That thought made me sad. I wasn’t sure why. I hadn’t gone wandering through the forest to look for a mate and wasn’t sure I had the ability to look after one either. My position in Talius’ pack wasn’t terribly secure, and I didn’t have the skills or education to make much of myself outside of that. It’d been hard enough to feed myself before Talius had taken me on. It was a sobering and faintly depressing thought to realize I didn’t have much to offer a mate. With other priorities and urgencies – such as establishing myself in a pack - I hadn’t even considered this before.
The sodden mat beneath me now felt unpleasant, cold and uncomfortably wet. Once I’d fallen asleep, I’d slept so heavily that I hadn’t noticed the disgusting object, and I was glad I’d spared my omega the discomfort of lying on it. I might not have a lot to offer a mate, but if I could use my body to protect him from, well, anything really, I was happy to do that.
I got up slowly from the sodden mat, stretching out my limbs, which cracked and creaked a little. There was still no sign of my omega, and a twinge of anxiety squeezed my chest. Where was he?
I hurried to the cave mouth and looked around in case he was nearby. There was nothing to see but trees and rocks. I listened. There was nothing to hear but the breeze in the treetops and the gurgling of the stream far below, the caroling of a magpie, the caws of a few ravens flying in the distance. Dismay had my heartsinking in my chest. He’d chosen to go off alone, maybe to return to his pack. He didn’t need me anymore.
I brightened. There was nothing to stop me from looking for him, to see where he’d gone and assure myself he was all right. I shifted. I could more easily track his scent and travel faster in my wolf form.
It was easy to follow the omega’s distinctive scent out of the cave and down the mountain. Maybe because of the intensity of the hours we’d recently spent together, or maybe because of the intimacy of the acts we’d shared – I wasn’t sure – but my nose easily recognized his scent amongst all the other competing odors of the midday bush. Though I could tell he’d been gone a couple of hours, his scent was still fresh and strong to my sensitive nose, and I had no difficulty tracking him all the way down to the creek where I had filled the water bottles two nights before.
Sniffing along the bank, I easily found where he’d entered the water, but it took me considerably longer to pick up the trail again. My nose pushed through the thick grass of the bank, parting the soft stems, still lush from the nearby water, searching for more than the scent of damp earth. I finally caught it, a short distance further along the bank. His scent was fainter but the trail was more recent, and then lead away from the creek and around the other side of the mountain. I concluded he had come here to wash himself of traces of our time together, which left me feeling somewhat mournful.
He’d made no effort to try and throw me off his scent, arriving and leaving at the same section of bank. I was a little dismayed that he’d discounted me so easily. Did he think I wouldn’t havesomefeelings about what we’d just shared? That I’d simply let him go without a thought? Or was I just an anonymous alphawho’d conveniently wandered past when he’d needed a bit of help?
Fuck that. It had been more than just ‘a bit of help’ for an omega in heat. Goddess, we’d knotted every time I came, which had been plenty, and I was pretty sure that wasn’t normal, though as I’d never had an omega in heat before, I couldn’t exactly say for certain. There had been something special about that omega. I’d looked at him and thought he was the brightest thing I’d ever seen, and I didn’t think that was just the heat pheromones. Clearly, he hadn’t felt the same.
I sighed, the joyful mood I’d woken with, now completely crushed. Instead of happy, I felt… dirty… and like I’d been used.
I shifted and jumped into the icy mountain stream, the smooth flow of the current disturbed by wild splashing as I re-surfaced, my chest constricted by the ice-cold water and gasping for air. I stayed in long enough for the current to wash away the sweat and dried slick and cum from my skin, the current carrying downstream all traces of the duty I had so recently performed. I almost felt a sense of regret.
When my toes began to turn numb, and I could no longer feel the smooth pebbles sliding beneath my feet, I hurried out in a shower of icy droplets, that left goosebumps in their wake. Lying stretched out on the bank in the sunshine to dry, I considered my options. Should I continue tracking him, or should I let him go?
It was a superb day, and the contrast between the sunshine and my sour mood was jarring. A part of me was hurt, and I was tempted to turn tail and head for home, leaving my disappointment here in the mountains.
No-one would know.
I would know.
My wolf would know.
My wolf whined.
Okay, we’ll just make sure he got back safely to his pack.
I shifted into wolf form again and leaving the grassy bank behind, trekked off through the undergrowth and up the tree-covered slope, following the now familiar scent of the little omega.
*****
It took a while to find the mysterious omega’s pack. My leg muscles, already tired from my exertions whilst satisfying him, were silently screaming by the time I had followed his trail all the way up the mountain to what appeared to be the pack camp. It wasn’t impressive – simply a very rundown collection of sheds huddled beneath the trees. A wire fence looped its way languidly around the camp, only half-heartedly keeping people out. It was more of a statement than an actual barrier. In front of the sheds and still within the enclosure was a large grassy open space, the grass long and unkempt, dry with the summer heat, but offering perfect sunning spots for snakes in the places where the grass had been crushed by tires or boots. A metal gate hung crookedly off one of the fence posts. It wasn’t even fastened shut, the free end resting heavily in the dirt.
I could see a few betas wandering around, but no-one was patrolling the fence. A group of them leaned against one of the dilapidated buildings, smoking. I shook my head. Peak summer, with all the dry underbrush around. By the Moon, it was bushfire season! The ramshackle state of the camp and the behavior ofthe betas all screamed of poor pack discipline… and a bad pack leader.
A comment from one of the betas lounging against the building and the accompanying laughter from his companions, drew my attention to an omega who had exited a building carrying a basket of what appeared to be laundry. Even from where I was, crouched down in the grass on the opposite side, I could sense the omega’s embarrassment. The way they hunched their shoulders and dropped their head avoiding eye-contact with the betas - their entire body language reflected discomfort. I frowned. I was already certain I didn’t like my omega living in this pack.
My heartrate ticked up and my senses went on alert, when I realized the omega was walking towards where I lay hidden in the tall grass. My muscles tensed and I checked the wind, but it was still blowing towards me and there was no risk it would carry my scent into the camp. The omega was closer now. My heart raced faster. What should I do? Any moment now… at the last, just as I thought I was about to be discovered, I realized the omega wasn’t heading exactly towards me… they were heading towards a strange looking structure a little way off to my right. A pole taller than a human stuck out of the ground, and it had a number of smaller poles sticking out of it like mechanical arms. Something was looped between the arms. It was an alien-looking structure and I wondered what strange purpose it served. As soon as the omega dropped the basket they’d been carrying and began pulling things out of it, it became obvious – it was some sort of clothesline.
While the omega worked, I studied them. They were pale, slightly plump, with short black curly hair. There were some more comments from the betas, but the omega ignored themand continued hanging up the clothes. From this close, it was very obvious how uncomfortable it made the omega to be receiving this sort of attention. The red stain of a blush running up the guy’s neck was very clear about that. And… I almost couldn’t stop the growl from spilling out when I caught sight of the bruise peeking out from the sleeves of his t-shirt.
This was bad. The worst kind of bad. I remembered some of the rumors that had circulated around our pack about the pack Talius’ second mate, Isca, had come from. That pack had mysteriously and without a trace moved away overnight. There were rumors that they had moved after almost killing the omega. It was thought they had de-camped because they thought theyhadkilled him and were keeping out of reach of the law.
Was this where they had moved to? I shivered, fearful for my omega.
I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts. I had to stop thinking of him asmyomega. He wasn’t, not really, despite how I felt after passing his heat with him. I told myself I’d be concerned for any omega living here. And that was true. It just wasn’t the whole truth.
One thing was clear – this was no place for any omega to live. I lay in the grass and pondered what I should do.
Chapter 04
