Chapter Text
The palace was quieter at night, but never truly dark. Golden sconces flickered low in their marble mounts and the thick hush of velvet-draped halls pressed against Steve’s skin like an unwanted touch.
He hated it here.
Always had, if he was honest. Not that anyone ever asked the crown prince of Hawkins what he wanted.
He was an Omega—born to be beautiful, useful and obedient. A vessel for alliance, not ambition. Never the hero of the story – destined to be the damsel in distress. The silk cuffs around his wrists weren’t technically shackles, but they may as well have been.
Steve sat on the edge of the high windowsill in the east wing, watching the harbor lights in the distance like stars that had fallen to earth. Somewhere out there, real men lived. Real people, with dirt under their fingernails and fire in their bellies. His grandma once told him, that she knew Omega pirates who would fight alongside Alphas and Betas. As equals. The sea doesn’t care and apparently neither did pirates as long as you pulled your weight.
He pressed his forehead to the cool glass and his reflection looked back—tired, flushed and with the faintest sheen of sweat on his collarbone from the heat of the summer day that has now passed.
One more event, his father had said. One more dinner, one more toast. You will do this for your kingdom.
But Steve already knew something was wrong.
His father had been too quiet during their last meeting. Too cordial.
And when Steve had asked if he’d truly been summoned just to dine with nobles, the King had smiled and handed him a scroll.
“You’re to be engaged,” he’d said. No warning. No warmth. Just another order dressed in ceremony. “The Duke of Blackwater. A strong Alpha. Favorable lineage. A good match.”
Steve had gone still. “He’s twenty years older than me.”
“He’s rich and a born leader.”
“I don’t want—”
“This isn’t about want. You have to make yourself useful at least once.”
And that was it. His father turned back to his advisors, as though that were the end of it.
****
A few dreadful moments later Steve met with Jake Blackwater as he waited in the dining hall. Steve could practically feel his leering glance. Could see how the Alpha took in his body and what it would be worth to him. Measuring how much showing off he could do with his Omega, how many children he could produce.
Steve did what he learned to do by now. Grin and bear it. After all the ability to fake smiles was the biggest treasure at court.
****
Steve ran away that same night.
Not with a grand plan—Steve didn’t know how to plan for freedom. But he knew how to climb, how to slip out past curfew, how to steal riding boots from the stable boy’s quarters.
What he didn’t know was how to make it in the city.
The harbor smelled of fish and sweat and low tide rot. The streets were uneven, loud, pulsing with drunk sailors and street vendors and dockhands shouting over crates. Steve had wrapped a hood around his head and kept his eyes down, but his scent was still Omega-sweet an wrong here. Still a beacon.
Omegas weren’t exactly rare. He knew that the common folk had their fair share of Omegas and Alphas among the majority of Betas. But no Alpha with all their senses intact would let their Omega out at night into this part of the city. Especially not alone.
Steve had a small coin purse sewn into his jacket—emergency money—but he had no clue how to negotiate a berth on a ship or what names to trust. He just needed to get to one of the neighboring islands and from there he would go in search for a new goal. Maybe some simple work at a bar somewhere far enough away so that people wouldn’t recognize him or maybe he would find a pirate crew that actually would take him in if he disguised his smell well enough.
Lost in thought he nearly screamed when suddenly a hand closed around his arm.
“Easy, pretty thing,” the man said. Leathery, old, one tooth missing. “Lost?”
Steve tried to yank away, but the grip tightened. Another man closed in from behind.
“Omegas don’t wander alone this far after dark. Where is your Alpha, sweetheart?”
“I’m no one’s possession,” Steve hissed but it came out shaky.
The first man laughed. “Not yet.”
And that was when the world snapped into motion.
A boot came out of nowhere—hard, brutal, aimed straight at the man’s ribs. He went down wheezing and the second one took a fist to the jaw before Steve even registered what was happening.
Someone grabbed his cloak and shoved him behind a broad frame that smelled like smoke, sea air and Alpha. “Stay.” The stranger said in an Alpha voice full of superiority.
Steve blinked. Too perplexed to bristle at the clear command and the way it usually let him fly off the handle immediately.
The stranger turned to the two men who didn’t possess any of their cock-sureness anymore while supporting each other’s weight.
“Sir. Calm down, no worries we were just joking around with this Omega. He is yours.” Wheezed one of the men while slowly backing away in terror after looking into the strangers eyes. On staggering feet they were limping away into the night again. The stranger only scoffed.
Then he turned to Steve again with his jaw squared and eyes burning. His golden hair was messy and sun-bleached, sporting a scar over his left eyebrow and broad shoulders under a half-buttoned coat.
He wasn’t a stranger. Not to him.
“…Billy Hargrove?” Steve whispered.
Billy tilted his head slightly, drew his eyebrows high in a truly mocking way, running his tongue over his front teeth in a disgustingly leering way. “Didn’t think you’d remember me, Princess.”
Steve’s mouth opened, then closed. Billy had served under the royal banner years ago—an elite soldier’s son, elevated to a full-fledged soldier at 14. A prodigy. Sharp and beautiful and too angry for court. He’d vanished when Steve was sixteen. Rumors said he’d been cast out. Others whispered he’d deserted. No one ever bothered to tell Steve for sure.
He was also Steve’s first and only kiss. Two teenagers, high from the wine at an official gathering to celebrate the army, getting a little too bold. Steve being in love with the idea of rebellion and Billy ever the flirt, going for any opportunity he could get if the whispers in the castle were to be believed.
“You—you saved me.”
Billy’s eyes dragged down his body, slow and assessing. “No one else gets to touch what’s mine.”
“I’m not—”
“You are now.”
With a tight grip he grabbed Steve’s arm to drag him along into the dark allies towards the harbor where the ships were anchored.
“Let me go! You are hurting me you brute.” Steve bristled. Which was only partly a lie. Billys grip was tight but not purposely hurtful. What hurt more was his ego because even though Steve tried to stop Billy with his full body weight, all it did was to cause a grunt, a readjustment of the grip and more dragging along. Physically Billy was clearly stronger and had no qualms to demonstrate it.
****
The ship wasn’t what Steve expected.
It was big, yes—sleek and fast with red sails and a dragon figurehead—but the crew wasn’t… monstrous. Even in the night some of them worked hard, shouted harder and barely glanced at him as Billy pulled him up the gangway.
He expected jeering. Instead, he got a nod from an Alpha with wild curls and quick hands—Eddie, Billy called him. Steve gathered that he was the First Mate from the way someone addressed him when they were just in hearing distance of the ship.
“Saved your damsel in distress?” Eddie asked.
Billy shrugged. “Definitely doesn’t talk like one. Got quite a mouth on him for a Princess.”
They both laughed.
Steve didn’t.
Under the curiously watchful eyes of the few crew members who were awake, he was taken to the captain’s quarters and pushed inside gently. The door closed behind them.
“Is this your room?” Steve asked, glancing around. It was spartan but fully functional with the occasional personal belonging making it feel lived in. Next to the bed was a desk full of maps and on the other side of the cabin several weapons hung in neat rows.
“No,” Billy said, crossing to a trunk at the foot of the bed. “Now it’s our room.”
Steve blinked. “What do you mean? That I’m staying here? That I’m sleeping here?”
Billy turned to face him. “You’re lucky you’re not sleeping in the brig, sweetheart.”
“I didn’t ask to be rescued and taken along. I would have been just fine on my own.”
Billy took a step forward. “No, you just asked to get ripped apart by harbor dogs. You think you can run through the streets like that, smelling like honey and fear, and not get hunted? And what would have been your next step? Go to a random ship, bat your pretty eyes at a merchant who will take you to the next island out of the goodness of his heart?”
The clear sarcasm stunned Steve into silence. He swallowed and blurted out: “I can take care of myself.” Steve hated how it sounded more like a question than a statement.
Billy laughed like he noticed Steve’s internal trouble. “Sure you can. That’s why I found you about to cry in an alley.”
Steve flushed deep red. “You didn’t have to bring me.” And as an afterthought he said in a small voice “And I didn’t cry.”
Billy snorted “Sure Princess.” Then his smile dropped. “Don’t make me regret it. You are staying.”
“So I’m your prisoner?”
“If you want to call it that. You are free to roam this ship. But you don’t want to know what I’ll do when you try to leave.”
“That’s basically what a prisoner is.”
With this realization all kind of thoughts struck Steve. Why did Billy want to keep him? Was he just looking for an convenient Omega to fuck? Did he want to bargain with the crown for ransom? Or did he want to kill Steve in some terrible way as revenge for what happened back at the royal army?
His glance wandered to the closed door and then to the former soldier blocking it with his body. There was no way he could make a run for it right now.
He also didn’t want to risk asking the questions that plagued him – too afraid what the answer might be.
The long silence stretched on with Steve obviously lost in his conflicting thoughts while Billy regarded him calmly.
Finally Steve crossed his arms and lifted his chin to appear as bratty as he was able to. “Fine. Where do I sleep?”
Billy nodded toward the bed. “Left side’s warmer.”
“…You’re serious.”
“Deadly.”
Steve looked at the bed. Then at Billy. Then back at the bed.
He wasn’t shocked that he was forced to stay. The way Billy blocked the door and was ready to tear his limps apart if he tried to even move towards it was a good indicator that he meant it deadly serious.
What shocked him was, that he wanted to share his bed with him. So his first thought turned out to be correct. He wanted an convenient Omega to fuck. A royal one for exotic tales on deck and taverns to boast with. Just perfectly Steve’s luck.
With all the remaining courage he possessed, Steve turned to Billy and stumbled out in a tone that was not at as sovereign and challenging as he was aiming for “You’re not gonna—I’m not gonna let you—…”
Billy rolled his eyes and turned away, yanking his coat off. His back was strong, tanned and marked by old scars. They looked like they wanted to tell a story of wars and battles and everything that happened in the four years since Billy disappeared from the kingdom of Hawkins.
“I’m not gonna touch you, Sweetheart,” he said over his shoulder. “Not until you beg me to.”
Steve’s throat went dry. Did he really just imply that Steve will beg him to fuck him? The pirate who kidnapped him? No way.
Steve watched Billy carefully as he retrieved a hammock from another trunk and moved to attach it to two hooks in the corner next to the desk full of maps.
Relief flooded through Steve as he realized that Billy really didn’t mean to sleep in his bed with him.
The lanterns flickered low while Billy got comfortable. The sea rocked beneath them. Steve guessed that must mean that they left the harbor.
The prince slipped into a bed not his own, heart pounding, skin flushed, and everything he’d ever believed about himself suddenly cracking like glass underfoot. Could he really be an Omega that was equal to an Alpha? Why did Billy have this power to make him speechless? And how did he manage to escape one prison just to land in the next one?