Chapter Text
The wails of Princess Haneul echoed through the palace. Servants exchanged nervous looks. The priests and priestesses looked up to the heavens as if to search for blame there. And Crown Prince Seokjin sat just outside the princess’s bedchamber and stared down at trembling hands.
“Three years. Three years and your omega has born no heirs.” King Daehyun, Seokjin’s father and ruler of Hallasan, growled down at Seokjin’s bowed head. The older alpha’s scent burned in the room, oppressive and sharp with anger.
“We’ve tried.” Seokjin said, voice broken.
“Not hard enough!” Daehyun roared, drowning out even Haneul’s keening. Seokjin closed his eyes to the alpha’s wrath. There was nothing he could do. Nothing his mate could do that they hadn’t done in the last three years in order to produce an heir. But there was no fertile ground to bear the fruit of the royal Kim line.
“I expect an heir by year’s end. Concubine, whore, one of the Gods themselves, I don’t care who bears it. There will be an heir.”
Seokjin swallowed against the lump in his throat. “Yes, your highness.” He bared his neck in fealty but it only earned him another growl before the King stormed from the antechamber, slamming the door so hard the hinges groaned in protest.
Seokjin breathed a sigh of relief to have only been given an ultimatum instead of a death sentence. He may have been his father only alpha son and heir but that meant precisely nothing to King Daehyun. There were plenty of bastards running around the palace who would gladly take Seokjin’s place.
If only they knew, Seokjin rubbed his face in his hands. They were safer out of the King’s orbit.
A ringing smash of glass against stone echoed in Haneul’s bedchamber followed by howl. Seokjin’s mate bond only fed him the smallest amount of information but it was enough to know that Haneul was livid. He supposed she blamed him somehow even though he’d visited her bed nearly every night for the past three years. They had both done their duty and it was all for naught. If he were a better man, or maybe a dumber one, he would have sympathized with his mate but their mating had been a strategic alliance, not a love match and Seokjin knew Haneul would slit Seokjin’s throat without hesitation if it would get her closer to ruling.
It was certainly one of the reasons she accepted him into her bed so willingly. An heir would ensure her a throne without her connection to Seokjin. It would remove her need for him entirely. It was one of the reasons Seokjin had been drinking a foul-tasting tea every single day of their marriage to prevent a pregnancy. He’d rather not give Haneul an excuse for assassination.
The door creaked open and Seokjin should have guessed only Namjoon would be brave enough to join Seokjin in his witnessing of his mate’s displeasure.
“Our time has run out.” Seokjin murmured.
“We knew it would.” Namjoon took a seat next to Seokjin on the wooden bench just outside the bedchamber door.
“We aren’t ready.” Seokjin whispered to his oldest, closest friend.
Namjoon placed a large warm hand on Seokjin’s shoulder and squeezed. “We will be. We can figure out how to stall. Just a little longer.”
“He’ll insist on a concubine.” His stomach churned at the thought. He knew how concubines were treated by the Hallasan Court. He didn’t want to subject an innocent omega to that world.
“I’ll draw up a list of candidates by morning.” Namjoon said and Seokjin nodded, letting a woosh of breath out.
“What if I’m not ready?” Seokjin let his biggest fear out, naming it for Namjoon to consider and judge.
“You will be.” Was the other alpha’s answer, steady and firm. Seokjin wished he could borrow Namjoon’s conviction for himself. He’d need it in the coming months.
XXX
Seokjin should have anticipated Haneul’s interference. His mate had never, in the past three years, allowed anything to transpire easily in Seokjin’s life. She was a beautiful omega, gleaming golden amongst the court, shining on Seokjin’s arm. She was also shrewd, manipulative, jealous, and cruel. A formidable opponent in a struggle for power. Seokjin wished his father had chosen an easier mate to align themselves with but Haneul’s family was just as calculating as Haneul. They were one of the most powerful families in the Hallasan court, connections made through marriages due to their very prolific breeding. Another reason Haneul was chosen as Seokjin’s mate. A beautiful, young omega from a fertile lineage? King Daehyun had practically danced into Seokjin’s study on the day the match had been decided.
But Haneul’s face turned ugly with rage when Namjoon had presented Seokjin a list of suitable candidates that morning at breakfast. “But darling, shouldn’t I be allowed to choose my mate’s whore? I am the one who knows your needs intimately. It’s the least I can do for my duty as your mate.”
Seokjin kept his face smooth and calm. “If that is what you think best, dear.” And watched Namjoon’s curated list crumple into his mate’s fist.
“I insist, darling.” She smiled, demure but Seokjin only saw her sharp teeth. It was almost guaranteed that whoever was chosen as his concubine would be loyal to Haneul. It meant an additional layer of suspicion in an already tense situation.
Seokjin chanced a look at Namjoon who winced out of Haneul’s sight. It would be nice, Seokjin thought, if something, anything, would come easy instead of everything being a struggle.
“I look forward to meeting your choice, dear.”
He had anticipated his father’s meddling so when he was informed by a flurry of servants descending on his chambers that the concubine would be staying in one of side chambers for closer proximity to ensure frequent visits, Seokjin didn’t blink an eye. He watched his sitting room empty of furniture made for royal alphas. Dark heavy wood, stark and sparse decoration only to be replaced by a sumptuous bed piled high with pillows and soft blankets perfect for nesting. A thick colorful rug covered a once bare floor and a small side table with chairs with plush cushions lined another wall.
The final and most humiliating change was the removal of the door between the two rooms. King Daehyun decided Seokjin and the concubine would be afforded no privacy until a pregnancy occurred.
Seokjin accepted each punishment and humiliation with a silent defeat. Only the voice in the back of his head allowed it without complaint. The voice that whispered that he’d played this game for twenty-seven years. What was another six months of his father’s machinations in the scheme of everything? Soon enough either King Daehyun would be dead, or Seokjin would be. Either way, it would be the end. Seokjin just had to endure.
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Yoongi had seen death in the faces of his parents when they were taken by the sickness that had run through the poorer sections of Hallasan City seven years back. He’d seen it in the other omega orphans who refused to fight for scraps of food from the alphas and betas and were withering slowly away in front of his eyes. He’d seen it in the shopkeeper’s eyes when he swiped at Yoongi with a wicked looking knife and caught him across the ribs when Yoongi had been starving and had refused to sell himself for a piece of bread, opting instead to steal. And he saw death once more in the eyes of the Crown Princess omega, glittering sharp and cold at him.
They snatched him from the street just outside his lodging. He’d been covered in dirt and sweat, a hard morning working for the carpenter just down the street. It had taken Yoongi two years to convince the alpha to let him train and Yoongi was determined to make sure he didn’t regret his decision. Most omegas either worked in their family business or worked on their backs. Orphaned and barely scraping by Yoongi had managed to avoid the brothels until the carpenter had relented. His once soft hands were now rough and calloused but Yoongi was eating almost three meals a day so he couldn’t complain.
He’d almost arrived home when he heard a carriage behind him and he was yanked off his feet and shoved onto the floor of carriage with only a yelp in protest. Yoongi scrambled to his knees and noticed then, the silk skirts and jeweled shoes. He raised his eyes up the dress to eyes cool and assessing. The air was sweet and light with omega scent but Yoongi couldn’t comprehend why an omega would kidnap him? A male omega, rare and disdained as he was?
“Who the hell are you?” Yoongi asked and was slapped for his impertinence. He wanted to lunge at the woman but the jewels around her neck alone told Yoongi there would be swift and merciless retribution were he to harm this omega.
“Get up.” The woman snapped and gestured to the bench across from her. Yoongi slowly climbed up and sat. The woman eyed the dirt on his clothes but Yoongi refused to feel ashamed that he was soiling the cushion’s fabric. He hadn’t asked to be there.
“You are an omega?” The woman asked assessing.
Yoongi shifted in his seat, raising his eyes to meet hers unflinching. “Yes.”
“Do you have a mate or lover?”
“I have a pack—”
“Don’t lie to me. Master Carpenter Lee has already informed us that you are an orphan. We will be able to verify your claims, one way or another. Now, do you have a mate or a lover.”
The betrayal from Master Lee burned Yoongi’s throat. Naïve of him to assume he’d proven himself worthy of respect from the alpha.
“No. No mate or lover.” Yoongi answered with gritted teeth.
“Your heats. Are they regular?”
What in the Gods names did this woman want from him.
“Clockwork.” Yoongi snipped.
The woman leaned back, examining him. “I suppose you will do.”
“And what is it that I am supposed to do?”
The omega smiled, baring her teeth. “You’re going to be Prince Seokjin’s new whore.”
Yoongi gaped at her; mouth dropped in shock. Of all the fates to befall Yoongi, he’d never thought of being kidnapped for bed service for the Crown Prince of Hallasan. He’d thought maybe he’d die young from illness or perhaps, in the worst scenario, he’d rot in a brothel room. He would never have guessed this turn of events.
“Surely there are noble omegas better suited for this job?”
“The prince doesn’t need someone to carry polite conversation. He needs a hole to fuck.” She snarled. “You will serve me. You will tell me everything that happens. You will take the contraceptive tea religiously so you will not fall pregnant. If you fail to do any of these things, you will disappear from this world and no one will mourn you.”
It was then that Yoongi saw death glimmering back at him from the omega’s eyes. A promise. An oath. A desire for violence he’d recognize anywhere. That keen observation was his key to survival. He bowed his head, clenched his fists into the fabric of his breeches and breathed in the cherry sweet scent of the omega and thought perhaps he would have fared better in the brothels.