The Orphaned Omega

Chapter 7

[Dorothea’s POV]

I spent the remainder of Saturday’s early afternoon getting some schoolwork done, which proved to be a decent enough distraction from the constant throbbing in my chest. I kept hoping that the ache of the rejection would go away in a few hours, but it seemed to be here to stay. By five o’clock, I had to trudge back to the packhouse to serve my omega duties. I slipped in the back service door, keeping my head down. I just prayed I could get through tonight without running into Ian. I headed into to the kitchen for my assignment. A few others filed in, and we glanced at the list posted to the refrigerator. Every day, the Head Omega would assign duties for everyone. Then there were more communal tasks, like laundry and food prep. You had to ** for those things at least twice a week, or you were subject to strict punishment. Most of the chores were cleaning tasks, ranging from cleaning the kitchen to cleaning the different floors of the packhouse. There were also landscaping duties, washing the pack cars, reorganizing pantries or linen closets, and every few weeks we’d have to go clean the training center. Some were also selected to go run errands during the day, like grocery shopping or picking up clothes from the dry cleaners. There were also omegas assigned to help serve each meal, and ensure the buffet wasn’t empty and drinks were full for anyone coming into the dining hall. Only the omegas that had been picked to work in the kitchen did any real cooking or work in the kitchen aside from cleaning or cutting vegetables. They had to go through culinary courses and test into the job to ensure the food quality served was good enough for the ranked members and guests. That was fine with me – I was a poor cook at best, and I burned water at worst. My diet generally consisted of pre-cooked foods or half-decent tacos when I cooked at home. Rosemary had tried to teach me, but I was a lousy student in the kitchen except for baking. I could bake pretty well – usually cookies. Luckily, I often ate at Moonlight and on nights where I was in the packhouse we were permitted to eat from the leftovers after the ranked members were done.

I took a glance at the schedule and my heart sank. Before I could react, Brianne groaned beside me.

“Ugh!” Bri whined. “Bathrooms again?!”

“I’ll trade,” I said quickly. I had been assigned to cleaning the Alpha’s floor. I knew I couldn’t stomach walking up to that floor again. And at this hour, there was a chance Ian may be up there. I couldn’t risk that. Bathroom duty was not pleasant, that’s for sure. It meant cleaning all the guest bathrooms, the public bathrooms, and the omega bathrooms. But you didn’t have to go to the ranked members’ floors. Those had an assignment of their own. “I’ll also do laundry duty.”

“Wait, seriously?” Bri said skeptically.

I nodded fervently. If I took the bathrooms and laundry, it kept me from having to serve dinner or dessert too. It’d be the best way to try to avoid Ian. “Yup.”

“Okay,” Bri shrugged, heading to collect her supplies.

I breathed a sigh of relief and followed her to grab my own supplies. I headed to the south wing first to get started on the public spaces while everyone went to dinner. Our pack house had several floors and three wings. The east wing was the Alpha and Luna’s wing - the top floor was the Alpha and Luna’s suite. Then the floor below them was for the Alpha’s family. The west wing’s top floor was for the Beta and Gamma, with the next floor down for their family’s quarters. The south part of the house housed the Alpha’s office and conference rooms as well as a good-sized library and computer lab. The main house had two floors of guest suites, and some communal living and entertainment areas as well as the dining hall. There were several bathrooms within the main part of the house, and three in the south wing. I definitely had my work cut out for me for the evening, but I couldn’t be too upset. It would keep me well out of the way from anyone and keep me occupied enough to not drown in my own sorrows.

I didn’t encounter many people while I cleaned the bathrooms in the south wing. By now, most of the ranked members were in the dining hall or heading home for the evening. It was a quiet reprieve and I worked quickly to make sure the bathrooms were clean and restocked. I headed to the main areas next to be sure things would be clean when everyone retired from dinner. Some pack members had trickled out into the lounge area, and I could hear their idle chatter as I cleaned the restrooms. Some may call is eavesdropping, but I could learn a lot from listening in on conversations pack members were having. No one really cared when an omega was around, and so they usually talked freely. I knew some pretty interesting things about this pack because of that.

Tonight, I learned Gamma Hudson had found his mate. Apparently, his mate was the Alpha’s daughter of Red Moon, and it meant Ian would be doubling down on their treaty together. I also learned that Kelsey had realized Ian was not her mate, and she hadn’t taken that too well. Apparently, she had been seen storming out of the packhouse early this morning after she and Ian had been seen walking into his office together. Some people said she was being even more awful than usual – screaming at omegas, bossing her friends around and overall, just throwing tantrums. The idea that Kelsey was on a warpath felt like a rock in my stomach. If she was this upset, then I’d most likely be on the receiving end of her wrath next time I ran into her. Not because she would know the truth, but because I was her favorite punching bag. I guess that made two people to try to avoid.

By nearing ten o’clock, I was getting to the top floor of the guest suites. I was nearly half done with one of the bathrooms when I heard a pair of voices filter into the room. I had left the bathroom door half-open, so figured whoever it was would move on. I was about to turn to finish scrubbing the toilet, but the murmured voices turned into the sounds of kissing. Oh no…oh no, this was the worst thing that could have happened. Do I make a noise? Do I leave? I heard the creak of the bedframe as the two of them climbed onto the bed. There was some shuffling, but mostly just the sound of lips on skin. It made me want to vomit into the sparkling toilet bowl I had just cleaned.

I was just about to make a run for it when I heard the girl make an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, Ian…”

That was Kelsey’s voice. And, apparently, Ian was here too. The situation was suddenly ten times worse than it had been just a moment before. Part of me wanted to curl into a ball and shove my hands over my ears to wait it out. Part of me was boiling with rage. It hadn’t even been an entire day since he had rejected me, and he was already sleeping with someone else. It really just proved how little he cared, and how Alphas would do whatever they pleased to whomever they pleased.

I heard them kiss again, and a growl of pleasure came from Ian. I wanted to disappear. Why had they had to choose this room of all places?! Their moans continued for a few minutes longer and I pressed my hands over my ears trying to deafen the sounds. It was really beginning to look like I would have to just endure it until they were done.

“Stop,” Ian said suddenly, and I could hear the springs squeak with his weight as he got off the bed. “Do you smell that?”

A moment passed before I heard Kelsey say, “It’s just a dirty omega; probably was cleaning in here. It’s fine, come back here.”

Ian made a disgruntled noise and Kelsey sighed. I could imagine the pout on her face.

“Ian, come back here.” Her voice was a whine that grated on every nerve in my body.

Ian didn’t reply to her. I heard footsteps across the floor, and they sounded like they were getting closer and closer. My heartbeat picked up and I glanced around frantically, unsure what to do. I looked up the wall, hoping maybe there was a window I could crawl out of. No such luck. I was about to get caught in here. Caught having been a few minutes from listening to them have s*x. The last thing I wanted to do was see Ian, especially like this. I learned the hard way, though, that it wasn’t just seeing him that proved difficult post-rejection. It was smelling him. When he swung the bathroom door open, the room flooded full of that delicious cinnamon apple scent, and it made the gaping hole in my chest feel like it had been ripped open again. I nearly had to gasp for air at the feeling. For the first time, I was glad I didn’t have my wolf yet. Having her sense of smell would only make this worse.

Ian stood there with his shirt off and his pants unbuttoned. Apparently, he wasn’t wearing boxers because I glimpsed more below his waist than I wanted to. I was quite sure Kelsey’s hand had just been down there. Kelsey was suddenly right behind him, peering over his shoulder. She was in nothing but a b*a and panties.

“OH, MY GODDESS!” she shrieked. Even Ian winced at the high-pitched sound. “What are you doing, you perv?!”

“I was just cleaning the bathroom…” I whispered, casting my eyes down. “I…I…”

“Obviously, she didn’t know we would come in here,” Ian said, moving out of the doorway and moving Kelsey back too.

“You’re defending her? A stupid omega?” Kelsey huffed. “She was in here creeping on us, Ian! Shouldn’t you like…punish her, or something?”

I hurried to gather up my cleaning supplies. “I’ll leave,” I said. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t…I didn’t know you’d be in here.” I wanted to say more, I wanted to yell at her for being so stupid. But I knew it was better to pretend like I was the one in the wrong.

Ian didn’t even look my way again. He just made a gesture for me to shoo. I snatched the caboodle of my things and rushed from the room. I ran all the way down the stairs and down to the omega’s quarters. I didn’t care if I got punished for not finishing the top floor. I wasn’t about to stay up there a second longer. I ran down the hallway, passing the very spot where Ian had pinned me to the wall just twenty-four hours ago. I pushed into the bathroom and collapsed on the floor by one of the toilets, heaving my stomach contents up. I vomited several times, my body shaking all over by the time I was done. It was so nonsensical to feel this way – so betrayed and hurt by Ian’s actions. I wasn’t his mate anymore! He had rejected me. He had used me, discarded me, and moved on in the course of a single day. Why couldn’t I just stop feeling like my chest was about to cave in? The Moon Goddess had a really f****d up sense of humor, or maybe I had pissed her off in another life somehow and this was my punishment.

It took me probably twenty minutes to convince myself to get up off the cold tile. I realized I had been sitting with my head on my knees, my hands on my head. I pried my nails out of my skin, and saw blood was below my nails. I’d dug my nails into my skin so hard that I had broken the skin. I got up and washed my hands of the mess, pulling my hair into a ponytail and making sure I wouldn’t bleed down my neck. I moved to gather the supplies I had thrown down on my way in, collecting the bottles strewn about the bathroom. I hurriedly cleaned the few stalls and restocked it before heading down to the laundry room.

At least down here I’d have peace and quiet for the rest of the night. I waved to the other two omegas as I walked in. They were already working on folding piles of laundry in the middle of the room. The laundry room was huge, with one entire wall of washing machines and another of dryers. There were a couple rows of drying lines for more delicate items, a half dozen ironing tables, and an island in the center of the room to fold on. There was a smaller closet that held the laundry chute, which was mostly used for table linens, towels, and bed sheets. Otherwise, omegas collected laundry so that no one would get their clothes mixed up. I went to the wall of washing machines and started to move some of the finished loads into the dryers. When I was done with that, I got started on the piles slated for ironing.

I looked up only when one of the other girls tapped me on the shoulder. “You coming? It’s already past midnight.”

I glanced at the clock on the wall. Sure enough – 12:17 am. I nodded, turning off the iron. She smiled briefly at me before joining her friend by the door. The two of them left, and I followed not long after. We were allowed to stop working at midnight. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but many times, you were scheduled for a morning shift the next day. Morning shifts started at 4 am. Luckily, because I worked at Moonlight too, I was only scheduled for evening shifts most of the time. On rare occasions, I’d cover for someone in the morning.

I trudged home in the dark, the only light an occasional streetlamp and the half-moon glowing above in the night sky. I stuck my hands in my pockets as I walked, glancing out at the dark tree line. I paused for a moment, turning to stare out at the trees. Some part of me longed to just run that direction and never look back. I could start a new life…if I even managed to make it off the territory. More than likely, a border patrol would find me and stop me, and I’d be tried as a deserter. I snorted, turning away from the trees, and heading home again. Who was I kidding? No one would care if I ran off. At least not enough to catch me and put me on trial instead of just letting me go rogue. By the time I got home and into bed, it was just shy of one in the morning. I was bone-tired after the emotionally exhausting day, but my brain wouldn’t turn off. I ended up picking up a textbook to read a random chapter in the hopes of boring myself into sleep.

-x-

I don’t know what time I managed to finally fall asleep at, but I do know that my morning alarm came all too soon. I groaned, turning over to shut it off. For the first time in years, I actually reset it to later and skipped my morning workout routine in favor of sleep. Even still, the next alarm came all too soon, and I had to drag myself out of bed. I trudged into the shower, not even having the energy to stop by Rosemary’s room. I thanked the moon and stars as I donned my work apron that coffee would be waiting for me at the other end of my bike ride.

Most of Sunday was spent at Moonlight, and it took all of my energy to act like everything was fine. Fran and Lori were perceptive, but I must have managed to fool them because they didn’t mention anything to me. The most was just asking how the rest of my night had been and commented on how exhausted I seemed. For the most part, I think they must have chalked up my behavior to just being overly tired. The day itself was pretty smooth, and we served only human clients all day which was nice. I didn’t have to have any reminders that I was trapped in a Lycan pack with my ex-mate for an Alpha.

By Sunday evening, I was for once glad to be going back to school. That meant that I would be able to spend less hours at the packhouse and I’d have a built-in distraction with classes. Ian was two grades ahead of me, so I was much less likely to see him on campus. I knew I would have to see him in gym – it was the one class we shared. The only silver lining was that Kelsey was not in that gym period. I had two different classes with her, but I felt like I could handle her much easier than I could handle Ian right now. I longed for the days when I didn’t even think about Ian. Things had certainly been a lot easier just thirty-six hours ago, when I had been a nameless omega to him, and he’d just been the next-in-line to the Alpha position to me.

-x-

Monday morning rolled around quicker than I would have liked. Having had an entire day without having seen Ian put me in a much better mood, and I managed to get in a brief workout before heading to school. I pulled up on my bike, locking it to the bike racks out front and straightening my black tee shirt. Our school was small, with just our own pack members in it. Occasionally, we had transfer days to Red Moon or our other neighbor, Dusk River. I liked those days when I got to go – they actually treated me like I was worth something. Because our school was so small, there was always a chance of seeing Kelsey or Ian. I stalled as long as I could outside of the four walls before heading in, savoring my last moments of solitude.

A light spring breeze picked up, and I could feel the promise of summer within it. We were just a few weeks from the end of the school year by now. I’d be finishing my sophomore year and in a just over a month I’d turn 16 officially. Ian would graduate, and I’d just have to survive the summer months around the packhouse before I would be able to spend 8 hours a day not having to worry at all about seeing him. The thought put a bit of a spring in my step.

I headed to my locker to get a few of my notebooks. I was just about to shut it when I heard the click of multiple pairs of heels coming down the hall. I didn’t have to turn around to know it was Kelsey, Isla, and Felicity. Their perfume-y scents were indicator enough. I elected to keep my back turned to them, pretending to be occupied. Maybe they would just pass on by if I did that. Joke’s on me. Naturally… At this point, I shouldn’t have even been surprised that nothing went the way I hoped. The group stopped across the hall from me at their own lockers, giggling and chatting amongst themselves. It was Kelsey’s voice that rang above them, loud enough the whole hallway could hear it.

“I may not be his fated mate,” she was saying. “But I know he will choose me. He just has to finish getting through training first, then he’ll Mark me.”

“You think so?” Felicity said.

Kelsey snorted. “No, Felicity, I don’t think so. I know so! He told me last night.”

“Ohmygoddess!” Isla squealed. “That is so exciting. You’ll be like…the best Luna ever.”

“I know, right?” Kelsey said. I heard the swish of her hair and figured she probably had tossed it over her shoulder like she loved to do.

I snatched my backpack off the floor and closed my locker, clicking the lock shut. I couldn’t stand here and listen to this any further.

“Ugh,” Kelsey said. “Are you eavesdropping, loser?”

I glanced over at her briefly, shaking my head.

“Good,” she snapped. “Now get out of here.”

I didn’t reply, just headed down the hall as if it were her idea for me to leave in the first place. I rounded the corner and disappeared into my first class – supernatural studies. I sank into my seat in the back corner of the classroom, glad that my first class didn’t have Kelsey in it. At least maybe I could wake up a bit before having to deal with any more of her antics. Maybe it was true what she had said about Ian choosing her as his chosen mate. Maybe it wasn’t. He certainly hadn’t seemed excited about it when Bailey mentioned her at Moonlight on Friday morning. My bet was that Ian was just using her like he’d used me – to get laid. A part of me even felt a little bad for her about it. Either way, though, hearing her talk about whatever relationship they had would be enough to make me truly go insane.

Mr. Quinn walked into the room just after the first morning bell rang and began to load up his PowerPoint for the day. Mr. Quinn was a middle-aged Lycan, and he was overall a pretty cool teacher. Supernatural studies was actually one of my favorite subjects, far above math and chemistry. I didn’t really have an aptitude for sciences, or a calculator for a brain. I did like to learn about Lycan history though, which was most of what was covered in Mr. Quinn’s class. We had a couple units on vampires and witches, our closest brethren in the supernatural world, and a unit on the fae and merfolk. Creatures of the night were a lot more common these days than the fae and nymphs, and for the most part, water-dwelling creatures had withdrawn to darker and deeper depths of the ocean and more hidden lakes or lagoons. A lot of their history seemed more like murky folklore now.

The rest of the class finished filing in, and Mr. Quinn waited until the morning announcements were over to begin his lesson. We were learning about the Lycan Royal Court this week.

“Can anyone here tell me how our Queen became our leader?” Mr. Quinn asked. His brown eyes roamed the classroom, eventually finding a hand raised. I didn’t know the boy well, just knew enough to know his name was Daniel.

“Didn’t Selene, like, give birth to the Queen a long time ago, and now her daughters are queen?” he said.

“Close,” Mr. Quinn said. One thing I liked about him was that he didn’t ever really say you were wrong. He wasn’t mean and didn’t like to just try to catch students that weren’t paying attention. He seemed to genuinely want us all to learn and do well. He always encouraged discussion and never put us down if we were wrong. “The very first queen is thought to be Artemis, the first Lycan and the first creation of Selene. She did not bear daughters herself, but Selene chose a successor for Artemis after Lycans were bound to their human counterparts. That queen did bear a daughter and her lineage reigned for several generations. However, Queen Andromeda became power-hungry and evil. She believed herself to be the true descendant of Selene, and she forced that belief on her people. She believed no one could replace her. For a few decades, Lycans were being slaughtered and many lived in poverty and in fear that they, too, would die at the hands of those that were supposed to protect them. A great war was waged, and many Lycans rose up against her. But no one knew who would lead if Queen Andromeda was defeated. Some were even afraid that without a queen, the Lycan race would perish. Well, many Lunas prayed to Selene for a sign. For someone to lead them from the darkness. That is when Luna Meira was spoken to by Selene. She was chosen by our Moon Goddess to take Queen Andromeda’s place. Meira was not from royal lineage of any kind, and she was a Luna from a very small, very poor pack. She was actually born an omega. But with the gifts given to her by our Goddess, she defeated Queen Andromeda and became Queen herself. Is our current queen a descendant of Queen Meira?”

“No,” said a girl in the middle of the class. I think her name was Penny. “The queendom has changed hands several times in history.”

“That’s right,” Mr. Quinn nodded. He perched on the edge of the desk. “It is not often, but there have been times in history where the queen dies before she can produce an heir. Does anyone know what happens then?”

A blonde girl piped up. “Does the king choose a new wife to become queen?”

“Good try, Mallory,” Mr. Quinn said. “But surprisingly, no. The king will reign, but the Moon Goddess will make Her selection. A new queen arises. We call them Moon-blessed, or Moon-kissed. How many Moon-blessed queens have we had in our history?”

The class was quiet, all trying to think about it. I knew for sure our current queen, Queen Katerina, was not Moon-blessed. Her mother had been queen before her. Finally, Mr. Quinn spoke again. “There have been ten. It is quite rare.”

Penny rose her hand. Mr. Quinn gestured for her to speak. “Is that what will happen when Queen Katerina passes? Since the princess died during childbirth?”

“Very good question,” Mr. Quinn said, his face somber. “It is true that Queen Katerina bore a child some years ago, and that the child did not make it long past being born. We do not yet know what will happen to the queendom. Some hope Queen Katerina will bear a second child. Some think she cannot, and that Selene will need to guide a new queen in her place.”

The bell rang right then, startling all of us. The whole class had been tuned in to this lesson, and Penny’s question had been a good one. Without an heir, there was a chance the Thornhill line would die with Queen Katerina. That could mean that we would be without a queen until the Moon Goddess blesses another.

I gathered my backpack up, heading out of the classroom. I didn’t know if that would be better or worse for wolves. Katerina had out-lawed wolf s*****y nearly half a century ago, but there were still reports that royal guards were dispatched to different packs to s*******r wolf members, and no one really came around to enforce that wolves weren’t enslaved. Lori and Fran said things were better, but were they really? Wolves still were seen as abominations. A new queen could reverse that law, and I could find myself even more at the mercy of this pack. But a new queen could also stop the killings and bring about a more peaceful time for wolves and Lycans. The bigger question would be if Lycans would even truly see a new queen as the one in power. How did you really prove that you were the one chosen by the Moon Goddess?