Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 41: Covetous

Oathran was a dragon. His nature was one of primal sovereignty, an innate understanding of possession and territory that ran deeper than bone. He knew when others coveted what was his.

For centuries, he had been the object of covetous gazes, after all. For his power, his treasures, his very being. He had grown so accustomed to the weight of that envy that he could feel its shape in a glance. So used to it that he could trace the contour of desire in the flicker of a stranger’s pupil.

And now, that covetous gaze had settled upon the single most precious part of his hoard. His bonded mate.

"Are you attracted to my wife?"

It was just a confirmation. He already knew the answer. He was merely calling the shadow into the light.

Arkai visibly froze. His entire powerful frame locked, the casual lord replaced by a creature caught in a predator’s direct line of sight.

Of course he would. In the context of the situation, the question was such an out of context thing to ask. But worse, with context, the context of two alpha males, a bond, and the unspoken laws of their kinds, it could only be interpreted as a challenge.

A prelude to a fight for possession.

And Arkai was precisely the type of man who would accept that challenge, admit his wrongs, and step onto that field knowing it would mean his death.

"Your Majesty, I am a deplorable man," he began. "I... I am a wolf. From a genealogical perspective, I should’ve been a loyal man who wouldn’t ever covet another man’s woman. But... I cannot deny—"

"I know." Oathran cut him off, raising a palm. "I understand your frustration. Because more than jealousy, I too have had the same... deplorable thoughts. When I smelled the trace of that tiger boy on her."

"So, I am not angry," Oathran explained. "Just..."

"...disappointed...?" Arkai ventured, bracing himself for the next most common condemnation.

Oathran shook his head slowly. "Sad," he answered. "Because I couldn’t be angry."

Arkai widened his eyes. Something... wasn’t right.

"I am greedy," Oathran said. "I believe it is that greed which caused Saintess Cecilia and I to bond accidentally."

Accidental... bond...

Arkai’s mind instantly dismissed Ruby’s convenient story of an ’accidental’ bond with the Arctic wolf. That reeked of a political scheme. But this... If a being of his power spoke of an accident, it was a force of nature. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"The Saintess doesn’t have a heart," Oathran continued, laying out the impossible equation. "So, how were we able to bond? It might be that power she acquired, the one that lets her pull miracles from light, that made it possible. But whether it was her power or something else... she didn’t even know we were bonded before I brought it up to her."

Arkai felt a twisting pain in his own chest. To have undergone such a connection, to have it forged in the shared aftermath of her mutilation, and to have been unaware of it...

"But I am sad not because it was accidental. I am actually feeling quite blessed, despite also feeling guilty about it," Oathran said, and a self-deprecating laugh mixed through his words as he shrugged. "You see, I’m sad because..."

The Dragon Lord sighed.

"Soon, the end of my existence will arrive."

He lifted his gaze to the ashen sky, "But I am greedy. I am so very, very greedy."

The wind chose that moment to gust, swirling the grey ashes of the dead valley between them. Oathran didn’t even look. He simply tapped the base of his cane against the ground. A gentle click, and the ash motes dancing in the air halted, frozen in time. Before obeying a new law and dropping straight down.

Arkai felt it. The effortless, absolute control of mana. A demonstration of wind magic on a tier so high it bordered on rewriting local reality. You would’ve thought that strength was a promise of immortality.

Yet it only underscored the devastating words.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t process it. His instincts, his entire worldview, rebelled against it. So instead, the words that left his lips were a kind of... reflexive contradiction.

"But you are still so strong, Your Majesty."

Oathran turned his head, smiling.

"What has strength to do with death?"

In that moment, Arkai understood.

This man, this powerful, ancient, blessed and guilty man, wanted one thing from him.

One single thing.

It was for Arkai to covet Cecilia. To want her. To be there for her. Not now, in the shadow of a living bond, but after.

After he was gone.

***

DING!

[Capturable Love Interest detected! Would you like to roll for Five Star Love Interest, Arkai Dawnoro? You have 10 free rolls!]

[Yes/No]

Cecilia’s eyes flew open violently.

What in the Saede eruption was tha—

DING!

[You’ve filled your first Love Interest slot with Oathran Alicei! If you want to add more love interests, you can buy the next slot with 100 Love Points.]

[Please buy the next slot with 100 Love Points!]

Her brain, just fried from mapping the branching timelines of a time traveler and the implications of her own existence, short-circuited completely. Whatever this was, it must be connected to whatever was happening right now between Oathran and Arkai.

She shot up from the makeshift bed.

"How do I do telepathy?" she demanded, her eyes stuttering.

[You can just think about reaching out to your Love Interest, Cecilia!]

No. It wouldn’t be enough.

She needed to reach him. She needed to stop whatever conversation was giving the System these delusional ideas.

She stormed out of the tent, her previous caution about being seen by the Arctic Wolf "rescuers" vaporized. She swept the ashen camp until her eyes locked onto two figures standing apart from the others, facing each other in a pool of unnatural stillness.

Her steps slowed for a heartbeat.

Then accelerated.

"Your Majesty!"

The address snapped both men’s heads toward her. They wore identical looks of shock. But before that shock could morph into anything, she was upon them.

And—

SLAP!

Oathran’s head snapped to the side.

The sting on his cheek was nothing compared to the pain ignited in his chest. He looked back at her, and saw it. The red-rimmed eyes, the unshed tears, the trembling set of her jaw.

Nothing escaped her.

Not the subtlest shift in the wind, not the most buried secret of the heart, not the wish of a dying man trying to arrange the world after he was gone.

It had lasted less than five minutes before she’d sensed its echo in the universe and came to smother it with her own two hands.