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His father has an empress and six wives. Lovota, Romulus’s empress, is the first to bear him a pup and she is Aria.
Aria, the perfect alpha and heir, the smartest and most beautiful of their siblings. She’s perfection embodied and no one can hate her for it.
His second wife bears him twins, Alejandro and Joaquin, both proud betas that cause trouble and mayhem for their elder sister and she scolds them in public. Those sharp words turn into praise the moment backs are turned and doors are closed, all three snickering into their hands.
The fourth wife is the next to give Romulus an heir, giving birth to Alvaro. Alvaro is an alpha that prefers training and war and will be the one to lead Aria’s armies. She also gives him Isla, Carmen, Juan, Glafira, and Almudena.
Romulus’ fifth wife gives him three pups of each dynamic. Ximena is the first and a beta, though more fiery than her two siblings combined. Lyco, the middle sibling, is an omega and is a watcher. He watches everything and by the time he’s five, he knows more secrets than any five-year-old should. The last is Brigitta, the alpha, and she is gentle. Gentle and shy and soft-spoken until her siblings or dam is threatened. Then her temper snaps and she makes the offending party bleed.
The final, sixth wife is married to the emperor many years after the first five and the empress are. It doesn’t take long for her to give Romulus pups, though long after Antonio and João are born. He gives birth to Adrianus, a quiet little omega and later Viviana, Aloysius, Isai, and Linus.
The third wife is Edelira, and she is Antonio’s dam. When Antonio’s born in the spring, he is…a surprise. For a while they don’t know what to make of him. He is too big for a traditional omega, as mellow as a beta, and as passionate as an alpha.
Yet he has the parts of an omega.
Edelira lets him roughhouse with his older siblings and when his younger brother João is born two years later, she encourages him to join in their games too. Despite the seven-year age difference, Aria takes Antonio, and later João, under her wing.
It is later that Aria will think to herself why that is and comes to the conclusion that it must be because of their mothers. Edelira is the one that the empress spends the most time with, the two often taking tea and leisure time together. They laugh and joke and show each other new gowns and presents given to them from both the many children and the emperor himself. They do each other’s hair and give each other gentle kisses and pecks.
Edelira is the wife that covets Mother’s position the least.
Mother feels safer when Edelira is whispering secrets, jokes, and disparaging remarks about the courtiers and other wives into her ear to make her laugh.
Perhaps that is why she watches over these two brothers of hers in particular. But perhaps it is also because Antonio is the first omega born to her father. There is always a prestige to being born the first of something. And like herself, he is another that is doted upon by the emperor.
This, people notice. The emperor’s favor is never missed; it can’t be when it means life, death, and power.
She is fourteen and he is seven and five year old João toddles along behind them and already she hears whispers of nobles wanting to set up ‘playdates’ between Antonio and their alpha offspring. It makes Aria’s lips pull back and a growl rumble in her chest.
How dare they think their offspring is worth Antonio’s time? Her little brother, who is fiery, sweet, and shrewd, will need someone who can match him. None of their spoiled little spawn makes the cut.
Too many of those little alphas are too quick to hit and yell and their parents aren’t doing anything to correct that vile behavior. She will not let anyone like that marry Antonio, that’s for sure.
Four years go by and at eighteen, Aria is in a political marriage to an omega from across the sea. At first, she doesn’t know what to think of Isabel besides to admire her dark curls of hair, olive skin, and dark green eyes. Then she sees Isabel consoling Antonio in a rare moment of fragility.
It is not often that Antonio is bothered by his lack of omega traits. In fact, he seems to appreciate that most think him a beta when he disguises himself as a stable boy to get away from the watchful eyes in the palace.
He must have been crying about being an omega, for Isabel is consoling him and she lets him touch the swell of her pregnant belly. His eyes widen in wonder as the baby inside kicks his hand and he says to Isabel:
“Maybe being an omega isn’t a bad thing.”
“I don’t think so,” Isabel replies, “it brought me to my wonderful alpha and the rest of your family, didn’t it?”
Aria feels her heart grow and a purr rumble out of her as her mate smiles and makes her little brother laugh. She’ll need to get him a good gift for his birthday this year. He has been wanting a horse, and one of her favorite mares is set to give birth very soon…
When Antonio turns thirteen, it’s a surprise that he hasn’t yet had a heat and strange rumors start to fly that perhaps he is a beta after all, albeit a strange one.
As if to prove the rumors wrong, Antonio starts dressing in a more omega fashion instead of in the play-clothing of pups, and he builds himself a small nest in his bedroom. Aria sees him start to experiment with charcoal around his eyes and powders for his cheeks and his lips are darkened with rouge.
Those little alphas that had glanced his way before are now watching him with heavy blushes and Aria makes sure to flash a singular, large fang at them to make them back off.
Aria notices when her little brother stops skipping lessons and his studies on etiquette he takes much more seriously. He had never been a slacker before, but the intensity to which he now took his lessons brought joyful tears to his tutors’ eyes.
Antonio also spends much of his time with Isabel and Lovino, who is now just over a year old and the proud big brother of a newborn Feliciano. Feliciano had been an even bigger surprise than Lovino had been, but Aria loves both her little boys just the same. It’s so cute how Lovino is already trying to follow Antonio around while he does his duties!
She’s sure Lovino’s going to end up either a beta or an alpha, despite how short he is for his age, if just because of how he clings to Antonio and puppy-snarls at any strange alpha that approaches him. Antonio also finds it cute and he smooshes his face against her baby’s and he laughs at Lovino's grumbles. Feliciano, on the other hand, is an omega like Antonio and the happiest little baby she’s ever met. That is, until his big brother grumbles at him, and then he’s crying. Lovino will chirrup to reassure Feli and his little brother’s cries will stutter into little whimpers until he’s happy once more.
When Antonio’s around, Lovino does not grumble at Feliciano and both the little pups will snuggle into his sides and play until it’s siesta time. They sleep nestled into Antonio when she and Isabel have their duties to attend to, Antonio curled around them protectively.
Aria spies him taking more lessons from his mother and hers and she is both proud and worried. She’s proud that he’s taking the responsibilities of being royalty seriously, but she worries that he is trying to grow up too fast to make up for his lack of omega-scent.
This fervor continues when Antonio turns fourteen, and she finds him one evening leaning his face against his horse’s neck.
“Fuego, how am I supposed to be the maharincess when I’m not even a functioning omega?”
The colt lets out a reassuring nicker, head hooking over Antonio’s shoulder.
Aria steps forward, placing a gentle hand on Antonio’s other shoulder.
“You ‘function’ just fine, fratellino. Don’t worry about the opinions of others, you will grow in time. Some take a short time, others a long time, and your time will come when your body and mind are ready.”
“But what if that takes years?”
“Then it takes years, Antonio,” Aria kisses the crown of his head, “I will love and protect you all the same.”
“What if no one wants me? I’m tall, and, and lanky, and- Ow!”
Aria flicks his forehead. “No true alpha will ever care about that, I promise. If your suitor isn’t on their knees begging for your love and attention, then I’ll kick them out of the palace myself.”
Antonio laughs, turning around and hugging her and he’s already almost as tall as she is. When did her little brother start to disappear?
Three days before Antonio turns fifteen, he very suddenly goes into heat. His mother brings him to where the rooms for the heat nests are and she tells them he was starting to build one when she left him to his privacy.
Two days before Antonio turns fifteen, a dead alpha is found in the room Antonio was supposed to be nesting in for his heat and he’s gone.
His stallion Fuego is missing from the stables and there is no trace of the maharincess. It’s like he vanished into the night. Lovino bangs on her legs to bring ‘Unca Toni back!’ and Feliciano joins in his screeching, the two as inconsolable as she feels on the inside.
She has to step away from them, lock herself away for a night to howl and rage , her fists beating into stone and she wants to kill something.
Coming back out days later, the first one she sees is thirteen-year-old João and she immediately feels so, so guilty. Guilty and rotten and strangled by ropes used on corpses.
His eyes are red-rimmed and bright, the beta gritting his teeth.
“We have to find him. Aria, I have to know if my big brother’s- my big brother’s okay.” He grips her hand, his nails digging in and the pain is grounding. “Padre is keeping his disappearance quiet until we know what happened.”
Her brow dips in confusion and she opens her mouth to ask, João beating her to it.
“He left a note. Madre found it.”
Aria grips both of João’s hands. “What did it say?!”
“That he was running away and to not look for him.”
She snarls, the crown princess punching the wall and ignoring the new cut on her knuckles.
“We’ll find him, I swear it. Even if it takes the rest of our lives, we will find our brother.”
He had woken up to a trickle of lava down his spine.
This lava is thick and lazy and leaves his mouth parched and when he gets up to get a drink of water, he crashes to the floor. Looking at the ceiling in confusion, his madre is the one to find him first. She whispers soothing words in his ear and she takes him to a place he’s only been once before.
When Antonio turned twelve, his madre had brought him to the Flame Wing, the stretch of palace the most well-guarded in the entire imperial compound. Surrounded by high walls, only those in heat and rut are allowed inside, aside from the elite guard stationed there.
There are a number of buildings stationed in the Flame Wing, for each class that resides in the imperial palace. When he is older and has an alpha, his madre explains, he will have a special room attached to his regular room to nest in, but until such a time, the Flame Wing is where he will go.
As maharincess, he is able to choose his own permanent room in the Ruby Tower, and he does, though no heat will come for him for almost another two years.
Now, his fifteenth birthday is in three days and the celebration that had been planned is going to have to be postponed, Antonio thinks to himself as his mother takes him away to the Flame Wing. She’s gentle with him and snarls as fiercely as a lioness at any who come near the burgeoning omega.
His own pheromones are making him dizzy and Antonio has no idea how his madre is still moving. Then again, madre has always been strong, in every sense of the word. When he stumbles, she’s strong enough to sling him over her shoulders and carry him the rest of the way to his chosen room. There she settles him into the pile of blankets he’s gathered over the last few years and she pulls out a small box for him.
“Use anything from this box if you think it will help, mi hijo,” she tenderly brushes his sweaty bangs back with her hand and pecks his forehead. Edelira leaves him to his burning but it’s a relief when things start to feel slick on his thighs and he would have died of embarrassment if his madre had been there when he feels the burning need in his core.
Weakly he starts to assemble his blankets into a nest, but it’s slow progress with his trembling body. Not long after his mother leaves, sliced fruits in syrup, flatbread, and a large bottle of water are pushed through the bottom flap in the door and he gulps the water down greedily.
Antonio feels like he hasn’t had a sip in days, though he had lunch barely an hour ago.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, he returns to trying to assemble his nest and it has the barest of structure to it when he has to stop and focus on breathing. Just breathing. Antonio lays on his back and struggles to get air in, clawing himself out of his clothing to lie bare in the security of his heat room.
He must doze off for a short while, because when he opens his eyes the room is noticeably darker and the rosy fingers of dusk creep through the tall, thin window made to help vent the room. The coolness of evening caresses around him and Antonio sighs at the relief given to his heated body.
His eyes slit open, little breaths fluttering out of him and light glints off the pale tiled floor of his heat room. Antonio wonders if laying on the tile would be cooler and soothe the heat binding his body. Reaching out, he traces his fingers on the floor, shivering at the feel of it. The floor feels like ice and it’s pleasure and pain wrapped together.
Antonio wriggles his top half out onto the tile and gasps for air as he stares up at the dizzying mosaic on the ceiling. Rusty red flowers and shadowy vines curl against a white backdrop, like flowers laid to rest on snow. Antonio wonders if he’s one of those flowers. A rose planted on a snowy mountain to bring life and beauty to the ice that resides there.
A yawn stretches his jaw, and though he just woke up, the stress of his heat on his body is wearing him out quickly. He should really finish his nest. First, however, he finishes the tray of fruit and bread from earlier and he feels a little better now that he has some fuel for his body. Wiping his hands clean with a white handkerchief, he pushes the tray back out through the slot at the bottom of the door to be grabbed by a Ruby Tower attendant.
He claws sweat-stiffened curls out of his eyes and brushes the mess of hair back with a lazily disgusted hum. If only he had one of his hair accessories. Alas. Antonio stretches out his arms and groans with pleasure as he feels muscles slide back into place and he strips out of the rest of his clothing.
If this were any other time, Antonio would have at least pulled on a robe in the case of modesty, as who knows who might come to visit him in his own rooms. But here, here in the Ruby Tower, no one shall enter this place until he leaves and even then, only the surfaces that require cleaning shall be touched.
Again he returns to building his heat nest. He has tried building one before, but his mother had warned him: ‘mi hijo, no true heat nest can be built until the fire trickles down your spine and dances in your belly. Be patient. It is only then that your body will know what it needs and wants for comfort.’ Edelira had been right, of course. It’s rare that she’s not. His efforts before had been half-hearted at best and a fallacy at worst. His hands hadn’t known how to build a heat nest then, but they do now.
He rolls and weaves blankets together, tears and sews, the sun setting and the full moon pouring in to light his room as bright as daylight inside once more. The curtain could be drawn shut for sleep, but he has no desire to stop. He can’t, especially when the heat that had been in his spine starts to trickle out from between gentle omega folds.
To keep his focus on the task ahead, Antonio croons that popular melody about crows and death, wishing he had his oud to play for the briefest of moments. Thankfully his hands are occupied enough by the assembling of his heat nest. It’s smaller than the nest he made in his room, the one for comfort and security that he, João, and Aria will curl up in and whisper secrets and giggles in to. He wishes he had company in this nest, someone to hold him with strong arms. Maybe bury their nose into the back of his neck- he gasps, clenching his thighs together and shivering, his slick coming on stronger to match with his scent.
While Antonio’s always smelt of orange blossoms and honey, now the dark accent of pomegranates mingles in, grounding the once-soft scent into something more omega. More adult.
He’s about to touch himself beyond the ways of curiosity when the strangest of sounds hits Antonio’s ears. The lock to his door clicks open, the door swinging wide open on its hinges and shadowed by the light, stands an alpha.
Thick is the scent of pepper and limes, drenched with alpha arousal and distressed squeaks sprint out of Antonio’s chest as he crab-walks backwards towards the window. His cheeks burn with humiliation when the alpha laughs and his mind scrambles to understand. How is an alpha here, in his room? No alpha should ever be in the Ruby Tower, not ever, this is an omega’s space and he doesn’t even know who this is.
“Who- who are you- how are you here?” Antonio demands through his dry, raspy throat.
“You do not recognize me, maharincess? Even though I have asked to dance with you at every ball for the past year?” The alpha comes in, scooping Antonio up into his arms and the omega yelps, trying to push him away.
“How!”
“I was let in, little omega.”
While Antonio is tall and strong for his age, his dynamic, he is still but fifteen and the alpha holding him is a man. A man he finally recognizes now that he can see his face in the light of the full moon.
“Count Fernando Borbón,” Antonio snarls, his tiny fangs flashing as he lashes out with his free hand. They both look surprised when the slap lands, striking Fernando firmly across the face and faint red lines from Antonio’s nails leave trails across his cheek.
Antonio’s screams echo in the small room as he’s thrown into his nest, the alpha’s large body chasing him into the unfinished mound of blankets. He squirms around like a snake, digging his nails into the alpha’s bare arms, shrieking when he’s turned over onto his stomach and Fernando squeezes the back of his neck, crudely scruffing him.
Agonizing waves of cottony pleasure hit him, like drowning in a vat of sheep’s wool with no surface in sight. He’s distantly aware of Fernando moving behind him, stripping himself of clothing in preparation of taking Antonio. Shakily he braces his hands under him and dares to push up, a hoarse moan punched out of him when Fernando forces him back down, pressing his face back into linen, drowning him dry once more.
Things become hazy and the bright moon slides into darkness.
Antonio wonders between shallow breaths if it would be better to slide into that same darkness until Fernando’s done and he’s safe again. It’s warm and pleasant and far away from what’s currently happening to him, into a darkness that should be the safest to stay in until. Until.
Riiiiiiiip.
Antonio’s eyes snap open.
The alpha ripped his nest. That’s not- That’s not what an alpha is supposed to do. Alpha does not hurt omega’s nest. Alpha is supposed to help omega with the nest at the omega’s guidance. Not TEAR the nest apart! Especially when the nest is unfinished!
Antonio throws his elbow back, the crack of bone sharp in the room. His strike connects with Fernando’s temple and sends the alpha tumbling off of him, Antonio kicking off of the alpha’s stomach to get away from him. His hands land on the first thing he can think of to protect himself. The wooden box madre given him to use for his heat.
He doesn’t think it was meant for this.
Not meant to be bashed into Fernando’s head until the floor and the box is coated in red. Not meant to carry the last trace of Antonio’s heat as the fire leaves him, chased away by violence.
His hands are red and shaking. Shaking like the air in his lungs is. Air that will never fill Fernando’s lungs ever again.
The shadow of death creeps into the room, its cloak heavy atop Fernando’s body and Antonio runs.
A blanket he had been planning on adding to his nest is the only thing wrapped around him to hide his modesty. Hiding his guilt.
Hiding his hands, stained with blood.
Antonio’s sobs are silent, more a method to remind himself to keep breathing as he avoids the night guards, the patterns of their shifts memorized from years living in the palace.
He packs his bags in a rush, stuffing coins and clothing into his bags. He’s about to leave when he realizes the hunt that will happen for him if he leaves without a trace.
With hands that still have blood under his nails, he writes out the confession of his sins.
He killed the man that was let into the Ruby Tower. He doesn’t know who let him in, if it was padre or madre or another- he can’t stay. He won’t stay and be persecuted for the crime of protecting himself, even though that meant the end of Fernando’s life. He can’t stand to go back and look into those lifeless eyes- not again. Never again.
That’s the note he leaves behind. That, and the brush of the scent gland on his wrist against the paper.
Lo siento a todos. Nunca quise que esto pasara. Adios. -Te amo, Antonio
He sneaks through the palace for the second time that night and the only things he takes are a messenger’s uniform and Fuego, his prize stallion, his gift from Aria.
With the uniform on, his leaving isn't questioned by the gateguards. They think he bears a message for one of the emperor's northern lords, one of the ones that's still suffering from the Bell War that was only finally settled five years ago.
Antonio rides hard, heading northeast away from the capital. He plans to make for the plains that borders the White Desert of Turqic and the Lynx’s Claws Mountains. Maybe he’ll find a village to settle in there. Somewhere where the borders of countries meet and are redrawn so often that no one cares what the ruler of the area looks like.
Fuego senses his urgency and carries him far in that first night, though it is Fuego insists that they stop when they come to a river. It’s not particularly wide, but it is nighttime and Antonio reluctantly dismounts, removing just Fuego’s saddle for both of them to rest. Fuego watches over him, standing over Antonio as both rest, both jerking awake throughout the night to every small noise.
The next morning, they dare to ford the stream and it’s easier than Antonio thought it would be. He doesn’t know why everyone acted like this was so dangerous before. He supposes he can understand unseen things in the water, but in water as clear as this, what’s the harm?
Traveling, he and Fuego are learning every day.
They learn to be careful of other travelers, how to spot pickpockets and bandits and the signs they leave for ambushes. They learn which ones are willing to help out a messenger, and when Antonio isn’t wearing the uniform, who might help a fifteen-year-old omega out on the road. He doesn’t often hide who he is when he isn’t wearing the uniform, most people are sympathetic to the plight of an omega runaway. Most understand getting away from an unwanted alpha.
Those are the people Antonio goes to when he wants to sleep under a roof for the night. Oftentimes that roof is a small family’s barn, but that’s fine with him. More than fine, really. In the barn he’s with Fuego and Fuego protects him from any stupid alphas and beta sons who try their hand at touching him. The four-year-old stallion kicks and bites anyone Antonio doesn’t like, and some Antonio does like. He’d be more tempted to scold the stallion, but now.
Now Fuego’s his only family.
Together, he and his horse learn about wild animals. Which ones will do harm, which ones to use for food, and how to use other animals to spot for danger. They listen for birdsong and when it stops, knowing that is the time to run.
Antonio learns to hunt and fish, using snares and a hook on a line. He learns to build a fire. He and Fuego figure out where to look for the best shelter they can find before night falls. Most of these skills are taught to him by travelers on the road and families he stays with.
It’s rare he splurges on staying in a town. He had thought that’s what he might do, but the first time he stays at an inn his hackles go up and he doesn’t sleep the entire night. He has a chair braced under the doorknob and holds his breath when someone tries to get in. Thankfully they leave when they can’t muscle their way in, but that’s enough for Antonio.
Inns eat up what precious little coin he has left, and they aren’t good for his nerves. Too many people, too many sniffing around and trying to make a pass at him.
He buys two daggers after the attempted break-in and the only times he ever stays in town again is when the weather turns for the worst, thunder and lightning crackling overhead.
That’s another thing Fuego and he learns about. Fuego, with his animal senses, is quick to pick up on bad weather and they’re usually able to skirt any storms that occur with a few rare exceptions. It’s Fuego that teaches Antonio how to bed down in the worst of it and when to run.
Once during a storm, a lightning bolt hits the dry prairie grasses before the rain can really start and Fuego teaches Antonio how to be the wind. They’re both screaming as fire licks at their heels, antelope all around them and wheeling in circles until they come to a rock quarry where there is no more grass for the fire to burn and it can’t follow them there.
Throats sore from the smoke, both boy and horse whoop, victorious.
They won; the fire lost.
Together, they are victorious.
Before the end of the first year, something changes.
Antonio and Fuego find a home.
This is something they hadn’t planned on. For the past four months, Antonio had resigned himself to living a nomadic lifestyle with his stallion.
Until they found the small village of Castille, and in it, Isabella.
Isabella is an older woman, about Antonio’s dam’s age. An omega widow who lost her mate and children during the Bell War, she takes one look at Antonio in the tavern trying to drink a hard liquor and she picks him up by the scruff and carries him outside, dropping him on his rear and giving him a scolding for trying to act like a grown up while he still had baby fangs (which he doesn’t, thank you very much. He lost his baby fangs at thirteen, so there!) .
Isabella laughs and takes him in anyways.
She does not live in the village of Castille, but up the mountain with her goat and sheep herd. By herself, she’s been having a hard time taking care of the farm. With Antonio, who’s nearly a foot taller than her and strong, strong from a year with only his horse by his side while traveling on the road, the tasks are made easy.
After a month she has him take care of most of the herding, especially since Fuego and her four dogs make keeping the sheep and goats in line easy. The oldest dogs, Snowy and Soot, usually stay at the farm and keep guard there. The other two, Rose and Clover move with the herd and protect against coyote and wolf attacks and the two dogs are soon cuddled up against Fuego’s sides after he takes out a wolf with his own teeth, the creature hanging dead from his jaws.
Isabella teaches him how to make leather when he brings the dead wolf back to her and that winter his wolf fur-lined jacket keeps him toasty warm. Fuego gets his own blanket dyed blue and yellow and orange that Antonio helped Isabella make after the sheep-shearing season, learning how to cut wool, prepare it, spin it, and then make it into something new.
Isabella teaches him how to mend clothing and fences. She teaches him how to care for animals and heal common sicknesses. She teaches him how to feel safe, safe enough that he can now stand the crowds in town.
It helps that most villagers know not to mess with him, or they’ll see the business end of Isabella’s shovel.
She also teaches Antonio how to defend himself. To fight dirty to get away, to throw dirt in eyes and yank on hair and go for the soft, fleshy bits between peoples’ legs, particularly if they’re an alpha. Isabella also gives him a few flirting lessons and by age seventeen, Antonio loses his virginity to a pretty beta woman with a cold, haughty gaze that cools his body during the first heat he’s had since running away from home.
That’s another thing Isabella talks to him about. Antonio’s heats are irregular and when the story comes out of him, she grimly nods. It’s not uncommon, she tells him, for omegas to go off their heats in times of great stress.
Running away from home and traveling alone for a year would do that to any omega.
Antonio wonders if now that he’s settled in Castille he’ll have regular heats.
A week later, he’ll never have found out because Castille is burning.
Raiders, slavers move through the town, grabbing everyone they can. Antonio leaps out of the stall he had been selling this year’s yield of wool in and runs for the edge of town, towards where Fuego should be hitched up.
There’s a crack that splits in the air and barely a moment later Antonio’s screaming as the skin of his thigh splits, the leather of a worn bullwhip tearing through his pants and skin of his thigh to spill blood down his leg.
For the second time in his life, an alpha climbs on top of him and tries to take something that isn’t hers. Antonio digs his fingers into her eyes, gagging when one pops under the pressure of his fingers and blood runs down his other hand. The alpha rears off of him, screaming as she clutches at her eyes now made blind.
She’ll never see again.
Antonio pushes her off of him, hands shaking as blood covers them once more, bile in his throat and he hacks it onto the ground. A dark blur pushes him to the side and Fuego, beautiful Fuego is there, trampling the alpha under his hooves.
There’s no getting the stallion off the screaming alpha until Antonio throws himself on top of him. His weight seems to knock some sense into the vitriolic horse, the stallion tossing his head as he wheels around to race for Isabella’s farm, Antonio’s vision swirling and becoming dizzy.
Ah, yes. He’s still bleeding.
Isabella is already outside, and she catches Antonio before he can hit his head on the ground when he falls off Fuego’s back. She leaves him for a moment and comes back with needle and thread and booze, pouring it over the wound that loops his thigh like a garter, and he howls as it burns and she whip-stitches his skin back together, covering it with a clean linen strip.
As she works, he stutters out what happened as her face turns white and smoke from the village billows up the mountain towards them.
“Run,” she tells him. “Run, and hide yourself as a beta. Use this,” she presses a satchel into his hands. “It has everything you’ll need for your wound and to hide yourself while on the road. Don’t stay here, my boy.”
“What about you? What if the raiders come up here?” Antonio demands even as Isabella forces him astride Fuego.
She braces the shovel on her shoulder, her four dogs surrounding her. “They can try, but not even death will stop me from protecting the home where I birthed my pups and married the man I love. Now fly, Antonio. Fly and don’t look back. Promise me!”
He can’t say it, but he nods and Fuego once again takes him away from home, bearing the heavy heart of rider on the same strong shoulders the stallion always has as sobs ripple out from Antonio.
Back to his nomadic lifestyle, Antonio takes it easy on both of them this time. He moves slower than they had that first year, letting his wound heal. If there’s one thing harder than traveling all the time, it’s being a cripple while doing it.
He splurges and goes to a healer when the stitches need to come out and at the healer’s, he’s able to get more suppressants and learn how to make them as well. How best to apply the mixture and when. Antonio’s a little shocked at how differently he’s treated when all people think him to be a beta. Families are less likely to allow him to stay in their barns, but in exchange, he feels much safer when going into towns and villages.
With scent blockers, it’s harder to smell alphas and that relief alone- makes everything so, so worth it. For the most part, pretending to be a beta is an added layer of anonymity.
If people look twice at him, it’s because of his appearance and as he approaches age eighteen, he’s in the prime of his youth. He’s all wiry muscle, chocolate curls, bright green eyes and smiles. He gambles and cajoles, the charming dimple to the right of his mouth making most omegas swoon when he shoots them a charismatic smile, and that’s something he’s never really thought of. Flirting, with other omegas?
He tries it out once, settling on a pretty omega man that works at a tavern, auburn hair and olive skin and he likes it so much that it becomes part of his roster. Omegas of all kinds and beta women are who he flirts with and they’re all eager to return his attentions. Of course, most of them figure out he’s not the beta he presents himself as, but some don’t. He’s large, for an omega, and plenty satisfactory to any woman he decides to lay with.
It’s after the town of Silkpearl that he’s flirted and lain with so many that he’s forced to hide from an angry mob of brothers and fathers in a caravan that he ends up joining for a time. The work is honest and not many ask questions and being able to travel with little fear of midnight attacks is. Refreshing.
He likes traveling in a caravan so much, he ends up moving from one group to another, finding the unique exchange of language and products fascinating as he learns from each company. Most trading groups are from the kingdom of Turqic, though some are from Rospaña and others from Aussia, the three largest kingdoms on the continent. Of course there are groups from some of the smaller countries, but those are rare and usually merge with the larger trading groups.
At nineteen, Antonio joins one of the most influential Turqic trading groups, Atesatli. At the head of the trading group is a duke, Sadik Adnan and he’s the tallest alpha Antonio’s ever met. He looks down at Antonio from behind the eye mask he wears and Antonio gulps as he’s signed on as a horse master and almost immediately regrets it, just because of Sadik’s gaze.
Thankfully he doesn’t have to meet with the alpha often, one of the other two senior horse masters does, and for that first year he goes unnoticed by the leader of Atesatli.
Then his twentieth year passes and his heats return. Despite the suppressants, and the healer had warned him of this, he still has two mild heats a year. It’s better than the usual four he would have to suffer without the medicine, but it’s less than ideal when trying to hide among alphas and betas.
One of the horse masters, Aylin, reports him to Sadik for being ill and the alpha comes into his tent and the first sniff has the truth pouring out of him before he can stop it.
Yes, he’s an omega. No, it’s only two mild heats a year. Why? Because he can’t go home because of an alpha that wanted him.
Sadiq regards him with dark eyes and sighs. He offers to claim Antonio and the snarl he gets in return makes the duke laugh and throw his hands up in mocking surrender. He tells Antonio to pack up and ride a distance from the caravan, but still in sight.
Antonio’s surprised Sadik isn’t forcing the issue and kick him out or trying to bond with him.
When he mentions this a few weeks later, the duke laughs and says that he’s not interested in tomboy omegas. He’d rather claim the delicate, flower-like ones. Antonio rolls his eyes at the response and stomps off, Sadik’s laughter echoing in his burning ears.
For two more years he travels with Sadik and Atesatli Caravan, planning on it being his last. He’s been with them too long, and he really should move on to the nest group. It’s safer for everyone, that way.
As the trading group approaches Flower Pass between the Lynx’s Claws Mountains to the east and the Stag’s Tines to the west, he tries to think of how in the world he’s going to bring his leaving up to Sadik. He sighs, moving out of the main line to get a glimpse at the town ahead and his jaw drops.
Ahead of them is a city built into a mountain and an impressive old Keep from a bygone era, rebuilt to its former glory. The towers rear up against the sky, daring all below it to challenge it.
“Eisblume,” Antonio murmurs to himself, “and Eisblume Keep. One of the last Great Keeps from the Crystia Empire. How lonely you look, at the top.”
While Antonio and Fuego ride to the city, the Lord of Flower Pass looks down at the approaching traders from one of the keep’s balconies, an eager gleam in his violet eyes.
Something new is coming to Flower Pass.