Ch. 3

Seven
I softly parted my lips to tell King Ambrose what happened with Gamma Thomas, but I couldn’t find the right words.

What would he think of me when I told him? All I wanted was for him not to kill me, but if I told him my mistake, he surely would. Fresh tears started to stream down my face.

All I seemed to be able to do was cry today. I was so beyond weak.

King Ambrose moved closer to me, holding onto my jaw, his fingers leaving warm sparks as they trailed across my skin.

“Words, Little One. Use your words, please,” King Ambrose instructed.

I still couldn’t believe he wanted me to speak to him. Madam Olympia had taught me that I needed to ask permission to speak before ever doing so.

But if the king was telling me to speak, I had to obey. “O-Ok.”

A small smile stretched across his lips when I spoke. At least I had done one thing right around King Ambrose.

His smile didn’t last long before he lifted his nose and smelled the blood again. His eyes darkened.

“I’m so sorry. I made such a dumb, stupid mistake,” I said through sniffles. “G-Gamma Thomas gave me very strict instructions to bring him lunch in his office at noon sharp, a-and”—I tripped over my words, crying— “I was so busy scrubbing the floor that I-I was late. Gamma Thomas had to show me what happens w-when I misbehave.”

I harshly wiped my tears away. I couldn’t bring myself to stop crying. I’m sure King Ambrose was about to lecture me about my awful mistakes. I knew that I messed up. I was so embarrassed.

I was an awful Omega. My pack gave me a roof over my head, a cot to sleep on, and food to eat, only asking that I follow the rules, and I couldn’t even do that. I was a disgrace to all the pack servants.

“Bad Omega,” I scolded myself, repeating the exact words that Gamma Thomas had said earlier. “Useless, awful, no good Omega servant.”

I heard those words so much that they were always at the front of my mind. Gamma Thomas liked for us omegas to repeat his words whenever we messed up. He wanted us to always understand our rank and punishment.

“What are you doing?” King Ambrose looked at me. “Stop! Stop saying those words!”

He quickly grabbed hold of both my wrists, pulling them against his chest and wrapping his hands around them, stealing the breath out of my lungs and the words from my mouth. “Stop saying that.”

I continued crying, my breaths getting shorter and shorter until I was hyperventilating.

“Oh, Little One,” King Ambrose whispered. He pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me until I was fully cocooned in his embrace.

“Please, please don’t ever do that again, okay? I absolutely hate hearing you say those words about yourself.” He held onto me tighter. “Please promise me that you won’t ever say that about yourself under any circumstance, okay, Little One? I just– you can’t,” his voice cracked. “Please don’t ever do that again. please.”

Seeing King Ambrose so sad made me feel awful. A sudden wave of sorrow flooded through me. All I wanted was to make him feel better.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I won’t do it again. I’m sorry.”

King Ambrose buried his face into my neck and inhaled deeply.

“I never want you to hurt yourself again, okay Little One?” His breath tickled against the side of my neck as he spoke. “Not with your words, not with anything.”

I nodded my head in response. My other senses were consumed by the way that he was touching me. The heat that was coming off his body wrapped around me.

“Words,” King Ambrose said. “Please use your words, Little One. I want to hear you verbally answer me whenever I speak, okay? Never do that again.”

“Yes,” I said softly. “I’ll use my words. I’m sorry.”

King Ambrose gently removed me from his lap and bent over to open the drawer underneath the wooden table that I was sitting on. He pulled out a small, metal box, placing it next to me. He grabbed a small white cloth and a clear bottle out of the box, pouring some of the liquid from the bottle onto the cloth.

What was he about to do?

“This is going to hurt, but please try not to flinch away from it.” King Ambrose brought the cloth down onto my cut, pressing down as he did so.

I nodded my head in understanding but didn’t move an inch.

“Please look at me, Little One. I love it when you meet my eyes. My wolf will always loves it.” He brushed more of my stray hair behind my ear. “It helps to calm him down, so please don’t look away. I love seeing your eyes.”

My eyes? He liked seeing my eyes? Madam Olympia had told all the Omegas never to make eye contact with any high-ranking members. She said that it would only anger their wolves.

But I guess if King Ambrose told me to meet his eyes, then that was what I should do.

I looked up at him, locking on his beautiful green eyes and offering him a small smile to show that I understood his request.

“This will only hurt for a moment,” he repeated before pressing the cloth onto my head.

I tensed up as soon as the cloth contacted my skin, but remembering what I was just told, I did my best to relax my body and let King Ambrose continue.

King Ambrose was gentler than I ever knew was possible. His other hand drew some patterns up and down my thigh, being careful to avoid my bruises, his fingers never getting close enough to touch them.

After a few more moments, he pulled the cloth away from my skin, putting it down on the table and grabbing another, smaller bottle out of the metal box. He squeezed some gooey, light pink cream from it onto the pads of his fingers and gently rubbed it over my cut, right where the cloth had just been.

Next, King Ambrose put another small cloth over my cut and wrapped it in place.

He took a step back, lightly tilting my head to inspect his work.

“I’ll let you know when to take these off, okay, Little One? So please leave it on until then.”

I quickly nodded my head.

“Use your word around me, remember?” King Ambrose repeated.

“Y-Yes, Your Highness.”

His smile dropped. “Please stop calling me ‘Your Highness’. I hate it when you call me that. Call me Ambrose, please. Just Ambrose. There’s no need to use any title when you talk with me.”

I couldn’t call him by his name! Only his family and close friends were allowed to call him by his first name. Titles were extremely important in the werewolf world and there was no way that I would disrespect King Ambrose by calling him anything but his title.

“Please,” he repeated. “Call me Ambrose.”

“A-Ambrose?” I asked, my voice was shaking so bad that I wasn’t even sure if he would be able to hear me with his advanced hearing.

He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed in deeply. “Yes, Little One. Ambrose.”

“O-Ok, Ambrose,” I repeated his name. It was clear that it made him happy to hear me say it, and if it made him happy, then of course I would do it. Anything to not upset him.

A large smile spread across his lips, reaching all the way up into his eyes. His normal dark, forest green eyes were now a bright, light green colour as he gazed down at me.

“I could listen to you say my name forever, Little One,” he said. “I’ve been waiting a long time for you.”

Before Ambrose could lean in any closer, someone banged loudly on the bedroom door. “Open the door, Ambrose! I know you’re awake in there.”

My heart was in my throat.

Ambrose dropped his head onto my shoulder for a second and sighed loudly.

“I can hear you breathing in there! Open the door!”

“Please forgive me, Little One,” Ambrose muttered into the crook of my neck. “It seems that my Beta has forgotten all his manners tonight.”

Ambrose placed a soft kiss on the side of my neck, his lips leaving behind a warm, tingling sensation that went straight to my toes.

He straightened up, letting out another heavy sigh as he yanked open the bedroom door. “What do you want, Silas? It’s five in the morning, what could possibly be so important?”

“Well, maybe the fact that we just got here, and—” Ambrose’s beta, Silas, barraged into the room, knocking shoulders with Ambrose as he did so.

The beta’s eyes widened when he saw me, his words dying in his mouth.

Ambrose snarled loudly.

“I was going to ask about the castle-shaking growls I heard earlier, but I guess this answers my question,” Beta Silas said, confusing me even more about what was happening. “I can’t believe you finally found her.”

King Ambrose dragged a hand down his face as his beta stood frozen in his steps.

“Make yourself useful, Silas, and mind-link back home about the news, but don’t tell everyone yet. Only link Jasper and Clara, they’ll know what to do,” King Ambrose said.

Ambrose’s words seemed to snap Beta Silas out of whatever trance he was in. He nodded his head vigorously and slowly started back out of the bedroom. “I’ll also take care of the travel arrangements and make sure that there’s an extra carriage for you two when we go back home in a week.”

“Four days,” Ambrose corrected. “We won’t be staying long anymore.”

“Four days, got it.”

The bedroom door clicked shut behind the beta and King Ambrose walked back towards me and gazed down. His eyes bored into mine.

“Tomorrow we’ll ice and bandage the rest of your injuries, but for now you need to rest,” he said. “You’ve had a long day and need to sleep.”

“Sleep?” I repeated hesitantly.

He only wanted to sleep? He didn’t wish to injure me for all my awful mistakes tonight?

I was sure that he would want to punish me, Gamma Thomas and Madam Olympia would have.

“Y-you do not wish for me to, um, please you tonight?” I asked, searching for the right words. I cringed as soon as the words left my mouth. Had I really just said that?

“Please me?” Ambrose’s eyes darkened again. “You thought that that was why I brought you into my room, Little One?”