THE KINGS MARK

ZEPHYR

A light yawn eased off my lips as I rolled in bed. My body felt lazy, my muscles relaxed, the rich scent of oils filling my nose. The loud buzz from the cadets' dorm was nowhere to be heard. The noises... were nonexistent.

I parted my eyes hastily, jumping to sit in bed. My eyes darted over the vast space. The room, the rich-scented flowers, the vast, tidied room—it looked nothing like the cadets' dorm.

It all rushed back, hitting me faster than a freight train. I remembered it all. The kidnapping. I had...

My hand darted down my body. I stood right off the bed. I didn't feel anything. My ass wasn't hurting as badly as I'd expected. I hadn't expected to wake up feeling this normal after everything that had happened, but the mark on my neck was another matter entirely. My teeth gritted together as I groaned, trying to understand what was going on.

Why had I not been thrown into a cell? I'd been caught. I bet my name had been flagged by now. Why the hell was I in a room, tidied and cleaned?

The door opened unceremoniously. A cold chill settled down my spine as the King strutted in. The same aura, the oppressive stance, the ego emanating off him. He was impossibly regal, a god in a human body with twice their ego.

King Baikal. The Alpha tyrant king, crowned at age seventeen, killing everyone in sight, sitting on the throne. He was just a year older than I was, and even now, with him standing over me, I knew I didn't hold a candle to his features or his beauty. Yet his mismatched eyes had always bothered me, and now they held a dark gaze. I cowered beneath them. They weren't hateful. They were beautifully terrifying.

"Oh, I see you had your rest, Omega." He spoke, his voice dropping down an octave, the room going chill.

I recalled shrinking from him. I recalled him kissing me and touching me, and then everything had gone blank. I had been scared. It was unlike me.

I remembered how close he'd been, how overwhelming his presence had felt, and the way his scent had filled my senses until I could barely think straight. I hated that I remembered those moments so clearly when I couldn't remember everything that had happened afterward. I felt heat rise through me, and suddenly, a strong wave of his pheromones gushed around me. He leaned closer, our chests almost touching.

"What is this slutty thing you are doing? There are people in this room. Are you always wandering around carrying your scent on for people to sniff, or can you simply not control yourself even as a cadet of top rank, Zephyr Varum?" he asked, making certain to let me know he'd run a background check.

His eyes dropped to my neck, and I felt panic slam into me.

I bowed my head. My hand flew instantly to my neck, and my world went still as I traced the mark. The mark that had not been there before.

King Baikal grinned, like he'd expected me to come to the realization already.

"Leave us... except for you." He ordered the maids and his guards, keeping the Physician who had wandered in, looking equally as careless.

"What... did... you... do?" I breathed out the words, my voice shaking and ringing in my own, bloody ears. My breath hitched. Fear enveloped me.

"What did I do?" King Baikal asked, tracing his fingers along my jawline. My panicked frame stood frozen in place.

"You basically begged for it. You moaned. You bit. You practically begged me to claim you. Do I have to remind you, or do I pull out the footage so you can see for yourself how you were acting in the middle of your heat?" He spat the words out, taking his sweet time to drag them out, making each word hit just as harshly as he intended.

"No... you can't... it makes no sense... you can't... you can't just mark me. You are the King. I'm... I'm a fucking cadet."

"An Omega cannot be a cadet, and I marked you, Zephyr. You are mine, get used to it. The Physician needs to deliver your new checkup. You'll be a good Omega and sit for him to do his work."

He paused, his mismatched eyes studying my face with a cold, almost mocking amusement.

"You think I marked you for nothing? The bond is permanent, Zephyr. The Physician can explain what that means if you still don't understand."

My mind was running wild. I didn't know if I should fight or scream. His words sounded too graphic and detailed. I couldn't utter a word. I felt a hot flare at the side of my neck. I couldn't tell if it was anger, embarrassment, or the confusing pull of his scent.

"Sit down." He ordered again, pressing his fingers against my chest as I staggered back onto the bed, too shocked to speak. His Physician hovered over my neck, his fingers hovering, poking here and there, his eyes burning under Baikal's scrutinizing gaze.

"Just as we thought. His secondary differentiation was unusually late. His body is still unstable, and the suppressants are being delivered in high doses to control his newly developed Omega traits," the Physician said, breaking out of his trance as his hardened gaze slammed right back into Baikal's.

"His differentiation was delayed, but the permanent marking appears to have been completed. His body is still adjusting, and we'll need to monitor his response to the bond and the effects of the suppressants he's been taking. There’s no other choice for him to make.”

I stared at him, unable to believe they were discussing my body as if I wasn't standing right there.

"I have no choice, are you fucking kidding me?" I bit down the words. I didn't care anymore.

I felt trapped, bound to a future I hadn't chosen, and staying with the tyrant king might as well be the end of me.

"The permanent bond has connected your bodies in ways we need to understand. Separation may have consequences, but I can't determine the extent without further examination. We also need to assess how your pheromones respond to the King's. That will help us understand how your body is adjusting to the bond," the Physician explained.

A wolfish grin spread on Baikal's lips.

"I told you, Zephyr. You are mine. There is no running."