Eight
I may be an omega, but one thing I’ll never allow myself to be again is docile. I have nothing at all to my name anymore, so if these alphas react negatively to my fury, I still won’t regret throwing that pebble I always kept next to my bed at the giant ginger alpha.
Why the hell are all of them so big?
I don’t even care that this orange eucalyptus guy’s scent actually smells incredible and makes me want to lay back and relax, because that’s just biology. I’m stronger than biology. I’m smarter than biology.
He glances up at me in shock from my attack while a few of the other idiots in the hall continue to try and tell him what he should do to me, to instruct him how he should react to my small act of violence.
They go so far as explaining that I need to be responding to their generosity, but they’re surprisingly easy to tune out.
They all sound like white noise I don’t need.
“That wasn’t very nice, was it?” His beard and mustache move with his lips, and maybe I was looking too hard at the myriads of freckles covering his face, but I’ve never seen anyone that looks like him and it’s like being at a museum. Fascinating.
“What isn’t nice,” I reply when I snap out of my stupor, “is breaking into my home and ruining all of my food because you were bored.”
The adrenaline running through me for waking up in such a terrifying way has me shaking, and I know I’m not physically able to take this sitting up much longer, so I lie down and cover myself back up, pretending like I can just go back to sleep.
I even give him my back because he needs to know I don’t give a shit what they want.
“Omega. Please, let us take you out of here. I know you’re hurting right now, that you need help, and we’re going to do whatever we can.
Ignore what those assholes are saying out there and just focus on me.
I’ll take you somewhere just you and me—and Anderson—if you want.
The rest of them don’t even have to be involved.
They’re my pack but fuck them if you’re uncomfortable.
Wait, no—hold up, that came out wrong. I wasn’t telling you to— I’m just going to stop talking for the benefit of everyone. ”
I roll over and lean far enough to see the pack that are acting like rabid beasts instead of men, trying not to laugh at this alpha’s blunder while trying to convince myself his behavior is in no way endearing.
It’s possible the guys in the hall are far less hostile than I’ve been imagining in my head as I take in all their noise, but I don’t want to lend them any sympathy.
To quote the strange alpha in front of me, fuck them.
I know their scents far too well and them being so close in proximity is sending me into a head spin.
My body is already bracing itself for the pain that comes every time their scents are given to me.
What were we talking about? Oh, right; running away together.
“I highly doubt your pack would allow you to run away somewhere with me. I have a better idea though; why don’t you guys just leave my house?
Yes. You guys run away, without me, and we can all pretend this was a fever dream. ”
The nice one from earlier, Anderson, finally shoulders his way in and my body relaxes.
He’s different than the others. I was barely alert enough to look at him properly when he fed me, but his clean cedar leaf and lavender scent holds only safety for me.
His hair is messy and a bit wild, which pairs perfectly with his crazed eyes. Is he…worried? About me? Huh.
Maybe I’ll keep him. He fed me. He saved me. “I’ll go with him.”
I turn my attention back to the redhead. “I don’t like any of you. I don’t want to be around any of you. You guys ruined my life and it’s completely your fault I’m the way I am.”
“We ruined your life? We don’t even fucking know you!” The one that was in here earlier with Anderson screams.
“Don’t fucking yell at her, Moon!” Redhead immediately retorts to the pack.
“If you guys can’t keep your mouths quiet, then you need to leave.
Regardless of what your personal thoughts on the situation are, yelling at the omega will not do a damn thing for any of us. Find your fucking manners or get out.”
Well then. He’s slightly less annoying now.
I look at this man again, feeling my energy drain by the minute. “Interesting pack dynamics you’ve got there. I may not know too much about them, but aren’t packs supposed to be like…close? And agree on things?”
He runs his hands through his hair and unfolds his massive tree trunk legs, changing position.
He moves slowly, letting me track him, and I’m curious enough to see what he wants that I don’t attempt to move away from him.
It’s also possible I’m too weak to do that, but I like the illusion that I have a choice here.
I’m still on my side on my bed, and I’ve waited too long to breathe and now I need to draw in breath desperately. His scent hits my system like a drug, and I know my pupils are dilating and my entire body is instantly on high alert, and it takes everything I possess to not throw myself at him.
“Why are you afraid of us? Why do you hate us?” His voice is too soft, his breath too warm.
I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head. I can’t talk. It’s too risky when he’s this close.
Next thing I know, he’s picking up my wrist and tsking at the thinness of it, bringing it up to smell. He groans, a sweet, syrupy groan that might make me do things if I hadn’t had years to practice restraint when it comes to them.
“You’re an omega. Who was Winslow to you?”
I’ve been trying to weigh my options since they first came here. If they ever discovered me, what would happen? How would that confrontation go? Would giving them information help me or hurt me?
The conclusion I kept coming back to is that giving them information couldn’t hurt me any more than everyone already has.
I figured they’d have pre-formed opinions about who I am, so I don’t really care if they believe me or not.
Lying to them will only muddle my righteousness more. “She was my sister.”
He swallows, still too close to me. “How do you two have the same scent?”
Now that I’m being cooperative, the hallway has gone quiet. They’re acting like they give a shit about what I have to say, and I don’t think I like that. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
I can do better than that.
I pull my arm out from my blanket and show him my elbow. I’ve heard that there’re drugs some people inject into their bloodstreams, that it leaves behind track marks that never go away. My arms are kind of like that. “Clear enough?”
His frame is shaking now as he reaches out to run a finger over my scars.
Bruising I don’t think will ever go away, holes upon holes where Winslow stole my blood.
She wasn’t clever enough to come up with the idea to inject my blood on her own, she had to have gotten the idea from somewhere.
If he’s at all intelligent, he’ll put two and two together.
His eyes look at my arm, assess it far too quickly, then he’s back to looking at my face.
My cheeks get hot and my body is trying to do what it wants to again. I can’t control the way my biology reacts, so my scent sweetening and perfuming for him isn’t ideal, but there’s not much I can do about it.
“We’re your scent matches.”
“You were my scent matches. You were her pack. You’re nothing to me, just the pack that made me sick every month and tortured me.”
“Omega, we don’t— no. I don’t accept that.
She must have stolen everything from you.
If we’d known…” He looks back at his pack.
It’s clear some of them are thinking I’m being honest and some are too bitter to even entertain the idea that I’m what I say I am…
what it’s obvious I am. It’s not my job to convince them, though.
“Okay. Before we do anything else, I want to get you checked out at my clinic and get you some nutrition. Can I do that?”
“Clinic? What kind of clinic?” Medical care is not something I’ve ever been offered, and I’d be stupid to say no.
“Private. I have my own practice. Just me and whoever else you want there. I’m Jos, by the way. We’re going to do all we can to fix everything, Omega.”
“Don’t call me that. I’m not— I mean I am, but I hate that I am. Call me Fable, please.”
“Fable,” he says, caressing my name with his voice in an incredibly unfair manner. His pheromones and purrs are caustic, and I’m letting my guard down far too easily. Survival though; I don’t have the energy to fight him.
I reach a hand out to Anderson. It’s satisfying giving him attention when the rest of them are right there trying to pry it from me.
“You’ll stay with me, right?” Then I look down the small, smashed-in hallway and feel my eyes roll at their over handedness.
“You’re all fixing this. I won’t have holes in my home.
And if any of you so much as thinks about taking this one, good alpha from me, I don’t think you’ll like who I become. ”
Anderson smirks at how bold I sound with such little fight left in me. “Not going anywhere, Omega.”
When I don’t correct Anderson, Jos scoffs. “What, he gets to call you omega? How is that fair?”
I crawl out of my bed, then get an idea I can’t let go of. Underneath my top ratty blanket and stuffed around my little nest are pieces of clothing that Winslow gave me from the guys to get my scent to spike. Let’s see how they like getting it back.
“Both of you, git. And the rest of you in the hall, back off. I’m coming out but I need a second to…change.”
Jos eyes me warily, but they’ve proved that hiding won’t work anymore. They must see how positively weak I am. I stare at Jos with my head tilted, daring him to give me trouble for a very reasonable request.
He leans forward the scant few inches we’ve got left and has the audacity to scent mark me before crawling out. Anderson doesn’t exit until he’s done the same, trying his best to cover up Jos’s scent.
The rest of the pack disappears from my line of sight, so I do in fact change. Don’t really feel like leaving the house for the first time in years wearing the dress I almost died in earlier. I don’t know if I believe in the exchanges of cosmic energies or not, but that seems like a bad idea.
I only have a handful of castoffs from Winslow, but I do the best I can to look somewhat presentable before unearthing all my treasures.
In my head, it’s safe to call them that, because these items of clothing were the only thing to really bring me any sort of comfort.
I might not have had any alphas to hold me and guide me through my heats, but on the nights when I couldn’t get out of my head long enough to stop feeling sorry for myself, I’d let myself enjoy the soothing scents for the luxuries they were.
It feels wrong to dismantle my nest, but I’m getting the feeling that I won’t be coming back here for a while. I don’t even know where these guys live; Winslow made it seem like they were not from Trash Haven.
With arms full, I take a deep breath and walk out, feeling something tear inside of me. Whether that tear will make me stronger eventually or disable me further, is yet to be seen.