BONDS OF HEARTS

CHAPTER 2

My eyes widened in fear when I found myself on a bed. Immediately I woke up. “Where am I?” I asked myself. Not long after, a realization dawned on me: I was in my mom's room. But wasn't I at the market square earlier? Everything came rushing back at me as I remembered what had happened. I almost died on my birthday.

“Ahh!” I screamed out loudly as my body shivered at the thought of that. Who saved me? I saw a shadow hover above me immediately as the rogue went down. “Must have been one of the warriors,” I thought.

“Oh! You're awake, Aria. I thought I was going to lose you too,” my mom said, entering the room and rushing to my side.

“What do you mean by ‘too’ mama? Did anyone die?” I asked, my eyes widening in another round of fear. “What of Sarah? And, my brother too?” I asked again in a rush. “Calm down, girl! Thank God you're fine. Everyone's fine too,” she replied, and I breathed out loudly in relief.

God knows I'd blame myself forever if anything happened to Sarah. All she ever wanted yesterday was to make me happy. And, that reminds me, we had planned to go to Nick's house yesterday before the rogue attacked us.

Nick is also my friend. We met years ago in the pack when the pack was celebrating the birthday of the Alpha Prince and since then, he's been a great friend of mine. Not forgetting I have a crush on him, too.

“Aria! Aria!!” My friend Sarah called out my name loudly as she made her way into my mama's room. “Aww, I'm so glad you're fine. I thought something bad would happen to you. You don't know how scared I was when the rogue almost pounced on you,” she said in a rush, almost in tears. I almost laughed at the way she reacted. Seeing that she was such a baby, she might cry, I pulled her into a hug and replied, smiling “shh! Girl. See, I'm very well.”

“By the way, do you know who saved me?” I chipped in. “No, I don't,” she replied.

“Oh! Okay.” I said, adjusting myself on the bed.

*LATER IN THE EVENING.

I sat down in front of the house this time admiring nature. Somehow, my mood has changed since Sarah told me about Nick. Now that I think about it, she's always been mentioning him all the time. I had never imagined that Nick would ever turn out to be someone like that.

Fine, I know, we, the Omega, were given little or no rating in the pack, but don't you think Nick went extra miles trying to source power by joining the rogue? Like, he formed an alliance with the King's brother to threaten and kill members of the pack.

Growing up as a pup, we were not allowed so many opportunities. Most times, Sarah and I would wish we were a part of the Beta rank or at least the Gamma. But guess it does not happen that way easily. I began to wonder when I'd have my first shift. It also did not get better that, as an Omega, our energy is not built to be strong to shift without meeting our mate. The mate bond is what strengthens us to be able to shift as a female. Yes, a female, because the males are allowed to have their shifts as an Omega from when they clock twenty.

Life didn't get any better and the more I think about it, the more I want to meet my mate faster.

As much as I wished to get married just to someone that would want to grow a family with me, just to someone not of high rank, just someone that isn't so elaborate, I really long that it'd be someone stronger so that my future kids won't be an Omega, too.

“What are you thinking about, my dear?” my mom asked, interrupting my thoughts. “Oh! Nothing, mama,” I replied, smiling at her.

Looking at her closely, she's by far the most beautiful woman I know, her long lashes moving at a pace and her beautiful round face depicting the shining radiant of a moon. I'm not so sure if there are any features I got from my Dad, but I know so well that I got most of my beauty from my mom.

“Mom, if I may ask, how did you meet Papa?” I asked, hoping I hadn't caused anything wrong, and she'd at least give me an answer.

“Oh! That? We met in the market square. I was twenty-two years old when we met and he was twenty-five. Given that I had waited a long time to meet him, our heartbeat connected faster than we could imagine at the market,” she replied with smiles on her face.

“He was getting fruit from a woman while I was buying woven fabrics when we felt the connection and ever since then, we've both loved each other like never,” she added. “I think I should stop there. Just know your Father was the best person ever, and I'm sincerely praying that your mate will be much more,” she said, rising to her feet.

“Thank you, mama,” I replied.

“I'd be off to the market. We'll be going to the palace tomorrow. The king asked everyone for a meeting. And, you know, this is the first time he'll be calling every member of the pack to a meeting. We have to look our best,” my mama said, entering the house.

The thought of going to the palace tomorrow made me smile a bit, as I had always wondered what the palace looked like, another disadvantage of being an Omega? Yes. Because how have I not been to the palace before?

*THE NEXT DAY, THE KING'S PALACE

Sarah and I walked hand in hand to the gathering place where people are gathered in the palace. I guess this is the only time we will get to meet every member of the pack like a normal thing.

“Don't you think we could explore the palace a bit? I mean it's getting boring sitting out here without the King in his seat. Sadly, we don't even know what he looks like,” Sarah said, as she had always wanted the opportunity to move around the palace. Well, who wouldn't? Almost everyone here came because they needed to have a view of what the palace looked like.

“Do you want us to get into trouble? It's not safe walking around the palace,” I replied, folding my hands together.

“What do you mean it's not safe? C'mon, girl! We’d only be exploring it,” she said, dragging me to my feet.

Soon, we had moved quite further, at a distance away from where everyone was. We kept moving on a straight path and at some point when I called Sarah's attention to it, she only emphasized that we were exploring the palace.

My eyes caught an entrance beside the path where we were walking, and my eyes piqued at the sight of it. “What is this place?” I thought, my eyes looking around it like it was some kind of secret room that suddenly evolved in my own house and I had to find out.

“Hey, girl! Look at this beautiful flower. Oh! My days, it's so pretty! Ahh! I love blue colored flowers!” I heard Sarah's voice admiring a flower as I continued on the journey from the entrance.

“What do you think you're doing?” my subconscious mind screamed at me. “We'll figure it out,” I answered back like it was some kind of question and answer session. Almost immediately, I found a rail. It looked like it was some kind of staircase or something as such. And, like that, I took on to each step, leading to unknown higher stairs, I turned to go back.

“You shouldn't be found here by this time, young lady!” I heard a voice say and memories from days ago fired back at me.

“You shouldn't be found outside by this time, young lady,” these were the words from days back and hearing almost the same thing again now, I froze.

The voice sounded yet the same, just that this voice seemed pissed off, calm but yet very colder even than the former.

“What do you think you're doing?” the voice asked again, and now that I looked closely, his face was masked, he stood tall, too, and his height was almost overpowering mine.

“I asked a question! You do not want me repeating myself!” He growled and this time I fainted in fear.

TBC…