The Omega Who Fought Her Alpha

Night Duty

While Aunt Lily kept vigil beside the bed and eventually dozed off in the armchair she sat in, Nero didn’t. He kept a vigilant watch over Amelie and had his laptop open most of the night as he pored over emails, research proposals and other pack matters. He would cast his eye over her every now and again and could see she was sleeping peacefully. At one point in the night, he even carried Lily into one of the spare bedrooms so that she could sleep better. At her age sleeping in a chair for long periods wouldn’t do her the world of good.

Nero came back to the main room and start reading a research proposal about a therapy and programme about rehabilitating wolves that had lost their mates. He shook his head; it wasn’t an entirely new concept and just as he was about to dismiss the paper entirely, he came across the words ‘not just psychotherapy’, ‘non-invasive surgery’, ‘encephalopathy’ and ‘mate-ology’ in the abstract. He had never thought of the condition as a disease or an affliction though it most certainly impacted his kind like it was. He paused to consider writing the author an email when he thought he saw Amelie move through the corner of his eye. He blinked and looked again at her carefully, at first he wasn’t if he imagined it or not; then he noticed it.

Amelie’s hands were clasped together, gripping the duvet tightly. Her hands were gripping it so tightly her hands were shaking slightly. It wasn’t so obvious at first, but the more the Alpha watched her, the more apparent it became. Nero stood up and walked over the bed; he could see Amelie’s face was tense, her eyes were moving around beneath her eyelids. There was clearly a storm going on in her mind. Not wanting to disturb her, Nero stepped away and sat back down again. He glanced at the time and it was almost two o’clock.

Nero began to pen the scientist who wrote the earlier proposal an email. He wrote a brief introduction about the pack, the Imperium Research Centre and was thinking about how to articulate his visions for the future when a whining filled the room. His eyes darted up and he could see Amelie now curling up into a ball as if protecting herself from something. Nero tried to ignore the whining at first; he focused on his email, but then it became louder.

“Please,” came a whisper. “Please Alpha.”

Nero’s eyes shot up; Amelie was talking in her sleep again. He listened with bated breath.

“I didn’t do it Alpha; I swear. Please believe me,” she whimpered quietly. “Please, please don’t hurt me. I beg you. I cleaned and cleaned so hard. It wasn’t me. Please believe me, I swear upon my soul.”

Amelie’s whining and whimpering began to get louder and she began to scrabble at the duvet as if it were attacking her. Her arms and legs were flailing.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Amelie screamed in a piercing tone. Tears were streaming down her face. “PLEASE STOP! PLEASE ALPHAAAAAAA! NOOOOOOOOO! HELP MEEEEEEE! PLEEEEASE LET ME GO! I DIDN’T DO IT! I BEG YOU!”

Nero was a tough Alpha like his father and he rarely got things wrong. Even when he did, he wouldn’t admit it; it was wrong to show any sign of weakness. Carrying on as if nothing was wrong was a specialty of Alphas. Strategically planning surgical strikes or bulldozing through things until they either yield, submit or are completely destroyed were the ways of doing things. Watching this young girl scream her lungs out in fear of something he had done affected him. It affected him in a way he didn’t think possible. Perhaps he never hung around long enough to see the product of any damage he inflicted and it was about time that he did.

“ALPHAAAAAAAAA PLEEEEEASE! SOMEONE HELP MEEEEEEEE! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! IT HURTS! ARGHHHHHHHH! ” Amelie screamed again, interrupting the Alpha’s self-pitying thoughts. “ARGHHHHHHHH! LET ME GOOOOOO!”

Amelie began to thrash about the in the bed and was moving dangerously close to the edge. Nero rushed to Amelie’s side and caught her just before she was about to fall. He gathered up her meagre, tall frame and wrapped her protectively into his arms. As he held her, Nero felt her relax into him. She gripped onto his shirt tightly; her tears staining and soaking it. At this stage, it was not clear who was holding onto whom more tightly.

“Please let me die Moon Goddess,’ came another whisper. “Everything will be ok if I died. No more, please, no more. Let me die.”

As Nero heard these words he tried very hard to suppress a growl. He was angry at himself for being so blind to such things going on his pack. That Vanessa had been allowed to do so much damage for so long and get away with it. That others instead of stopping her, joined in. He had Carter look into the situation a little more this past week and from his initial reports, he had uncovered quite a lot. Nero was sure he wasn’t going to like he was going to hear. As he continued to hold Amelie tightly, Lily came rushing into the room having heard the commotion.

“What happened? Is everything alright? I’m sure I heard screaming!”

“Everything is ok Aunt Lily. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Why on earth did you put me into bed Nero! What if something happened to Amelie?” Lily scolded him.

“Relax aunt, I was watching her the entire time. She’s perfectly fine, well I mean as fine as she can be.”

“I suppose so, but she is in a very delicate state. I have every right to worry,” Aunt Lily explained. “Nero if you would like to sleep, please go, I can take over dear. You’ve done your bit.”

“No, no aunt I am fine, honestly there’s no need to fuss or worry.”

“Well are you going to keep cradling her like a baby or are you going to put her back into bed?” Aunt Lily questioned, the corners of her lips pinching into a smile.

Nero looked down and realised he had begun to rock Amelie gently and she in turn, had snuggled into his chest. He blushed a little but answered in his normal voice.

“Of course I will Aunt, I merely saved her from hurting herself. She nearly fell off the bed. I’m just making sure she is ok and doesn’t come to any further harm.”

“Mmmhmmm, ok Alpha, seeing as she is in good, strong and safe hands, quite literally, I will go back to sleep. Goodnight Nero.”

“Goodnight Aunt.”

Nero walked over to the bed and placed Amelie down. As he released her and tried to stand up, he noticed she was still gripping onto his shirt tightly. The big, bad Alpha tried to prise her fingers off but it was no use; he certainly didn’t want to hurt her again. Nero had no choice but to climb awkwardly into the bed and hold Amelie close to him. He slipped in beside her and he adjusted himself comfortably. Without invitation, as if by pure instinct, Amelie snuggled into him completely oblivious as to who he was. Her erratic breathing was much more relaxed now and so her whining had ceased.

Nero looked down at the young girl who was completely destroyed almost two weeks ago. Flashbacks of the ruthless beating he gave her flickered through his mind. He remembered dragging her from the kitchens and how she screamed and protested whilst struggling to keep up with him. He recalled how genuinely horrified she looked when she saw the state of his clothes. There was no denying how adamantly and vehemently she continued to profess her innocence. His warriors had picked her up as if she weighed nothing and carried her to her doom. As his fingers traced her jawline and worked down to her neck, he noticed a small ‘X’ tattooed where her mating mark would theoretically go. The mark puzzled him and he made a mental note to speak to Dr. Conway about it during their meeting later that afternoon.

The more he thought about it, Nero had no recollection that even Amelie existed in his pack. was only after Carter did a little digging around that he found that she was Dr. Conway’s daughter. In all the years he had met with Dr. Conway with his father, not once had he mentioned Amelie, not even in passing. There were no photos of her in his office and even for a private person, Dr. Conway didn’t speak of her once. Nero didn’t recognise Amelie from anywhere; given their five to six year age difference he thought he would recollect her from the pack house at the very least if not school. He didn’t recognise her name, but then why would he? He was an Alpha. He wouldn’t generally be seen interacting with a lowly Omega. He was brought up believing that Omegas were not meant to be seen or heard, just to serve and keep the pack’s daily operations running smoothly in the background. His father Alpha Nox ran a very tight ship and had kept a very strict regime; he had impressed upon Nero to do the same. To be one of the most ruthless, powerful packs in the realm came at a price. Nero shrugged these thoughts off thinking he was sure he wasn’t the only Alpha that didn’t know all of the staff that served in their pack house.

“An Alpha has much more important things to do. Lands to defend, law and order to maintain, find ways to strengthen the pack amongst many other things!” he thought, rationalising it to himself. “One little Omega, is the least of my concerns generally, but this is a one-off exceptional circumstance.”

Nero was also upset with Vanessa’s behaviour; he felt a little betrayed. He knew that she slept around, but that wasn’t a reason to hate her. They grew up together and shared a lot of good times together with Carter and other ranking members of the pack. He wouldn’t have believed her capable of doing such things. It was even a little painful for him to punish her on that day she shifted and tried to bolt from the research institute. He could almost see remorse in her deepened blue eyes but it had to be done – on that note there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt.

“How could I get it so wrong?” Nero thought. “Regardless, Vanessa will learn her lesson I hope and the pack will also benefit from her punishment.”

As Nero reflected on the situation, he felt his eyes becoming heavy with sleep. His eyelids were drooping gently and slowly re-opening as he tried to resist it. After a few cycles of unsuccessfully fighting with his eyes, he surrendered. Nero drifted into the sweetest sleep, holding his unsuspecting, lowly Omega in his arms. The pair of them slept soundly and anyone looking at them as they did now, wouldn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary had occurred between them.

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It was around six o’clock in the morning and the sun was coming up, hailing the dawn of a new day. Amelie, who had been unconscious for the best part of two weeks, chose that specific morning to regain her consciousness. As fate would have it, after a surviving such a painful episode, she was in for another rude awakening.

Amelie lay with her head snuggled into something warm and comfortable. She felt like she was sleeping on a warm cosy cloud, as if she was in a dream. As Amelie moved in a little closer to the source of the warmth, she felt it moving up and down.

“Sleeping on clouds isn’t possible,” she thought to herself. “Am I dreaming? Surely clouds don’t smell and aren’t this warm.”

Amelie’s eyes flickered open slowly, she blinked a few times and took in her surroundings. She saw she was in a room sleeping in a bed, neither of which she recognised. Amelie then shifted her gaze towards the cloud she has been snuggling into. She saw a man’s chest, slowly breathing which explained why it was moving. He also had his arms wrapped around her. As Amelie took in the scent, she recognised it immediately. Her breathing began to get faster and shallower as adrenaline flooded her system. She slowly lifted her gaze upwards and she clapped eyes on the face of her cloud, her cloud was none other than her tormentor. Amelie opened mouth to scream.