Chapter Eighty One

C O N V E R S A T I O N : MORNING AFTER

 

Seth felt like his legs were numb.

He looked at Osiris. He looked near death. He was pale, skinner than three days ago, and- Seth smelled his breath. It smelled sweet. On his neck, angry and proud, was his bite.

Seth lifted his own hand and cringed at the pain in his neck as he touched it.

He pulled it back and it was covered in blood.

“…..”

He summoned the Doctor.

 

“You rang- holy shit it’s only been a day.” Dain held his jaw with a few fingers covering his mouth. “I see he stayed.”

Seth looked like he killed him.

Dain walked up and Seth hissed at him.

“Show me him.”

Dain waited for the Emperor to bring his body to him. Now that they were actually mated, he needs to treat them a bit differently.

Damn this job sometimes.

He has been in their family for… three generations now, his children being the third. They gave him a simple life, and he just has to manage their symptoms. But they were still a pain in the ass to deal with.

Seth laid the boy gently in front of him, even covering his lower bits. Dain lifted his eyelids and started to inspect him. He was dehydrated, starving, and suffering from blood loss.

“He’s dehydrated, starving, and suffering from blood loss.”

“What should I do?”

Dain paused.

That little brat is finally changing.

Dain can only hope he doesn’t turn out like his father. Cleaning up his messes after he was done with his wife was always troublesome.

No matter the medication that Emperor used, he still hurt her each and every time. Dain started to look over the rest of the Prince's body.

The blood loss was from his neck, everything else was slightly bruised and irritated. Dain looked at Seth’s neck. A chunk of it was missing.

“…”

Maybe they both were going to be troublesome this time around. The strong always mate rough. He should know, his wife is a beastman.

“Next time make sure he’s eaten, at the very least.”

Seth looked at him then to the boy, then back.

“How long were we…..”

“A day.”

His eyebrows pinched and he looked to Osiris before something clicked. He looked even guiltier.

“I’ll leave meds for him, and you as well.”

Dain motioned Seth over next.

“Stay in that form. You’ll heal faster.”

He nodded. He looked him over and he was fine.

“Talk to him, please. If I have to do it again I’m revoking your rights as a mate.”

Seth cringed but nodded.

“Good. And your kids are worried.”

“They always are.”

“They got that from their mother. Anyways, talk to him, feed him, bathe him, and dress his wounds. Explain the bond to him.”

Dain put their goods on the bed and gave a flat faces salute.

“Call me if you kill him.”

And he left.

 

“…..”

Osiris was snoring softly beside him as he sat hunched over a propped up knee. His daughter calls it one of his ghetto poses, but right now it feels like a ball and chain. He forgot to feed him.

He isn’t a damn pet, Seth.

Ever since he found out Osiris is his obsession he’s tried to keep him in this room like a prisoner.

And he’s let him.

“….”

Seth is an idiot.

He grit his teeth. There were times in the war were it felt like Osiris was flirting with him. So many obvious cues, and Seth was the only one who didn’t know.

 

‘If only you meant it.’

 

His heart jumped up and down his body. He’s wanted him from the start and he- Even in that moment Seth should have known. He gave him his damn staff of all things. Instead he-

Seth ripped at his hair and pushed a palm painfully in his eye. With his free eye he glared at Osiris, but he wasn’t mad at him. Or maybe he was. That fool also stayed. Osiris should have never stayed with him.

Not after he killed him.

His throat filled with bile.

He killed him that mana storm filled day.

His face will haunt me until the day I die.

He looked completely lost and-

Seth felt something grab his wrist.

He looked down.

“You’re awake?”

“No.”

Seth gently laid beside him and pulled him to chest. He went willingly and freely, body completely trusting him, not a tense muscle in sight.

Seth frowned on top of his head.

He really shouldn’t have stayed with me.

Seth kissed his head.

He thought I liked women, but he still stayed WHY-

“Sleep.”

“…..”

“Okay.”

.
.

Seth was the first to wake, he could feel him start to rouse as the sun hit the bed. Osiris could feel his skin irritate from it.

White skin was something he had to learn to bare. Not a drop of melanin to stop the sun from licking him dry. The irony has not left him since.

But the weather here was usually gloomy, so he let it go this one time.

“I’ll get us breakfast.”

Seth kissed him and got off the bed.

Osiris dozed off again.

 

Seth placed an array of food on the coffee table as he waited for Osiris to wake up. He didn’t have to wait long before Osiris sat straight up and singled out the food in an instant. Seth stood to go carry him, but he had no trouble and came to sit himself.

He looked happy.

Seth felt a bit of his chest relax.

“Good morning.”

He looked at him like he just recognized him.

“M-Ning!”

He talks with his mouth full.

Seth picked up his own plate and started to eat. Osiris’s eyes lit up a little and he ate with a bit more vigor. Seth felt his shoulders unpinch.

Osiris ate a few plates before he sat back and sighed happily. Seth pinched his brows. Usually he eats-

“So, you wanted to talk?”

 

Seth looked at him like he cheated on him.

“..”

“I’m not sure where to start.”

So he’s been worried since last night.

“What, it’s not like you have other wives or something, right?”

He became as white as a sheet.

“..”

Did he have a harem or something? I thought he had a wife? Isabella never mentioned-

“P-Please let me explain.”

“..”

He was floundering.

Osiris decided to play along and look slightly upset. Seth actually bowed his head a bit.

Heat pooled in his gut.

“Explain.”

Seth looked like he wanted to hold him, instead he griped the armrest and cracked the wood.

“Everyone I’ve married is under a strict contract. When Anat was alive I was loyal only to her.”

“How can I believe you.”

“I only slept with three of them after Anat passed.”

Osiris let up a bit.

He was just messing with him, but he wasn’t looking at his face, so he can’t tell.

“So what kind of contracts?”

Osiris was very aware that Seth couldn’t cheat, even if he wanted to at this point. The euphoria Osiris feels over this control should be illegal.

He jumped on the change of topic.

“They are offerings from locals of the land. I simply keep them happy and they maintain the land. They are all free to do as they please.”

“Do they live here?”

“…..”

He nodded.

So concubines. Huh.

“Show me the ones you’ve fucked.”

He summoned six pieces of paper out of thin air.

“..”

Is he giving a presentation or something?

“Youngest.”

Osiris held out his hand. Seth handed him two pieces of paper. One was an image, other a bio.

She was a soldier.

Like Anat, she had a boxy frame, sharp squared muscles, but her face was a bit more masculine with a scar over her right eye, and a smaller one across her nose. Penelope was thirty two and very much a woman.

“Next.”

Osiris made sure Seth could not see his face as he looked them over. If he was honest, he was still a bit worried Seth would change his mind one day, or, at the very least, regret it when he can’t..

Eloise was ninety six and of elven descent.

She was very endowed. She had to be at least a double D or F. He wasn’t sure, he wasn’t that well versed in tit sizes.

But those back problems.

She was softer than both Anat and Penelope with light green hair and green eyes. She had a very kind looking face, like a caretaker. She was beautiful.

“Last.”

Seth handed him Verity, forty six.

She was human, and very mature. She had wide shoulders and hips, with a tiny little waist.

An hourglass.

She had a few age lines, and a sharper face. She wasn’t as big chested as Eloise, but she was still very curvy.

“..”

Osiris looked at his body. He-

Seth shoved the papers away and crushed him with a hug.

“What?”

“I’m sorry.”

Osiris looked at him confused. Seth somehow saw his face?

“It’s the bond.”

Osiris startled.

“The bond?”

Shit, I forgot to ask.

He felt around his body and found a slight twinge where his bite mark was.

“You’re human, so all you can feel is the pulse that I’m alive.” Seth pulled back and held his face. “I can only feel your emotions when we are in the same room, or area. If you left anywhere, like you, I will only feel the pulse that you are alive. We will both know if the other dies.”

It still made him feel uneasy.

This means he’ll see everything.

His hearts started to race.

I won’t be able to hide anything from him, maybe I, he’s not going to like how fast they change-

“I can't read them all that well, so it’s going to take time, so please don’t be mad.”

He was mad?

Osiris scrunched his nose before sighing.

“You’re going to have a hard time with that. I get mad for everything, including myself.”

He just held him.

Osiris hugged him back.

“I have a lot of problems.”

“I don’t care.”

“I can’t have kids.”

“That’s okay.”

“What if you change your mind?”

“I won’t.”

Osiris frowned.

“I’m not always like this, I promise.”

“I’ve seen you kill people, I know.”

Osiris laughed.

“Right, I forget.”

“I can kill them if you want.”

 

Seth felt something dark coil in the Prince.

It made him feel a bit better.

At least he’s not feeling like that.

Whatever it was made Seth want to hurt himself. He could tell he was the cause of it.

Seth glanced at the tossed papers. He burned them.

“Maybe later.”

He was back to joking.

Seth relaxed and kissed him.

He responded immediately.

Seth kept it slow and sensual this time as he crowded him on that shitty couch. His hands started to wander.

“I want to hold a banquet to intro-”

“No.”

Seth took that as a firm no. There was zero wiggle room.

“I’m not going to be like anyone you’ve dated before.”

Seth looked into those two colored eyes of his.

He expected no less.

He’s going to fight me the rest of his life-

 

Seth’s mood suddenly plummeted.

Osiris was caught off guard as he suddenly leaned over him and started to have a panic attack.

Osiris jumped from the little mental spiral and tried to look at his face.

If only that bond was two-wayed.

He was starting to hyperventilate.

“Look at me.”

He did.

He was mourning him.

What was their life expectancy again? A thousand years?

“Hey, I’m not dead yet-”

He kissed him.

Osiris let him be and let him smother him with his love. He gasped to try and catch his breath as he started on his neck.

“Both of us can die tomorrow, don’t-”

“I’ll die with you.”

Osiris just scoffed.

“What about your kids?”

“They’re old enough.”

“What if I want you to stay alive.”

“…..”

Osiris had a feeling he wouldn’t listen.

But I’m no better.

He’s done what he could for his kids, and he knows they’d bail on the Kingdom the moment he went missing. He was sure they were fine.

I raised them.

He just needed a little more time here before he does what he needs to do. He’ll be back, but he still has a Kingdom to destroy.

“We can both die together, okay?”

Seth calmed a bit, but his breathing still sounded painful. He didn’t know how to help someone through one, and that included himself. Think.. he misses Sunnie, Vep, and Fibble sometimes. They might know how to help, or at least tell him the steps.

“Who are you thinking about.”

Seth sounded a bit jealous, despite his anxieties.

“My kids.”

He startled and pulled back to look at him.

“You have kids?”

 

I thought he was gay?!

Did that mean he had to worry about women too? Men were already an issue-

“Sunnie, Fibble, and Vep all stuck with me during the first war.”

Aren't they older than him?

“Goss was a treasure goblin we found one day. She’s a guild master now.”

That name sounds familiar.

“And Morpheus was a pup I rescued from Luella.”

That name carried more affection than the rest.

He must really love that one.

Since he now knows they were his kids his jealousy vanished. But he felt guilty for nearly killing them.

“Did you have a lover?”

He laughed like that was a joke.

“Pft, no. Who would date a fa-”

Seth grabbed that jaw and forced his face up.

“Do not talk about yourself that way.”

Osiris shoved his hand away very easily.

 

“I just wasn’t ready at the time.”

He kept his ass celebate and Seth graced him with the light, so the wait felt worthwhile.

Before he met Seth, he planned to go fuck every married man he could find-

“What are you thinking about.”

Osiris raised a brow.

“I’m not going to tell you every thought I have.”

“Why not.”

He laughed.

“Yeah, no. We all need space.”

“I don’t.”

“Yeah, I know.”

The man wasn’t panicking anymore.

“Can I at least introduce you to my men? It will be a bit hard to explain otherwise.”

Osiris looked at his face.

“Are they important to you?”

“Yes.”

“Sure, but you do know they’re going to hate and try to kill me, right?”

His ego tried to dropped.

“Stop it.” He pushed his face as far away as he could. “Get some help. But really.”

“I will need to ask the Doc for more medication.”

“Medication?”

“It’s to keep my snake form at bay.” He looked at the bed before cringing. “With you, it seems like it doesn’t work.”

He felt good about that.

Means I’m special.

“If I ever hurt you-”

“I was the one who won the fight, remember.”

He looked dithery.

“I’m sorry for not noticing your affections.”

Osiris actually crackled at that.

“My affections? I was trying to kill you.” He was flirty in a, if I can’t have you no one can, sort of way. “I mean, I fell in love at first sight, but I knew you wouldn’t stop until you killed me.”

“I didn’t stop until I killed you.”

“And, see, I was right.”

He leaned on him.

“Come on, let’s have some fun, yeah?”

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..
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Seth happily carried him to bed.