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

Chapter 12

Nira

City of Naccara

Present Day

    Ahh...this was my city. 

    How could I describe Naccara properly? 

    Well, It smelled like sour beer in there, clogging perfume and dusty roads. The buildings were made of red clay and packed rocks that were crammed against each other, like teeth that didn’t have enough space to grow properly.  All the scents conveyed into one, big, stinky mass of people that came visiting from all over the world. As a port city Naccara had an eclectic array of people always circulating around the port, the taverns and the main roads. It was noisy, packed and vibrant. If I could be a city I would have been Naccara.

    It felt good to be back.

    I rubbed my hands scanning the market. I knew every single vendor, worker and server around the busy street. I knew that Mr Hajo made the best Basbousa in town. I could see him even then, preparing his tent to start selling the sweets that I loved so much. And then, of course, was Madam Salana, the madam of the brothel at the end of the street. Madam Salana and I went a long way back. She saved me a couple of years ago, when she let me stay at her brothel on a hectic night when I might have or might haven’t stolen a griffin egg from a criminal gang boss. I smiled and decided that I would go say hello to Madam Salana first. Yes, that’s what I needed to do first now that I was back in my city. Mr Hajo always took too long organizing his merchandise anyway.

    I had only taken two steps away from our group when Aros stood to the side and unceremoniously picked me up by the back of my hood. In silence he pushed me up and turned my back to him, shaking me like a disobedient pup that had misbehaved. I met his steely eyes with puckered lips.

    “What now Mongrel?” I asked him, crossing my arms while my feet dangled in the air. Damn, this position wasn’t half as intimidating as I wanted it to be. Aros scowled at me, the line of his sharp jaw ticking in contained anger.

    “You are not going anywhere unsupervised,” he informed me, setting me down to his side and keeping one of his heavy, calloused hands on top of my left shoulder. The rest of our group kept moving with Noctis leading the way and Katala firmly plastered by his side. Kun and Didoka were following them closely and Aros and I had ended up closing our flanks. Nobody gave us a second glance while we moved. That was one of the best attributes of Naccara. Its invisibility. It was the city where everyone could pass by unnoticed. Hence the reason I’ve been able to escape and run around it so many times without my mom and dad getting all crazy about my absence. 

    “Oh come on!” I said, trying to roll back my shoulder and escape Aros’s hold. After one too many attempts to get away from the Mongrel I sighed and looked up at him. His eyebrows were drawn to the middle, forming a defiant line in his brow while he inspected everything and everyone with an aggressive air. I speculated Aros’s uninviting frown and aggressive scent were the main reason why everyone was giving us a wide berth. I licked my lips and tried to shrug his grip off one last time for the fun of it, “I’m not going to get in trouble. I just want to meet old friends, that’s all.”

    “And then what?” he barked back at me, his scent turning menacing and heavy, like a cloud of smoke that you couldn’t just breathe in, “Allow me to remind you that everyone is looking for a certain redhead princess and her cousin. Your old friends might alert others of your presence and then we are all f****d. We don’t need trouble, Squirrel. At least not until it is unavoidable.”

    I gasped in surprise, clasping my chest and everything, “Look at you, cursing in front of a lady. I thought your mother washed your mouth with soap once for this same reason. You sure are intrepid and dauntless my friend.”

    “And you are a woman- shaped headache, Squirrel,” he fought back at me, his words full of venom. I scoffed, rolling my shoulder back to remind him I didn’t like his touch. It was scorching hot and heavy. And it reminded me of all the things that hand had done to me two nights ago. Mind, behave. I mentally chastised myself and then looked around the street, trying to pinpoint where we were going.

    It was still early morning but the tavern where we were headed was already open for business. It always was. I frowned a bit when my eyes zeroed on the old and dilapidated sign outside the tavern. The sign hung by two rusted chains that squeaked every time the wind passed by the street. It read Broken Bones in big, black letters and at the back of it were two bones crossed like a cross. That should have been menacing, if it wasn't for the fact they looked like chicken wing bones and looked too small against the big letters that named the tavern. 

    Still, I paused for a moment, scowling at the sign and the old red facade of the ill looking business.

    “Move,” ordered me Aros with a growl that was all Alpha. People passing by got spooked by the violence sugarcoating Aros’s tone and started moving as fast and as away from Aros as they could. I looked up to the Alpha by my side and then pointed at the entrance of Broken Bones.

    “What are we doing here?” I asked Aros and to my annoyance he ran a big hand through his hair, a sign that he was also annoyed at my insistence to create some conflict. What could I say? I was days away from entering my Heat. Teran had been in an insufferable bad mood since we had entered Naccara and had found himself surrounded by-horrors of horrors- people and I was coming to terms with the fact I was going to be impaled by Aros and his monstrous c**k in the foreseeable future. This was my way to cope with my dreading circumstances and I wasn’t apologizing for it any time soon.

    “We are meeting a captain,” he said, trying to push me in the direction where the others had gone and disappeared inside the tavern.

    “What captain?” I asked suspiciously.

    “One agreeable enough to take us to Algonala,” said Aros through clenched teeth and tried again to take me inside the tavern. Again I dug on my heels, staring furiously at Aros. He stared back, nostrils flaring and eyes darkening, “ I’m one step away from losing my damn mind. I advise you to prioritize your outbursts and let me have it my way Squirrel. Believe me, you don’t want to be mounted by an enraged Alpha any time soon.”

    “If I had it my way I would never be mounted by an Alpha,” I spit back and Aros laughed at that, his laugh cold and unforgiving. I frowned, “What is so funny?”

    “Let me rephrase my previous words,” he said, taking a step towards me, pinning me against the wall of a building and then looming dangerously close. I swallowed nervously when I saw the state of his eyes. They were flashing between their natural deep blue color and their inky black shade. Ups, maybe I’ve gone too far. His musky scent slapped me in the face and before I could process the extent of his fury Aros was on my face, close and personal, “I’m losing my mind wanting to f**k that pretty body of yours until I knot you so hard and so tight that you won’t know when you end and I start. If you open that mouth of yours to fight me one more time  I will fill it with my c**k and you are going to end liking it so much that you will beg me to get me off. So now I ask you, if you don’t want these things to happen before you enter your Heat, please go inside this damn tavern now or make me a very happy Alpha and fight me back.”

    I was moving faster than I’d ever thought possible the moment he finished speaking. And I was quiet too, which was as maddening as it was surprising. But damn, Aros could be so damn intimidating when he wanted to be. And also, I recognized the truth in his words. He was  entering his rut and I imagined it wasn’t easy to stay focused and in control when the same Omega that had catapulted his rut was provoking him all the damn time. And since I didn’t want to be mounted- as he so gallantly had said- by an enraged Alpha I stayed quiet and entered the tavern followed by the menacing presence of Aros.

     Once inside the place was dark and clammy, like a cavern that hadn’t seen the sun nor a broom in quite some time. But then again I’ve been inside caverns much cleaner than this tavern.  It smelled like stinky cheese, sweat and piss. Lovely. I wrinkled my nose and let Aros take my hand and guide me down the narrow corridor that connected the main room with some bedrooms with closed doors. I felt myself blush when we passed one of the doors and heard a woman moaning in pleasure. Aros didn’t stop moving but his shoulders stiffened and I could have sworn his grip in my much smaller hand tightened. 

    We finally stopped in front of the last door at the end of the hall. Aros knocked the door twice, then waited a moment and knocked three times. Kun was the one who opened the door for us. His grey eyes connected with Aros’s face and then mine, before putting a finger to his lips indicating we should stay quiet. In silence we walked inside the room and right away I heard Noctis and a very familiar voice speaking in low hushes.

    I tensed by the entrance of the room, focusing on the group of Alphas that were standing behind a much older Alpha that was seated at a wooden table, speaking with Noctis. These people I knew too well. I cursed under my breath, staring at the four gigantic Alphas dressed in the white and blue uniform of sailors and Captain Hashish. I would have recognized the scarred face of the Captain and his strange grey eyes anywhere. It had been the last thing I’d seen before stealing something very important from him and leaving him to his own devices while this same tavern filled with royal guards looking for me.

    The moment I walked inside Captain Hashish tensed and all of his men followed suit. 

    I took one step closer to Aros because...well, he was bigger and meaner than my enemies and he seemed to like me the most at the time. Captain Hashish took a long drag of his wooden pipe and started laughing between clouds of grey smoke.

    “f**k me in the arse and call me pretty,” he said in that hoarse voice he had developed after smoking an entire life, “ princess Nira in the flesh coming to see poor, old me. How have you been doing darling?”

    Everyone turned to me at the same time. Katala’s eyebrows had reached her hairline and I was sure Didoka’s jaw had hit the floor. And Aros...well he was fuming. His eyes had gone completely black now. Aww s**t.

    I sighed and pushed back my hood.

    “Hi there Hashish,” I said with a nod and then smiled at the boys behind him, “Peta, nice to see you are still a stinky bastard. Gorg you shouldn’t have let Peta cut your hair again and Seru I can see you still don’t know how to wash your teeth. Hey there Erko. I hope there are no hard feelings between us? Hmm?”

    “f**k you and f**k your bloody mouth,” cursed Erko, the tallest of their group and Hashish’s son. He spit the floor and pointed a finger at me, “where the hell is my egg?”

    “Your egg?” I lifted an eyebrow, carefully looking between Hashish and his son, “Last time I checked I won that egg fair and square.”

    “You are the best cheater in Angiras I’ve ever known, princess Nira,” commented Hashish and I smiled at him.

    “Oh well, thank you Hashish, that’s quite the compliment coming from you,” I blew him a kiss and Erko lost all of his patience at that. He growled, pushing the table that divided our group from theirs and jumped, coming for me. I had no time to react before Aros pushed me to the back and with a roar jumped over and grabbed Erko by his head.

    Things escalated quickly after that. 

    Chairs were thrown, Alphas jumped over other Alphas and the sound of fist pushing flesh echoed in the entire establishment. At the end Aros alone sweeped the entire room, knocking down every single Alpha that tried to come one step closer to me. When Hashish and all of his men were elegantly subjugated and tied to chairs by Kun I felt the stare of all of my friends on me.

    “What?”I asked innocently and Aros roared. I gulped nervously and against any logic looked down at the raw aggression on his threatening call. I took a deep breath and then I shrugged, “Yes, I stole a griffin egg from these people. And yes, I might have made a joke out of them in the streets. They deserved it for trafficking magical creatures like that. For that I will never be sorry!”

    I crossed my arms and looked defiantly at my friends. 

    “Well then,” said Noctis, eyeing Hashish and his band of beat up men. There was no way these men will help us now. They hated my guts and I wasn’t sorry. Noctis smirked and shook his head at me, “That leaves us with plan B.”

    “Plan B?” asked Didoka, turning slowly to eye Noctis, who opened his arms for Katala to go and hug him. Katala smiled pleased when Noctis slowly patted her head, watching her with a look of profound devotion.

    “We buy a ship and you two take us to Algonala,” said Noctis to Didoka and Kun, who seemed to pale at the idea. I smiled excitedly. That was a damn good idea. No more people, no crews of men we couldn’t trust. Just us and the sea. Didoka shook his head, his wild, chestnut hair coiling everywhere.

    “I’ve never led a ship before. I can read coordinates and maps but from there to controlling a ship there’s a big difference,” Kun smiled then, placing a big hand over the young monk’s shoulder and nailing him to the floor in the process. Didoka risked a look at Kun, who seemed way too happy in contrast to the boy.

    “Fret not, kiddo,” said Kun with that huge smile that girls fawned over, “I will take us there. You just need to give me the correct directions and I will make the ocean cooperate. You have nothing to worry about.”

    “Do we even have enough money to buy a ship?” asked Didoka, still pale and nervous.

    Noctis and Kun shared a look and then they turned to Aros. 

    Aros was still pacing around the room. His eyes blackened and a constant growl vibrating in his chest. He stopped when he felt his brother's eyes on him and then he growled again, shaking his head to the sides.

    “I’m on it,” he growled, before staring at me for a moment and then leaving the room surrounded by a scented cloud of aggression and violence. I frowned, following his retreat for a moment before looking back at the other two Alphas.

    “What is he going to do?”

    “Make money,” said Kun with a shrug, as if that was obvious, “lots of it actually.”

    I rushed to follow Aros.

    Lots of money? That I needed to see.