Looking back at it now, Cedric finds that he had no idea what had come over him that led him to interfere and stand up for her. All he knew was that he'd been overcome with a very violent anger, infuriated at the fact that Caleb's mate had been talking down to her.
But why? Why had he felt the need to stand up for her, especially in such a forceful manner? After all, he had been consciously trying to keep his distance, to maintain the facade of the feral beast he had been made to become and eventually had begun to believe himself to be.
Besides, she was an Alpha wolf, her dominance was second only to his in the whole of the pack and probably even beyond, and something told him that if they weren't mates, her dominance might have even been greater than his. So why was it that she'd let herself be blatantly disrespected by a common wolf?
Could it be that she was trying to keep her true form hidden? And if so, why? What would it change for them to know that she was way more than she was letting on? The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became. And this time it wasn't anger fueled by his wolf's emotions, no, he was furious, and even his wolf was a bit surprised and quiet, grating on his nerves even more.
He could feel her footsteps behind him, threading featherlight, almost like she was afraid of provoking his anger.
Afraid? He rages internally at his own thoughts. Couldn't she see that he couldn't for the life of him harm a hair on her head? She was like a leash, an anchor that kept him stable, and yet she was still afraid?
He bounds into the throne room and collapses on the throne, his anger seemingly only tripling with each passing second.
"Why the hell would you let them speak to you like that?" He growls as soon as she steps foot into the room, watching as she freezes, slowly lifts her head to look at him and blinks.
"Are you deaf?" He barked when another second passes without a response.
A scowl mars her expression as she finally resumes walking, finding her way to one of the chairs in the room and sitting.
"You're an Alpha wolf, aren't you?" Cedric badgers on, his eyes narrowing as he studies her intently, "I can feel it. I can feel the threads of your being and I know you aren't any ordinary Alpha either, so why do you behave like some omega?"
As the last word leaves his lips, a growl ripples through the room and Marisol glares at him from where she is sitting. For the first time since he's shifted back to his human form, Cedric felt the corner of his lips lift with a hint of amusement.
"Oh?" He lifts a brow, "You hate that I addressed you as an omega?"
Even from a distance, he could see the way the veins decorating her neck grew engorged with blood, her fingers balling into fists as she struggled to rein her anger in.
Beautiful.
"But I'm not wrong, am I? Right now you're no different from an omega." He adds, gesturing dismissively at her.
"Do not refer to me as that. Don't ever." She warns, her chest beginning to rise and fall at scattered intervals.
Cedric chuckles, taking a small whiff of the air that has now grown heavy with the scent of her dominance. His mate is a wonder. He wanted more, he wanted to see more of what she could do, how far he could go before she really, truly snapped.
"Don't what?" He questions lazily, eyes lifting boredly to lock into her fiery ones as he adds, "Call you Omega?"
The reaction is swift as she springs to her feet, her anger palpable as she repeats in a growl, "I said, do not refer to me as that."
A laughter bubbles out of Cedric's throat and even as he laughs, he keeps his eyes open and on her, not wanting to miss a second of her outburst. He doesn't know whether to describe her disposition as cute or sexy. But he found it entertaining.
"Now, don't you think you're being a little discriminatory?" he drawls, a shrug following his words as he feigns innocence, "I mean..... What's so bad about being an omega? You are acting like one right now and one would think you'd react differently to being called one."
"Cedric." It was a warning, a very clear one, with every letter of his name laced with hints of her annoyance and irritation.
He could feel her restraint slipping. Yes. That was exactly what he wanted. He did not know when it started he'd grown quite curious about her. His fragmented memories presented the puzzles of a previous encounter, that much he knew, but what confused him the most was how it came to be that he appeared in the pack at such a time.
Her name also rang bells in his head, something he still couldn't place a finger on, but it was along the lines of power and magic. The woman in front of him was no ordinary wolf and Cedric was more sure of that than he'd been of anything in his entire life.
Finally, after a beat of silence, Cedric lets his lips curl up into a wide grin as he answers with a tilt of his head, "Yes, Omega?"