I Can’t Do That

AT the table in his office, a standard alpha, with white locs—an undercut style of hair, light skin, soft gray eyes, and appearing to be in his late twenties, sat opposite Valeric with his elbows resting on the desk and his palms cupping his cheek. He was staring intently. 

"Hiss, there is something different about you today. I'm not sure if it's those usual dark clouds I can't see above your head today. Something isn't very right with you."  

"Spill it, Valeric." A grin stretched across his face. "What happened?"

"I got a wife." 

"A wife?" he chuckled. "That's funny. Can you be serious with—wait, wait, wait!" His eyes widened, and he slammed his hands on the table, getting up from his seat. "Y-y-you got a wife? You got married? And I wasn't invited?"  

He gasped dramatically, putting a hand to his chest as if he were about to collapse. "How could you, Valeric? What are we brothers for? I'm the only one you have. I've been here and quenched your loneliness with my charismatic nature, and you couldn't invite me?" 

"That hurts!" 

Valeric still didn't give him the attention he was seeking. He was rather flipping through his documents and leaving his signatures on them. 

A dissatisfied look crossed the man's face. "You know what? I'm going to go home, and I'm going to have a warm bath and sleep. Goodbye!" He stormed to the door to leave but rushed back in a second. "Tell me who it is, though." 

He held a smile with his hands cupped. His eyes were twinkling.

"Are you done with your drama?" Valeric asked lazily.  

The man batted his white lashes at him, his smile stretching wider. "Yes, I am."  

"Good."  

"So, who is she?" He was curious. "I thought you weren't going to allow any other omega to walk into-"  

"Ferguson," Valeric said.  

The man tilted his head in perplexity. "The Ferguson family. The ones that own one of those renowned empires?" 

"Yes." 

"Oh? Which of the daughters did you choose? I know he has two-"

"Three." 

"Huh?"  

"He has three daughters," Valeric clarified. "I chose the least known." 

A frown settled on the man's brows, and he sat back in his seat. "I've never heard of the third daughter. I was only aware he has two daughters. The blonde and the brunette."  

"She's not the third daughter," he corrected. "She is the middle daughter." 

"Okay… You seem to know her quite well. Unusual." The man gave a curt nod and cleared his throat. "What is she? A beta? It would only make sense why she isn't known. Betas aren't important, so I'm sure the family saw no need to present-" 

"She's a recessive omega."  

"What?" 

A soft yet foreign intake of breath floated through the air. "Are you deaf?" 

"Val! She's a recessive omega?" The man betrayed no emotion, but his fingers twitched anxiously. "What do you think you're doing? Why a useless recessive omega? She's worth nothing for you to do this!" 

Valeric winced, his eyes flashing dangerously. His hand shot out, and before the man could evade his touch, he snatched him by a chunk of his white locs and slammed his face into the glass table. 

"What do you think you know about my wife?!" 

The man's face collided with the table, and it shattered into pieces. His nose cracked and bled, and the bitter iron taste of blood suffused through his mouth. 

He grasped Valeric's wrist tightly, but with even more bitterness, he realized that he could not tug his grip off. He was merely a standard alpha, after all. How was he ever supposed to win?  

"Valeric, let go!" 

A deep sigh rumbled through the air. "You better watch your fucking mouth, Nix," Valeric whispered, looking up at the ceiling with a dark gaze. 

The man, Nix, escaped from his grip and pulled out a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his white suit to clean his nose. "What has gotten into you? I only spoke the truth, and you know it. Everyone knows it!"  

"What were you thinking marrying a recessive omega? It's not as if there is a scarcity of pure omegas." 

"It is none of your business." Valeric rubbed his chin and fixed the half mask he wore. 

"None of my business?" Nix asked while wiping off his blood-covered face. "Do you even realize what you've done?" 

He raised an eyebrow. 

"Why did you do this?" Nix continued. "What if he finds out? What if he already knows? He will hurt her, and you know-"

Valeric snatched him by the neck and shot up from his seat. "I. Will. Kill. Him." 

"What? Val, let…go-"  

"I will kill him, Nix." His lips split into a light-devouring grin, his grip tightening around the base of the man's neck. "If he dares touch her, I will kill him. I will burn him!"  

The more he spoke, the darker and darker his eyes grew. "This is where it ends. He won't get the chance to fuck with me again." He let go.

"Valeric, snap out of it!" Nix choked out and coughed frantically, his vision spinning for a second. "He may not do anything if you'd chosen a pure omega, but you took a recessive omega. He hates them, and he will never overlook it, you know that. You knew that in the first place, why did you still choose her?"  

"You want to protect her this much, so why?" His teeth ground in frustration. "And what will you do now? What about the girl? She doesn't know, does she?" 

Valeric's knuckles cracked sharply and his nails dug into his palms. "You think I'm going to tell her? She's frightened by me, and she thinks I'm going to hurt her. It'd clouded her head, so even if I were to tell her I wouldn't a put a finger on her and that I didn't hurt those..." 

He breathed. 

"I think it's better for you to end this now, Valeric," Nix suggested. "Let the girl go now that he doesn't know of her existence." 

"I can't do that!" Valeric stated, darkly.