Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Sometimes Aksel wondered if there was something wrong with him that he wasn’t. He didn’t feel any shame or guilt. All he felt was cold anger. Anger at the so-called polite society that made it impossible for them to be together. Anger at Lucien for making his heart ache and his body burn with a simple look.
And most of all, anger at himself for wanting the one omega he could never have.
Part I
Chapter One
22 years ago
Aksel Cleghorn was four when his father brought home the boy.
The boy was quite possibly the prettiest thing Aksel had ever seen. Light-brown wavy hair framed the face of an angel. The angel had large green eyes, soft pink mouth, and delicate, creamy skin.
Aksel stared at the boy, unable to look away. He felt... odd. Almost hungry. Which was stupid, because that boy wasn’t a candy. He couldn’t be eaten.
“Children,” his father said sternly, looking at Royce and Aksel. “Meet Lucien, your—your stepfather.”
What?
His brother was the one to voice his question aloud. “Father?” Royce said, frowning. “I don’t understand. This boy can’t possibly be older than me.”
He was right. The boy actually looked younger than Royce, who was fifteen. Unlike Royce, the boy was rather small, his size and fine features betraying his designation. Omega.
“Lucien just turned fourteen,” their father said shortly. Glancing at the small omega, he laid his hands on Aksel and Royce and took them aside. His voice was lower when he spoke again. “Lucien has nowhere else to go, so now he’s part of our family. His pack disowned him and I had to take him as a second spouse to give him a home and the protection of our name. I expect you boys to treat him with courtesy and respect. Don’t push him around. He… he had a very traumatic experience. The poor kid doesn’t like being touched.”
Royce nodded, seemingly satisfied with the explanation.
Aksel wasn’t.
“What’s a traumatic experience?” he said.
His father’s face became grim. “You’re too young to understand,” he said after a moment. “And it’s not my story to tell. Just... be careful with the kid. He was hurt very badly and having been rejected by his pack couldn’t possibly have been easy, either. He has no one in the world anymore—except for us.”
Aksel wanted to know more, but he knew his father wouldn’t tell him anything else. The grown-ups never explained things to him, as if he were a baby. He was four, almost five!
So Aksel decided to question the boy, but he had to wait hours before all the excitement around Lucien’s arrival died down. Luckily, Aksel’s parents got distracted by Belinda—his newborn little sister—so after dinner, when Lucien left the room, no one noticed when Aksel followed him out of the house.
But his legs were shorter, and before he could catch up to him, Zinedine and Thoros, the ten-year-old twins from the neighboring estate, were suddenly in his way.
“Isn’t that the Cleghorns’ little beast?” Zinedine said with a laugh. “Hey, Beasty!”
Glowering at them, Aksel shoved the older boy aside and marched forward. He could ignore them. He could.
“Beasty thinks it can ignore us, Zi,” Thoros said with an obnoxious smirk, sticking out his leg and trying to trip him up.
Aksel shoved him aside, too. They might be twice his size and age, but they weren’t stronger. Being a Xeus was good for something.
“Grab it, let’s teach it a lesson!” Zinedine said, grabbing him from behind while his twin did the same from his other side. They yanked his arms behind him, making Aksel stumble forward and then step back awkwardly as he tried to regain his balance and free his hands.
“What are you doing? Let go of him!”
Aksel whipped his head up.
Lucien was advancing on them, a fierce frown on his sweet face. “Let go of the boy this instant,” he demanded, putting his hands on his hips and looking down his nose at the twins—and never mind that they were bigger and taller than him. He looked like a vengeful angel: fragile, beautiful, but so very brave and fierce.
Aksel stared at him in fascination and, right there and then, he knew he wanted him. He wanted him for his own.
“And who are you?” Zinedine said, leering at the omega.
His twin laughed. “Idiot, don’t you recognize him? It’s the slut who had a platoon of Pelugian soldiers between his legs.”
Lucien paled, flushed, and then paled again. His lips opened, wobbling, and closed again without uttering a sound, his scent becoming sour with misery and mortification.
Aksel’s vision turned red. With a growl, he slammed his head into Thoros’s stomach, and when the boy let go of his arm, slammed his fist into his crotch. Howling in pain, Thoros fell to the ground, and Aksel turned and pounded his fists into Zinedine’s body with all his strength. The older boy staggered and tried to retaliate, but he was no match for a pissed-off Xeus, the age difference between them notwithstanding.