Arthur was ordered to go to his father's rooms for a private meeting, he knew this meeting was coming and he wasn't looking forward to it. Four days before he had been made Crown Prince and with that came new responsibilities, one of which was to marry and start a family to continue the Pendragon dynasty. He had believed for years that he would wed his father's ward Morgana. She did after all come with the lands around Tintagel and was wealthy in her own right. But all that had changed when the King had revealed that he was Morgana's father and thus they were half brother and sister.

Since then Uther Pendragon had been parading a string of likely Omega Princesses before Arthur. Arthur however was determined to find his soul mate, his one true love and would not settle for second best. For centuries the traditions of the Alpha's had demanded that they wait to find their true mate. But over the years the frequency of Omegas being born had been decreasing to an alarming rate. Uther blamed it on magic, to him the cause of all evil and unfortunate events. He had turned against magic when his own soul mate Ygraine had died in child birth. Although Uther did accept that many Omegas did have some magic, his daughter Morgana was a seer, he still hated it This caused the king a great deal of soul searching, but he ensured that any magic user in his Kingdom was registered and had their powers limited.

Now the king was demanding that Arthur go to Mercia where there was to be an Omega ball and there to find himself a mate regardless of whether it was his true mate or not. The balls were held every three years in a different kingdom. This helped the Alphas find their mates easier.

, "You might never find her Arthur, there may not be one for you. You must find a mate before you find yourself having to accept whatever is left once all the other Princes are settled and that is not acceptable."

"But father you married your true mate, please allow me to do the same!"

"If you come back without a wife then I will select one for you, and you will have no choice." Uther told his son. "It is hard I know but you need an heir, Camelot must have its next prince."

It was a very downhearted Prince who set out on the journey to Mercia with his knights. He was to be accompanied by Morgana's mate and husband Leon, Elyan one of the Alpha knights who was unmated and four Beta knights. Each Kingdom was only permitted to send two unmated Alphas to the ball. This was to prevent the often violent fighting that could occur at such gatherings. With not enough Omegas to go round. The Beta knights were not considered the best of Knights, and could never progress to the select group that guarded the King and Prince, but were however still formidable fighters.

Once at the Court of King Baynard Arthur was greeted with the utmost curtesy and he had Elyan were housed in some of the best of the Alpha attendee's chambers. Leon and the Beta Knights were their guards and were housed in rooms attached to Arthur and Elyan rooms. It was their job to both protect the unwed alphas and also ensure that they maintained the correct decorum in the presence of so many Omegas. Leon would of course be in charge of them.

It was not thought likely that such an occurrence would happen, but it was considered politically unwise for Knights from another Kingdom should have any such control over heads of state. With Omegas present hormones could take over from common sense.

Arthur and his group had arrived in Mercia early as Uther had wanted Arthur to meet with King Baynard and discuss some treaty matters. It was during one such meeting when news reached Mercia that one of the convoys bringing an Omega's from the distant Kingdom of Powys had been attacked and the three Omega's had been taken. As the convoy had reached the Mercian border when the incident occurred King Baynard immediately organised a rescue party. It was rare of for such an occurrence and for it to happen to the group from Powys was especially unfortunate as the Kingdom had never had dealings with the five kingdoms before, they were an elusive kingdom that guarded their borders and had little to do with the outside world. It had been considered a coup for King Baynard to have convinced their King to agree to send not one but three Omegas. It seemed that unlike most kingdoms Powys had a very strong population of both Alphas and Omegas. Although little else was known about them.

Arthur immediately offered his men to join the mission and a long group set out for the sight of the ambush. When they got there they found most of the guard dead, two had survived but where badly injured, they were able to inform King Baynard and Arthur that it was a large force who showed no banners or other identification.

"But Sire they knew just who to take, they took all three omegas and their three body servants and killed the rest. We stood no chance, even using our magic we were overpowered. Our King will be greatly displeased and you can be sure as soon as he hears he will come to save them. One of the Omegas was his only child and the other two were his nieces. The Prince was his life and he will not rest."

King Baynard looked puzzled "You said Prince? I thought it was the omegas that were taken"

"Sire Prince Merlin is an Omega, the first male omega for hundreds of years, his father will be inconsolable as will the queen. They hadn't wanted him to come but he insisted as he said he would find his soul mate in Mercia"

King Baynard looked at Arthur "This is a disaster King Balinor is a dragonlord and commands the largest group of dragons still in existence, he also has strong force of mages, and we cannot afford to have him declare war on us. He wanted to send dragons with his omegas and was very reluctant not to do so. We must rescue the Omegas before he gets here"

The Knight from Powys looked up at the King and Prince "Sires I know not what they used, but when they took the omegas they were all unconscious, we didn't stand a chance it was a mist that sent us all to sleep, I was more fortunate as I was slightly behind as my horse was going lame and I stopped to check him. They all worn hoods to protect them from the mist. They looked like they were wet. Even the horse's fell, once down they slit the throats of all, I lay still as I knew someone needed to tell the tale."

"You did the right thing, I will inform your king" Baynard told the knight. He then turned to Arthur "We ride, but first warn you men of this mist."

Arthur turned to his host "It sounds like wet cloth stops the mist, we must also make sure our men are warned to keep their water flasks full and near at all times."

The group set off following the tracks, they wasted no time knowing that war would be the result of failure. Both the King and Price Arthur were intrigued by the thought of a male omega. They knew the legends that said such an occurrence was the sign of great change, and that such an omega should be cherished above all others and the fact that someone clearly knew that such an omega was travelling to Mercia worried them.

Further into the forest the group who had captured the omegas were travelling as fast as they could. They were under strict instruction to see no harm came to the omegas. They were led by a knight by the name of Valliant, a harsh and cruel man who followed his employer and was feared by all under him. His second in command was ^^^^^^^ who was equally feared. The Omegas and their attendance were tied over horses and the group were travelling hard. The precautions had been taken and each of the omegas wore collars of iron to protect the abductors against magic. The male Omega also wore cold iron on both wrists, it seemed the fear was that as he was such a rare occurrence that he might be a warlock.

As night fell the group camped and tied the omegas to trees and as they woke they were given some gruel and water. The servants were given only water, the Prince tried to share his gruel but the servants refused to take it.

The male omega was the first to speak and demanded to know why they had been taken. "You have no right, my father will find us and you will suffer release us now and I will see you spared."

Valliant sneered "What makes you think he will find you young Prince? We will be long gone before he finds out" The knight looked at the male omega with interest. He was a slender man with an ethereal look, it was obvious he would never have been an Alpha just by looking at him. But at the same time he was good looking in a way with high cheek bones and stunning blue eyes.

The Prince looked at the knight and gave a small smile "You know little of Powys if you believe that"

The knight bent down in front of the Prince "I don't care what you think. I have been told to make sure you all arrive alive and not knotted but I'm sure we can beat you all about a bit, be warned the women will suffer the most as you are more valuable. As for your servants we can dispose of them as we wish, in fact my men may well enjoy them tonight if you give us any trouble. They are only alive now in case we need to send their corpses as warnings"

After the knight had left the Prince looked across at his companions and gave them a smile of encouragement. "Don't worry father will find us, do as they say and don't give then cause to harm you" he paused "Are all both unharmed?"

"We are" the smaller of the omega woman spoke. Her gown was dirty and torn in places but otherwise she appeared unharmed. She looked frightened and cowed by what was happening to them.

"Please Freya don't allow them to scare you father will be here before you know it. The same goes for you Kara"

"I know Merlin but it's hard" Kara answered. "Why have they taken us?"

"Because we are omegas I assume, now eat and drink whatever they give you. And please do as you are told" Prince Merlin was more worried than he let on, he had a bad feeling about this and without his magic he was unable to contact his father or Aithusa, his dragon. He knew by now that Aithusa would have sensed a problem and informed Kilgarrah his father's dragon but they would have no idea where to look.

The prince looked at the servants who were also good friends "Please be very careful, you heard what he said they consider you expendable. Although I suspect they have a reason for taking you"

The two women servants nodded clearly very scared but Merlin's manservant glared at Merlin "If they touch you I will kill them"

"Will don't be foolish there is nothing you can do. If any of you get the chance to escape take it, we will have rescuers following us, just take care."

Will glared at his Prince, over the years the two had become friends and Will was fiercely protective of the omega. "I'm not leaving you so you can forget it" he said.

Merlin reached into himself to try to draw on his magic but he couldn't reach it. He could feel it deep within him but couldn't access it and it was beginning to make him feel weak and sick. He had never been cut off from it before and he didn't like the feeling. As soon as he had eaten the gruel and drank his water he closed his eyes.

Several miles east King Baynard and his group had camped for the night. He was sat talking to Arthur trying to come up with a joint plan. The King knew he had two days before he would have to turn back to his capital as the rest of the Omega's and Alphas would be arriving. Arthur said he would continue with the hunt if needed but both knew they needed a quick outcome. Otherwise the omegas may well have been forcibly mated and that would spell disaster for all. King Balinor would go to war over such a forcible taking of his omegas, especially the male omega.

Just as the dawn broke the rescue party set off hoping to catch up with the ambushers before dark. They had passed out of Mercia and into the wilds of Northumbria. Ahead of them to kidnappers had reached their destination of old abandoned castle in a heavily wooded area. As they untied their captives and dragged them into the great hall of the castle. There they were thrown into the dungeons. The two women and their servants were place in one cell the prince and Will in another. The Prince was shackle to the wall as an extra precaution. They were left there for over an hour before the Prince was removed from his cell and led away Will tried to stop him being taken and was knocked out for his trouble.