When Tomorrow Comes: Dawn

Chapter 5: Salphrin

She was not much of a wife when she could so easily be confused for a goddess, the beautiful beast of a woman curled in the crook of his arm, her hair wildly strewn over the disarray of pillows, her naked flesh pressed to his, and the warm trickling of his seed mixed with her heat dribbling over his thigh as she shifted too soon eager for more pleasure. Salphrin had mated her cycles ago, and it seemed lately every twenty clicks she was begging for her insatiable appetite to be his problem to solve—she'd been in heat longer than most, her scent driving him near mad, and he had wondered too many times in the last couple tides if she'd forced it, taking who knows what to bring on another ovulation for the right to boast among his women that she was mothering his children. Not that he'd mind, he'd wanted his pups of his own, but it was the strange pride that bothered him. Omegas were such fawns. Their entire hierarchy was built on birthing. The wealthiest of them had the most pups to the most alphas if they could help it. The mated, though, were favored even above the most fertile, especially if they could produce alphas. However, it seemed his mate was not fated to produce much more than cycles of f*****g and fruitless breeding. But it was no surprise; she was the last of her family—a pure delta line until her. She'd been rejected until he'd happened upon her and felt the call.

He threw his arm over his face, thinking back to that day. He wasn't an Anorii. In fact, he was barely recognized as the Duke of Chesed. It had been his uncle who'd summoned him to Geburah to meet with the young women suitable for breeding. He was of that age when everyone expected him to continue the family line, especially since both his parents had passed. He was hardly of age and the anxiety twisting through him was almost too much. By chance, on the way, the caravan had slowed and was carefully making its way around the overturned farm cart and family scorning the youngest for failing to secure their crops. It was when she whispered her apology that Salphrin ordered a stop, climbed from his carriage, and frantically searched for the source of such a beautiful sound. He didn't know what had come over him in that moment, but he had to find it. Then he saw her, scarcely more than a child... a teenager, and his stomach turned over. Repulsed by her youth compared to his own senior years, he snarled and turned away. Still, the call was mightier than his will.

'Who are you?' he growled at the old man, a lowly delta male from the smell of him.

"Tecker," he snapped, 'and what does it matter?'

'The girl,' he gestured to the child with torn clothes and stains on her knees and hands. 'She did this? She's ruined your business?'

'Always,' Tecker grumbled, turning his gaze away in shame, 'She's been a problem since she was born.'

Salphrin eyed the mess, the cart, and the three boys sulking around it. They'd make fine workers one day, and he'd use them in his court if they proved to have any amount of ambition, but the girl... her smell was intoxicating, and, much to his disgust, had given him a painful rise, his length harder than it ever should have been. Worse, he didn't just see the girl, he saw the woman she would become and could smell her s*x despite her distance. She'd already matured, but that didn't make it right. Then came a worsened thought: with a smell that pungent, it was only a matter of time before someone took her. Someone would breed with her, and if this poor family were smart about it, they'd sell her for pup production. And she'd like it, too. They always did. Some were so desperate, they'd breed for free just for the satisfaction of it, the delight and high they got from carrying, and those vicious omegas would abandon the unclaimed babes to the street. Filthy, awful omega wenches drunk off their lust. He ground his teeth and huffed. He couldn't let her fall to such an abhorrent fate. 'How much for the little b***h in heat?' he spat without thinking.

Tecker's eyes widened and he whipped around to the girl. He grabbed her by the arms and shook her fiercely, 'When? When did it start? Tell me! Tell me right now, Nameless!'

'I'm sorry, I... I was scared... ' Tears ran over her cheeks. 'I thought I had it under control... please, master... '

He fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around her, 'Nameless, don't call me that... don't call me that anymore... '

'Daddy?'

He pulled back and shook his head, turning his head to Salphrin, 'She's not good for much, and she's very young... be gentle with her or... ' his eyes cast down, unable to speak the warning of what could happen if a male were too rough. He swallowed down every guilt a loveless father could have for his unwanted daughter. 'I will accept any price you see fit to take her off my hands.'

'No!' she screamed, gripping hold of her father's shoulder. He shrugged her away and shoved her to the ground without so much of a glance. Her hands covered her face as she cried, ashamed that he'd accept any amount—possibly nothing at all, deeming her wholly worthless.

'Twice your losses,' Salphrin said, his voice softer and his eyes locked on the girl called Nameless. He swallowed and motioned for the guard to pay the man. Then, as the money exchanged, he offered her his hand. The second their skin met, an electric shock raced between them and her tears stopped, horror faded in an instant, and the world silenced. She was not worthless, after all. Salphrin brought her to the carriage and promised that day it would be her last in servitude.

It had been a painful, agonizing wait, but he promised not to lay a hand on her until she was fully matured, a proper woman. And he'd sworn to keep all other hands off her as well and made good on his word. No one touched Nameless, not even himself—and he wouldn't unless she asked it of him. The cycles crept by and one late tide she slipped into his chambers. He'd been made Anorii and the wonder it brought him robbed him of sleep. The creak of the door barely caught his attention. She bashfully stepped in and made her way to him. Her robe slipped from her shoulders to the floor like falling water. Her full figure was just as he'd seen it when they'd first met—in a flash of a vision when she was still too young and thin—and the draw to her became impossible to withstand.

Salphrin wrapped his arms around her, and his lips met her tender belly first. Then, on his knees, he brought her legs apart and devoured her warmth in greedy haste, dipping his fingers inside and licking them clean. Her legs weakened, and she nearly collapsed in frantic gasps of pleasure. He swept her up and took her in his bed, mounting her from behind and knotting in her too fast for his sanity. He whimpered and curled against her back as the first of many releases cascaded through him and filled her. Every thrust was more needy than the last until he could contain himself no longer and sank his teeth into her neck, marking and claiming her as his mate. When exhaustion came, and he lay entangled with her, still knotted and resting inside her, his finger danced along her skin tracing lines of satisfaction and guilt for the cycles of care he'd offered and knew they'd only ever be seen as thinly excusable grooming. He'd tried so hard to keep his distance... 'I'm sorry.'

'For what?' she breathed, her fingers running over the back of his hand.

'This life,' he admitted. 'I bought you from your father... kept you here because I... '

'I would have run away to find you if you hadn't,' she said softly, her own admission bubbling with a laugh from her chest, 'I knew when I saw you, I felt it, and I've tried so hard not impose. You were the Duke. I'm so ashamed of my worthlessness and the call...'

'Namele--" he stopped himself, his brow furrowing. He'd called her that too long. It wouldn't do for an Anorii or Duke, or any proper alpha to present a mate called Nameless. He breathed out against her neck, 'Katya... you are Katya now. And you will never feel ashamed again for being my mate.'

"Mate," he whispered from beneath his arm. She hummed in reply. "Are you happy?"

"Of course, Salphrin," she said, almost wary.

"Then why," he asked carefully, "have you been so demanding of me lately? You've been in heat far longer than--"

"I'm not in heat," she interrupted, pulling back and staring at him, rather concerned. "Didn't the nurse staff tell you? No surprise with the entire uproar with the Mateil slaughtering the guards in the foyer. They're so unreliable, it's embarrassing. But I did order them to let you know right away, Salphirin, that I... I'm pregnant."

His eyes widened, and his jaw hung agape as the words whirled around in a vicious storm. "You're... Wait, what Mateil?"