Claude saw no need to keep the Beaumonts around. He could not wait to send them away for Arlen's sake. He only had to point out that the brothers had learned enough and could try the hunt some other time.
On the night before their departure, a special dinner was held in honour of the guests. Basma went all out to leave the impression that their doors would always be opened to the Beaumonts, but Rufus was ready to spit them outside the front gates.
"Where's that kid when you need him to blot out the moon? He might encourage the sun to rise early if I spook him enough," Rufus muttered to Ari while their parents made small talk with the Beaumonts.
"Careful brother, Father might hear you."
"Tch! Whatever," Rufus hushed down.
Luca returned to his room briefly after dinner. Bound to set off in a few hours, it was his last chance to make sure he left nothing important behind. The trip to Candor was a partial disaster. He did learn a lot, and the virgin lands reminded him of his childhood, where fewer boilers and smoke were polluting the skies.
It was a habit to wash down before bed. Beaumont did not earn his reputation as the clean freak for nothing. The colder the water, the better the bath. Luca had just removed his coat when something tapped at the window closer to his bed. He turned at the sound, hesitating to discover what it could be.
*BAM!*
A raven slammed its head into the window. It happened so suddenly it triggered Luca's claws to come alive, and he growled to scare it away. The bird did not stop or cry, which did not sit well with its victim. Luca walked closer to the reliable window, and his brows converged.
'It broke its neck.'
This was no ordinary ave missing its way. This one looked possessed. It had been sent and would only leave after fulfilling its mission.
In the drama, Luca spotted a shadow standing on the trimmed grass below, a dark figure heading towards the woods behind the hedges. The bird fell almost immediately. This person or thing disappeared, and his gut hinted that he was to follow it.
Luca used the stairs, a little aggressive in his strides. The bird flies above his head and rushes into the woods when he's outside. Luca picks up and runs after it.
He was met by blue-black skies and miscoloured trees, but no one was in sight. His ears tingled, overflowing with the sounds of the night. The hooting of owls and strange birds he could not identify.
He hears it clearly while staring hard at nothing, the noise of a bow stretching to its limit and the catapulting release.
Luca catches the arrow with his bare hand and sends it toward its shooter. He picks up on new rapid movements and frees his feet to use the trees effectively. This time he would not spare the person.
The chase lured him further away from the beautiful infrastructure of the castle to the grassland behind it. He ripped a thick branch off a tree and hurled it, wanting to knock the shadow floating ahead of him. The force took down a few plants but missed his target. Just when he thought he had the person cornered, he loses sight of him again.
When this thing he was after sought shelter behind rocks, Luca had no choice but to come after it on the ground. Arrows fly in more than one direction, and he is kept busy. One of the long darts grazed his arm but did no severe damage. Distracted, Luca does not notice the black feather flying towards him.
It felt like a slap on the back when it landed behind his loins. The alpha was stiffened in the spot, unable to move. Once again, he had been bested by this intruder. He heard a twig snap behind him, then a set of faint steps coming his way.
"What do you want? Who sent you!" Luca's tone denoted anger. He channelled energy into his limbs, slowly eating through the restriction spell.
He clenched his jaw, ferociously letting out his musk to show superiority. But this thing was not hindered by it; it was not affected. Luca's infuriated heart leapt in his chest when two smaller hands crawled over his ribcage, and a head rested on his back.
They were slender and soft, and he suspected they belonged to a girl. "What if I said I want to steal your soul and hide you?" That opinion conflicted when the stalker spoke further. "I thought we could be friends, but now, I dont know what to do. I guess I got carried away."
Luca forcefully turned his neck to the side, trying to catch a glimpse of the person. If only he were not taller.
"I wanted to say goodbye... May our paths never cross again, Luca Beaumont."
Luca could swear there was a whimper in that voice. The grip around his chest tightened briefly before the hand retracted, and that heavy presence began to fade.
There was no sign of a person when he regained complete control of his body. Only that the forest trees are their slow self. Save for the strange way he was lured out, Luca was not phased by this experience. Perhaps Claude was right all along.
Luca took no interest in making friends, yet he wished to have gazed upon the one that disrupted his stay at the Loughty Castle.
*
The next day.
Arlen dragged his feet back to his quarters when the sun was about to set. He stayed in the woods throughout the night to feed this despair he could not explain. By now, Luca would be long gone.
His head was down, his mind torn. He didn't care that the guards saw him walking about; it didn't feel like it mattered if he got scolded. He got startled after passing the courtyard and going up to his room. His siblings were waiting in front of his door with Julius, wearing worried and angry faces.
"Arlen! You had us worried sick," Ari said. They must have looked for him everywhere, he figured. It was a form of consolation for being left alone and not getting what he wanted. He choked on a tear when Ari embraced him with so much care.
"Where did you go, and why are you sulking?" Rufus frowned.
"Let him be, Rufus. Arlen's upset we've been away from him for days?" Ari caressed the big baby's face. "How about we take you to the main house for the night? We can go to town tomorrow and do anything you want," she added. It was her reassuring smile that made things better.
"Okay." Arlen plumped back into Ari's arms a while longer before breaking away.
A Month Later.
Damaris.
Roxanne: It was until we lifted our voices and weapons at Ceasor Braddock that the truth was revealed. On that day, a tower of blood and ash burnt red in the sunlight. The ones who perished not only rose from the grave, but they also pulled us back. The brothers who fought by our side turned against us.
And when the evildoer was out of sight, they fell like logs.
One could say they were puppets hooked to an invisible string- as if their souls were stolen from their bodies.
'What if I said I want to steal your soul?'
Luca's fingers paused over the sheet. A drop of ink lands on the paper, tainting his perfectly written letters. Why did the thought cross his mind at that very instant? He made nothing of that stalker's approach; he felt no pity, love or hate-nothing. But it was still ominous to recall.
His Aunt's narration of events put fear in the heart of the recruits. It was better they understood the complex parts of being a soldier than the prestige that comes with it.
Then there was another thing. Luca wondered if King Claude ever looked into the issue of the mysterious siren. He felt the Senior bottled things up in their short dialogue.
Brushing those thoughts aside, Luca manoeuvres around the ink stain to jot down his minutes. The heir of Damaris often assisted his Aunt during lectures when he was not on a mission with his brother. It was his duty to know everything that goes on around him and educate his future cabinet.
Most beastmen stayed clear of Luca, fearing a reproof. Judging by how the alpha marked scripts with iron hands, they lost all courage to do so in the first place.
Today Luca may receive an assignment. Leaders were gathered under the canopy of his father's war room for a big conspiracy against a common enemy. And he, like many other respected beasts of title, was required to be present.
*
Loughty Castle.
Arlen tossed and turned in bed, whimpering. He awoke in the middle of the night, feeling pressed. All efforts put into his sleep were hopeless as his body demanded attention.
For weeks his Aunt's medicine, coupled with this abnormal interest in someone he could not befriend, distressed him. The youngster had become perceptive to everything around him but hid it from everyone...including Julius.
But he didn't want to torture himself this way, thinking of another man and then sulking about it the next day. So he summons his mother instead. Perhaps a little rigorous activity or spell would take his mind off his frustration.
"Let's practise something...anything," Arlen said as he got a change of clothes. Pandora monitored his actions through her sixth sense, halting him when she identified the irregularities in his breathing patterns.
"I'm fine, Mother; I only want to practice with you," the youngster chips in when his mother examines the tremble in his voice and sends her hands to vital points on his chest.
"Auch!" Arlen bends when the ghost slips her fingers into his abdomen without warning.
Pandora recoils, tilting her head with concern. Dragging her boy back to where she was sure to find the bed, she sat him down and hovered around for a sheet and a pen.
"Mother, it's a little to your left," Arlen said.
When his mother wrote down a list of herbs titled 'Suppressants for flowers,' Arlen gaped. That word was used for omegas because they had sweet smells- usually likened to flowers and sugar foods.
"You can tell?"
'You're a late bloomer; I felt it. Your womb has developed.' Pandora wrote.
"What's going to happen to me?" Arlen already had a hunch.
'You'll have to be more careful outside. Have you experienced your first heat? It's the unbearable need to get mated.'
"No, but I do feel restless, and I can't breathe so well," Arlen replied, his heart slowing down painfully.
'Then it's near. You have to let your Uncle know of this. He and your father will have to find you a suitable mate.'
"What?" Arlen had been avoiding this part.
'Arlen, do not be afraid. A flower is a beautiful gift; I'm happy to have made one. But the life of a flower can be difficult without an alpha. So...'
Arlen placed a hand on the ghostly wrist, shaking his head with tightened features. "I don't need an alpha," he intoned. Pandora is stopped again when she tries to conjure a reply. "I will not submit to anyone," he was serious.
Pandora drops the pen and cups Arlen's face. The gentle sway of her head made him freak out. His mother would not understand; she was an alpha in her time and didn't have to bow to anyone.
An alpha could choose whom to be with, but that right was often taken away from omegas.
That truth dawned on Arlen long before now, and he was scared. Scared of being paired with an alpha who was not called 'the Widower of Beaumont Castle'.