The Omega Fire (Book Three of the Omega Game Series)

Chapter 8

Nira

Naccara City-Capital of Naccanash 

(Aros fifteen years old- Nira fifteen years old)

    “And who cares if the Mongrel is visiting?” I asked the frog, who was resting under the shadow of the palm trees closest to the pool. I swam to her and rested my arms at the borders of the pool, watching the frog while I talked, “I just asked if I could see him so I could give him a package for Katala. It’s not as if I want to see him.  I can’t understand why my father doesn’t want me to talk to him.”

    The frog seemed to look at me, found me lacking and then turned around and started hopping away. I sighed, looking up at the blue sky. I was back at Naccara only for a couple of days to attend my father’s birthday and then I was expected to return to the Hidden Library, where Katala had stayed waiting for me. I’ve felt awful leaving her alone but Katala had assured me she preferred staying and then taking vacations next summer to go back to the City of Leukos. I missed her so bad and what was even worse, I was getting sick and there was no medicine to help me cool down the high fevers I had for over a week now.

    My mom had been extra worried about me, keeping me company more than usual and even visiting me between her court meetings. She was alway making sure I was eating and resting properly. Her overbearance was strangely welcome. As a matter of fact she had been the only one to understand my newfounded need to tidy up my room constantly. I’d never been exactly organized but the changes didn’t seem to surprise her. When I started pushing pillows and cushions in one corner at the end of my bedchamber she hadn’t even questioned it. 

    If she could only be this understanding and let me see Aros at least once. He wouldn’t be in the city for much longer and we hadn’t seen each other in more than a year. If I had to be completely honest to myself I’d been missing our usual fighting while staying at the Hidden Library. Aros had the peculiar ability to bring out the worst of me but in the process he made me feel...well, alive. Fighting him was the biggest rush. Bigger than betting, than escaping my royal guards, than drinking with Dark Riders and disobeying my parents. When we fought my entire body awakened and my heart became a drum that beat only for him.

    I started singing while swimming around the pool. The cold water somehow appeased the constant feverish state of my body and soothing the strange tension in my abdomen. While I sang I thought about Aros again and the last thing I said to him. I smiled when I remembered how he had looked, dressed only in his shendyt while coming out of the training pit. That year he had grown another head taller and all the girls of the City of Leukos had been fawning after him. I’d visited for a week between classes and had been thoroughly surprised by Aros’s group of followers. I’ve realized this after coming back from the city one day and entering the palace, just to find a multitude of girls of my own age and even older trying to catch a glimpse of the royal princes when they trained inside the pit. 

    I stayed at the end of the hall with one foot against the wall and my arms crossed over my chest. I waited for what seemed like years for Aros to finish his training. When the doors opened and Noctis appeared all the girls went crazy, screaming the prince's name and trying to reach him. Noctis didn’t look at them. He didn’t even seem to realize they were there. Aloof and quiet Noctis had only ever had eyes for my cousin Katala, a fact she didn’t seem quite aware of. 

    And then it came Aros. The crowd of girls across the hall went crazy. Aros. Aros. Aros. I grew mad right away. What the hell did they all see in him? And as if I needed a direct answer to my silent question Aros moved then, and I had to bite the tip of my tongue to not groan in irritation. He was dressed in his shendyt and nothing more. The small piece of white linen couldn’t do much to hide the incredible body that I’ve tried to ignore every time I’ve seen him at training. Tall and lean, with long muscular legs and powerful thighs. His tanned skin was unmarred but covered in a thin sheet of sweat and sand after fighting at the pit. Blue eyes that were deep and mischievous scanned the crowd before landing on me. His powerful body tensed and against any logic I looked at the hardened abs and the small waist that shaped into the widest back I’ve seen. s**t. I really like a man with a wide back.

    “Aros! Aros, look at me! Aros, how long are you staying this time?” the voices of the girls asked him and I was reminded that we weren’t alone and that he was being subjected to the noisy attention of his followers.

    I rolled my eyes and pushed myself from the wall. I walked  fast and gained the stairs that led to the second floor and away from the circus that was Aros and all the girls that were always around him and Kun. I shook my head at the memory of those two. Why couldn't they be a little more like Noctis? Why did they enjoy the attention they generated? The rumors had to be true. They had to have been bedding girls for a while now. I felt myself blush in anger and shame and above everything else in jealousy. And why, by the skies, was I jealous?

    I had no time to ponder that last thought when Aros landed right in front of me, making me gasp, and take a step back while I looked up and around. I had descended three sets of stairs and two floors. The only way Aros could have gotten to me so fast it was if he had climbed the walls and jumped down an eleven feet high balcony. He stood tall and proud before me, lifting an eyebrow and then c*****g his head to a side while he sniffed the air between us.

    “Why do you smell so angry?” he asked me and I groaned, rounding his powerful body and keeping my fast stride.

    Aros reached me in two steps which really made wonders to my self esteem and my vertically challenged condition. I eyed him by my peripherals and found him already staring down at me. His Alpha scent was muskier and stronger after training. I found myself also sniffing the air between us but there was no aggression coming from him, just his heavy musky scent. My senses knew everything about that scent. Alpha. Powerful. Dominant.

    I stepped away from him, putting a much needed distance between our bodies.

     “I’m not in the mood for one of our games, Aros,” I said slowly, moving faster, “You should go back to all those Betas screaming your name.”

    “Are you angry because of them?” he asked me, stopping suddenly, his blue eyes turning more intense and heavy lidded. I forced myself to stop and turn around, bracing my hips with my hands and scowling at him.

    “I’m not angry!” I screamed and Aros’s lips twitched as if he was fighting a smile.

    “Nira, your scent has never been this affected by anger before,” Aros said slowly, moving closer. I took a step back, incensed by the intensity in his blue eyes. My heart was drumming wild. My bloodstream felt heavy and burning in anger. Yes, I was mad. It was useless to deny it, so I opted for a more offensive position.

    “Why do you care if I’m angry or not? Just leave me alone Aros! You know you want to go back to all those Betas dying for your attention anyway,” I lifted my hand and tried to push him away. What I hadn’t expected was that the moment my hand connected with the hardened muscles of his abdomen we both stilled. Our bodies tensed. The entire air around us shifted and turned heavier, occluded by the strong scent of our closeness.

    My breathing turned into a fatigated pant and his nostrils flared, scenting me and then shaking his head to the sides like Alphas did when they were trying to hear over the sound of the blood pumping in their ears.

    “Why are you angry Nira?” he asked me through a growl. I licked my lips and his blue eyes started to darken at the motion. Aros moved one step closer, towering over me, “Why Nira?”

    “What are you going to do about it?” I asked him in return and Aros’s mile long shoulders tensed.

    “If you say why are you angry right here and right now you would never again have to feel like this. You don’t have to admit anything or concede. Just tell me why you are angry and there would be no more girls, no more crowds and no more female Betas,” the intensity in his deep voice was like a balm to my strained muscles. I could say it. I could tell him I was mad at all those girls he let be close to him. I could say I didn’t want him giving them his attention. I could tell him I felt as if I wanted to gauge and scratch the faces of all those Betas that had been around him...but I didn’t.

    What good would come out of it? I would be gone in two days and he was supposed to return to the Dark Desert at dawn. It was impossible to know when we would be able to see each other again and I didn’t want to live thinking and imagining all the possible ways he could be breaking his promise while we were apart. We were only fourteen years old right then. We were too young to make promises and live honoring them. So I shook my head and took a step back.

    “I’m not angry Mongrel and even if I am that’s not your business,” this time I pushed him out of my way and he let me. I felt his eyes on my back while I scurried away. One moment before I turned the corner of the hall he stopped me with his voice one last time.

    “Just for that, I plan on getting you angrier Nira. Next time there would be more crowds, more girls screaming my name and more female Betas at my beck and call,” he warned me and my shoulders stiffened, but I didn’t turn around. If I did he would have seen the tears rolling down my cheeks and I had never given him the pleasure of seeing me crying.

    “Do your worst Aros,” I said to him and then I ran away.

    In retrospect I didn’t regret what I’ve done. 

    Aros was too wild and rough, like a wildfire that once it ran free couldn’t be qualmed. And I was still too young to understand all the different aspects of his personality. I could deal with the vindictive Alpha. I could even deal with the dominant male and the territorial Aros. But there were moments when he looked at me with blackened eyes and a twisted smile that rendered me frozen. There were parts of Aros I still couldn’t understand and something inside of my soul pointed at me that I still needed time to grow and learn more about him. 

    I kept singing in the pool until the tension in my abdomen finally subsided. With a sigh I started moving up the large steps and climbed out of the pool, dripping water everywhere around me. Barefoot and completely soaked I turned around to call for my maids when a long shadow perked on the roof claimed my attention. Has somebody been watching me? Where were my guards and my father’s men? I readied myself to start screaming for help when the long shadow disappeared. Everything happened fast but for a moment there I could have sworn the sun had shone right on top of Aros’s head. 

    The tension that had been scorching my lower belly festered and like a tide I felt my skin heat up from the sole of my feet to the roots of my hair. A moan low and hoarse escaped my mouth and pure heat exploded between my legs. I fell on my knees and hands, whimpering and shaking while an emptiness that I’ve never known could exist inside of me deepened and rooted itself to my very epicenter.

    There were sounds of screaming and bellowing. A pair of soft hands caressed my cheeks while I shook and lifted my hips in the air in the most obscene way. But I couldn’t stop myself. My body wasn’t my own. I looked up and through my tears I saw my mother’s beautiful face.

    “Shh...everything will be alright Nira. This is normal. Your first Heat will be over faster than you imagine. You don’t have anything to be scared of,” she smiled at me and kissed my forehead but deep down I knew she was lying.

    An Omega’s Heat was their biggest weakness. The only moment when we were completely at the mercy of our dynamic’s true nature. Normally I fought tooth and nail against my Omega instinct to please and satisfy but during my Heat I would have no power to control myself. I cried while I was taken into my bedchambers. I cried when my mother ordered for the entire north wing of the castle to be ridden of Alphas. And I cried when I was locked, alone and feverish inside my empty room to pass my first Heat in pain and solitude.