The Omega Eclipse (Book Two of the Omega Game Series)

Chapter 4

Katala

    After dinner we trained our fighting skills with Baltus by the training arena near the stables. Aros and Noctis came to watch but thankfully didn’t mock us and kept themselves busy tending their horses. I found it weird that Noctis was wearing his riding gloves and a long shirt at night. Normally boys preferred to wear a shendyt after training during the day, but for some reason he was wearing leather pants, a black shirt and gloves. 

    In a silent peace offering I walked to his side and started braiding Nula’s long mane. Nula was a stallion. A huge black horse that Noctis had found in the wilderness of Gilmesh Forest and brought back home when he was only five years old. Uncle Wolf warned him that a wild horse would be impossible to tame but Noctis refused to part from Nula. He tended personally to his horse. He fed Nula and slept at his side until the horse grew used to his presence. I knew Noctis even liked to talk to Nula when he thought nobody was watching. Although with his keen Alpha senses I wondered if he did know I’d been watching and didn’t mind. Nula neighed pleased while I braided his long black hair, making me smile at the memories of all the times Noctis had let me braid his horse’s mane even if it was childish and girly.

    “Can I ask you a question?” I asked Noctis, who was still busy brushing Nula’s mane while he changed brushes and picked a wider one with softer bristles. He gazed at me over his shoulder, raised an eyebrow and then focused on detangling the long black tail. His hands were powerful and gentle at the same time. It was a shame he was using gloves. I liked the sight of his big, tanned hands while he worked around. I chewed on my lip, surprised by my own thoughts, then I remembered what I wanted to ask and turned to him, “what happened to you on your way here? I’ve never seen you three looking so…”

    “Dirty?” offered Nira while she threw herself over a square of hay, crossing her arms at the back of her head. Aros, who had been about to feed his horse by using the same square of hay where she was lying down, seemed to clench his jaw and turn back to Noctis.

    “You are not saying anything. Remember the code,” said Aros tapping his temple with a finger and then pointing it back at Noctis. To my surprise Noctis’s mouth twitched as if he was about to smile but then he cleared his throat and shook his head at me.

    “It was nothing, just a misunderstanding,” he said with his usual seriousness but I didn’t buy it, Noctis had almost smiled and that by itself was something strange. What had happened to them?  I wrinkled my nose and glanced between Aros and Noctis.

    “Why was his hair covered in chalk?” I asked, pointing at Aros at the same time that Nira’s eyes sparkled in mischief.

    “What code are you referring to?” she asked with a huge smile and Aros groaned, shaking his head at us.

    “We are not saying anything. The secret dies with us, right Noctis?” he lifted an eyebrow and Noctis only shrugged, looking uninterested.

    “You don’t have to worry about me,” he said and then he pointed with his chin at Baltus, who was snoring while he slept over the stocked hay, “worry about him.”

    Aros waved a hand and then smiled at his brother, the gesture a sly one.

    “I promised not to say anything about Salita if he kept his mouth shut,” Noctis was genuinely fighting off a smile now, he shook his head at Aros while the younger brother wiggled his eyebrows, sharing a secretive smile with Noctis. 

    “Who’s Salita?”  Nira asked with a frown and Aros’s smile turned wider.

    “Not who, but what,” he said with a nod and another wiggle of his eyebrows.

    “I don’t think I want to know,” I said and Noctis nodded.

    “You really don’t,” he assured me and smiling up at him I moved closer, until we were standing side by side. 

    Noctis tucked his chin down and his eyes darted to my face. The air seemed to crackle while we looked at each other. I felt the same tension from before, as if just by being close to Noctis I was pushed into a completely different reality. A reality that only concerned the two of us and that strange need in the air between our bodies. I couldn’t quite understand what I needed but the emotions battling inside of me were wild and powerful, making my stomach flutter and my heart beat faster in my chest. I’ve never felt anything like it.

    In silence Noctis took a step around me and then turned still, pushing his arms up while he brushed Nula. He had encircled me with his strong arms and now I couldn’t move. I was frozen between him at my back and the horse in front of me. My heartbeat turned even more desperate when he took a step closer, engulfing me with his Alpha scent. It was murky and earthly, like a storm about to happen. The hairs at the back of my neck stood up at his nearness, my skin pebbled and my erratic heartbeat turned so wild that I could only hear the blood pumping on my ears.

    “Be careful in Naccanash,” he said to my ear and I wriggled between his arms, nervous and bewildered by all the sensations running havoc in my body. What was happening to me? He gently pushed his mouth closer to the shell of my ear. The warmth of his mouth against my skin felt dangerous, like standing too close to the edge of a cliff. When he talked again my entire body vibrated under the resonance of his deep voice, “Stay out of trouble and send for me if you need me.”

    “Need you?” I asked in a whisper and braved myself into taking a peek at his eyes. My forehead was right under his chin, but if he turned me around I would be closer to his lips. I licked my lips at that thought and his eyes moved south, focusing on my mouth. Noctis’s nostrils flared and I knew he was scenting me. Strangely enough I liked he was scenting me, covering himself in my Omega’s smell in the process. I gave him a tiny smile, “need you how?”

    “Katala, you don't know what you are saying,” he said slowly, his forehead now resting on top of my head and his arms tensing at my sides, “just promise me you will be smart and stay out of trouble.”

    “I promise,” I murmured and then I blinked, losing myself into his black eyes, “will you promise me the same thing?”

    At my request his lips twitched up and finally he smiled. It was a proud smile, a little lopsided and beguiling. I forgot how to breathe. I forgot how to think or how to move. That’s how incredible and perfect his smiles were. I blinked once and his smile was gone, replaced by a frown.

    “I can’t make promises I can’t keep, but know I would be thinking about you,” that was the best promise I could get. I knew better than to try my luck and ask anything else from him that night. I didn’t know what was happening between us. I didn’t know if he still thought about me as a sister. I knew for sure I could never see him as a big brother after feeling all the sensations he had awakened on me.

    One thing was sure. 

    I liked Prince Noctis.

    “Katala! Valnira! Time to get to bed, girls!” roared my father from the inside of the palace, destroying my moment of realization. My father sounded near, way too close. He would definitely kill me if he saw how tight I was plastered to Noctis. I jumped into action and ran away from Noctis, smiling when I felt his hand caress my hair when I turned aside. Nira joined me by the doors of the stable and we both ran back to the palace between giggles. 

    All along I felt Noctis’s powerful eyes on me and for the first time ever I had an idea why he always looked at me the way he did.