His Alpha Warrior

Remember That

Shaun refused her access, sure that the demon had other ideas, tricks to get inside his head. It wasn’t the first time he was subjected to such mockery. Even Opaline pulled such games on him to throw him off balance. Saying something in anger meant a lifetime of regret, dying to change the moment. 

“If you’re so keen on this being my fault, I suggest you give me more specific reasons or at the very least, tell me where you met her to receive such fallacy.”

“Wouldn’t you rather have them from the dragonkin’s mouth herself?” Akuji pressed, nodding back towards the door. 

Shaun simply stared back at her waiting for her response. 

Akuji seemed to change then, as if she was experiencing another worldly event. Dracochen was known for them as a hostile yet still forming planet, existence could be far more troubling sometimes rather than others. Lives seemed to be lost and regained as tiny beads of glowing light into her skin, or at least, what she let him imagine was her skin.   

“I don’t remember how I got there,” Akuji began ignoring her change as if she couldn’t really feel it. 

“Don’t lie,” Shaun sneered. “You’re always with us in some way.”

“I am,” she agreed. “But I wasn’t anywhere near Mara, until I was…” she trailed. 

Her gaze along with her message listed here and there as if she was traveling back years into a time and place she had no business being. 

Shaun leaned in waiting for the demon to slip up but she stared off past him. At least it was a good show, he told himself. Still, his eyes were locked on hers as she raced back to that far off place. 

He watched as her eyes widened only fractionally and her head tilted back just slightly enough to let her hair sway along with it. Her body tensed just after, blowing her hair forward as if she’d been thrown back into the moment. Pieces of her broke away and swirled around them as distractions from the truth he was seeking. 

Shaun proceeded to ignore them… that is, until Mara spoke beside her.

“I’m done, Akuji,” Mara said in a flat tone, one burned out entirely of all emotion. 

Akuji begged for that word most nights, fully expecting to reclaim a smaller specimen’s soul, like Shaun’s but Mara’s would promise a lifetime without the pitted hunger or the pain of it all. Her soul, her Alpha drive, would sate Akuji for all time. 

“Done, Your Majesty?” Akuji asked in partial shock. 

Alphas were known to hunt demons, to lure them in for hanging around and try to destroy them for the safety of their own longevity but Mara seemed to have her own demons she was working through. Why would Mara care if she was there? She posed no threat. In fact, in many cases, Akuji opted to slide her strength just when the last thread of Mara’s patience was ready to tear. Akuji would help her Alpha stand her ground; even when the bets were against Mara. 

“She hated bearing your title,” Akuji broke her story telling cycle. “Instead she ignored me until I corrected myself.”

“One more thing I don’t need to be reminded of is how much you think you know my Mate!” Shaun growled. 

“You’re the one that’s afraid to see her,” Akuji pressed. “The gateway is open and ready for you, Your Highness. Yet,” she openly mocked him, “you want to know my take of it all. A demon’s…”

“A darkness I’ll mind to get the truth,” Shawn trailed as he realized what he said. 

“And there it is; what started it all,” Akuji spat. 

Shaun shook his head as if it would rescind his notion. 

“Tell me now, because I must know. Was it really that you never trusted her? Or was it all Alphas that couldn’t be trusted? Because as far as I remember, your Omega was a surly wench.”

“How would you know anything about how hard it is to be an Omega? Or an Alpha for that matter?”

“Your kind is giving in an over-reactive way,” Akuji snorted. “I can walk several hundred feet in any direction and get an earful of what an Omega is supposed to take, or how an Alpha is supposed to stay in control.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“You’re right,” she cackled. “I don’t envy you in the least!”

Shaun couldn’t help but feel hurt in a way that not everyone appreciated such a luxury of being locked together with their mate. It’s how it’s supposed to be. 

“Being asexual really has it’s perks, but I’ll spare you the lovely details that you don’t think twice about sharing with me on literally every occasion,” Akuji rolled her eyes as she spoke. “What Mara could really do without is the incompetence…”

“How dare you?” Shaun exclaimed, lunging forward towards Akuji’s throat. 

Akuji let him surge through her and fall to his knees behind her on the cold stone floor.

“How dare I?” she mocked him, refusing to look behind her shoulder. “How dare you? You carry all the power in all of Dracochen, and you can’t care for any of your people. Not even your Mate.”

Every syllable scorched the fine lining around his heart, freezing him further in place. 

“Even now you have no desire to walk through that open door to reach her,” Akuji shook her head. “I’m glad I won’t have to depend on another dying creature to get my fix after my p*****t is complete.”

Shaun urged himself to get up. A King shouldn’t be on his knees, especially not for this low life, expecting him to accept the fact that his Mate decided this on her own without consulting with him first. He wasn’t just some Omega, he was King and Mara wasn’t going to go that easily. 

His body felt heavier by the time he made it to his feet. His weight certainly caught up to him then… it couldn’t possibly be him though. He’s carried his size this whole time, his whole life since his young adulthood. Now, however, it felt as though it was thrusting him back down to the ground. 

“What are you doing to me?” Shaun rushed out. “I know it’s you, Akuji.”

Shaun watched her lift and eyebrow, then turn around to see him. 

“Oh no, Your Worship…” she said, gently tipping her head to the side to see exactly what got him. “That’s your guilt that you’ve stumbled into.”

“What?” Shaun snapped, his question rolling fiercely off of his tongue. 

“The only way out is through that door. The one to Mara…” she sighed happily, sounding like either way she would have gotten what she came for. “Better hurry. You wouldn’t want to miss her demise for your own.”

His guilt raged around him like spewing lava down a steep volcano but no thought was defined. At best he felt weighted more so than what he was already dealing with. What was left of his muscles strained with every move. As his body begged to stop, his Omega begged to live. It begged for his Alpha. It begged to be saved. 

Akuji’s smile was the last thing he saw before being dragged down into his first of many realities.

“What’s wrong with you?’ he heard himself bark, louder than he needed to in the quiet space. “Huh?” he continued, condescending. “I told you, you’re my guest, Mara.”

Shaun frowned as their image came into view.  

He was dressed in his fancy encrusted garb that layered diagonally off of his then chiseled form. He had it made for that occasion. He was promised by his tailor that she’d be set in a trance by it if he went to her at just the right time. It wasn’t the first time he tried the tactic either, but this design was important. The sleeves were heavier than most but made to show his strength. The weave would sparkle as he moved too which was used as a nod to old times and dragonflight which was a sore spot between them, he knew. But if he could just get her to look at him the way she did with Simon he would be taken in. It’s all he wanted; all he dreamed about since meeting her. 

Mara didn’t want him though. 

“You may be the host, but I’m not your guest,” she shot back, pulling her arm away from his hold; one he wasn’t aware of doing in the first place. 

Shaun growled in her presence. It was another wrong move, he gathered, but not because of Mara’s response. Times changed and he had to as well. Putting his hands back on his protection or anyone for that matter without their consent was a punishable act across all planetary lines.   

“You’ll do right to remember that,” she snarled, “Your Worship.”