The Omega Sacrifice

Ghian-3

HE HADN’T EXACTLY BEEN looking forward to introducing Aalyan around. It didn’t help his nerves when he saw the way his sister’s eyes shone with mischief when they arrived at the clearing to break their fast the next morning. Ghian loved his pack and he enjoyed their teasing, it was one of the few ways in which he could be like anyone else—having his silly missteps become stories they all shared. There was no malice in it, but he wasn’t sure Aalyan would be able to see that.

“Good morning, Ghian!” Erea called out, effectively alerting anyone who’d missed his arrival.

He nodded, keeping his gaze on her and relying on his other senses to keep track of Aalyan a few steps behind him. But there was one thing he couldn’t skip. “Awá!” he called out, and the last of the whispers died out as they all turned to listen. “This is Aalyan, please make him welcome.”

There were a couple of wolf whistles, because it was his pack and they couldn’t possibly take anything completely seriously. At this, Ghian twisted around to face his new omega. “They are just messing around,” he explained.

Aalyan didn’t get time to respond before Erea was stepping up to them both and putting a hand on the omega’s elbow. It was way too forward and completely in character with his sister, but Ghian still felt his chest tighten.

“They are idiots,” she was telling Aalyan with an eye roll that made her look a lot younger than she was—ten years Ghian’s senior. “They don’t realise how popular you are going to be yet.”

Aalyan’s face didn’t change but to Ghian the way he stiffened was as obvious as if he had shown his teeth.

Erea seemed oblivious, but her next words were a little too perfect for that. “You got new stories, so many you probably don’t even know which ones are new!”

“Oh,” Aalyan said slowly. Ghian didn’t think he’d considered of the value of his storytelling either.

“But, anyway,” Erea was saying. “Let’s eat, Yugo has prepared some bread to welcome you.”

“That’s our cook,” Ghian offered, feeling a bit odd. It wasn’t like he minded that his sister was being nice to his intended, naturally. But it made his own poor efforts all the more obvious for it.