The Orphaned Omega

Chapter 13

[Ian’s POV]

Taking Dorothea to the Lake House was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. Bailey had managed to guilt trip me in under two minutes to bring her after she got off from her human café, and I had been pissed about it all afternoon. It didn’t help that Thorin was elated at the idea of being couped up in a car with the girl, alone, for a few hours. I could tell he was trying not to let me know, but his good mood permeated through my own annoyance. I wish I could have let it cheer me up, but it just set me more on edge. After getting back from the first trip to take the girls’ up there, I spent most of the afternoon training with the warriors just to keep my mind occupied.

I took a quick shower and grabbed a sandwich from the dining hall before getting back into my car. I purposefully drove slower to the front gates than I normally would, just trying to stall before having to see her again. I half-hoped she wouldn’t be at the gates, so I could tell Bailey I fulfilled my promise and her new friend had stood her up. I also was frustrated Bailey had for some reason decided to take the omega under her wing – if she was actually friends with my sister, then I’d have to face her way more than I would want to.

‘And you’re feeling regret over it too.’ Thorin chastised me.

‘No, I am not.’ I snorted, rolling my eyes.

‘If Bailey becomes her friend, she could raise her status. Then you’ll regret rejecting her.’

‘Not likely, Thorin. Once Harry finds out, Bailey won’t be her friend anymore.’ I cut off the conversation when I rolled down the window to look at Dorothea. “Get in.”

I saw her nod before I rolled the window back up and waited for her to get into the car. She looked good in the cut-off denim shorts she had changed into, her long legs toned and luxurious. The image of her with her ankles up by her head while I buried myself between her legs flashed in my mind. I ground my teeth together, forcing the picture from my brain and taking the chance to push Thorin further back. I certainly would not survive this if he kept ambushing me with illicit images like that. She got into the Rover and her scent filled the cabin in a matter of seconds. I felt my jaw clench, and my body went rigid. This was going to be terrible.

“Thank you for taking me,” she said, her voice so quiet I may not have heard her if I didn’t have Lycan hearing.

I didn’t trust myself to speak much, afraid the more I pulled in her scent, the worse off I’d be. Thorin was already banging around in the back of my mind, trying to push forward. If I took too much focus off of him, he’d slip through my defenses. “I have no choice,” I said quickly. “If I don’t take you, you can’t get in.”

I pulled away from the gates after that, driving in silence. I could hear her heart hammering in her chest the entire time, her lavender and vanilla scent swirling around me. My hands remained clenched on the steering wheel, so tight that any more pressure and I was sure I would dent the wheel. After a while, I felt my back begin to get sore from how tense I was holding myself. I felt like a spring coiled up tight.

‘Come on...if we take her right now, no one has to know.’ Thorin whispered.

‘Absolutely not. We are not going to touch her. We are not going to even speak to her.’

‘If we apologize, we could reform the bond. Ian, we’ll never be our full strength without her! How are we supposed to keep the pack safe?’

The stupid furball was trying to break me down from any angle he could think of, and he had been for the past several weeks. Being this close to her in the middle of the woods, alone, was driving him absolutely mad. It was taking nearly all of my concentration to keep him at bay. He kept pushing at the wall I kept up to keep him back, to keep him out of control. It was giving me a splitting headache.

Suddenly, I was mere millimeters away from Dorothea’s lips. Her scent was even stronger this close, and I could see that her green eyes were made up of several different shades, from bright lime to dark forest green. I had no idea how I was suddenly just seconds from pressing my lips to hers, and part of me (the stupid furball part) wanted to close that gap. But I yanked myself back, turning back to look at the road. I was furious. Thorin had managed to not only take control, but he had managed to lock me out completely. I had not been part of the conversation he had just had with Dorothea – I only knew what had transpired because he wasn’t able to keep his memory from me.

‘What. The. f**k. Was. That?’ I wanted to roar. I wished that we could separate bodies just so I could strangle him for having done that to me. I didn’t know it was even possible to be forced so deep into my own mind that I could black out.

‘That was me, doing what needs to be done.’

‘No, Thorin. That was you crossing a f*****g boundary. This is my body. You can’t just force me out of it. You also can’t just go and give her false hope!’

Thorin snorted. ‘You’ve terrified our poor little mate. It isn’t likely she is exactly fond of us. It’s going to take a lot more than a brief interlude to win her back.’

‘Good, because we are not winning her back! Knock it off, Thorin. She is no mate of ours.’

Thorin snarled at me. His anger rivaled mine, and I had half a mind to pull over, so I didn’t do something entirely reckless, like drive this car into a tree. ‘She is our mate! That is what the Moon Goddess decreed. How dare you go against that.’

‘The Moon Goddess was wrong, Thorin. We can never, and will never, be her mate.’

‘The Goddess is never wrong, Ian. Mark my words, you will regret this. All this because she is an omega?! She was born to be by our side!’

‘No, Thorin.’ I couldn’t believe how naïve he was being. All he cared about was the Moon Goddess’ plans, but had Her plans accounted for Dorothea’s father getting my uncle killed eight years ago? Had She considered the rage my father would still have over that day? I remembered that day so clearly. I’d only been ten, but the memory was seared into my brain. I thought of it every time Harry was angry, every time he mentioned ‘Alpha duties’, every time he punished a pack member. It had been the first time I had truly seen the weight an Alpha carries, and the day I learned just how far my father was willing to go when he was angry. I try to stop it, but my mind flashes to that day – before I had Thorin for company, before I knew how easily my father could take a life.

[Ian’s Flashback – Eight Years Ago]

The rogue attack had come out of nowhere, and the entire packhouse was in a frenzy. My father was shouting commands one minute, and the next he was gone and out the door. Bodies rushed everywhere, pushing past me on the stairs. My mother came and scooped me up, taking me downstairs and to the movie room. After a few minutes, other kids showed up too. Some mothers stayed, but a lot left – presumably to go fight. One of the pack warriors came to stand at the door to guard us. My mother kissed me on the forehead and told me to watch Bailey, who was now clinging to my side with tears in her eyes.

‘Be safe, my loves,’ she said. ‘We will be back soon.’

I watched her run out the door, the guard locking it behind her. One of the mothers turned on a movie for the children to watch, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the door. Hours passed by – they had to change the movie three times – before the door opened again. My father stepped in, his body covered in blood and wounds. His eyes swept over the room, landing on someone behind me. He waved the woman forward – Aunt Georgie. She was Uncle Alexander’s mate. She followed my father out of the room, and when she passed me, I saw her hands had started to shake. I darted after them and out the door before the guard could close the door again. I watched them walk around the corner, and I snuck after them quietly. I waited, straining to listen. All I remember was Aunt Georgie’s strained sob – it was a noise that would ring in my ears for nights to come. It was the most awful, heartbreaking sound I had ever heard.

Then, my father said, ‘I will avenge him. You have my word.’

I had never heard his voice like that – it was so cold, so emotionless. It sent a chill down my spine.

‘Please, Harry, can I see him?’ Aunt Georgie managed between her tears.

‘Of course. I’ll have Chris escort you to him.’ I heard my father’s footsteps go one way, and two sets of footsteps go another. I hurried after my father, careful to keep back so he wouldn’t see me. He walked out of the back door of the packhouse, and he paused at the steps to turn around.

‘I know you’re there, Ian,’ he said. ‘Come out. You can come with me.’

I stepped out from the threshold of the door. ‘What’s happening?’

‘I have to go do the hardest part of my job,’ Harry said. ‘I have to punish a pack member.’

‘Who?’ I asked, frowning. ‘What did they do?’

‘Riordan. He let your uncle die.’

My eyes bulged wide. My father had turned and started walking again by that point.

‘He left his assigned post. Your uncle was left alone, and he was overpowered. We will go find Riordan and see his side. Then, we will figure out a just punishment for going against orders.’ His voice still had that cold, steel edge to it. His power was radiating off of him and making me nauseous under the force of it. ‘It is the hardest duty an Alpha has, but one that must be done.’

I nodded, having to jog to keep pace with his long, effortless strides. We found Riordan just outside of the pack clinic, helping a wounded warrior into the door.

‘Riordan!’ My father boomed. His voice seemed to echo through the air with the force of his Alpha dominance.

The man turned to him, seemingly unaffected by the way my father’s voice sounded. I didn’t know how – I had been knocked to my knees under the force of his power.

‘Alpha Harry,’ he said, coming toward us. His eyes flicked down to me momentarily, but then he met the Alpha’s angry gaze.

‘Is it true? Did you leave your post?’

‘I did, Alpha,’ Riordan said. He looked about ready to open his mouth to say something more, but my father cut him off.

‘Why?’ he snarled, that horrible Alpha power rolling off of him in waves.

‘To protect my daughter, sir, she wasn’t—’ Riordan’s voice was cut off. My father had reached out with a hand full of sharp claws and slashed through his neck. Blood spurted in every direction from the gaping wound in Riordan’s neck.

I couldn’t help the sharp gasp that escaped me, or the horror that filled my entire body when I watched Riordan’s body fall to the ground limp and lifeless. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, couldn’t look away as I watched the color drain from his face and his eyes gloss over. I felt like I was going to puke. My father reached down and grabbed him by the arm. He looked at me with black, shadowy eyes.

‘Grab his leg.’

‘W-what?’ I stammered, gulping down my fear.

‘Grab his leg. We’re taking him to the pyre.’

I hesitantly reached down to take hold of Riordan’s ankles, helping my father half-drag and half-carry the lifeless body of a once-strong warrior across the pack grounds. There was a massive bonfire not far away that was already ablaze, thick black smoke curling up into the sky. Dozens of bodies were stacked there. I could see the tangles of arms and legs, soulless eyes staring out at me. I didn’t recognize any of them. It would take me several years, and hundreds of nightmares, to realize that that pyre had belonged to the bodies of the rogues Dark Pine had killed in battle. All of the other lives that were lost were given proper burials and funerals.

The smell of their burning flesh was horrendous. My stomach rolled, and I dropped Riordan’s legs and heaved up my breakfast. My father looked at me with nothing but disdain in his eyes. He hauled Riordan the rest of the way to the pyre himself. I watched as if my eyes were glued to that warrior’s body, wanting to run out and stop my father for reasons I didn’t understand. When Harry was gone, he came back and took me by the upper arm. He marched me all the way back to the packhouse without saying a single word.

[End Flashback]

I still sometimes had nightmares about that funeral pyre. It had been explained to me closer to my sixteenth birthday that the bodies of our enemies were burned in battle, so they had no chances of healing and coming back. It could take a lot to kill a Lycan, and the strongest among us could potentially heal from their neck being broken or even their jugular being torn out. I didn’t entirely understand what had happened that day with Riordan, but I do know I hated that I had been there to see it. I hated the way my father had acted; how cold he had been then and even since. I hated the idea that Riordan had gone to check on Dorothea and left my uncle to die and Aunt Georgie mateless. Harry had spent the year after Uncle Alex’s death in fits of rage. Most of that rage he directed at me, and I had the scars to prove it. Most of the time, I was pretty sure I even hated Riordan – I blamed him for what he had done to me, to my father, to my family. I hated Dorothea, her presence a constant reminder that Riordan had chosen her over Uncle Alex. That we were stuck with her and not my uncle. Maybe if Uncle Alex was still with us, things would be different.

‘All of this,’ I snapped at Thorin. ‘Because she is a dirty omega. She has traitor’s blood in her veins. The entire pack hates her. Our own father blames her and her father for his brother’s death. Omega or not, she is and always will be marked. I will always hate her.’

This, mercifully, shut Thorin up. He could feel how potent that pain and anger still was. Not over the loss of my uncle, but over the broken relationship the ordeal had caused between my father and me. He had never been warm, but after Uncle Alex died, he had never been the same. He was quicker to anger, less merciful, and more prone to violence. The pack had gone from adoring him to being afraid of him within that first year following the attack.

I dropped Dorothea off at the front of the Lake House and sped off the moment the door clicked shut. I couldn’t be away from her fast enough. I sped down the dirt road for about thirty minutes before pulling over and turning off the car. I rolled down the windows to help air out her scent, and I leaned my head back on the seat and closed my eyes. I wanted to go for a run, but I didn’t dare let Thorin out. I was afraid if I did, he’d go right back to the Lake House to stake his claim on Dorothea.

I stayed like this until the sun had fully set and even the crickets stopped chirping for the night. I finally pulled the Land Rover back onto the road and drove back toward the pack territory. I didn’t head home, instead heading to Peach Grove to drown myself in the bottom of a glass, or four, of whiskey at the local bar. I knew now that life would never be peaceful with Dorothea here in this pack, but I had no good reason to get rid of her. I couldn’t just ask another pack to take her in, and despite wanting to, I wasn’t going to force her out to live her life as a rogue.

I hung my head in my hand as I nursed the cool, amber liquid in my glass and mulled over my choices. Without Dorothea, I would never be the true Alpha I had been born to be. I would never be as strong as my father. But being with her was absolutely out of the question. How was I supposed to be with someone that I could barely look at when his Lycan wasn’t in control? And being around her was unbearable, no matter how much I did my best to act like it didn’t affect me. It drove Thorin nuts, and it tore me in too many directions. The bond was my worst enemy – it made me want her more than I had ever wanted anything in my life. It made me crave her. Her mere scent was enough to arouse me, and that made me want to chop my own manhood off sometimes.

My only hope of surviving this was the Alpha Academy. I was slated to go to the prestigious program in just over a week, which would take me away from the pack for the next 6 months. It was a program most young Alphas went to upon turning 18, which helped teach them more formidable fighting techniques, the ins-and-outs of pack politics, and the day to day of running a pack. It also was a great way to meet potential new allies. I hadn’t wanted to go, in the beginning – what could a bunch more time in a classroom teach me that my own father couldn’t? But…now I couldn’t wait to go. Maybe, just maybe, with that long away from the girl, the bond would fully dissolve and I would feel free of her.