SURROGATE FOR THE RUTHLESS ALPHA

life as an omega

MAEVE’S POV

I never liked attention.

Most people didn’t notice me, and I preferred it that way. I wasn’t invisible, exactly because the hallways of Blackwood pack were the same as always, buzzing with conversations but I wasn’t a part of them. I just blended into the background as upper class werewolves moved in clusters, laughter and whispers filling the air.

I kept my head down every time as I did my chores.

Being an omega meant knowing which rooms to pass through, which eyes to avoid. It meant learning how to make yourself small enough that no one thought to question why you were there at all. By the time I reached the Alpha’s headquarters, my shoulders were already tense.

The Alpha’s wing was different from the rest of the compound.

The air changed the moment I crossed the threshold.

His scent was everywhere but mostly in his room.

As usual his bed was unmade, sheets twisted and rumpled, bearing the lingering traces of last night’s company.

This was my job as an omega. Clean his room and organize everything after having s*x with different women through out the night.

I’d seen it all before.

Even bonded Lunas still came, drawn by reputation, by arrogance, by the dangerous pull of a male who took and discarded without consequence.

Most left in the early hours, escorted out before the sun rose.

Some came back anyway.

Another Luna was arriving.

From a powerful pack. Important. Beautiful, if the rumors were true. I already knew how this would end. I always did. He would charm her, break her, leave her with promises that dissolved the moment she stepped outside these walls.

And tomorrow, I would be back here again.

Cleaning.

My nose wrinkled in revulsion as I gathered the soiled sheet, the pungent scent causing my belly to roil. I’d smelled Alpha’s release enough that I would recognize his scent anywhere. I hated it but I had nothing to do. It was the role that was assigned to me.

Shoving the offending sheet into a laundry bag, I fought back the gag crawling up my throat and breathed through my mouth to lessen the intense odour. Even though my Wolf had not yet emerged, my sense of smell was still radically sensitized past that of a human.

I tied the bag shut tightly and quickly placed it outside the door. Completing the bed with freshly laundered sheets, I moved into the bathroom, taking great care to make sure everything was sparkling clean, just right. Alpha would undoubtedly let me know if it wasn’t.

The clocked ticked through three more hours before I finished. It was now so late in the night. Other pack members were partying, in preparation for the new Luna’s arrival. It was rumored all around the pack that she was probably the mate of our Alpha Bane.

I didn’t pay attention to them, I couldn’t join them. They were all happy but I was here with my clothes smelling like the Alpha’s c*m.

With nothing to do, I walked slowly towards my mother’s house, also an omega like me.

However just as I reached the woods that lead to the house, my sore feet began to feel heavy. I didn’t feel well... which was my normal, but it was worse today.

Every nerve in my body felt like it was, aching for something I couldn’t name. I tried to continue with walking but later I found it hard.

I stopped and hunched over, leaning against a broad oak tree for support. My lungs felt empty and my chest was hurting.

Something was wrong.

This wasn’t just exhaustion, something was crawling beneath my skin, settling into my bones like a low, relentless hum.

...could this be my Wolf?!

The thought sent a shiver through me. I was not excited at all but I was afraid. My wolf wasn’t supposed to surface yet. I was still young to have it. Omegas like me were late bloomers, if we bloomed at all. Some never did. Some were told their wolves were too weak, too broken to ever fully emerge. I’d made my peace with that long ago.

The ache deepened and I squeezed my eyes shut. I wanted to scream loudly.

Whatever wolf inside in me was relentless, pressing inward like it was trying to wake up after a very long sleep. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, uneven, too fast, and my palms dampened as I braced myself harder against the oak.

The tree felt solid. I focused on that, on the rough bark biting into my skin through my thin sleeves, on the smell of moss and sap, grounding myself in the present. But my body refused to listen. Heat coiled low in my stomach, unfamiliar and so painful , while my legs trembled as if they might give out at any second.

“No,” I whispered, my throat tight. “It’s too soon.” I shouted when another wave rolled through me, stronger this time. My vision blurred at the edges, stars bursting briefly behind my eyelids. I slid down the trunk until I was half crouched on the cold earth and arms wrapped around my middle as if I could hold myself together by force alone.

The shift came out of the blue, bones changed into a shape I no longer recognized and rearranged themselves with cruel precision. My fingers lengthened, the nails hardening into claws that tore painful crescents into my palms. Ribs cracked and reshaped; my spine bowed and stretched as if an invisible smith were hammering me into a new frame. Every breath I took was a serrated thing, hot and shallow. The pain was animal and utterly my own.

The first breath after the final shudder was a howl that ripped something raw and old from inside me. Steam panted from my mouth. Fur pushed through the skin along my forearms, my throat and the slope of my shoulders, prickling like tiny cold fires.

For a heartbeat, I expected recognition. A surge of belonging, the gentle gravity of my pack pulling me back from the edge. Instead, the forest held it’s breath and the smell of the woods hit me differently.

My wolf stepped into the hollow without warning. Her nostrils flared, tasting the air. She circled me once, twice and slow then later let me have back my body.

I sank to my haunches and then to my side, the wet leaves cold against my skin, the new muscles in my flank trembling as they cooled. Blood clung to the pads of my feet where some shard had torn me during the shift. Tears, human and sharp, mixed with the grit of dirt on my cheeks. The forest continued its indifferent chorus: twig snaps, distant wings, the low murmur of leaves.

Alone, I curled into myself as best as a wolf could curl, half-human, half-beast and let the darkness come. It was night but I already knew it that no one would look for me even if I didn’t sleep at home.