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“Wikhn, what did you do?” The words came out in a horrified whisper as Dahlia’s golden eyes scanned him, searching for some sign that what her magic sensed was wrong.
He felt his nerves spike, the volatile emotions fraying at the edges of his control—exponentially more difficult to maintain since he forced the shift to Joker. Wikhn hadn’t told Dahlia what to expect when he requested they meet in an empty training room, but he had assumed she would have some idea. Her reaction now was telling him otherwise.
Wikhn swallowed back his uncertainty and gave Dahlia a short nod, confirming what her senses were telling her. She would understand. She had to.
“Please.” It was the only thing he could force through his tightening throat, and Wikhn silently urged Dahlia to understand why. To accept what he was offering.
“Wik—“ her voice broke on the word, as though it wasn’t his name but a plea, a prayer that what she was seeing wasn’t real. Wikhn felt his heart rate increase, the pounding impossibly loud as his stomach twisted. Every sensation in his body felt elevated, sharper, since his rank shift. Still, he persisted.
“You know me, Dahlia. You had to know I wouldn't be able to just find another Ace. It took years of training together and building trust before I was comfortable enough with your leadership, with your bite. I couldn’t do it again, Ace. I couldn’t.”
“I’m not your Ace, Wikhn.” Her voice was stern, no longer full of suppressed horror but instead flat with resignation and a forced calm. Wikhn was quick to correct himself.
“Alpha. I know, it’s Alpha now. I’m sorry. Once we bond, it’ll get easier. Right now my magic still knows you as my Ace.”
“We can’t bond, Wik.” The bottom dropped out of the Dark Fae’s stomach. He must have misheard.
“What.”
“Wikhn, you don’t get it. I’ve only been Alpha for a few months and I’m already responsible for 26 bonded. I can’t take on a newly rank-changed Joker right now…”
Wikhn felt the world tip on its axis as Dahlia continued to try to explain her reasoning to him. The blood rushing in his ears drowned out the words and a red haze began to creep in at the corners of his vision.
“I know this was hard for you, but I can’t believe you made this irrevocable change without talking to me first…”
His fangs pulsed at his gums as he tried to keep them from extending, teeth grinding as the urge to sink them into something—someone—began to burn in his throat.
They had a soulbond. He hadn’t thought he needed to speak with her first, it seemed obvious to him. Wikhn had always had the capacity to shift Joker. He had nearly tipped over the edge half a dozen times under his first Ace. Finding Dahlia, learning to trust again, forming a strong Gheyic triad with her and Mimei—it had saved him. She had made him feel safe as a King. She had taught him to believe he could be happy there.
He had even forced himself to open up and connect with Dyshoka, after Dahlia began courting the pretty Beta. He wouldn’t have believed it possible before, when he was nothing but a half-feral refugee covered in bite scars and the blood of his previous Ace. In more than one way, Dahlia’s leadership and love had literally saved him.
…Was it love?
When he hadn’t been called by Shayla’s soulscream, Wikhn had felt like his heart was cracking in his chest. The previous fault lines and chips burned anew, as he watched the people he loved join a circle that he wasn’t part of. The thread of the potential bond between him and Dahlia was the only thing that had kept him from shattering completely.
Wikhn had clung to the hope, the promise, of that bond as his magic surged and raged within him. As he threw himself into increasingly dangerous cage matches, pushing himself to the very threshold of his being—and then beyond it. As Dark Fae, he was no stranger to the wild magic of the Joker rank, and the increased bloodlust fell right in line with some of his darker instincts.
Shifting Joker and bonding directly to Dahlia made sense. It was the only thing that made sense. How could she not see that?
Sharp claws raked furrows in his forearms as he turned them on himself to avoid lashing out.
“See! Your instincts need time and training to settle into your new rank and I just don’t have the capacity for that right now, Wikhn.”
It felt like his heart was shredding itself inside the cage of his ribs. His very soul screamed for the bond that had been hovering just out of reach, ready to click into place as soon as it was acknowledged.
“So, what?” he growled. “Was I just supposed to wait until it was a convenient time for you? Schedule my rank shift for when it was most convenient and just float around the Pits as a loan King until then?” The loneliness stung like ice just imagining it.
“That would have been the smart thing to do,” Dahlia snapped back, scales rippling up her arms in response to his tone. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that the person I had dedicated twelve years of my life to, the one I trust above all others, the one who implied they loved me the way I love them, the one I have an open soul-bond with, would have told me if she didn’t want to bond!”
He heaved in a ragged breath, holding onto his fraying control with the tips of his claws.
“You’ve been implying we would bond for years now, Dahlia!”
“Stop it!” she growled, voice weighted with the authority of an Alpha. “You’re being selfish. It’s not just about you.”
Hurt lanced through his chest, sharper than a blade. “Selfish?”
“Yes, selfish. You know I have a reputation, a legacy, to uphold. And Shayla is the Air Clan Heiress, chosen by Portgas themself. I don't even know if I want to bond with a Joker.”
Something inside Wikhn tore, like a worn flexisuit ripping at the seams mid-maneuver.
Wikhn had always known that Dahlia took her responsibilities seriously, that she valued the legacy that came with being the only Gheyo child of two Blood Titles. But he never thought it would matter more to her than her people.
Or maybe it was just more important than him.
Wikhn felt as if the very ground had disappeared from beneath his feet. The red lingering at the edges of his vision spread into a haze across his mind as his fangs fully dropped and sharp claws turned outwards. He barely kept himself from lunging at her as his bloodlust surged in response to the betrayal. The shadows began to bubble and writhe around him as Wik let out a deep, bone rattling growl.
“That is enough! Stand down, Joker!” Dahlia let her Alpha aura flare and her physical body grew to match Wikhn in height. He could feel the weight of her magic pushing down on his shoulders, trying to force him to the ground.
The part of Wikhn that was Joker roared in protest. How dare she try to control him now? She had already made it clear she did not want to be his Alpha.
What right did she have to claim authority over him anymore?
He lunged.