The Omega Sacrifice

Ghian

Ghian

Ghian sent Telez to get the omega for him as soon as the cassava had been packed for the leopards who’d come to accept the deal. It was not done for an Alpha to leave his territory, not outside of an emergency or war, and he wanted to offer his future mate the kindest person he knew. Even if that person had been the one to suggest his... purchase. The word, even just on his mind, made him tense.

It wasn’t like he was lying to himself; it was the choice he’d made, but it didn’t mean he didn’t wish for something else.

Omegas were supposed to give themselves to an alpha freely. Freedom was what made shifters different from humans—so obsessed with taking and possessing more than they needed, not caring if they left someone else without just to satisfy their pointless avarice.

An omega gave himself to an alpha of his choice with the full knowledge that he’d be taken and treasured, protected and provided for. His future mate could know none of that about him. Even if he’d agreed to come; it was meaningless when they had never set eyes on each other.

Ghian didn’t want to be given respect he didn’t deserve, he wanted to be a leader worth following—strong but merciful, confident but open to listening to others and learning from them. Honourable.

There was nothing honourable about taking a young man—he had to be young, if he’d just presented—from his home, and pressuring him into... he huffed and swallowed.

“I will be taking a mate,” he announced to his pack. It earned him a few gasps and a lot of stares. “There is a male omega.” He pretended not to hear the muffled whispering at that—he’d been shocked himself; their pack hadn’t been blessed with a male omega in generations and there were none in any of the packs they knew of either.

“What’s his name?” it was Erea, of course, always ready to save him from his own awkwardness.

“Aalyan,” he told her, then raised his voice when his pack quieted down. “His name is Aalyan and I expect everyone to make him feel welcome.”

***

HE’D CLIMBED UP HIS favourite tree, an old sumaimeira, tall enough to watch over the area near the river. The Leopards lived on the other side of the water, though further inland. In the end, it made no difference because Ghian forgot to keep an eye out for his brother. It was his biggest weakness, the way his thoughts got away from him.

But as the elders told him, his thoughtfulness also made him a great leader, capable of planning ahead and ensuring his pack flourished. He wouldn’t wish it away, even if he nearly fell off the tree at the sound of his name.

“Ghian!” Erea was at the bottom.

Telez must have been back, and the knowledge of what that meant set his heart racing. He swung off a branch, caught another and then dropped a good six feet, landing right next to his sister, who jumped aside and glared. “Seriously, oh mighty Alpha?” she huffed. “Telez is here with your mate.”

The word was wrong, everything in him said it, even the parts that did not rely on language had a scent, an emotion... an empty space that could only be filled by a specific person. And yet, what sense would it make to correct her when he’d agreed to it already?