Energy of the Omega

Part 10

Caly’s POV

When Jase reaches me, he lifts me by my rib cage, up so high I need to look straight down to capture his eyes. He swings me around in a circle twice like I weigh absolutely nothing. I tap his shoulder and ask him to let me down before I get dizzy.  He listens to me but then nearly smothers me into his suit jacket with his bear hug.  I can hear the buzz of women whispering about the ‘shameful display’.  It always astounds me that while we claim to be proud creatures like she-wolves, we often become so catty around each other.

This time it’s Alpha Darius that taps Jason on the shoulder, while his wife looks at me in concern.

“Jason, you need to be mingling with all our guests, not just Calypso.  Do not monopolize her dance card either.  She still needs to over-see that the guests are being taken care of. Why don’t you two take fifteen minutes together now, before the Ball becomes busy.” 

‘Fifteen minutes! Why can’t it be five! Does no one understand my suffering!’ 

I ignore my wolf, I have no time to deal with her drama queen behaviour.  She’s already displaced me once, and I still have to make it through the next fifteen minutes and get to work.

‘I’ll make you deal, I’m just going to hide away for the next fifteen minutes, and you can deal with your squirrely  ~friend,’ she hisses at me.

Athena may think that she’s got the better end of the deal, but It’s far easier for me to deal with one person and their damn drama at a time. I breathe a sigh of relief.

Alpha Darius was clearly trying to chastise Jase, but his selective wolf hearing just took in that he had 15 minutes of alone time, and he ran me to the dance floor with it.  We were definitely being gawked at, especially since we were slow dancing pressed tightly together, no matter what speed the music was. Thankfully he just wanted to whisper sweet nothings into my ear and didn’t expect any response from me.  I bet Alpha Darius was timing Jase’s fifteen minutes because soon enough, the Alpha was cutting in to dance with me. 

“Thank you, I was beginning to feel overheated,” I tell my Alpha. He spun me swiftly to match the speed of the music, and when I returned to his arms the song had finished.  Darius shot Jase a look to keep him where he was standing and drinking with a group of wolves around our age.

‘I guess I didn’t need to spend money on scent neutralizers, you already carry the scent of horny Gamma.’ he sends me through the mind-link. I nearly choke at Darius’s words. He gently pats my back and gives me an evil grin. He’s always so proper, I couldn’t believe he would say such a thing, no matter how funny it was. 

‘Calypso, I want you to check on all the supervisors, and speak with each pack’s attendant.  Head off any problems, but don’t you dare be seen lugging suitcases or serving hors d’oeuvres, Kat would kill me.  Should anyone ask you to dance, dance with them, be polite and try to have a good time?  Any trouble, let me know.” 

I nod my head in agreement and set my sights on checking the kitchen, but Alpha sends one last link, ‘No hiding in the kitchen all night.  And no more Jason!  If he behaves I might consider letting him have the last dance.’  

*****

My kitchen visit is very brief, Glo just slaps my fingers when I reach for a paper coffee and tells me she’s all good.  I move on to the front door, and speak with the valet lead,  he is expecting only six more packs to arrive. Everyone who has arrived has been assigned an attendant and were shown to their rooms.  He has some concern that the busboys have fallen behind, a number of the cars haven’t had their luggage unpacked.  I count ten cars still waiting to be unpacked,  three of which bear the manufacturer names of Bugatti, Aston Martin and Ferrari. I need to find someone to get to these immediately before some angry Alpha decides to pitch a royal fit. I head back inside, and head to the first floor guests will be on.  I grab the first wolf of ours that I see leave a guest room.

“Where is everyone? Have you seen any busboys?” I question him.

“Half the girls are in the ballroom on the side-lines looking through the Alpha meat-market.  Most of the guys are taking a ten-minute break out in the courtyard.”

“That’s fine, but they can’t all head out at once!  There’s still plenty of luggage to be unpacked.” Seriously, how many of these ‘parties’ have the Luna held, and some people still aren’t observing the rules?  This time we have all the big players here, we have to bring out all the hospitality of a five-star hotel. “Go get another car unpacked,  do the most expensive-looking ones first.  I’m heading outside to find you some help.”

I head back downstairs and pass the ballroom.  Of course, there are a number of she-wolves standing around trying to look cute.  I march right up to the first group, “At least have a damn serving tray in your hands!  Then instead of just standing here, you can go mingle around the groups of males!”  They all slink off to the kitchen, just as I see Gloria frustratedly glaring at them from the doorway.  I’m sure Glo will have a few choice words with them as well.  Time to hunt the courtyard. 

I want to growl at the sight before me.  More than ten wolves are talking and laughing loudly as they guzzle back beers. “s**t, teacher’s pet is here!” one of them drunkenly tries to whisper, and it comes out a near yell.

“How the f**k are you drunk already? it’s not even 9 pm. Not to mention how many beers it would take to get a wolf drunk!”

“It’s the good stuff!” one of them says.

“I don’t care if it’s 100 proof, you’re done. Get your asses out to the car pack and get the rest of the cars unloaded. I catch anyone with a drink in their hand again I’ll have security line your pathetic asses up in front of Luna Katherine!”

I hear mumbles of ‘spoil-sport’ and ‘it’s not fair’ and my favourite, ‘fuckin bitch.’  I don’t care, as long as they are shuffling towards the cars that need unpacking.

‘If I bite one, they’ll move faster…’ she offers.

‘It’s fine, I handled it didn’t I?’

‘I suppose, we need to head inside anyway. We aren’t supposed to be alone out here.’  The fact that she perks our senses up a bit encourages me to take in my surroundings.  We are alone.  I move as fast as I can with my heels and sore feet.  

I slide into the Ballroom and keep myself along the outer edges, trying to stay out of everyone’s peripheral vision. Athena is acting wary, and I don’t want to have to play nice with guests while she’s doing her thing.

‘Finally!’ she hoots out. ‘This is the moment!’

‘What do you mean?’ I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.  People dancing around and getting drunk. It’s a party!

‘Do I need to dumb this down for you? How do you even manage without me, Babe?

I begin to feel more than pissed off. I begin to build a wall between us so I can have a moment's peace, all of a sudden my senses shut down. Total darkness surrounds me. I can't hear the conversations or music of the very loud party I know is within my reach.  What the hell is happening to me? I can feel the panic settling in, but I can't even feel my quickened breaths or hear my pulse rushing in my ears.

‘Smell.’

Inside my nose, there are hundreds of tiny different smells to sort through. Omega's wearing scent neutralizers, smelling like rubbing alcohol, and perfumy fake flowers. Perhaps they bathe in fancy hand sanitizers you find at human bath and body stores? Perhaps if I had my vision back I could check them for the glitter that often accompanies those fancy sanitizers.

There was also the smell of the actual guests. People with money certainly have a different smell about them. They of course didn't hide their natural scent but along with it are the smells of expensive perfumes,  high-end shampoo, and fragrant body oils. Is it possible to smell high class, or to smell importance? Maybe it was the smell of money.

And of course, there was the party itself. The halls were adorned with beautiful floral arrangements. All those flowers were lovely, but new scents were being added into the room.  Dinner was starting, and plates were being brought out to the adjoining room. The smell of red meat, roasted vegetables overwhelmed my nose.  And faintly the bouquet of potent and expensive wines; which were needed to give wolves a bit of a happy buzz.

Perhaps Athena was right. I did not have a very discerning sense of smell. Or a very sophisticated palate, for that matter. I can only guess that my sight and hearing were okay for a wolf?  Now I’m not so sure where I would be without my senses.

‘Take us another sniff and try harder, Babe.’

She no longer sounds her usual sarcastic self.  Her voice may not be louder than usual, but it's certainly more demanding. Just like when someone when the Alpha’s command growls through the mind-link an order. I cannot call up an image of my wolf, but I feel the urge to bow my head to the side and bare my neck in submission. This isn't right.  I am the one who's supposed to be in charge.  How do I block her out if she's this strong?  How am I supposed to get myself back? 

‘SMELL, Damnit!’

Again I breathe deeply through my nose. I tell myself it's to humour her, but I feel uneasy because I know it's not really my choice.  I start to sort through all the smells around me again, the last one though... I breathe in once more, but now there aren't hundreds of tiny smells clogging my nose. There's just one. It smells strong and important. I cannot pinpoint any specific scent, I guess I don't have the snout to pick out something like pine or sandalwood or musk.  But it does smell like warmth.  Like when you pull a sweater out of the dryer and put it on straight away. I mean fabric softeners always have stupid names like breeze, or rain or dawn, right? I smell warmth, and it's the only thing around me. It swirls through me and makes me feel calm and warm and safe. If I could gather up this smell and put it in a candle Warmth would be the only scent I would ever need. I would put in every room, everywhere I go.

‘You would probably burn the packhouse down,’ she snickered.

I forgot I was at war with her fighting for possession of my own body. How on Earth do you forget something like that? Before l can argue with my split personality, she gives out her next command, ‘Listen.’

I hear a soft chuckle.  It was soft but deep.  Very masculine sounding.  It was coming from the same direction as the warm smell.  It was my warmth now, l was sure it was mine alone. Maybe turning that wonderful scent into a candle would be a bad idea.  It was mine, and I didn't want to share it. I wanted to possess it. 

‘That a girl! Now listen!’

That beautiful deep voice now spoke, but even with my good hearing, I couldn't make out the words. It stopped for a long minute, and the panic returned. Perhaps he was talking on his cell, waiting for a reply? Then just like a bat listening for an echo to find its way, I heard it again and I knew my body was pushed forth in that direction.  I must look like an i***t stumbling blindly through the crowd with my nose in the air sniffing manically and my ears twitching towards that delightful voice.

‘Don't worry, your eyes are open.  I have complete control.  I certainly wouldn't let you embarrass ME.’

‘Gee, thanks’.  I was sure I was about to roll my eyes, but they pointedly stayed in position.

‘Perhaps you should see this.’  With the next blink, my eyes opened. Even with the dim mood lighting, it still caused me to squint. Most of the guests were just blobs of colour. The only thing that was clear was the most beautiful man I had ever laid eyes on. Tall, dark and handsome was a thing. It was my thing. His wavy shoulder-length hair was gelled back away from his perfect face, his strong cleft chin that must have been chiselled out of marble by one of those ancient Greek gods my mother used to tell me about.  Those eyes!  Clear and light blue, and that blue could bore right through me. This was it for me.  This man was everything! I continued to drink in all of his features.

Finally, those beautiful blue eyes turned towards me.  He stared for what seemed like an eternity.  I knew it couldn’t possibly be that long.  But I felt it. And then those hard eyes narrowed down to observe me, carefully.  Suddenly he looked straight ahead, and his eyes changed.  The blue deepened into a colour almost as dark as a sapphire.  It was his wolf, he must be trying to mind-link someone.  He broke his link and his eyes returned to light blue.  Which colour did I like better?  That was a question for the ages.  But then he turned away from me completely and addressed the woman at his right side.  She was tall and blonde. Pert little nose, and perfect make-up.  She didn’t just wear the red dress that hugged every curve of her goddess-given body, it was more an extension of her.  He wove his arm around her waist and leaned in to gently brush his lips against her temple.

‘Wouldn’t you like to feel that touch?’  Athena rumbled a soft growl that resonated in my chest.

The young woman now looked up at him, and the glare off her perfect white-toothed smile felt blinding.

Oh, my Goddess!  He must be my mate, but he’s already found someone perfect.  My panic was back in a force I had never felt before.  Everything in my body felt like it was going off in full force.  Sweating, shallow breaths, and nausea hit me in quick succession.  My mouth was sweating.  And the waterworks didn’t end there. I was on the verge of tears. I wanted to be anywhere but here, but my feet remained stubbornly attached to the floor.

‘Oh for the love of squirrels,  MOVE!’

I could tell my wolf was not happy with me,  but she finally turned me in the opposite direction, and I moved as fast as I could manage without falling and making an even further fool out of myself.  I hit the end of the hall that led me to the stairwell that would lead me to my room and safety.  I pulled my shoes off forcefully, being far too hysterical to think about fumbling with the straps.  I hitched my gown all the way up my thighs so I could run up the stairs two at a time.  I locked myself first into my apartment, and then a second time into my bathroom.  I slid down the cool ceramic tiles of my shower and started to cry.  Big fat tears dropped onto my lap as I heaved out the breaths the best I could.  A horrible pain seizes my heart, and a pathetic whine escapes me.  I was ugly crying. What my Mama would have called ‘snotting and bawling’. I didn’t care, I felt like my life was over. 

‘C’mon, Babe.  I need you to pull yourself together. Breathe and stuff!’ Athena snorts in anger.

She patronizes me as if I were a damn child.

‘Because you are acting like a child.  Highschool girls run to the bathroom to cry when a boy doesn’t like them.’

‘He’s already got a girlfriend!’ I continue to cry. ‘What am I supposed to do?’

‘I don’t know, wipe your cheeks and go down there and confront him? Did you expect him to stay celibate or something?  Newsflash he’s a male, an Alpha male.  She can’t possibly mean more to him than you will.  You are his LUNA!’

‘You think she’s going to give him up? He’s gorgeous, well dressed and perfect!  He’s probably her ticket to the high life!’

‘She will bow down, or I can knock her down! But we need to get back down there, he didn’t get a chance to see us.’

‘He saw us, he just didn’t care!’ I tell her bitterly as I sniffle. She rolls her eyes, but she lets me cry for a while. 

By the time I fell silent I was exhausted. I was so alone. I felt just as alone as the night they took Mama from me. I wanted to cry myself to sleep. I wanted the pain to stop.  I desperately wanted to talk to Jason, but I didn’t even want him to see me like this.

‘Ahh Hell Nah!  No more squirrels!  I choose the first option.’  Her anger is back full throttle, and as my consciousness drifts away I welcome the darkness.