The Omega's Revolt (completed)

Act 2 - Dutiful Luna

Rosalee’s POV

            After the fall of the Werewolf Council, a new supernatural governing body took over but it didn’t take long for it to fall into pieces as well, prompting another war and more casualties. In the past year, many of our smuggling routes came under attack, collateral damage of the conflict between a powerful witch’s vampire army and werewolves.

            My uncle was anything but amused by how quickly the tables had turned on him. Just a few weeks after he had declared that our Clan would be increasing our share from the profits of our smuggling trade, my husband had found a way to save his pack from financial ruin. 

            With the gold mines from the Beta siblings as support, Jesse began pressuring my uncle to revert back to the original agreement or our alliance was over. My uncle had flown into a rage and sent over a cryptic message via Nessa to murder my husband. Accompanying the message were photos of my mother and sister having coffee at a cafe in a city that I didn’t recognize, leaving me no choice but to put on a good show like I had accepted my new task. 

            If we were anywhere else but in this cult like werewolf pack deep in the Arizonian mountains and completely isolated from the rest of the world, I’d have full confidence of being able to end that sick excuse of an Alpha. Even without my uncle’s order, I had been wanting to put a bullet through Jesse’s eyes since the cold blooded murder of my two former Omega servants. 

            Watching the life ebb slowly out of the two young she-wolves day by day from my window returned me to that rainy night as I watched Papa collapse before my eyes while the buttonmen from our Clan dragged us away from his body. A sense of utter helplessness and terror as their eyes slowly became dull haunted me every night. 

            I thought that having completed my reaper training would make my heart hard enough for this job. I thought that I would no longer feel anything even if death rained down from the heavens but I was wrong. I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

            Growing up in our Clan, all I had known were schemes and power. Only the strongest survived and if you didn’t, then you didn’t deserve to live. Every target that I had been sent to murder were rivals from other mafia gangs or everyday civillians who had dared to mess with our Clan. 

            The smell of blood was more familiar than the smell of my own perfume, and I couldn’t even remember when was the last time that I had flinched after pulling the trigger. My heart was an empty void, consumed by only one goal, to become the best reaper in our Clan and take down my uncle to avenge Papa. 

            It was only when Jesse confined me alone, without anyone from his pack or my Clan, and forced me to watch those two innocent Omega die before my very eyes day by day, did I realize that my heart was never an empty void. 

            It was also made of flesh and blood, capable of feeling pain and guilt. Guilt, that was what was eating me away those few days as I watched on, unable to do anything, knowing that I was the cause of their deaths. The two Omegas had done nothing but to cast their lots with me, probably in the hopes that I’d be kinder to them than the rest of their pack. 

            Yet, I was the cause of their deaths. 

            Being alone with my thoughts for weeks reminded me of one of our resilience training, where we would be kept in solitary confinement before being interrogated by a bonebreaker. One of my cousins actually went crazy after that week of training but no one blinked an eye. In fact, everyone probably thought that he was too weak to deserve to be a Smith and part of our Clan. 

            Like them, I harbored no pity for that cousin nor for his mother, a mistress of my uncle, as she sobbed over the plight of her son. Only the strongest were meant to survive. 

            That was what I had always believed in, until these past few weeks, when the thoughts of what I had done became my only companion. The corpses of the Omegas were left outside in full view from my window the entire time, reminding me of the cost of my failure. 

            My foolish thoughts of nurturing my own power base and using it to force my husband to support my plans to kill my uncle was like a young child plotting against a decorated general. How naive I was to think that I would be able to build my own army and the price of my foolishness hadn’t only haunted my dreams. It made me realize that I was powerless against the two men who could upend my entire life with a single word. 

            When Jesse finally opened the door to my room and ordered my female buttonmen to open all the windows and to let out the stale air, I couldn’t help but feel a sudden urge to bury myself under the covers, as if that would offer some semblance of safety. I didn’t want to admit defeat but the uncontrollable fear chilling every bone in my body was forcing me to submit and accept my fate. 

            “I see that you’ve learned your lesson, sweetheart,” my husband had whispered into my ears as he forcefully dragged me out from the mountain of blankets I was hiding under and pulled me into his arms. 

            The warmth of his embrace made me shiver as if someone had just plunged me into an ice cold river, and my physical reaction must have pleased him because without another word, he had planted a gentle kiss on the top of my head before leaving. 

            Our interactions after that day were far and few between, restricted mostly to the full moon dinner that our happy family of man, wife and concubines were forced to have once a month as per tradition. During these dinners, Orphelin would purposely flaunt how much she was favored by our husband, and though Jesse never showed too much emotions publicly, his silence and passive acceptance of Orphelin’s display of affections spoke louder than words. 

            It didn’t matter to me who Jesse favored, but I could tell that it affected Millie greatly. Though her face was a mask of calm and smiles, I recognized the way her smiles never reached her eyes and how her knuckles would turn white from gripping the utensils. The tell tale signs of a jealous heart were universal and I had seen enough of them in my uncle’s house to recognize them anywhere. 

            Millie was still a young girl, barely 20. She was not much older than my younger sister and a part of me couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness for her. Even though I was already in my third year of training as a reaper at her age and had seen many young girls begin their career with our Clan at that age, there was something about Millie that touched the softest part of my heart. The part that I had hidden away and shown only to my mother and little sister. 

            Maybe it was the way that her eyes sparkled when I smiled at her or her eagerness to have my attention, despite it being clear as day that I didn’t have our husband’s favor. Or perhaps it was the glint of determination in her downcast eyes when Orphelin picked on her that reminded me of not only my little sister, but also myself. 

            For months after the warning from my uncle and the punishment from my husband, I felt like a circus clown, carefully walking on a piece of tight rope to please the two men who held power over me. I didn’t dare to obey my uncle and kill my husband, not that I would have been able to anyway. Neither did I dare to plot against my uncle or dream of avenging Papa again. 

            For months in the past year, I was the perfect Luna that everyone wanted me to be. I showed up at dinner parties for the ranked werewolves of the pack with a charming smile until the end of the party. I visited the young and sickly of the pack at the pack school and hospital on behalf of my husband. I pleased my husband in bed on the rare occasions when he’d stumble into my quarters in the dead of the night. If my uncle wanted intelligence, I would work my äss off to gather them, stooping so low as to eavesdrop on conversations in the hallways.

            I did everything that I had to, to protect the only ones who mattered to me. I accepted my fate and the life that others had planned out for me. 

            Maybe I was just too tired and needed a break, or maybe I would have continued being resigned to the cards dealt to me for the rest of my life. I would never know but what I knew was that watching Millie’s silent suffering in those months ignited the fire within my heart again. 

            I wasn’t ready for war against the men who had made our lives hell, but I was ready once again to fight the good fight.