Panther's disregard didn't spurn your anger, Your Highness," Akhutenan spoke with a tilted head, offering some respect rather than the lack his warrior companion did. "My brother raised the ire of the Empress' harem because of that action.. It's luck that he wasn't executed for treason under these circumstances."
"Oh, that poor boy," the female warrior scoffed as she lowered the cloth covering her face under her chin as well. Her face held a tanned color closer to Sonhrai than anywhere he's seen in Zhuong, but, for some reason, the lighter beige flicker reminded him of his brother's in-laws. Her rounded features offered him the belief that she was younger than her warrior companion. "He was covered in gold, expensive dyes, and wore the royal dressings. Who would believe he could guess what suffering is?"
Akhutenan snapped then, with his adrenaline still spinning in his veins, "Our family sits at the heel of not one but two imperial families, like dogs roped at the guard bridge. You may not know this as someone content to hide their identity amidst war, but some of us have to carry the burden of our name."
"No one requires that you carry a burden at all," the warrior retorted and then she huffed. "Only someone who uses their own ideals as baggage would say something like that. I've heard them call you the Warrior Prince, in jest, I imagine, because what sort of alpha deflects their responsibilities onto the existence of nobility. As if you're not nobility. It's laughable!"
The male warrior put a block between them and laughed as Akhutenan's reaction to the insult on his brother was to glare. "Apologies, Commander, my sister in arms gets heated after a good battle. She has her own misgivings about nobility. Something that I hope you can understand after the violence that has been committed under both Empires."
"And Zhuong has committed none?"
The male warrior laughed again but said nothing as he returned to his place behind the Zhuong Crown Prince, as the sister in arms did as well with an irritated sigh.
Wind whistled up the hill as the fringes of the granary roofs trembled. The dead bodies below them smelled of iron but on this uphill you couldn't tell there had been a battlefield at all. It smelled of pollen and fresh tree leaves. Even the remnants of the Zhuong Crown Prince's tea from earlier wafted over. He imagined the angry but constrained countenance of the Prince was due to this privilege.
The battle was a close one.
Had he known, he couldn't see how the Crown Prince could be so calm.
"You know," the Crown Prince said coldly and then glanced over his guards. "I do wonder how you found out about your brother's incident. I swore my Crown Princess Consort and I whisked you away before you could see such a debacle. Odd, isn't it? Ba-ram, search him."
Gleefully, the alpha reached over and searched his armor, but there was only the pouch that she could easily reach. She snapped off the pouch from its straps and then opened it, pulling out the two previously read sheets.
She recited the missives, "A Jade Panther will be offered at the wedding. They plan to use this as a cover to be dismissed while also being acknowledged for their open arrival. It can also be used as a reason to escalate the need for the Zhuong Crown Prince to replace the current ambassador. Avoid escalation. Choose your options, wisely."
"It seems someone was onto our small plan," the male warrior said with a grin. "May I see the missive? I do wonder who was meant to read this."
The other alpha handed it over and then began to read the second, "The plot succeeded. We arrived too late to prevent it. The only consolation is that a royal relative, Nathaniel French, the brother of Akhutenan French, was involved instead of a regular civilian. Civil escalation can't be used to cause strife. Royal in-fighting may escalate instead."
Internally, he sighed in relief that the third was tucked in his upper arm chestplate only because he wanted to read it as soon as they moved elsewhere.
"I say we kill him here," the smiling alpha said as he was handed the second missive. "It wasn't much but it's certainly too much for the Commander to know."
The woman alpha unsheathed her two blades as the Zhuong Crown Prince raised his hand to stop her.
"Where did you get it?"
"The ambassador's robes."
Both of them stared at each other as Ba-ram, or Valerie as her companion called her earlier, unfurled her lips and growled.
"The two missives," the male warrior interjected. "They're written with two different writing styles. This suggests you as one of them. And we can't have that."
"Are you one of my brother's spies?"
"No."
"The Emperor Consort's?"
Akhutenan blinked at the thought that the Crown Prince's omega father would work against him. He tucked it to the back of his mind, and then said, "No."
"Then I agree," the Zhuong Crown Prince said in resignation. "You'll have to die."
"Wait!" Akhutenan raised his hand as Valerie hissed. He continued, "I can't remember how different the writing style was, but look at the calligraphy. One has square, evenly thick handwriting, and the other is sharp, like a blade, but Carolingian is known for--"
"Looping handwriting," the female alpha angrily said as she slid the swords back into the sheath and gestured to look at the missives. With one quick once-over, she sighed, "I hate to agree, but he's right. For a Carolingian noble, I can't see him writing like this."
Akhutenan would have to thank his omega father for being so strict during his calligraphy lessons. But he couldn't admit it saved his life, or he would never hear the end of it. An appropriate thank you was still necessary.
Just the thought of it reminded him that he hadn't seen his parents in such a long while. He thought he could keep away long enough for the embers to die down but with the war--it was impossible.
And now, he missed them like the ache of a missing limb.
Even moreso, his wife deserved the truth.
He shook his head.
"You disagree?" The Zhuong Crown Prince said with raised brows. "I presumed that you wanted to leave."
Akhutenan returned to the conversation at hand.
"I do but I believe if I leave now, then," Akhutenan's eyes fell on the three figures with grave seriousness. He remembered the plague disorder and chaos of his empire, even as a youth. "Sonhrai will fall into chaos at the thought of fighting on two fronts. Disorder between ministers and factions will splinter. I can't leave and allow you to reap all the benefits, Your Highness. Your plot didn't succeed but it made damage."
The Zhuong Crown Prince laughed, and the male warrior shared a grin.
"In this matter, we both hold a bit of our own lives in each other's hands," the Zhuong Crown Prince said ruefully. "I will make peace about what happened with your brother and no longer break bread with the Mawaddah Clan. In return, you will keep what happened here silent. The ambassador died by the hands of her enemy during a routine check of the gifts we ordered her to place at the granary deposits."
Out from their wagons, hidden under leaves and underbrush, came crates of grains hitched on the shoulders of the guards stuffed into a kajawa that looked suspiciously like the one Ambassador Chen commonly used.
Well, it explained why their traveling group was so large.
"And I will return to our ship as we await instructions," the Zhuong Crown Prince said. "I expect you and my companions here to do the rest. Return to the Molokhiyya palace and inform them. Ah, and somehow it slipped my mind."
Akhutenan said, "Yes?"
"As a gift, I should tell you that the Sonhrai Crown Princess is the one who greeted me immediately upon entrance at the port," the Zhuong Crown Prince shrugged. "I thought it was a plot but she kindly directed me to the palace unguarded. Perhaps she wanted the ambassador dead sooner than I or there is something deeper to this."
The Commander frowned and then nodded. He wasn't sure what to do with that but he hoped that someone at the Campgrounds or Jata Niara could.
The two warriors bowed deeply, while Akhutenan felt a wave of trepidation under his skin; he was ready to leave. They escorted him with a few guards at their backs as the Zhuong Crown Prince smiled over his shoulder. He should've felt relief that it was over and the battle had been won.
Yet, it was only escaping the fire and jumping into the oil.
Enzo peered through the window at the reappearance of the Orellanos at the Campground entrance. He believed that they had returned to offer support for Nathaniel or was readying to port and return home. But his little web of vendors and civilians whispered a different story.
He wasn't sure what it was but even Neal's behavior earlier was strange. His mind had been caught on his brother's odd behavior that his reaction to Neal had been pushed to the back of his mind.
Honestly, for having known how close Neal was to Akhutenan or his admirable rise in ranks from a nobody to a Captain, those are no easy feats. How could he have done so without backing?
And from whom?
At first, he thought it had to be Akira Lin from the way Titus acted, but Neal and Ahanu's reaction to their connection appeared truthful. Whoever was in the Orellanos' inner circle, it wasn't Akira Lin or Kinya Sarakh.
His lips twisted as he realized that Neal Orellano's disarming kindness and seemingly easy, open nature put Enzo in too comfortable a place. It was too late to prepare against him. All he could do is watch and bolster his defenses against the questionable interests of the man.
There were a few guards at the door of his brother's cabin and he opened the door to find Castillo Reviere already waiting with a large wooden crate behind him. Furnishings and some sort of plush cloth pushed out from the inside through a few of the openings on the exterior. The crate had several circular openings throughout the sides, like breathing holes.
"Where is your significant other?" the rogue cloth merchant said with a perusing glance inside the empty cabin. "He seems the territorial type."
"He returned to the dungeons because my dear friend, Beckett, needed help with some of the Crown Prince's records," he said, knowing that those two things were the Carolingian Crown Prince's weakness. A stroking of his ego by a pretty face and research records he hadn't gotten to read before. "He should be busy for a short time."
"What will you do if things don't work out?"
The merchant said it so irritatingly honest that his reflex was to lie.
But he said, "Then I'll change my plans," and nothing else.
Whether the Carolingian Crown Prince was fairweather or not, it wouldn't change Enzo's goal of leaving the Casas family bigger and greater than it was before.
It changed little to nothing, actually.
He wasn't sure why that was disappointing.
"Sounds cold coming from you," Castillo scolded but humor tinged his voice, as if he were one to talk about respect. "He's the Crown Prince, you know."
Enzo snorted and then glanced pointedly at the crate behind him. "Did the Orellanos say anything when you walked in with that?"
"No, but I think they both know what it is and only question why it's here."
Enzo gestured for Castillo to move aside and out of the doorway.
"I was reading the Crown Prince's papers on omega and alpha dynamics," Enzo said as he motioned for the guards to move next as he walked towards the crate, assessing it for any damage. "I think this should do nicely for what's about to happen."
"You haven't explained to me why it's here either," Castillo added. "I feel a bit out of the loop. What is about to happen?"
"There's a play about to begin involving the Zhuong Crown Prince and the Sarakhs against Lawali, Jata Niara, Akhutenan, and the rest. The El Mahdy and the Ambassador will sit in the middle, leaving a question to solve whose answer may decide whose war we're fighting and for whom. All of that will be at the Molokhiyya palace. While all that's happening, someone is going to try to take advantage of the Campgrounds. This crate is our defense. Isn't that right?"
Enzo knocked at the crate and the muffled sound of someone's voice sounded from the inside. A few guards from the entrance bowed and said, "There's an issue at the front. Captain Orellano wants your decision before he makes his own."
He nodded and then replied, "Tell them to come here and have someone bring me a chair. Bring one for Captain Orellano, too."
"You seem confident," Castillo slowly said. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"I'm meeting strike for strike."
Captain Orellano and his son arrived with Akira Lin in tow but they dragged another figure in, someone of Zhuong descent. His hair was tied and twisted like foreigners in their own country of Zhuong. Enzo didn't know the intricacies of their cultures and peoples but he knew enough to know that such differences stoked dislike and hatred.
Hatred is a weapon.
"Akira Lin has brought the man Adan Han to our Campgrounds as an apology for the attack done on our land," Captain Orellano said as he gestured to the two men. "He lives in the in-between lands of shared territories with Zhuong. His clan is known for breeding strong warhorses and raising generals. He is one of the last of his clan, except for his alpha heir. I will let Akira Lin explain the rest."
"Captain, please, let's wait awhile before deliberating," Enzo said, smiling, and then gestured to the second seat beside him. "I invited a friend of mine to join in. When he arrives, you all should probably take a step back. And--put Adan Han right here."
The guards snatched Adan Han from Titu's hold, even as he looked over at Akira Lin's grimace sitting him a few feet distance in front of the crate. A crate that drew the attention of only Neal.
"Your attention is drawn to that crate like it's special," Captain Orellano said. "Could you tell us what's inside?"
Enzo smiled. "It's to help us deal with Adan Han and his tragic death."
Adan Han's head swiveled around and shouted, "You can't do this to me. I'm in with the Zhuong Crown Prince. He'll vouch for me! You'll start a war--"
"A war? Over you?" Enzo laughed. "The moment you began working with the Mawaddah clan, your fate was sealed. I can't even imagine the Zhuong Crown Prince was unaware. And the Mawaddah clan needs a clean start in Sonhrai. Using a foreigner was a clever choice. I'm not sure I would've reached a similar conclusion."
Captain Orellano shifted uncomfortably in his chair as Titus stiffened. The only one who hadn't reacted was Akira Lin, who then began staring at Enzo hard, before his eyes ran over Castillo's form as if there was something he hadn't seen until now.
"I should leave," Castillo said then, realizing that Akira would have questions for him later and then raised his voice as he admitted, "I've delivered this package of unknown quality that Enzo refuses to inform me about! And my two very tired omegas are waiting for me at home."
Enzo sighed and waved him off as he scurried down the path, outside the front entrance, faster than he could blink.
That's when they heard it.
It was the loud stomping and angry snarling of what sounded like an animal but when it turned the corner was only a barefoot man.
The man had curly hair over his shoulders, golden brown eyes speckled with auburn, and the body of a man like a mountain. His sinewed muscles stretched through his robes from his shoulders, his forearms, and his thighs. He leaned forward as if his musculature was almost too heavy for his bones to carry. As he stomped barefoot, Enzo said, "You should all take a step back," as he stepped forward until he reached the crate's side.
This snarling creature of a man hissed as his eyes drew over the area and his nose sniffed the air, like a wolf. Enzo chose this moment to unclasp the cover of the crate, where it slid down, hitting the sand, covering the area in a fog.
"If you wish to have your lover returned and your place in the Campgrounds, I would listen to what I'm about to say," Enzo said as the dust cleared and inside of the crate was found to be a person. "You wouldn't want your omega taken away, would you?"
Marcel Soriano-Orozco, the alpha recruit turned omega, sat huddled on soft cushions wrapped in red cottonsilk like a gift, completely naked with a heavily pregnant belly. His eyes widened at the open crate, but the red cotton silk immobilized him from his arms to his legs with one full length. He trembled as he tried to move but his arms and legs only shook in place.
The enraged alpha snarled, but his anger appeared to look over Enzo and Marcel, searching for the nearest prey. His eyes fell on the desperate form of Adan Han, shaking his head as the alpha reached over, wrapping his hands around his neck, snapping it like a twig.
Alphas were territorial things.
He remembered struggling with it himself.
Enzo clicked his tongue, catching the alpha's attention before dragging his fingers over Marcel's immobile form. "Your omega is right here. You have no other obstacles now."
And the alpha ripped off the sides of the crate as Enzo stepped back with a wide grin. The Casas twisted his arms behind his back and could feel the strum of excitement as his plan worked precisely as intended.
He would've never imagined an alpha would change to such an extent to accommodate the needs of their omega. Jon's research was in-depth but it was written from his own perspective. The extent and various degrees of the changes couldn't be recorded. Even Enzo couldn't tell much of his changes, but he did see how much stronger, faster, and easier it was for him to swordfight and wrestle.
Marcel, after all he had experienced, required an alpha that no other alpha would ever regard as weak. And that's what happened. The change changed him to something beyond the average strong and well-trained alpha.
Even better, it appeared he listened to omegas. He wondered if it meant changed omegas like him and Marcel or natural-born ones.
He sighed as he watched the alpha. He knew what happened next would prove whether the alpha could be a weapon or would need to be put down.
Guards ran up the hill from various directions. Enzo motioned for them to stay still as the alpha clutched the sides of the cushions, nuzzling the omega's stomach, trailing up to his face before digging his tongue in the omega's mouth.
He lifted up the omega, and Enzo scolded him, "Be gentle!" and the alpha carefully set the omega up on his knees, only to thrust his cock in from behind. The alpha's hands clutched around the omega's cock, thrusting the omega on and off his cock as the omega's cock fell out and in of his fists.
Groans, slick, and moaning filled the area.
"You should all turn around," Enzo laughed and then waved off the majority of the guards back to their posts. "We should be good here."
He turned to Captain Orellano and said, "If you want to return to the entrance or to your cabin, I have it handled here."
Neal raised his brow before he shook his head and grinned. He raised his hands up in surrender. "There's nothing more I could do, even if I tried."
Akira Lin hadn't gotten to speak his piece or even voice whatever plot he had wanted to rope Enzo into before he began to walk away.
"And I suggest the next time you're brave enough to enter the Campgrounds after what Commander Berman put this army through," Enzo icily told Akira Lin's retreating back. "You do it with the intent to fight and not coax your way in."
The three conspirators disappeared to their various corners, and Enzo's eyes trailed their backs.
"Marcel, can you hear me?"
The omega groaned and then opened his eyes as his arms were held up by the alpha's, unmoving. "Yes--I--Yes, I hear you."
"You're going to have to calm him down," Enzo said soothingly as the alpha shuddered into what looked like a release, only to start up again. "What did you do before? Like the first time."
"The first?" Marcel exhaled sharply as the alpha clutched his chest and began again in earnest. "He--I was--there was something wrong with me then."
Enzo hummed.
It was like him towards the end of Jon's neediness.
But unlike Marcel, he had Beckett to help him. This would be even harder on Marcel in the state he was in unless they found help because Enzo was surely not the one.
A guard rushed in, his eyes pointedly avoiding the direction of the sounds made by the alpha and omega. He said, "Crown Princess Lawali said that in return for her gift. You owe her. She sent over someone tied up in a kajawa but--"
"Bring them here," Enzo said and then pinched his bridge. "And be careful."
He had a bad feeling that he knew exactly who Lawali had sent over. Something that would, of course, benefit the Campgrounds and, by extension, even Jata Niara and the Crown Princess. But it would infuriate the Sarakhs, Akira Lin, and the Mawaddah Clan, putting Enzo in their direct line of fire. There was no point in complaining about spilled milk, and he sighed as he knew Akira Lin now knew where he stood. Turning to the crate where the alpha and omega were, a mess pooled between them as the alpha spilled his seed again.
His eyes rolled over Marcel's rounded and reddened belly and shivered, refusing to check his own body over for similar changes. Even his belly button had changed.
It was horrifying the things omegas went through.
Three guards shuffled over, dragging the figure, slapping and throwing out his hands to slow them down. The young man was barely seventeen, with gold adorning his body and the markings along his skin typical for those up north. His hair was shorn in the shorter style of the ancient Athari, and he didn't need to ask him who he was to know.
Farzan Athari, one of the siblings, sent over as a bargaining chip and leverage against the Molokhiyya. Without him, there would be no forced marriage to tip the consorts teetering power balance, and the only way to do so without "appearing" purposeful is simply using the basic adage.
It isn't safe for omegas.
Enzo huffed and then crossed his arms. If this didn't work, he would at least know if it mattered between changed omegas or natural-born ones.
The alpha grunted and then snarled at the guards, gaining too much ground, before they warily dropped the omega, with his legs and arms tied with thick rope, in the dirt. He waved them off, saying it was enough, and walked over to the omega, spitting out sand as he glared over.
Said alpha clutched Marcel's hips and began thrusting again, tucking his neck under the omega's.
Enzo crouched to the Athari's level and said, "I would suggest you tread carefully here. This isn't an ordinary alpha," and he tilted his head in the direction of the alpha and Marcel. "He's a bit of a fluke, but if things continue as intended, we may be able to have more alphas like this. That means we need a nobler stock of omegas, you understand?"
Farzan's eyes flickered, and then he spat out, "No, I do not understand who you think you are. Do you know me? My family name! This isn't fair!"
"I do know who you are, and yes, it isn't fair," Enzo smiled before his hand lunged out and he clutched around the Athari's throat. The omega was not trained to fight and had little use for the muscles on his body, except for looks. He choked as Enzo continued, "I wouldn't worry about fairness. You won't be alone for long. I will need my soldiers in peak health. Whatever children they have should be the same."
The Athari heir choked on the ground when Enzo dropped him. The younger Casas approached the alpha after another of his releases, spilling over the back of the omega's thighs. He said, in the alpha's ear, "Can you smell that? A fertile omega nearby. Unseeded."
The alpha nuzzled the neck of the now tired omega and slipped his still engorged, reddened cock out from Marcel. Enzo nudged the alpha along by his neck like a horse as he clicked his tongue, reaching where Farzan still sat, hunched over, coughing.
"Now, sit," Enzo ordered the alpha as he sat on his haunches. The Athari omega tried to pull away, but Enzo yanked on the tied rope holding him back, pulling out a blade from his robe's pouch and cutting only the rope around his wrists free. "And you, I'll teach you how this is supposed to go, as a favor. Marcel, come over here!"
The omega wobbled over, standing up out of the softened furnishings and sat beside the Athari omega, his hand wrapped underneath his belly as if he wasn't used to the new balance yet.
"Observe, Farzan," Enzo warned as he twisted up the Athari heir's head, clutching underneath his chin to direct his eyes to what Marcel was doing. "If you don't do it right, I can't imagine what the alpha might do." and the Athari omega trembled as his eyes rolled over the large form of the alpha as he lumbered over. "Marcel, remember to keep it clean so he can see how it's done."
Marcel wrapped his fingers over the alpha's cock and began fisting. Cum dribbled over his fingers as he quickened his pace. He opened his mouth, almost exaggerating, as he curved his tongue under the alpha's cock and swallowed him down. When the alpha moved to wrap his hand around Marcel's head, Enzo snapped his hand out like a whip. The alpha pulled back and merely groaned as he rolled his hips.
"Why is the alpha listening to you?"
Enzo had wondered that himself. While Jon had listened to his orders, he also had to listen to him in return. It made sense if all pairings were that way. Beckett, though, was different. He couldn't order Jon, even in his haze. Marcel appeared to be the same way. Beckett had fallen into the haze earlier than Enzo, as well. It didn't seem to do with the order of who slept with who either.
The alpha grunted, spilling into the omega's mouth until he coughed. Enzo leaned over and rubbed the omega's back before whispering in his ear. One of his servants from the dungeon finally appeared and asked, "Is there something I can do for you, sire?"
"How is the Crown Prince?"
"Sleeping, sire."
Enzo nodded. "Take Marcel here and give him a good bath, feed him well."
The servant bowed and then took off the upper portion of her robe, as she was still well-covered, covering Marcel with it instead, as they wandered towards the dungeon entrance.
"Your turn."
Farzan shivered as Enzo's eyes fell on him, he slid to the ground refusing to face him, and the alpha's twitching cock stood up above his hip.
"You can't make me."
The alpha's eyes tightened as his hands clenched and unclenched. His groans turned pained.
"I think I should clarify things," Enzo hissed, yanking Farzan upright. "If you weren't here, you would be dead. Do you know how many people died today because of you and your sister's foolish recklessness? Half a thousand at least. I doubt any of those people believe you deserve mercy, least of all me, but you have a choice here to either die as nothing or live and maybe maybe become something."
"Is my sister--?"
"No," Enzo snapped. "Only because you're here and presumed dead."
He was already considering who to replace the Athari, the best omega in terms of future flexibility, but there were others he could choose. It was only that he didn't want to.
The omega's hazel eyes dropped to the ground as he clenched his fists in his lap, while opening his mouth in that exaggerated way Marcel only did for teaching him, as he shakily reached the tip of the alpha's cock, licking its tip. A few licks in, Enzo saw his tongue begin to wrap the cock as he licked more aggressively, moaning around the tip.
He raised his brow but said nothing as the omega reached both his hands around the alpha's cock, fisting in earnest as he swallowed the cock, gulping as he swallowed. After the alpha's third release, Enzo pulled the omega off the alpha's cock with a pop. The Athari heir whined until Enzo shook him and said, "Stop it."
He reacted like the alpha did when the order was given, freezing in place. So, he tested it again, "Lean over, hips up."
The omega dug his elbows in the sand with his knees, pushing his hip up, and didn't mumble a sound when Enzo dragged his loose undergarments down. Without another word, the alpha hunched over the omega with his closed fists digging into the sand to hold himself up, slowly entering the omega as Enzo said, "Slower but stronger."
It didn't take long before the alpha filled the omega to the rim and began pulling out as Farzan whimpered, but Enzo couldn't see any damage in the motion. No bleeding or tearing.
He nodded and said to the alpha, "Do as you wish," before standing up to leave. The pleasured cries of the alpha and omega as skin slapped against skin sounded behind him.
Perhaps he had been too soft as of late.
These few years had been too kind to him, but it was time to wake up. He gestured for one of the guards to bring up some of his fruit drinks from the dungeon as he sat down and watched.
He was craving something sweet.