Yuuri hears the rasping on the top of the coffin as the water rises to his chest and assaults him with shivers. "Mama?" The rasping gets louder, desperate. "Mama please let me out! Please!" He cries, feeling his chest constrict with the hurt, but also hope. Someone is out there. Someone is trying to free him.
He hears a click and when the lid opens Yuuri is flooded with scent. Apples and storms. The fear vanishes completely. His thoughts easing to calmness, to home.
He reaches out to the arms freeing him from his prison. Stares at deep cerulean orbs.
Alpha… The thought comes unbidden deep within him as strong arms hold him close. My alpha. Yuuri raises his arms to wrap them around his alpha's neck. Inching as close as he could, feeling the deep-seated rumble emitting from the alpha's chest. Calming him. Calling him. Telling him he was forever safe.
"I found you." The deep husky voice causes shivers all over Yuuri's skin. "My beautiful omega... Can I kiss you?"
The question catches Yuuri by surprise. He can't help but chuckle heartily. The world slowly falling into place again. The contact between them never breaking.
The alpha leans forward, but Yuuri places a finger over his puckering lips. "Aren't you being awfully forward considering we've just met?"
The alpha gives him the warmest smile. The first sign of kindness Yuuri has felt since he presented. He's put gently down. Bare feet dipping into the warm water.
"Don't you feel it?" The alpha's voice becomes low and wanting as he leans down towards Yuuri. Their hands intertwined between them. "We are mates. True mates."
"Those are dangerous words," Yuuri hesitates, fingers itching against the alpha's touch. "But I do feel it," he nuzzles against the alpha's hand. "I have no doubt you are the only one who could have taken me out of that darkness."
"Then a kiss is more than a fair reward." The alpha grins and leans down again.
Yuuri presses his fingers against those warm lips firmer still. "Kisses are meant for bonded mates are they not?"
"Are you not my mate?"
"Not in the world's eyes. Nor my familys. Not yet..." Yuuri feels sorrow at that truth. "I don't even know your name."
"A sinner's kiss then." The omega feels the alpha's thumb rub over his lips with the gentlest touch. He can't help but lean towards it. A true mate? Could it be real? Was this why his mother and sister locked him inside that coffin? So his true mate could find him?
Yuuri feels pure warmth as his alpha brushes their foreheads together. As his vision is overwhelmed by blue. "Will you sin with me?" The words reach his heart.
Yuuri closes the space between them. Arms tightening around the alpha's neck. Lips opening and receiving as the alpha claims what is given.
When Yuuri thought he was an alpha. He'd kiss a beta once. A childish peck of lips. It had been innocent. It had been a game. It had been nothing like this.
The alpha opens his lips to gain access. Kisses him like he is the world. Like his soul is screaming they belong together forever.
A true mate. A soul bond. Yuuri feels his entire body heat up with need. Feels his middle twist and coil with want. The heat deep in his glands. He wants to be bitten! He wants to be marked! He wants to mate with this alpha!
"Congratulations!"
Yuuri's eyes snap open at the sound of those words. Cold and calculating. Something deep in his mind yells at him this isn't allowed, this isn't allowed! He tries to break from his alpha's hold, but is only held more securely. With strong determine hands that wrap around him and pull him close.
His mother's voice rises up in the night. "Step away from that omega."
And the fear returns.
Victor growls. A deep rumble from within. He turns towards the calling voice. Holding his omega close to him. As close as he can.
A group of five people stand by the edge of the pool. Two female alpha's and three large male betas.
Fright blossoms within his omega. Fright caused when he sees the group of people watching them.
"Who are you?" Victor snaps, the growl in his voice warning everyone to not get any closer.
"We are this omega's kin. He belongs to us." The young female alpha growls back.
"He's mine!" Victor snaps, exposing his canines, feeling the urge to bite and claim right then.
"If you claim him now. You will regret it." The older alpha appears calm as she speaks, but Victor can tell she's anything but.
"What do you want?" Victor demands. His patience is running thin. They will not take his omega from him. He will fight tooth and nail.
The small older female holds her hands form in front of her. "That you will mate with this omega and beget children." Her words make Victor relax momentarily. "In the proper way of course. A proper wedding, a proper marriage, a proper bond, a legal union of bloodlines. After you've proven yourself to us. What can your bloodline offer ours?"
"Mother—" The young alpha female sounds concerned, but her worries are ignored as the elder tells her to shush.
"That is my sister." His omega whispers in his ear. "She locked me in the coffin. The other is my mother. The rest are beta guards."
Victor starts growling deeply. Enough that the group notices.
"Do not become so unsightly." His omega's mother says. "We do not even know your name."
"You locked my omega inside this thing and tried to drown him!" Victor accuses.
"The sarcophagus guarantees only the strongest mate will find the omega inside. That's what the omegan ball is all about."
"To scared him half to death? Almost drown him?!" Victor growls. "Can't you feel him trembling? Aren't you his mother?"
"He's just an omega."
"My omega!"
"He's still ours!" The alpha sister yells. She steps inside the pool. "What is your name, alpha! Present yourself to us!"
Viktor pulls the omega closer still as he backs up. He knew some alpha families treated their omega kin like things to be sold off. It was bad enough knowing it happened, even more sickening to witness. His family was not perfect, but they would never throw away their omega kin like this. The Nikiforov omegas were always treated with respect. Found proper mates. Not locked in coffins that filled with water!
"I demand your name!" The female starts closing in on them. Victor pulls his omega further back.
This was the Katsuki manor, whichever omega was in his arms was either a friend of, or kin to the Katsukis. Surely they won't take kindly to have a Nikiforov claim one of their own.
"Why don't you answer?!" The sister growls full of fury. "Are you a Nikiforov? Are you one of those heinous bastards?!"
Victor growls. Deep and threatening. So this was the real face of the Katsuki household. Like they controlled all no matter the cost. They will take his mate if he let them. They will take his life and love!
Without thinking the alpha picks up his omega up from the ground. Holds him close to his chest, feeling trembling arms close around his neck. This omega was his. This omega was his fated mate.
"Put him down!" The sister moves closer still.
Victor turns and starts running as fast as he can.
