Agony.
1260 Words
Temperance hugged me as we sank to our knees together. I buried my face in his chest and sobbed until I couldn’t breathe.
“I’m here for you, Autumn,” he promised, rubbing my back. “You are ours. I will take care of you." And added with a mumble. "You are still family.”
When he said he would take care of me, I was still family, I believed him. And somewhere in that broken moment, without meaning to, I gave him my heart.
I’ve tried to take it back.
Go for therapy.
I’ve tried to reach for other Alphas, to open myself to someone else. But they never lasted long.
None of them were him.
And every time I catch the scent of another Omega on him, it makes me sick.
This is not happening. I'm not attending. Not on my watch. I dashed out of bed, not even knowing how long I had been lying there.
It was dark outside.
I walked to the mirror and tied my hair into a ponytail. I grabbed my boots and my leather jacket from the hanger. I opened the door and looked outside. No one was there. I smiled and tiptoed out.
I just need to hurry before the full moon gathering.
I passed Riven, who was busy playing video games in the living room, and made my way to the door. I pushed down the doorknob, stretched one leg outside, and slowly stepped out.
It was chilly as hell. Just a little shift and I was out of the house. As long as I didn’t make any noise, the Alphas who claimed to be Gammas wouldn’t know I had sneaked out. I smirked.
They think they’re so smart.
I gently shut the door as the wind howled.
I sighed deeply and turned.
“Ahhhh.” I gasped, placing a hand on my chest. “It’s you.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” he inquired, his gaze sweeping over me from my head to my feet.
“Just… hanging out,” I forced out, unable to avoid staring at his abs. Why was his long sleeve unbuttoned in this cold weather? And why was he barefoot?
“I knew you would try something like this.”
“What?!”
“Look, I’m sorry about the way I sounded earlier.” He stepped closer, his face almost touching mine. Our gazes didn’t break. “I know how anxious you are. But it’s going to be okay.” His hand cradled the side of my neck.
I loved how warm it felt.
I shook my head. “I don’t want a mate.”
“Why?” he whispered.
How can I tell him? How can I say to his face that he is my mate?
“I’m an Omega.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said softly. “Your mate wouldn’t mind. We've talked about this, baby.”
“How do you know that?” I whispered back. “Can’t stand it anymore." I shook my head. "I’ve seen how Omegas get treated.”
“You won’t.” His hands cupped my face. “I will always protect you. We are the Gammas of this pack. No Alpha or Beta will dare touch you.”
In this pack, the Gammas stood at the very top of the hierarchy.
Long ago, before the title of Alpha ever existed, it was the Gammas who led. They were born from the oldest bloodlines, the first wolves who shaped the laws and traditions of the clan. Because of that lineage, their authority was absolute.
The Alpha was still powerful. He led the pack in battles, made daily decisions, and stood as the public face of leadership. The wolves respected and obeyed him.
But with final judgment, matters of blood, bonds, punishment, and survival, the Gammas had the last word.
The alpha ruled the pack. The Gammas ruled above the throne.
Temperance could indeed protect me, provided I am fated to another. And our family, what about them? If they learned the truth, what becomes of me?
My wolf came to me on the day my parents died.
Temperance always said it was the agony that triggered her. The pain I felt that night was enough to force a shift prematurely. He believed my wolf surfaced to protect me when my heart couldn’t bear the weight of loss on its own.
Before that day, I had never felt her so clearly. Afterward, she never truly left.
I was never strong with my shifts. Every full moon, I transformed because instinct demanded it, because the pull of the moon was impossible to resist. But I never lasted long. Minutes, sometimes less, before my body forced itself back into human form.
For a werewolf raised in a pack, that was dangerous.
Control mattered. Endurance mattered.
I had neither. And I got bullied.
My brothers, reassured me it would change once I met my mate. They said the bond would anchor me, steady my wolf, strengthen the connection between us. I would shift freely then, and remain in my wolf's form for as long as I wished.
My wolf echoed the same promise.
“When we find him, I will grow stronger,” she would murmur inside me. “We will be whole.”
I held onto that hope.
When I turned eighteen, I was standing by my bedroom window, staring out into the quiet darkness, when the air shifted.
A presence.
Before I could react, an enormous wolf stepped through the other open window and into my room as though the barrier between outside and inside meant nothing to him.
He was massive, larger than any wolf I had seen up close. His furs was dark, almost swallowing the light, but his eyes…
His eyes were violet.
They glinted in the dim light, a deep, striking purple that seemed almost unreal. When our gazes locked, something inside me stilled.
My knees gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor, unable to look away. Shock rooted me.
Inside me, my wolf surged forward with certainty.
“Mate,” she whispered. “He is the one.”
The wolf moved closer, silent. He stood over me, his shadow falling across my body.
He simply watched me, as though memorizing my face. Then his pheromones rolled over me.
They were overwhelming, thick, intoxicating, impossible to escape. My lungs struggled to draw in air. Head spun. My body reacted before my mind could understand what was happening.
Heat flooded through me. The world tilted. And then everything went dark.
That was the night I learned that Temperance was my mate.
It took me days to recover from the shock of it, days to accept what it meant, what it would change.
And the strangest part of all?
Temperance had no memory of it.
That was why he was always so persistent about me meeting my mate. Why he kept pushing me to “pull my life together,” to stand straight as an Omega, to ignore the whispers and the sideways looks. Why he stepped in whenever the teasing crossed the line, or when the pack’s gossip grew too loud.
He thinks if I meet my mate, if I accept it, everything will fall into place. I’ll finally fit into the role carved out for me.
But what if I don’t want that role?
Pretend I’m clueless while he stands right in front of me every day?
For how long?
A month?
A year?
The rest of my life?
- Writer
