The quiet confession hung in the air between them, heavy with unspoken truths. Kyon's hand, still resting on Arion's chest, felt like both a comfort and a shackle. Arion's mind, no longer clouded by heat, was now a storm of fury and humiliation. He was a Lord of the North, a powerful alpha, and he had just been told he was a responsibility, an omega to be protected. The words, so calm and logical coming from Kyon, felt like a branding iron on his soul.
He couldn't take it anymore. The rage, simmering beneath the surface since he first saw that mark on his neck, finally boiled over. He grabbed Kyon's collar, his hands shaking with a force that surprised even himself. He shoved the prince back against the headboard, his eyes blazing with a defiant fire.
"I'm not an omega!" Arion snarled, his voice a low, furious growl. "You made me this way! You! You took me, and you branded me, and you talk about it like it's some damn game of chess! You turned me into this—this thing that feels everything my body used to reject!"
Kyon's eyes widened in surprise, a flash of pure, unadulterated shock. The placid mask he wore cracked, revealing the boyish face beneath. His scent, which had been so carefully controlled, surged with a raw, panicked fear, the sweet, cloying white tea scent momentarily overpowering the faint hint of amber. Arion was an alpha in every sense of the word, and his fury was a force to be reckoned with.
Arion leaned in, his own scent of rain and earth now a violent, stormy presence in the room. "You talk about fated mates and protection, but you're a liar! You're a coward who hid behind a facade, and when your pathetic secret couldn't hold, you ruined me! You stripped away my honor, my dignity! You made me feel things I never should have felt, things that make my skin crawl with shame! What am I supposed to be now, huh? Your pretty little consort? The queen of your secret kingdom? I'd rather die!"
He continued to scream, every word a lash of his pain and humiliation. He cursed Kyon's beauty, his false innocence, and his cruel, quiet arrogance. He railed against the mark, the heat, and the horrifying truth that his body craved the man he was now screaming at. He called him a monster, a user, a selfish, entitled prince who took what he wanted without a thought for the consequences.
Kyon didn't fight back. He didn't even try to push Arion away. He just stared at him, his face a complex mixture of fear, sorrow, and something Arion couldn't quite place. He had expected Kyon to retaliate, to use his immense alpha power to force him back into submission. But Kyon just let him yell, let him curse, let him pour out all the hatred and confusion he'd been holding back since that morning in the garden.
When Arion finally stopped, his lungs burning and his voice hoarse, the room was silent. Kyon's eyes, now wet with unshed tears, were still fixed on him. The facade was gone, replaced by a raw, naked vulnerability that took Arion's breath away. Kyon's lips trembled, and he reached out a hand, not to strike, but to gently touch Arion's face.
"I know," Kyon whispered, his voice shaking with emotion. "I know. I'm sorry."
The two words were so simple, so unexpected, that they hit Arion with the force of a blow. He loosened his grip on Kyon's collar, his rage deflating like a punctured balloon. Kyon, a prince who had never once apologized for anything in his life, was apologizing to him. For the first time, Arion saw not just the cold, calculating alpha who had taken his body, but the lonely boy who had been forced to hide his true self his entire life. He saw the person Kyon truly was, and in that moment, he realized that he wasn't the only one who had been trapped.