Chapter Text
It had been months since Kayena last crossed the threshold of her chamber.
Years since she had taken her place at the family table.
Her father called it protection. A word polished until it shone like a virtue, meant to sound like love. But protection had edges sharper than any blade. It was a cage dressed in silk and carved oak, reinforced not with bars but with his will. He told her the world beyond these walls was not ready for the ache she carried in her blood — that omegas like her, primal and rare, stirred hungers that could not be bridled. That her very scent was a summons, her body a temptation, her existence a danger if left to wander free.
And so she had learned to live within the measured dimensions of her confinement until the room itself felt stitched into her bones. She knew where the sunlight lingered before it died. The faint chip in the far corner of the wainscoting. The way the curtains breathed when wind pressed through the narrow slit of her window. Every inch was mapped into her skin until the boundaries of her prison became the boundaries of herself.
But tonight… tonight the air felt different.
Heavy. Saturated. Waiting.
The summons came like the low toll of a bell. Just one knock against the chamber door, followed by the cool, impersonal voice of a servant repeating her father’s command. She had known, without being told, that this night would come. It had been seeded in her life like an inevitability, a fate her bones had grown around.
Her maids dressed her quickly, hands brisk but reverent. The nightgown they slid over her skin was satin, paler than moonlight, more translucent than modesty should allow. It clung to the soft architecture of her curves, catching the candlelight with each shift of her breath. Her hair was combed until it shimmered down her back in a simple cascade, needing no adornment but its own softness. She caught the moment their eyes grew hazy, pupils dilating under the quiet pull of her presence, even dulled as it was.
When she stepped into the corridor, Kassis was already waiting.
He wore a satin shirt in the same pale shade as hers, the fabric loose and almost sheer against the lean strength of his frame. His long hair was slightly disheveled, as though he’d only just dressed, and the imperfection made him more dangerous in his beauty. He fell into step beside her without a word. The faint brush of his shoulder against hers was the only acknowledgment — but it anchored her, a tether of blood and shared captivity in the echoing stretch of the hall.
The dining doors loomed ahead like the gates of a temple, their carved oak panels inlaid with veins of gold leaf that drank the torchlight. Kayena drew in one steadying breath as the hinges gave a deep, reluctant groan under the servants’ push.
It struck before her eyes had time to adjust to the glow of the room beyond.
The first was a wild hunt breaking from the trees — cedarwood blackened in fire, the bite of winter air sharp enough to draw blood. There was life in it, and danger, and the remembered press of teeth to flesh. It wrapped around her like fur, and her body betrayed her, heat blooming low despite the cool air.
The second followed close behind, colder yet heavier — storm-soaked stone, raw iron, and the static crackle before lightning splits the sky. It was the weight of inevitability, a presence that could crush without a single step. Her knees almost gave under it, and Kassis’s hand at her waist kept her upright.
Her pulse climbed. The coil of something low and ancient stirred, producing a slick heat between her thighs, but she stepped forward following Kassis’ guidance.
And then she saw them.
They sat at her father’s table as though it had been built for them alone. Their frames dwarfed even Kazimir’s broad, commanding figure, the breadth of their shoulders casting the light into sharper relief. The air seemed to bend around their presence, shrinking the room to fit the measure of their gaze.
Her father’s smile was the kind he wore only in victory — the smile of a king parading a captured standard. Her mother, by contrast, seemed dimmed. The fine lines of her beauty were muted, her lips shadowed with something that might have been guilt… or grief.
The larger stranger drew her eye first — built like a weapon, his black coat stretched across muscle that seemed forged rather than grown. Yet his smile was almost boyish, dimples softening the threat in his stance. His molten gold eyes swept over her with the unhurried claim of a sovereign surveying land already his.
“This is Balthazar Valemour,” Kazimir said, pride curling around the name. The man winked at her — a flash of charm that, for a moment, pulled the breath from the air — before letting a sliver of dark, violent, so sensual, promise glint beneath it.
Then her gaze shifted.
The second man was quieter in his menace, yet no less consuming. More compactly built, his stillness was deliberate, the kind that belongs to predators who never waste movement. His gaze did not simply look — it studied, patient and inexorable, as if reading her like an ancient script only he could understand.
“—and Regulus Valemour,” Kazimir continued. “Two of the four kings of the Valemour Pack.”
This man didn’t give her any reaction whatsoever. The only noticeable change that could be caught by Kayena was the fact that his irises slowly brightened from a mix of amber, burnt gold, and crimson to a version of brighter sunset. Yet in there there’s no warmth, there’s only burning fire that desire to rule and ruin her to ashes. It was a terrifying glimpse of his soul that sent fear and anticipation throughout Kayena’s body.
Kayena did not move. The world had narrowed to the sound of their breathing — slow, measured, the cadence of predators who had no need to rush a kill, especially over a prey they knew they owned.
Kazimir’s sharp clap cracked the moment. “Serve the food.”
The maids entered in two perfect lines, their steps silent on the marble. The faint, sterile tang of scent-suppressing powder clung to their throats like invisible collars. Even so, Kayena knew her own scent threaded through the air — dulled by the small white pill she’d been forced to swallow before she left her room, but alive. Always alive.
With Kassis, they both stood near the table side by side. Waiting quietly until their place was given. In their household and in many traditional family, there were no chairs for Omega. There were no spots for them unless those above the ranks gave them one.
Balthazar moved first.
He rose like a shadow breaking free from the wall, his suddenness making the air shift. Kayena’s heart jolted, readied herself for any contacts, but his attention cut toward Kassis instead. One large hand closed around her twin’s wrist — engulfing it completely — and with a smooth, unhurried pull, he brought Kassis into his lap. The movement was intimate, proprietary, and entirely without question.
Her brother’s face remained expressionless, his stillness an armor he had worn for years. Even when Balthazar’s hand slipped beneath the table, loosening his own trousers before wrapping thick fingers around Kassis’ length, bringing the already hard rod out of the confined of his pants and began stroking with a rhythm that was both deliberate and consuming, Kassis only let out a faint exhale — a sound of resignation more than surprise — and surrendered to the slow build the older alpha drew from him.
Kayena stared at the vulgar action for a moment. It was not her first time seeing her brother’s cock and not her first time seeing it being jerked off. She and her brother had shared the same room their whole life so when her brother began to explore his sensuality, he would sometimes do it on their bed, begging her to watch until he spilled his cum on their duvet. But it was her first time seeing him being manhandled and touched by another human. Kayena and Kassis were attached to the hips and she always believed his lack of experience with another human was the same as hers. But seeing the lack of that surprise and the mastery of his expression on her brother’s body told her that it was not his first time. And Kayena was pretty sure it wasn’t his second either.
Kayena told herself to be still and composed despite the chaos inside her heart and brain.
Then Regulus stood.
His shadow crossed her first, swallowing her in its cool weight. Kayena prepared herself to be picked up or pulled like Kassis earlier but she didn’t expect to find herself suddenly standing naked as the man ripped her dress into shreds easily as if it was paper. Instinctively, Kayena tried to cover her body with her arms and hands but they froze mid air as those sunset eyes glared down on her as if she was about to do something so foolish. So, they fell back to her sides instead, letting the man ravaged her body with his scorching eyes.
Kayena shrieked when two rough hands grabbed her breast, unshy and ungentle fists squeezed her already sensitive flesh.
“Whose work is this?” His voice was steady and strong, full of that commanding power that startled Kayena even more, she shifted on her feet but couldn’t open her mouth because her brain currently couldn’t work to decipher what the hell was he talking about.
Luckily, it seemed the question was directed to her father who answered immediately, “Her brother, my king. Under my command, he has done it well nurturing her body every morning.”
Regulus only nodded once in answer but it seemed he wasn’t fully satisfied by the works. Because on the next second, he showed the correct way to nurture her body with his merciless and rough, giant hands.
”It hurts,” the cries slipped out of Kayena’s lips and tears stained her opalescent celestine eyes. And at Kayena’s surprise, he stopped.
His hands moved from her chest to her waist — vast, inexorable — lifting her as if she were weightless. He held her within the cage of his arms, heat and steel pressing in until escape was unthinkable. He brought her to his seat where her naked body completely engulfed from the back by him and exposed to her father who sat across from them. Kazimir smirked in boastfulness at the action and he didn’t hide his happy, lustful reaction when those hands were back on her breasts again and molested her till tears stained her rosy cheeks.
“Louder, little omega,” Regulus whispered to her ear, mouth hovered to the bare column of her throat, breathing in the faint tremor of her pulse, “Let me hear your pretty cry,”
And Kayena did, not willingly, but because he left her no choice as his hands moved again in that merciless precision. It was so painful and not only because her breasts are so sensitive from the daily ministrations but because his strength was impeccable and he held nothing back. Kayena was so sure that her flesh would rupture by the intensity of his kneading. And her nipples, which often received only gentle bites from her brother, now must endure the biting pinch of this stranger king’s fingertips.
Suddenly and fortunately, Regulus stopped, although his hands never wandered away from their new favorite toys. But when he opened his mouth to speak, Kayena almost wished that he never did.
“Why the fuck her scent is so weak? Did you fucking feed her drugs?
The raging tone was not directed to her but being an empath that she naturally was, Kayena felt the blow. And to make it worse, she could feel the scalding anger flaring not only from Regulus but also from his brother, Balthazar. She did not see his face to know as she was born to feel people’s emotion around her like breathing air.
Her father jumped from his seat and bowed 90 degrees to the ones he called kings. He was stuttering when he answered, “Forgive me, your grace, but it is necessary to prevent danger that could happen if we didn’t get her scent under control for our dinner. Even with the staffs consuming the scent-dulling pills, it would not work as effectively. You know how potent the scent of primal omega is to others, your grace.”
Kayena trembled when she heard the deep, guttural growl coming from the Alpha she was sitting on, “do you think we would allow anything to happen to our future bride during this dinner? I will have your head on a spike the next time you did something as foolish as this.”
Her father nodded quickly before sitting back on his seat, clearly shaken by the exchange. Yet Kayena couldn’t focus on him, not when her world stop and tilted by the king’s words.
“Our future bride?” She replayed in stunt breath.
Kayena could almost taste the dark please from him as he kissed her neck, confirmed her horror, and sealed her fate forever, “Yes, Omega. Our future bride. My brothers and I have waited a long time for you to come along, little omega.”