His Alpha Warrior

It’s been a while now. How much time? He isn’t sure but it’s been nothing but side eyes and comments about his designation and right to lead since Mara’s disappearance. His Omega wriggles underneath his skin in the brooding way it always has, but all events are amplified now that she’s gone. How could she? It would hiss. How could she leave them there? Their family without an Alpha. It left him a joke to his own designation. Not even his Omega could scent why.  Dragonkin Omegas could scent all emotions. They could predict and heighten their own scents to drag down the presence around them. He should have had this in the bag being the rightful lead to the throne, there on Dracochen. He was, he reminded himself; rightfully there that is. Dracochen was his to rule despite his designation.  His brother’s ruled the other planets across the galaxy; each one an Alpha in their own right, and all of what he was missing. Shaun could feel his subjects questioning his ability to rule at every turn. He could scent the way that they responded to new positions on life and what was expected there on the ever-populating surface of ash and fire. Establishing the course of action as he did was poorly accepted causing a tremendous rift in their citizens’ trust in his decisions once more, but their sizes varied and surpassed the limits of safety within the cliffs where they reside.  Demanding that they only use their human form was taken as a slight to all shapeshifter kind, and perhaps it was, but dragonkin had no limit to how large they could grow. They could use the natural materials found within the elements and force their civilization into a fossil of what once was.  Enforcing it was another blow to the kingdom.  And to Shaun himself.  It made wanting to serve feel more like a life sentence. But as far as his human form went, it wasn’t half bad. Not at the start at least. He was quite the specimen. Tall and muscular, most certainly in his prime. Those who didn’t resist his order were given his attention. At the time, getting used to the attraction his human form had towards dragonkin he would never consider, seemed to be less difficult sooner than he thought.  His designation brought him many trials; Alphas looking to fill his needs, mostly power hungry savages looking to dethrone him during the savagery of a shared Heat. They’d chalk it up to a loss and move on with their plans to restore Dracochen once and for all. It was suicide, but their bodies tempted him. His Omega screamed to be touched; to be enough for their beauty despite their smell.  The very need amplified globally. His need to control the masses in size only grew in population; the focus heaving itself around the soft, gripable bodies. Mating certainly changed for what many would call, the better. Traditions changed from clawing off scales to leaving bruises under their mate’s skin as they Rutted into their partners. Bloodshed was no longer deadly from their marking rituals. Best of all, in some regards, was the woman’s ability to protect her egg in her womb or expel it early to harden naturally was up to her. It ensured survival whereas her draconic body was simply too hot to bear children.  Shaun, however, avoided leading a pregnancy through term, not before Mara anyway. There was no reason to give a power hungry Alpha a heir to his throne that could potentially kill him and take it over either. Shaun wasn’t stupid, not even in his most desperate hours. While they’d hold him down and think they were taking what they wanted, he’d lift them up and refuse their knot.  It made for a show thereafter, to be the Alpha rejected by the King of Dracochen was just as hurtful for him as it was for them. It had been years of this. His brother’s would visit to be sure balance was still prominent among the land and never left without an argument. It was getting to be more than he could take.  But then like a blessing, he saw her approach him. Mara, his lead special ops enforcer. She single-handedly commanded the other Alphas with her scowl.  “Petty hatchlings,” she snarled. “If you’re done measuring c***s, there’s work to be attended to,” Mara looked down her nose at them. “Unless that’s all you’re here for, in which case you’re excused from this planet until further necessity is required.” No one talked to them like that, Shaun recalled. Even her scent raged out of her in disgust for them. They were kings! Five in total; and she disrespected each as if their roles meant nothing to her.  It was hard to remove the errant thought as he realized his head had been in his hands for the last hour. Reminiscence was an angry tool. It promised a look into the past without hope to bring it back with him into the present where he sat upon his throne, staring downward and the dark charcoal colored stone that led far past the columns and out of their throne room altogether. His gaze snagged it’s way down within the ravine of the large stones until it blurred far into the hallway. Thick columns married the corridors’ floors to the natural ridges in the pitched ceiling where it drew the light in from the moonlit sky.  It’s where he spent most of his time these days. With the planet he dared try to save in an uproar about what happened to his Mate, Shaun’s found himself holding his position there. He’s heard it all, naturally, from even his children who have time and again seen the rifts in their relationship while their scholarly programs taught oneness within the family unit, Shaun and Mara most certainly did not have it.   It didn’t make any sense to him though. Their arguments seemed as though he won them, getting through to her that she was clearly in the wrong and needed to submit. He didn’t command her as her King; he would never. She just couldn’t see how wrong she was in her complaints. When they would die down, she would reserve herself, ritualistically, until her scent couldn’t even reach him.  His guards often knew of her change, regardless of how she refused to snap at them. Instead, she’d turn her back to him. While it was a show of interest as a human, she’d flash the ridge of her wings at him to make sure he knew just what he was f*****g with. His Omega snarled back at her, hurt by even those memories. She was his Alpha. She was supposed to just know how to fulfill the role and do it. No questions asked. But she didn’t. She didn’t have an underlying need for him the way he did for her. She practiced her own control in every breathing moment and he wasn’t part of it. He wasn’t the piece she needed to survive, he told himself. His aching Omega begged for him to retract his last thought, but it was painfully obvious. She did not Mate him for love.  Just as the thought became clear, so did the voices beyond his doors. His guards were on patrol and on the move, hushing each other as they went. It enraged him to see just how far her disappearance had infiltrated his walls, and so he lifted himself to his feet as if he had been a physically broken heap of bones. His ankles ground around on his joints looking for any type of relief but failed to gain it. What was once his elite form, was rounded now, thick with fatigue and weighted with concern.  It’s alarming how quickly he changed. Not even a shift would release his weight, it would only deepen his fatigue. A leader, such as himself, shouldn’t have these weaknesses. It showed the kingdom that he could fall. At best he could rely on the rest of his brothers to keep him in power while he sorted this out, but even they began looking down at him.  Another hiss from just beyond his throne room plucked at his attention once more, calling him forward, footstep by aching step. Their stench kept him going. Most of his elite forces were Alphas. They were just more capable. Omegas stayed out of the line of fire, even though they were considered strong within the ways of mass destruction. An Omega wasn’t seen as worthless so much as they were hellraisers. They were the loose cannons, the ones that sought out the trouble, and he simply couldn’t have more than a handful of them running around within his fortress.  Alphas, however, were never on edge. Not like they had become. They used to never have a stench, but now? In the blended turmoil Mara set their kingdom in through her disappearance, each one of them smelled like bile, revolted by their king.  As Shaun made it to the archway, he noticed the backs of a pair of his guards turning down another corridor. The two were older, like him. Already sporting a heavier brow, thickened by experience and uncivilized warfare; keeping the peace past his monumental change. They were his highest ranking non-military officers, Damian and Simon. He’d know them anywhere. Stink or not, Damian spent most of his career proving that not all Omega’s were as corrupt as Shaun believed. He stood by his Mate, Simon proudly. Served with him to be sure none would challenge Simon over his designation and see him as fit to lead in the event that he needed to.  It would have been a lovely story if Shaun cared for the sentimental value. Back then, he was too busy worrying over Omega pheromones caking the halls in the need for consummation. The last thing he wanted to scent was an orgy somewhere within his walls, not at least, one he wasn’t the main attraction to.  Damian’s time and efforts prevailed, however, as Simon’s Alpha. The two kept within their strengths and kept their homelife within their own caves. Until tonight, Shaun grimaced, as not even a tingle ran down his spine in response. They weren’t there to exercise their right to a private moment, they were furthering something else far more critical.  “Nah, no man. Hear me out,” Damian hushed Simon. “Listen, there's a possible clause to it. You can't tell me you haven’t noticed the way he’s been with her,” he added as shouldered his partner into the next corridor to continue. While Shaun would rather not find out what’s circling now and just terminate them for speaking against the throne, he can’t help but follow.  “Even if it was true,” Simon replied, “You can’t just say that s**t here. You’re putting yourself at risk!” “You don’t think I know that? You don’t think I know that?” Damian repeated for attention on the matter. “Do you know what I’ve gone through just to be on this loop?” “Everyone knows, Damian. Stop being so dramatic…”  “Then you’d know how she was before Shaun,” Damian pressed.  Shaun grimaced at the hushed conversation unfolding before him. It was another attempt to justify treason. It was another couple of guards trapped in a gossip chain that thought they had the answer for his Mate’s disappearance. While he feigned indifference to it, he himself had no concept of where she went or why. She was his Alpha. His rock. The one that handled everything as to where he only had to deal with his requirements, he argued with his Omega once more. He, as her Omega, had rights over her and her nest… but their bond had been a different story.  “That woman was always on the move. No one could slow Mara down,” Damian looked over his partner’s shoulder before speaking again. “... and Shaun could? Nah, man. You know what I think? I think he drugged her.” “Drugged her?” Simon questioned, his frame backing away from Damian’s altogether. “Have you seen our benevolent leader?” Shaun frowned at that. It was a shot against his size. They had all been talking about it for years but they were only so firm due to their trials. If they had his position it would be different. They wouldn’t run their mouths.  “Yes! That’s not what I mean though. When you look at him, he’s all Omega.” “I take offense to that, Damian. I will report you if you say it again.” “Ugh, Simon… let your Omega feelings out at home would you? This is serious!” Damian corrected his partner. “If we don’t get to the bottom of this…” “What? What do you think is going to happen if we, two hall guards, don’t get to the bottom of what Shaun did to Mara?” Simon challenged, angered at Damian’s shot against his designation. “You know what will happen? Nothing. It’s not our job…” “We’re supposed to report intelligence to our superiors and that is the highest level of importance right now, finding Mara. She’s royalty because of Shaun and our Special Forces General. What kind of Alpha goes missing with those titles?” Damian watched Simon as he scratched the back of his neck, catching on his collar as he went.  “None,” Simon replied.  “That's right. None…” “Which means what for her then?” Simon pressed, huffing as he watched just beyond their station.  “I’m still trying to figure it out.” As the conversation hushed up once more Shaun took the information as the fact that his guards were plotting against him. There was no loyalty left in them or, worse, the remainder of the throne. His saving grace would be relying on his brothers. They would make sure that an event such gossip couldn’t bring the beings on his planet to rise above him, or to take back their now soothed spaces since the shift, but not even they were sold on Shaun’s behavior, and it showed.  What was more pressing was the idea that the dragonkins he ruled were ready to fight for Mara’s reappearance. It was as if she was the dragonkins’ lady, not Shaun’s. It was hard to swallow. As her Mated Omega, he was supposed to trust her. He was supposed to feel like he could say and do whatever he pleased with her; that they would just be on the same level… “But you’re not, and that is significantly obvious,” a voice rang out from the corridor he had been sneaking around in.   Shaun frowned, the thick ridge of his brow shaded his eyes as he squinted, in search of the individual who spoke. When he found the curve of her, she looked feminine, similar to the dragonkin on Dracochen. Thin, a wisp of a woman, he gathered as his eyes continued trailing her form.  “Enough,” she warned. “Mara’s in no state to have to watch you check me out.” “Mara?” Shaun asked, baffled.  “You know, your Mate?” the woman retorted, her question sharp and impaling him in place.  “Of course I know my Mate!” he roared. “What have you done with her?” he growled in response, angered that this being would even slant him with the potential that he was moving on to whatever she was.  “Oh? What have I done with her?” Shaun cringed at the way she seemed to purr at that. The woman’s curves highlighted narrowly as she moved out of the shadows and into the dim light surrounding them. While Shaun strained to see her face, he couldn’t help but notice the odd cast shadows behind her. If it was meant as a distraction it was working.  “Oh no. You, Shaun, oh gracious ruler of Dracochen, are the creature of your Mate’s demise.” Shaun’s lips parted, a gasp threatened to leave them as she spoke.  It wasn’t true.  It couldn’t be.  “Guards!” Shaun shouted in response, but the woman only laughed which made him even more uneasy. “Guards!” Shaun shouted again, trying to rally his forces, to gain some ground between the  creature and him. As an Omega to the throne, he knew his place, to lead with commands while his guards backed him with their muscle and courage. It was how it had always been for hundreds of thousands of years. Why should he be the first to break that chain? There would be hell to pay if this being laid a claw on him, Omega or not.  “You really are slow, aren’t you?” the woman asked as the curve of her cheek started to tilt to the side. It continued to drop to an unnatural ninety degree angle, her neck along with it before an unreal light of her smile stretched across her face.  Shaun swore at the sight of her.  It was no true woman.  It was a demon and not just any one. It was Akuji. She haunted the living as much as the dead and was known to strategically hang around his family, his nests, his kin for hopes at a soul to take. And now she was here with him claiming that she had Mara and that it was all his fault.