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

Chapter 21

Aros

Naccara City-Capital of Naccanash 

(Aros fifteen years old- Nira fifteen years old)

    Our sense of smell was by far our strongest weapon and our most resented weakness. An Alpha could go from a merciless war beast to a love sick puppy in the space of a second when we caught a whiff of the scent of our destined mate. The scent of an Omega in Heat was once described by Baltus as the most mouthwatering scent of the world. So far I’d only scented mated Omegas in their Heat and their scents were not appealing to unmated Alphas. Things tended to be trickier for unmated Omegas. Their scent was a beckoning for all the unmated Alphas around her. A challenge of sorts for the strongest Alpha to fight other weaker Alphas and win the right to mount her.

    To scent an unmated Omega in her Heat was an explosion of dominance and aggression for Alphas. And to scent our destined mate was like smelling pure Heaven, and taste the enticing calling of unaltered pleasure. My father had told us that if we were ever in the position in which we had to face our fated mate during their Heat and she was still unmated we only had two options. Succumb to the calling or die protecting our Omega. I’d never given too much thought to my father’s words until that summer afternoon when I descended the roof of the Naccara’s palace.

    The fire inside of me was raging, threatening to overpower me and take control of the world. If I let it out for just one moment it would burn everything down. I could feel the flames right underneath my skin, corroding and eating away my self control, and all of it because of Nira. With a trembling hand I palmed my chest in the aching spot where my heart was beating at a maddened tempo. I’ve seen her for a matter of seconds and she has managed to render me crazy. I smirked and shook my head. If only her sight by the pool had made me lose my head I didn’t want to think about the things she would make me do by the time I sniffed her in her Heat.

    I tried to redirect myself to what I was supposed to do. Before hearing Nira singing by the pools I had been on my way to meet Queen Valnis. There were some state matters to discuss about the construction of new border’s forts between the Dark Desert and Naccanash. Technically speaking, Baltus should have been the one to visit Naccara and have a meeting with Valnis but I asked him to let me take his place when I heard Nira was visiting. 

    “Don’t get in trouble and don’t f**k things up with your Omega,” had been Baltus’s grand advice for me that morning, before I left our camp at the borders of the city.

    As if I wanted to fight Nira the way I did. I didn’t like to fight her, not in the way that everyone thought I did. I enjoyed our verbal sparring and from time to time I relished those moments when Nira’s light eyes shined when she was specifically mad at me. But it was all smoke and mirrors. I would have preferred to kiss her instead of getting her angry. I would have given everything to hear her admit she had been jealous last year when she saw all those meaningless girls waiting for me outside of the pit. If she had admitted she had been jealous I would have stopped messing around right away. No more Betas at my beck and call, no more fooling around, no more faceless girls that I used to scratch an itch away. I would have courted her and would have waited for her gladly, but her pride had been stronger than her nature and just for that I’d decided to punish her in the only way I could. I’d been an immature bastard and for that I had no excuse.

    Still, I wondered, maybe I was still in time to fix things. I looked over my shoulder and squinted, trying to see the shadows of her silhouette while she moved around the pool. I could go to her right then and tell her I loved her. I could make Nira hear me and explain to her she was the only one I wanted. That I needed her more than I needed breathing. That I couldn’t imagine a world without her and that if she let me I would take care of her like an Alpha cared for his Omega. That I would always protect her, that I would die for her and live for her.

    Then it happened.

    Her scent hit me and with it I finally understood what my father had been saying. Nira’s scent had turned so sweet that it was decadently sensual. Her Heat was like a brick wall hitting me in the nose and destroying the Alpha I had been to leave an uglier, calloused version in its place. I roared to the skies and jumped into action, climbing the walls that separated me from my Omega. The God inside of me had grown mad with wanting and I could only hear his voice in my head while I moved. Rut our Omega. Knot her. Bite her little neck and f**k her tight, tight slit. And above that annoying voice I could hear my father speaking to me.

    Succumb to the calling or die protecting my Omega.

    When I jumped out of the wall and descended to the patio there were already other Alphas running to Nira. I saw red. I didn’t care if these other Alphas were war generals, diplomats or royals from Naccanash. I killed them all with my bare hands. Through roars and howls I traced a red path of blood from the pools to the back of the royals quarters where they were taking my Omega. I dismembered every single Alpha that stepped on my way. Madness like no other descended upon me and in no time I had made my way to the door of Nira’s bedroom. 

    Three royal guards charged against me and with a growl I smacked them all down as if they were flies. Then I picked them up one by one and tore their heads apart from their necks with my hands. Their hot blood splashed my armor and I laughed at it, I laughed at it all because it felt good. It felt good to kill for my Omega, to protect her and own the right to be her Alpha. I roared and pushed a lifeless head over my shoulder on my way to open her door when the cold kiss of a blade touched my neck.

    “This is exactly not the reason why I wanted you to see my daughter, Aros who is a prince not,” said an irritating voice at my back that made me growl and turn around fast. Mako punched me in the face right away but I didn’t even feel pain. Instead I grabbed him by the collar of his black armor and threw him away from me. The voice of the God taunted me. Kill him. Finish him off and claim our Omega. He is a hindrance, just kill him.

    I’ve wanted to kill Mako since the first time he took Nira away from me. This was my opportunity. With Mako finally gone I could claim my Omega and make her mine. No more sending her away. No more waiting for Nira to reach a marriageable age. She could be mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. I shook my head to the sides while I neared the Alpha. He had hit a wall with the back of his head and painted it in red with his blood. The image was quite endearing. I sneered at the older Alpha and he growled back at me, getting up and opening his arms in a fighting stance. We glared at each other until my madness receded enough to see the color of his blue eyes. 

    Those eyes were just like Nira’s. 

    I shook my head to the sides, once, then twice. My heart was beating too fast and all I wanted was to spill blood and mate my Omega. But then again, this was Mako. I couldn’t just kill him. I shook my head again and growled in pain, trying to find some clarity in the middle of my madness. With a roar of hopelessness I fell on my knees and pulled at my hair. My entire being was in pain, crazy to follow my Instinct and kill Mako so I could finally have my Omega. But then... Succumb to the calling or die protecting my Omega. And then I remembered Baltus’s words this morning...Don’t get in trouble and don’t f**k things up with your Omega. Yeah well, killing Nira’s father wouldn’t exactly earn me any points with Nira.

    So I succumbed to the call.

    I let Mako take me away to the subterranean dungeons where only war criminals were taken and didn’t fight him off when he chained me to a wall like a dog and let me there to pass my rut in pain. I lost count of the amount of days I passed there. It was my first time entering my rut and there were no moments of sanity for me. All I felt was pain. Horrible, unimaginable pain at not being able to take care of Nira like I was supposed to. When Mako came to retrieve me he took his time to sit on a chair by the end of the prison cell where I’d been chained.

    He crossed his arms and spit on the floor before staring at me, “You killed not fifteen of my best men, Aros who is not.”

    “In my place you would have done the same,” I growled back at him and Mako shrugged. His light blue eyes that were so similar to Nira watched me coldly. His scent was one of profound hatred. I knew that the only reason I wasn’t dead by his hand was because of the respect he felt for my parents. And maybe because Valnis would kill him if she ever found out that her husband had murdered the Alpha she loved like a nephew.

    “You will have not my daughter, not now and ever not,” he growled at me and I cracked my neck in response.

    “Your daughter is the only reason you are alive right now, Mako who is not. She is mine. She is not even yours to give away because from the moment she was born she was already my mate,” I said and this time Mako got up and came to me. I knew by the force of his step what was coming so I didn’t even flinch when he punched me in the nose. The bone cracked but I didn’t look down for a moment. The Alpha knew that what I was saying was the truth. I could have killed him and the only reason why I had spared him was because of my Omega. 

    “I will never not accept you. Look elsewhere, Aros who is not, for my daughter will ever be yours,” and that was the last words Mako ever said to me.

    By the time Baltus came for me and found me still chained to that damn wall I was beyond mad. He stopped and lifted his eyebrows at me while scratching his beard.

    “What part of not getting in trouble you didn’t understand?” I rolled my eyes at Baltus and clenched my jaw in anger.

    “Just get me out of here.”

    By the time I tasted the clean air out of the dungeons Nira’s scent was gone. I promised myself right then and there that the next time I scented her in her Heat I would have her. Regardless of the consequences or even if she hated me. Nira was my Omega and she needed me. Even if she didn’t want to, she needed me.