Warning: More female Alpha shenanigans.
Her marriage ceremony was coming up in a day and she hadn't seen any of her omega concubines to-be since the assassin's attack.
With her marriage comes a new title, new land, and expanded power that she could use to protect them. But as an unmarried princess, it was too dangerous. In truth, she should've been married as easily as Lawali was but the Empress Consort said that the Orakpo clan was too greedy, thus his omega father lost his clan name and was renamed for the sake of Jata Niara's future marriage.
And even then, it took three years for her to be allowed to marry for tomorrow. The assassination was a full month ago with little to no progress. Any of the typical poisonings and threats were unrelated.
For now, things would continue as it should.
Khaemwaset had married the previous week and offered gifts, food, and festivities as if to purposefully overshadow Jata Niara's wedding. If her future husband wasn't the younger brother of her spouse, she could've said something. As it was, there was nothing she could do but force a smile as that side of the family continued to push her down.
The one good thing that came out of this is her Imperial Mother's response to the near assassination was to invest in professional builders, those experienced in more nuanced work like city planning, to help finish her small palace. With their speed and laborers, it would take only a year instead of the five to eight years, she expected.
Jata Niara refused any new guards and informed her Empress Mother that she could handle herself. The truth was that she couldn't trust that the Empress Consort wouldn't use this as an excuse to send her own assassination attempt.
A hawk cawed in the sky before landing on her window with a letter tied to its leg. The day had just begun and here was an emergency message. She unraveled the missive and found Nwaijaku's handwriting:
I received a message from someone who uses the symbol of a red-inked face and horns. He said he knows who sent the assassin and that, with an appointed meeting, he'll offer any information he can. He states that the one who sent the assassin is his enemy, too. His bird is still in my aviary.
Well, a bit more than convenient but she needed a reason to get out of the imperial palace. Her eyes fell on the ceremonial clothing sewn for her wedding. It was stitched of pure cottonsilk and a new style of dyeing, as her omega mother gushed about, called bogolanfini. The dye had to be prepared an entire year in advance with slurried clay. These royal blues and greens were dyed using this style and the cottonsilk was the first try at doing so with a new fabric.
Her wedding would be the first time it was seen outside of the people who practiced it Just as she peered around the corner she heard a servant whispering under his breath, "I can't believe it. An outside concubine? Does he know who he married?"
"The Prince will make his life hell."
"As long as they have a child between them, their child is legitimate, does it matter?"
"True, it's really up to the gods now."
By their tone, they couldn't be talking about Khaemwaset, could they? She peered down from her balcony on their side of the palace and saw the fragile confidence of her brother. His boastful confidence a few days ago now a paled echo with Meketaten whispering to him so low and covered she couldn't guess what they were saying.
The proper action now was to meet Nwaijaku at her aviary.
Nwaijaku Nwokorie was an old friend of Jata Niara's since they were toddlers. It was an unusual friendship made out of the divisions between Ta'ui and Imperial Noble Consort Aino. Ta'ui Malahi wasn't a man of the black market or in the truly dirty work of the empire, but the man was no stranger to bribery and illegal acts. He was a postured gentleman who would sooner bite his tongue and bleed to death than lose his status. The man remarried long after Aino joined the imperial family and had a young alpha daughter with his new wife, Danaia Nwokorie. This Danaia Nwokorie already had been married, as well, with her own alpha daughter before giving birth to another.
Imperial Noble Consort Aino broke ties with Ta'ui when Danaia's former wife died of mysterious causes. No one ever could proof it was poison but it didn't matter. The innocent and naive Imperial Noble Consort would always bare the mark of a father who would murder to get his way.
Although Nwaijaku lived on the Malahi grounds, her friend was raised in separate housing with separate teachers and learned different skills than her alpha half-sister, Omani Malahi, has or ever will.
The aviary, a hitched tower to the Nwokorie housing, had a winding staircase with openings around its shape. Birds flew in and around perching on the extended catches on the uppermost floor of the tower.
"Can you tell what kind of bird it is?" she asked Nwaijaku as they walked up the twisted stairs. "Even where it's ordinarily seen."
"It's from our empire but the bird itself is from the no man's land between our empires. Even if I knew it wouldn't matter, it could be anyone," Nwaijaku said thoughtfully. "I did notice, though, that the red ink had a smell to it like--a funeral or a temple."
"You think it's the Sarakhs? The scribe's brother works as a priest now," she pointed out. "But who would our common enemy be?"
"The only one I could imagine is Akira Lin."
"I've never said Akira is my enemy," Jata Niara clarified as they both looked down and could see roaming servants below. "Too many eyes and ears connected to someone or something Akira Lin desires. There's no point in making him my enemy.
From below the winding stairs, they heard the door swing open and the quick footsteps of someone rushing up.
"Are you expecting someone?" she asked.
The other alpha frowned and then shook her head. "I'm not too worried though. No one could get past the guards without their or our notice.. We would've seen them."
A familiar bushy-headed servant, Myron Thorpe, reached out, breathing heavily, while clutching his pregnant belly. His new royal servant robes covered most of his form but as soon as he caught his breath, he said, "I have bad news. Ari Saavedra has gotten wind that his brother is alive."
"What?" Jata Niara snapped around. "Why are you rushing then?"
"Srinivas wishes to see you now. Immediately."
Although the building above ground wasn't complete, over the last few days the concubine's living spaces had been scrubbed, remodeled, and two rooms with one more in the middle of decorating. Sparkling colored glass lanterns jutted out from the walls, with the initial corridor where the concubine's residences would be, and the last corridor with the two final large rooms was the shared living space.
And the spaces for children born of their union.
Her fingers dragged against the soft fabrics, carpeting, and cushions of Srinivas' living space with mosaic colors closer to the preferences of the borders with gold and red. When Srinivas appeared from his initial bedchamber and into his living space, he wore a thin orchid-colored midriff with his lower body absent of any cover. His bare wide bare hips called her fingertips to grab them and her thumbs rubbed over the skin as Srinivas slotted into her arms like a missing piece.
He tucked his head against her collar and sighed. "My brother knows I'm here."
"I know."
"He wouldn't let me marry you if he knows," Srinivas said as round eyes peered up at her and his pouty bottom lip stuck out. "I should have a reason why he can't say no, don't you agree?"
His slender figure, even with his curved hips, could be held with both hands in a generous cupping.
"You should be certain of my attentions as--"
"--I know," Srinivas sighed and then his fingers trailed up her side to her collar with his other hand dragging her thumb into his ass, pushing through with pressing ease. "That's why you should take me. I thought about you bruising my hips until my knees got red. How thick and veiny your cock might be. I wanted advice on how you would like me on my knees, my back, but I couldn't find a single rumor of your adventures."
Jata Niara didn't have any.
"I read books," she breathed out as her finger sucked in with her thumb but winced as she felt her cock fall out her sheath with a heavy thwack against her thigh. "I don't usually check my--my--cock for--".
Srinivas' hand reached under her waist covering and stroked her rising cock with both hands, groaning as Jata Niara's gentle pressure turned into twisting and thrusts. She felt her weeping cock as it slicked with his tight pulling until he grabbed her wrist and turned around, flipping her waist covering his hip as he leaned forward, waiting for her to move.
The silence was unbearable as she pondered whether this was the right choice, the best decision in a heightened situation. Politically, this was a bad idea. This was coercion. Personally, this was what she wanted.
Her hands thumbed his hip as her cock prodded his heat and then, much like her fingers, sucked into him massaging her cock as she filled him full. When her sack met his ass, she dragged her cock out and then bucked in again. The walls of his heat stretching around her cock until he wiggled his hips as his heat sucked her in and out. Her hand squeezed his asscheek as she yanked him on and off her cock. She felt the stinging buzz of pleasure pull her into a haze.
He moaned, "Harder! Please!" and felt her hips shift on the order as she punched in, the time between thrusts quickened as her hips crashed into his again and again. His body shaking in the air as the only thing holding him up was her cock and her hand bruising his ass. Her release ripped through her like a snake's bite.
And now, without the haze of a heavy sack, she could smell the gentle scent of incense and wrapped a hand around Srinivas' neck with her thumb at his jugular, yanking him up, lined against her chest. She hissed into his neck, "How would he have been able to find you, all of a sudden, the night before my wedding?"
With all the celebrations of Khaemwaset and then her wedding, the city was wrapped in the news of the dynasty and its flourishing heirs. Secondary would've been the increase of Carolingian visitors as peace negotiations reoriented with a new heir in mind to take the throne from their present despotic leader.
In what world would this hidden information slip out and be heard?
Unless it was done on purpose.
Much like the gentle scent of the aphrodisiac in the air.
Srinivas whimpered as her hand tightened but she could feel her cock thicken as well. She bent him forward with his knees hitting the carpet and shoved her cock in and out of his heat as she could hear the scritch of his knees of the cotton. Her hands loosened around his neck but shoved his face down as she pressed on his back and rammed her cock into his heat until she felt her sack tighten.
And started again thrusting into his body like an empty container. By the fourth time her release wrangled out her, she could see Srinivas' face redden as he cried out, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" her release yanked out of her as his wails got louder. She dragged her softening cock out of his reddened and bruised ass and pulled him into her lap as he cried.
There was no comfort to be offered but she grabbed a cup of water and wiped his tears away until his cries weakened into sniffles. Her fingers grazed his body but found no bleeding wounds. The reddened bruises were bright against his skin and Srinivas had the bravery to nuzzle against her neck.
With a sigh, she thumbed his cheek and said, "I don't appreciate being used. And I imagine, neither do you?"
He nodded quickly.
"Good."
She took one of his silk blankets, softer than water on the riverbank, and noted his wincing, and wrapped him in the blanket before pulling him up into her arms. Her shoulders knocked his small bathing room door open and the small rounded tub sat next to one of the makeshift spouts. Oils and fragrances sat on the wall as the tub filled with water, and she loosened the blanket, sliding him into the oil-filled bath with omega moaning as his body sank under the cool water in relief. Her eyes slid over his guilty form and sighed.
It seemed as though an Orakpo was always an Orakpo.
Even if they tried not to be.
Enzo was furious.
He tightened the clasp on his cloak as he swept up the Portyard Dock bar stairs and rapped on the door at the end of the hall.
No one answered.
His eyes fell over the empty bar as it was still early and the only people still here were drunks who fell asleep. He rapped on the door again and heard his idiot nephew's voice mumble through the walls. As the door mechanisms clicked and the door finally opened, he shoved through the door, slamming it shut behind him as he grabbed his nephew's shirt by the collar.
"Do you realize," Enzo growled, "how easily you could've been chopped up, beheaded, beaten, and sold last night?"
His nephew's blearily expression told him nothing had happened last night but a good sleep. The thought of it almost infuriated him more.
"Your father just became Commander, and you thought what was best for the family was to run off? In the middle of a civil war?"
Micah yawned and then rubbed his eyes. "What civil war?"
The man dropped his nephew and said, "We will be leaving. Now. Pack your things."
"No."
"No?" Enzo said incredulously. "You follow my orders now or--"
"Or you'll order me around because I'm an omega and I should know what's best for me," Micah scoffed before turning to his bed and throwing his stuff around. "The worst part about all of you is your bullshit."
"Language!"
"What value is a male omega in our empire?" Micah retorted. "I've been of age for five years and no one,not one has offered an engagement. I've been here only a week and met female alphas for the first time since Sarai. And not once, not once, have they looked at me with pity, like you're doing to me now!"
His nephew knocked his stuff on the ground and huffed.
The words of the omega were not untrue. His nephew was one of the few male omegas in the empire, where they were more than rare but nearly unheard of. A noble male omega was even more rare. The few that were found tended to be from lower classes and sold into sex work, like relieving servants. Female alphas were slightly more common, but their privilege was a boon. Male omegas to the Carolingian Empire were a waste.
These issues he had only started to ponder were things his nephew had struggled with alone.
"Micah," Enzo started as sudden pressure squeezed against his temper. He pressed his hand against his forehead as wooziness took over. He would take some herbs once he arrived back in camp but his nephew was not helping. "We will discuss these things when you're in a safer place and out of the range of any aggressor."
Micah snorted. "I don't believe you. I bet you'll put me away in prison like the Prince. For my own good."
Enzo hissed, "You ungrateful--" nausea overwhelmed him as he turned over towards the wall and coughed up vomit.
"Uncle!" Micah called out as he rushed over but Enzo smacked his hand from his back. "Do you need water?"
He panted against the wall as his nephew poured a cup of water and handed it over. The omega wrinkled his nose as he said, "I guess I'll have to find somewhere else anyway."
"Just hurry," Enzo said before chugging the water down and pressing the nausea back. "I'll be waiting outside."
He slid out the door and leaned against the wall beside the room, listening to the rustling, shuffling of his nephew. For the last few weeks, all he had been doing was organizing missives, straightening out his information network and bribes, and keeping track of the little rumors he heard here and there.
The most recent one involved the second Saavedra omega. Ari Saavedra had already knocked on their door, harassing them about failures of duty and such and such. The brown-skinned man was short in height but well into his pregnancy. His alpha clucked over him as the omega swung his pregnant belly around, just about ready to give birth, while shouting expletives at every one he saw. A written notice had to be made, and his brother, per usual of nobility, promoted him to general to finish the stacks of paperwork that came through from the city. Most of the paperwork involved complaints about the sudden increase in foreigners, unfair taxes between the different citizens, and now, Ari Saavedra's. He never knew the generals had so much work to do, but it was satisfying to see his work show the actual fruits of his labor.
Not that he would be a general for long.
The entrance doors of the bar opened with a squeal and a figure he had only read about but somehow fit all the varied, obtuse descriptions, appeared. A man with an evil grin and an air of storming oceans and sunless days strode in with another familiar figure wearing painted designs all over his skin but carrying the face of a Carolingian.
It was Captain Orellano's son, Titus.
A rogue like his father but rebellious and full of lawful greed. So, what was his connection to Akira Lin to be at his side like anally?
The two slunk over to one of the tables farthest from the bar and any of the windows and right underneath where he stood. With little to no creaking, Enzo pressed his ear against the floor.
"They said they'll meet us here," Titus laughed. "I didn't think they'd reply."
"You underestimate the curiosity of a predator," Akira's clipped but slinky voice was precise and as cutthroat as Enzo imagined the owner to be. "If you or I were hunting, do we follow the footprints or follow the howls?"
"She destroyed a quarter of our trafficking routes overnight," Titus huffed. "She's a nuisance is what she is. The Crown Princess wouldn't dabble around in our business. She knows how to use us properly, like a decent leader should."
Enzo didn't need to question who she was, although he was fairly certain, when Nwaijaku walked in through the entrance and tilted a nod at their general direction. He peered through Micah's room to see if he was done packing and make him wait when he found the room entirely empty. He swept in searching for evidence of anything for where he might've gone, except through the window where a sloping but steady piece of wood leading to the docks.
His eyes veered on the figures leaving the entrance and then to the direction where his nephew disappeared before he cursed when he found a thick piece of cottonsilk dyed in the colors only a royal would be allowed to wear left behind. Waiting until he could see them slinking off out of the bar, Enzo strode down the stairs and out the door with only a passing wave at Julian.
The Ferhat-Brocks were good at keeping business to themselves but he pretended to round around the other side of the bar, anyhow. He might be able to catch sight of his nephew and solve two problems with one solution. Those three figures slunk off to a boat with a traveling hut. He snuck closer to the boat where the dock posts could shroud and give him cover to see if he could hear more.
Nwaijaku said, with crossed arms and her swords sheathed at her side, "She's here. If you wish to speak with her, enter the hut and I will stand guard."
"Right, I'll stand guard with you," Titus replied and gestured to the long but thin sheathed blade at his side. "Who knows what kind of people you've befriended."
The two spoke as if they had crossed paths already and not in a positive way. Nwaijaku hissed, "Our ties are not dishonorable to our family."
"What is family but those that you choose," Titus said and then crossed his arms. "Standing guard in quiet will do us justice, wouldn't it?"
Nwaijaku said nothing looked forward.
It was in that brief second that Enzo noticed the movement of a covered figure on the very boat that was pushing from dock.
Familiar strands of black hair poked out of the cargo and his nephew's head poked out before hiding back into place as if he had never been there.
He paced back and forth on the dock as the boat pushed further away from dock but even in the distance she could see that the boat wouldn't leave the dock entirely. But he felt sick to his stomach again and leaned over when careful hand patted at his back. A hand that he knew all too well.
"If you weren't feeling too well--" and the Prince offered a handkerchief. "You could've stayed home and sent me."
Enzo snatched the handkerchief and dabbed his mouth, spitting into the cloth before tossing it back. There was no change in the Prince's expression as he caught it or when Enzo twisted around but his hand caught his shoulder, preventing his exit.
"What do you want?"
"I heard your nephew was missing."
"Trying to butter up my brother before letting him know isn't going to save you."
The Prince gave a withering looking. He said, "I know that but Marina has been so kind to me over the last few days."
"Has Captain Orellano been acting strange lately?" Enzo said and noted the Prince's bewildered look. "It's important."
"Anything you say is important," the Prince replied with a smile and massaged his shoulders until Enzo was tricked into a hug full of unbearable warmth. "I think your nephew has the natural ingenuity of your family. We'll find him safe and sound."
Enzo was too tired to correct him and merely said, "I need to tell my brother that his son is refusing to return."
"Ah, so you did find him," the Prince said with a forced smile. "If I may, I may know something that one of my guards saw about last night and a random omega."
"Jata Niara was seen with him," Enzo said, fairly confident that his worries were founded.
The Prince laughed. "Yes, how did you know?"
Enzo walked on, not speaking a word, while the Prince followed close behind.