It was night, and the cool, starry sky above provided little light to illuminate her position. Chuli had snuck into the El Mahdy compound with ease the first time, but this time, the Matriarch was either very paranoid that someone was after her life or worried greatly about the safety of the two omegas in her care.
Which was true, as an old friend of hers verified as soon as she reached the Portyard Docks. Her paranoia was more than valid. More than a few things were updated in terms of her recent records, as they were outdated by several months. The entire political landscape shifted as if overnight. And it all had no particular blame other than the conflicting ambitions of powerful people.
Today was best for such secretive acts simply because in the whirlwind of Ari Saavedra's frustration and anger, the omega El Mahdy invited the young Saavedra, his omega son, and their alpha to spend time at the family residence to rest their minds.
In the trail of carriages and a few guards along the way, she cracked the neck of a guard unconscious--still breathing and alive--but now leaving an open space for her to take over.
The alpha wore, along with his omegas, resplendent garments with thin gold, crystals, but transparent linings of lace for his omegas. In her disguise, she wore the clothes of one of Reviere's guards. Her head tilted just enough to block part of her face out of direct sight.
"My son!" The El Mahdy Matriarch greeted with wide sweeping arms and then laughed. Her arms hugged lightly around the pregnant omega. "Look at you, so healthy and well-fed. It looks as though my son-in-law is taking good care of you! The both of you!"
Ari Saavedra greeted the Matriarch with a bow but the woman stopped him with a careful hand on his shoulder.
"We have much to speak about," Reverie said lightly, but there was a forced smile on his face. "Do you have a place for us to drink?"
Matriarch El Mahdy grinned. "We will discuss as alphas should and let the omegas ruminate over their children."
The two groups were led into the housing, and she, as an attache of Reviere, trailed behind the other guards with an eagle-eye focus as the omegas greeted the Matriarch El Mahdy's spouse and concubine.
The omega El Mahdy waved his mother off. "You don't let him drink too much. He can't drink our liquor like you can."
"I would never!" the Matriarch El Mahdy laughed. "He will be returned to you in one whole piece."
The Matriarch and Castilo Reviere traveled into an area with stone stairs that dropped down a floor, where the build appeared a little older but the majils looked cozy. The cushions settled around a golden table with a small pit for a heated fire nearby as servants brought in light food, like bread and light sauces, and jugs of alcohol with the sharp tangy smell of spices. Matriarch El Mahdy lit the fire and clinked their cups, now full of alcohol, as she said, "Tell me of your recent troubles. Your brows are furrowed as if the stress is unending."
"It isn't stress, but," Castillo Reviere paused as he swirled the alcohol in his hand. "Princess Jata Niara damaged my farm of cottonsilk trees. Both my spouses see it as an omen. Soon after, I heard rumors that the Mawaddah were furious with you and have cut certain transport supplies from my access, including more seeds for my farm. I offered to pay more for them but they refused. It feels as though my good luck has dried out."
"Ah, yes, the Empress has put me in quite the situation," the Matriarch El Mahdy winced. "She was unhappy with my support of Kinya Sarakh. It is to be expected. This will be resolved as soon as Prince Sylas is married and the Empress' Consort gives up her delaying tactics."
"It's not only the dynasty here but back in Carolingian too. It's worse now that the Minister of War is undecided on whether to go in favor of his grandson, as the new Commander and support the new regime indirectly, or to continue in support of the present monarch for stability. War on the horizon is never good for business and some of my contacts are leery of me dealing in politics at all."
"Agreed, war is no good but we must convince our business partners that it wont affect the future between us," the Matriarch El Mahdy said as she poured herself a cup and began sipping lazily. "My husband has a brain for efficiency and has tidied up any loose, extraneous expenses. You may have to do the same in preparation. This could open up more options for us in the future even as some of our doors close. We'll send you a majority of our contacts before you leave this evening. Even then, I would suggest expanding your network into the Zhuong."
Castillo Reviere leaned forward. "Speaking of the Zhuong, did you hear there's a territory battle between Akira Lin and the Ambassador?"
"I did hear that factions are running into conflicts openly," the Matriarch tsked. "The man used to be subtle in his approach but has suddenly gotten loud and overt. It's not an accident."
"The question is whose attention is he trying to gain."
"The Jiaozhi Dynasty, of course."
The two sighed.
"An inscrutable force," Reviere added. "The Emperor isn't one to deal in niceties and fluff. And he hates the corruption of those like Akira Lin the most. It only weakens his great imperial expansion."
"There's a well of untapped wealth and power to be found there but Akira Lin has essentially traded his feet for his hands in all of his work," the Matriarch said then. "I have distant relatives there. Essentially deserters from the third wave when the residence was purged. My family estranged but I am of the opinion that they made the proper decision when push comes to shove, the bloodline comes first. You understand?"
Castillo Reviere leaned forward. "You wish for me to take advantage of our familial connection then?"
"Yes and use it to bargain with Akira Lin," Matriarch El Mahdy warned, "but don't speak as a merchant would, as if you're the only option he has. The man is a rat with fifty tails."
"And who are the families?"
"The Gowdru, specifically, Navani Gowdru is the alpha daughter of a cousin of mine. Even though they live outside of the Zhuong, their business dealings with the Empire is found in nearly every shop."
"Don't they specialize in cosmetics and carpets? I've heard of their work. Navani is said to be an acumen of buildings too. Her own home a fantastic marvel of angles and rooms for a smaller plot of land. It would work well on the lands being retaken."
"Since you brought it up first, how well is that project going?" The Matariarch asked as she filled both their empty jugs with more alcohol, folded some bread and began dipping it in the sauces, eating eagerly as though whatever weight had laid on her mind had been laid to rest. "The Campgrounds have been busy without break, it seems."
"The recent delays led to a late induction for the new recruits but the land being retaken has already shown promise with Princess Jata Niara rebuilding on it as an example of proof," Castillo Reviere laughed then. "It's quite clever to use the retaken land and repurpose the old infrastructure of previous Carolingian emperors into something of our own people's work."
Chuli had only met Castillo Reviere once before but had never heard him so candid. She thought his facade as an authentic civilian of the Sonhrai Empire was fake and subterfuge but perhaps his "obvious" allegiance was the real facade.
"Now that I think of it," Reviere adds and then begins eating with a similar energy to the Matriarch, "the housing of the Campgrounds barracks has always looked strange to me. Is it a remnant of an El Mahdy relative's work?"
The Matriarch sighed. "Unfortunately. The Empress will never trust our family for the way we let the Carolingian Empire ease into that territory with comfort. Her childhood struggles against despotic ministers like my grandmother didn't help matters."
"Your grandmother was--?"
"Sekhmet."
Castillo's expression was of shock and awe. Even Chuli had heard the legends of the warrior Sekhmet, who likened herself like an avatar of the true goddess she was named after.
"I don't understand. How could she have been despotic? She's a hero and the only one who held the Carolingian Empire at bay for nearly a century!"
"The woman my grandmother was, was vicious, not only a prodigy of war, but a prodigy of the alchemical sciences," the elder woman lowered her voice. "She believed she would've been powerful and skilled even if she had been born an omega. Her arguments and assertions are why the Empress enforces the rule of male alphas so much in this dynasty. It's to repel the assertions of my grandmother that designations are injuries and not amputations."
"I can't even begin to understand what that means."
The Matriarch stood up and walked to the end of the room where a table with a hidden stack of books were. She rifled around before finding a handwritten, bound book and placed it in front of Castillo.
"Go to page one hundred and four," she told him even as his bewildered expression slowed him down. "It's a good read, I promise."
Castillo flips open the book and then begins to read, "The lack of proper definitions and alignments of societal propositions has led me to believe that designations are the result of a change within our ancestors long ago. But what could have prompted such a thing? Why would such a thing occur? It has come to my attention throughout the many battles I've had in and around the world, and as we know it, we know little to nothing about the world we live in. We squander our futures to the confinements of our designations and then ask, 'What else am I to do?' but I prithee that we ask ourselves, why else are we here but to keep the order of ourselves and hope that our designations can follow."
"My grandmother bemoaned the acts of circumcision, especially among female omegas," the Matriarch added. "I am one of the few, if not the only, still living who remember there was a rumor that Shlaweya was born an omega and her betrothed was born an alpha. But because the Agbani listened to my grandmother and refused to have her vestigial folds of a cock removed, she was able to change herself. Nowadays, they don't call it circumcision or anything at all because it is always done. Female omegas have this piece removed and the child is none the wiser."
"I don't believe it," Castillo said and closed the book with disbelief coloring his words. "It's not possible."
"Even if it were true, there's no way to prove it, except," the El Mahdy Matriarch lowered her voice again, her drunkenness becoming more apparent, "if we caught the Sulabha of Madurai naked. My grandmother's book says an alpha's cock never disappears with the designation. And secondly, there's a rumor that the Sulabha of Madurai had a daughter out of wedlock with an omega."
Chuli blinked as she tried harder to catch their words. These rumors sounded too much like the ramblings of a drunken elder but finding out if there was a daughter should be easy to find out. She heard the sound of people shouting outside and then guards raising their voices.
"What are they saying out there?"
One of the guards trail out and she follows him, motioning for the third guard to stay behind, as she pretends to follow him through the halls, breaking off to slide out through a window of the residence. She landed outside in the sand as the voice increase in volume.
"Someone stole the guard's armor!"
"Where? Find them?!"
Her running sped up as she heard their panic increase until she reached her horse hitched out around a well-covered shrubbery. Their voices caught on to the noises of her horse. Hooking her legs around, she clicked her tongue and was back off into the desert to find out if Akira Lin knew anything about what she found out.
Hammid clutched his hand under his belly as Ari shared a look with him and their servants helped them stand. His omega stepfather hushed his baby sister while Behenu clutched his legs speaking in garbled tongues. The other omega in the room sat in the corner with his own baby cradled in his arms sleeping with drool falling out the corner of his mouth.
At one point, he had been furious with his mother but he understood now as the hearth kept the room warm and there was a muffled quiet in the air, even with the yelling outside.
Castillo swept into the room, grabbing them both with each arm, his thumb rubbing against their bellies as his eyes switched between them in worry. "Are you both safe?"
Ari sighed and nodded.
"Did you see what it was?" he asked, tossing his braids over his shoulder. "The voices sounded concerned.
"Someone snuck in during the conversation between me and your mother, but," Castillo paused. "Your mother doesn't seem concerned."
Hammid's finger flattened his furrowed brow and said, "Then we shouldn't be concerned."
"The conversation we had was--" his words were cut off by Hammid's fingers.
Hammid repeated, "If mother isn't worried, then we shouldn't be concerned."
The servants led them to their rooms, where his former living space was, and it was replaced with a much larger bed, lush blankets, cushions. The guards outside her door wore armor and although they had always been armed--the armor was new..
Ari yawned before he shuffled off to bed and a servant poured him a nice fruit tea as their husband slid into the cushion, built with a solid backing, beside him. Where Ari was small, Hammid was tall. Where Ari had short, loose curls, Hammid had thick hair twisted into braids trailing down his back. Where Ari was prone to short bursts of anger, Hammid carried a cool temperament. They were like the sun and the moon but the one thing they had in common was to keep their family's bond tight, without weakness.
This visit was more about strengthening the ties between their families as a front to ward off adversaries who seemed to think that with the Empress' ire, they were too weak to protect themselves.
It was good to prove them wrong with pregnant omegas and healthy heirs proof that their family was going strong.
The twinkling stars of the night sky peered down at them and he leaned back while rubbing his belly. He could feel them squirming as if it weren't already night and then felt his husband tuck in behind him with his stubble nuzzling against his cheek.
"Can I admit," Castillo's accent rolled off his tongue into his ear as he said, "I am concerned."
He pulled his husband's lips pressing into his own as he said, "It's fine to be concerned but if an answer can't be found--"
"I know," Castillo said as their lips met again, with his heavy hands now cupping underneath his waist, pulling him up as he stood. "I know."
Any thoughts of the guards and the El Mahdy family slipped his mind as Castillo folded his hands over his own and against the wall, his body arching over his as the moonlight fluttered over their bodies. Kisses trailed against his neck as his husband said, "We should make our move at the wedding tomorrow." and his cock bumped against his ass, hands now squeezing at his chest. He already carried a handkerchief in hand to dab at his wet chest while his other hand cradled underneath his belly, trailing his kisses from one side of his nape to the other.
"You're bribing me."
"Is it working?"
He groaned as Castillo lifted up his robes and wrapped them around his waist, out the way, before sliding his cock in, and rolling his hips before he struck his insides with a tingle that shakes right into his center.
"What--what do you want us to--?" he said as Castillo's sack smacked into his ass and his cock filled him. His husband's hands fell over his own against the wall again as he thrusted with earnest, the sound of his sack smacking echoed in the room as his head swung. He bit his lip from groaning any louder but Castillo thrusted his tongue between them, tasting, licking his inside.
Castillo loosened his grip before pulling the man around, his sapphire like sable skin shimmered as he gently let the wall hold him up as his kisses trailed around his collar before lifting him up and bouncing him on his cock as Hammid loosely wrapped his arms around his neck. His hands bruising his ass as his grip tightened and he could feel his husband's cock drag in and out of his body. He whimpered as his head slid back against the wall with every drawn thrust until he felt his insides splash with cum and Castillo's cock dripped out, his hands lowered him back to the floor before his lips drew more kisses from his lips.
His fingers brushed back his husband's hair from over his brow and sweat dripping down his temple, before he added, "Whatever has you worried, you know that we can protect ourselves."
His husband's kisses drew down to his belly thumbing both sides as he kneeled in front of him. Hammid had never seen him so worried.
What did his mother say?
"Have you ever been angry with me?"
Hammid's palm covered Castillo's over his belly and said, "All the time but never seriously and never for long."
"I've been indecisive, haven't I?"
"Quite a bit," he pointed out. "But you're also rather clever. It helps."
"I've been drawing up plans for our children's education," Castillo said still from his kneeling and then hushed against his stomach when he felt them squirming. "Omega or alpha, boy or girl, I want them healthy and the opportunity for a long life."
"You're already a good father," Hammid consoled with his palms rubbing over Castillo's. "Is that what has you worried?"
"I just--I don't want things to repeat themselves."
"Stand up and face me," he said while tapping his husband's wrists. The kneeling man stood up and although there wasn't a tear in his eye, he could see a waver in his iris, like a mirage in the heat. He looked up at his husband's leaning form. "You don't want us to go to the wedding, do you?"
"No, I--"his voice broke off.
"Okay," Hammid wrapped his arms around his shoulder. "Okay, we'll stay here at the residence. I'll have a number of messengers along the route so we can send missives quickly."
He heard rumors from the Carolingians this past season about the Massacre of Reviere Manor, as they called it. Castillo never spoke a word of it other than to say their family is his family and his family is them. Little tidbits of the rumors always said the same thing, though, that it was done in the middle of the night after his sister's wedding. No one knew who or why it was done. And the only reason he survived was that he was found drunk outside by the horses that evening with his friend,
Their voices, however whispered, must've woken up Ari who slid out of bed and said, "Is everything alright?" with his sleeping robes tucked around him.
Castillo sighed. "It's fine."
"He's worried something will happen to us at the wedding tomorrow," Hammid said and then tried to signal to the other that it was in relation to the thing they couldn't talk about. "He wants us to stay home and I said I'm fine with that."
"Well," Ari added with his hand on his back and his other holding his belly. "I'm too fat to walk all the way through the palace either way."
"I'm sorry," Castillo said as he sat down on the cold, granite flooring. "I think it'll take some time before I can--"
Ari lowered to his knees with a bit of Castillo's help and began massaging his shoulders with pinched fingers. He turned away from the two and went to the door to whisper to the servants waiting to bring hot towels and body oil.
It didn't take long before the two spouses undressed Castillo, led him to the rather large bed, and massaged soothing, restful oils into his body with the scents of grapefruits. The warm towels draped over his shoulders as they massaged his body with knuckles and pinched fingers until his tense body loosened with a sigh. Ari leaned over and began trailing kisses along his neck and into his mouth while he slid his hand over his husband's hip and straight to his cock fisting it in slow, twisting pulls. Ari's hands reached over and began groping his sack before sucking Castillo's cock in his mouth as Hammid continued to fist the rest. He sucked him in and out of his mouth paced and unrushed as Castillo moaned underneath them. As Ari's sucking sped up and spit coated his cock, Hammid's fisting tightened until he could hear Ari's muffled swallowing as Castillo released with a sigh.
The two snuggled up to his sides as his body held up just enough of their belly to make room and sleep comfortably for the night.
When they woke up, Castillo greeted them with a kiss before he was on his way. They had slept through most of the morning.
With their food settled at the table, and the quiet lack of Castillo, Hammid said, "Do you think it's strange? The situation with your brother."
"I think it's strange that Berman died so easily," Ari huffed before shoving a pastry in his mouth. "I find it convenient but I'm also aware we weren't the only ones who had grief with him. I only wonder if my brother is safe."
"My brother gave word that his husband's family could look into it but--"
Ari nodded. "It seems like a trap."
"It does," Hammid sighed as he began to spoon his soup into his mouth. The taste was rich and textured. "I think it's bigger than us, whatever this is."
"Do you think Castillo is safe?"
"Mother is there," he replied. "Even if everything falls apart, she'll find a way to escape and bring our husband back."
Ari nodded slowly.
Perhaps he was lucky to have never known what it's like to lose your entire family but now he hoped that even if he did that it wasn't until he was too old to care or too far away to know.