Introspect [The Mating Games #3]

ORION KALLIS

His seat of choice on the palace steps was far from fun but Orion couldn’t bring himself to complain. How could he when he was patiently waiting for the arrival of his mate?

After the wonderful time that they had together yesterday at the scent masked mixer, he couldn’t wait to see her again.

Yesterday, a lot of things could have gone wrong. Phoenix could have been less accepting of him due to the fact that they were of differing species. She could have turned him away as witches weren’t supposed to have mate.

Or even worse. She could have rejected him.

The mere thought of it sent a painful, gut-wrenchingly frightening shiver down his spine, only soothed by the fact that Phoenix had seemed rather exciting and accepting of being granted a mate.

When he heard steps sound from in front of him, Orion glanced up with the hope evidently sparkling in his eyes.

Finally, someone approached the palace steps. Except, it wasn’t the little witch that he had been eagerly awaiting.

“I hope you know that you’re supposed to be treating the Mating Games just like everyone else,” Denver said, only coming to a stop in front of Orion who was still sat on the bottom step of the palace.

“I know,” Orion nodded, only needing to crane his neck back a little as he was quite a few inches taller than the steward.

“Well, if you know that, then what are you doing here?” Denver counted, raising a questioning brow in his direction.

“What do you mean?” he frowned in question.

“Just because you have an unfair advantage to the Mating Games doesn’t mean that you get the easy path,” Denver sighed, moving over to sit down next to him on the steps.

“I would hardly call it an unfair advantage,” Orion replied dryly, pursing his lips. “I’ve waited over twenty-five years to meet my mate. If anything, I would say that I received an unfair disadvantage.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. That was harsh of me and I was completely out of line,” Denver was quick to apologise with what appeared to be a genuine expression on his face. “But regardless, you’re not supposed to be receiving any preferential treatment just because you’ve already met your mate.”

“Surely, this can’t be considered preferential treatment,” he scoffed, gesturing to the fact that he was literally sat on the ground right now. “I’m just here to wait for Phoenix.”

“But that’s the thing,” Denver insisted, his tone far lighter and softer than before. “The fact that you’re even allowed to sit out here and wait for Phoenix already gives you an advantage over everyone else.”

“Please don’t make me head back to the apartment only to come back straight away,” Orion asked, not finding it beneath him to all but beg, especially if it meant that he would get his way. Whether getting his way or not was an unfair advantage was still up for debate.

“Fine,” Denver groaned aloud after several moments. “I’m going to head inside but if anyone asks, you weren’t here when I walked by.”

“Got it,” Orion grinned, his lips only curling up higher at the corners as Denver groaned aloud one more time before standing up and heading into the palace without so much as a second glance over his shoulder.

Thankfully, Phoenix arrived not long after Denver headed into the palace. She had her earphones in and was casually bobbing her head to whatever she was listening as she strolled up to the palace. But at the sight of him, her lips curled up at the corners into a large grin. Tugging her earphones out of her ears, she hurried in walking over to him. Quick to rise up to his feet, Orion jumped off the palace step and met her halfway.

“Hi,” Phoenix grinned widely, tipping his head back slightly as she stared up at him. Her deep blue eyes twinkled under the bright sunlight despite it being the middle of January.

“Hi,” Orion exhaled, unable to hold himself back from matching her expression.

“Why are you sat out here?” Phoenix asked curiously, coming to a stop in front of him.

“I was waiting for you.”

“Oh,” she murmured in a quiet voice. “I’m sorry. I must have forgotten that we were supposed to meet up here today.”

“No, don’t worry,” he was quick to deny, not wanting her to feel bad, especially when she hadn’t done anything wrong in the first place. “We didn’t have plans to meet up here today. I just wanted to wait for you.”

“That’s really sweet of you,” she smiled.

Orion smiled back at her, this one not so forced and grimace-like as some of the ones that had been yesterday. Before he could say anything, he eyed the stream of cars that were approaching the palace for today’s task.

“We should probably head inside before it gets congested here,” he murmured, gesturing to the steps that she had previously been sat on.

“Good idea,” Phoenix nodded as she followed behind him, the heels of her boots gently tapping against the ground with every step that she took. “Do you think they’re going to make us use the scent masking spray again?” she asked him as they walked through the open set of double doors that led them into the grand palace.

Orion opened his mouth to answer but before he could formulate a sentence, his favourite steward beat him to it.

“Unfortunately, the scent masking spray will still need to be used today,” Denver called out to them from where he was sat behind a makeshift desk near the doors leading to the grand hall – the same hall that yesterday’s mixer had taken place in.

“Is this really necessary?” Orion sighed in question, a distasteful look on his face as he eyed the spray bottle that the steward was holding.

“Unfortunately, it is,” Denver was quick to dismiss as he sprayed them both. And just for good measure, he sprayed Orion with an extra spritz before ushing him into the palace where everyone was getting into position for the third task of the Mating Games.

Even though he knew this was standard, Orion couldn’t help but feel frustrated. How could he not when after going so long without a mate, he now had to endure having their connection numbed by something as offensive as the scent masking spray? While it was a pretty marvellous concoction as a whole, especially in regards to war, Orion found it nothing short of frustrating right now.

After all these years without a mate, all he wanted to do was spend time with her. But alas, that was not possible until the entirety of the Mating Games had played out so for now, there was still five days that he was forced to endure.

Turning his head, he spied the eager and excited expression on Phoenix’s face as she turned her head to glance all around the head. Or more specifically, the grand set up of today’s task which was the mate roulette.

For her, he would put up with anything and everything, let alone something as simple and mundane as the scent masking spray.

“It’s not a big deal,” Phoenix called out to him, her soft, lulling voice pulling him out of his thoughts.

“What’s not a big deal?”

“Having the spray mask our scents,” she said, shrugging her shoulders when he glanced at her with evident surprise on his face. “I know it isn’t the most ideal, especially in our situation but like the Alpha king and queen said, we’re to be treated just like everyone else.”

Blinking at her, Orion couldn’t help but be surprised at the way that Phoenix had picked up on what he was thinking without him having to say anything. It was almost as if she had taken one look at him and knew exactly what to say to lift his mood.

“It’s just a bit frustrating,” Orion sighed and pursed his lips, a soft expression taking over his face as he glanced down at his mate. “I can’t help but feel like we’re wasting our time together by doing all these tasks. Having to use the scent masking spray while we already know that we’re mates just makes things so much more worse.

“I completely understand what you’re saying but if you think about it like this,” Phoenix started, her lips curling up further at the corners as she stared up at him. “We have the rest of our life together but the Mating Games only lasts for a total of eight days. It’s already day three and I know for a fact that when we look back on this moment, we’re going to think that it’s all passed in the blink of an eye.”

At her words, all his worries and frustrations slipped away; almost within the very same moment. Even though that was exactly what he had been trying to convince himself of all morning, it appeared that it only settled it when it was coming from his mate.

“You’re right. We don’t have to rush anything. We have the rest of our lives together,” Orion smiled, one which was quick to turn nervous when she reached out and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. When she moved to return it to her side, he couldn’t help but start panicking.

Taking her advice about not rushing anything, Orion let her hand return to her side. However, next time, he wouldn’t allow the same to happen. If she needed things to go slowly, then that was perfectly fine with him however, Orion was eager for them to establish some sort of more. More so because he couldn’t help but feel insecure about Phoenix not being able to experience the mate bond due to the simple reason that she wasn’t a werewolf.

“What is today’s task?” Phoenix asked, her voice pulling him out of his thoughts. “I haven’t received the itinerary yet so I don’t know what’s happening on what days.”

“Today is the mate roulette,” Orion told her. “And tomorrow is the maze. But I’ll get Denver or one of the stewards to drop off an itinerary to you so you know what to expect each day.”

“Thank you,” she smiled sweetly up at him.

Almost as if saying his name was enough to summon him, the man in question called for their attention.

“I was supposed to share this with you guys earlier but I totally forgot,” a voice sounded out from behind them.

Simultaneously, Phoenix and Orion, glanced curiously over their shoulders only to find that Denver had sought them out.

“Share what with us?” Phoenix asked curiously. Even more so as she spied the steward to be hiding both of his hands behind his back. “And what are you hiding?”

“You’ll see soon enough,” Denver grinned before moving on to explain why he had sought them out just before the start of today’s task. “Understandably, both of you didn’t receive back your scores from the compatibility test because you weren’t able to successfully submit it until yesterday. Anyway, I now have your results.”

“How did we do?” Orion was quick to ask, now just as eager as his little mate.

“Very, very well,” the steward grinned, finally revealing his hands to present to them their first official badge. “You scored 89% which is amazing. So, well done to the both of you.”

While Orion was very pleasantly surprised and welcoming of such good news, his reaction was less than mild compared to that of his mate’s. While he smiled happily, Phoenix accepted her badge gleefully and all but jumped up and down in excitement on the balls of her feet at such news. When that didn’t prove enough for her to get all of her energy out, she wrapped her arms around Orion’s waist; squeezing him as tight as she could.

At first, Orion froze at her sudden reaction but very soon after, he found himself melting at her very public display of affection.

He didn’t care that people were looking or that Denver was laughing at her reaction.

No. How could he care about something as small and insignificant as that when he had his mate wrapped around him, still so excited at the prospect that they were highly compatible to each other. Her reaction alone was enough to set his heart off into overdrive.

Tightening his arms around her, he bowed his head and pressed his lips into her hair.

Perhaps the Mating Games wouldn’t be such a waste of time, after all.

-

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Layla Knight

09.06.2021