Drake will never forget that late autumn day eight years ago, it was the only good day in the calendar year, suitable for marriage.
All the relatives and friends of Ivan’s family and Kersi’s family gathered together, preparing to attend the wedding of the couple tomorrow. This year Drake was 21 years old, had already graduated from the military academy, and had been a company commander in his father’s army for a period of time. He specially came here on leave from the military camp to accompany Lea to attend Eno’s wedding.
The whole villa was full of excitement, and most of the guests coming and going were unfamiliar faces. Lea, afraid to bore him, tugged him through the window and slipped into Eno’s bedroom to watch him try on his clothes.
Drake remembered that the outfit he was going to wear for the wedding was a pure white suit with a pale gold phoenix motif on the shoulders and waistline, and when he got closer he could see that the whole thing was embroidered with white feathers, eager to take off, elegant and extraordinary. Lea took a light grey bow tie, which shone with silver, put it on for him, and pinned a pink, blooming rose on his chest. Eno practised his expressions in the mirror, the more he grew, more he resembled his Omega mother, Ally, and had inherited those gentle eyes, which were so beautiful when he smiled and always made people feel like a spring breeze.
Lea ran up and down to pass things to Eno, and Drake leaned away from the window to avoid suspicion and watched him. He faintly felt that Eno was not that happy, but was doing what he should do as if he were finishing a job. Eno and Lea were obviously brothers only two years apart, but their personalities were so different that it was hard to believe that they had grown up together.
Drake was straightforward and didn’t like Eno, who is so hypocritical. He prefers Lea, who has a bright and generous personality. He felt more comfortable getting along with this boy who never seems to be troubled. Only Lea wasn’t smiling today either, he was buried in Eno’s chest, tears staining his collar and a drop of water fell on the blooming rose.
“Don’t cry.” Eno stroked Lea’s hair and said softly, “It’s not like we won’t see each other again.”
Lea’s eyes were red as he held his hand. “We’ve never been apart.” Lea whispered, “I will definitely miss Ge Ge.”
“Ge Ge is going to have a life of my own.” Eno’s voice was a little unsteady too, “You have Drake too, don’t you?”
Lea did look over at him in embarrassment, and Drake smiled at him, making and made a tacit gesture, indicating that he was there. Lea did break into a smile, “En. I’ll try to get to you as soon as I can.”
Eno pinched his face again, and it turned red like when he was a child, as if it had been hung with two evening sunsets. The brothers hadn’t been talking for long when the old butler pushed in and respectfully asked Eno to go over the wedding details again, giving Lea a reproachful glare in the process and a silent gesture for him to go out and receive guests properly.
Drake and Lea had to leave Eno’s bedroom, and Lea didn’t obediently go to the front hall, as Ivan and Allie were there to host anyway, and it would be the same with him or without him. The two strolled hand in hand through the garden, each cherishing the rare moments they had together. He dropped to one knee and pulled a heavy golden medallion from his pocket, placing it solemnly in Lea’s hand.
“I was chasing a group of Inhuman remnants with my father a year ago when I encountered their absconding division commander head-on. One of them was very powerful at summoning heavenly fire, and when they were about to run away, I led a team to charge into the burning meteorite group and captured the leader alive, earning a medal.”
He smiled shyly, “I was badly burned and lay in hospital for over a month after repair surgery, so I didn’t dare to tell you about it. The medal came out two days ago, so I wanted to give it to you as soon as possible.”
“Lea.” He looked at the blushing Omega and said seriously, “I’ve saved up enough merit points to report to the mastermind. When you’re of age, let’s get married.”
Lea wiped his eyes clean with the back of his hand, gave a heavy hmph, and pinned the medal to his chest. They kissed in the thick shade of the magnolia that had been mercilessly bruised by the leather ball as a child, still thick and flourishing, dropping a yellowing leaf on his shoulder. The magnolia’s trunk was too short to accommodate them both, and Lea pulled Drake to run to the edge of the courtyard, where there was a huge century-old banyan tree. Both expert climbers, they quickly climbed it and sat on its thick branches, and talked to each other amidst the crisp intermittent chorus of insects chirping. After an unknown amount of time, two people came into the silent back garden, very close to each other, whispering something.
Lea covered Drake’s mouth and gestured for him to keep quiet, not wanting to be found out that he was here. Drake nodded knowingly and held his breath with Lea. The two men walked slowly to the banyan tree and Drake could see the faces of the two men through the gaps in the cascading leaves, it was Ivan and the housekeeper.
He heard Ivan’s trademark cold voice, which seemed mechanically synthesised electronically: “Is everyone here?”
The housekeeper said respectfully: “And the Duke and Duchess, they are on their way and have just contacted to confirm that they can make it here before the dinner.”
“Is everything ready? Everything needs to be checked again.” Ivan bit out heavily, “Make sure everyone is taken care of.”
“Yes.”
A deep, heavy autumn breeze rushed through the trees, bringing a series of chills as it slid across his skin. Lea couldn’t help but sneeze suddenly, shaking off a cloud of grass dust and startling the two men who were talking.
Ivan barked sternly: “Who’s in the tree, come out!”
Lea embarrassedly jumped down from the tree, with Drake following suit.
“Nonsense.” Ivan looked at Lea with a serious expression, “How old are you, can you be more sensible?”
Lea curled his lips aggrievedly: “I know la, I’ll go to the front hall now.”
Drake only managed to catch a glimpse of Ivan before Lea pulled him away.
He hadn’t actually met his future father-in-law more than a few times, as the number of times Ivan came home was very few. But every time he saw Ivan, he somehow felt uncomfortable. When he saw Ivan again after three years, something suddenly felt eerily familiar. For no reason, just his sense of smell cultivated from killing on the battlefield told him that Ivan was more of an Inhuman than an Alpha.
During the cosmic upheavals of a thousand years ago, a significant portion of the human race mutated into Omegas and Alphas due to the radiation of the escaping cosmic material, Alphas possessed physical strength and power, and often a higher level of intelligence than Betas and Omegas of the same age. In contrast, the Omegas, although delicate and weak, have a strong spiritual potential in their brain structure, and some of them evolve into spiritual entities with certain psychic abilities, called Inhumans.
Then came the long history of the split, which could not be finished within three days or nights. Both the Inhumans and the Alphas tried to fight for the leadership of the Federation and at one point, fought to the death. At first the Omegas followed the Inhumans, but soon the Inhumans realised that they could not mate with Omegas or Betas or even Alphas to produce children with powers, so they abandoned them and turned on all humanity.
The war of division lasted for a long time and ended in a total defeat for the Inhumans — after all, they had evolved from Omegas and their bodies were so delicate. No amount of exercise could save them from the physique of always being ready to give birth, and it was difficult to resist when Alphas got close. After the defeat of the Inhumans, they fled to the outer galaxy and established their own state and regime, and have been in constant friction with the Federation.
Today, thousands of years later, Omegas are still as dependent on Alphas for survival, while the Inhumans have evolved away from the limitations of their glands and are in fact very unlike the Omegas. But the harsh environment of the outer galaxy was not suited to their physical needs, and many of the Inhumans became even less fit than the Omegas, and their need to return to their former home became more and more intense, and the dispute between the two races intensified.
But Ivan was a genuine Alpha, and his Alpha pheromones, although extremely faint, did smell like natural pheromones that any Alpha or Omega could smell. Not to mention the fact that the Federation’s bio-lab has an extremely high level of security and there was no way a random Inhuman would be allowed to mix in. Drake frowned and asked Lea in a low voice: “Has your father always been like this?”
“Yeah.” Lea wondered, “I never felt close to him……but he was pretty good to us.”
“What about the housekeeper? When did he come?”
“I think the housekeeper came to our house the year I was born. I heard from my mother that the old housekeeper who originally followed her when she married over from the Earl’s family has retired, and when my father had to head up a very important project for the Federation and was in the lab all the time, he was replaced to look after my mother and us. What are you asking about that for?”
“…Nothing.”
He really didn’t look like he knew anything, and Drake didn’t ask more. Even if there was something wrong with Ivan, he would naturally protect Lea as much as he could when he came of age in two years.
They made their way down the corridor to the front hall, which was packed with family and friends who had come to congratulate them. Lea’s mother, Ally, was in charge of the reception, coughing from time to time and still looking sickly, but with an air of nobility in her brow that was almost identical to Eno’s. Every time Drake saw her, he felt that he could see what Eno would look like twenty years later through her, which made him feel insipid.
Lea led Drake over to greet her: “Mother.”
Allie turned her head to see them both and a small smile rose to her eyes: “Drake is here too.”
Drake came forward to greet her and Allie exchanged pleasantries with him for a while, asking him how he was doing. Guests kept coming around, so he and Leia had to leave first. The hustle and bustle continued into the evening, when the big pre-wedding party took place and Drake saw little Kersi for the first time.
The most noticeable thing about little Kersi was his light chestnut hair, which obviously looks like a messy chicken coop, but he was so smug about it that he was always showing off his hair. His looks were only average for an Alpha, splayed eyebrows and slender eyes, and if it wasn’t for his demeanour, which was barely elegant, Drake wouldn’t have believed for a second that he was the young Duke himself. Lea was obviously not very happy with little Kersi either, and spent the rest of the night moping, going to bed early on the pretext that he was not feeling well.
After Lea left, Drake didn’t want to stay anymore. He didn’t like such a noisy environment, like a group of flies buzzing around him, and most of the people in the room were too proud of their high status to talk to him, an unknown field officer. As the presence of him, a single person, did not matter, he took his leave with Allie and went down the long corridor to the back garden, not bothering to go through the gate and taking a short cut over the wall to his house. Drake climbed the fence lightly on a branch and saw a dark figure sitting at the top of the wall in a very heroic posture, one foot on a statue of a vermilion beast, an arm on his bent knee and a dark beer bottle in his hand, almost blending in with the night.
Drake was almost afraid to confirm: “…Eno?”
The man turned back slowly, revealing a pair of bright amber eyes filled with crystal water in the moonlight. Eno didn’t seem to give him even a look, quickly turning his head again and taking a swig of beer at the bright moon high above.
Drake didn’t know whether to advance or retreat, but he couldn’t let Eno sit here and drink dryly, so he stretched out his hand to him and said cautiously: “Eno, shall I pull you down? You should go back.”
Eno responded quickly this time, he seemed to be drunk, and the water droplets wavering in his eyes seemed ready to overflow at any moment. He looked at Drake with a very complex gaze, a look that contained so many emotions that Drake could not even distinguish them for a moment.
In the end, all he said was: “Take good care of Leia.” Then with a wave of his hand, he leapt straight off the wall with a hand on the massive statue beast’s head. Drake scrambled to step over the rubble and looked down. Eno stumbled twice after landing, but seemed unharmed, and staggered towards the gate, his form forlorn and silent. Drake watched him disappear into the deep night air and, thinking he would be all right too, tumbled back over the wall to his house.
He was inexplicably sleepy that night and fell asleep as soon as he hit his pillow. That was until he was awakened in the middle of the night by a deafening boom, glass shattered to the ground, and waves of high-heat air coming at him, almost sweeping him away.
His Omega father, Carl, ran in in his pyjamas and dragged him out of the window, and the two ran all the way to nearly 150 metres away before Drake could see what was happening outside.
Eno’s home was ablaze, burning everything down. The crimson flames reflected Drake’s heart-rending hisses and wails.
The fire burned all night and everyone who stayed in the villa that night died, burnt to the ground. Only the Kersi family, who had family property on the capital, Drake and Eno survived. Eno claimed to have been called out to a bar by little Corsi for a “rendezvous” and was extremely lucky to escape that night.
Drake didn’t know anything about what happened after that, and there was no specific murderer responsible – according to the surveillance, the housekeeper had brought a few barrels of suspicious items into the villa in a crate transporting for transporting ingredients, but on the night of the incident, no one but Eno was filmed going out after the party broke up. Not even the identity of the deceased could be discerned in the pile of grey and black debris because the bones were burnt to ashes, except for a golden medal with charred edges, lying peacefully in the middle of the rubble.
For reasons unknown, the aftermath of this incident was simply dismissed by the higher-ups in the Federation. As for Eno, he was taken away by the Kersi family and Drake never saw him again.
It was a dark and chaotic time for Drake. He took leave from his own father and spent his days hiding in his room, drinking. His temper turned sour and he hissed at everyone who tried to comfort him, telling them all to fuck off, including Carl.
Until one day his Alpha father, Grey, came back from the barracks and slapped him upon seeing him.
“I taught you from a young age to love your Omega.” Grey looked at him coldly, his military medals hanging in two heavy rows on the chest of his black and gold uniform, glowing brightly in the darkened room, “and this is how you treat your father, my Omega? “
Drake covered the swollen half of his face, his gaze fierce and stubborn as a wild animal. Carl came over quietly and looked at him worriedly.
“Go back with me.” Grey took Carl’s hand, his face, bathed in half a lifetime of Inhuman blood, was resolute, “If you want the truth, you have to climb up. What’s the use of hiding at home and crying? No one will look up to you!”
Those three words became Drake’s motto in life, and as long as he lived, he would find out the truth and avenge Lea.
He will definitely avenge Lea.
melon: 😭😭😭
This is the start of their nightmares, especially for Eno, since we all know he was abused at Kersi’s house.
