Chapter 1

Frederick’s POV

“Spread your legs properly,” I growled, breathless, sweat dripping from my jaw.

“Take this dick. All of it.”

I gripped the headboard and drove deeper, watching the omega’s fingers curl into the sheets, his knuckles whitening with every thrust.

We’d been having sex for close to two hours now, and I was yet to find my release.

“A-Alpha… please…” he whimpered, his voice cracking. “I can’t… I’m so sore, please… I can’t take anymore—”

“Shut it!” My voice came out flat and breathless.

“You filthy omega. You have no right to refuse me. You exist for this.”

I pulled out roughly and grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking him upward.

“Turn around. Wrap those lips around my dick.”

He obeyed, trembling, tears streaking silently down his face.

Without warning, I grabbed the back of his head and shoved my dick down his throat.

He gagged violently.

“Suck it,” I said, my fingers tightening in his hair. “Like your life depends on it.”

I looked down at him, my eyes cold.

“Because it actually does. If you don’t impress me enough…”

I let the silence finish the sentence.

He sobbed around me as I felt the warmth of his tongue on my tip.

“Ah…” The sound tore out of me before I could stop it. “Yes. Right there, you f-fucking bastard—”

I lost whatever thin thread of control I had left as my hips snapped forward, chasing that one miserable moment of forgetting.

And when I finally released, it crashed through me.

“Swallow it. It tastes so good, huh?”

Then his eyes rolled back, and he crumpled, collapsing against my legs, completely limp.

I stepped over him and yanked the chamber door open.

The two servants standing guard outside snapped to attention.

“Take this idiot out of my sight,” I said flatly. “He couldn’t satisfy me. Bring me two male omegas from the quarters.”

They exchanged a look and moved quickly, dragging his half-conscious body out by the arms.

Hardly had they left before my fist connected with the wall.

My knuckles split open instantly, blood streaking down the cold surface, but I hit it again and again until I could finally drown out the noise inside my head.

But it wasn’t enough.

“ELIAN!”

My voice tore through the chamber, raw and broken.

“You did this!” I whispered into the empty room, breathing hard. “You and your stupid, selfless heart. You should have let me die that day, Elian. Your death turned me into this monster!”

No one ever warns you that loving someone so completely and losing them can hollow you out so thoroughly that you stop recognizing yourself.

Three years since my mate took his last breath in my arms because he tried to save me.

Elian took a fucking bullet meant for me.

I’ve tried to move past it… but I can’t.

So I punish myself instead because I failed the one person I ever loved, and I deserve to suffer for that.

A knock at the chamber door pulled me out of my head.

“My lord,” my beta, Gregory, said. “The new shipment has arrived. The slave traders are waiting in the courtyard for your inspection.”

I grabbed a shirt from the chair and pulled it over my head.

“I’ll be down.”

The courtyard was already filled when I arrived.

The slaves were arranged in lines, kneeling on the cold stone floor as I moved past them, metal chains clinking softly with every shift they made.

I walked slowly, looking at them one after another, but none of them caught my interest.

My nose tightened in disgust as I continued past them.

I was about to turn to the slave trader and shout at him for wasting my time again when I stopped.

He was standing where everyone else was kneeling.

Slowly, my gaze fixed on him.

He had blond hair, tattoos, and a well-built body. 

There was something about him that I've never seen in an Omega before.

And the most irritating part was that he was looking directly at me.

I stopped walking completely and pointed straight at him.

“Why is he standing?” I asked sharply.

The slave trader flinched immediately and rushed forward.

“That one, my lord…” he began nervously. “He refuses to kneel. We tried everything. He’s… difficult.”

I stepped forward slowly, closing the distance between us while the rest of the slaves shrank back instantly.

I looked him over slowly. “What’s your name?”

“None of your business.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the entire courtyard went silent.

Gregory stiffened sharply beside me. Even the other slaves seemed to stop breathing at once.

I stared at him, narrowing my eyes. Surely I had misheard.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me,” he replied, tilting his head slightly, something almost like amusement flickering across his battered face. “Or has your cruelty deafened your ears?”

Heat rose instantly in my chest.

I took one slow step forward.

“How dare you speak to me like that?” I said coldly. I stepped closer again. “Do you know who I am?”

A low murmur moved through the courtyard, but he still stood there like none of it mattered.

“If indeed you’re important like they say,” he replied casually, “you wouldn’t be here shouting your status at a slave.”

His gaze dropped briefly, then rose again, a smirk forming like he was enjoying this more than he should have been.

“All I see,” he added, “is a horny Alpha trying to prove a point.”

Then he looked down and pointed at me.

“And you really do look like someone who hasn’t been fucked in a long time.”

Gasps broke out instantly as everyone turned their faces away in fear.

This was supposed to be humiliation, but for some stupid reason, my body reacted to it instead of rejecting it.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Afraid of losing control, I lifted my boot and drove it hard into his face.

His head snapped to the side. He dropped to one knee, catching himself on his palms as fresh blood poured from his nose.

“On your knees,” I said coldly.

He coughed once, then looked up at me again, blood at the corner of his lips.

And he smiled.

“I’d rather die than submit to you.”