“What have you done to me?” Such misplaced anger, and a baseless accusation. I stood up from the chair. What could I have done to someone with the power to lock me up in here? The General was as terrified of me as I was of him. “A curse?” he asked. I walked away from his outburst towards the window, sothere was a bed separating us. I avoided his gaze by peering out at the courtyard. I held back any comments that would ensure my continued imprisonment.
“I am not a sorcerer,” I said.
“Enchantment, then?”
“I am not a siren.”
“I don’t believe you,” he said. “You’re not a normal omega.” His unintended confession startled me. I turned towards the alpha.
“The omegas here are notlike you,” I said. This was a realization as much as a response. Axel was a werewolf, no doubt about it. Yet unlike the other alphas in the castle, he identified me as an omega. He was drawn in by the scent of my heat. The General with his flaming sword, without a sorcerer at his court. How does the steel catch fire? I did not even think it possible to be multiple beings at once. How would a man like that come to be? His scent carried notes of werewolf musk, and pine trees burning on a pyre. Did everyone in the castle know that their General was as much like them as he was like me? But if he was made from a similar magic, why could he not see through my human disguise?
“I’m a wolf.”
“And I am not.” The exchange left much unsaid, but we both understood that we knew each other's secrets. But he did not know which element birthed my magic. For all he knew, I was a dark creature, hiding pitch black eyes. How a sorcerer could not recognise the scent of old forest following me, I did not know. What I knew is that for once, I had the upper hand.
“You’ll tell me soon,” he said. It made me want to stop speaking forever. “Address me properly.”
“You expect me to call you alpha?” The idea made me furious, and it made me blush. There was no smile on his face, but his eyes were full of mirth. It felt degrading.
“By title, not by rank.” I wanted to fly through that window, not to be looked at in this way. Longing and belittlement should not go together.
“You do not have a title. You are not a king.” Instead of moving further away, he closed in on me. He stopped mere inches away from my face. He grabbed my wrist. I expected it to hurt, as if I was bruised by the ropes that would have bound me if the empire had taken me instead. It did not hurt at all. The touch was too gentle for the look in his eyes. It confused me.
“It’smy lordto you,” he said. A soft voice, an intense stare. He let me go. I had little fight left in me. I wanted to be alone. I wanted him to touch me again. I wanted to one day leave this tower.
“As you wish, my lord.” I could have sworn that for a split second, his eyes turned red. Not the glowing amber of an alpha werewolf that encountered a threat. They were instead a bloody crimson.
“Good boy.” I should have hated it when he said it. I should have felt even more disrespected. But he did not speak in the tone he had before. He sounded pleased, and I was still weak to the words of an alpha in my state. I let out a sound I did not recognise. High-pitched and weak, a little too needy. Then his hand was on my neck, as his thumb caressed my cheek. “Come see me soon.” I could no longer respond. All I could do was keep myself from begging for him to take me to bed. “Come tell me what you are.”
He let me go. I wanted to cry. I could not let myself ask anything of that man, as I did not know what type of man he was yet. I had to let him leave. I had to let the last of this heat leave my body before saying another word. He did leave. It was excruciating. He walked right out of the door, leaving the broken wooden bar that held the door on the floor. I saw him walk out of the hall through the stone entrance to the spiral staircase. I knewbetter than to try to escape. There were guards at the bottom of the staircase, and many more stalking through the halls of the castle. The truth was simple, the General was my only way out of there.
Twelve nights after meeting the General
For days, I had been weighing out my options. I was not one to admit defeat, but to remain headstrong at the cost of my freedom was a choice only a fool would make. Yet, I could not bring myself to make a decision on what to do next. True defiance would mean jumping out of that window. I was sure General Axel would be enraged to see my rotting corpse splayed out on the courtyard. But even I valued my life too much to forsake it to make a point. The entrance to my chamber was still wrecked. Wood splinters were found far from the door. The door itself lay in the hallway of the tower. Why would they leave a prisoner in an unlocked tower? For all they knew, I would enchant the soldiers at the entrance of the tower and escape to the empire.
Even more astounding was three days ago, when midday brought four guards to my doorstep. They did not say a word. In their silence, they stepped on the wooden door and barged into my chamber. I briefly expected them to take me to the dungeons. Instead, they filled my tub with boiling water and left me what looked like several portions of stew on the rocking chair. One of the guards chanced making eye contact with me. I imagined he was trying to deduce the same thing as I was. Why was thisprisoner kept in a tower with a duck feather bed? I wondered if they could smell that Axel had visited me only hours before. If they did, it did not show. They left in a hurry after completing their tasks. I expected them to fix the door. They never did.
For a while, I pretended to be a wealthy lord resting in his chambers. The bathwater was as clean as the water by the shore, but it was good enough for me. I took a hot bath and ate some stew. It was the best stew I’d ever had. I changed into the silk robes that someone left on my clean linens while I was bathing. It was vaguely concerning that I had not noticed this happening, but I was not able to complain. I lazed around in my canopy bed. I stared out of my window, peeking at soldiers on duty, and the courtesans giggling as they walked past.
There was, however, endless time, and at some point I had to face the fact that I was not a lord. I was not in my own chambers. I was not sure I would ever leave this room. In a moment of weakness, I cried into my pillow. Wallowing in self-pity, I whined about the unfairness of it all. That moment had since passed as well. I was left staring at the emerald curtains of my canopy bed for the last few hours, contemplating my fate. Was I being fattened up to be served up for dinner? I did not think that werewolves ate people, but perhaps I was wrong. Did this castle lack for dungeons? Or was it that Axel could tell my rank the moment he laid eyes on me, and decided to have mercy on my soul? Should I have confessed what I am? I had nothing to hide, really. It was my obduracy that prevented me from divulging information to the werewolves.
“Gabriel?” A smooth baritone came from the hallway. I recognised his voice, but not his stature. When I only saw him through the shutter on my door, his face was all I could see. Standing in the hallway, he was almost as tall as the General! If my assumptions about him were correct, this meant that omegawerewolves were unnaturally tall as well. Another injustice for poor little me. He stood in the now empty doorway.
“Espen!” I called out to him. I registered that he was wearing a green winter cape and thick fur boots. The material looked soft and luxurious. Around his neck was a chain of pure gold, with what appeared to be an actual emerald hanging from it. Why would someone that important attend to a lowly prisoner? There was no mating bite on his neck. Who was he to Alain?
“What happened here?” he asked. He walked through the mess on the floor and entered the chamber, a bowl of porridge in hand. I sat up to face him. To my surprise, instead of handing me the meal and keeping his distance from the prisoner, he sat next to me on the bed. His brown eyes were earnest. They twinkled as the last remnants of sunlight were reflected in them. It was enough to lower my guard. I sighed.
“Your General happened.” His eyes widened briefly.
“He came to see you?”
“No,” I said. “He came to attack my door.” I let out a chuckle.
“Did he harm you?” he asked. It made me wonder, did Espen expect Axel to harm me? Was it the sort of thing he would usually do?
“No.” I shook my head. “Just the door.”
He stared at me. He furrowed his brows. I wanted to tell him that I was as confused as he was. That I had no idea what brought this on. Except I knew that my heat very much had something to do with it, and I did not want to divulge that information to someone I barely knew.
