Apocalypse Love

I remember, the vast lush forest that had been in my pack for generations, the emerald green I miss so much as now when I look out our bunker window is a vast wasteland of toxic decay. I remember how the Alpha had scurried to make plans to protect us from the human’s war on each other. It had become an unescapable part of our life to hear of countries fighting over mineral resources. We were lucky however, because months before the first bomb fell upon the earth, out Alpha had a bunker built to care for up to 1,000 people. Yes, we didn’t have the ability to let our wolves run these days however, we did have comforts of the gym and Astro turf forest on our lowest level. We never worried about food as he had done an incredible job of creating what felt like miles of farm land in the enormous cavern below us with UV lights to produce wheat, corn, and many other vegetables. I am so grateful to him as we didn’t have the threats that outside life would cause us to have. However, with the pleasantries of life we currently have, we also have the fears of the outside. You see, the ones unlucky enough to be caught in the blast had become something else, something that should not exist. If you were unlucky enough to be on outside duty, it meant you had broken a very important law in regard to the pack. Not very often there would be a member of the pack disappear to the wilds of the wasteland. We have never been able to find them or remains of them at any search and rescue attempts.  Today started like any other day, I wake up at the morning alarm bell for my hall. My age group of 15 always has the same alarm that blares to wake us up. We were 30 in total currently and the reason we were kept in the same hall was in hopes we would find our mate at our shifting. The Alpha has done everything he can to get us our mate, however with each year going by many are losing hope with our pack of 500 to continue the mate “theory”. It had been about 6 years since we were rushed into the bunker to avoid the blast and the aftermath of radiation from the bombs. We were lucky enough to have the Alpha we do to. I wait in line with Allie my best friend for what feels like forever to take a shower. I felt aggravated today as my crush Aiden is flirting with a beta lineage female named Kaida. Kaida means no harm I know, however today is the day before my shift so my hope is he would be my mate. I look away to find solace in Allie, “Hey Allie do you know what’s for breakfast this morning?” I asked in ernest as I felt the pull of hunger. “I think its oatmeal, eggs, and bacon since this years pigs got culled last week.” “Good I thought it was gonna be forever before we got bacon.” I replied in happiness. It was a common thing in our bunker to go without meat for a couple months due to scheduled culls based on our animal count.  We finally get to take our showers and are given our clothes for the day as well as our rationed shampoo and conditioner. It was nice that we could still use brand name items even after all this time. We had to earn said items though through completing our work duties. “HURRY UP” exclaimed one of the head females of our group. “I just got here and am going to take my shower” I said calmly as I walked into the shower and hurried along to avoid a fight. I scrambled to get dressed as I didn’t want to appear against a higher up female. In this bunker, with status, like mine, an omega, it is important to avoid conflict as the Alpha doesn’t condone it. The punishment for us omegas going against an upper status wolf is outdoor duty. “I’m done ma’am, please excuse my behavior” I say through gritted teeth and a fake smile as I move to head down the hallway. “Don’t let it happen again or I will report you.” Stated the girl who I saw was named Verna. Verna hardly ever showed herself due to being used as a upper level play thing for males. I did not even bother to mess with her because she had her own issues. I hurriedly made it to the cafeteria where we could sit anywhere regardless of status. I stood in line only to hear “Hey Elena, could I talk to you” I turned only to see Aiden looking at me expectantly. “Sure” I replied as I followed him to the hallway that’s often less packed at breakfast. He looked at me with his golden eyes as we stopped and said “So I know you are probably wondering why I brought you here” I nodded looking at his tan bulky build with charcoal shaggy hair. “Well I turned 16 today and am shifting tonight. I just wanted to let you know that if we are due to be mates. I will reject you.” My crystal blue eyes felt like a rush of tidal waves fell from them. I gripped my heart with pain as I could feel a bond start to crack. Yes he may have been my crush, but we didn’t even know yet and he still rejected me. “May I ask why?” I asked with a shaky breath. “You are an omega and I am a beta we won’t work.” He responded with a sigh. I nodded understanding and headed back to the breakfast that waited for me to get and held back anymore tears. Gathering my breakfast I quickly sit as far away from Aiden as possible. I picked at my breakfast however knew I needed to eat my ration as wasting food would send me to medical for an embarrassing psyche eval. I shivered at the thought and stuffed myself to push down the pain in my heart. “Attention everyone” Boomed the Alpha, a middle aged man with blond hair and blue eyes, scars covered him from battles of the past, and his muscular build. His Luna, Millie, was wonderful at keeping the peace, and truly cared for us as if she was our own mother. Millie was about 5 foot in height and was heavily pregnant currently with her third set of twins. She had kind blue eyes, light skin, and red hair. “We have been in contact with another pack that seems to be under attack constantly with those creatures, so we will be deploying our S&R vehicles to go pick them and their remaining resources up. We are due to add their 100 members to our home this week, so please excuse any extra duties dispursed.” He smiled softly knowing we would do what we could to provide him assistance with the pack. “On another note tonight I will turn on the Lunar Moon to assist our new shifters. The following shifter’s will report to the arena: Elena Phelps, Aiden Scott, Mia Sooner, and Ryan Little.” I sighed and knew it had been inevitable. “I am proud of you all for helping our great pack, The Cresent Moon, for continuing in these tough times. And am adding a new rule, if you shift and find your mate, you cannot reject them, or you will be forced on outside duties. I know the moon goddess says you have a choice, however we cannot risk with our population to lose any ability to reproduce. So if you have any complaints come to me with them about the rule.” He seemed to be eying Aiden for some reason. Maybe he heard or maybe he saw, either way it was really weird that this came up ironically.