*Omario’s POV*
Terrence and I are racing back to the castle. I’m still impressed at how fast he gets and I can’t shake the feeling that he actually holds himself back to let me lead.
He probably knows that he is different, but I wonder if he knows who he really is. If he knows, has he told Abi about it?
Thinking about Abi completely messes up my thought process. I’m addicted to that woman. I can’t wait for her to hear what we accomplished today.
“I know you miss her, but you gonna at least talk to me until we get home otherwise I’m never accompanying you again,” Terrence complains.
I didn’t realise that I have been quite for a long time.
“Terrence, you realise that as my Beta, accompanying me is part of your job, right?” I ask but the truth is, Terrence can never in a million years be answerable to me. He is, by the virtue of what he is, the ultimate Alpha here.
“Yes, but there’s three of us. You could have taken your pompous bestie.”
I shake my head. He has never liked Floyd and does not hide it.
“He means well, really.”
Him and Abi just don’t know Floyd the way I know him. He has been there for me like a sibling. He was always the voice of reason when Oli and I fell apart.
Terrence laughs. He thinks I do not see Floyd’s true colours because I’m blinded by a longstanding friendship between us.
“He might come out as arrogant but he is one of the kindest man I know,”I explain but Terrence blushes me off.
“You better keep your kindest man distant from your blazing mate, because you might burry him soon,” he warns and I sigh, knowing too well what he means.
Floyd seems to rub Abi the wrong way. Nina has, in her very colourful choice of words told me that she would not hesitate getting rid of him if Abi ever lets her. Still, I can only hope that they grow on each other but until then, Terrence’s advice to keep my best friend from my mate is safer.
We are at the castle gate when we see the smoke and hairs on the back of my neck rise. I shift into my human form and rushing inside when Oli comes running in my arms, hysterical.
I freeze, utterly shocked. She and I have not seen or spoken to each other since the day I broke things off with her. What the hell is she doing here?
Floyd shows up at that moment. I look at him for explanation.
“You asked me to help you sort out the servant’s issue. I brought Oli in and we actually solved it but your Luna has gone crazy,” Floyd says and continues to explain how he solved the ‘servants problem’.
“She.. she burst into flames and almost killed us. She is insane,” Oli says and trembles against me.
My heart sinks as I peel Oli off me. Listening to the manner she and Floyd speak of my mate is raising an uncomfortable feeling inside me. Terrence is already ballistic.
I have failed Abi if anyone can come to me and say these things about her.
“You are right about that. Keeps this up and you will lose her,” Terrence warns. He is standing a distance away from us because he can’t stand both these two, but he is in my head. I ignore Terrence and address Floyd instead.
“You thought bringing in my ex and talking to the servants without passing that through me was a good idea?”
Floyd drops his head and shrugs his shoulders. “It is the best solution for the kingdom but I knew that you would not have it in you to turn your mate down.”
“Ha! Your bestie has no confidence in you,” Terrence smirks, but I’m fuming now.
“Excuse me?”
“Look, Rio, I mean no disrespect but she is stuck in s slave mentality and she has you eating from the palm of her hand. Back paying all the slaves will send us into recession, man,” Floyd continues right before my fist lands on his jaw and he blacks out.
He is really lucky that I still had a bit of self control to minimise the blow or he would be dead.
“Rio!” Oli cries and runs to his side.
“Get him the fuck out of here and tell him that he is fired as my Beta.”
“You can’t be serious!” she exclaims in disbelief.
“I am deadly serious and I will kill him if I ever hear him disrespecting my Luna like that again. That applies to you too!”
I can’t believe that Abi was once again right and I refused to believe her again.
I can feel her pounding heart way before I knock and open the door.
She is mad as hell and I get it, but I’m frustrated by her refusal to talk and even look at me.
“Look at me, Abigail!” I yell and she finally turns with her eyes blazing at me.
“I did not send Floyd and Oli to do what they did.”
She just stares at me and it hurts that she would actually believe that I would handle our servants like that.
I give her the document Terrence, I and the accountant spent the whole day drafting.
“Take this and I am resigning as the Alpha with immediate effect.”
“What?”
“You have no faith in me, Abigail. You do not trust that I will be just and you have no confidence in my leadership. I will be your mate because I love you, but you are gonna have to lead alone from now on.”
I storm out and leave her standing there, flabbergasted.
She and I are from completely different backgrounds. I was the privileged one while she was stripped off her identity and enslaved. She obviously understands the struggles of the disadvantaged people of our kingdom better than me. They also, as expected, trust her more than me. She is the only one who can bridge the trust between me and the people we are trying to compensate. I can not do that if she, herself does not trust me.
“Omario!”