The Omega Bond (Book Five in the Omega Game series)

Chapter 16

Kotani

The Yellow Islands

Present day…

I had a dream last night.

It was the same dream over and over.

On the strange nights in which sleep will find me I would close my eyes and see it. Like a mirage, or an obscure illusion that kept invading my thoughts during my days. In the dream I’m facing the east window in my private chambers. From my place I can see the upcoming dawn. The kingdom is in peace and my people are still sleeping. The air smells like the burned incense from the shrines of the temples. I can see the sea like a plain mirror. I can hear some frogs croaking by the ponds near my room. There’s a sound at my back. A whisper maybe…and then I turn around. When I look at my bed I see a woman but her image is always blurry, like a body under water.

And then it happens.

I feel peace.

I don’t feel hungry.

Or at least that’s what I thought I felt during my sleep. It was like resting and feeling at ease. It felt as if I wasn’t hungry. It felt…good. In my dream I couldn’t even feel the Boosaardig inside of me. I’d never believed in dreams. I never had many. Only that dream keeps returning to me. Didoka once said that dreams are strong connectors between past and future. I know differently. Dreams are not connectors. Dreams are a specific type of plague.

The Boosaardig laughs inside of my head and the sound is maniacal.

It laughs and laughs.

Over and over.

I close my eyes tightly. A moment passes by and I look back at the maps on the war table. The laughter pulses in my ears while I study the war maps. I raise a hand and General Aldudala stops talking. All Alphas are looking at me, expecting me to say something about the situation back at Ty Island. For days now the governor of the island has been sending me letters, narrating the political unrest that has extended all over the island since two opposite groups of Alphas emerged with different interests. One group demands autonomy from the crown and the other is pressing for my government to get a tighter control over the island.

If you tighten the leash of a dog it ends up killing it..hahahahah….kill the dog and put it down. Put it down, putitdownputitdown…hahahahaha…where is the girl? Take me to the girl. Take me to the girl. Take me to the girl. Take me to the girl. NOW. NOW!f*****g NOW!!!

The Boosaardig’s screeches are…maddening.

They go on and on until I feel my head is splitting in half.

“I’m not taking f*****g sides,” I growl to my counsel and each soul seems to tremble in fear at my tone. I can’t help it. It’s been days now since the last time the Boosaardig made silence. I’m barely holding myself together anymore. It’s madness is showing through the thin cracks of my character and it’s only a matter of time before the monster inside of me wins control. I’m losing this battle against the monster and we both know it.

“My King, this is the perfect time to strike and..”

“I said I’m not taking sides,” my voice is echoed by the power of the Boosaardig and it opens up like an abyss. Every single Alpha in attendance takes a step back, staring at me in fear. They can sense the monster inside of me. They can feel it’s corruption. I thin my eyes at the maps, trying to reason with the generals while ignoring the screams raging inside of my mind, “If I take control over the situation General Polalkala will use my intervention as a justification to maintain his antisystemic position. I’m not making martyrs and I’m not sacrificing my men’s life over an internal affair that needs to be fixed by them.”

“My King…”

I slam my hand against the table and the hit splits the wood in two. The table breaks and falls to the floor. Dust and small particles of wood cover the floor. The clouds of dust are soon followed by silence. Everyone grows quiet while they all look at me in terror. I’m better than this. I normally control the Boosaardig a lot better. That was before. Since the girl arrived we have been out of control. Both of us. Me and the monster.

Shit.

I close my eyes slowly, ignore the screams and point with my chin to the door.

“Everyone get out,” I order once and the generals exit the room fast, leaving me alone with the Boosaardig. The monster is now laughing while I take a seat and look over the night full of stars. It has been only a couple of days since Fair arrived and she has already managed to drive me crazy. I knew this would happen from the moment I agreed to help her. There was something about the purity of her soul that attracted the Boosaardig to her more than any other soul it had ever seen. Her soul was shaped in the purest form. The most uncorrupted light we had ever been in contact with. She was something sacred, something divine and holy.

And above everything else…she was my mate.

I felt the tethering of our souls the very first time I saw her. Those big blue eyes looked at me and recognized me as her Alpha. Her very being called for my Alpha Instinct to wake up while the Boosaardig demanded for us to eat her soul. It was a clusterfuck of sensations. My Alpha Instinct recognized his mate in her, while the Boosaardig grew obsessed with her pure soul. I was being pulled in two opposite sides, one side wanted to protect my mate and the other side wanted to annihilate her. For the first time in my long existence I didn’t know what to do.

I growled in anger, standing and making my way to the end of the room. I walked fast to the library, ignoring everyone and everything in my way. Any other day servants would have smiled and talked to me. That wasn’t the case this evening. Everyone seemed to know I’d been in a terrible mood for days now. My own people avoided me and watched me pass by with lowered heads and frightened heart beats. I could scent their fear wherever I went. Far from centering me, it only incited the Boosaardig’s bloodthirst even more. I finally reached the library, which was deserted at this time of the night. Candle sticks brightened the tables and the tall bookshelves of my private collection.

Slowly I paused by my desk and studied the books I’ve started studying for a while now. Melias’s tax books were not especially interesting but that wasn’t the main reason I’ve taken my time studying them during this hunt. The search for that human girl’s murderer was the only thing that kept my head focused and entertained in other thoughts that didn’t concern a young Omega with golden blonde hair.

With a frown I opened the red leather books and reviewed the name entries from the last volume I’ve opened. It still surprised me that they were organized and updated to the last buyer who had paid Melias twenty silver coins for leather goods a month ago. Normally merchants were not as organized as Melias had been, which made me suspicious of the fact that he could have tampered with his registers to protect someone. I passed the last page and felt the Boosaardig’s consciousness pressing against my eyes, while it watched the name I was reading.

Oradora Alketan…We have seen that name before…third volume to the right…on page fifteen, second name in the column on the left…takemetothegirltakemetothegirltakemetothegirl…

I ignored the monster’s constant whispering in my ear and opened the book he had mentioned. The Boosaardig’s memory was exceptional. Keen and precise to the point it remembered details that no human mind could properly recall. Sure enough there it was that name again, exactly where the Boosaardig said it would be… Oradora Alketan. I found the name written four more times in two other books. It seemed he liked to buy black velvet ropes by the pound and at times ordered thousands of silver coins worth of them. Melias had made a note at the side of Alketan’s name in the first book where he had entered his information. It read Oradora Alketan-bloodletting master of Dragon Town.

Bloodletting masters were not valued in the healer’s community. They had fame of purposely diagnosing patients that were healthy to con them and make money out of their ignorance. I’ve studied the Bloodletting Science and for what I remembered bloodletting masters used leeches and cuts to withdraw blood from their patients in order to balance the fluids inside of the body. There wasn’t much research about the authenticity of their science and for what it was worth I'd never been a believer of their practice. Why exactly did a Bloodletting Master need so many velvet ropes? Could it be possible Alketan used those velvet ropes for his work?

There was only one way of knowing.

I reached for my black cloak at the back of the chair I’d been using and started running to the back window, at the end of the library. I jumped out of it and landed already on my feet, running through the roofs of the palace and feeling the wind zing against my ears while I studied my city. From the highest point of the royal citadel I could see the capital in all of its glory. The circular shaped metropolis had been separated on long roads that collided in the Royal Temple, by the middle, whereas the harbors were in the north and the palace resided in the south. Red lanterns demarcated each corner of every street, making the area look alive and always awake.

The black tiles of the roofs groaned under my weight when I jumped from building to building, holding onto the walls with the pressure of my fingers so I didn’t break any ceiling that could alert others of my path. I preferred to hunt murders in secret. I would be damned if the royal generals learned of my nocturnal escapades and tried to intervene in any way. Hunting murderers was the one thing I could enjoy as Kotani. And the Boosaardig needed to be fed from time to time, which made it even easier to decide what to do with the murderers once we found them. Not that the Boosaardig enjoyed devouring corrupted souls, but devouring a soul could keep the monster satiated for months and so far, that was the only alternative I’d found to keep the Boosaardig content enough to not drive me completely crazy.

We always found the murderers.

This time around will not be any different.

In a deathlike silence I jumped from a wall. I crouched down once I landed, breaking my fall with a hand on the street before straightening. I surveyed the back alley while pushing my hood lower to conceal my face. Dragon Town was always busy. It was a small neighborhood, albeit rather problematic. Just two weeks ago I sent to prison two women who had created an illegal network of child trafficking. Before that I’d found three different White Lotus dens in which Alphas drugged themselves until they died. This place was one of the most dangerous parts of my city. It was a parasite, but even parasites had their purpose. Dragon Town was a place that kept a lot of bad people busy, contained. Without a place to accommodate them all, they could grow wilder and infect the rest of the city.

Balance.

Every place needed it, whether I liked it or not. Under my control I would never let the scales skew in chaos. I was about to start my search for Oradora Alketan when I felt the sentient presence of the Boosaardig growing anxious inside of me. The monster went quiet for the first time in days and then it started moving inside of my mind, trying to see through my eyes and smell through my nose. I felt my own eyebrows snap together while I studied the street ahead. What exactly had set him off? My entire body seemed to tense when I caught a glimpse of a golden lock of hair falling from a large hat. Blonde hair? In the Yellow Islands? What were the chances? There, about twenty steps away from me was a young girl, too thin and small. A true Omega, disguised as a human.

I sniffed the air, searching for her Omega scent, smelling the breeze, sniffing again…only to scent the bland emptiness of a human without a smell. She smelled like she was supposed to, but that didn’t mean it felt right. Whatever Didoka had done to hide her Omega scent had worked. That thought, far from soothing me, only riled me up. Cursing I rushed after her, holding her fast by her jacket and pushing her body to the side of the road. Her back hit the brick wall behind her at the same time she pushed her small fists up in a defensive stance. I felt a nerve in my jaw pulse while I stared at those tiny fists.

The f**k?

Was she really trying to hit someone like that? A pair of big blue eyes opened in shock when they saw me. I sneered at her pale, delicate face, growling in rage.

“What are you doing here?”

Fair opened her lips as if she had meant to say something but then her eyes connected with someone’s back in the crowd. She frowned, moving fast while taking my hand and pulling me after her. I looked at our interlaced hands in shock. The Boosaardig went completely still inside of me. The monster’s fascination seemed to grow the longer we held hands, watching through my eyes the blinding light of her soul. That moment of surprise was soon seized by the other battling force inside of me. My Alpha Instinct took control right away, coming to the surface of my skin.

Protect. Protect her, at all costs, always.

I’d never felt strength like that. A strength that emerged from the need to protect and take care of a small, little person that trusted me implicitly. I knew without a shadow of doubt that I could never possibly hurt Fair. Not even the Boosardig could touch her, regardless of how much it wanted to devour her divine soul. I would never allow the monster to hurt her. Not even if that cost my own life.

“Come on! We are losing him!” hissed Fair back at me. I would have found her imposing tone amusing any other day, but I couldn’t forget the fact a young Omega had been walking in Dragon Town in the deep of the night, completely unguarded.

“You don’t have the slightest idea of how deep in trouble you are, little Omega,” I said to her and to my surprise Fair smiled, looking up at me and giggling a little. My heart hurt in my chest, making me press my hand over it and frown in disgust at myself. I shouldn’t be liking her smile like that. She was still a child. I had no business even staring at her like I was doing.

With a growl I pushed my hand away, forcing Fair to stop walking.

She rolled her eyes at me.

I was impressed by the girl.

Nobody except for my sister had ever dared to do such a thing in my presence.

“Stop being a big, grumpy Alpha, would ya? And move faster! We are losing him!”, she kept moving, leaving me behind.

“Who exactly are we losing?” I asked her, feeling even angrier at myself when I kept following her down the road.

Fair sighed, still looking ahead as if she didn’t want to lose track of someone, then she started speaking, “Everything started an hour ago. You are not going to believe this.”