Rise of the Omega

What’s Fate?

Danika

"Dani?" My youngest sister Vivian said to me from across the breakfast table. It was routine for us all to sit as a family each morning and eat our breakfast, this has been tradition ever since I was a little girl. I had been staring into my bowl of Frosted Flakes and milk for fifteen minutes and I knew the cereal at the bottom of the bowl would be soggy by now. "Earth to Danika!" My other sister Joslyn said as she waved her hand in front of my face. I was in my own little world, trying to figure out life's next milestone. I had turned eighteen over the weekend and was excited for the possibility of finally finding my mate and getting my happily ever after. This is something I’ve dreamt about since I was a young pup.

My two sisters and I are the daughters of the Beta's of the Harbor Moon pack, so at a young age I was taught that my mate would become the next beta of the pack, unless he was of Alpha blood, then it would fall to my sister Joslyn. You see, the hierarchy in Harbor moon always led to the succession of males. The male child takes over from his father, while the female takes over from their mother. It may seem archaic but that is the way things are done here and I had no plans on changing that anytime soon.

Vivian, Joslyn and I had very different styles and tastes when it came to things we either liked or disliked, even though for appearance’s sake we looked very similar, we just put that down to good genetics. We each had dark blondish hair colored with natural light blonde highlights that hung down our backs. Vivian would always curl hers, where Joslyn preferred the more stricter approach.

I on the other hand preferred to leave my hair in its naturally wavy curl. Our eyes were all a very similar shade of light green, vibrant yet subtle all at the same time. We were all approximately the same height of five foot five inches tall give or take an inch. That is where the similarities between us end. That was alright though, we didn't mind the fact that we were vastly different from one another; actually we preferred it.

We each took to a different aspect of helping to run the pack. For me it was training the warriors. Ever since I was a young pup my father has taught me how to fight, how to protect not only myself but my pack as well. I had begun sitting in on training classes as young as two years old. So, when I was finally old enough, I began helping to train the younger warriors straight away, these would be the ones that eventually one day would protect this pack and everything it stood for with their lives, although we always hoped when we went to battle it never came down to losing our own. I wanted to be a part of that more than anything. I knew my place as the Beta's oldest daughter, I had it ingrained into my brain since I was old enough to understand it. To serve and protect my pack above all other things.

Vivian, well she was always more interested in helping the Luna of our pack throw parties, host gatherings of members from surrounding packs when they visited and even helping to settle a debate every now and again between members of our own pack. She was a rockstar when it came to poise, elegance and grace, but she would also be one of the first people to have your back in a disagreement if she thought you were speaking the truth.

I always believed that the Luna of our pack, Reha Wade, had taken Vivian under her wing because she had never been blessed with any daughters of her own. Vivian was trained in what being a Luna meant and I knew everyone hoped one day she would be fated to an Alpha so that she could put those skills to good use. Vivian was one of the prides of the pack for this reason. She was being groomed to be another pack's next Luna.

Joslyn cared for people, she healed them. Our parents believed she was a natural healer and pushed her into working with the pack's hospital from a very young age. She was always around those who were injured, those who were sick and even those who just needed someone. Since our pack didn't have any enemies, the amount of war wounds she had to deal with at the moment were very minimal. She hated seeing our warriors after they came home from battle, or even after vigorous training sessions because it usually meant she needed to fix them up and that wasn't always an easy task. They hated having to be patched up, but loved causing all the ruckus to begin with so we usually had no sympathy for those pack members.

Since my parents never had any boys, our Alpha, Christian Wade, announced one night at dinner that my mate would take over the position of Beta male, if they were not already a ranked member of our pack, or another. It would be an honor for him, or so I am told. It definitely made finding my mate trickier as I now had a sea of potential mates flocking to me just to see if they had a chance at being the next Beta. So far none of the potential suitors came close. I didn't feel the tell tale pull of the mate bond drawing me to them. Which was fine with me, I knew my mate wouldn't care about the title, wouldn't care about the honor and prestige; he would just want me for me, because I was his mate, his other half.

I knew my father, I knew he had wanted me to be fated to a higher ranking member of either our pack or one of our allies. He believed that we were all born with a purpose to serve the Moon Goddess, that we were chosen because of our strength and wits to help lead and govern the pack. My father was a traditionalist of sorts, he did not think his daughters should be mated to anyone that did not hold a position of rank or honor. My mother, well she just believed that the Moon Goddess chooses our mates for us, it's what we need in the person not the rank or position they hold. Some days I wondered how the Moon Goddess fated them to one another as they were vastly different.

This is why one of the only real friends I have ever had, was sent away just before he turned eighteen years old. My father had always had suspicions over my friendship with one particular Omega, Dominik Rhodes. It was now two years later and I wondered if Dominik even remembered who I was to him, he had always meant so much to me, and I had always secretly wondered if we were more than just friends, or if we could ever be.

Dominik was two years older than I was. I remember growing up with his parents working in our packhouse. His mom was one of the cleaning Omegas, those staff members of the pack house that made sure everything was kept neat and tidy. Dominik's father on the other hand worked in the kitchen, serving or cooking the food for the ranked members of Harbor Moon.

We had always been close as kids. Dominik was just someone who understood me. Even though we came from different worlds Dominik had never judged me because of my pedigree, instead he just cared about me for being who I was. For being Danika. I was heartbroken when I found out that my parents, mainly my father, had convinced Alpha Christian and Luna Reha to trade the Rhodes brothers to another pack for a new set of Omegas. Dominik was my best friend and his brother Gideon didn't need to be pulled into this just because my dad is a hard ass.

It took a little getting used to, having new people, new Omegas wandering around the packhouse when I was used to seeing Dominik, Gideon and their parents. It didn't matter to me that Dom was only an Omega. To me, he was so much more. He was my friend and I feel like I let him and his brother down by not trying to fight harder to keep them here. Not that I would have had much of a say in the matter. I didn't share my father's views of Omegas or anyone that didn't hold a title of prestige. I thought it was archaic. People were people, not just to be used as servants and maids.

"Have you heard yet?" Vivian asked as she walked into the room where Joslyn and I were sitting. "Dad is going to the Mountain Woods pack today." Vivian said to the two of us and my head immediately snapped to the side to look in her direction. "Why is he going there?" I asked her but she just shrugged her shoulders, "Not a clue sis. I just overheard him and mom talking about the trip there." She responded as she went back to munching on the slice of toast she had made for breakfast.

"You could always ask him, Dani." Joslyn pipped in which got my mind reeling. "Yeah, I could try asking him at least, right?" I said to both my sisters who just nodded their approval of my idea. Mountain Woods was one of our allied packs, we had a few of them. Harbor woods kept the peace as much as we could when it came to pack treaties. Mountain Woods was also the pack that Dominik and his family were sent to. This perked me up a little, if I could convince my dad to take me, maybe I could see Dom again.

I decided that I was going to talk to my father, it was the only way to gauge his reaction to my question, and try to persuade him to let me go and tag along to Mountain Woods when they went; my Alpha and my parents that is. I wouldn't tell him why I wanted to go with them. That would be my little secret, it had to be. If I admitted it was to see Dominik I would never be allowed to go. "I'm going to go find dad, see if I can talk him into letting me go with him." I said to my sisters as I gulped down the last of my orange juice. Both my sisters smiled at me and went back to eating their breakfasts. Vivian had a meeting with Luna Reha in a little while and Joslyn was due back at the hospital shortly to start her next shift.

"Alright, wish me luck." I said with a smile as I got up out of my chair. I quickly left the kitchen leaving my dishes on the table. I knew I should have put them in the sink but I was in a rush, I figured one of my sisters would just grab them when they were finished and put them in the sink for me. We looked out for each other like that, but I also knew it would drive Vivian crazy to leave dishes sitting out where they could be seen. I made a mental note to apologize to her later about it.

I figured my father would either be with our Alpha in his office or alone in his own office, I preferred the latter. I started to make my way up the stairs thinking long and hard about what I was going to say to my father. I knew I had to plan out my words perfectly, I only had one shot at getting him to let me go with them. Once I got to the floor of the pack house that had been designated to the Beta's and their family, I went straight to my father's office and checked to see if he was in there or not.

He spent most of his free time in that room, going over paperwork or arranging different shifts for various members of our patrol teams. Checking the office was a good starting point for me in my search to find my dad and get to the whole reason I was looking for him to begin with. The light was off in the office but the door was open, clearly dad wasn't here. My shoulders drooped a little before I realized where he likely was. He must be upstairs with Alpha Christian working on something I thought to myself. This makes what I want to ask a little bit harder, and a hell of a lot more risky.

I hurried up another flight of stairs and could just start to hear the sounds of two men talking loudly. I followed the sound of the voices and it led me down the left side of the hallway towards the Alpha's office. I wasn't surprised to hear my father's voice with my Alpha. Dad was his right hand, they were always together. I didn't want to eavesdrop on their conversation, that would not only be rude but it would likely hurt my chances of convincing them to let me tag along. I quickly knocked on the door and waited for someone to invite me in.

"Come in." Alpha Christian said, I opened the door just enough that I was able to squeeze through and walk into the well decorated office. Just like the rest of the pack house, Luna Reha had got her hands on this room too. A tapestry hung behind the cherry wood desk, embroidered on it, was the pack's coat of arms. A golden wolf howling at a blue crescent moon. The dark mahogany plush chairs visitors sat in were sitting on top of a black tile floor that had gold strands intricately woven through each stone slab.

As I approached my dad and my Alpha I started to get nervous about the way they were looking at me. "Ah, Danika, just the person we were talking about." Alpha Christian said to me as I came to a halt beside the chair my father was sitting in. My father looked up at me with the all knowing look that he was not only proud of me, but that I would likely not like the outcome of this conversation much. I knew my dad's looks all too well and he taught me it was duty to the pack above all else, so I knew something big was coming, and if I wanted things to still play out in my favor I needed to play along and find out what they were getting on about.

"Oh? how can I be of assistance Alpha?" I asked, sitting down in the chair beside my father. "Your father and I have been spending many hours as you know developing strategies on how to strengthen our alliances with neighboring packs for a while now right?" Alpha Christian asked, I slowly started nodding my head that yes I was aware of this fact. Lately anyways, he and the alpha had been held up in one office or another deliberating and planning different methods to advance the pack's security, and strengthen our numbers. I didn't see things the same way they did, therefore never paid too much attention to the greed that was slowly creeping to the surface.

"Danika, we want you to consider something. Your father was blessed with only you girls, no sons to take over his position as Beta…" Alpha Christian started to say and the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach began growing stronger. "To strengthen the pack, we have come to terms with one of the largest neighboring packs and have formed an alliance with the Mountain Woods pack." Alpha Christian said being extremely vague with what he was trying to say to me.

"I'm sorry Alpha, I don't understand... What do I have to do with strengthening the pack and helping to create an alliance between us and Mountain Woods?" I asked honestly. I really had no idea what on earth these two had been talking about prior to me walking in. Or for that matter how far they were willing to go to guarantee the future leaders of our pack were strong. I just didn't realize until it was too late and I had backed myself into a corner during this conversation. I had opened the floodgates by partaking in their wicked scheme and now I was about to be told why my participation was key.

"It's simple Danika, my darling beloved eldest daughter." My father said and I wasn't sure if it was just the way he said it or what he was saying but my skin started to feel like I had insects crawling underneath it. I didn't want to know how this sentence was going to end. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of a choice in the matter. "Alpha Christian wants to arrange a chosen mate ceremony with one of the high ranking warriors of Mountain Woods pack." My father said, and apparently the blank expression on my face made him decide to go into some specific detail, as if my brain needed it further explained to me. "Danika, you are my eldest daughter, a smart, beautiful and talented young lady. If you marry, mate and breed with one one of the strongest warrior wolves Mountain Woods has to offer, your pups, the future Beta of this pack will be stronger, they will be more able to protect this pack than if we leave it to the Moon Goddess to decide your fate." My dad explained. I felt like I had been struck across the face. "What… I'm sorry but why… What about the mate bond?" I asked, trying to figure out what exactly I could do to get out of this. I wanted nothing more than to find the other half of my soul, the one that the Moon Goddess designed especially for me.

"You will be coming with us to Mountain Woods, Danika. We will be introducing you to a warrior the Alpha from that pack has chosen as his strongest most talented male warrior." My father said and I knew panic was starting to mentally sink in. "Dad please, the Moon Goddess's gift is nothing to play with. Whoever she has chosen would be the best thing for the pack because they would be the best thing for me." I pleaded. I hoped one of them had a shred of compassion left in them because right now… all I saw were two heartless monsters.

Alpha Christian seemed to think it over the quickest and before my father got a chance to refute my point and cause an argument to ensue began speaking. "You will come with us on our trip to Mountain Woods, and if your mate is not there and you have not found him by the end of the trip, you will take a chosen mate, the mate chosen by the Alpha and you will immediately reject any mate bonds out there. You will then accept the chosen mate as yours and fulfill your duties to the pack." Alpha Christian explained. Knowing I couldn't do anything to stop this, I agreed to their terms. "Pack your things Danika, we will leave tomorrow morning." Alpha Christian said. I nodded and left the room.

My heart was racing a mile a minute. At the end of this trip I would either have my mate, or reject the bond and give myself to a chosen mate I hardly knew, chosen by an Alpha I didn't know. I was being used as a pawn in a game of proverbial chess by someone who swore to protect me, to care for me which to me meant caring about my wants and my happiness. My father had basically betrayed me for the advancement of the pack and I was even more certain than ever that if there was a Moon Goddess, she needed to send me a miracle and she needed to do it quickly.