There were too many things happening at once—the spectators watching the drama, the threat of a looming alpha fight, the scent of fury and rut pheromones coating the air...
And what was it that Lucas had just said? Pride? Deadly Sins? Prince?
Wasn't that just a fairytale?
Was Teru's owner part of the royal family that destroyed humanity? The reason he had to hide in caves and constantly live in fear? Everything made sense. The only thing keeping Teru from fully believing it was the lack of symbols. In the stories, the sins were born with a tattoo to signify their identity. And if he remembered correctly, Pride's mark was a lion. Kieran had nothing like that on his body.
But his scarred nape...that brief story he told me about a vampire hunter capturing him...
The dots were connecting.
Lucas was injured. Landing on his arms had scraped off the skin's top layer. The blood dripping from his wounds garnered more vampires' attention. When Lucas stood back up, he glowered at Kieran straight in the eyes and snarled, "He's mine!"
That was a huge mistake. Kieran ran towards his opponent.
SNIFFLE.
The raging dominant alpha stopped mid-step at the sound just before swiping his razor-sharp nails at the challenger, craning his head to the side to listen to it again. Lucas had already braced himself to fight, even if it meant he'd die just to mate with the last omega.
SNIFFLE.
Teru sobbed and wiped his eyes with his shirt. This was stressing him beyond imaginable. He knew his body would drop if he witnessed them brutally fight until one was dead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Teru's packmate, Lucas, had openly crossed boundaries. That boy knew what he was doing by challenging him, rut or no rut.
The excitement of it had caused Kieran to become consumed by the infamous alphic fury—it was raw and wild, something that wasn't so common now compared to a thousand years ago. They weren't so barbaric. But since it was occurring right here, right now, his sin couldn't wait to drown in their blood to prove his strength to the watching omega. He'd like that, right? The submissive only wanted the winner.
The stupid human was prepared to clash. Both of their inner alphas wanted a go at each other.
SNIFFLE.
That tiny cry broke the illusion.
SNIFFLE.
This Lucas kid didn't notice the silent weeping.
Kieran did.
Was...was he about to kill Teru's childhood friend? In front of him? Was he insane?
Kieran forced himself to break contact with Lucas. He retreated to Teru, who was crying into his sweater's sleeves. Turning down a challenge was physically painful for his inner Pride—it felt like his insides were about to split apart from not getting what it wanted, which was to murder that cheeky alpha in broad daylight.
Both of his personalities, the alpha and Pride, were screaming at him, What are you doing? Fight him! Win! Don't show your weakness in front of the omega! You'll lose face! Your reputation!
In the past, the prideful prince would never have raised the white flag.
But Teru didn't need that sort of violence right now. He required someone to comfort him—he needed Kieran.
Kieran rested one knee on the ground so he could be under Teru's eye level. He didn't uncover his distressed face.
"Don't cry."
"Y-you're going to kill L-Lucas," Teru stuttered.
"I won't kill Lucas."
"You will!"
"Does it look like I'm fighting with him now?"
Teru peeked through his fingers. "No..."
Kieran brushed his hand gently over Teru's tear-soaked cheeks. "I stopped...for you. I don't want you to hate me any more than you already do."
This baffled Teru. Of course, it would be confusing. Alphas rarely, if ever, say no to a claiming brawl.
"I don't understand," Teru said. "Aren't you...one of them? Aren't you Pri—"
"ARGH!" Kieran roared with shock and pain. Since Teru distracted him, he failed to notice Lucas stalking him from behind. He had pounced on him and was biting him on his neck's scent gland.
This was the ultimate "I'm going to piss on you and your territory" move between alphas—it was a marking, a bond. Rather than creating a lifelong pair, its purpose during a challenge was to humiliate the other by infusing their pheromones into the other's gland. It wouldn't last forever, but the dishonor would always stay.
In other words, Kieran would smell like mint and rutting lavender for a while.
"Lucas! Stop!" Teru tried to reason with him.
Lucas released the bite and stood back. He said with blood-laced lips to Teru, "I'm the winner, see? Let's conceive pups together—"
That was the wrong thing to say. The thin string that helped Kieran maintain his levelheadedness broke.
Sorry, little one, he thought. You're going to despise me for killing him.
As Kieran furiously growled to return the gesture, a light-weighted thing held him there before he could stand up all the way. There was more pain on his neck, the same place where that damned pest had just bitten him.
The onlookers' whispers grew louder. Lucas was perplexed.
Teru was holding Kieran's shoulders with his hands, gripping onto the coat tightly. He had his own teeth sunk into Lucas's bite, digging deeper until his canines practically pierced the dominant alpha's scent gland.
Kieran smelled cinnamon.
Teru was erasing any remnants of lavender.
"Teru?" Lucas hesitated. He was able to snap out of his rut trance...for now. "I-I didn't mean—" The vampire that was supposed to be "borrowing" him finally got a hold of his red leash, pulling him away to avoid any further conflict. "Wait! I need to talk to him!" During the struggle between human and vamp, Teru never let go, only gnawing more and more until he was gums-deep into Kieran's neck.
He wasn't showing any signs of releasing his firm bite, either. Kieran said, "Teru."
No response.
"You can release me. We won't fight."
Zero replies.
Shit. This was becoming a spectacle. The gathering crowd increased. Kieran wouldn't be able to reason with Teru here. So, he picked him up, letting Teru's legs wrap around his waist while injecting cinnamon pheromones into the wound.
When they returned to the car, Viktor drove off quickly.
Kieran carefully reached around and stuck his thumb into Teru's mouth, pressing up until he had no choice but to let go.
The vampire looked at him, not taking his thumb out. He inspected his face—Teru's eye color had a golden hue in them, and his canines, well, they had lengthened. It was similar to when the two had their rut and heat together recently. Unlike then, they were longer this time, more developed. Seeing his extra-long canines soaked in his blood would make any vampire believe he was an undead creature of the night, too.
This tiny fox had those around my scent gland? He could've ripped it out easily.
"Teru," Kieran tried getting his attention.
Instead of replying in English, Teru purred. The sounds were extra sharp. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.
He wouldn't stop whining the hidden meaning. His inner gender was way too stimulated from marking an alpha, even if it was only temporary. An omega's bite couldn't form a permanent bond like an alpha's could.
It was still an extremely intimate act, though.
Kieran took his finger out and embraced Teru, who was lost in his own instincts.
This was becoming more complicated day by day.
Why? Because seeing him in this state finally helped Kieran remember where he'd seen such traits before—why he didn't recognize it the first time. It had been ages since meeting such a rare breed.
It would also explain the ability to use controlling pheromones on alphas—that flowery scent.
You see, omegas began to disappear at the beginning of the war. That was almost two hundred years ago. Those were the average omegas.
But before that, there used to be a second omega category. Most likely through evolution or some cruel joke made by the heavens, that type went extinct long before vampires made themselves known. Kieran vaguely recalled Charles mentioning how the last known one died during the late 1800s. If there were more after that, it was never recorded since it was such a hush-hush thing with pure families that produced them.
How was a human with this untainted blood born in a feral pack in Kentucky? It didn't add up. Weren't his parents betas?
Charles had samples of Teru's blood. He could do specialized blood tests to confirm his theory.
No. Scratch that. This needed to be kept a secret. It was too dangerous for anyone else to know. What alpha vampire would be okay with keeping a human alive that could control them? A normal omega didn't have that ability. Even if he would be allowed to live, they'd want to conduct experiments on him. Since the last official one died before medical technology, little was known about their bodily functions. To have such an unknown specimen would rock the scientific world.
Researchers would want to see what his reproductive system was capable of.
Feeding him pills.
Foreign injections.
Partnering him with various males.
The possibilities were limitless.
Kieran buried his face in Teru's thick hair, thinking. Before he could worry about the future, he was concerned about their current situation. How long would he remain like this, like a wild animal that wasn't human? Regardless, Kieran completely understood this phase, though, being a dominant himself. Dominants were very sensitive. It was easier to trigger their dormant, primal selves; whenever it happened, it was more aggressive and hostile than the average gender's.
Teru struggled, wanting to bite his scent gland again. His purrs were now saying, Mark, bond, bite, mark, bond, bite, over and over again.
And Kieran let him do just that. It could help him get over this untamed stupor. Teru's teeth dug a new ring into Kieran's neck. It was on the border of his scarred nape.
He'd be happy if this left a new scar. Admitting this surprised him.
Kieran patted his back. "If I'm correct, which I know I am, then you're a dominant omega, little one."