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

Chapter 14

Fair

The Yellow Islands

Present…

I couldn’t sleep. It didn’t matter how many times I turned around on my new bed trying to find a comfortable position, I was unable to find peace. Questions started plaguing my mind. Had that girl died on the same bed I was using? How did she die? Had she been younger than me? Had she been older? Did she have family and friends that would mourn her? What was her name?

I hated not knowing.

I hated knowing.

I hated knowing the fact that somebody died and not understanding anything else about them. As if death was the one condition that made that girl memorable. She had been somebody. She had a life. And now that she wasn’t anymore, everyone only seemed to know her because of her death. Maybe I was thinking in riddles. Maybe I’d read one too many books, but it seemed to me like a terrible irony of the fates.

I was dead tired, my entire body exhausted after walking around the city with Baobao for so many hours. I knew I needed to sleep if I wanted to rise early and meet Baobao at dawn to have an early start, but I simply couldn’t fall asleep. A girl had literally died in the same room I was living in. If that wasn’t scary enough then the dark shadows moving around the bedroom made it impossible for me to close my eyes. Had that been a shadow moving again? I narrowed my eyes in the dark. Was that even a shadow? I was starting to lose my mind. What made everything worse was the fact that the entire building seemed to be a gigantic center of scary noises. The creaking of the floor in the room next to mine. A door that had been opened and closed. The sound the wind made when it flew gently inside the room.

I groaned, pulling my hair at the roots and leaning up from the bed. Cursing I got up and marched to the open windows. I thought it would help me to fall asleep if I opened them but the sound of the wind coming inside the room was frying my nerves little by little. With a sigh I started closing the glass panes but not before a gigantic body jumped from the roof and down, slipping graciously inside my room. For a moment nothing happened. I stood there watching an Alpha that was almost seven feet tall staring down at me. The moment passed and my mouth rounded while my lungs contracted ready to scream out of my mind.

The Alpha reacted slowly, almost as if he knew he controlled this entire situation and I couldn’t bother him with any type of dramatics. He raised a hand for me to stop and unreasonably I froze. What the hell was I doing? I needed to scream! I needed to call Baobao for help...and why did that Alpha look so damn familiar? He started to move around the bedroom, inspecting everything with his eyes.

“Don’t make a sound,” I swallowed my screams, gasping in surprise and clutching the neckline of my nightgown. That voice. That body. That scent of musk. I squinted, taking a step forward and trying very hard to recognize the identity of the intruder through the black scarf he had used to cover the lower half of his face. Then I saw it, a small scar that graced his left eyebrow. Those elegant slanted eyes that were so similar to Didoka’s. Very high cheekbones...Kotani. I took a deep breath and rested my back against the wall, feeling the strange sensation of having a very light stomach and trembling legs that couldn’t support me.

“You scared me,” I said in a small voice and Kotani arched a scarred eyebrow at me. Without a word he took a seat in the only chair in the room and lowered his scarf until I could see his entire face. He looked...well, I wasn’t sure how he looked, but the moment he showed me his face my heart started beating faster.

The King of the Yellow Island was just there. Sitting in an old chair at the servant’s quarter and behaving as if this was a daily occurrence. To my surprise he shook his head once, the gesture stiff, as if he didn’t engage easily in body language that transmitted meaning.

“You have no reason to be scared,” he said in those lower tones that made his voice resonate against my stomach. Kotani studied my face for a moment, analyzing my eyes as if he could see right through me. Then he looked away, staring at the night sky, “Didoka was right, your accent is horrible.”

“You try talking in the Maccana tongue then!” I challenged him, angry at his high and mighty deference. At the back of my mind I knew two very important things. One, Kotani was an Alpha and in my experience Alphas weren’t prone to let other dynamics raise their voices at them like I’d just did. Two, he was the damn king of this place. He could have my head in a spike if he felt like making an Omega roast.

Kotani looked back at me, arching both of his eyebrows as if I’d surprised him somehow. At the light of the moon and from that angle...yes, I could totally see the aristocratic features that were only passed from one generation to another generation of the most refined royalty. I could tell the exact moment he decided to ignore my outburst and treat me like a stupid child.

“We can talk in any language you desire,” he said then, switching to the Maccana tongue and speaking it like a born Alpha from the Dark Desert. I felt my mouth hit the floor but recovered quickly because Kotani wasn’t done speaking, “That will not help you adapt any better to this place. You are smarter than that. From now on you only speak the dialect until you sound like one of us.”

“Easier said than done,” I rolled my eyes, taking a seat on the floor while he once again looked me in the eyes. I waited a moment and then asked him the one question that had been bothering me like a thorn to my side, “Why didn’t you talk to me before? Back at the harbors...Are you...are you going to act as if we don’t know each other?”

Kotani nodded once, “That’s for the best.”

“Why?” I asked, feeling my forehead crease in curiosity. Strangely enough this was the first time I held an entire conversation with the King of the Yellow Islands and it felt confusingly easy. I couldn’t tell if he felt the same way, but Kotani seemed to have the patience to answer at least that one question. He rested his elbows on his open knees and scowled at me.

“The attention of a King is a curse for those that can’t be strong,” he explained to me, making my frown deepen. Was he just calling me weak? Maybe he was, I didn’t know him any better either way. He could be complimenting me or insulting me and I wouldn’t know. It was hard to understand him judging his words only by the tone of his voice and what he was saying. Kotani c****d his head to one side, focusing those ancient eyes on my own eyes again. He seemed to like watching my eyes for whatever reason, “You came here looking for time and invisibility. I can only give you those things if I stay away from you.”

“And still, here you are,” I commented with a smile. I really didn’t know where that smile had come from. He blinked once and for a moment his eyes seemed to reflect the light with that strange quality that Nira had too. As if there was a monster inside of him like Teran lived inside of Nira. My smile widened. There was something about those eyes that promised danger and I liked them. I liked reading all those unspoken threats in his golden irises. They were saying stay back, run, don’t get too close...Against all logic I grew desperate to get closer, as if those threatening eyes were inviting me in, instead of pushing me away.

“I only visited to check on you,” his tone turned sharper and he started getting up, “Now that I know you are fine I need to leave.”

“Wait!” I jumped to my feet and pushed my hands up in a conciliatory gesture. He blinked, his face once again devoid of any expression. Making a frog grow hair seemed a lot easier than making Kotani look...well, alive. I sighed, lowering my arms and staring at him without any pretenses, “Look, it has been a long day and I’m tired. I’m not going to be able to sleep if you leave right now. Do you mind staying until I fall asleep?”

Once again he blinked and stayed quiet, frozen even, as if he was only a figment of my imagination. I moved one step closer and Kotani clenched his jaw, his nostrils flaring and his pupils expanding as a predator about to hunt me down. He didn’t move back but his entire body tensed, sending alerts all around him for me to stay away.

“Don’t you even think about getting close,” his voice was low and deep, like a void of darkness. I sighed, feeling too tired to try to understand the complex personality of the King of the Yellow Islands. I massaged my tired eyes and looked at him again.

“Please, stay with me?” I asked him one last time, holding his inflexible stare. I nodded at him, not waiting to see if he decided to leave or stay. It was up to him now. I started walking to my bed, not looking at him in case he grew angry at me again and decided to leave. I really didn’t know what was the correct etiquette to deal with kings this late at night. There had to be a manual somewhere with directions on how to handle moody kings after midnight. I would need to ask Didoka about that manual next time I saw her.

I got on the bed, covered myself with a thick sheet and stared up at him. A moment passed and Kotani only looked down at me. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence that we shared. We looked into each other's eyes and the space between us seemed to shorten, as if there was no age, no titles and no gender difference. We were the same, losing each other in the embrace of our eyes. I smiled at him and Kotani shook his head to the sides like an Alpha. It was the most normal gesture I’ve seen him doing so far. He finally sat on the chair, resting his elbows on his knees again.

“Sleep,” he ordered like a typical Alpha and I sighed.

“I want to, I really do. Only problem is that every time I close my eyes I think about that girl that died here,” Kotani narrowed his eyes but didn’t seem surprised I knew about the girl’s death. He had to have known I would hear about her death sooner or later. Biting my lips I turned to my side, tucking my hands below the pillow and staring at him, “Do you know what her name was?”

“No,” he said cuttingly and I nodded softly.

“I bet she had a nice name. A pretty name just like her. And that she liked reading and collecting wild flowers to make her room feel a little bit alive. I would have liked to be her friend,” I closed my eyes, feeling my body finally succumb to the exhaustion of my tired limbs. Right before falling asleep I smiled, “Kotani?”

“I’m here.”

I nodded and fell asleep right away.