Chapter 3

Frederick's POV 

The words refused to leave my head long after he said them.

A child was one thing the moon goddess had never blessed me with.

Because I would have traded everything I owned just to hear a child call me father once in my lifetime.

But Elian didn’t want pups.

He used to say children were a distraction from everything we were trying to build together.

At first, I laughed it off, thinking it was just fear speaking through him. I thought he would come around eventually.

Until he threatened to reject our bond.

On our second anniversary, he made a decision on his own, one he believed would fix everything between us.

He went through a body reconstruction procedure in a human hospital, just to make me happy.

It nearly killed him.

He was in a coma for weeks.

And when he finally woke up, he didn’t speak to me.

Like I had betrayed him simply for wanting something different from him.

I felt selfish for putting him through that pain.

And when we eventually reconciled, I made a promise to him.

I swore I would never bring it up again.

Not even when it broke something inside me that never fully healed.

Now, fate was mocking me with this Omega who carried the one thing I had spent years grieving in silence.

I exhaled sharply and turned away from the courtyard.

“I’ll pay,” I said coldly. “Send the amount to the slave trader’s account. You’ll receive the cheque before sunset.”

I turned to Gregory.

“No one follows me. No guards near my quarters. I don’t want to be disturbed unless the kingdom is collapsing.”

Gregory hesitated. “My lord… that Omega—”

“Is mine for now,” I cut in sharply.

The Omega’s smirk widened slightly at that, like he had heard something interesting.

I turned toward him.

“Follow me.”

He tilted his head. “Bossy.”

When we reached my quarters, I pushed the doors open and stepped aside for him to enter first.

That alone irritated me.

My wolf had been forcing me into decisions I would normally never make.

He walked in slowly, unhurried, as if he owned the space instead of being dragged into it.

He stopped near the center of the room and looked around properly, observing everything without fear.

Then, without permission, he sat down in my chair.

“I never told you to sit,” I said sharply. “Get your filthy body off that chair.”

He completely ignored me.

Instead, his gaze drifted across the room as if I hadn’t spoken at all.

Then he said casually,

“For someone with such a bad attitude,” he said, “you have surprisingly good taste in art.”

“You paint?” I asked, despite myself.

It came out more surprised than I intended.

He tilted his head, like my reaction amused him.

“Yes,” he said simply. “I do.”

Then, after a brief pause, he added, “My favorite artist is Kairo Venn.”

My brows lifted before I could stop myself.

“Kairo Venn? That's my favorite artist too!” 

The words came out too easily and I honestly regretted how much truth sat in them.

I found myself walking towards the far wall where one of my framed sketches hung, it was a copy I had made years ago of one of his famous works.

My gaze settled on it..”That's his best piece, I've never seen anything like it”

Behind me, I heard the Omega give a soft scoff and I turned sharply.

He was leaning back in my chair, one ankle resting over his knee looking completely unimpressed.

“That one?” he said “Overrated”

“Overrated? Are you serious? That artwork earned him his Medal of Honor,” I said, staring at him in disbelief.

I should have been offended but instead, I found myself deeply intrigued, because this was exactly the kind of conversation I had begged Elian to have with me.

Painting was the one thing that made me feel soft in a world that demanded hardness from me every single day.

But Elian hated it.

He used to look at my paintings like they were something shameful.

He said art made me look weak, that no true Alpha should spend his time with brushes like some fragile human chasing feelings on canvas.

Because I loved him, I listened.

I locked my art room with my own hands and never stepped into it again.

And now this reckless, foul-mouthed Omega had walked into my room, looked at a hidden piece of me, and understood it in minutes better than my own mate ever did.

That realization sat bitterly in my chest.

Worse still, I hated that part of me was already comparing him to Elian.

That felt like betrayal.

Just then, he shifted in my chair, like the conversation had already bored him.

“I want to wash this dirt off my body,” he said suddenly. “Take this cuff off my wrist.”

“Watch the way you speak to me,” I said coldly. “You are my slave. I own you.”

That should have been the end of it but instead, he smiled.

“We’ll see about that.”

Before I could react, grabbed the edge of the heavy wooden table beside him and slammed the cuffed wrist down against it with brutal force.

The metal bent and the cuff snapped open.

My mind refused to process it.

“How did you…” I started.

No Omega should possess that kind of strength.

No slave should be able to break Imperial-grade restraints like they were nothing.

He flexed his wrist once, rolling his shoulders back as if nothing about this was unusual.

Then he looked at me again.

A faint, dangerous smile playing on his lips.

“Let’s just say,” he said quietly, “I’m not your regular Omega.”

He disappeared into the bathroom without asking permission.

My wolf was insufferable at this point.

Pressing forward every thirty seconds like an excited pup who'd spotted something shiny.

This was insane. I needed to get control of myself. 

The bathroom door opened and he walked out completely naked.

Water still tracked down his collarbones, sliding slowly over his skin.

A hard pulse of heat shot through me so suddenly that I clenched my fist.

And then my eyes dropped lower and stayed there.

He was big…and wasn't even fully hard yet! 

He caught me staring and that slow smirk crawled across his face. 

He held my gaze, reached down, and wrapped his hand around himself and began stroking up and down, amusement dancing in his gaze as he held my stare.

“Like what you see, Alpha Frederick ?”

My entire body twitched at the sound of my name on his tongue.

My jaw tightened, but my eyes betrayed me again, roaming over him before I could stop myself.

"Turn around," I said. My voice came out rougher than I wanted it to. "Spread your legs for me.”

He continued stroking, throwing his head back as a moan escaped his lips.

I was growing harder every second.

"Funny," he said. "I was about to tell you the same thing."

I stared at him.

"I like to fuck, Alpha, not the other way round”