cassiopeia ꒱ markhyuck

one

When he was only sixteen years old, Mark Lee learned of his father's death, and subsequently was forced to ascend the throne.

It had been completely unexpected—his father had been out hunting, one of his favorite sports. He had been surrounded by guards, so he should have been completely fine. He was fine for a while, riding through the trees and killing various deer and rabbits to bring back for the kingdom, but then one of the guards heard a cry, and a loud thump. In an instant, there was a spear lodged in the king's chest and he had fallen off his horse, lifeless on the ground. The soldiers had searched the forest meticulously, Mark was told, but they found nothing. Absolutely nothing, not even a trace of the killer left behind.

And Mark's father was dead.

Kings were not supposed to cry, especially not in front of their people. Mark had to sit through his entire coronation at the young age of sixteen, watching his mother bawl out of the corner of his eye, and he could do nothing. He could not shed a single tear, lest he be targeted for assasination or even impeachment. He had to sit stone cold, with not even a hint of an expression on his face, as the priest placed the crown atop his head and prayed for the gods to bless him with a long life and a prosperous reign.

"Long live the king!"

Mark felt nothing. His heart had been torn from his chest, leaving an empty, gaping hole in its place.

┈ ୨ 👑 ୧ ┈

Mark presented as an alpha at the age of seventeen. The people in the kingdom rejoiced, he was told—the advisors had tried to assure him that the people would have obeyed him regardless of his presentation, but he wasn't sure how true that actually was, because alpha kings were always much more revered. They're stronger, tougher, natural leaders, and the people always tend to feel more secure underneath an alpha's rule.

Traditionally, the first of the king's sons to present as an alpha would become the new ruler, taking over the throne. If the oldest brother was a beta or an omega, then that was too bad, he would just have to accept his role as a part of the royal council.

But Mark was an only child, the only son of the former king. If he had presented as anything other than an alpha, the people would have either had to learn to accept it, or would have planned an uprising against him—but fortunately, he didn't have to even think about it as a possibility. Mark was an alpha, and he was going to make their country proud.

Although, Mark sometimes had distantly wondered if he would be even more worshiped if he had presented as an omega.

Omegas had become a dying species in their kingdom, as a result of vicious alpha gangs that hunted them for sport. These gangs had claimed that omegas were useless, high maintenance and unnecessary, that they only challenged alphas and their authority, and that they needed to be eradicated completely in order to ensure that alphas would never be dethroned as the superior subgender. As these violent attacks and murders increased over the years, the number of omegas had continued to dwindle, and despite the royal office's efforts to protect them and keep them alive, it wasn't long before there was just one more left.

Mark's mother. The last living omega in the kingdom. She had been mated by the king, Mark's father, at a young age, meaning she had received ample protection as the queen since she was young and was able to escape being targeted by the attacks. When the omegas were finally extinct outside of the palace, Mark's mother had wept for days, locking herself in her quarters as she mourned the loss of her kind, her species.

"The gods have cursed us," a royal advisor had wailed one day during one of the many emergency meetings held by the royal office regarding this issue. Mark had been fourteen at the time, sitting in on the meeting at his father's side to watch and learn how to become the king.