Wounded

"As I was saying," The Alpha continued searching for my eyes.

I faltered to look at him. it was enough that I looked Carey in the eyes and I could hug her. But with the actual alpha, especially with all the members of the council present, me looking at him in the eyes was unheard of.

I wasn't going to turn out like Mom and have everyone take it out on me. I've promised myself that. I would have thought like that a week ago. But today was different. My heart was aching. My mind had its own murderous trail. All it thought of was going to the Alpha and tearing his throat off. If he looked into my eyes, he would know that.

He was the cause of all this.

"The position of the Omega has stayed vacant long enough," He added looking at all the other seven members of the council.

"True.' They halfheartedly agreed. Except for the Theta. She wasn't in agreement.

"Thanks to you it is." The Theta or the grand priestess said abashedly. I looked at her and she smiled. A short sharp pain tore my chest almost apart. Her eyes were as dull and empty as can be. She looked at the Alpha and shot fires at him.

Everyone looked at her.

"Abigail let's not blame." The Sigma said calmly while still toying with his pencil. I shrugged as I saw it. He may be the calmest but he was also the deadliest. That pencil, I knew had claimed more lives than anyone else in the room combined.

"How can I not? For the past twenty-odd years, I have waited and watched from the shadows as the case of the Former Omega went under the rug. Do excuse me Sigma and Epsilon, but as the Theta, and the spiritual Advisor of this pack, I can not allow Maggie's only child to be turned into a martyr for the sake of this punk's satisfaction." She pointed at the Alpha and I almost stopped breathing.

What the fuck was the theta thinking? She may bow down to the Gods only but this was the pack, the Alpha was the boss. My logical sense told me. But the hurt side of me wanted her to keep on poking his ego.

"That is enough." The epsilon said without looking away from the teacup he had in his hands. "Theta, I know you do not bow to the Alpha..."

"And I will not!"

"In the old ages..."

"Please do not desecrate the name of the Gods and respectable Alphas," Abigail said raising her head and looking at the Alpha and Epsilon up and down as if measuring them.

"Are you saying I am not..?" Alpha Bill started but Abigail ran him short and insulted him in the very same line. "yes, you are just an asshole....!"

"Watch your mouth!"

"hey!"

My stomach tugged and I turned away from the meeting. My body quivered adding to the nervousness of being around the top four elders who were right about to fight and the pain I'd been engulfed in for three days. When I was called to this meeting this morning, this isn't what I expected.

"YES! I am saying this .... punk is not respectable.'

"hey!"

"Shut up I am talking!" The Theta shouted, shutting even at the Alpha who was looking rather tired. "We all know what happened twenty-odd years ago, so I am going to say, as I have said fifteen years ago, Give me Laurent and I will give you the Omega. he doesn't appear before me alive, I will not make another Omega. The houses under my watch will not take part in her endowment."

"So, your point is," the sigma asked looking at the theta in the eyes. His calmness among all the heat that was being generated was rather amazing. "We give you Martin's kid, Laurent, you give us the Omega?"

"yes."

"What does the Omega say?" the sigma asked looking at me, the others followed suit. I shined my eyes around them and looked down. This was the attention I didn't want.

"We have no Omega," Abigail added, garnering the attention of the elders. "Allison came here as a student of mine, if we don't have Laurent by the dark moon she would leave the house of the Alpha and move to the house of the Healers, for good." Abigail slid down her seat and crossed her legs, clearly showing that she didn't give the slightest fuck what the alpha thought.

The alpha got the message.

"Well," He said getting up, "Since it seemed to have been agreed that we do not have an Omega, I would take the trainers and the pups and go for a hunt, wanna tell me I can't do that too?" He looked at the theta.

"What would it change? You are going anyway, the only thing I can tell you is, good luck. You will need it. I could also offer my healers, but your old bones can heal, so don't touch my healers." She smiled as Bill left.

"Anything else?" Abigail asked.

"I heard a funny rumor while I was out trading in the city," The Epsilon started, and everyone looked at him funny as if trying to shut him off. "Apparently, the pack of Artemis has the kids of the fallen packs. The question is since I don't recall this pack accepting refugees or absorbing other packs, am I kept in the dark, again?"

"Oh, last time it was a secret hospital run by a white Ninetailed werewolf, now its prisoners?"

"There is no such thing. Skylar, we don't have refugees or prisoners."

"well, then you all will have a problem tomorrow when the other packs come here," Skylar said as everyone got up and started to leave. They just brushed him off.

I followed Abigail out of the meeting room wondering what I should be doing. Should I go pack and leave the Packhouse and head to the healer's compound or not? Abigail's escorts walked further ahead as Abigail slowed down for me and walked beside me. This was the fifth time I've heard of Laurent and the previous omega in this week alone. But everyone just refused to share. Aury, my mate, was the same. No one mentioned him at all or said what they knew about him, except he was just Laurent and Diana's best friend, and they all disappeared in 5758. Or in the human calendar, 1997.

"Ally, I'm..." She started. But I wasn't going to forgive her easily.

"what am I supposed to do now?" I asked her without even looking at her. My heart was slowly growing better today. I just hoped it didn't come back with revenge at night. "Should I go pack my bags and evict the Alpha house or stay there until the dark moon?"

"I said, I am sorry I couldn't tell you about Aury."

"What's the use of apologizing?" I turned to her. "Even if I want to know something about him, I'm only going to get three answers, He was either Carey's older brother, or Mike and Mitchelle's older, who disappeared while searching for Laurent and Diana twenty-three years ago. He was a good guy. What else? Nothing. No photo, no nickname, no reminders. Nothing!"

She looked down.

"I'll go pack, you can send me help if you want me at your house, faster," I said and went to my room. She sent Amy, her faithful servant.

As I packed my clothes and prepared to evict the room I'd grown up in, I grew restless. Amy, on the other hand, started trying to make short conversations with me but I didn't really want to talk to her. I couldn't focus on folding my clothes or on the conversation.

I wanted to go out there.

I wanted to go there.

I knew something was happening out there.

Getting closer to me.

The gnawing pain in my chest and stomach dissipated.

I need to go outside.

I went to the window and opened it. A breeze, filled to the brim with the scent of calming moist dark earth hit me on the face and the pain returned a thousand times more excruciating than before.

Every bone in me ached. My heart, I heard it drum in my ears and I felt my body grow hot. He was there, something told me. He was alive. He wasn't dead. He is alive! For the first time in more than three days, I felt happy. He was here. In the forest.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked. I turned and smiled at her.

"He's here," I told her.

"Who's here?"

"Aury is here!"

I said and ran out of the room. I started feeling air catch in my lungs but I didn't care. He was here. My mate was here.

I passed by a few pack members some of who greeted me or something. I don't know, I just passed them and ran to the door. I pulled it so hard that I almost pulled it out of its hinges.

"Oops, sorry," I said under my breath as I parted away from the door with a piece of the handle in my hands. Guess I broke the door. At least it wasn't at the hinges.

Damn, I feel hot.

I ran into the driveway and got in a full view of the forest at the end of the street. He was there. He was waiting for me! I skipped and jogged toward him. Then I stopped. I felt rage at him. How could he make me think that he was dead when he was clearly alive? How could he...

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that pain as I kid," I said over my breath as I thought of him losing not only me but having to run away from the family he was born into to help Laurent and Diana run away from a pack of fully grown wolves that wanted to kill them. All those people he loved that he left behind. His parents, his family, his... Me.

My heart broke and I stopped dead in my tracks. My skin and spine caught on fire. But I ignored the pain.

I have to go.

I have to see him.

I have to touch him.

I have to... my legs felt like they were made of lead. my muscles and joints, hammered. but no matter how much pain I was in, I knew I had to see him. I knew that holding him, breathing in his scent would drain away from the pain I was now in. All of this pain, I knew, was all going to go away.

I knew...

Someone touched me and tried to stop me from going to him. tried to keep me away from him. I turned and bit his or her hand off. lucky for him, or was it her? he pulled away fast.

my spine boiled. each bone in it felt like someone was pulling them off one by one. I crouched. I wanted to cry. but I couldn't. I couldn't afford to cry. all I had to do was go to him.

I felt boiling tears slide down my cheeks. but I didn't have to cry. I leaned on all fours and hardly crawled my way out of the driveway. why were my legs so cramped?

"She's turning."

"Oh my god, is she okay?"

"She took too long, it won't be okay."

"Where's her mate?"

"I heard he was Aury."

"You mean..."

"That's why she asked yesterday."

"Mommy, I can feel her pain."

"Is she dying? somebody, please help her!"

"Oh, I can't believe I am going to see this, Finally!"

Voices clouded my ears. Oh god, did they have to scream that aloud? I heard them all, even those inaudible, "mother...the guardian..." From the theta house, I heard the banshee say. Rather, felt her say. I felt her get up from her bed, even her maiden, shocked dropping the plates and shattering them.

I heard the ants on the ground move, the leaves rustling. Albert walked out of the shadows half a thousand yards away as a group of pubs or was it kids walked up to him. There were fifty or was it seventy, with fourteen wolves heavier than they are for their sizes. but he wasn't with them.

Albert howled signaling guests. His howl was full of emotion, shock, and a bunch of information. I knew they were kids, he didn't need to tell me that. but I heard extra details, what they were, who they were, their number, and their state.

fifty-five kids, unturned. Fourteen newly turned pups carrying seven infants from three packs that were said to have fallen a few moons ago. Skylar was right, they were here. But he wasn't. but I could smell him.

The kids walked into the clearing and I saw them. the kids

Everything in front of me faded and turned like I was looking through a camera filter, sepia, or something reddish. I looked on the road ahead and saw those kids. People ran out to meet them.

"No!" I screamed. "Don't please!" I shouted, then a minute later, a pained howl came from the forest bearing news I already knew.

The Alpha was mortally wounded.

He faltered and looked at me.