Chapter 63 IN DISBELIEF
ALISANDER'S POV
My voice is sounding steadier than it has any right to be but I could not care.
It didn't matter that I was now an Omega and stripped off of everything but that didn't give this mere Beta any right whatsoever to threaten my life.
How dare she?
Even the moon goddess she serves is wary of provoking me but her mere follower dare to threaten me? And to my face too?
“You forget yourself,” Ava snaps. “Whatever you think you are, you’re still nothing but an Omega speaking to a Beta, how dare you assume to be in the right?!”
I scoff. “Beta.”
The word drips contempt from my tone.
Her lips thin with anger. “I would do well to watch my tone if I were you.”
“Or what?” I ask coolly. “You’ll kill me? Even your ancestors wouldn't dare to challenge me and you, this mere child is challenging a wolf like me? Go ahead then. See how well that ends for you.”
Her aura flares as dominance rolls off of her in sharp waves at my insult. “You are nothing,” she growls out, finally shedding her cool demeanor. “A broken Omega hiding behind borrowed courage from your stupid wolf is what you are!.”
I smile but I make it slow and sharp. “And you are nothing more than a Beta playing Alpha in his absence, still hung up on her sister.”
Her eyes widen in anger as she points at me. “You–!”
“Oh yes I know,” I interrupt. “As much as everyone in the pack is oblivious to you and as much as you try to hide it, you're not angry at Sebastian being with Ragnar because it ‘affects him’, you're only angry that after all these years after your sister died, he didn't choose you.”
“You shut your mouth this instant you mutt!”
“You would do well not to call me a mutt Ava.” I snarl back making sure her name sounds like a taunt coming out from me.
“It's been years since your sister's death and he still didn't choose you yet here you are threatening me just because he chose me, admit it! You're pathetic!” I go straight for the jugular with my words.
She inhales loudly looking at me in a way that says more than she could.
She wants to kill me.
No surprise there.
“I have no idea what you're talking about or where you're getting your ridiculous source of information from, I'm only here for the well-being of the pack so remove your mind from the gutters.”
“Wellbeing? Well if that's what you're calling it I guess.”
Her eyes blaze. “Know your place.”
“I do,” I say. “ I'm a guard and now a lover of Alpha Ragnar. I have every right to be here and in this room whilst you, I've never heard of an instance where a Beta just barges unannounced and uninvited into an Alpha’s quarters much less into his room. So the question here is do you?”
She laughs harshly with disbelief etched across her face. “Insolent thing. I was right when I said it before that you can only make noise and protest when it's your wolf doing it for you. You're nothing more than a coward unfit to be with the Alpha of Alphas. How dare you assume to tell me what my place is?.”
Then she straightens as if she's made a big decision as power starts gathering around her like a tightening noose.
“Kneel Omega,” Ava commands with total authority and power in her tone.
The word slams into the room, heavy with Beta authority and power running straight at me.
It is less than an Alpha’s command, but more than enough to crush an ordinary wolf.
The force hits hard on my knees and shoulders as Sebastian cries out inside our shared mind in pain.
My knees are threatening to buckle under the weight of her will.
I bare my teeth in defiance.
“Oh,” I snarl, fighting the command inch by inch from me, “you really shouldn’t have done that.”
The pressure intensifies as she presses on. “Kneel,” she repeats, her voice ringing with power.
The command crashes into us like a physical blow.
Kneel.
It isn’t just a word this time, it’s intent sharpened into force and dominance layered with authority on me.
A Beta’s command is an echo of the Alpha’s will from above her. It was like the Beta was borrowing power from the Alpha and what that meant for Beta Ava and I is that she's borrowing raw power from the Alpha of Alphas.
Fuck.
Sebastian’s body reacts before his mind can.
His knees buckle violently as his muscles start to spasm like he's suffering a seizure.
Pain flares hot and sharp through our joints and bones with my breath tearing out of me in a gasp.
“Alisander–!” Sebastian gasps out in pain.
I feel his panic slam into me raw and filled with pain and humiliation.
That old conditioned response drilled into Omegas for generations, to submit or be crushed.
I mentally plant myself between him and the command like a wall.
No.
The pressure presses harder against me as Sebastian sighs in relief.
An invisible weight bears down on me trying to force obedience through sheer instinct.
The room hums as the air vibrates faintly with the command pushing everything at me.
I straighten my bowed spine up slowly and deliberately.
I feel a certain smug of satisfaction as I see Ava’s eyes widen for just a fraction.
“Oh,” I snarl out, my voice vibrating with unrestrained fury, “you really shouldn’t have done that, Ava.”
The command tightens on me as her will keeps on pushing harder and harder.
She bares her teeth now as frustration bleeds through her control.
“Kneel Sebastian,” she repeats louder.
Nothing happens.
Sebastian trembles once but he does not fall.
I roll my shoulders once in relief, as if loosening tension rather than shaking off a Beta’s authority.
The expression on my face makes it look like I just did nothing special.
Even an Omega shaking off a Delta’s authority is an impossible feat and they're ranked third in the pack much less a second in command, Beta.