by Sara Summers
“Don’t worry, he doesn’t want to talk to you either.” Ty teased, helping me to my feet. He went to pick me up, but I stopped him.
“I can walk myself.” I decided.
“Let me help you.” Ty challenged, though he did it softly so no one would notice our little power struggle.
“I’m really okay. Thanks though.” I told him, taking a step forward. My ankle shook, and Ty grabbed me around the waist.
“I’m helping you whether you like it or not.” Ty told me, and I scowled. Still, I let him pull my arm around his neck. I even let him hold me around my waist, though that may or may not have been because I enjoyed the physical contact.
He left me on a couch outside what I assumed was the Alpha’s office, and as soon as the door shut behind him, I got up to snoop around. It was a little tough dragging my cast around, but I managed.
I found the kitchen, which had ancient appliances along with a dining table that looked like it hadn’t been used in ages. There was a half-door in there, like the one in the old Snow White cartoon, but since it was snowy and cold I didn’t try to open it.
Then, I found the bathroom, which had a toilet that looked almost yellow it was so old.
I made my way into the living room, and yes, there was dust on the pillows.
The more I explored the Alpha’s home, the more I realized that he must’ve been lonely. It was a pretty big house, especially for a man to live in alone when he could hardly walk on his own.
I ended up back in the kitchen before long, and my leg was throbbing. I guess the nurse hadn’t been lying when she told me to keep it elevated. My options were to either go back to the couch Ty had left me sitting on, or to sit on the dusty couch, or the dusty chairs.
None of those options looked good, so I tried to jump up a little ways to sit on the counter. Had I not been wearing a 7,000 pound cast, I would’ve totally made it.
Unfortunately, I was wearing a 7,000 pound cast.
After checking to make sure no one had noticed my failure (since the house was empty, it was safe), I dragged my achy leg over to the fridge to see if there was any water.
As I pulled the fridge door open, however, someone came in through the door in the kitchen.
I jumped back, holding up the phone I’d stolen from Kyle the day before as a weapon.
When I saw that it was a woman in her mid-thirties, I relaxed.
“Oh, sorry.” She apologized. “I’m here to make the Alpha’s dinner, didn’t mean to scare you. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just gonna go back to where I should be…” I trailed off, scooting down the hall and out of her sight. On my way back to my couch, I noticed a door I hadn’t seen before.
How could I resist pushing it open?
I dragged my cast into the new room, and was surprised to find a library. I’ve never been a reader, but I’m sure if I was, I would’ve been in heaven. There were couches and chairs, and so many bookshelves I didn’t bother guessing how many books were inside.
On the left, there were newer-looking books, and on the right, older-looking ones.
I, of course, headed toward the old books. I wasn’t into reading fiction, so I didn’t care for new books. I don’t know what I was hoping to find in the old section, but I started at the bookshelf closest to the door, and began reading the spines.
“The Real Story of Romeo and Juliet, Shifter History, The Beginning of Wolf Shifters, Where the Werewolf Myth Came From, Burgandeau Pack History…” I murmured, scanning through titles.
I stopped at the first title that really made me curious.
“OMEGA.” Was the title. I guess it caught my mind because there I was, slowly but surely being dragged into being the Omega despite my desires not to be.
“Huh.” I pulled out the book. It was a leather-bound journal, so there was no summary on the back that I could read.
I flipped open the first page, and found a note to the reader. It said in a fancy, loopy handwriting:
To whomever finds this book,
I wish you the best, because most likely, you are taking the job I once had. Rather than a job, though, I suppose I should refer to it as a calling.
No one gets voted into the role of Omega. As my pack would say, nature decides the Omega. I say that the Creator decides.
I’ve seen the way our culture is moving, and I’ve seen the destruction it means for the role of Omega, and I’ve written this book to help combat that destruction.
I have few talents in writing, but these concepts, I can portray. Being an Omega is a great honor, as I hope you discover in my words, and I pray that you will go forward as such.
Please, read on. These are truths that you should have.
Sincerely,
An Old Omega
I immediately flipped to the next page, curious as to what this woman had to say about being an Omega.
The old handwriting continued.
History.
The most important thing you should know about Omega history is this:
Omega means last. The Alpha is the first member of the pack, because he is the one who leads his shifters into battle. He is the first to attack, the first people turn to, and often, the first to die. The Alpha is crucial to the pack’s functioning.
The Omega is the last member of the pack. Unlike I’ve been hearing and correcting in the recent past, the Omega is not last because she’s unimportant. The Omega is the last in the pack because—
“Leah?” Ty stuck his head into the library, and the noise pulled me out of the book. “My meeting’s over, are you ready to go?” he asked.
It took a second for me to remember where I was.
Right, the library. I was sitting on the floor, apparently, which had my leg and cast in extremely uncomfortable positions. I hadn’t even noticed.
“Um, yeah. Can I bring this with me?” I checked, as I started climbing to my feet.
“Sure.” Ty shrugged, hurrying over to help me up. “What’s it about?” he wondered.
“Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter.” I said, purposefully but also un-purposefully mocking the same thing he’d told me a bunch of times.
“Alright, that’s annoying. I won’t say it anymore.” He said. “What is your book about?”
“Omegas.” I admitted. “Some lady is about to teach me about the history of being an Omega.”
“That’s cool.” Ty nodded, seeming surprised that I wanted to learn about that. I didn’t blame him. I had been (and still was) completely against even considering being his Omega.
He walked me back to his townhouse, stopping to talk to a few people on the way there. My foot was throbbing the whole way, but I half-heartedly joined the conversations.
Between thinking about the Omega book and the pain in my leg, I didn’t have much energy to contribute to a conversation, but Ty seemed to do just fine.
When we finally made it inside, I collapsed on the couch, and then set up a pillow pile behind my back to keep me up. It was reading time.
“I have some Alpha stuff to do…” Ty scratched his head.
“That’s okay, have fun.” I said, before opening the book.
“Do I at least get a kiss goodbye? Or an ‘I’ll miss you’?” he looked like he’d been robbed.
“Sorry, I’ve never done this before.” I apologized. “Bye, I’ll miss you.” I gave him a little peck on the lips.
“I’ll miss you too. Bye.” He took off.
My wolf appeared out of nowhere, thinking,
“We need to do better. Our mate is confused, he doesn’t know how we feel.”
And then she disappeared again. The medicine was seriously throwing both of us off, but I brushed away my worries and focused on what was happening at the moment.
I settled into my pillow-couch-chair, and opened the book.
The Omega is the last in the pack because she is the pack’s last chance. When all else fails, the Omega stays
strong for her shifters. She is the last ray of hope, the last one to go to war, and the last shifter to die, other than the pack’s young.
The Omega is the one person that everyone else in the pack will give their life to protect. She is the most valuable and the most treasured shifter, and that is why she is the last.
When all else fails, the Omega doesn’t.
I picked my eyes up from the book, taking a second to gawk at the new information. Was that really the truth? I wondered how our culture had become so skewed, if that was the case.
Also, I wondered how an Omega became the person the book had described. The pack certainly didn’t think of me as the most valuable asset; I was just the next Alpha’s mate.
Despite the immense confusion bulldozing its way through my mind, I forced myself to dive back into the book. I read for hours, learning more Omega history and discovering all the duties an Omega had.
It was all good and interesting, but nothing else inspired me until I reached the chapter called:
Influence.
This is another topic that our culture is somehow letting go of altogether. I don’t understand why anyone would want to let go of this, but I’m recording it because that is somehow happening.
All shifters are born with power, emanating from the animal inside of them. The stronger and more impactful their animal is, the more power they have.
The male form of power is known as Dominance, and Dominance is like strength. Dominance is about justice, about having the mental muscles to restrain an angry wolf or to force a rabid one into submission. Dominance only requires confidence, which tends to come easily to male shifters.
Females, on the other hand, are born with a much more delicate power. Our power is Influence.
I dropped the book on my lap when I read that, and grabbed the phone I’d stolen from Kyle. I had to text Savanna.
Me: Have you ever heard of Influence, like a female form of Dominance?
Sav: No… that’s a thing?
Sav: Teach me the ways so I can influence my mate into never coming after me again
Me: Ha. I’ll let you know if I figure something out.
Sav: Thumbs up
I turned back to the book.
Influence is much different than Dominance, but that is because of one main reason. Dominance is for carrying out justice, and Influence is for enacting mercy. The problem that our society has is with where the Influence comes from.
Influence comes from how much love a female has. Not romantic love, not obsession or desire or lust. Influence comes from the place within a women where she cares about other, particularly the people she is trying to Influence.
That is why our culture is slowly abandoning our power, because they are slowly abandoning their love for people they don’t know inside and out.
For a female to find her Influence, she must find love for everyone around her, and that is why so few females have power anymore. They aren’t willing to love people.
Once again, the Omega lady had thoroughly shocked me. I had no idea what to say, or even what to do. I simply sat on the couch and stared at the wall, because I didn’t know how to move forward with the information I had just received.
Should I try to suddenly care about every person I met? Should I just get out of town because I had no chance at learning to love enough people to have any influence at all? I had no idea.
After a few minutes of staring at that wall and thinking, I fell asleep. The medicine really was kicking my butt.
Chapter 13
“Leah?” A man’s voice called my name, and I felt someone shaking my shoulders. I forced my eyes to open, then had to blink a lot to be able to see through them.
“Kyle?” I cleared my throat. “What happened? Where’s Ty?”
“Something happened.” I looked closer at him, and I saw the tears brimming in his eyes. Sitting up, I forced my feet to the floor.
“Is he okay? Is he alive?” I demanded, reaching up to touch my cotie. I knew that when a person’s mate died, they could feel some sort of pain in their cotie. One of my friends taught me that, and she lost her mate so it had to be true.
I didn’t feel any pain, and I hadn’t, but I was still on that medicine that suppressed my wolf. The cotie might not work as well because of that, I thought.
“Ty’s fine.” He assured me. “The Alpha though… he’s gone.”
“Oh.” I sat back against the couch and wondered how Ty was feeling.
“Ty had to get the pack together, they’re getting ready to bury him. Do you know how the Alpha transfer works?” Kyle asked.
“Um, yeah.” I nodded. “As soon as the last bit of dirt covers his burial site, the mantle moves to Ty.”
“And you.” Kyle added. I raised my eyebrows. That hadn’t been in the Omega book. “You’ll get hit with a bunch of feelings at once, I assume. Then, the pack will swear to protect you, and you’ll be the Omega.”
“Wait, what? The Alpha’s the only one who’s part of that ceremony.” I protested weakly. I was so tired and drained, and my wolf was far away. I wished she would come back, but that medicine had put her out.
“Maybe in some packs, but in ours, both Alpha and Omega lead together. You’re going to have to be ready for it, you need to change into something nicer.” Kyle scooped me up and carried me up the stairs.
“I need Ty to help me get dressed, I can’t really bend a lot, and—“
“You’ll have to figure it out.” Kyle interrupted me. “I’m not helping you change, I don’t want Ty to murder me. He’s got enough on his plate right now. You have two minutes.” He hurried to close the door.
I almost burst into tears. Getting woken up by a strange man, in pain, and lonely without my wolf really hurt. I missed Ty, but I really missed my wolf.
I dug through the pile of clothes, and finally found a semi-nice shirt that was long enough to be a dress. Well, it was kind of long enough… but I would be wearing exercise shorts underneath so it would be fine.
I grabbed a button-down shirt for Ty, then called out for Kyle. He came back into the room, then grabbed me and carried me downstairs.
He deposited me on the last stair, then grabbed a set of crutches from where they were leaning against the wall.
“Here. I can’t carry the pack’s Omega into a funeral, people would be angry. You’ll have to use these.” He handed them to me.
“Um, okay.” I nodded. Never mind that I hadn’t used crutches before, or that my whole body was still achy. Who cared about that when it came down to people being angry?
I followed Kyle out the door, struggling to use the crutches. They were too tall, and only slowed me down.
Kyle seemed anxious to get back, and I was moving slowly enough that a snail would’ve laughed as he passed me.
“You can go help Ty, I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I told him, holding out the button-down shirt for Kyle to take with him, that way Ty could change earlier.
Kyle seemed hesitant, but he nodded and took off. That left me alone, in the middle of the night, heading down the sidewalk in what I hoped was the right direction.
I hobbled along, crutches digging into my armpits so hard that I knew they were already bruised. What was one more injury, though? I was in so much pain that one wouldn’t affect me.
A few minutes passed by, and pack members began to walk past me. They didn’t say anything to me, didn’t notice me or talk to me or ask if they could help. A few ran by in wolf form, and few drove what looked like golf carts right on past me.
The ninth or tenth group walked past me without a word, and tears began to sting my eyes. I started to question why I was going to the funeral at all. Why would I agree to be Omega, when my Alpha hadn’t even come to get me? How could I ever love this pack that didn’t give me a second glance?
What was I thinking? Giving up my dreams for people who couldn’t care any less about me or the pain I was in or the fact that I was barely moving at all with a broken leg and a h
undred pound cast? Not to mention that I was all alone, in the middle of the night.
I had decided to turn around when a woman called out my name.
“It’s Leah, right?” the woman asked, in a soft but firm voice. I turned around, expecting her to laugh and drive past, or at least just give me a pitying look.
My mate had chosen his pack over me, after all. I was completely alone.
Instead, she gave me a sad smile. She looked only a few years older than me, and was sitting on a silver golf cart, wrestling with two babies and trying to drive.
“Can I give you a ride?” She called out.
“Um, yeah.” I nodded once, biting my lip to fight back tears.
I hobbled over to the passenger side of the cart and miraculously managed to get on.
“Can I take one of them?” I asked softly, and she nodded eagerly.
“Thank you.” She said, handing me a cute little boy with chubby cheeks. He tugged on my hair, and my lip, and my nose as his mom drove us down the road, passing the shifters who had walked past me without caring.
She parked the golf cart, then introduced herself.
“I’m Dean’s mate, Holly. That’s Jeff and this James.” She gestured to each of the babies, then came around the golf cart to help me down. I gratefully accepted her help, and she gave me another sad smile. “We Alpha girls have to stay together in times like these. Being alone is the worst, and in our position, we end up alone a lot.” She said, then took Jeff back so I could hobble again.
We walked slowly down a path together, and more people passed us without a second glance.
“Does it bother you, the way they ignore you?” I asked softly. Holly gave me a painful smile and adjusted both the babies in her arms.
“Yeah, but it’s just how it is. Being a woman means less respect. Someday we’ll be repaid for the mistreatment.” She said.
“It shouldn’t be like this.” I frowned, and then we reached the place where the pack had gathered.
“You need to go up to the front.” Holly whispered.
