Chapter Text
Harry became like an appendix of Louis’ body while he recovered. The alpha never left his side, not if he could help it, and tended to his wounds as if he was a doctor himself. If he ever left his side, Oli or Anabella looked after him. And he always came back in a rush. Louis understood what he felt perfectly. He’d also thought he’d never see him again.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, more than it was necessary.
“I’m okay,” Louis replied.
“Oli said you had a nightmare today.”
“Fucking horses,” he said. “Fucking snow.”
Harry crawled in bed with him.
“I’ll never force you to see a horse ever again.”
“You will,” said Louis. “You will teach me to ride in the spring.”
“You don’t have to,” Harry said.
“I want to. With you. And Evangeline. She’s my hero.”
“I love you,” Harry replied.
"Hold me," Louis said. "I wanna drop in your arms."
It had been a trap, obviously.
Harry was so mad that he’d fallen for it. That he’d left Louis vulnerable. That he’d gotten him hurt.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Louis said again and again.
“I should have known, that fucking messenger. I had him beheaded. He confessed, you know? From the beginning, he stole the letter about you coming late. They—they planned to take you before you got here. If it weren’t for General Durham—”
Louis gasped at the news. Then shook his head.
“But I’m here. I’m here.”
“You’re here. I love you.”
“I love you.”
His alpha was also mad at Captain Maximilien, of course. He wanted to bring him back to life just to kill him himself.
He was mad at Alexander as well.
“If he wasn’t an omega, I’d have him hanged. It’s all his fault, it must be. Why did that man think we hadn’t consummated? Alexander was waiting for me in my apartments the morning after our wedding. He knew… fuck. He knew I hadn’t spent the night with you. He must have told his brother.”
Louis couldn’t argue against him. He couldn’t imagine himself defending the other omega. I wish you were dead, he’d said.
“Still not your fault.”
When the spring came, Louis was better, but not well enough to travel to the border to join General Durham’s forces. He still coughed frequently, and needed to be held constantly to feel reassured and warm again. This made him upset, especially when he had to say goodbye to Isaac and Michael.
“Please be careful,” Louis begged.
“We will. We’ll do our best to rip those war plans in the bud.”
“I hope you can.”
The only silver lining was that nothing could make Harry leave his side. So they stayed together in the castle, taking care of each other.
They waited nervously for news from the border.
Harry paced the room, nervously. Louis started biting his nails again.
The days went by slowly. Louis believed he heard horse noises more than once, but there were no visitors, no messengers, no knocks on their door.
Until there was one.
It was a messenger with an urgent message that Harry ripped open.
“The Anglian Prince was captured on the battlefield,” he said, out of breath.
“What?” Louis asked. “No way.”
“General Durham’s men are holding him hostage at the moment. I’m summoned for peace negotiations, since I’ll reach the border before the Queen..”
“Oh my god, let’s go.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said.
“The last time you left me here I was kidnapped,” Louis said. “So, sorry, but I’d rather go with you.”
They travelled in a carriage. It was technically spring already. Still, Harry wrapped Louis in pelts and surrounded him with cushions to make the trip more comfortable.
Louis smiled and kissed his lips.
He was nodding off when he heard his alpha’s voice.
“I think I’m going to throw up,” Harry said. “I can’t do this. The fate of both our kingdoms is in my hands, Louis, I’m going to… shit, I’m going to say something stupid and mess it up, I’m going to…”
“Hey, breathe,” Louis said, completely waking up and reaching out to grab him.
“I can’t do this,” he repeated. “They always said—”
“You can do it,” Louis said, holding him in his arms. “They lied to you,” he said.
“What if they were right, though?”
“You’re a strong, confident, brilliant alpha. I’ve seen you. I know you. And one of the people who thought he was better than you is dead now.”
“Lou—I really don’t know if I can.”
“You can. But you don’t have to do it alone if you don’t want to,” he said, kissing his forehead.
“What do you mean?”
“Well. I’m here, aren’t I?”
The Anglian Prince was young, younger than Louis had imagined. He had a baby face which reminded him of his sisters. He was sitting quietly inside his cell, pale and shivery.
Louis and Harry sat in front of him, outside his cell.
“Hello, Your Highness,” Harry greeted.
“Hello, Prince Harry,” the young Prince greeted, his eyes analysing Louis and Harry alternatively.
“Do you understand your circumstances?” Louis asked.
The Prince nodded.
“I’m a prisoner of Northumbria. Are you going to kill me?” he asked in a tiny voice.
“No,” Louis said. “As long as you comply with our very reasonable requests.”
“Who are you?” he asked. “I thought I was going to meet in private with the Prince of Northumbria.”
Louis smirked and stood up.
“That’d be Princes, plural,” he said. “I am Louis, Prince of Northumbria,” he said, extending his hand to him. His ring shining on his finger.
The Prince shook his hand through the cell bars, in shock.
Louis came back to sit next to Harry, who grabbed his hand and held it tight.
“Let us talk about the conditions of your release,” the alpha said.
He looked so regal, so powerful and self-assured. You’d never know he’d ever doubted himself.
“He signed the peace treaty,” Harry said, body frozen in place, mouth open.
“He did,” Louis confirmed.
Now that it was over, his hands were shaking, he was in as much shock.
“They won’t fight us,” Harry stared at Louis.
“They won’t.”
“Oh my god, Louis!”
His alpha kissed his lips with so much force that he ended up squished against a wall.
There were a thousand details Louis wanted to iron out, but to be honest, the first thing on his list didn’t have anything to do with matters of the kingdom. After everything was arranged, Harry and him travelled back to their castle, bringing their guest with them.
The following day, they’d travel to the Queen’s castle, where the Anglian Prince would shake her hand in good faith.
As soon as they were alone in their bedchamber, he jumped on Harry, trusting him to catch him. Harry did, dropping a letter he was reading in the act. Louis went for his lips as soon as he was secure in his arms.
Harry kissed back immediately, even as he tried to talk.
“Lou? W-what?”
“There’s no war,” Louis said, voice low.
“Mm-hmm,” Harry confirmed.
Louis laughed.
“Harry,” he said. “There’s no war!”
Harry nodded.
“Yeah,” he confirmed, equally excited, if confused. He tilted his head.
He was so handsome, and so adorable, and so hot, and charming, and powerful and everything Louis never dared to imagine his alpha would be.
“We should mate. And you should breed me,” Louis said.
The alpha’s brain seemed to turn off as his eyes became glassy and he growled.
“Right now?”
“Right now, before we go back to your mother’s castle,” Louis urged. “I want everyone to see me return as your omega.”
Louis didn’t know how feasible it was to get pregnant outside of his heat, but he and Harry tried that night, and tried hard.
If his alpha fucked him well in general, this time he was doing it as if his life depended on it.
“Gonna make you pregnant,” he whispered in his ear every time he pushed his hard cock inside.
“Gonna let you make me pregnant,” Louis replied, opening his legs for him and wrapping them around Harry’s hips. “Gonna let you put your pups in me.”
“As many as I want?”
“Yes.”
“Let me bite you,” the alpha begged.
“Yes,” Louis accepted.
Harry licked his spot. A thought crossed his mind—This wasn’t done. He smirked. Fuck every rule.
“Yes!” he almost screamed. “Knot me, bite me, fuck me,” he said, desperate. “Breed me.”
Harry went from zero to a hundred in seconds. His hips pushed so hard Louis felt him deeper than ever.
“Yes,” Harry said. “Yes, I will. Fuck, fuck, thank you, thank you.”
He only stopped babbling to bite Louis’ neck as he knotted him. Louis came so hard that his whole body went tense. He cried out his alpha’s name.
They didn’t make any announcement about their mating at first. They allowed the focus to stay on the Anglian Prince and the Peace Treaty.
The Queen and the Princess were the first to know, of course, and despite their best training to keep their reactions in place, they looked shocked.
“I suppose congratulations are in order,” the Queen said.
The morning of the day the Anglian Prince was to return to his court, with his tail between his legs, Louis opened their door to find Oli there, with a tray.
“What’s this?”
“I brought you breakfast!”
“What? Oli, you don’t have to do that.”
The redhead bit his lips.
“Yes, but I wanted to.”
“What’s going on?” Harry asked, coming out of their bedchamber.
“Harry, love, can you get me a coat, please? It’s a bit chilly here”
“Sure,” the alpha said, going back to the chamber and leaving them alone.
“Spill,” Louis said as soon as the alpha was out of earshot.
“What?” Oli asked, innocently blinking. He put the tray on the table.
“I know you did something and I want to know what. Spill.”
Oli’s smile gave him away.
“Okay, so, I was bringing your breakfast up…”
“Yeah.”
“And that cook berated me again. You know the drill, it’s improper for a servant to eat upstairs with you.”
Louis furrowed his brow.
“Do you want me to—?”
“No, wait,” he said. “I had the pleasure to tell ‘em it’s not for me, it’s for Prince Louis and Prince Harry, who’re having breakfast together after his Highness spent the night over in your chambers.”
Louis blushed.
“Oli!”
“What? Should I have said something else?”
“No,” said Louis. “That was actually brilliant. They’re going to go crazy.”
Oli giggled and left.
He sat at the table and waited for Harry.
“Has anyone told you you’re kind of petty?” Harry asked, kissing his temple and then covering him with one of his own coats.
Louis, happily drenched in the alpha’s scent, took a few seconds to react.
“What?”
“Don’t worry, I love you for that.”
Louis smiled but turned away, trying to hide it.
Harry asked the Queen to summon everyone in the castle to make the official announcement that same evening.
The nobles were expecting a Peace Party, not a Royal Announcement.
Harry stood up in front of everyone, Louis by his side, holding his hand.
“I want to formally introduce Prince Louis of Northumbria.”
The gasps that left everyone’s mouths made Louis smirk.
“We’ve kept it secret until now, for safety reasons. But we’re married.”
The gasps and murmurs around them didn’t stop. Harry paid them no mind.
“And we’re also mated,” he added.
Louis actually heard a chorus of ‘fucks’ from around the room. And a loud cackle from Lord Horan. He was pleased with his alpha’s dramatic ways.
“Our Queen is still young and healthy, of course,” Harry said. “But one day, Prince Louis will rule over this kingdom by my side. So I expect every one of you to welcome him with open arms.”
The person he least expected approached him as the festivities were winding down.
“I won’t stay for long,” the omega said. “I know I’m not welcome here.”
“You have some nerve being here, approaching me,” Louis said, angrily.
“Harry will not even look at me,” Alexander said. “I know you will at least listen.”
“I’ll only listen if what comes out of your mouth next is an apology,” he spat.
“I apologise,” the omega said, firmly. “I wanted to, as soon as I heard what happened, but Harry would simply not accept my letters. So I waited until I was able to talk to you face to face.”
Louis nodded at him to continue.
“I swear in the name of the gods that I had no idea my brother was planning such an awful act. I do not wish you ill, your Highness,” he said.
“That’s hard to believe. You did say you wished me dead.”
“Wouldn’t you wish death on the omega who dared take the Prince from you, even if you didn't really mean it?” he asked.
Louis pursed his lips and kept quiet.
“You have my word. I never asked him to do what he did. I never—I never thought it’d end up this way.”
Louis frowned.
“I don’t know if I believe you,” he said. “You were always an arsehole to me.”
Alexander nodded. Now that Louis took a moment to look at him, he realised he was different, not as composed. His once bright eyes were now dull.
“You don’t have to. I really don’t—I don’t really wish you dead. Not for real. I just–I just wish you’d been different.”
There were tears in his eyes.
“Different?” Louis frowned. “A good omega, you mean? One who’d look the other way while his husband fucked a lover?”
“No. Just a different kind of omega, one with whom Harry wouldn’t have fallen in love.”
“Oh.”
“There were so many omegas before, so many, and he never fell at their feet the way he did with you. Why did it have to be like this?”
“I’m sorry—”
“You love him,” Alexander said.
“Yes.”
“So you know what I felt. The lengths I’d have gone to to keep him with me. Wouldn’t you have done the same in my position?”
Louis didn’t need to say it. The fire in his eyes told the story inside—he’d kill any omega who got close to Harry. If he so much as suspected he might fall in love—he’d kill the omega with his bare hands.
In a sense, he did understand Alexander.
“I want you as far away from us as possible,” Louis said.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
A few of years later
“Your Royal Highness, Princess Charlotte of Doncaster, heir to the throne and sister of mine,” Louis greeted.
They had been waiting for her. Louis had waited at the top of the staircase for what seemed like fucking hours.
His sister laughed.
“Prince Louis,” she greeted. “Prince Harry.”
“Welcome back!” Harry said. “The kids are dying to see you.”
“Of course they are, I’m their favourite aunt.”
“Don’t let Gemma hear you say that,” Harry said.
“Or the twins,” Louis said.
“Well,” she said. “I can keep it quiet, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am their favourite aunt. Where are they?”
“Still sleeping, hopefully,” Louis said.
“Even that one in there?” she asked, pointing at Louis’ belly.
“No, this one is very awake and doing summersaults.”
Harry immediately went to put his hand on his bump and smiled at the kicks he was able to feel.
“Hey, little one, are you excited? Are you?” he said, talking in that baby voice Louis loved.
“Hey, Lots!” said a voice behind them.
“Hey, Oli! How’s it going?” she replied, reaching out for a fist bump.
“Great!” he said.
“How’s the spy network going?”
“That’s a state secret,” he said, with a wink.
Lottie huffed.
“Of course it is. I bet you tell everything to Louis.”
“Not everything,” Louis complained. “He’s got a new beau and he won’t tell me who they are.”
“You need some mystery in your life,” said Oli.
While they chatted, Harry kept stroking Louis’ belly. Louis put his hand on top of Harry’s, his ring clicking with his alpha’s in a very satisfying way. Not as satisfying as having his alpha licking his mate bite in private, though.
“Love you,” he mouthed.
“Love you,” Harry mouthed back.
“Shall we come in?” Harry said out loud.
“Welcome to our humble castle, Your Highness,” said Louis.