The Alpha's Temptation

Though Taiyi had been a mother to Eltanin all his life, she couldn't help but feel immense motherly affection for Felis. She wanted to rake her fingers through his hair and see how they felt. She wanted to smell her son and understand what he smelled like. She knew that inside that burnt, smoky smell, he surely had another one hidden.

Felis gathered his courage to ask, but he had to ask all the important questions first, because he had only one night with her. "Why is it that Eltanin has your magic but I don't? He has inherited your magic, but I haven't. Or is it that it is locked inside of me?"

Taiyi knew why Felis was asking this. She had to tread carefully on his question. "Honestly… I don't know…" she said. She took a deep breath in. "But I thought that you have magic. There are a lot of—" She lowered her head. She wondered if she should even speak about his misdeeds. "There are a lot of stories on how you use your dark magic." Right now she was referring to how he had tried to control Eltanin's beast.

Felis understood what she was saying. He had no reservations in hiding what he wanted. "Yes, I have mastered dark magic, but you of all people should know that when I use my dark magic, it affects me the most."

Taiyi nodded lightly. "I know. So why are you using it?" she asked, cocking her head. "Why not just put an end to all this?"

Anger trickled in his chest. "I know that you are only thinking about your good son, Eltanin. The demigod who awaits his moment to kill me! But why can't you ever think of me, Mother? You didn't even come to meet me once in all these years. Didn't you feel like coming even once? I have so many questions about you. But you didn't have the heart to meet me? If you were so scared of coming to Hydra, you could have called me!" Felis drew in a ragged breath after he poured his anger on her.

Taiyi raised an eyebrow at his outburst. She swallowed her saliva down and rose to her feet. She walked up to him and rounded him to stand behind him. She was dying to feel her son. So, she put her fingers in his hair and stroked his head affectionately. Felis stiffened at this contact. He never allowed anyone to touch him other than when he had sexual urges and that too was done without allowing others to touch him.

"Felis," Taiyi said as she felt his silky black hair in her fingers. "There was not a day when I didn't think about you. I had even sent messages to your father asking if he would allow me to see you even if it was for once, but I believe Ukdah never conveyed my messages to you and he didn't let me meet you." She bent down and kissed the crown of his head.

Felis froze to his spot. He never expected his mother to come near him because he thought he was just too ugly for her, but she kissed him now, throwing him into a swirl of wild emotions. He felt… wanted, against feeling abandoned.

Taiyi continued, "We have all night for your questions, and then some more. Ask away whatever you want to. I will reply to them." She walked back to the bed where she was sitting and sat down. "Come here," she said to him with a beautiful smile.

Entranced, Felis got up and came to sit beside her, but he ended up sitting on the rug on the floor with his back resting against the bed. As if on an instinct, Taiyi stroked his hair again and he leaned into her touch. He was finding it all very strange, but at the same time, he didn't want to miss a single second of his mother's touch. He had imagined it in his alone time, but he didn't know that it would be so soothing.

Taiyi drew in a deep breath. "I was never afraid of you, but I didn't even know who you were. I have seen you for the first time. Can you imagine my misery that I didn't even recognize you when I met you first? After I asked Ukdah to send you over to me so many times, and he rejected my pleas, I stopped asking altogether. I was aware that you were ruling Hydra, but where is Ukdah? Why isn't he at the helm?"

"He left Hydra a long time back after giving me the throne," Felis replied. He couldn't help feeling helpless.

They both became silent as Felis reveled in his mother's touch. He was allowing himself to lower his self-guard only for the night. He had to.

"How will I know that I have magic?" he asked, tipping his head up to see her.

It was like walking on eggshells on this topic. Taiyi could never reveal to him whether he could unlock his magic or not. He was asking it to defeat Eltanin, and she couldn't allow it, not just because Felis was her son, but because she knew that Felis was beyond repair. He would destroy Araniea if he knew how to unlock his magic. She really felt sad for him.

"I don't know…" she said. "Didn't Ukdah say anything about it?"

"No, he was never there for me."

Taiyi's heart squeezed for him. "May I give you a suggestion?" she said, hoping that he didn't get angry.

Felis rested his head against her legs as if wanting her to continue stroking him. "You may…" He wasn't used to taking suggestions from anyone other than his General, and he even killed people for giving him unwanted suggestions, but this was his mother. The sea goddess.

"Instead of focusing on how to unlock your magic, why don't you stop all this mindless killing. Everyone in Araniea is tired and sick of Nyxers. Isn't there a way that you end it and live peacefully?" she suggested.