His Alpha Warrior

Akuji's Message

His Omega screamed in search of Mara to come back to him in his defense. Akuji wasn’t some low level demon, scrounging around on other-worldly creatures’ souls to get by. She was the one that would starve herself waiting for the big payout. She hung around his family constantly as if either of them would be so willing to give up their position. Even their hatchlings were strong individuals, full of a fierceness he certainly didn’t train.

Akuji waited for Shaun to make the connection though, then pounced on the moment his eyes widened in response.

“I am blaming you for this, just like the rest of your kingdom,” Akuji stated.

“Great,” Shaun spat. “And what exactly can your kind do here? This isn’t your world,” he threw in her face but Akuji didn’t flinch. 

Instead, she straightened up to her full height, challenging his own made him stiffen; his Omega found it within himself to at least do the same. 

“Are you inept?” her question carried through the quiet corridor with a melodic catch. 

“Are you?” Shaun shot back, gaining the mercy of a moment to retreat back on his mirroring question. “There are no souls to take here.”

Akuji hummed, unamused. 

“Oh, but how wrong you are, Mate killer.”

Shaun hissed at that. His Omega could barely hold the line in response. He jolted backward from her; his head swiveled from side to side checking to see if anyone heard her. 

“Ah, yes… there’s the Shaun I know,” she cooed. 

“What?” he questioned. 

“...The one so afraid of others knowing his truths beyond the mountains that he’s willing to ruin his Alpha over it?”

Whispers of her promotion trickled on through on waves of the promise of corruption within his Kingship. 

“...The one who broke Mara.”

“I didn’t break Mara!” Shaun hissed. 

“The one who lies to all, even himself about what happened…” she tutted. “I mean the list really does go on.”

Shaun was at a loss. Her word of mouth began to turn heads and move lips, ready to spread the newly found hearsay. Sadly, it didn’t surprise those who Akuji’s messages found. They were just accepted, angering him further.

“That alone should give you a clue as to the Omega you really are,” Akuji pressed. 

Shaun flinched at that. Not even Akuji really knew what their designations meant or how their civilization leaned on the ancient sacrifices they had made to be given such remarkable properties. How could she claim to know what kind of Omega he really was? How dare she challenge him like that!

Still, the rotten thing had information, Shaun decided, and whatever it was, she was going to spill it. 

“Leave my designation out of this,” he sneered while she snickered at his boldness. “I’m the King here…”

“You’re not my King…” 

“That makes no difference!” Shaun shouted at her, stirring up the guards at the end of the corridor. “If you’re on foot in any of the kingdoms, you are to respect the authority of the King. And that’s me, Akuji.”

His stern response had him feeling more confident within his designation and himself at once, but she was quick to stamp it down. All she had to do was lean into his space, just enough for her lips to reach his ear. 

“I’m not here for your acting authority. I’m here for payment.”

Shaun gasped as she backed away. 

“I see you understand the lengths of our agreement now.”

“You have,” he whispered in his defiance, “You have no agreement with me.”

“Oh, but I do. Being Mara’s Mate, you must know the hold you have on her,” Akuji paused for effect. “She has the same hold on you. Her word is your bond too, which means, I have an Alpha’s soul to find.”

Shaun swallowed. 

“Ah, I see you’re waking up to it,” she cooed. 

“Where is she?” he whispered. 

“Does it matter?” 

“Of course it matters!”

“Funny...It didn’t all this time.”

Shaun growled deeply in his throat in response. 

“How dare you imply that I’ve never cared about my Mate! She was my choice…”

“As was the rest of your kingdom, was it not? And when she needed you she had to find her own strengths. Mara could never rely on you; not through Mateship, not through raising your hellfires, not from any of it, and now she’s broken enough to make the deal, so I took it.”

“No,” he breathed.  “You can’t have her.”

“I’m not taking her,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “It really is a surprise that you run this land, what with your inability to listen.”

“You said…” he trailed. 

“I said,” she spoke over him sharply, “that I’m here for her soul. She, as the Alpha, is deciding her own fate.”

Shaun’s skin crawled at the thought of her with a new lover. They’d always be Mates, at least he took that from her, but she’d be in the arms of another and his racing mind made him sick. 

“Don’t be so dramatic,” she tutted. “It isn’t like you gave her anything to hold on to. It was bound to happen. I’m just surprised it lasted this long.”

“What kind of bullshit are you on about now? I gave her everything!” he sneered. 

Akuji’s chortle rang through the remaining space. 

“I suppose you did give her everything, didn’t you? I guess that is saying something right? You gave her more than she wanted and didn’t bother asking her if she wanted it.”

Shaun’s frown fell deeper at that. 

“If it’s really that hard to grasp, I’ll spell it out for you in a question you’ll have to answer on your own. When have you ever asked her if this is what she wanted? You knew who she was. You knew her the longest and she deflected you each and every time you made an advance.”

“How? How do you know all of this?” Shaun stuttered. 

“I’ve been around for a long time. It’s not hard to see.”

Shaun shook his head and turned to leave. 

“Ah, good, more deflection,” she tutted once more. 

“You want me to believe you Akuji? You want me to fall to your feet and drop my own soul to save Mara’s who didn’t want me to begin with? You have another thing coming.”

“Mhmmm,” she purred. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

All at once torn photos slipped from her cloak to the floor. His eyes dropped from the wall in front of him to his side to see what it was she was releasing from her. The moment his eyes found the first item, he realized it was an image. On it was her schooled features while he went off on her about something that hardly mattered enough to remember now. Shaun pivoted quickly to find Akuji in a ring of instances that made him out to be the worst Mate in the world. He spent so many of them ignoring her, them… his hatchlings and as they grew he purposely put off anything to do with them. He put them on her, his Alpha’s responsibilities changed from the warrior she was to a caretaker, to nothing. The last image he saw was Mara on her own staring into nothing. No one’s around, that he can see. It’s just her. Her lips move, only slightly as he moves to his knees to get a closer look. 

“What’s she saying?” he whispered to Akuji. 

Shaun knows just how embarrassing it is to be here now, not knowing what it is she could be saying but he asked anyway. 

“Don’t kill them…” 

He looked up at Akuji in response, scared of what might come. 

“Not to me you dolt. She’s begging herself not to kill you or her kin. You really fvcking broke her.”

Shaun shook his head furiously. She didn’t have the right to speak for his Mate that way. he’s didn’t have the right to speak at all! 

“Tell me where she is,” Shaun growled in response. 

The sound of her laughter made his skin crawl. 

“Oh no, that’s not how this is going to work.”

Shaun stood straighter, trying to challenge her with his stocky form. 

“And neither is that,” Akuji replied, expecting him to stop immediately. “You’re going to give me what I was promised, and until then, I’ll be right in plain sight.”

“No you won’t…”

“Oh yes,” she tutted. “All will see me in one of your… human suits. Let’s see how fast it gets the rest of them to gossip, shall we?”

“I would prefer it if you didn’t.”

“Oh, but this could be fun, my liege,” she jabbed at him again. “I can participate as one of your fleshy horn bags; give them a show they might never forget.”

Shaun couldn’t help but tighten his lips further. What he wanted to say would have only sent her higher, needing to fulfill even that.

“It’s not my liberty to hand over her soul,” he began. 

Akuji barked out in laughter. 

“The King can do whatever he wants! Even to his Alpha. It’ll suit you well to remember your place,” she seethed.

Shaun threw his arms up in exasperation and turned on his heel. Akuji wasn’t going to give him anything but trouble. That was all she was really there for, he decided. Just a little show before her meal, he snorted. This wasn’t the theater, Shaun told himself. If Akuji knew where Mara was, surely she knew where her soul was too. 

However, unlike how he expected her to disappear into nothing, Akuji selected a slender form, and changed to fit his consuming glare until his eyes softened greedily along her curves. Shaun’s gaze traveled slowly up the slit against her radiant dark skin to the lip of the midnight satin hem of her dress. His eyes traveled up her hard stomach and over the deep cut in her chest, revealing only more of her rich skin. It was hard to rip his eyes away from her despite knowing what Akuji really was. 

“Eyes up here,” she snapped at him, gaining Simon’s attention from down the hall. 

The moment he saw the guard he shuffled backward, his sights swiveled back to her eyes, completely taken over by her pupils. 

Shaun cursed, telling her to adjust herself before anyone else would see and before he realized his message, she smirked and played into her role. 

“But she isn’t here,” Akuji let slip from her lips. “You said one day it’d just be us. No running… no hiding,” she sighed nearly as breathlessly as all of those other women he slept with before Mara. 

Just the lustfulness on her lips made him sick. He wasn’t that kind of man anymore. His heart, his Omega belonged to Mara, even if she hated him enough to leave. 

“You are not mine!” Shaun snapped at her, expecting Simon to at least back his king, but nothing of the sort happened. 

“Oh, you’re in trouble now…”