Chapter 01
AGELIUS
I padded through the dry undergrowth. It was the height of summer and the grass was crackly and brown, easily crushed, and when it did, the sharp points pressed into my footpads like little pinpricks.
I didn’t care.
It was wonderful, letting my wolf free. I shook myself, the motion starting at my ears, working its way along my body and finishing with a snap or two of my tail. It feltgreat.
I was a black wolf, a little unusual in this district – but I wasn’t originally from around here - and the fine hairs of my summer coat were glossy and sleek, floating lightly with each step. Without the weight of my winter undercoat, I felt buoyant… and free. It wasn’t just the change of my seasonal coat that had me feeling so lighthearted. It was the solitude. Or not the solitude so much as not having to be constantly vigilant that my behavior was…appropriate.
I loved living with my new pack, and the Pack Alpha, Talius, was kind and fair. Hell, he’d given me a home when he could havejust as easily kicked my scrawny alpha ass to the curb. I’d turned up on his territory, homeless, desperate and scared, a young alpha with no pack, nowhere to go and no prospects. Most packs would never take in a strange alpha for fear of setting up a future challenge to the pack leader. That meant young alphas like myself, who’d had to leave their packs too young, had nowhere to go. Either they banded together and turned to lives of crime (I didn’t want to do that) or they lived solitary lives beyond the border of normal society and eventually, without the support of the pack structure, just faded away. We were pack animals, after all.
You had to be super, super lucky, for a pack to take you in.
I’d been lucky.
Talius had offered me a place in his pack, a trial period to make sure I meshed with their values and culture. That wasn’t hard. They were decent people, and I was young enough that I hadn’t formed any fixed opinions about anything. So, I kept my head down, worked hard, and observed the workings of the pack.
It was a happy, hardworking, respectful pack. Talius was the undisputed leader and held a huge amount of respect from the rest of the pack. It wasn’t hard to see why. He was confident and strong, but he treated everyone with respect, especially the omegas, and he made sure everyone else treated each other that way too. He took no special privileges for himself, working as hard or harder than anyone else, and ensuring everyone in his care had what they needed. He encouraged, praised… and gave firm but gentle guidance when required.
Talius had a modern attitude to omegas. The omegas in his pack made their own decisions… no obligatory sex, no forced matings, and he supported their desires to participate in the work forceand education or stay at home with their pups if that’s what they wanted. Many packs upheld the same values nowadays, but Talius was different. In his case, he truly lived these attitudes, as though it had never occurred to him that omegas could ever be considered property – because they just weren’t. How foolish to think they were.
No, I didn’t have any problem with the pack, per se, it was just that I was always conscious of my unsteady standing there. Talius seemed to have accepted me as a regular member of the pack – hell, he’d even assigned me some leadership responsibilities - but would there come a day when I was deemed a threat and got turfed out? I always felt like I had to be extra careful to appear unthreatening. It seemed to me that was getting harder. With the good food I’d been eating since joining the pack, hard physical work, and just plain maturing, my body had attained its full adult size, and I was not small. I did everything I could to make myself forgettable and overlookable, but it was a strain. Days like today, when I had a rostered day off farm work and could go roaming the forest freely were precious. It was the one time I could really relax and be myself.
I let my mind wander as I trotted along the rough terrain, slipping between the trees, weaving my way between fallen branches, winding my way steadily up the mountain, relishing the crisp air on my muzzle, the occasional patch of sunshine on my coat.
Talius was a strange one, I mused. A good one, but unusual. He had two omega mates. I didn’t understand how that worked and I’d never heard of such a thing, but the three of them were very affectionate with each other and seemed happy, so not for me to judge. I suppose it was a testament to his virility that he could keep two omegas satisfied. They were always to be seenwith sparkling eyes and smirky lips. There was no doubt he was keeping them happy. I briefly wondered if their heats ever fell at the same time, and how he would handle that if they did.
There had been a rumor circulating through the pack that Talius was only actually mated to one of the omegas, and that the other had come from a pack that used to live nearby, even that the omega might have been another alpha’s mate. Johnson, the beta who was the farm supervisor, had seemed to know more, but he was tight-lipped. I had once tried to ask him about it, but he’d just smiled and said, “It’s all worked out for the best. Isca’s a fine young man and he’s better off here.”
He hadn’t been more forthcoming, but it was clear he approved of the situation, whatever it was. It had sounded unlikely, but it turned out to be true, which we learned when Talius employed the assistance of a mage to help him form a new mating bond with the new omega. Mating bonds were lifelong so I didn’t know how this was possible but there was no disputing the second mating mark which had appeared on the young man’s neck.
As for me, I had fleetingly found the young omega attractive, but as soon as I’d realized he was one of Talius’ mates, I’d backed off. That was an easy decision really – I wasn’t going to bite the hand that was quite literally keeping me fed. Still, spring had been hard. I was a young male alpha, and my hormones had been running wild. I hadn’t dared play around with any of the pack omegas, though there were a few unattached ones. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t, my horniness levels had been almost beyond bearing. Partly I was afraid I’d get myself in trouble and thrown out of the pack - though Talius had implied that consensual interactions were fine - but there was something more to it.Apart from Isca, who was in love with Talius, there wasn’t really another omega who’d seriously caught my attention.
But I was getting to the age where I needed to find a mate.
It was playing on my mind. Sometimes at night, as I lay on my bunk, my brain conjured up the most delicious, delicate scent. Like a dream lover. My half-awake brain would become aware of this delightful scent, as I awoke registering that my cock was hard and throbbing against my abdomen. Sometimes I’d wake, a mix of strange odors in my nostrils…to find I’d already spilled on my abdomen. Was there a mate out there calling to me? Or was it just my adolescent hormones causing these strange dreams and imagined scents?
Something jolted me into awareness of my surroundings. Absorbed in my thoughts, I’d wandered much further into the mountains than I normally did. I’d crested the mountain above our home, and oblivious, trotted down the other side and beyond the next one. The mountains were higher here, it was cooler and the trees denser.
I sniffed the air. And there it was. Just the faintest trace, but it really was there, teasing the sensitive hairs of my nostrils. The same alluring scent that permeated my dreams and haunted my nights. My ears pricked up, alert. My nostrils flared. Where was this delicious aroma coming from?
Not the ground. Nothing there. The only hints of it were in the cool mountain air, the faint currents weaving in and around the scent of eucalypts, and acacia, and the dry grasses of summer.
A slight breeze was blowing, so I carefully took a few paces facing straight into it. I scented the air again. Yes, there it was. Just as faint, but still there, tickling at the edge of my awareness. I kept going, always heading into the breeze, hoping it wouldlead to the source. Sometimes I had to deviate from my course, navigating around obstacles - fallen branches, old tree trunks covered in moss, pools of muddy water, rocks - and sometimes I lost the scent and had to find it again. But it was there tantalizingly on the breeze, and after another half hour or so, I realized it was growing stronger.
I continued more rapidly. At some point, I found the ground trail of the owner of this delicious scent, and I tracked it more easily, nose down, travelling faster as I closed in on my quarry. The trail led down into a valley between two steep mountains. Down, down, I went, tracking the intriguing scent almost compulsively, eager to locate the source of my disturbed nights.
I was close now.
Omega. I think I’d already known that, or at least my wolf had. My human brain had only just caught up.
Another scent mingled with the first. An unfamiliar odor. Was I too late? Had another found the omega before me? But no, it wasn’t that. Not an alpha. I picked up my pace. I was getting close, I could sense it.
Another waft of scent washed over me, strong now, prickling my nostrils. Instinctively, my cock started to thicken. A quiver ran through me.
Omega in heat!
