The Rightful King

Allen | 040

            If Allen wasn't absolutely losing his shit, he might've considered that maybe Vincent was a little strange for an Alpha.

As it was, he had been dragged to the royal saferoom by Scott's guards and thrown inside without further fanfare and was now developing a black eye for his efforts to get away. He imagined he looked like a caged wolf at the moment, stalking back and forth at the main entrance of the saferoom, waiting for the doors to open so that he could snarl and lash out at any unlucky soul who might try to enter. Unless, of course, the person coming in happened to be his Omega, for which he would then focus his protective instincts on making sure that Robbie was safe and unharmed.

Except Robbie had been in the gardens all afternoon, avoiding everyone and everything as he had been doing recently. Allen was aware he'd been skipping his lessons, and while he didn't think it was that big of a deal initially, he now regretted not doing anything about it sooner. Maybe he would have been inside during the attack, but there was nothing he could do now. Especially now that he was stuck inside the saferoom that he didn't have the access to open himself.

Eventually the scent of something burnt tickled his nose, but he couldn't quite determine the specific notes over the overwhelming char. Allen glanced toward the only other occupant of the room, who was currently cowering in the corner, shaking like a leaf despite how tightly they were curled up. Vincent wasn't a small man by any means, despite being a young Alpha, but he looked particularly tiny and vulnerable at the moment.

It had him pausing, steps faltering as he considered how his own scent might be clogging the air. It was hard to gauge one's own scent, but he'd been told by most he smelled of some type of mint. Robbie claimed he mostly smelled of the soft, sweet mints that were sometimes found at restaurants, but when he was upset, or angry, or some other negative mood, the intensity increased sharply, sometimes to the point of burning others' noses.

Maybe he should try to calm down. Regardless of how antsy he was currently, his Alpha practically chomping at the bit to get out of the saferoom and hunt down his Omega, he wasn't going to get out anytime soon. Worrying himself to death wasn't going to do anything but make him too tired to be of much help once the Palace was secure again.

He forced himself to stop pacing entirely, taking note of each of his tense muscles and coaxing them to relax. Once the tension between his shoulders finally faded away, he pulled out his phone. This deep in the castle he didn't have any phone service, but he could tell the time. It was just past seven now, which meant he'd been thrown in the saferoom roughly forty minutes ago. The sirens were still sounding, nothing but a dull noise in the background.

Allen pocketed his phone and looked back to the lump shivering in the corner.

"Vincent." He called, trying to keep his voice neutral. "Are you hurt?"

There was a whimper, but otherwise the younger Alpha didn't respond. Allen sighed, rubbing his eyes, wincing as his hand dug into the sensitive flesh of his bruised eye. He didn't know the first thing about comforting another Alpha. When any of his friends were upset about something in college, it was usually something trivial, like an Omega turning them down or a failed quiz. Nothing that a few shots at a club couldn't fix. Maybe he should petition to include a bar down here.

"Can you hear me, man?" He tried again.

This time Vincent whined, head lifting for just a moment. His eyes were the same shade of green as Scott's, apparently a trademark of the Wilkey bloodline, as all of their half-siblings held the same trait. "Just- I'm just scared."