by Zoey Ellis
"You didn't finish the story about your grandfather," Cailyn said as he wiped her face after the third one.
Drocco nodded. "I didn't. I’ll need another secret from you before I continue."
Cailyn narrowed her eyes. "I already gave you one for that story. The story wasn't finished."
"I know," Drocco said, moving to sit on one of the wooden chairs. "But you fell asleep. That's not my fault."
“You sent me to bed!”
Drocco shrugged. “You were tired.”
Cailyn sighed. She got up and went to the washroom to wash her face. “All right,” she said as she reentered the room.
"How and where did you grow up?" Drocco asked. "From what you can remember, I mean."
Cailyn stood silent for a long time. Drocco simply watched her across the room, waiting for her response. This would be the information that would reveal the extent of the Omega disappearance. Obviously, she was reluctant to do so, but that is what she had agreed.
When the silence grew too long, he made a noise of displeasure at the back of his throat. Cailyn glanced at him, dropping her hands to her side as she went to sit back on the bedding. "I grew up in a large village filled with Omegas," she said slowly. "My earliest memory is of playing out on the dusty ground, in the center of the village, with other young Omegas."
"Who ran the village?"
Cailyn lowered her eyes. "Omegas. Omegas ran the whole village."
Drocco held still. If Omegas ran the village that Cailyn grew up in, it further supported her previous statement that Omegas were responsible for their own disappearance. "Where was that village?" he asked.
Cailyn’s eyes darted away from him. "I cannot tell you that," she whispered.
"You can," Drocco said. "This is the agreement we made. You tell me everything. Where was the village?"
The pause was much longer but he waited, his eyes trained on her.
"The Wastelands," Cailyn said eventually.
"The Wastelands?" Drocco repeated, shocked. "The Wastelands that are just beyond that hill? The whole area is poisonous. How could Omegas survive?"
"We make good use of the Talent," Cailyn said. "And we created the rumor that Omegas suffered more from the poisons than anyone else."
"So that no one would think to look for you there to any great degree," Drocco said, understanding.
There was a silence between them, while Drocco digested the information. "The lengths these Omegas have gone through to hide are extreme," he said irritably. "I cannot understand why."
"I told you back at the Palace," Cailyn said steadily. "We were under attack, it was the only way for us to remain alive."
"You wouldn’t have died out," Drocco said sternly. "Alphas wouldn’t have allowed it. There were still Alphas that would have helped and tried to minimize the damage."
"No," Cailyn said evenly. "There were Alphas that would have ensured that their own Omegas were not involved, but they wouldn’t have saved other Omegas. Most Alphas take the approach that you do—they won’t help anybody if that person falls outside of their direct responsibility. They won’t try to help anyone that another Alpha is responsible for, just like those child slaves back at Malloron's castle."
Drocco's nose flared as a heat shot through him.
"There was no one to help us but ourselves," Cailyn said. "And so that is exactly what we did. And after that experience, you think that we would miss being with an Alpha? Or that we would want to be with Alphas? Why would we when others of our kind were so cruelly brutalized?" She shook her head. "I’ve never envisioned being with an Alpha. Ever. It wasn't something I ever wanted."
"Well it is something you have nonetheless," Drocco snapped, annoyed by her admission. "It’s how you were meant to experience life—with me."
“Only for the next two months,” Cailyn said, her voice low and determined.
Drocco ground his jaw, frustrated by her response. "Come here," he ordered, gesturing to the couch. "I’ll tell you the rest of my grandfather’s story." He wasn't particularly keen on returning to the story, but he wanted her near him.
As she settled on the worn couch next to his chair, he continued from where he left off.
“The Southern Lands people are organized into tribes. My grandfather sought out the tribe that his warrior mentor came from and convinced them to train him. They are honor bound people, so the fact that my grandfather had helped a tribe member put them in his debt. He trained with them for years, learning about them and adopting the culture. Then he met my grandmother."
Drocco paused.
"What happened then?" Cailyn asked.
"She was an Omega, but she was betrothed to an Alpha from another tribe," Drocco said. "At this time, Omegas were beginning to disappear, and reports from Eastern Lands and the Western Lands had reached them. So, they were very protective of their Omegas. Pairings took delicate consideration and much negotiation, especially since every tribe wanted pure children."
Cailyn frowned. "What do you mean pure?"
"Alpha and Omega couples produce dynamically strong children."
She shook her head. "What do you mean?"
Drocco thought back to what he had read at the Keep. Although he had already known about dynamic purity, records at the Keep had explained it the best. "The recognized qualities and behaviors of an Omega and an Alpha are stronger in them if their parents were an Alpha and Omega couple."
Cailyn's eyes drifted across the room as she thought through what he was saying. "What about Betas?"
"Alpha and Omega couples rarely have Beta children," Drocco explained. “And Betas tend not to have any strong defining qualities and behaviors anyway."
Cailyn tapped her knees as she thought. "So Betas dilute the dynamic quality of the other two?"
"Yes."
“That's not something I've heard of before," Cailyn admitted.
“The information was heavily suppressed by all rulers and leaders when Omegas began to disappear. But there is still information on it."
“But does that really matter?" Cailyn said after thinking for a moment longer. “What difference does it make in real terms?"
“For most, it makes no difference," Drocco said. "But in the Southern Lands, they wanted their Alphas pure. Only pure Alphas became tribe leaders and they believed that only leadership by pure dynamics could successfully enable their survival in the challenging environment. They spent a lot of time negotiating and organizing their tribes, and obviously every tribe wanted pure Alphas. So when Omegas began to disappear, they became highly concerned and nervous."
Cailyn nodded. "And your grandfather," she said hesitantly. "What did he do about the Omega he wanted?"
“He stole her."
Cailyn's eyes widened. “He stole an Omega?"
Drocco nodded. "He believed that she was his, and there was no way he was going to allow her to marry another."
Cailyn regarded him for a long moment and then scowled. "It seems to be a common behavior type in your family line."
Drocco leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "You misunderstand. He stole her from the tribe, but she wasn’t unwilling. She recognized that he was her Alpha also, but was conflicted by her duty to her tribe. He made the decision easy for her by taking her away. If she hadn’t chosen to be with him it’s likely that she would have been unhappy for the rest of her life."
Cailyn pursed her lips in thought, and then dipped her head in a sharp nod. “And what happened next?"
“He brought her back to the Western Lands and set up home with her. Although he was trained as a warrior, he reverted back to his skills as a carpenter to provide a home for her and also to remain undetected by the tribe searching for them. Eventually though, she was taken, and he was lost without her. As he aged, he weakened and lost his mind, lost everything that had once been strong about him. He became…" He couldn’t finish his sentence and Cailyn didn’t seem to need him to.
They sat for a long time, both in thought as the fire
died.
“So…" Cailyn began, hesitantly. “Are you a pure Alpha?"
Drocco gave her a small smile. “That’s my father’s story. For that, I would need another secret."
Cailyn scowled, but he could see it wasn’t a real one. After all, she had already promised her secrets. The fact that he was giving information about himself was simply a way to talk with her, but the topic ladened him with emotions he hadn’t experienced in a long time. "Not now though," he added. "I was in the middle of fixing that back door when your nosebleed started. We will return to this subject another time."
***
Over the next week, Cailyn slept more than usual. One morning, he noticed that she hadn’t followed him into the kitchen where he was working on the kitchen pump. He returned to the living area, and she was still curled up in the sheets, rocking slightly with her hand on her stomach.
"Cailyn," he said, kneeling down next to her to check she hadn’t had another nosebleed. "What is it?"
She moaned and shook her head. "I feel sick."
Drocco watched her for a long moment, unsure what to do, and then he lay down behind her. "It is a natural part of your pregnancy," he murmured, as he wound his arm around her stomach and pressed himself against her back.
"I hate it," she mumbled. "I've never felt this bad in my life."
Drocco leaned in and resisted from kissing her neck. "It won't last forever," he said into her ear. "Only a few weeks."
"Weeks?" She groaned and shook her head.
Drocco resisted chuckling, trailing his fingers over her stomach.
After a few long moments, Cailyn turned her head toward him. "Do you know much about Omega pregnancy?"
"I studied it at the Records Keep," Drocco replied. "It isn’t much different from a Beta female pregnancy, except the need for the Alpha, but there are obviously higher risks."
Cailyn was silent for a while. "You studied Omega pregnancy at the Keep?"
"Yes."
"With me in mind?"
Drocco recognized the hardening of her voice. "Yes," he said firmly. "I already told you during your Haze that I was intending to get you pregnant. I intended it from when you were back at the Palace. This should not be something that still angers you."
Cailyn huffed and turned her head back to face front. "You say that you respect Omegas and the Alpha/Omega connection. I struggle to understand how you can respect someone you manipulate so thoroughly," she replied, bitingly. "It feels like you don't understand what respect is. You say one thing and yet you do the opposite."
Drocco's hand became firmer on her stomach. "Respect has to be earned, Cailyn. It works both ways. I do respect Omegas, and the Alpha/Omega connection. But I don’t respect spies. And I don’t respect anyone who doesn’t respect me as an Alpha." He slowly turned her onto her back so that he could see her face. "You lied to me and came to me under false pretenses. You were intending to use me to get information, and when you were found out you tricked me by hiding yourself behind that barrier using the Talent. As much as you hate being manipulated, you have shown yourself to be a skilled manipulator.”
Cailyn stared at him with an expression he hadn't seen before.
"I innately recognized that you’re the only Omega I want,” he continued, “but I also recognized that your behavior needed reprimanding. I wanted it corrected before any form of respect could grow between us."
“You expected to correct my behavior? Like I’m some wild dog needing training?” Cailyn asked, her voice hard.
"I expected to punish your treason," Drocco said sharply. "And maybe, once that was done, we could move on to build a true connection."
Cailyn shook her head. "How could you expect that? How could you expect me to want a connection with you when you punished me in such a way?"
"How could you expect me to trust you if I didn't?"
"But you don't trust me. You didn't correct my behavior, Drocco. You made me want to escape and get away from you. Your entire method didn't work."
A soft growl grew in Drocco's chest. "It didn't work because I didn't stick to your torture methods," he said tersely. “If I had, you would have been suitably punished.”
"Why didn't you stick to it?" she asked.
"I didn’t want to destroy our possible connection any further,” he said, irritably. “But I tried to repair it and you didn’t accept it."
As she tried to respond her whole body trembled and she clenched, her face contorting. He turned her back over to face away from him, continuing to rub her stomach as he pressed into her, purring as he curled his body around her soft, small one.
After a while, her breathing evened out. "Are you feeling any better?" he asked.
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
For most of the next week, Cailyn suffered from nausea, though she didn’t actually vomit. Drocco stayed with her, rubbing her stomach and pulling her body close to his, though he was careful not to pet her or touch her unnecessarily. She seemed to feel better once she had lain with him for a while. Perhaps being close to him improved her nausea, perhaps she could sleep better with him next to her, perhaps she needed to feel his touch… or maybe it was none of that and he just liked to think so. Maybe their connection was too impaired for it to matter.
CHAPTER TWELVE
CAILYN
Cailyn's life existed as a confusion of contradictory emotions and thoughts.
At first, the black gloom that settled over her paralyzed her emotions. It weighed so heavy on her, she barely felt anything other than an extreme eagerness to escape everything. Even the flutter in her stomach had disappeared. The only firm decision that she was sure she made correctly was the agreement with Drocco. At least she knew when everything would end—when she would finally be free. No more running, no more hiding, no more disappointment or expectations… just true freedom.
However, she hadn’t been able to sink into the peace of that black deadness. Something about an Alpha fumbling about in her home and asking stupid questions drove her to distraction. She wanted everything to stay how she already had it—why did he have to change things? She was never coming back here, there was no need to fix anything. She almost went into an unreasonable tantrum when he dug out the rotten food in her vegetable patch. So what if she couldn’t grow anything? It was her patch to grow crappy vegetables in and he had no fucking right. She told him so. Repeatedly. And when he shuffled through her clothing, holding out one badly sewn tunic after another and throwing her disapproving looks, she could have exploded. It was a few days of constant ranting before she’d even realized the gloom had lessened considerably.
Since then a confusion had settled over her that she couldn’t escape from. She truly hated Drocco. Hated him more than anything for what he had done to her. And yet, the Alpha in her home wasn’t the Drocco she recognized. Since making that deal with her, he had been… different. He didn't touch her and hardly spoke to her unless she spoke to him first. He fixed things and told her stories, and aided her when her body was acting crazy. She couldn’t figure out what he was trying to achieve by this behavior. Maybe he wanted to throw her off her guard, but what would be the point? Maybe he had given up trying with her, now that she had negotiated her true freedom. Yet the thought of that was unsatisfactory to her too. When Drocco cuddled her into him, purring his softer, soothing purr against her back, his scent surrounding her and his thick arm encasing her, nothing better existed. Even when she was nauseous, the pleasure of having him touch her had her sighing and sinking closer to him. She concluded it was because they hadn’t mated at all since arriving at her home, but even that she was confused by.
She had resolved to never, ever initiate sex with him. If she did, it would only send the wrong message, and she didn’t want him to have any reason to renegotiate their deal. And yet her Omega instincts violently disagreed. She tried not to think of those instincts as separate, the Mothers had confirmed that they weren’t, but the way in which they affected her body, her
thoughts, it was almost as if it was someone else. Someone else who wanted Drocco’s tongue claiming her mouth, who wanted him gripping her thighs open while he plunged into her, who wanted the heady scent of his cock filling her nose as she sucked on its wet tip. The desire was almost maddening.
Outwardly she remained as indifferent as she could. It was easier to do when tendrils of her despair still lingered and the constant reminder of her restrictions literally lay at her neck. This wasn’t like his prison bedroom where she was overly stimulated by his scent and his touch—she was sure she could resist him. So she allowed herself to be curious about him. She would likely be the only person to ever hear his history, to ever know that he was really a carpenter, to ever see this side of him. So she indulged in that.
“Tell me about your father.”
Drocco paused from fitting the slated window panes into a shutter he was fixing.
“I know,” Cailyn said before he could respond. “I know you need a secret. Ask away.”
Drocco secured the panes into the shutter and sat in stillness before speaking. “You said Omegas ran this Omega village.”
Cailyn’s mood sunk. In her desolation, she had promised to give him precious information. Information that she had been prepared to die for previously. And yet, in her anguish, she hadn’t cared. The Mothers were the ones that had abandoned her. They would never accept her now. Why should she live a tortured life when they had given up on her? They planned to erase both of their memories anyway, so the quicker they did, the less damage it would do for Drocco to know. Still, she battled a tight squeeze in her chest as she answered. “Yes.”
“Do you have some kind of social structure? A council or a ruler?”
Cailyn forced herself not to fidget on the wooden chair she sat on. “We have a council of elderly Omegas called the Mothers, who lead us.”
Drocco frowned in thought for a moment. “Is the whole village made up of Omega spies?”
