Candescent

by Zoey Ellis

  The gen­eral con­tin­ued to ride out to wher­ever she had trav­eled dur­ing the day, take her on the ground, and then carry her back to his house. He didn’t care who hap­pened to wit­ness them or where she was. At first, she won­dered how he knew where she had trav­eled, but it be­came ob­vi­ous that he had mes­sen­gers all over Ariyon who told him where she was. They were clever keep­ing out of her view, but that was the only way he could know.

  As she be­came fa­mil­iar with the Ariyon ter­ri­tory, she started to make his evening claim­ing of her more chal­leng­ing; hid­ing in barns, swim­ming in lakes, or tear­ing across fields on horse­back. But it didn’t slow down the gen­eral. He was al­most bel­liger­ent in his in­ten­tions to have her wher­ever she was at the end of each day, and she rev­eled in it.

  A spe­cific spot on his neck where his scent was most po­tent be­gan to en­tice her when­ever they were at their most pri­mal, but she knew if she let her­self ex­plore that, she would be trapped with him.

  One evening, the gen­eral didn’t ar­rive. Ria paced ner­vously by her horse, look­ing out for the Al­pha, but when he didn’t ar­rive by the time the sun had set worry burned in her gut. Noth­ing could have hap­pened to him, surely. He was a gen­eral with the pro­tec­tion of many war­riors. She was just be­ing silly. Still, the re­lief that pounded through her when she heard his horse ap­proach was pal­pa­ble.

  “You’re late!” she couldn’t help but snap as he dis­mounted. “Where have you been?”

  The cor­ner of the Al­pha’s mouth quirked up as he lifted her into his arms. “You were wait­ing for me.”

  Ria was about to firmly protest, but then she saw some­thing in his ex­pres­sion she hadn’t seen for a long time—that hard wari­ness. “You had a rough day,” she said, peer­ing into his eyes. “What hap­pened?”

  The gen­eral stilled, his smile fad­ing from his mouth. “Noth­ing for you to worry about.”

  “Is my brother all right?” The gen­eral had been speak­ing to her brother fre­quently; he’d said that he would visit soon.

  “Your brother is fine.”

  “What about…” She thought about all the peo­ple who she’d met across Ariyon. “What about all the farm­ers and mer­chants and their fam­i­lies? Are they all right?”

  “There’s noth­ing for you to worry about, Ria.”

  Ria threaded her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss into his jaw, sa­vor­ing his scent and al­low­ing it to soothe and calm the worry that she ex­pe­ri­enced. The gen­eral’s hands slipped un­der her tu­nic, and he groaned when he found how wet she was.

  “I ad­mit it,” she whis­pered in his ear. “I was wait­ing for you.”

  Un­buck­ling him­self, the gen­eral didn’t even bother to lower them to the ground. He im­paled her on his length, grab­bing her ass to work her up and down and round on his cock while he stood, un­til a blis­ter­ing or­gasm seized her.

  The next day, as Ria was try­ing to de­cide where she should go, she re­al­ized that al­though she had trav­eled across all of Ariyon for over three months, there was one place she hadn’t vis­ited. She sad­dled up her horse, and rode to the moun­tains.

  She was sur­prised to see the gen­eral’s horse at the en­trance. It was the first time she had trav­eled to his lo­ca­tion, and she won­dered where he usu­ally was dur­ing the day. She as­sumed that he spent most of his time at his base, train­ing new war­riors, and over­see­ing the trad­ing be­tween ter­ri­to­ries, but she’d never asked him. Based on when they first met, she knew he’d also dealt with the moun­tain peo­ple too.

  The guard at the en­trance greeted her but didn’t stop her from en­ter­ing.

  As she trudged down the val­ley, she won­dered why she hadn’t vis­ited the moun­tains be­fore. Maybe she had un­con­sciously pushed it aside, avoid­ing the fact that the moun­tains had been her home. But it couldn’t be home with­out the peo­ple she had been there with. She didn’t re­mem­ber her mother or fa­ther, and her brother was no longer in the ter­ri­tory. She couldn’t also ig­nore the moun­tain peo­ple there didn’t ac­cepted her. They’d tol­er­ated her for the short time she had ques­tions, but they wanted to be left alone to their own way of life, which she ap­pre­ci­ated.

  In the moun­tain town, they were pre­par­ing for a tour to ar­rive, so they could trade goods. It was busy and bustling, at least busier than usual, and she bumped into the man who’d helped her when she’d last vis­ited.

  “You’re back,” the old man said, his face stretched in sur­prise. “Does the gen­eral know you’re here?”

  Ris shook her head. “Where is he?”

  The man waved his hand, an ir­ri­tated ex­pres­sion creep­ing over his fea­tures. “He is talk­ing to some of the peo­ple deeper into the moun­tains, in one of the other towns. He’s been here ev­ery day lately, get­ting in the way.”

  Ria thought for a mo­ment, re­call­ing the gen­eral’s de­meanor the night be­fore. “Is some­thing wrong?”

  The man shook his head. “Noth­ing more than usual,” he re­marked. “Just the Lox try­ing to in­ter­fere with things that have noth­ing to do with them. At least be­fore, he barely en­tered the moun­tains. Now, he’s here all the time ha­rass­ing us all in one way or an­other.”

  Ria frowned. The gen­eral never once men­tioned that. “Where is he?”

  The man gave her a wary look, purs­ing his thin lips point­edly. “The last time I helped you, the gen­eral ar­rived here in­fu­ri­ated. I thought he was go­ing to at­tack me.”

  Ria al­most laughed but held it in. “I apol­o­gize for that, el­der. But I as­sure you noth­ing will hap­pen this time.”

  The man made a dis­grun­tled noise at the back of his throat but pointed to the lo­ca­tion of the town the gen­eral had been seen in for the last few months.

  Ria fol­lowed his di­rec­tions, mar­veling at all the things that she hadn’t taken the time to no­tice about the moun­tains be­fore; graz­ing herds, or­chards, and the laugh­ter of chil­dren play­ing nearby. She came upon the town the man had men­tioned and asked about the gen­eral. The peo­ple, al­though even more sus­pi­cious and re­served than the ini­tial town clos­est to the en­trance, pointed to where he was.

  As she ap­proached, she was shocked to find him out­side one of the houses, bare-chested and chop­ping wood.

  She stopped in her tracks, won­der­ing what was hap­pen­ing. Was he not work­ing in his ca­pac­ity as a gen­eral any­more? She ap­proached slowly, con­fu­sion forc­ing her for­ward.

  “Gen­eral,” she said as he swung the axe down.

  The gen­eral straight­ened, sur­prised. “Ria. What are you do­ing here?”

  Ria found it dif­fi­cult to an­swer. Al­though she saw the man’s body ev­ery day, un­der­neath her, on top of her, around her, see­ing his mus­cles bulge and con­tract as he swung an axe was some­thing else. “I… just wanted to see the moun­tains to­day.” She inched for­ward. “What are you do­ing?”

  A faint smile graced the gen­eral’s mouth. “You spoiled the sur­prise.”

  Ria stared at him blankly. “What sur­prise?”

  He lifted a hand, ges­tur­ing to­ward the house. “We are mov­ing here.”

  “We are?” That cer­tainly was a sur­prise. “And the moun­tain peo­ple are all right with that?”

  “No, of course not,” he growled. “But I don’t care.”

  Ria lifted her shoul­ders. “We don’t have to move here. We can stay where we are in the main­land.” In the back of her mind, it oc­curred to her that leav­ing Ariyon would also be eas­ier if she wasn’t in the moun­tains. But she wasn’t sure that was a gen­uine con­cern any­more.

  The gen­eral tilted his head to­ward the house. “Go and look in­side.”

  Ria shot him a strange look and headed to­ward the house. It was larger in com­par­i­son to some of the oth­ers in the moun­tains�
�most of them were cot­tages, but this had an up­per floor. She ex­plored the large liv­ing room and fire­place on the ground floor, then the small kitchen. Up­stairs, a mas­ter bed­room took over most of the space, and two smaller bed­rooms were tucked away on one side. Ev­ery­thing had been sim­ply dec­o­rated, more homely than the gen­eral’s house in the main­land, but still sim­ple. It was nice.

  As she walked around the house, a strange feel­ing grew in her stom­ach un­til it erupted as she looked around one of the bed­rooms. She rec­og­nized this place. She’d been in this room be­fore.

  When she ex­ited the room, the gen­eral stood out in the pas­sage, fill­ing it with his bulk. He stared at her with a know­ing look.

  “This was where I lived?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

  He nod­ded. “You, your mother and fa­ther, and your brother.”

  “How did you find this place?

  “Your brother and some of the peo­ple here.”

  “And they just let you have it?” That seemed un­likely.

  “Not ex­actly,” he said rue­fully. “I told them I wouldn’t have their se­cret por­tal de­stroyed, as long as I mon­i­tor it, of course, and they let me buy this prop­erty.” He glanced around the house. “I’ve been get­ting it re­stored.”

  “Is that why you were an­gry yes­ter­day?”

  The gen­eral tensed a lit­tle. “The moun­tain peo­ple en­joy mak­ing things dif­fi­cult. I wasn’t an­gry, just tired of them.”

  Thea nod­ded, a lump form­ing on her throat as she looked around again. This had been her home once. Af­ter a long mo­ment, she glanced back at the gen­eral. “And you want to live here?”

  The gen­eral lifted her up into his arms. “I think you would be hap­pier here than in my house.”

  “But I thought you didn’t like the moun­tains?”

  “Yes,” the gen­eral ad­mit­ted. “But I love you.”

  A rush of plea­sure spread through Ria’s body so quickly that she was giddy. “You do?”

  The gen­eral turned, tak­ing her into the mas­ter bed­room. “I was look­ing for­ward to a life with you for a long time, Ria, even be­fore I met you. I am de­ter­mined to have it.” He lay her down on the bed, stroking his fin­gers through her hair as she stared up at him. “I don’t think it’s a co­in­ci­dence that you are from the moun­tains, the source of my frus­tra­tion for the last two years.”

  Ria couldn’t help but smile. “We moun­tain peo­ple are all dif­fi­cult, Gen­eral. You should have learned that by now.”

  He smiled, and it was breath­tak­ing. “It’s Thorec.”

  “Thorec,” she whis­pered, sud­denly shy.

  He be­gan to un­but­ton her tu­nic, and Ria watched him, a strange feel­ing com­ing over her that what was hap­pen­ing was un­usual for them. He was not chas­ing her, they were not out­side, and they were not in his bed at his home.

  He ran his large fin­gers over her skin, squeez­ing all the pudgy parts of her she knew he took plea­sure in.

  “You will carry my chil­dren, Ria,” he said solemnly. “It is time.”

  Ria squeezed her eyes shut. “I can­not prom­ise that to you, Thorec,” she whis­pered. “I still don’t know how I can be yours when I don’t know who I am.”

  Thorec pressed a firm kiss on her neck, send­ing goose­bumps rac­ing down her arms. “You are the Omega who owns this Al­pha, lit­tle Ria. Ac­cept that that is enough.”

  Her eyes opened, and their eyes locked as she ex­am­ined his gaze, see­ing only ado­ra­tion and de­sire in them. She’d been more com­fort­able here with him than any other time in her life. Could she re­ally ever leave him now? Lift­ing her head, she flicked her tongue across his lips, whim­per­ing as his tongue darted out to graze hers, then dipped her head to the sweet spot at his neck and dug her teeth in, claim­ing him as her own.

  * * *

  Epi­logue

  THOREC

  Ria was beau­ti­ful preg­nant.

  She glowed with a ra­di­ance he’d never seen be­fore, and Thorec found he was un­able to stop look­ing at her. He also strug­gled to spend his days too far away from her, re­turn­ing to the moun­tains nu­mer­ous times a day when he was out in the Ariyon main­land. It wasn’t that he wor­ried about her safety. In fact, the bond that hummed deep in his chest told him that she was con­tent and happy. He just wanted to be with her and their child.

  He hadn’t been sure how she would feel be­ing in the moun­tains. Al­though she grew up there, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t feel trapped, con­sid­er­ing how much she’d trav­eled in main­land Ariyon. That was the main thing he’d learned about Ria when he brought her home from Ashens. She liked to wan­der, but it didn’t have to be far. She still spent her days trav­el­ing the val­leys, vis­it­ing main­land Ariyon, and had even shown an in­ter­est in help­ing some of the tours of the moun­tains.

  Thorec was happy for her to do all of that as long as she was on his cock when he was fin­ished for the day. It was harder to be pub­licly ad­ven­tur­ous in the moun­tains. Thorec didn’t par­tic­u­larly care who saw him fuck­ing his woman, but Ria was mor­ti­fied at the idea of the moun­tain peo­ple catch­ing them. Still, she made him work for it in their home and when they vis­ited the main­land. And that made it all worth it.

  Sur­pris­ingly, the moun­tain peo­ple got used to him be­ing among them quicker than he thought. He sus­pected they tol­er­ated him as much as he en­dured them, but they seemed to en­joy Ria’s com­pany and her in­ter­est and re­spect for their tra­di­tions. Know­ing she had once been one of them also helped, but Ria ad­mit­ted she didn’t yet feel like one of them.

  Of course, the treaty be­tween the moun­tain peo­ple and the Lox had to be re­vised sig­nif­i­cantly once he moved there, but he had more lever­age now. Not only did he now know about their il­le­gal por­tal, but he also knew that much of the pri­vacy they claimed they wanted to main­tain, wasn’t some­thing that ex­isted be­fore the Lox came into power. So he ne­go­ti­ated that both he and Ria, and any­one they au­tho­rized could en­ter the moun­tains when­ever they choose, as long as they re­spected moun­tain cul­ture and cus­toms.

  As such, Ria’s brother reg­u­larly vis­ited, which pleased her. He could only visit when he wasn’t on tasks for the Lox, but Ria was un­der­stand­ing. She’d been more ner­vous about what he would think of them liv­ing in their par­ents’ house, but soon af­ter he ar­rived, he was shar­ing sto­ries of what he re­mem­bered about the house and town, and their re­la­tion­ship was build­ing steadily.

  When Ria be­came too heavy to traipse up and down the val­leys, Thorec fin­ished his days early so he could carry her up to the higher grounds and look over the nearby moun­tain towns.

  “Don’t you think it’s beau­ti­ful up here?” Ria sighed one af­ter­noon, snug­gled into Thorec’s lap.

  He brushed his lips over the scar of the claim­ing bite he had given her af­ter she bit him, cre­at­ing the soul-bond be­tween them. “Yes.”

  She glanced at him. “You’re not look­ing at the moun­tains, Thorec.”

  His mouth twisted into a smile. “I am look­ing at the most beau­ti­ful thing in the moun­tains, Ria.”

  “I can’t be­lieve you don’t see the beauty from up here,” she said, wrin­kling her nose. “Ev­ery­one else can see it.”

  “I told you I do see it.”

  Ria sighed in an­noy­ance, shift­ing in his lap. “Did I tell you, Hal thinks it will be a boy? He said he is cer­tain.”

  Thorec made a gruff noise in the back of his throat. “Hal should spend more time fo­cus­ing on his crops,” he growled. “The man is a busy­body and pro­vides no value to the moun­tain peo­ple at all. I wish I had known that be­fore.”

  Ria grinned. “He’s a com­plainer,” she ad­mit­ted. “But he has the best in­ten­tions.”

  “As long as you call him El­der.”

 
; “That is a sign of re­spect here,” Ria pointed out. “And I would say his value is keep­ing the Lox on their toes. He’s the most ef­fec­tive at keep­ing out­siders out.”

  Thorec hummed in agree­ment, press­ing his nose into her hair to scent her. “True, but he is wrong. We are hav­ing a girl.”

  Ria glanced up at him. “How can you be sure?”

  “I just know, Ria.”

  They sat qui­etly for a lit­tle while, Ria en­joy­ing the sight, sounds, scents of the moun­tains, Thorec en­joy­ing her. He had the life he’d al­ways wanted with his Omega now, and he planned to fully ex­pe­ri­ence ev­ery mo­ment of it. The most shock­ing and pro­foundly sat­is­fy­ing mo­ment with Ria, apart from when she claimed him, was when she first en­tered her Haze. He’d heard so much about the Omega Haze, but the thrilling ex­pe­ri­ence of see­ing his Omega with golden eyes, so ea­ger to breed, and prais­ing ev­ery­thing about him, sparked a rut he hadn’t been able to con­trol. He’d been wor­ried that the en­ergy of the moun­tains would dis­rupt their breed­ing states; af­ter all, nei­ther of them went into one dur­ing their time in the main­land, but liv­ing in the mid­dle of the moun­tains seemed to en­cour­age it. Ria went into her Haze al­most im­me­di­ately af­ter they moved.

  “I have a chal­lenge for you,” she said af­ter a mo­ment, a mis­chievous smile on her face.

  Thorec nar­rowed his gaze. “That sounds highly ap­peal­ing.”

  “It is.” Her hands went to his pants. “You’re not al­lowed to touch me or move.”

  Thorec groaned, his cock al­ready half-hard by the time she pulled it out. “This isn’t a chal­lenge, it’s tor­ture,” he said, roughly as she stroked him.

  “Are you say­ing you can’t win this one?” Ria asked, mock sur­prise on her face. “Will Gen­eral Thorec be de­feated?”

  Thorec growled at the taunt, then dug his fin­gers into the ground as she worked her hands up and down his length, squeez­ing and twist­ing at the tip the way he liked. When she pulled the neck­line of her dress down, al­low­ing her breasts to bounce out, he al­most grabbed them.