☆*:.｡. o ☆ o .｡.:*☆
The South was too humid, too bright, and far too loud for someone whose heart was currently breaking. In the High Tower of the Southern Palace, Lorcan sat by the narrow window, his fingers tracing the cold stone of the windowsill.
It had been days since he was locked away for his stupid escape attempt, and his only connection to the outside world was the phantom pulse he felt in his chest whenever Aiden's name crossed his mind.
A sharp click of a key in the lock startled him. His mother's personal maid entered, but she didn't bring a tray of food. She brought a thick, cream colored envelope.
"Her Majesty thought you should see these," the maid said, her voice devoid of pity. "To help you move on from your delusions."
Lorcan opened the envelope with trembling hands. He expected more taunts or perhaps a forged letter. He didn't expect photographs.
The first one hit him like a physical punch to the stomach. It was grainy, taken from a distance, but the silhouettes were unmistakable. It was Aiden. He was taller, broader, and he was gripping the wrist of another boy—a boy with messy hair and a flushed, submissive face. In the photo, Aiden looked dominant, his posture leaning into the other boy's space with a terrifying level of intensity.
The second photo was worse. It showed the boy, Asher, looking up at Aiden with eyes that weren't angry—they were wide, shimmering, and vulnerable.
"No," Lorcan whispered, his voice cracking. "No, he wouldn't. He told me... he promised..."
He stared at the way Aiden's hand was wrapped around Asher. It looked possessive. It looked like a claim.
Lorcan felt a wave of nausea. He wanted to scream that it was a lie, that the camera was playing tricks, but the biological reality of Alphas was well-known. If Aiden had triggered a change in another boy, the bond would be near-impossible to break.
Lorcan dropped the photos onto the floor, curling into a ball on his bed. He couldn't bring himself to believe it, yet the evidence was right there in black and white. While Lorcan was being locked in a tower for Aiden, Aiden was busy re-coding the Alphas of the North.
Back in the North, the tension between Aiden and Asher hadn't softened at all. If anything, it had become more jagged.
In class, they sat on opposite sides of the room, ignoring each other with a level of dedication that made the instructors nervous. But the moment they were out of the classroom, the friction returned.
Aiden was starting to realize that he had a strange power over Asher, and being a twelve-year-old boy with a newly awakened Alpha ego, he wasn't always noble about it.
Whenever he saw Asher's Omega side start to surface—whenever Asher's scent turned sweet or his breathing got shallow—Aiden would intentionally use his presence to overpower him. He would walk too close, talk too loud, or manhandle him into a corner just to see Asher's eyes go wide with that involuntary submission.
One afternoon, the Academy sent the junior cadets into the local village to gather supplies and fresh fruit as part of a community service drill. Aiden and Asher were paired up, much to everyone's annoyance .
The village market was crowded and loud. Without even thinking about it, Aiden reached back and grabbed Asher's hand, lacing their fingers together in a tight grip.
"What the hell are you doing?" Asher hissed, trying to yank his hand away.
"It's crowded," Aiden said, his voice flat and distracted as he looked at a crate of apples. "I don't want you getting lost or trampled. I do this with Celine and the twins all the time. Just stay close."
Asher's face turned a violent shade of red. "I am not your sister! I'm not a kid, you arrogant prick! Let go!"
Asher managed to pull his hand away, his heart thumping painfully against his ribs. He hated how warm Aiden's hand had been. He hated how safe it made him feel for a split second before his pride kicked back in.
He spent the rest of the trip cursing Aiden under his breath, calling him every name in the book.
On the walk back to the Academy, the sun began to set, casting long, orange shadows across the dirt path. Asher, feeling humiliated by the hand-holding incident, started poking at Aiden again.
"You really think you're something, don't you?" Asher sneered, walking a few paces behind. "The great Prince Aiden, protector of the weak. You're just a bully with a lucky bloodline.
Without your daddy's name, you'd be nothing."
Aiden stopped walking. He didn't turn around at first.
"Keep talking, Asher," Aiden said, his voice dropping into that low, vibrating register that always made the air feel heavy.
"Oh, am I scaring the little Prince?" Asher provoked, stepping closer, his heart racing with a mix of fear and adrenaline. "What are you going to do? Cry again? Pray to go to heaven because your pants got tight?"
Aiden spun around. In an instant, his pheromones exploded—not in a messy heat wave, but in a sharp, concentrated pin of pure dominance.
"Listen to me carefully," Aiden said, his voice sounding completely different—deeper, colder, and filled with the authority of an enigma. "I am tired of your mouth. You know exactly what's happening to your body. You know your glands are shifting because of me."
He stepped into Asher's personal space, forcing the older boy to back up against a tree.
"With a single pin from me," Aiden whispered, his eyes glowing with a predatory light, "I could make you as submissive as an Omega in heat right here on this dirt road. Don't test me, Asher. You're fighting a war you've already lost."
The words hit Asher like a physical blow. The 'tough guy act' crumbled instantly. His knees buckled slightly, and he had to grip the tree bark to stay upright. The realization that Aiden knew exactly how much power he held over him was terrifying.
Asher couldn't even find a comeback. He just stood there, shaking, as Aiden turned his back and continued walking toward the Academy without another word.
Aiden felt a surge of triumph, but beneath it, he felt a strange, hollow ache. He had just crushed a rival, but he felt further away from home than ever. He didn't know that miles away, Lorcan was looking at a photo of him doing the exact same thing, and for the first time in two years, Lorcan was starting to wonder if the Aiden he loved even existed anymore.
'Damn I mess up ugh!' Aiden thought. Tho with a neutral face.