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

Chapter 4

Nira

Somewhere inside the Amateran Forest.

Present day

    I moved through the opening of my tent and walked out in the night, ignoring the inquiring look that Kun sent my way. I wasn’t in the mood to talk. Also, I wasn’t terribly fond of fire at the moment so I didn’t want to sit with him by the campfire. Slowly I made my way down the road we had traveled earlier in the day. The dusty road was flanked by long pines at both sides, permeating the air of the night with the pungent scent of wood and pine cones. It was a cold night but I didn’t mind the cold. I preferred it over the insufferable heat I’ve experienced over the past days.

    Teran wouldn’t stop roaring in my mind. The dragon would constantly try to burn me to get out of my body and when he got tired of that he would roar and roar without taking any breaks. It almost felt as if your worst enemy lived inside you, making a new sport out of your pain and need for rest. I couldn’t sleep, eat or live without being very conscious of his presence and madness. I needed a respite of all this. I needed to rest and sleep and forget about the dragon growling in my mind at the moment.

    I came to a halt when I spied a long figure standing alone by the cliff we had passed hours ago. I recognized Aros’s profile right away. It was hard to miss him actually. The Alpha had an imposing presence that reckoned attention. Tall, strong, muscular and tense shoulders. Yes, it was Aros alright. I could ignore him and keep walking but against any logic I found myself walking to him. Normally I always tried to ignore Aros, but tonight, for whatever reason, I wanted his company.

    It was strange, really, but fighting Aros was the one activity that made me feel that I was living the most and after dying I wanted more of it. It was becoming quite addicting to fight him. Nothing else would give me the same rush, the same exhilarating sense of danger, the same thrilling sensation. I walked to him slowly, feeling all sorts of nervous fluttering in my stomach. When Aros looked my way with a scowl I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.

    “If I push you down the cliff and blame it on a strong wind do you think that Aunt Leukos will forgive me?” I asked Aros, stopping by his side and looking down, at the precipice that opened like a black void at our feet.

    “Fat chance of neither of those things happening, squirrel,” he said, cracking his neck and making me smirk. He looked at me down the barrel of his nose and then arched one eyebrow up, “I thought you were sleeping.”

    “Are you keeping tabs on me?” I asked him with a frown. 

    “I like to know in which direction the storm is coming from, yes,” I rolled my eyes at that and then shook my head at him.

    “I couldn’t sleep. There’s a dragon growling, roaring and screeching in my head constantly which makes the probability of me resting any time soon quite low,” I sighed, looking at the night sky and then shrugging, “ I’m coming into terms with the fact that I’m going to end all crazy and temperamental at the end of my days.”

    “I thought you would have gotten used to that idea by now,” rebuked Aros and a small smile fought its way to my lips.

    “I’m just turning eighteen this year, Aros,” I smiled at him at the same time his blue eyes focused in my mouth and stayed there, watching my lips attentively, “ I’m not wise enough to get used to any idea. Especially not those related to my temperance or lack of it.”

    There was a strange silence between us after that. We didn’t do strange silences. Usually when we were close and talking like we were doing just then we were loud and...well, aggressive. But, silence? I wasn’t familiar with silence. Not coming from Aros either way. Nervously I started playing with one of my unbridled locks, turning it around my finger while I tried to find a good way to provoke Aros.

    Before I could find any possible remark he moved closer to me. The heat of his body engulfed me in a comfortable embrace and his nearness felt...welcoming. I wanted to fight him because, well, because he was Aros and I hated him. But I couldn’t. I stood there smelling his musky scent that was aggressive yes, but also pleasant. Discreetly I sniffed the air between us and my heart started beating faster. Yes, his scent was quite pleasant after all.

    “You are turning eighteen tomorrow Nira,” he said slowly, his body tense and coiled, almost as if all of his muscles were locked and tight. When I looked at his blue eyes I found an intensity in them that I’ve never seen before. Slowly he moved, taking the lock of hair that I’ve been playing with in his fingers and softly brushing it back, “Do you have any idea since when I’ve been waiting for this day?”

    It was my turn to grow tense. Aros had never talked to me that way. Scratch that, he had never talked to me before. He would growl, bark and sometimes grace me with a grunt, but talking? And what was he implying here? That he had been waiting for me to reach adulthood? Why? It wasn’t like Noctis’s case in which he had courted Katala for years  and everybody knew he was going to have her once she turned eighteen. This conversation had no precedents. I didn’t know how to react.

    Mercifully Aros kept talking, “Three days ago I thought I was going to lose you. You died, Nira and then…” a growl occluded his throat and Aros closed his mouth angrily, his eyes starting to grow dangerously darker. I took a measured step back while he shook his head to the sides, trying to calm himself. When he resumed speaking his speech was labored, “I can’t lose you again. I won’t lose you. You are my fated mate Nira.”

    “No,” I whispered, feeling my body starting to grow numb at the revelation.

    “I’ve known you were mine since the first time I saw you…” I started shaking my head in a negative motion. No, no, no, no it couldn’t be. I took another step back and this time Aros followed me, his head turning in a wide angle while his body started to expand threateningly, 

    “ Don’t run. You know better than that.”

    “Then stop talking nonsense!” I screamed at him and Aros smirked. It was then when I realized his fangs had descended. The sharp canines looked hungry under the moonlight and against my better judgment I took another step back. I knew I was playing a dangerous game here. The Alpha Instinct activated easily around Omegas and if said Omegas gave their back and run they were practically begging to be chased. I would have loved to speak some sense to my legs but they simply refused to follow the directions of my mind.

    “You know that what I’m saying is true,” he growled through clenched teeth.

    “I don’t know what you are saying!” I screamed again, taking another step back.

    His nostrils flared and slowly he sniffed the air. Once, twice. When his eyes focused on me they were completely black. Aros moved his head to the side as if he were listening to a specific sound. Too late I realized that what he was trying to listen to was my frightened heartbeat. For an Alpha like Aros I was the most appetizing prey of them all. More even if it was true what he was saying and I was his fated mate.

    The scent of my fear would arouse him. The sound of my scared heartbeat would give him pleasure and if I ran I was literally inviting him to run after me and hunt me down. I’d been warned about this since I was small, but one thing was to be warned and another was to experience an Alpha Instinct waking up in front of me. In response to his aggression my own Instinct reacted. Before I could even think it through I turned around and ran as fast as I could. 

    With every single step I gained I heard my own blood pumping fast in my ears. I could hear my own heartbeat running wild, scared and panicked. Then I felt him. I felt him moving close, then closer, until Aros’s heat was palpable at my back. I only had the opportunity to look back once and by then it was too late. Aros pounced on me making me scream in shock. One moment I was running and the next one I was hitting the grass fast and he was covering me with his massive body. I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t escape. And he knew it. Growling at me Aros pushed my hands up and held me against the grass. I squirmed and whined trying to move but he only pushed his hips down, anchoring me to the bed of grass at my back.

    “Stop...moving…” he threatened me, his voice a wild growl that made me turn still and look into his blackened eyes while I panted in fear. I never knew I could be this scared. I never knew I could love the fact I was scared. His lips turned into a sneer and to my surprise and my horror I felt his hardened member against my thigh. I didn’t know how to react to that, so I stayed very quiet and still. At my obedience Aros growled pleased and then lowered his head. He stopped when his lips touched my earlobe and I shivered in pleasure, “You are going to be mine Nira, whether you like it or not. Fight. Fight all that you want but remember that I own you and that from now on I would be seducing you and courting you.”

    He pushed himself away from me. It was quite interesting to see him move in the state he was in. Half of him seemed to have the inclination to come back to me and finish what he had started while the other half pushed him in the opposite direction. I didn’t dare to move until Aros had put a good number of steps between us and only then I pushed up, holding my weight on my elbows.

    “I have my right to deny your courtship,” I told him and Aros stopped walking, turning back and staring down at me. His eyes were still black, always a good sign to keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t stay quiet when he had just scared me to death. I had my pride and he had his. Aros smirked and shook his head at me.

    “You like having the last word always, don’t you?” I shrugged and Aros ran his fingers through his hair. A telltale of his. I had managed to get him mad and that made me feel a little more steady than a moment before. In silence he pushed one of his hands on the pockets of his trousers and removed a little object. 

    He threw the object at me and I catched it in the air. It was very dark to see the details, but I could see it was a carved wooden animal. A small squirrel made of red oak. I’ve seen Aros working on that small piece of wood over the past weeks. Every time I asked him what he was doing he had grown grumpy. I gently caressed the head of the carved animal and looked up at him.

    “Happy birthday Nira,” he said through a hoarse scrap of voice that had no business sounding human, and then he turned around and left.