Kai sat on the floor of the tiny cottage, his legs folding in front of him as he watched Tee sitting on the opposite side in their kitchen quarter with the same crossed legs as Kai.

The omega's face was buried in a plate, stuffing his mouth full of deer meat and rice; all the while being oblivious to Kai's tightly clenched jaw or the suspicion in his eyes. However, when their eyes eventually met for a passing second, Tee quickly looked back down at his plate as though the mere thought of looking at Kai sickened him.

Kai suppressed a growl before he returned to munch on his dinner in silence.

It had been five days since Tee went into the dark forest in search of him, and although he felt a great sense of pride and joy at his omega's willingness to go above and beyond to seek him out, something about Tee appeared oddly off-putting since they returned.

Tee had been watching him with strange glints in his eyes whenever he thought Kai wasn't looking, and he spoke less despite his lips twitching, seemingly wanting to incite a conversation. And although Tee stayed by his side night and day, Kai couldn't deny the tenseness in Tee's body whenever he lay the omega down at night.

It seemed Tee was always fighting with his thoughts from the way he stared up at Kai with questions and perhaps uncertainty in his big doe eyes before he eventually surrendered his body wholly over to Kai, melting against his embrace.

Kai enjoyed it; he enjoyed having Tee underneath him, spread open wide while taking his cock with ease. Tee had the most breathtaking moans, too. Regardless, whenever their lovemaking ended and Tee shifted to lay on his side in their shared bed, his body turned back unnervingly rigid whenever Kai pressed his chest against Tee's back, or whenever he wrapped his arms over his waist, or whenever he suckled a bruised kiss on Tee's neck.

In a sense, Tee reacted as though Kai's fingers were made of fire or ice — or something nasty; it irritated him greatly.

"What's wrong?" Kai demanded, his deep voice rippling through the empty cottage.

Tee almost flinched back from where he sat before making eye contact with Kai.

For a passing moment, a strange sense of a deep-rooted ache seemed to flash across his eyes. And despite Kai not understanding what might've triggered his omega's pain, every instinct in his body screamed at him to comfort Tee, to wrap him in his arms and coax him and kiss him, or snuggle him with love.

Goddammit; Kai gritted his teeth painfully hard.

Tee had somehow managed to turn him soft. Kai did not like it. Still, he did not resent it, either, because he knew his softness was only for Tee — anyone else he'd rip their throats out, and feast on their flesh for days to come. Tee was special. Tee was his companion; his lover, his best friend, and the only person alive who saw goodness in him.

"What..." Tee gulped down and looked elsewhere, not wanting to meet Kai's eyes. "What are you talking about?" he asked in a small voice.

Kai knew this look; he had seen it before on Tee's face during their first couple of encounters.

Was Tee... Afraid of him?

Kai had spent days trying to understand what stupid thoughts were going through Tee's head. To think all this time that Tee was afraid of him, it was outright outrageous, maddening.

He refused to believe Tee was afraid of him.

Tee had seen all of him; the good, the bad, the evil. He was never afraid; at least, he wasn't the moment Kai marked him. Tee looked at him as though he was special; no one had ever looked at him so. No one except his brother... Macau.

Kai gasped as memories of his young, carefree brother's laugh echoed in his mind.

Macau hadn't come to his mind in ages.

Quickly, Tee shoved the thoughts of his brother at the back of his mind and forced himself to speak: "Is something bothering you?" he questioned, making his voice as quiet as possible.

"No," Tee quickly spoke. "Not at all."

Kai's jaw twitched along with his right eye. "Is that so?" he asked in a whispered tone.

Tee chewed on his lower lip. "Yes," he said.

He could taste the blatant lie dripping from Tee's tongue; it tasted venomous — wrong, unlike Tee, who was always sweet and truthful. If he'd been as cruel as before, he would've wrapped his fingers over Tee's neck and forced the truth from his mouth in a heartbeat.

Kai took a sharp breath in. His thoughts might've been murderous; however, he could not bring himself to lay a hurtful finger on his omega.

"You're lying," he simply said. "Don't lie to me."

Tee set his plate down beside him before he stiffened a smile. "Kai," he said in a calm tone after he'd finally built the courage to look Kai in the eyes. "Believe me, there's nothing —"

"Tee," Kai bit out. "I'm not asking anymore. Tell me what is wrong."

It was a demand — an order, but it had no malicious intent behind it. Still, Tee gulped back loud, his throat bulging up and down and up and down.

Eventually, Tee sighed deeply. "It's nothing," he claimed; his words were less convincing than earlier though.

For a moment, Kai studied Tee. He took in the sight of the omega with deep interest, wanting to reach into his mind and snatch out his thoughts. It was an impossible thing to do, and he was no mind-reader. Still, it didn't take a genius to conclude that Tee was uneasy around him.

Kai gritted his teeth: he hated everything about this, so he slammed a fist into the floorboard and yelled, "God dammit, Tee!"

When Tee slightly flinched back, Kai regretted his actions and he tried his best to soften his features.

"Kai..." Tee said in a cautioned tone, seemingly choosing his words wisely. "I... I... It's just —"

"Tee —"

"I'm carrying our child," Tee blurted out in a panicked voice.

Immediately, Kai's mouth went slack at the confession, and he could've sworn his heart skipped an unhealthy amount of beats. Tee was carrying their child? Out of all the things that crossed his mind about Tee's strange behavior, it never occurred to him that his omega was carrying their child.

"What?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Tee confirmed.

Kai smiled at the confirmation, a twisted, wicked ugly thing.

This was what he wanted — this was great — this was blissful music to his cold, dark soul.

You see, since he had marked Tee, he'd been trying to fuck a baby into him, and he'd been angry — delirious, even, when Tee wasn't showing any signs of pregnancy. Everything about this news was perfect — he was finally going to get a stable family, and he no longer had to worry about Tee finding out he had killed the old hag. Even if someday in the future Tee found out, what could the omega do? He couldn't do anything! Now, Tee wouldn't think about ever leaving him. And a child... He was going to be a Papa. The word Papa sounded foreign on his tongue, and it didn't help with how much he despised children — hated them with a passion. No matter; Kai would learn to love the little demon growing inside Tee's stomach. Yes — of course. Anything for Tee, anything for his newfound family.

"Kai," Tee spoke once more, snapping Kai out of his thoughts. "I — I wasn't sure at first. I didn't know how to tell you. It's —"

Quickly, Kai shuffled over to Tee, cupping his fat, chubby cheeks before kissing him on his dimple, on his nose — his pouty lips, his big doe eyes, and his scrunched-up forehead.

Tee must've been startled by Kais' quick movements because the alpha could sense Tee's breathing picking up; the omega turned oddly sweaty, and his lips slightly trembled too.

If it was some other time, Kai might've been concerned about Tee's behavior. The idea of them creating a family — a real family — clouded his rational thoughts though. And so, he whispered into Tee's ear, "Thank you, thank you," he said with sincerity after he cradled Tee's head against his chest, ignoring the neverending tremble igniting deep from Tee's bones.

Finally, he was reclaiming the family he had lost.

____________________________________

As Tee stared out the window at noontime, he caught a glimpse of Kai approaching the cottage gates with a bunch of purple perennials in one hand and the basket in another. The sight of his alpha smiling at himself made him shed a single tear. He wiped at it quickly, though, and went back to emptying the pot of boiling water in two cups with trembling fingers.

Since Tee returned from the dark forest, he viewed his alpha differently, as though his alpha might've been an outsider who slept on his mattress. Or a great trickster, perhaps.

To Tee , these days Kai looked like... Well like Kai, with his cunning smile, and with his gleaming, sometimes soulless eyes. His slightly overgrown hair, and his half-unbuttoned top. He looked like Kai. Yet, he... He looked like somebody else — somebody rotten and unforgiving. He talked like Kai too. All sinful, unfiltered — sometimes he whispered charming words into Tee's ears. Regardless, it did not matter because it always seemed as though someone else was speaking. It made Tee nervous; it made him unhappy. It made him a lair.

Tee never thought of himself as a liar. Yet, he told the biggest, most wrongful lie to Kai. And although he knew Kai was an immoral, deceitful alpha, he could not stop his heart from aching from the lie he told, nor from the dreadful act he was about to commit.

He didn't mean to lie — really, he didn't. Yet, when Kai questioned him yesterday with those angry eyes, Tee felt as though he was being choked by Kai's stare alone, and panicked before he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

I'm carrying our child, he had said with not an ounce of guilt.

It was an awful lie, one which would surely crush Kai's spirit if he ever found out the truth. Still, Tee had no intention of telling his alpha. Why should he? Kai would be dead anyway.

Yes, dead.

Tee shed another tear at the realization.

In his heart, he greatly despised the thought of killing Kai; his alpha, his supposedly lifelong companion. His heart ached at the betrayal, though. A part of him wished this was merely a strange nightmare — that Kai wasn't a bastard who murdered his grandmother.

Kai...

What a wicked thing the alpha had done. Tee only wished to know what might've possessed his alpha to do such wrongfulness.

Seconds before the front door creaked open to Kai's damning footsteps, Tee took in a deep breath and withdrew a heavy account of nerium oleander from his pocket; dunking the poison into the cup of lemongrass tea he had brewed for his beloved alpha...

Tee only hoped Kai might somehow find in his dishonest heart to forgive him before he died.