(CONTENT WARNING: VIOLENCE)
The reaction from his husband was immediate, crushing, dominating, painful, angry pheromones, reeking of smoke and charred flesh.
Kand-Lei was forced to his knees from the attack, coughing violently. He could feel the air rushing out of his lungs as soon as he managed to gasp some in. Panic settled deep into his bones as his instincts screamed at him to run or submit.
"What did you just say?" The man growled.
"S-sir. I apologise." Kand-Lei bowed his head under the weight of the pressure building in the room.
The first hit was unexpected. A sharp kick to the ribs that sent him flying backwards into a bookshelf. The books that fell on him did further damage, marking little spots all over his arms and shoulders with purple and blue.
He was thankful that it stopped there, that a few broken ribs and some bruises were the extent of his punishment. But of course things were not so simple.
After that incident the servants no longer treated him with even basic respect. They would ignore him or outright ridicule him to his face, several finally having found a place to vent their anger refused him things like food.
He wandered the house like a ghost, not speaking for no one would speak to him, not eating for nothing was given to him to eat, not daring to raise his head for fear of another hit.
He began to dread the times his husband returned to the estate, for they were usually accompanied by pain.
He hated the way the sun rose, bringing each new day and was so terribly close to becoming a horrible and bitter person.
But he didn't become such a person, he had a tiny seed of hope that kept him going through the silence and the pain.
Everyday, at around noon, when most people were eating lunch, he slipped unnoticed into the library that no one ever visited.
The high ceilings and delicately carved mahogany bookcases were his steadfast companions.
He had read nearly every book in the library over the five years that he was trapped in that estate and in that marriage.
Everything from fairytales to ancient war strategies.
Anything to escape his reality.
…
The day that everything changed once again seemed ordinary enough when Kand-Lei woke up. He was still dealing with a large bruise on his side from when that man had arrived home yesterday.
His rest was rudely interrupted when that man burst into the room with papers clenched in his hands.
He glared down at Kand-Lei as he struggled to sit up.
"Kelly. Sign it." Growled the alpha, shoving that papers into his face. As and afterthought he threw a pen from his pocket.
Kand-Lei's hands were trembling as he read the divorce agreement. One word escaped his lips involuntarily. "Why?"
The man snorted. "Because I found my fated mate. I've already gotten everything I need from your family's business. You're useless to me."
He signed the papers numbly, conditioned not to argue.
As he handed them back he felt a strange sense of relief. Servants were already packing his things.
He was… free?
Not at all.
Six days after leaving the estate, he was exiting the hotel when his phone started ringing incessantly. He picked up the call from his parents.
"Hello?" After so long, he was a little clumsy with his native language, the pronunciation having gained a slight accent.
"Useless child!" Came a scream from the other side. "You couldn't hold a simple marriage together?! Consider your ties with our family over!"
He stared blankly at the black phone screen for a moment, shock settling into his skin like a mist, slowly, silently.
He pulled up his bank account. Already frozen.
Everything had been in his parent's names. A mistake he was only just realising was very grave indeed.
He looked around. He hadn't paid for the hotel in advance, not knowing when he should move on, there was nothing for it but to move out.
He didn't have any of his belongings, he had walked out of the estate with nothing but a threadbare jacket and his wallet. Everything else had been packed and sent back to his parent's house, another mistake he was only now realising.
He wandered aimlessly, tucking his hands further and further into his jacket as he kept moving to stay warm. He walked the whole night through, moving almost the entire way across the city.
Despite being aware that there were places where he could go, soup kitchens, charity houses, centres for omegas in difficult situations, he chose to walk. Pride, stubbornness, and a fierce want to not rely on anything anymore we're the only things fuelling his incessant march.
After sitting in a cafe for a good few hours, nursing a single cup of coffee, he was asked politely to leave and he resumed his march.
It was in the evening that very day that he had met Darcy.
…
"… and well, you know the rest." Kand-Lei finished his recounting.
Darcy tightened his arms around Kand-Lei. "When we first met. Your side, the one that you kept grabbing like it hurt, that was him right?" He asked in a soft and broken voice, not betraying even an ounce of the rage and fury he felt towards that alpha whose name was never mentioned.
Kand-Lei just nodded.
Darcy tucked his head into Kand-Lei's shoulder, exhaling slowly. "I'm- I'm so sorry, and so fucking angry that you had to go through all that." He kept his head there, hiding the tears that flowed silently from his eyes.
Kand-Lei just leaned further into his embrace, relishing the warmth and comfort that he had been deprived of.
He closed his eyes and exhaled, finally letting his body fully relax as Darcy held him firmer, not tightly, but reassuringly.
Silence reigned for a time, broken only by the occasional whisper of a comforting word or reassurance.
As rays of light broke through the clouds, heralding the dawn of a new day Kand-Lei turned slightly and looked into Darcy's eyes.
"Darcy. I think I changed my mind." He whispered.
Then he brushed his lips against Darcy's. Soft and fleeting as a dragonfly skimming the surface of a lake.
The silence that followed was complete, neither spoke as they looked into the other's eyes.
Then a strange burning sensation, one that began in the center of the chest and radiated outwards was felt. It was like hot water was running through their veins.
They both gasped at the sensation, reaching towards each other for support.
As their eyes once again met it was strange, as if an invisible thread had bound them together, they heard each other's heartbeats, felt each other's emotions, felt the subtle pull towards one another become infinitely stronger.
"Do you…"
"Yeah… I feel it…"
"It's like…"
"…fated mate bond."
A silence descended once more. Neither moved beneath the blanket that was protecting them from the chill of winter.
"It's impossible. We're omegas."
Darcy nodded. "It should be."
He began undoing buttons on his pyjama shirt. "But this," he tapped a faintly glowing silver mark on his chest, "Seems to disagree with your logic."
Kand-Lei stared at the intricate patterns, reaching out a hand to trace them. Then he checked his own chest, sure enough there was a matching mark there.
"Impossible."
Their eyes met again. What did this mean? For history, for science, for society and religion, and most importantly, for the two of them.