CHAPTER SEVEN
DROCCO
Drocco paced his office as he watched the Omega, simmering with a violent blend of rage, desire, and desperation.
Of course, the historian had to be a fucking Talent-crafter as well as an Omega. She had been right under his nose and he had been too distracted by her beauty and willfulness to suspect a fucking thing. He didn't even put together that her scent had changed as soon as she entered the Great Hall. Clearly, the charms his Talent-crafters had installed had worked. If his mind hadn’t been so blurry, he would have noticed, and restrained her as soon as he had the chance. Instead, she was secured behind a barrier made of his own blood, torturing him.
He watched her come to yet another orgasm, her hips jerking into her hand as she lay on her side, her sighs and moans and undecipherable utterings sparking savage instincts and urges he had never experienced before. His rock-hard cock strained against his trousers, painful and needing release. The sight, smell, and sound of her made every part of him come alive, particularly that part of him.
He had tried everything to get the barrier down, but it remained solid. At his initial yells and roars, his warrior guards had entered, fearing for his safety. They tried to assist him, but ultimately any man who entered the room became incapable of thinking intelligently. The Omega’s scent was so powerful that they became too distracted by her to do anything. He had already sunk his dagger into three of his men’s throats and ripped it through their trachea for watching her too long. After that, only Torin was allowed in the room, and he had the sense to keep his back turned to Cailyn at all times.
"You haven't eaten in three days, Drocco," Torin said.
Drocco kept his eyes on Cailyn. "Neither has she."
"You already know that the Haze blocks out her appetite for food—many of her bodily functions have ceased."
Drocco turned to him, his simmering emotions bubbling up. "I will eat when she eats. Have you come with any solutions or are you just here to nag?"
"She isn’t the real Miss Lefroy."
Drocco turned back to the writhing Omega on the floor. "Who is she?"
"I don't know yet. She seems to have come out of nowhere."
Drocco clenched his fists so hard, a shooting pain ricocheted up his arms. She had fooled him all this time. "Is she a spy from the Western Lands? Is she under orders from Malloron?"
"I don't think so. She hasn’t been taking information or reporting to anyone while she's been in the Palace," Torin said. "The Talent-crafters have confirmed that she hasn't been creating portals or using her Talent on any of the documents in the research room."
"That doesn’t mean she isn’t working for him," Drocco snapped.
"It is unlikely," Torin said. "She has been watched since she arrived. She doesn't behave like normal Western Lands spies behave."
Drocco exhaled harshly. That didn't mean anything. The fact that she used the Talent at all suggested she was sympathetic to Malloron's rule and influence, most Talent-crafters were.
"I would like to suggest that you don’t make any assumptions about her before you are able to question her," Torin said, evenly.
Drocco turned to him again, his eyes narrowed. "You presume to tell me how to deal with this situation?"
"You are in your rut, Drocco," Torin said slowly and clearly. "A true rut for a real Omega. You are handling it well, but you’re not thinking properly and we have already lost three men to that fact. There is much to learn from her."
Drocco closed his eyes and took a breath to calm his annoyance. Of course, that was true but why was Torin explaining the obvious? He opened his eyes. "This is the first real Omega that we have seen in the decades, Torin. Rut or no, I will be learning all that she knows."
"You are aware that she may know where the other Omegas are?"
"Do you think I’m a fool?" Drocco bellowed.
Cailyn whimpered and turned to look at him from the floor, her dress twisted around her marvelous body exposing a smooth breast. He stared at her, quickly losing interest in whatever he had been about to say to Torin.
"I'm just saying that this could be the exact push towards solving the mystery that the Lox need. Discipline is needed and I'm not sure that you will be able to withstand your own impulses. Our grandfathers told us about the preparation they went through before meeting their first Omegas. You have had none of that," Torin said. "I'm simply pointing out the importance of this. If you overpower her in your eagerness to—"
"I have not forgotten my duty to my army, Torin." Drocco interrupted, dragging his eyes from Cailyn. "But this Omega came directly to me. She is mine. Any impulses I have will be her burden to bear and she will take them like she is supposed to."
Torin held his eye. “Have you considered that maybe, if the barrier lasts longer than her Haze, she might create a working portal and escape before you get access to her?”
Drocco roared, a raging burn tearing through him at the very idea. He advanced on Torin, wild and ready to strike. “You had better make sure that doesn’t fucking happen!”
“Then let me bring in the crafters,” Torin said, unmoved by Drocco’s state. “Let them come in to help us get the barrier down. Let them help you to keep her. They are the only ones that can make sure she doesn’t get away.”
Drocco paused in his tracks, battling the fuzziness in his mind to think through the logic of the suggestion. In his fit of rage at the barrier between him and his Omega, he had ordered all Lox crafters to be quartered, hung, burned, have their cocks ripped off by horses, and then be fed alive to wolves. Of course, it was a ridiculous order and Torin had ignored it. Despite Drocco’s annoyance, some small sanity in him reminded him that they were the reason he had discovered her in the first place. They were loyal to him and would understand what she had done. She had already tried to create a portal before her Haze fully took over. He couldn’t let her escape.
“I’ll allow it,” Drocco said, through gritted teeth.
Torin dipped his head in a nod and bowed before swiftly leaving the room, careful to keep his back to the Omega.
The Omega watched him leave, and Drocco growled at her, a surge of something unpleasant and raw rushing through him. She shouldn’t be watching Torin. She hadn’t watched any of the other Alphas that had entered the room. Her stunning deep-gold eyes snapped back to him and she fixed herself on her knees, sitting on her heels, and lowered her head.
"Kitten," Drocco began. "Undo the barrier."
She didn't look up.
"Kitten. Come to me."
Those eyes glanced up at him, caught his face and then her head rose slowly, her expression one of wonder. It mellowed him somewhat. It was though she found him fascinating and he was satisfied with that.
"Come to me."
She tilted her head, her eyes running over his face and then all the way down his body. She made a noise in the back of her throat and his cock jumped and leaked. He knew she wasn’t hearing him because she had zero interest in anything he said, and he was unable to force her to listen. He had already tried ordering her, yelling at her, teasing her, enticing her—nothing worked. She was following pure instincts, instincts to entice an Alpha to fuck her. According to the reports, that was all an Omega in her Haze was able to think about. But he still spoke to her anyway.
"Kitten." Her eyes jumped back up to his face and her brow furrowed.
He could see now that she was an Omega. When he thought about everything he had read, she had all the features. She was small, she was beautiful, she had incredibly gorgeous hair, and her shapely, soft body was perfectly suited to breeding. The only thing that did not suit the Omega stereotype was her continuous disrespectful attitude—that was something that he had never heard of before in an Omega. But in her Haze none of that willfulness seemed to be present.
Drocco exhaled heavily and began to take off his clothes, unable to bear the strain any longer. Her scent still lingered in the room, and although he could not smell the shiny slick pooled on the floor behind the barrier, it was still enticing nonetheless. The Omega snapped to attention as soon as he began to reveal his body. When he pulled his pants down, she actually breathed a sigh as his cock sprung forth, the tip wet and dripping.
He stroked himself slowly. "Come to me, kitten." He breathed her scent in deep. "Come to me and get what you need."
The Omega leaned forward and began to crawl to him, her hips swaying behind her as she moved forward, her eyes on his cock. He moaned at the sight and more fluid dripped from his tip. She was so alluring, it was actual torture. Why the fuck had he waited?
When she reached the barrier, she pressed her palms on it rising up to her knees. She looked up at him, her golden gaze filled with desire and hope, her mouth slightly ajar.
“Come to me,” he said, hoarsely, stroking himself faster. “Undo the barrier.”
She frowned at him and looked back down at his cock as she pressed her forehead against the barrier.
“Undo it!”
Drocco’s demand fell on deaf ears. Staring at his cock, the Omega opened her pretty, pink mouth and licked the barrier.
Fuck, he couldn’t take it. Emitting a growl of frustration, Drocco found himself standing before her, bracing himself with a hand on the barrier as he stroked faster. Ripples of pleasure threaded through him and he kept his eyes on her as she continued licking in vain, trying to reach him. His crescendo rose quickly, jagged and intense. He exploded, his release shooting toward her mouth but hitting the barrier. His body jerked repeatedly, over and over, until he finally stilled, his fluids streaming down the barrier to the floor.
Drocco breathed heavily, his ears ringing. That had been more powerful than normal, and an enormous amount of semen ran down the barrier.
Cailyn stared at his release as it drained down, then looked up at him. The disappointment in her eyes tore through him.
“Take down the barrier, kitten,” Drocco demanded, feeling himself already hardening again. “Take it down and you can have it.”
She sat back on her heels for a moment, looking sorrowfully at his hardening cock, before turning and crawling back to the wall.
***
The next day, the Talent-crafters examined the barrier. Drocco watched them carefully, his dagger in hand. Not one of them looked at the Omega writhing on the floor beyond it, but Drocco remained on edge. As soon as they had finished examining, they left the room immediately and discussed with Torin outside. Cailyn brought herself to yet another orgasm and Drocco could do nothing but stare in frustration. In fact, he ached to pull his pants down and stroke himself to another powerful release, but that wouldn't help him right now. He needed to know what the Talent-crafters thought about the barrier, and a jittery nervousness entered him for the first time ever. He didn't like the feeling.
"Tell me," he demanded, the moment Torin re-entered the room. They had agreed to not tell the crafters that Cailyn was a Talent-crafter herself.
"They said that the barrier is strong and has indeed been infused with your blood as you suspected," Torin said, situating himself with his back to the Omega. "It has been created by an extremely skilled Talent-crafter, but they don’t think that the crafter is from the Western Lands, something about the way the magic has been woven is unique; not something typical of the Western Lands or the Eastern Lands."
"What about the barrier?" Drocco snapped. He didn't give a shit about any of that other stuff right now. "How long is it going to last?"
Torin pressed his lips together disapprovingly, but said, "It is solid, Drocco. It will not allow any flesh to pass through it in either direction but it may allow for objects or food. They think it will last at least another eight days."
Drocco thought back to all of the reports he'd read about Omegas. How long did the Haze typically last for? As he tried to remember, he was distracted by Cailyn. She was back on her knees up against the barrier, looking at him with a pleading gaze. A hint of a smile appeared on her face. Drocco took a breath and held it, waiting to see if she would truly give him a smile.
"Drocco," Torin said. "Focus."
Drocco turned to him and blinked. What the hell had they been talking about?
"Eight more days for the barrier at least," Torin reminded him.
Drocco exhaled in frustration. "I can't remember how long the Haze lasts."
Torin nodded. "It is typically a week and a half, according to the reports, but it can depend on a lot of factors, like her diet and her general health. If this is the first time that she has been around any Alphas, I don't know how that may affect her. It could last longer, it could be shorter."
"So basically, you don't fucking know," Drocco snapped. "How long has she been in it so far?"
"Four days."
Four days out of a possible week and a half. So that left potentially…
Cailyn was turning around and sitting against the barrier, her back to him. Drocco frowned. That would not do.
"Drocco," Torin sighed.
Drocco growled at him. Torin needed to get the fuck out. The man was distracting him from his Omega.
"Will the barrier last longer than her Haze or not," he asked. "That's all I want to know, Torin. Can you tell me that, yes or no?"
Torin's gray gaze turned to steel. "You are the expert on Omegas," he said, his voice hard. "You told me to focus on my training and not study them, or spend my time concerned about their cycles or their Hazes or their breeding patterns. You learned all of that. So you need to focus and be the one to tell me if her Haze will last as long as the barrier. The barrier will end in eight days. If her Haze is typical, it will end in seven days. I cannot tell you if it’s typical."
"Get out," Drocco ordered, as he headed towards the barrier to find a way for Cailyn to turn around. Torin couldn’t tell him what he needed to know. Drocco would simply have to wait and see.
That evening, Drocco pushed a jug of water at the barrier and watched as it penetrated and slid over to the other side. So the crafters were right. Cailyn sipped from it now and then but didn’t seem to be eager to have it. She was more taken by the fact that Drocco was near the barrier.
Drocco began pushing through basins of soapy warm water, food, and other liquids she needed. She washed and sipped and nibbled, but Drocco got the feeling it was practiced behavior. He stopped trying to get her to take down the barrier. She simply hadn’t been trained to listen to an Alpha during her Haze. In a way, it was encouraging. It suggested she hadn’t been with an Alpha before. No real Alpha would allow an Omega to remain focused on her own needs during her Haze, and not listen to him. He joined her masturbation, both of them watching the other pleasure themselves, both desiring the other through the glistening magic keeping them apart.
***
After a few days, Cailyn began to sleep a lot more than normal. Drocco noticed subtle changes in her behavior. She seemed more restless, not happy to simply lie around with her fingers in her pussy anymore. She also seemed to be noticing her surroundings more. She pushed out basins with dirty water and bowls of stale food, while looking around the room curiously, not just focused on Drocco.
It put him on edge. The barrier remained strong and if she was coming out of her Haze, she could potentially disappear through a portal.
At Torin’s insistence, he had eaten a small plate of food each day from the day the Talent-crafters came, but he suspended all non-urgent visits to the room and began to focus all of his attention on everything she did. There were moments where she seemed unhappy, only to be taken over by the need to pleasure herself again. However, within two days, he noticed that the barrier seemed less solid than before. When he placed his hand on it, it gave under pressure. It was weakening. He issued an order for no one to enter, even Torin. He wanted no distractions and no chances for anything to go wrong. If the barrier weakened, he needed to be ready in case she tried to make use of the Talent. Clearly, she was very skilled and, although the Talent was not known for its combat uses, nothing would surprise him.
The day after he issued the order, the barrier began to shimmer. Drocco got up and stood next to it, watching and waiting. Cailyn lay asleep on the floor. She looked absolutely exhausted and Drocco clung to the hope that she would stay unconscious until the barrier dissolved.
The barrier glowed brighter and then completely disappeared.
A powerful wave of her magnificent scent slammed into Drocco, expanding to fill the entire room. It seemed to penetrate him and all thought left his mind, as his cock hardened even further.
He stood over the sleeping Omega and crouched down to her. Her dress, drenched in her own sweat, slick, and come, had managed to stay around her torso. Her hair was an absolute shaggy mess, tangled up and matted, but she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He ran his hands over her body, relishing the feel of her soft, smooth skin. He hooked his hand underneath her knees and spread her open, reaching in to feel that delicate, soft slit he had only ever seen through the barrier. It was dripping wet, an abundance of slick and come coating her entrance. He fumbled with his pants, releasing his hard cock that seemed bigger than he had ever felt it.
He pulled her toward him and lined himself up, rubbing the tip of his cock against her soft skin.
She moaned and fidgeted before her eyes fluttered open. He loomed over her, noticing her eyes weren't as gold as they were the day before. He pressed into her but couldn’t get far. He pulled out slightly and pressed back in, a groan rumbling in his throat at how tight she was. She was coming out of her Haze and yet still opened her legs wider for him and whined as he pushed even further in.
"Take it, kitten," Drocco muttered, his breath jagged. "Take all of it."
She wriggled and ran a hand across his chest, mumbling something to herself that included the word “Alpha”, her eyes half-lidded. He continued pressing forward, and she whimpered until he was all the way in. He forced himself to hold still to give her time to stretch for him. Her wriggling sparked incredible sensations that shot through his cock, and although a hot desperation rose to pound into her, he also wanted to savor the moment. He was the first Alpha to experience an Omega in the last one hundred and eleven years. Even in the midst of his rut, that thought seared through his mind.
He began to move slowly inside her, leaning his weight onto his hands either side of her head and grunting at the feel of her tight, wet slickness around him. Cailyn sucked in air and arched her back, her eyes rolling in her head as he sunk deeper, her whole body twitching underneath him. He worked in and out gradually getting faster as her slick gathered in a frothy mess at the base of his cock. She cried out, her pussy squeezing him as she grabbed his wrists and jerked her hips up to his, encasing him further. At that, he lost control. Twisting and jerking his hips, he slammed, and pounded, and drove into her furiously, intoxicated by her scent and the glorious feel of her. He reveled in all of her—her breathy moans, her fingers curling around his thick wrists, and the utter ecstasy on her face. He lost himself—so much so that when she screamed out in orgasmic bliss, her muscles contracting around him, he came so hard it overwhelmed him—his every pore so engulfed by uniquely delicious sensations and the potent scent of her that the orgasm tore through him, scratching out all thought from his head.
When he finally came back to his senses, he lay on top of her panting, crushing her into the ground as he still spurted inside her. He pushed up to his elbows and looked down at their joining. Her swollen, red pussy lips stretched around his knot—the enlarged base of his cock—securely lodged inside her, locking them together.
Drocco had never been the type of Alpha that could knot with Betas. Grandfather had told him repeatedly that true Alphas only knot with Omegas, and it seemed like that was true. The closest he’d gotten was a slight swelling with a Beta who had hidden that she was on a Haze recreator. He had never had a knot of this size and had never felt such pleasure at being encased so securely by a pussy so tight. He glanced up at Cailyn. She had fallen back asleep. He took a fistful of her hair, and let it run through his fingers. He licked her neck and sucked on it, enjoying the salty taste of her. He lifted her eyelids. The gold was almost gone. It was likely she would not be pregnant from this mating, and even though that was disappointing, it had to be done.
She began to get restless the longer the knot remained inside her, stretching her wide.
Winding a thick arm around her small waist, he carefully maneuvered them to an upright sitting position and lay her head on his chest, stroking her back until she settled.
Drocco stared down at her as she pressed her cheek to his chest. He had no idea who this woman was, where she came from, or what the hell she was doing in his Palace, but her fate had been decided. She came to work for him under false pretenses, but it was clear that she was supposed to belong to him and there was no doubt now that she did. The problem was, she had revealed herself to be a traitorous deceiver. That had to be rectified immediately. He had to retrain her just for him and discover all the secrets that surrounded her existence. She would learn to be loyal and faithful to him—he would make sure of it.