Prologue: An Alpha's Needs
The day Jack Eisenschreber had been dreading for years had finally arrived.
It was impossible not to feel anything but apprehensive and helpless. He knew he should have come to terms with it earlier. Even being High King of the Unified Kingdoms didn’t give him the power to change things. And now, barely two months after turning of age... he was finally getting The Talk.
He was an Alpha. And that meant he had duties far beyond just ruling the country. No, not duties....
...needs.
He’d been trying to deny it for months. For the entire time that he’d spent secretly making out with the one person that he definitely wasn’t supposed to: David Bennet.
David was the only person Jack had ever really called friend, even before his father had died. He was the Omega son of one of the Grand Dukes of Castra Nova, and had joined the royal household as a foster a few years after Jack’s father’s death. He was one of the few people who was ever in the palace even close to Jack’s age who wasn’t related to him.
Jack had told himself not to entertain the idea of anything more than friendship; Jack’s future, the same as his fathers, was to form a politically equal pack of five Omega wives, one from each of the Unified Kingdoms. There was no room in that future for someone like David.
Which made it hard not to want to take advantage of the time they had.
The hour between tutoring and dinner had always been theirs, and they’d become very good at not wasting any time. David had become very good at fading into the shadows on the way out of Jack’s study - compliments of the gift of a magical ring from Jack - but as soon as their tutor and any of Jack’s other siblings were out of his apartments he was back.
Jack pulled David down to straddle his lap eagerly, sighing at the delightful warmth and weight of his body. “God, finally... I thought they’d never leave.”
“Five minutes was torture?” Grinning, David resisted Jack’s urge to pull him into a kiss, ice blue eyes warm with good humor.
“Every minute is torture,” Jack growled, and pulled that laughing mouth to his own.
Sometimes Jack thought he’d be perfectly happy if the entire world was nothing but this precious time. He’d always just wanted to spend time with David, even when they were young and their rough-housing was only that. As soon as they’d both turned eighteen it had immediately become more.
David, in his lap, and the unending pleasure of his kisses. The feel of David’s body under his hands. He was lean like an Omega, but David’s extracurricular activities that often included secretly scaling palace walls gave him the most delightful compact strength.
Jack loved to feel his thighs and ass tense and bunch under his hands as they rocked together, slowly building the heat of passion. He loved the little hitched moans he could pull from David’s throat as he kissed and sucked at his friend’s graceful neck, fingers clenched in David’s white-gold locks. David’s scent was more intoxicating than anyone he’d ever met, and since they’d become of age and started making out it had become even more irresistible.
He ached to do more. A few times he’d dared to unbutton David’s shirt, kissing and stroking the bare planes of his chest. Sucking his tiny pink nipples until David was gasping and grinding against him, the length of his cock tenting his slim-fit black slacks. Jack ached to undo his pants so he could stroke him there, feel the hard length of David’s cock in his grip. He ached to explore more of his body, like the sex Omegas men were blessed with from the Daybreak, so David could one day clarify his magic....
But they certainly didn’t have the time - or privacy - for that.
When his wards had alerted Jack to his mother’s approach, Jack jerked from his mouth. “Shit, my mother - ”
David gave a sharp nod, going to get up.
“Wait - ” Quickly pulling together a simple Vitalia spell, Jack healed David’s neck of the kiss bruise he’d been sucking into his throat. “Okay. Go.”
“See you later.” David pressed one last, brief kiss to his mouth and disappeared into the shadows.
His mother’s approach fortunately gave Jack just enough time to work the simple magics to take care of his raging boner. He wished it was as easy to take care of his magic. Day by day, the volatile fountain of energy inside him grew stronger, crackling, screaming for release. It was making it harder and harder to control himself... especially around David.
Taking a deep breath, he left his study to meet his mother in the parlor. “Mother? Is everything alright?”
Duchess Elouise Eisenschreber looked him over with a soft sigh. Among the five wives of the High King, there wasn’t officially a hierarchy, but between his mother being the daughter of a Grand Duke of Edreau, and the mother of the oldest Alpha - now, the King - she had always taken the lead as long as Jack could remember. After his father’s death when Jack was only 9, she was the one to step in and help his Aunt, the High Queen, organize coverage for the essential protective duties that would fall to Jack once he was able to assume them.
He couldn’t help but feel like she had come to see him more in that Official Capacity than as his mother.
“I need to discuss something with you, my son. I’m sorry that it has to be today, but... I’m concerned about the consequences if we wait any longer.”
There was really only one thing it could be. “Can we go to your apartments?” Jack asked. He forced himself not to look around for David; his friend had a talent for getting into places he wasn’t supposed to, and the last thing Jack wanted was for him to overhear this conversation.
His mother nodded, starting out with him and leading the way to her rooms. “Is David still taking lessons with you and Makeda?” she asked.
Jack pushed away the spike of worry at her mention of David. “Yes. Not today, of course.”
“Of course.” She glanced back at him worriedly. “Has it been hard to have an Omega around, dear?”
Jack fought to keep his expression neutral despite the quickly building panic. But that, fortunately, was something he’d been trained to be very good at. “No more than any other Omega.”
Her lips pursed worriedly, but she nodded. Pushing open the doors to her apartments, she took him into her main receiving room. “Sit with me?”
Jack nodded, pressing his palms against his thighs as he sat in an effort not to fidget. He was fairly certain she didn’t know about David. They’d taken every effort to keep from being discovered, hadn’t they?
But if she did know... it was going to be a world of trouble.
~~~
