The Fat Omega’s Vengeance : Between Two Alphas

Aria's POV 24

I arrived at the arena earlier than usual.

After the heavy tension between Damian and me in the hallway last night, sleep had been completely impossible. My mind kept replaying the way he had backed me against the wall, the sound of his breath and the confusing spark that had flared up between us. Coming to the training grounds early was the only way I could escape those restless thoughts.

Ever since Damian started training me, he had become annoyingly strict about time. If training was set for eight in the morning, he would already be standing there by seven fifty, leaning against the stone wall with his arms crossed over his chest while waiting to punish me for coming late. Over the last few weeks, the lectures I had received about discipline and respect could probably fill an entire book.

Yet, despite how harsh he could be during practice, we had actually started getting closer. The silence between us had grown softer and there were moments when he looked at me like he genuinely cared about my safety.

Which was exactly why his absence felt so strange.

When I arrived he was not there.

I walked over to one of the wooden benches near the edge of the dirt ring and sat down to wait. I kept my eyes fixed on the arched stone entrance, expecting his tall frame to walk through at any second. Five minutes passed. Then ten minutes passed. Then fifteen.

Still there was nothing.

I folded my arms across my chest and stared out at the empty ground. A slow wave of annoyance began to build inside my stomach. If I had been the one arriving a few minutes late, I would have been made to run a ridiculous lap.

.

"Unbelievable," I muttered under my breath, standing up from the bench. "All that preaching about discipline, and he cannot even show up on time himself."

I turned around, intending to leave the field and walk back to my room. But before I could take three steps toward the exit, a sudden burst of female laughter echoed from the main entrance. It was loud and completely obnoxious. The kind of sound that would instantly give someone a headache.

I turned back around and the moment my eyes landed on the group walking inside, I nearly groaned out loud.

"You?" I blurted out.

At the front stood Selene. Her long, dark hair fell over her shoulders in perfect waves and she strutted inside with enough arrogance to fill the entire arena by herself. Walking directly behind her were two other girls who acted like her personal shadow copies. They also looked spoiled and mean.

The moment Selene saw me standing in the center of the ring, her lips curled upward into a condescending smirk.

"Well, well," Selene said, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "If it isn't the oversized omega."

The two girls behind her immediately burst into snickering laughter, covering their mouths with their hands. I took a steady breath, instantly regretting my decision to come early.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, keeping my voice flat.

"What am I doing here?" Selene repeated, looking back at her two friends as if I had just said something hilarious. "That is a funny question. The real question is, what are you doing here?"

She crossed her arms and let her eyes travel slowly down my body, inspecting my simple training clothes with obvious disgust.

"Oh right," Selene added, letting out a short laugh. "Trying to lose weight perhaps?"

The two girls laughed even harder this time, nudging each other with their elbows.

I closed my eyes for a short second. One. Two. Three. Breathe. Just breathe.

"I suggest you leave," I said calmly, opening my eyes to lock my gaze onto hers.

One of the girls stepped forward, placing her hands on her hips. "Or what?"

The other girl snorted. "Maybe she will sit on us."

More snickering echoed across the open space. I could feel my chest tighten, It was not because my feelings were hurt. It was because I was thoroughly annoyed.

Selene tilted her head, taking a step closer into my space. "You know, every time I see you, I wonder how much food one person can actually consume in a single day."

Instead of flinching or shrinking back, I stood my ground. I took a deliberate step forward, standing toe to toe with her, refusing to give her an inch.

"And I wonder the exact same thing about whether your brain dies henever you open your mouth," I replied smoothly.

The snickering stopped instantly. All three girls froze, staring at me in complete shock. I offered Selene a cold, polite smile.

"What?" I asked, tilting my head slightly. "I was just being curious."

The girl on Selene's right gasped out loud. Selene's fake sweet expression vanished, her dark eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

"Oh, so the pig has teeth," Selene hissed.

"And Miss Anger Issues over here has a mouth. Unfortunately for everyone around her," I countered, looking her straight in the eye without a trace of fear.

Natalie would have been so proud of me in that moment. The two girls behind Selene looked completely offended on her behalf. Good. For once, they were not the only ones throwing insults around.

Selene folded her arms tightly across her chest, her jaw clenching. "You seem awfully confident for someone who looks like she swallowed another person."

The comment should have hurt me but it didn't, maybe it would have back when I was still overwhelmed by my new life.

But after everything I had survived, being called fat by a spoiled girl did not feel like the end of the world.

I stepped even closer until there were only a few inches separating our faces.

"If that is the absolute best insult you have, then I am honestly disappointed," I said, keeping my tone quiet. Selene's eyes flared with pure fury. But as she glared down at me, my attention shifted to the color of her lipstick. My gaze dropped from her eyes down to her lips.

Plum… they were painted a deep, rich shade of plum. I didn't even understand why it took me too long to notice. My stomach twisted into a cold, hard knot. It was the exact same color as the lipstick stain I had swiped off Damian's jaw on the dance floor last night.

In a fraction of a second, everything from the ball rushed back into my head. I remembered how Damian had vanished for hours, claiming he had important business to attend to, only to reappear with that dark mark on his skin.

Everything clicked together with sickening clarity, because what was she doing at the arena around the time he was supposed to train me… no one except Natalie knew about this unless he asked her to come over.

Before I could process the sharp sting in my chest, heavy footsteps echoed from the entrance behind us. Everyone turned toward the sound , Damian had finally arrived.

His eyes scanned the scene in front of him, taking in Selene, me and the two other girls standing in a circle. Judging from the sudden tension in his shoulders, he already knew something was wrong.

"What is going on here?" Damian asked.

Selene's entire personality changed in an instant. One second she was a venomous snake ready to strike and the next second she looked like a fragile, helpless little rabbit.

"Damian," Selene said softly, her voice trembling as her eyes instantly filled with fake tears. She took a step toward him, putting on a pathetic show. "Aria was threatening me."

I blinked in utter disbelief.

The two girls behind her immediately nodded their heads frantically.

" Yes she was.”

"She got aggressive the second we walked in.”

I stared at them, almost impressed by the sheer audacity of their lies. I

Selene moved closer to Damian, placing a hand over her heart. "We were just talking to her and she suddenly became hostile."

Hostile? I almost laughed out loud.

Then Selene continued, pointing a manicured finger directly at me. "And remember when you asked me to pick out dresses? You remember that oversized girl I told you about? That is her."

The entire arena became dead silent.

I looked at Damian. Then I looked at Selene. Then I looked right back at Damian.

So he had sent her to oversee my dress shopping. The unsettled feeling I had carried since the boutique was not just a silly thought. He had deliberately involved her in my life.

Damian pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a long, exhausted breath. A gesture I was becoming very familiar with. Apparently, everyone around him caused him stress.

I folded my arms tightly across my chest, cutting straight through Selene's pathetic victim routine.

"You are late," I said directly to Damian, ignoring the girls completely.

Selene gasped so dramatically I thought she might faint on the dirt floor. "Did she just... How can she speak to you like that?"

I ignored her outburst completely. My attention had already shifted back to Damian's face.

Because as he lowered his hand from his nose, there it was again.

Right at the corner of his jawline, there was a faint, faded plum-colored stain. Almost gone, but still visible in the morning light. The exact same color as Selene's lipstick and exact same color from the ball.

My stomach sank, a bitter taste rising up in my throat.

Damian noticed me staring directly at the spot and his hand instinctively moved toward his jaw to cover it. For a split second, a flicker of raw guilt flashed across his eyes before his expression hardened back into a neutral mask.

"So," I said slowly, my voice dripping with cold detachment. "Training today, or are you too busy?"

Selene looked completely horrified, and one of her friends actually covered her mouth with both hands. Speaking to the Beta of the pack like a normal person was clearly a crime in their eyes.

Damian stared at me, his dark eyes searching my face for any sign of what I was feeling. I stared right back, refusing to look down, letting the heavy weight of last night and this morning stretch between us. The silence pulled tighter and tighter until it felt like it might snap into pieces.

Finally, Damian let out a quiet sigh, his eyes never leaving mine.

"No, we will be training," he said, his voice firm and steady. "But first, someone needs to leave."