The Omega Witch

It Starts

All throughout the night I can feel Takuya move beside me, his warmth changes to a cool damp breeze when he goes. When he leaves his feet are silent in the soft ground, exceptionally careful to avoid twigs and leaves despite having wrestled with them while Zera made our bed. 

We’re not asleep, not exactly. Most of the early morning we’re taking little naps, a strategy learned while being alone, until I came up with FA. By then we were able to sleep comfortably, without fear, and now things have changed. I’d roll my eyes at Zera’s choice but it would only wake her again. I’ve been mentally kicked enough times tonight that I’d really rather keep to myself about it. 

I recognize her pattern in the time I’ve been given to observe her. The rest she does acquire is deep, giving me a little more confidence that we’ll make it to the South Bay by the turning of the cycle which is in two days' time. I grumble at the thought that Takuya might be escorting us for other reasons such as he made mention to himself, but on the same note, he hasn’t touched us more than he’s had to. He hasn’t scented us, or tried to. Can a Beta even do that? I suppose I could have paid more attention in Pack Etiquette class, because, yes there’s even a class for floaters like me. It’s mandatory and no matter how many times I have tried, I have not passed the challenge test to avoid any of the other levels. 

Pack Etiquette is a lot like Health class. It’s involved like the ones humans have but harder. We might not be tested on what fancy silverware does besides buy safe passage in some of the mountainous regions to the west, but we are expected to know how to track each other from miles away, even if we haven’t met yet. Health provided a cocoon of information about how to break down what we were looking for specifically, like distress, where etiquette focused on not allowing our primal urges to take over the moment we smelled something or someone devine. 

I’m not exactly sure how I smell to him but the fact that he hasn’t forced himself on me is both welcomed and sort of alarming. Do I not smell good? What do I smell like? Maybe it’s him, I tell myself. Maybe it’s because he smells the way he does that I don’t enhance it. Then again, maybe this isn’t a bad thing. If Zera and I were alluring to him, we’d have more trouble with lurking werewolves, now that I know Betas could mate Omegas and all. 

I truly thought that was a myth given that there was no scientific proof of them being able to produce the same value of semen while locked inside of their mate. They are old mate’s tales, really, about how Betas courted their mates that made me almost certain that if they did take one, they’d usually stay within their own status level for safety and satisfaction. A Beta mate would be capable of accepting less while they go through their own reduced level of a heat, while Omega’s crave the ongoing, uncontrollable power of an Alpha’s rut. 

Just the thought of such has Zera rocking her hind quarters in her sleep. 

Ugh, I groan and roll my eyes. I can’t be sending mixed signals. Not to him or them. 

For a moment I let the darkness claim me and imagine who I need in my life, what a mate would be for me since Zera happened to bring it up. To start, I think through my past, which isn’t unlike so many of the pups out there. Werewolves either had a pack or they had themselves and that was enough. 

Unlike humans who seem to go crazy at the thought of wandering the hills alone, lone werewolves these days practically owned them. I opted for the more human experience as I spent more time around them anyway, which was just better for us back then. If I wandered like most of them did, I would have never ate, never learned to cook, never got into my education or the sciences. I would not be where I am now without them. 

I assume if I had a pack their questions would circle around me being an oddball of my kind. I can’t be the only one that likes to sleep on a mattress or stand on two feet or eat cooked meat. 

My mind wanders to Gabriel and wonders if he preferred that lifestyle before he changed for Lilith. It is an amazing concept that one would change that deeply, down to the root of their existence for their mate. Not that he can’t change back but it’s not like Marco gives the man a chance.

What would it be like if my mate was that dedicated? I wonder if I’d love that or hate it. It’s a weird concept to have someone I haven’t even met yet fall head over tail for me. Does it even work like that? Or is it more like “love at first scent?”

I snorted at that one. 

Even if it were true, no one ever gave me more than a little eye contact when I spoke. And if they have, it was oftentimes to challenge me or my theories. Class had that effect on me. Classmates couldn’t always gather the depth of where I was going with things. It was as if I was trying to reach a different plain altogether and modern sciences, or that of which we had couldn’t catch up. It’s kind of why I think Jordan is reachable, that she isn’t dead despite where the rumors lie. 

The thought that Takuya is onboard or rather, hasn’t yet completely protested about my theory has me dropping my gaze to the ground. 

“He’s not an Alpha,” I remind myself. But why do I find my eye traveling over the shell of his ear and down the back of his head as if I can cradle it with my gaze? Why do I let myself linger on his double layered coat that protects his neck from enemies as mine does? Why do I feel the need to look away immediately when he turns? 

It’s not like Zera’s awake.

I feel her flop her head down and to the side to roll to her belly. 

“Oh! Please don’t do that, Zera…” I whine.

The soft copper colored fur that swirls around her undercoat, dresses her abdomen in what can only be described as swirling fire, all of which come to a point before starting again in another organic pattern. It’s here where I can see the true browns similar to the cedar wood in our bed frames and immediately wonder if there’s a connection to this as if it’s telling me that she is our inner symbol, the one like our beds, our starting place.

Zera really is beautiful, I think. 

Then her hips open, settling her hind legs open exceptionally wide for someone who's just expected her new pack mate to control himself, especially at the sight of her. All I can do is widen my eyes at first. I’m mortified!

I’m practically shouting at her to wake up but she seems to be deep within an odd sort of dream now, one that I’m blocked out from, which again feels less than normal. I’m supposed to be able to see and hear all she tells me...but she’s not letting me in and I’m pissed!

Her movements call our friend to us and I’m just about ready to force myself to take over despite my obvious nudeness that wouldn’t be coverable until we reached  our destination, and that just wouldn’t do.

I expect him to take one look at us and proceed to cover us, but this is not the way… at least I think it isn’t. I’d studied it enough for… reasons, and there were no reason for animals to face each other while having our s****l encounters. Most of it was due to the partner’s inability to hold on the way a human male could. It’s in part why we change, to give the mating couple a chance to really feel each other, to know what it’s like to be wanted for more than a three minute pounding and a thirty minute knot. It also made it so that the mates could care for each other between being locked together and finally sliding out. 

The thought of which brought me back to the present, Takuya now far more silent than he was before. His steps are careful ever charging our form. He’s coming, his eyes as dark as the new moon, and I can’t help but scream at my damn wolf to wake up! 

His nose flares slightly as he sniffs the air around him, around her. Zera’s body thrashes again in the dirt and I think it’s because of me continuously calling for her, but she doesn’t wake. As she calms her movement, Takuya takes a step closer, this time making his way around my wolf, beginning to bracket her in. 

I’m pretty sure I hate this. I growl and mentally note that no mate that I would take would do this. His right paw comes to the side of us followed by his hind legs before lowering to me. His nose is still moving over my body and I can’t help but want to know what he’s looking for. Several searches later has him huffing a breath then snorting out all he inhaled. 

Do I offend him? I feel odd as my question leaves my mind, like I shouldn’t be grateful he isn’t going to slot himself into me. Instead, I feel oddly rejected even though I hadn’t wanted this. 

Takuya growls low and steadily before spreading his toes in the dirt below us. 

“Wake up, Zera. There’s trouble,” he commanded. His voice was just as low as his warning growl. 

I’m surprised to see her eyes snap open given the fact that it wasn’t an Alpha command. Not in the least.  She took one look down her body, frowned and moved to roll over to force him off of her but Takuya was strong for his size and Zera couldn’t completely handle what that meant to her. 

“There are two I can scent,” he says dropping his nose to my neck, bumping the thick clump of fur covering my gland, presumably on purpose. His inhales and exhales are short through it, and I’m almost positive that he’s locked his lips a few times already, trying to avoid lapping his tongue against me.

I can feel how Zera wants to thrash around but now all she can be is submissive with him. How can that be?

The moment I wonder the question, I feel the answer rolling off him in waves. He’s scared and trying to protect.

“Continue south,” he whispers through the thick of my fur there which is oddly intimate. “You’ll come across a clearing that leads you out to the edge of a cliff. Run alongside it until it too ends, then jump.” He must hear the gulp I’ve added to this and continues, purposely explaining how she’ll be able to make it. 

Before I can ask or think better about these last few moments, he’s removed himself from me, commanding me once more to run and in an instant, Zera rolls from his hold and runs for her life.

There’s so much to think about but my mind is blank. She isn’t even trying to smell the air around her, she’s just running off as fast as our paws can carry us. If I thought she was all speed before, I was clearly mistaken because I’ve never seen the world move past us in such a way. Nearly everything’s a blur. I can’t even notice landmarks but of the things I do see are dark blurs in the purpley tint of the sunrise to the east. 

At first I thought they might be hunters, but the woods are thick, and there’s really not enough room for vehicles to pass through. Another one flanks us on the left and while it’s color is lighter I can’t be sure if I’m safe with them. Takuya told me to run and I don’t get the feeling that he would have if we weren’t in danger so Zera picks up her speed, pulling ahead and away from whatever those wolves might want. 

Omega, even Zera thinks, finally showing the knowledge of her vulnerability. I feel the pain in her chest from the impending anxiety building there and with whatever shred of bravery I still possess, I come forward. 

“Hey,” I tried at first, wanting to establish myself again in her mind.

I can only feel the rise in discomfort as more blurs run alongside her. We’ve known people, but never really knew them. There was no importance of needing to know if they were like us or not. We were all just there… and now the shelter we thought we had in the woods is quickly closing in and there’s nowhere else to run except out.

“That’s right,” I add. “Out.” 

Zera’s paws thunder on the dirt underfoot, harder than before. I feel it, slightly, the turn in her front paw the moment we hit the stone, but remind her she’s okay as long as we’re in motion. We need to keep going. 

I hear her wonder where Takuya is and the slight whine that she produces in the loss of him isn’t something I can linger on. I can’t even say his name without the chance of her stopping, or worse yet, turning. We can’t now. All we can do is focus on where he said to go. 

It’s this time now that I truly wished I spent more time outdoors. I could help her better if I had... 

Silence stretches between us. 

Her cocky little self assured jabs aren’t even manifesting. She can’t breathe the thought of a word now in her unease, so I shift her attention to the way the stone feels like plates. Her nails scratch into them leaving the slightest of marks and its enough to imagine that he’ll be able to find us like he did before. 

Right now, I lunge forward as if to ask for permission to run with her and she doesn’t push me away. I can feel what she feels, the contact between us and the earth below has an odd feel to it, gravelly, pressing horribly into the palms of my hands and balls of my feet and I wonder if she’s okay. 

“Yes,” she answers me as we find our correct pace, the one we can follow together and I imagine just how free Lilith must have felt as she moved over the land. 

Zera growls and I want to mentally shove her. Lilith is a legend, I thought, but when she growled again, I noticed just who was running beside me, angry as ever. 

Lilith. 

I can’t compute. I just can’t. Who sent for Lilith? And if she wasn’t sent for, why is she here?

I can feel tightness in my shoulders, our sprint is nearly over from exhaustion alone. All the while I brave another look towards Lilith and she simply looks as though she’s floating over the land, her paws only hitting important places to keep her moving forward. If I wasn’t afraid of the outcome, I’d slow down and ask how she was doing it. 

My hands hurt though. I’m sure the gravel has sliced Zera’s paws as well as my palms and I’m looking for just about any way out of here when I see it. The opening. 

The cliff isn’t far.

Despite my soreness, I press on at full speed, willing Zera to jump when the time comes. 

“Jump?! Are you crazy?” Zera screamed through her fearful whine.

“We have to. There’s no other way,” I tell her. There is, but she wouldn’t like it.

“What’s the other option?” she demands and I don’t hesitate to tell her. Our decision point is coming and we’re losing time.

“Turn heel and double back. It’ll be enough to throw most of them but if they’re alphas there’s a good chance they’ll smell our plan before we cut dirt.”

She snarls at that without our friend.

“If we live through this, Vee, I want him to scent me.”

“What?” I double back and it jerks our body around as if we got hit. 

“You heard me. I’ve heard stories—it’s supposed to soothe us without the permanent claim,” she confirmed. 

We haven’t even had s*x yet and she’s talking about mate marks, I can’t help but want to fight this more. 

“We’re coming up on it, Zera. I need you to focus.”

“No, you! I need this— we need this!”

The edge nears in every second we press forward.

“I’ll stop,” she challenges, but I know she won’t. She’s afraid, like me. 

“Fine!” I pant. My throat, regardless of being in her form, burns from the hurried pace. “Just jump!”

We’re not even another lunge to go before both front paws hit the edge of the cliff, her back paws seem to come forward to join her front. Next, her strong hind legs push hard off of the ledge and I can feel our bodies stretch far out over the gorge, reaching our paws out as far as they can go. 

The jump has the both of us struggling with the idea that we’ve just launched ourselves to our death despite being up so high and knowing the platform is just below us somehow just further down from that is a shallow river, giving us much less time to lay and wait for our bones to heal as they do while we shift. Someone would have us by then, I shake my head, forcing her to stay focused. 

Wind beneath us tickles our belly, the swirls there lightly covering her sensitive flesh move ever so slightly while we continue to fall. For a moment, I feel Zera’s mind wander back to being under Takuya. I wonder if it’s nerves, or if she’s starting to have some sort of feelings for the wolf.

I frown at this wondering just how much of it is about him and how much is longing for a mate. 

When I open my eyes again, I see we’re nearly across, but not quite close enough. It’s when I notice other wolves, presumably alphas, reach the cliff side before us and slide on the gravel breathe them. They turn to stare, one growling, his teeth clearly shown against the dark fur around his muzzle. In the light of dawn, I can see a wall of them now and can’t believe I thought we’d make it out of here alive.

Our toes just barely touch the stone beneath us and there’s nothing settling about it. 

Another wave of fear runs through Zera, and I’m forced out changing back into my human form, just enough to try to hold onto the cliff better. At least my hands or arms could hold me tightly against the land enough to maybe get the chance of running again.

It is a horrendous thought, I’ve noticed, especially being human, and I wish I hadn’t done it. My body slaps coldly against the rough rock. My skin feels tortured from just that. The flesh of my chest had been ripped up in several places which were obvious because of the peeled away skin. My face suffered hot marks down my jaw which I can only assume means that I’m bleeding now… and my belly somehow had been protected by the way Zera happened to control my legs. She’d brought them up high, then pushed against the stone above us to continue downward and on our way to meet the moon goddess herself.

“Why?” I yelled at her.

“Just trust me,” she growled back at me. “Arch your back like you do when you’re alone and desperate.”

I want to f*****g scream. She brought up two very private, very personal things, in front of so many—

“Just do it!” Zera yells, and I do as she says just as she’d done for me. The only thing is action gives everyone who’s participating in the chase a clear look at me, with the exception of my core which clamps wildly on nothing just at the thought of it, which is odd. I never liked to be seen, not even during functions at school, but in this moment, while I’m gracefully plummeting to our death, the pack, or whatever it is, watches my form arch backwards. My arms guide me further backward until my legs line up with my head, then dip to the left to turn, just enough to see how far down I had yet to fall. 

I remember my eyes traveling down the length of my arm reaching the dim light of my finger tips. The water was so close now. We were only but a few feet away, accepting our end in a few short seconds.

Branches in the woods cracked somewhere in the distance, then a large, steady hand wedged itself between my breasts. A strong, thick arm followed down my sternum, and just by the contact of our skin, a nonverbal flood of protection washed over us, followed by an exciting, yet frightening realization of who this shadowy figure could be. 

Our mate.