5- The Power Struggle

Kaelen

The moment the wooden door was broken down, Vance's sword moved faster than lightning, stopping just an inch away from the council member's throat. The guards standing behind them looked petrified. The air surrounding us shifted. 

Oh, the beauty of the Alpha power. 

"How dare you break the door of my room while I was taking my mate?" Vance growled; his eyes glowed with a beautiful, lethal shade of molten gold. 

The royal council standing at our doorstep gulped, looking at the raging wolf before bowing their heads in submission. 

'Oh, how beautiful it would be to have Vance submit to me when everyone submits to him, Kaelen.' My wolf purred inside me, making me close my eyes. Shutting him and his perverted thoughts out, I focused my attention on the commotion in front of me.

"Apologies, My Lord." One of them stammered out, looking down, partly from respect and fear, and partly because Vance was standing stark naked in front of them. "But the King has ordered an immediate inspection under royal decree." 

"Was it so urgent that it couldn't have waited until I had mated with him!?" The roar that erupted from his chest as he growled those words out made me close my eyes for a second. 

The Alpha power surrounding him amplified with his anger. 

"My— my Lord," another guard started, but Vance held out his hand, silencing the guard as he lowered his sword before looking at me. 

For a second, something very feral flashed inside his eyes. Almost bestial. I expected him to rat me out. I was expecting him to hand me over to the royals and ask them to execute me, for I was a cursed wolf. But surprisingly, a brutish smile spread on his face, sending chills down my spine. 

"Wait for me in the hall. And if you dare disturb me again while I fuck my little toy, I'd make sure to check the sharpness of my blade on your throats." 

The wolf inside me snarled, breaking the barrier I created to block him out. The residue of Vance's power inside me was making him strong but also uncontrollable. 

'Unleash me, Kaelen, let me show him who's the little toy among us.' My wolf snapped, and I closed my eyes to calm him down. 

Being an Eclipse blood and the very last descendant, my wolf was uncontrollable. After being dormant and powerless for years, even the slightest power inside my veins made him feral. 

The royal council and guards immediately scurried away after bowing one last time. The moment they left, I dropped the blanket from my body and the burning silver returned to my eyes. 

"Do you wish me to remind you how your little toy just drained you not even minutes ago, My Lord?" My voice came out dark and cold. I could see the smile on my face getting under his skin. 

"Who are you?" He asked me, and I got up from the bed, matching his nakedness. His eyes narrowed as he realized all the scars on my body vanished after I drained him. 

"I am someone you should fear, My Lord. But right now, we don't have time for introductions. The royal mages outside are waiting to inspect me." I said, and the exhaustion returned to his face as he sat down on the edge of his bed. 

No matter how hard he tried to hide it, I could see past his charade. He was drained. Exhausted. Without the Alpha power coursing in him, he was no more than a regular wolf. 

"They have a royal compass with them. If you have any magic or royal blood inside you, it will be detected instantly, and you'd be executed before the day ends." The sadistic smile on his face made me clench my jaw as he looked at me, realizing how he had the upper hand here. 

"Wipe that smile off your face, Vance!" I growled, the wolf inside me surfacing. But the power I had stolen from him was now diminishing. And Vance was realizing it. He could smell the power draining out of me as well. 

"There's only one way to mask the magic or royal scent from the compass." He whispered, his eyes dropping to my lips, and a possessive hunger flamed in his eyes despite his exhaustion.

The smirk on his face told me I'd not like what he was about to tell me. 

"And what might that be, My Lord?" His smile widened at my question. 

"You need a fresh, wet mark of an Alpha on your body, little wolf. You need to submit to me and accept my mark if you wish to survive the inspection." He said, and my eyes narrowed at his audacity of mocking and disrespecting me. 

Dropping my act completely, I closed the distance between us and grabbed him by his jaw. Vance's eyebrows arched up in dark amusement as I tried exerting my dominance over him. The look in his eyes enraged my wolf even more. 

"I won't submit to a pup like you, Vance. You might be powerful now, but I am not your fucking toy." I snarled at his face. The molten lava inside his eyes flared at my words, but surprisingly, the smile on his face only widened. 

"I'll always be powerful, runt. You, however, need to feed on others' power to experience it. I am born to be an Alpha. The power you stole from me will regenerate again. On its own. But your reservoir of power is emptying now. Tell me if I am wrong, runt." 

His words clawed at my chest, piercing my heart like a sharp dagger. The more he spoke, the deeper the dagger pierced my heart. He was correct. I fed on others' energy. Without feeding on their energy, I was as good as the other wolfless runts outside. 

When Vance was born to be an Alpha, I was born to be an Alpha eater. I consumed their energy. I fed on them like parasites until I brimmed with their power, and they were left hollow and void. 

"Submission is not your nature, mutt. But now it's your survival. If that wolf inside you refuses to bow down to its Alpha, teach him to get on his knees for me. Because without me you won't survive even a minute outside." 

When I didn't answer him back, his fangs elongated in dark satisfaction. Grabbing my jaw in his tight grip, he made me look into his eyes. The silver in my eyes had reduced to the dullest shade of brown. 

"Get on the bed, little runt. And accept your Alpha and his mark respectfully."