2. Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Fourteen Years Old
G lancing around the woods, I spotted my new friend, Callie. We shared a desk in English, and she was so chatty that we quickly formed an easy friendship. She was the year above, but an omega same as me, and we both enjoyed watching the school rugby matches for all the wrong reasons.
It was a crying shame that Axel was now in sixth form and no longer eligible to play. Watching his shorts straining to contain those thick thighs had been the highlight of my week.
A bunch of Callie’s friends were throwing a bonfire in the woods tonight because, from next week onwards, most of the alphas would go into rut and disappear for a week. She extended me an invite, and since Coop was already out this weekend, Mom jumped at the chance to have an empty house. She’d recently started seeing a new omega, a woman named Abbie, so she hadn’t batted an eyelid or even bothered asking me if there’d be drinking.
My omega mum had died when I was only a few months old, and my alpha Mom hadn’t dated anyone since that I knew of, so it was certainly understandable for her to look for a new mate.
Dressed in a pair of dark-wash skinny jeans and a charcoal-grey cowl-neck jumper I’d finished knitting the weekend before, I headed in the direction of the smoke permeating the air.
I joined Callie, who was sitting on the trunk of a large fallen tree, with a few people I recognised from school but hadn’t ever really spoken to. Her amber eyes glittered in the firelight as she held court, and as soon as she clocked me, she waved me over enthusiastically.
“Dylan!” she squealed.
“Hey, hun,” I kissed her flushed cheek. Her breath smelled of rum and coke.
“Everyone, this is Dylan. He’s super smart, so he’s taking Maths and English a year early,” Callie crowed, making me blush from embarrassment. “And he made this beautiful jumper he’s wearing. Here, feel how soft it is!”
I wasn’t trying to hide my knitting hobby per se, but I also wasn’t advertising it to people as the first and only thing they knew about me.
Before Callie or any of her friends even got the chance to touch the soft wool, I was shoved back by a big paw.
“Hey, what are you— Oh!” I stuttered.
“Ask people before you touch them.” Axel glared at my new friends. I was torn between wanting to bask in any morsel of attention Axel deemed to throw my way—which was few and far between these days—and wanting to tell him to fuck off and stop embarrassing me.
“Axel, jeez, it’s fine. They just wanted to feel my jumper,” I tried to explain.
“They can still ask first,” he muttered before stalking off without another word.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what that was about. He’s best friends with my brother and a little… protective, I guess.”
“Damn, we just got told off by Axel King. How is he even hotter when he’s angry?” Callie’s blonde friend said.
“Keep it in your pants, Elliot. I heard he asked out Lauren Bell,” Callie replied.
My stomach dropped. Surely I would know about it if Axel had found an omega?
“Where did you hear that?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Lauren was talking about it in the cafeteria at lunch, and she made sure everyone would hear. Not that I can blame her; if Axel was my alpha, I’d want the whole world to know he was claimed.”
The gossip continued from there, but I couldn’t hear a word of it. It was as if my ears were stuffed with cotton wool. I wasn’t totally braindead; I knew realistically that this day would happen. But not now. Honestly, I’d hoped it would happen once I’d ditched this town and left for uni. So I could hear about it in vague terms via updates from my brother instead of seeing it with my own two eyes.
Axel had found an omega. His future played out painfully in my mind: in a few years, he would build her a den, and she would build them a nest, and they’d spend all their ruts and heats wrapped around each other, in lust and then in love. And I’d spend the rest of my life searching for an alpha who smelled even half as perfect as Axel did—probably settling for less.
I excused myself from the conversation, telling them I’d spotted my brother and was going to say hi. Instead, I headed deep into the woods; twigs snapped loudly underfoot as I strode away from all my classmates. When I knew I was alone, I quickly stripped out of my clothes. I always kept one of those tiny fold-up shopping bags in my pocket for situations like this.
Once all my clothes and shoes were stuffed into the bag, I squeezed my eyes shut. Rubbing the heels of my palms into the sockets until patterns danced behind my eyelids and I could feel the shift begin.
I was out of practice because I didn’t shift often, preferring to remain in my human form. But, like riding a bike, it happened without too much thought. At first, russet orange fur sprouted through my skin, covering my body. Next, my arms and legs shrank down, forcing me to drop onto all fours. And finally, my least favourite part of the shift, my face contorted, jaw popping as it elongated to form a muzzle, and my sharp teeth released.
Using my mouth to bite down on the handle of the bag of clothes, I dragged them to my destination. It was too big to carry because I was only a small fox.
Sniffing until I found the tree I was looking for, I tugged the bag of clothes with me and scurried inside the hole at its base. It was a long abandoned den that Cooper and I had discovered as kids. Presumably, the alpha and omega who it had belonged to had either moved or were no longer mates, as there were no residual scents within the packed dirt walls.
The idea of breaking a mate bond had always seemed devastating to me before, but now it was a soothing balm to my aching heart.
Maybe Lauren and Axel would be temporary. Maybe when I was older, Axel would realise that I smelled just right like he did. Like mate. Like fate.
In my sad, abandoned den, though, I pulled out my warm jumper, Axel’s scent ever so faintly lingering on the wool from where he’d pulled me back earlier. I spread it on the ground, turning in circles a few times before giving up and accepting that it was what it was.
And then I curled up in a ball on the saddest excuse for a nest in existence and cried.