That’s why I didn't want an omega. An omega meant a family; a family meant responsibility. Responsibility was like, the polar oppositeoffun.
I could just imagine my older brother Lorenzo’s stern face glowering down at me. We weren’t more than a few years apart, but there was a chasm of differences between our personalities. Having a family was all he wanted. He wanted an omega to adore, a baby in his arms to cradle, blah blah… Sometimes I wondered if we were evenrelated.
That train of thought only lasted me so long. Once I’d chased down that thread and finished it, I became boredagain.
“Where’s the closest pack or clan or whatever?” IaskedRuby.
“Why?” she askedwryly.
“So we can grab a couple omegas, put ‘em in a doggy-bag, and get outofhere.”
“I’ll spare you the entire explanation since I’m sure you’re aware of it, but we do not justgrabomegas like they’re fruit at the grocery store,” Ruby said. “There’s a process involved. For one thing, to join our tribe, they mustvolunteer-”
“Astribute?”
Ruby turned to me with her feathers fluffedup. “What?”
I grinned at her. “Nothing. Something I read in abookonce.”
“They must volunteer,” she continued, “of their own free will. Our tribe has no place for omegas who don’t wish to truly bethere.”
“Makes sense. I wouldn’t want to make a baby with someone who didn’t also want to make a baby. Hypothetically, of course.” I flew closer to her, nudging her with my wing tip. “Anyway, you never answered myquestion.”
“Whichis?”
“What’s the closest pack orwhatever?”
A strange expression crossed her face. “We’re coming up on it now, but I’m afraid you’ll have to be bored for a bitlonger.”
“Why?” I askedindignantly.
“We’re not stopping,”shesaid.
I blew an irritated puff of smoke. “Whynot?”
“Because it’s Stoneheart pack,” she said irritably, as if that was supposed to mean anythingtome.
“So?”
“For all the books you read, I’m surprised you’re so ignorant of the world,” she saidcoldly.
With a growl, I quickly flew in front of her and flared my wings so I cut off her flight path. “Ruby, tellmewhy.”
She stared me down, then finally sighed. “They won’t want us there. They’re a small, highly secluded pack. It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before. They live walled off from the rest of theworld.”
“Walledoff?Why?”
“To protect themselves from thehumans.”
I laughed. “No,really,why?”
But it was clear from her expression that she wasn’t joking. “Dante, the humans outnumber them easily 3-to-1. And these aren’t the humans that go screaming and running away from us. They’re vicious and cruel. They stop at nothing. I’ve heard stories of the humans tearing Stoneheart shifters limb from limb and taking the leftover parts. And Stoneheart pack is made up of wolf shifters, not big scary dragonslikeyou.”
I frowned now. To me, it seemed ridiculous that humans could ever frighten a shifter, no matter what the species. But Ruby explained the situation with such gravity that Ibelievedher.
“So why don’t they want us paying them a littlevisit?”
“They have a shortage of omegas. Every breeding season - springtime - they’re all required to mate. If not, they’re banished outside the walls, where they are killed byhumans.”
