CHAPTER 5
1149 Words
Odelia
“Alpha Lotan requires your presence immediately,” the Omega says.
I stare at the young omega for a long time, thinking, only about two years ago, I had command of men like him. I ordered them around too just like this one has been done by Lotan.
How things change, tables turn and pain keeps going and coming around.
“Sure,” I reply curtly.
“Now, ma'am.”
Ma'am. Not Luna. I used to be Luna. But not anymore. “Does he realize this isn't my home? I have to prepare, freshen up, dress and my friend will drive me, okay.”
The omega nods and steps back from the door. I shut and put my back against it. Yesterday's event comes back in colorful waves at first, then it becomes a bleached slide of pictures. First, Vardi's face, his wholesome figure. Then that woman's face. And that's where the picture gets stuck before I force Vardi's face back on the screen.
“Odelia?” Marie calls from the kitchen. “Breakfast?”
We dine on steak, a glass of milk and oatmeal. It is my intention to keep Lotan waiting for as long as I can. The new Alpha doesn't quite enjoy most pack member's approval. Marie thinks there's something off about him although she believes it's because we all loved Vardi.
Vardi wasn't just an alpha, he was a gentleman, a friend to everyone. He was stern, but folks knew he loved his people, extremely so. He would die, not just for his Luna, but his people too.
“Penny for your thought.”
I look up at Marie across the table and smile. “I was just thinking . . .”
“About what?”
“Us.”
“Me and you?” Marie says, beaming. “You know I'll get naked with your gorgeousness in a second, don't you?”
I laugh. “Not that ‘us’, I mean the pack. Everyone—”
“Oh. How disappointing.”
“—how it used to be. How we lived. The peace. The love. Now it's just politics and the news of goddesses.”
Marie sighs, forks steak into her mouth. “Things did go to s**t when Vardi left. It's still shit.”
“Yeah, still shit.”
“Are you going to see him?”
“An omega is waiting to take me to him.”
“Not Lotan. Vardi.”
I nod, my face suddenly red hot. I have to go. Vardi is still my husband. In the night I thought about it more and concluded he could be under some spell. That woman cast a spell on him. If I get him alone with me, I could probably shake the sorcery off. As if Marie read my mind, she quips, “Better go with some of your herbs.”
I stare at her for a moment. “You think, maybe, he's under a spell?”
“He was alpha. He's hot. What woman wouldn't want him?”
“Yeah.”
Even Marie used to fancy Vardi back when we first started dating. She'd ask me if I was going to get serious or not. Marie, who loved women, was going to switch for a night with him. Until it became real that me and Vardi were meant for each other, fated mates.
The doorbell rings with a shrill, and continues ringing. “Son of a—” Marie curses. “Can we get you to that man, please? Stupid omega is getting on my nerves.”
The omega and a companion drives ahead of us to the Alphas lodge and office building ten minutes away. Lotan is waiting on the front stops of the great white building, an aloof air about him. His thumbs are stuck in his belt, his shoulders square.
He walks back into the building as Marie parks the car so I can get out. She looks out the window. “I can drop you off at that address if you want.”
“I’d rather go alone.”
“You sure?”
I smile, tap on the top of the car and step back so she can turn the car around and leave. In her nurse's uniform, she looks different, like a Luna. Lotan is waiting by the only window in his office, peeking through the shades.
“Odelia, you stood me up yesterday,” he says genially. “What happened?”
“We took longer than expected at the market.”
“Well, here you are.”
“I had no choice. Your omega was quite insistent.”
He regards me curiously for a moment. “Are you okay? You sound different, off. Did something happen?”
I sigh. “Just need to rest.”
“Ah, speaking of which. I made new arrangements. You can make it up for yesterday by—”
“Lotan.”
He freezes. He's a big man, so when he freezes up like that, it's a funny picture of a tree frozen in a falling motion. He's leaning over his desk, about to sit. Or pick something from the clutter. “What is it?”
“I can't.”
“I don't understand.”
“I can't do this . . .” I say, with a tired shrug. “I’m sorry.”
He recovers from his shock, straightens up. He stares at me, his eyes eating me up from the two hills of my boobs down the narrow valleys of my hips. I can feel his eyes on the slight bulge between my thighs. I'm wearing Marie's blouse and pants, and they're one size smaller than my own clothes. I can feel the bra straining over my n*****s, and how they poke at the flimsy fabric of the blouse.
Lotan wants me, since the day he assumed the office of the alpha, unchallenged. He was always here, in the background, even when Vardi was here. In those days, he dared look me in the eyes. Now he ogles me, fantasizes about—
“What changed?”
“Nothing.”
“No, I don't believe it, Odelia. I don't.” He walks around the desk and stands before me. “Youre upset. Is it me? Someone else in this pack? Just say the word, Odelia, and I'll have them dealt with. You know I would.”
Sure. Lotan would throw fits, I imagine, if he finds out I saw Vardi. Until yesterday, we all thought my husband was dead. I have to see him again today. He's waiting. My alpha is waiting for me.
“I have to go.”
I turn around but Lotan catches my arm, stopping me in my stride. “Where are you going?”
I look in his face. “To the market.”
He doesn't believe me and I know it.
- Writer
