The Forbidden Omega

Chapter Eighteen: At Last, Safety and Love

It's only three minutes before I see the glaring lights of the police patrol cars, and the flashing orange alert of an ambulance just beyond the corner. I kick my frantic dash up to highest gear, closing the few hundred yards in mere seconds before screeching to a halt. My eyes scan the myriad Alphas and Betas surrounding the area, a deep rumbling in my chest already being broadcast to everyone's ears. I find Soren at last, his graceful frame hunched under a shock blanket and perched on the tailgate of the ambulance.

I carefully walk towards him, the officers knowing my purpose by the call to my Omega, the sound only he would receive in my lifetime. I see a deep shudder pass through my mate's body as I approach, and his golden eyes bore into mine. He sees me, in this moment, for what we are and always were meant to be. I have been his long before he stepped for into my bakery, and I will be his long after my ashes are scattered among the fields of my ancestors' home.

I wait, just beyond arm's reach, pleading with him in my vocalizations and  in my eyes. *Please, my love*, I want to whisper, as he hesitantly reaches for me, his face set in an expression of pure devastated hope. I remain silent, taking deep lungfulls of air to compensate for the headlong rush to get to my mate, every nerve ending alight with fear and need. Need for the long awaited acceptance from my mate.

"Aiden..." Soren looks up from his spot on the cold metal fender, his hand so cautiously reaching out to me. I open mine, allowing him to touch my skin, as he looks like he was unsure if I was truly real. "I'm so sorry, my Alpha. The pain I put you through..." His eyes turn up to mine, tears pooling in their silver green depths. "Please forgive me, my True Mate."

I let out the air in my chest, gripping his hand as he entwined it with my own. My eyes themselves fill with tears of the long awaited relief. "There was never anything to forgive, love. I know you would never harm me on your own free will." I let him tug me into his arms, and sob as he fits against my chest like I knew he always would, his head tucking perfectly under my throat, his strong fingers holding onto my shirt like the lifeline that keeps him moored to the shore. "I know it wasn't your fault."

"Jason," Soren gasps brokenly, and I nod, holding him as tightly as I dare. 

The shock blanket had fallen away upon him standing, and I could see the livid bruises blooming around the many bandages on his torso. I let my tears fall into his hair, running my hand over his skin as light as a feather's touch. The scent released in my palms would protect and mark Soren as mine, and the power belief by my scent would protect him from any further harm. 

"Jason had me on hormones to stop my wolf's reaction to him. I couldn't smell him, and I was unable to go into heat." Soren's eyes look up to mine, devastated and begging for me to forgive him. "I couldn't smell anyone once I began the medication. I would have killed him if I wasn't on it." I nod, pressing my lips delicately to his forehead, breathing in his sweet musky scent, and rumbling softly.

"It's alright," I murmur, cupping his nape with my hand perfectly sized to him. I smile, looking into his eyes as I press my forehead to his. "It was never your choice. This, *I* am yours as long as you will have me, my beautiful Omega. I am yours even if you won't." I smile, soothing the Whine in his voice as he searches my eyes. "I have always been waiting for you. If I could have, I would have torn the pretender to sheds for harming you the first time I'd seen it."

" I didn't think anyone would want me." His eyes look away, tears spilling anew down his sculpted cheeks. " I've never met anyone  who found me desirable." 

" You're beautiful, Soren," I reply, caressing his cheek, miraculously unharmed despite the other abuses. " You're exactly what I've always been attracted to." I nod, as he looks back to me, his eyes begging me for the truth. I would be a liar if I had said anything but how perfect he was for me. How we were made for each other, in the womb, even, we were formed to be our ideal partner. " You are perfect, in every single way shape and form."

I shush his soft sobs of joy, petting his golden curls that were exactly as soft as I'd always wondered they were. Nothing was ever going to harm my Omega again, not *Jason*, not anyone. I would tear them to pieces. I pull away enough to drape my soft and heavy leather jacket over Soren's sturdy shoulders, helping him cover up his near naked form, bare but for a pair of tattered sweatpants, half falling from his angular hips.

"It's going to be alright now, my love." I kiss Soren's temple, smiling against his soft skin. " No one will ever be allowed to hurt you ever again."

" Thank you, Alpha." Soren looks down, a test falling into his lap. " I didn't let him. I knew it wasn't right, even if I was in heat."

" Soren?" I ask, dread coloring my voice.  "What do you mean?"

"He wanted to have his pups inside me, but he smelled so wrong my wolf took over." Soren's eyes look at the door across the street, as a bloodied Jason was dragged snarling through the muzzle, and put into the back of the freshly arrived containment vehicle. "He went feral, when my heat rejected him."

" When did you feel it happening?"

" Earlier this evening." Soren's face turns up to mine, slightly fearful, but wanting me to understand. " The medics  gave me an emergency suppressant, when my neighbor called the cops. But Jason was too far gone."

" Even in heat," I mutter past the tightness of my throat, "he had no right to try to force you." I kiss his forehead again, adding softly, "I will never do that."

Soren's eyes blink up at me, and for the first time this night, I see a happiness — muted by what had happened, but happiness all the same — shine in the pools of green. 

"I know."