Chapter Text
Chapter One
Seven Hells, how are you so beautiful and so annoying at the same fucking time?
Aerion was beautiful. Shirtless and pale, his skin softer than silk. Slender muscles cut like diamonds, creating delicious valleys along his chest and belly. And that hair. Stunning silver, it near glowed in the moonbeams shining through the inn’s windows.
So beautiful Dunk could scarcely believe he was real.
Though not as beautiful as he would be if he stopped his fucking whingeing.
“I’ll be bitten by fleas!” Aerion’s lip curled in disgust as he kicked the bedframe.
Dunk bit back his sigh, rolling his eyes only because he knew his omega couldn’t see. “You didn’t want to make camp because you were worried about fleas,” he reminded him.
“I wouldn’t have minded a proper camp,” the omega half-snarled, a warning that made Dunk stiffen. “But a pair of tents pitched in a field is worse even than this hovel.”
Dunk kept his mouth shut, having long since learned not to poke that particular bear. Four months past Ashford Meadow, and Aerion had only just stopped griping about not having a proper royal procession for their travels, despite the presence of two princes.
Reminding Aerion, yet again, that traveling with a passel of servants was impossible would only make his omega start spitting fire.
Aerion scanned the room, his scent growing sharper with anger by the second.
“Omega,” Dunk chided, a touch of exasperation seeping in despite his best efforts to hide it. A misstep, but fortunately, Aerion was too annoyed to catch it.
Annoyed about what, Dunk couldn’t tell. To him, the inn was near enough a palace. Glass in the windows. The floor planks freshly swept. A well-maintained roof that kept out wind and rain. A washbasin filled with fresh water. Best of all, a bed large enough for him and his omega to share, even with his size.
“Other people have slept in this bed,” Aerion declared, kicking the frame again.
It’s an inn!
Dunk clenched his teeth, not interrupting as Aerion continued ranting.
“Gods only know when the sheets were washed. I don’t smell any soap.” He recoiled, as if he expected the sheets to leap off the mattress and strangle him. “For all I know, some filthy, lice-infested peasant slept here just last night.”
A peasant could never afford to pay a stag per night to sleep here. Their group had paid two; Egg needed his own room.
Dunk rolled his eyes again, but a deeper instinct tugged at him. Alpha instincts scolding him for his annoyance. His omega was distressed and unhappy; it was his duty to soothe him. He wanted to soothe him.
The thought brought the tiniest of smiles to his lips. For there was nothing in the Seven Heavens half as beautiful as Aerion when he was soothed.
And so he stepped forward, gently wrapping a loving arm around Aerion’s bare waist. His omega stiffened, but didn’t shake him off. A good sign.
Dunk grabbed a handful of the blanket covering the bed, bringing it up to his nose.
“It was washed, omega,” he assured him. “You don’t recognize the scent because you don’t use lye soap.”
For the past four months, neither had Dunk. Wroth though Maekar was with Aerion, the princeling’s pockets always rattled heavily with gold. One luxury the omega insisted he could not live without was his imported soap. Imbued with scented oil, the Pentoshi crafted each bar for the individual bather. Aerion’s was a near perfect match for his natural scent of lavender and fresh spring grass, a scent that already felt like home.
To please his omega, Dunk allowed Aerion to buy him the fancy soap as well, impressed by how well it mimicked his alpha scent.
Granted, he thought it was a bit excessive that Aerion demanded he bathe daily. But his omega would not even entertain the thought of fucking him otherwise.
“You’re certain it’s clean?” Aerion asked.
Leaning down, Dunk kissed Aerion’s scent glands, inhaling deeply. His skin was still damp from the washbasin, freshly scrubbed with a hint of pink. The touch made Aerion shiver, and Dunk grinned against his neck.
Will you let me have you tonight? It’s been days…
“I’ve not lied to you yet, omega.”
Aerion twisted just enough to arch an eyebrow at him. “Should I take that to mean you plan to lie to me in the near future?”
Dunk sighed, kissing his neck again. “Must you pick apart every word I say?”
“Choose your words more carefully, and I shan’t.”
All the same, he saw the ghost of a smile that tugged at Aerion’s lips. Better still, Aerion elbowed him off and jerked his head towards the basin.
“Wash,” the omega commanded.
Victory!
Granted, it was an alpha who was meant to give an omega orders, not the other way around. And he had washed just that morning. All the same, he rushed to the basin with a smile, yanking off his clothes and grabbing his bar of soap.
He made quick work of it, scrubbing his skin and hair while he watched his omega finish undressing. Discarded pants and socks joined his shirt on the floor, leaving Aerion nude in the dim candlelight of his room.
Gods be good…Dunk’s hand slipped on the washbasin, nearly sending him tumbling to the floor.
“How is it possible for anyone to be so beautiful…” he mumbled, then blushed, realizing he’d said it aloud.
A happy accident. Aerion rolled his eyes, feigning annoyance. But his omega was a vain creature. Aerion slowly stretched each lithe muscle before sliding beneath the sheets, not bothering to reach for his nightclothes (another new luxury Dunk was unaccustomed to).
As if hearing his thoughts, Aerion sniffed. “Only because I’ve allowed the washerwoman to launder most of our things. You have tailored clothes now, not roughspun rags. Best learn to care for them properly.”
The innkeeper was not a washerwoman, but she’d been thrilled when Aerion offered her extra silver for the task.
I know you have at least one clean nightshirt still in your bags. But if it soothed Aerion’s pride to be dismissive, Dunk would say nothing.
Though it was much harder to say nothing when he slipped into bed next to his omega, and Aerion groused petulantly, shifting grumpily against the mattress.
“Hardly a featherbed.” He scrunched his nose. “I told you we ought have stayed at Brightwater.”
This again? Dunk didn’t want to remind Aerion that their travels would not always allow them to stay in castles. He wanted to bury his nose in Aerion’s neck. To kiss his beautiful skin. To hear the breathy cries Aerion would reward him with if Dunk pleased him just right. A sound that brought him far more pleasure than any climax.
Sometimes, if he was truly lucky, Aerion would even snuggle into his arms afterwards, half purring, half growling (his token indignation) while he drifted off to sleep.
But when he tried to pull him close, his omega twitched away, and Dunk knew he would not have what he wanted until Aerion was appeased.
“We'll be at Oldtown in two days’ time,” Dunk promised him. “Lord Hightower will be honored to receive the most beautiful prince in all the realm.”
Aerion grumbled, but this time, when Dunk reached for him, he didn’t struggle. Nor did he complain when Dunk tentatively climbed on top of him, careful to brace his weight on his knees and elbows so he would not crush his omega into the unworthy mattress.
It was even Aerion who initiated the first kiss, smashing their lips together fiercely.
“Fine then,” the omega relented, nipping his lip. “Distract me. If you do it right, mayhaps I’ll forget we’re not in a castle.”
Whinge or no, it was all the permission Dunk needed.
Far too long, Dunk rumbled. Kissing Aerion’s neck again, his teeth grazed over the bitemark he’d left a week prior. I’ve not had you in days.
His cock ached as he sucked on his omega’s neck, darkening his mark with a hickey that made Aerion moan deliciously. The urge to claim, to fuck, seized him, and he scarcely allowed himself a moment to rove his large hands over Aerion’s slender body.
Tiny, he thought, one hand easily engulfing Aerion’s hip, squeezing as hard as he dared. Tiny, but far from delicate. Aerion dug his nails into Dunk’s arm like a feral cat, arching up and wordlessly demanding more. His omega’s slim cock brushed against his, and Dunk could not hold back his gasp.
Now. Dunk growled, low and dark. Gripping one of Aerion’s thighs, he spread his omega’s legs apart, lined his cock up with his entrance, and shoved inside. But just as the tight heat of Aerion’s ass gripped him, his passage wet with slick, just as he gasped, pleasure flooding his veins…
“No,” Aerion half-snarled, glowering up at him.
No? Dunk stiffened, alpha instincts screaming at him to pull out.
He said no! I’m hurting him! I…
“How many times do I have to teach you how I like to be fucked?” Aerion scoffed. “Oaf! Use your mouth first!”
Dunk bit his lip, swallowing a snarl of his own.
“Ugh, might as well keep at it now,” the omega sighed, wriggling his hips. “Don’t knot me too quickly.”
Fisting the sheets beneath them, Dunk said nothing, thrusting into Aerion again. The tight, wet heat sent pleasure coursing through him once more, and soon, the aggravation was forgotten. Dunk gripped him tightly, fucking into him hard while his omega puffed out soft grunts. Aerion’s cock slid between their bellies, dampening them both as it began to leak.
For a moment, for one sweet, glorious moment, Aerion’s eyes fluttered closed, his beautiful face relaxed in the moonlight. Lips parted. Skin flushed. Savoring every stroke of Dunk’s cock against the spot deep within that made him moan…
Until his eyes snapped open, his face twisted.
“Seven Hells, this fucking mattress!” he thrashed, punching it with the side of his fist. “There’s straw poking me right in the back!”
Spell broken, Dunk snarled, teeth bared. “Shut up!”
“Wh…”
He grabbed Aerion’s shoulder, slamming it further into the mattress. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to make the omega blink. “Shut up, and stop fucking whingeing, you pampered brat. Your brother is nine, and he’s less of a spoiled fucking child than you! I’m sorry you’ve had to learn to wipe your own ass for the first time in your fucking life!”
Rage flashed through Aerion’s deep purple eyes, his teeth bared in turn. But just as he opened his mouth, Dunk slammed his shoulder into the mattress again.
“No!” he spat. “For one fucking night, I will not endure your tantrums. Shut up!”
Aerion gnashed his teeth, growling like an angry dragon. So enraged he began to shake. But he said nothing, eventually jerking his head in silent acquiescence.
Thank the gods.
He released Aerion’s shoulder and seized his waist once again, taking a deep breath before drawing back and plunging inside him.
Wisps of guilt scraped at the edges of his mind, alpha instincts reminding him that omegas were meant to be treated with care. But Dunk ignored them, closing his eyes.
He won’t break because someone told him the truth once in his life, Dunk thought, fucking into him harder. Three good men have already died for his spoiled ways.
All the same, Dunk kept his eyes closed, partly due to the pleasure that began to flow once again. Partly due to those wisps of guilt that would not leave him, even as his pleasure began to crest.
He should have opened his eyes.
The friction against his cock was glorious, tight with a slide just a bit rougher than it always was. And before long, he cried out, knot swelling, disobeying Aerion’s command not to finish too quickly.
It’s alright, he told himself. Bracing on his arms and legs, he kept his weight off Aerion as much as possible while his knot locked them together. I know what he likes. Just need a minute.
He panted, swallowing gulps of air as the sweet haze lingered. Four months since he had taken Aerion for the first time, at last losing his virginity, and he was still unused to it. Still rendered paralyzed by euphoria so much sweeter than the touch of his own hand, the scent of his omega’s pheromones sharpening his pleasure further still.
It was nearly three minutes before the haze began to fade. Before Dunk began to realize something wasn’t right.
He’s not touching me…
Aerion always touched him afterwards. Sometimes demandingly, grabbing Dunk’s hand and guiding it to his cock, seeking a second (or sometimes fifth) climax. Sometimes in the throes of his own bliss, leaving bloody scratches that Dunk wore like badges of honor. Sometimes annoyedly, grumbling cutely and pushing on Dunk’s chest, deeply satisfied but still calling Dunk an oaf because of course, he could not let himself admit that he’d loved it.
Once or twice, when he’d held Aerion just right, pleased him just right, his omega wrapped his arms around Dunk and pulled him into a tight embrace. Pride forgotten, he’d nuzzle him and purr through his own sweet haze. Those times were Dunk’s favorites.
Never once had Aerion not touched him at all.
Dunk opened his eyes.
Aerion lay stiff as a board beneath him, muscles tense, arms locked at his sides as he stared out their window, moonlight shining in his eyes.
Dunk’s gut roiled, a slow dread intertwining with guilt.
It’s alright. He just didn’t finish yet. He gets grouchy when he doesn’t.
He slipped a hand between them, only to find Aerion’s cock soft and floppy against his thigh. At first, Dunk thought he’d already finished, but when he shifted, he discovered that their bellies were dry, with no sticky residue of his omega’s pleasure.
Without looking at him, Aerion shifted, pushing Dunk’s hand away.
Fuck.
With another rush of guilt, he realized that it was not merely their bellies that were dry.
Oh no…
The first time he’d ever taken Aerion to bed, he’d been taken aback by the amount of slick the omega produced. Feral arousal quickly replaced surprise. The scent of it blurred his vision, driving him mad with want. Unable to resist, he’d dipped down to lap it from his omega’s thighs, laving his tongue lovingly over the fresh scar he himself had left on Aerion’s leg.
Once, he’d even pressed his tongue against Aerion’s entrance, an act that made the prince throw back his head and gasp in pure delight.
No slick decorated Aerion’s thighs now, leaving them dry as a bone beneath Dunk’s fingers.
The friction. He blinked with horror. It had been far less slippery than usual because his omega had not been aroused.
Oh no…oh fuck. No…
“Omega?” Dunk whispered tentatively. “Omega, are you hurt?”
Aerion said nothing, body still tense. Still staring out the window, his expression unchanged.
Whining, Dunk stroked his face, moving as little as possible while his knot kept them locked together.
Fuck, was he hurting Aerion even now? His cock was large, even for an alpha, knot swelling bigger than most.
Taking it without enough slick…
But there was nothing he could do. Until the swelling went down, they were locked in place.
“Omega, look at me,” Dunk pleaded, stroking his face again.
Aerion swatted Dunk’s hand away, still staring at the window. “Finish up and be done with it,” Aerion said flatly. “Or don’t, if you're craving a second round. Your cum will ease the slide.”
Shit.
“Aerion, please look at me,” Dunk said, rubbing his chest instead. When that didn’t work, he trailed his fingers down, gently brushing them along the spots that always made Aerion shiver.
Today, they yielded no results.
“Here,” he promised, gently circling the pad of his thumb over Aerion’s nipple, a touch his omega usually loved. “I can help. I…”
“Don’t bother.” Aerion pushed his hand away again.
I’m sorry…Dunk whined wordlessly.
It usually took awhile for his knot to go down enough to pull free, but distress and worry softened it faster. He pulled free the instant he could, heart leaping into his throat when he smelled the faintest hint of blood mixed with his cum.
No longer joined, Aerion snapped out of the spell keeping him pinned. Snarling, he shoved Dunk, fingernails scraping his alpha’s skin and drawing blood of his own.
“Get off me, you stupid bastard peasant,” he spat, shoving Dunk harder. “I will have your head on a spike!”
Dunk scrambled away and let Aerion leap from the bed, storming over to the washbasin and grabbing a cloth.
“Let me help!” Dunk clambered to his feet. “Lay back down. Let me…”
“Why?” Aerion gruffed. “Because I’m incapable of wiping my own ass?”
Dunk flinched. “That’s not what I—”
“Forget it. Since the task is so distasteful, you needn’t worry about it ever again.”
He whined again. But I didn’t mean it that way!
Dunk loved caring for him after they lay together. Loved seeing his omega sated, half drunk in his post-coital bliss. Loved cleaning him up so Aerion could stay cozy. Loved the adorable half-purr Aerion always gave him when he felt fresh once again. It was no distasteful task. It was an alpha’s instinct to take care of his omega. Bonding.
It hurt to watch Aerion clean himself so roughly, growling as he worked. But when he opened his mouth to insist that he wanted to help, the words lodged in his throat. Guilt wrapped around his neck like a noose.
His back…
Even in the dim light, Dunk could clearly see the red marks, one of them just starting to bleed. He knew those marks well. Had worn them himself in Fleabottom, when sharp straw would poke him as he lay in a bed of it.
Aerion hadn’t been grousing. The mattress truly had been hurting him. And rather than taking a moment to adjust it so his omega would be more comfortable…
“Aerion, I…”
“Fuck you,” he spat, throwing the rag back after he finished washing.
“Aerion, I’m sorry. But you do whinge constantly…”
Exactly the wrong thing to say. Aerion’s eyes glittered with a mad fury before he stormed through the room, grabbing his discarded clothes and yanking them on.
“Very well,” he said. “I shall spare you my whingeing. This inn has other vacant rooms.”
His alpha side was ready to let him have whatever he wanted. Was ready to offer to let Aerion keep this room while he himself slept outside. As unnatural as it felt to sleep without his omega near, making Aerion feel safe and comfortable took priority.
But Dunk was not merely an alpha. He was a man. A man who had already made a different promise.
“You know you can’t,” Dunk half whispered, gaze dropped as he picked at one of his nails.
“I will do as I please.” Aerion sneered. “Omega though I may be, I am your prince. You do not have the right to command me, Ser Duncan the Tall. We are not mated.”
Of which you never fail to remind me. He ignored the painful prickle in his heart. After what he’d just done, he wasn’t certain he deserved Aerion as his mate.
“But your father did give me custody of you,” Dunk reminded him, pulling rank. Something he hated doing, especially now. “You and your little brother. And I made a promise to Egg.”
Aerion balled his fists, seething and flooding the entire room with the near-unbearable scent of an omega in distress. One that made the alpha in him cry out, aching as if in true pain.
“I’m not going anywhere near the little rat,” he said. “I want to be in my own room. Alone.”
“I believe you,” Dunk said softly, trying to ease the words he had no desire to speak. “But it doesn’t matter. I promised Egg. Swore an oath to him in blood. He doesn’t trust you. I cannot let you out of my sight while you’re under the same roof as him.”
Aerion’s eyes flashed with a fury the likes of which Dunk had never seen, not even at Ashford. For a fleeting second, he feared Aerion had been right all along. That he truly was a dragon in human form. A dragon ready to sprout wings and scales, consuming Dunk in his fiery breath.
But no such scales materialized. He was no more than an omega so enraged the flesh of his face went purple.
“Fine then,” he bellowed, his voice dark and smoky as he turned towards the door. “Fine then. I won’t sleep under this fucking roof. I’ll sleep outside. That’s what you wanted all along, right, alpha?”
Dunk winced. “Aerion, come back here. You have the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor, and…”
But it was no use. Aerion didn’t even stop long enough for him to finish his sentence, charging through the door and slamming it behind him.
Fuck.
Dunk flopped against the bed, grabbing a pillow and screaming into it. “FUCK!”
He never should have lost his temper. Not on an omega, even Aerion.
The nightmares of Ashford Meadow were not long behind them, the memories still creeping into Dunk’s dreams. But they were memories. And Dunk didn’t want to let them spoil the future.
Being given any omega was a gift in a world where alphas outnumbered them five to one. But Aerion? A Targaryen prince so beautiful he truly might be closer to god than to man? A man who, beneath thick layers of solid horseshit, was…
Well, he was Aerion.
He knew he wasn’t worthy of him, not truly. Maekar had given Aerion to him as a punishment. A way to teach his son humility and hopefully help him grow into a better person.
He suspected Maekar never meant for the arrangement to be permanent. That after Aerion deflated his head a bit, Maekar would take him back and see him mated to an alpha worthy of his station.
Why else would Aerion refuse to mate with him?
Dunk bit Aerion often. Near every time they made love, his affection for his omega growing stronger each time he did. But his Marks were useless, fading quickly because Aerion never bit him back. Without a reciprocal bite, the true connection of an alpha-omega bond could not form.
He won’t be mine forever. Dunk hugged the pillow tightly to his chest. It still smelled of Aerion’s scent. But for as long as he is, I want him to be happy. A happily ever after to replace the nightmares.
He’d never wanted to hurt him again after the Trial was done. And never once had he ever wanted to hurt him that way. Never once touched Aerion unless it was clear his omega wanted it (Aerion might hate traveling with him, but he loved sex).
But tonight, I made him bleed.
And there was no way in the Seven Hells Dunk was letting him sleep outside alone.