The Lycan Prince's Forbidden Omega

Chapter 3

POV: Ash

I wasn't in the royal chambers anymore.

I was back in my bedroom, and Damien was reaching for me again. The stranger's smile—that smile—was exactly the same. The same hunger. The same certainty that I was prey.

He took one step toward me.

I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't—

"Step away from him."

The voice cut through the room sounding more animal than anything I've ever heard.

The stranger stopped. His smile didn't fade, but something behind it tightened.

Kael stood in the doorway, his grey eyes now glowing red were fixed on the stranger—his brother.

"Father sent me to fetch the wolf," the he said. His voice was light, almost bored. "I'm only following orders, little brother no need to act all possessive."

"Rowan, get out."

The brother laughed. "Come now, Kael. You can't be serious—"

He didn't finish because one moment Rowan was standing near the bed and the next, Kael had his throat in his grip. Not hard. But the brother's face went pale.

The air in the room changed. Thickened. Pressed down on my chest like a weight. I hadn't even seen him move.

"You're hurting me," he said voice still light, but the amusement had drained out of it.

"I'm not." Kael's voice was quiet. "If I wanted to hurt you, you'd know."

Rowan stared at him. For a long moment, neither of them moved.

Then Kael released him.

The brother stepped back, rubbing his neck. His smile returned, but it was tighter now. Sharper.

"You can't keep him hidden forever," he said.

He walked out without looking back.

The door closing behind him.

I was still pressed against the headboard. Still shaking. But Kael was here, and Rowan was gone, and for one stupid moment my wolf felt almost... safe.

I crushed the feeling immediately.

The silence stretched.

Kael didn't speak. He walked to a wardrobe in the corner and pulled out a bundle of dark fabric. Then he crossed to the bed and placed it at my feet.

I stared at the clothes.

"...For me?"

"Unless someone else is hiding under the bed."

I immediately leaned over and looked.

Kael went still. "...That was a joke."

My ears burned. "Oh."

I wanted to disappear into the mattress. I'd actually looked. Like an i***t. Like someone who didn't understand how jokes worked.

I grabbed the clothes and clutched them to my chest, not meeting his eyes.

"I have to take you to meet my father."

My hands froze on the fabric. The king. He wanted me to meet the king. The king whose soldier had said was furious. Why did I have to see him. Not all Lycans didn't eat wolfs like Kael.

"...Will he..."

Kael waited.

"...Will he what?"

"...Eat me?"

Silence.

I forced myself to look up. Kael's expression hadn't changed, but something at the corner of his mouth twitched.

"...No."

Relief flooded through me. "...Good."

A pause.

"...Can he?"

The twitch came back. Kael looked away, but I caught it—the slight shake of his shoulders, the way he exhaled through his nose.

Was he... laughing? At me? No. No one laughed at me unless they were mocking me. But this didn't feel like mockery. It felt... different.

I didn't know what to do with it.

"Get dressed," he said. "I'll wait outside."

The clothes were too big. The tunic hung past my thighs, and I had to roll the sleeves three times just to free my hands. The trousers were worse—I had to tie them with a strip of fabric to keep them from falling.

I looked ridiculous. Like a pup playing dress-up in his father's clothes.

You don't have a father, the voice in my head reminded me. You killed him.

I pushed the thought away and opened the door.

Kael was leaning against the wall outside. His eyes swept over me once. Then he pushed off the wall.

"Ready."

It wasn't a question. I nodded anyway.

We walked in silence. I stayed a step behind him—I'd learned long ago that omegas didn't walk beside alphas, and whatever Kael was, he was far above an alpha.

He stopped so suddenly I almost ran into his back.

"Walk beside me," he said.

I blinked. "...What?"

"You're not a servant. Walk beside me."

I didn't know what to do with that either. So I shuffled forward until I was next to him, my shoulders hunched, my eyes on the floor.

He didn't correct me again.

A man was waiting for us at the end of the corridor.

He was shorter than Kael, with sandy hair that stuck up in seventeen different directions and a grin that looked like it had never been told no.

"Kael!" he shouted, throwing his arms wide.

Kael didn't stop walking. "Luca."

"Leave."

"No."

Kael kept walking. Luca fell into step beside him like he'd been invited. He was carrying a small leather pouch.

"You asked for scent blockers," Luca said, tossing the pouch to Kael. "I had to steal them from the healer's stores, so you owe me."

"I owe you nothing."

"You owe me everything. I'm your only friend."

"I have no friends."

Luca gasped dramatically and clutched his chest. "I'm wounded. Mortally wounded. You'll have to carry me."

"You can crawl."

I stared at them. I'd never heard anyone talk to someone powerful like that. In my pack, disrespect meant punishment. Meant pain.

Luca noticed me staring. His eyes swept over me—the too-big clothes, the bandaged hands, the way I was half-hiding behind Kael.

Then he pointed at me.

"...He's tiny."

I stepped behind Kael without thinking.

Luca's mouth fell open. "HE HID BEHIND YOU."

Kael said nothing.

Luca's grin stretched wider. "You adopted a wolf."

"I did not."

"You absolutely did."

He walked around Kael—ignoring the warning look Kael gave him—and stopped in front of me. I tensed, waiting for the blow. The insult. The hunger.

Instead, he smiled. "I'm Luca."

I stared at him. He'd just... introduced himself. Like I was a person. Like I was worth introducing himself to.

"...Ash," I whispered.

"Nice to meet you, Ash."

I didn't know how to respond. Nobody had ever said that to me before. I opened my mouth, then closed it. My ears burned.

Luca's expression softened. He didn't mention it.

Kael made me take the scent blockers before we reached the throne room. The liquid was bitter, and I gagged on it, but I swallowed it down.

"Hide your scent," he said. "If the court finds out what you are, they'll hunt you."

What you are. An omega. Prey. Something to be owned and breed.

I nodded.

The throne room doors loomed ahead of us. Massive. Carved with scenes of battle. I'd never seen anything so large.

Kael pushed them open.

The room beyond was full of people. Wolves. Lycans. Guards in armor. Advisors in robes. And at the center, on a throne of dark stone, sat the King.

He was older than Kael, but no less powerful. Green eyes identical to Rowans streaked his dark hair. His eyes were cold. Calculating and they swept over me like I was something he'd found on the bottom of his shoe.

"So," he said. "This is the wolf."

I lowered my head immediately. It was instinct. You didn't meet the eyes of someone powerful unless you wanted to be punished.

The King rose from his throne and descended the steps. Each footstep echoed. I kept my eyes on the floor.

He circled me. Once. Twice.

"Pathetic."

I didn't flinch. I'd heard worse. So what was one more person who thought I was an abomination.

"He's small too," the King continued. "Weak. I don't see why you bothered bringing him here."

"He was dying," Kael said. His voice was flat, controlled. "I found him at the border."

"And decided to bring him into my palace without permission." The King stopped in front of me. "Look at me."

I lifted my head. The King's eyes were grey, like Kael's, but colder. He studied my face for a long moment.

"Beta," he said finally. "Or gamma. Nothing useful."

The scent blockers were working. He couldn't smell what I was.

"Throw him in the dungeon."

My heart stopped.

"No." Kael's voice cut through the throne room.

The King turned to him. "Excuse me?"

"He's done nothing wrong."

"He trespassed on Lycan territory. That's enough."

"He was dying—"

"Then he should have died."

The words hit me like a blow. I'd thought them myself a thousand times. But hearing them spoken aloud, in this cold room, by this cold man—something inside me shriveled.

"Guards," the King said.

Two guards stepped forward. They grabbed my arms.

I didn't fight. I knew better. Fighting only made it worse. So I went still, let them pull my hands behind my back, bent my head.

The guard on my left reached for his restraints.

I whispered it without meaning to. Automatic. Reflexive. The same words I'd said a thousand times before the first blow fell.

"...I'm sorry."

Kael's eyes darkened.

And the guards dragged me toward the dungeon.