The Fat Omega’s Vengeance : Between Two Alphas

Aria’s POV 22

I stepped out of the shadows, my heels making a quiet clicking sound against the stone floor. Kael didn't even look up as I approached, his arms resting on his knees staring blankly at the wall across from him.

"Alpha?" I asked softly, stopping a few feet away.

“ Aria, I didn’t even notice you there.”

"Sorry for sneaking up on you,” I said teasingly. “ Though what are you sitting here all by yourself? The ceremony is about to start."

Kael let out a long heavy breath, leaning his head back against the stone.

"To be honest, there is nothing for me in there" he murmured, his voice thick with a deep lingering sadness. "Every song, every decoration... everything in that room just reminds me of Lydia."

My chest squeezed tight as a wave of bittersweet emotion washed over me. Without asking, I carefully smoothed my purple dress and sat down beside him on the floor, leaving a small space between us.

"You don't have to be in there if it hurts," I said quietly.

Kael turned his head, looking at me in surprise, as if he hadn't expected an omega to just sit beside him on the dusty ground. But the tension in his shoulders seemed to slowly ease.

"Everyone in there is celebrating love, finding their mates..." Kael rubbed his face with both hands, letting out a dry chuckle. "And I'm just out here trying to remember how to breathe without feeling like my chest is caving in."

​"Loss does that…trust me I can relate.” I murmured, keeping my gaze on my knees. "It makes normal life feel like a cruel punishment."

​Kael looked at me intently. "How do you do it, Aria? You work all day, people push you around… yet you still carry yourself with this quiet grace. Don't you ever want to just tear something apart?"

​I let out a soft laugh. "Oh, every single day. Especially when Natalie decides to reorganize the kitchen pantries for the third time in one morning."

​Kael’s lips twitched upward into the small ghost of a smile. "Natalie takes her pantries very seriously. I've seen full-grown warriors back out of the kitchen when she's on a rampage."

​"Right?" I smiled, warming up as I looked at him. "I once saw her throw a wooden spoon at Beta Damian just because he stepped on her freshly mopped floor. I hid behind the flour sacks for twenty minutes."

​Kael let out a genuine, rumbling laugh,something I hadn't heard in a while. "She threw a spoon at a Damian? I should have promoted her to head of defense."

​"Please don't," I giggled, covering my mouth. "She’d have us all doing drills with kitchen utensils."

​"Well, at least you’d be safe," Kael teased softly, his dark eyes sparkling. "You look like you could dodge a flying spoon pretty well."

​"I have fast reflexes," I joked back, my heart fluttering. "You have to, when you live in the omega quarters."

​Kael’s smile settled into something warm as he watched me. "It's nice... hearing you laugh. I haven't heard a genuine laugh in a really long time."

​He went quiet for a moment, his gaze shifting up toward the arched ceiling before he looked back at me.

We continued talking,I asked him simple questions and soon, the heavy atmosphere began to break. We started sharing stories, talking about random things and before I knew it, we were laughing. It felt so easy and so natural, just like it used to be. But every time I spoke, I was fiercely careful with my words, filtering every memory so I wouldn't accidentally say something that would give away my true identity as Lydia. To him, I was just Aria, a quiet listener offering him comfort.

After a long while, Kael’s laughter faded into a soft smile. He looked at me, his eyes shining with something I hadn't seen in him since the time I got there.”

"Aria there is something I need to show you," Kael said softly. "I think you would really love to see it."

My heart did a sudden, violent flip in my chest. I knew exactly what place he was talking about. It was the very first place he had taken me on the night we became mates.

Kael stood up and offered me his hand. I hesitated for a split second before placing my fingers in his. His grip was warm and protective as he pulled me up and led me down a winding, forgotten path behind the grand hall.

We stopped in front of a hidden archway completely shrouded in thick, hanging green vines that draped down like a natural curtain. Kael reached out, parting the vines, and stepped back to let me through first.

I stepped inside and my breath caught in my throat…it looked more magical than the first time I saw it.

It was a secret garden, hidden from the rest of the world, blooming with dozens of different rare flowers. But the true highlight and the heart of the entire garden was the field of Moon Lilies they were my absolute favorite. They were a deep, mesmerizing blue, and because it was nighttime, they were actively blooming right before my eyes. As their petals unfolded under the moonlight, they released a faint, glittering dust that sparkled like tiny fallen stars in the dark.

Everything came crashing back over me in a wave of overwhelming nostalgia. Memories flared back to lif…the scent of the night air, the warmth of his hand, the unbearable joy of falling in love for the very first time. I swallowed hard, trying to keep the tears from pooling in my eyes as my chest ached with a sweet, agonizing pain.

Kael walked over to one of the glowing blue flowers, carefully snapping the stem. He walked back to meand gently tucked the Moon Lily behind my ear, his fingers brushing against my hair.

"The first time I brought Lydia here was the night we were first mated," Kael confessed, his voice dropping into a tender whisper as he looked at the glowing flowers. "She loved this place."

I pressed my lips together, my heart hammering against my ribs as I remembered it all,how we had run through these exact fields, laughing, holding hands, utterly drunk on the mate bond and the magic of the night.

"It's beautiful, Kael," I whispered, using his name instead of his title for the first time.

We stayed in the garden for what felt like hours, talking, laughing and watching the lilies sparkle in the dark. Time simply melted away. We were so lost in each other's company that neither of us noticed the music in the distance fading or the fact that the entire Celestial Mate Ball had ended and the guests had gone home.

"We should probably get going too," Kael said softly, looking up at the late night sky.

A driver brought the car around to take us back to the pack house. When we finally arrived at the main doors, Kael stepped out with me.

"Thank you for your company tonight Aria," he said offering me a genuine, breathtaking smile. "I haven't felt... light like this ever since Lydia died. I really appreciate you. Goodnight Aria.”

"Goodnight Alpha," I murmured, feeling a warm blush spread across my cheeks.

He turned and headed toward his chambers, while I walked down the hallway toward the omega quarters, my heart fluttering wildly, feeling utterly giddy and alive. And all.that came crashing down in just seconds.

"Where were you?"

I froze in my tracks, my breath catching in my throat as I turned around slowly.

Standing in the shadows of the corridor, his arms crossed tightly over his dark suit, was Damian.