Chapter 2 | Deal

A morning of picking up whatever edible and valuable I could find didn’t exhaust me and my basket was already full of mushrooms. I headed east, keeping an eye out for more mushrooms to pick up throughout my journey. Rogues and packs occasionally traded along pack borders to keep the territory safe but, because I was a runt, this pack allowed me to cross their border if only I am heading to their market and leaving as soon as possible. Runts were rarely thought to be dangerous. It worked out in my favor in some ways. In other, unfavorable ways, runts were regarded as a burden and annoyance, which caused me nothing but trouble and discrimination.

I walked slowly through the market. When I had to enter a pack's territory, my heart always pounds and my nerves are tensed. If someone decided to attack me as a rogue, I had no protection from the guards or fighters. The members of the pack mostly ignored me, as if I were a clump of dirt rolling past them. I'd been living near the pack's border for a few years, so I wasn't exactly a novelty. The Alpha of this pack allowed me to come to the market whenever I wanted in exchange for the promise that I would not cause any trouble and would alert them, by howling, if I saw anything dangerous approaching their borders.

I took a step toward an elderly lady behind a food stall. When she saw me, she looked up and welcomed me with a smile. "Ah, Etheral. Nice to see you this lovely morning. I hope the western border is quiet? No rogues or feral wolves?" she asked.

"Good morning. It is good to see you looking so well. Things have been pretty quiet in the forest borders, although I have seen a black bear on and off throughout the week, they were harmless," I said softly to the kind, elderly lady. Speaking in a low voice made me appear somewhat meek, but it seemed to deter most wolves from trying to pick a fight with me. As much as possible, I try not to irritate the wolves in this pack, guards would surely defend their pack more than a runt – even if I am the victim in the story.

“I will let the others know about the bear, that is to keep an eye on the young ones if ever that bear returns and cause a problem.” I hummed and nodded as my response. Then she asked, “What do you have in store for me today? Will the usual trade work?" she inquired as I lifted the cloth of the basket and moved it closer to her so she could inspect the mushrooms. She nodded, means all the mushrooms are fine, and she turned around to bag several loaves of bread for me. This lady had always traded fairly with me and didn’t use my ‘runt’ feature to manipulate me.

The bread was dense and grainy, the kind that filled you up quickly and kept you full for a long time. She didn't ask if the mushrooms were edible, as they rarely did that at this point.

Well, when I first started trading, they inspected everything, but after a year of trading plants I brought that turns out to be edible, they stopped their never-ending inspection. At the age of twenty-two, I had spent nearly half of my life as a rogue and had been taught by a number of rogues I had met along the way about the plants in the forest. Almost every edible plant in the forest was already familiar to me and the poisonous ones were always avoided.

We spoke for a few moments before someone else approached her stall, and I take it as a sign that it was time to leave. I said my goodbyes and turned to return to no man's land. I kept an eye on the wolves watching me as I walked slowly through the crowded market. To avoid drawing attention to myself, I walked slowly and simply ignore… all of them.

As I was nearing the gates, I saw two people kissing on a bench. I wasn't surprised to learn that they were mates because I was certain of it even before that girl turned eighteen last week. They just had that passion in their stares and had gravitated them towards each other even before they were old enough for their mate bond to form.

I looked around but didn't see the Beta or Alpha. The two men were probably out meeting other Alphas and working trades while dealing with the never-ending world of politics. I could see their mates helping out at the market. The Alpha and Beta were usually concerned with policy and relationships with other packs, whereas their mates, the Luna and Beta female, were usually concerned with smaller details and events within the pack.

I watched as a large man crossed my path without looking at me. He was one of the pack's enforcers, and he was most likely on his way over to break up a growing argument at one of the shops. If the Alpha and Beta were not in the immediate vicinity, they relied on enforcers to keep the peace within their territory.

Enforcers helped to keep the peace by enforcing the law. They are skilled fighters who could usually match the speed and strength of an Alpha if a fight erupted in the pack. At any given time, a pack usually had one or two enforcers, and they almost never went outside the pack's borders. They, like Alphas and Betas, were born with enforcer abilities. A wolf simply could not choose to become an enforcer, even if a wolf trains for years.

The enforcer glanced at me and nodded then continued on his way, clearly on some sort of task. I guess it’s a tough role to become an enforcer in a pack where hardheaded pack members reside. I could even hear the wolves fighting from afar but I wouldn’t dare to look back and stay here anymore to gossip.

Then I saw an Omega walking towards a shop. Another rank, the lowest rank, can be given to a wolf in a pack. Packs rarely abused Omegas anymore because it threw the pack off balance. Omegas may be the pack's lowest-ranking member, but their presence allowed the other members to unwind. With so many higher ranking and powerful pack members constantly around, people could become uneasy and get intimidated. But if an Omega is present, the hierarchy of power is stabilized.

Omega abilities are precious. They could sense another person’s emotion, especially when the Alpha is irritated, and they could disappear in seconds to avoid the Alpha’s rage. Omegas had a sixth sense for trouble too. If an Omega appeared nervous and moved quickly, it meant that something is wrong. But if an Omega appeared to be relaxed, it meant that everything was fine.

Surprisingly, the Alpha and Beta traits were typically heritable, whereas Omega and runt genes were only inherited by their children about half of the time. The other half of the time, they appeared randomly in normal families. Just like in my family. None of my ancestors and parents had runt genes. So, there has never been a runt wolf in the family. I had just appeared out of nowhere.

"There she is again, that runt."

"I'm not sure why she's allowed in here without a guard, given that she's a rogue."

"So? Ha! She is a runt. She might chew on your slippers, but she is incapable of doing any other damage." One of them snickered.

I pretended not to hear them and ignored their insults. I refused to take the bait. Anything I say will enrage them and draw their attention. I couldn't figure out why they were always trying to rile me up. My wolf form was nearly useless in a fight as a runt, and my human form was weaker than the average. But being a rogue for nearly a decade, I'd learned a lot of tricks over the years for beating or evading an opponent from a distance. I could watch them for hours if they went out to no man's land and they wouldn't even notice I was there.

But in this case, I am in the market on their pack territory and everything is at my disadvantage. I would rather back up and let them say whatever they dislike about me.

"It's not like she'll ever find a mate, so I'm not sure why she keeps coming here to trade; too bad she doesn't bother another pack."

"Perhaps she's looking to see if someone who has lost a mate will take her in."

"Like that's ever going to happen..."

“Yeah, a lone wolf without a family is already destined to die forever alone. You know, I think she’s the reason why her whole pack died.”

“How horrifying. She shouldn’t stay near our borders. What a dumb decision to let an unmated runt and deadly rogue walk free in our territory.”

I clenched my teeth silently as my rage flared under the surface. I was aware of the old adage that runts rarely get mates. Look at the enforcers. They, too, rarely found their mates, but no one ever judged them for it. It was heartbreaking to see couples happily in love, knowing that you would most likely never have that opportunity. Furthermore, those who have lost a mate are rarely able to move on and never considered marrying another who has also lost a mate. The mate bond was a strong force that defied natural emotions.

I was fine with the fact that I can never find my mate. But they didn't have to hammer it to my face that my pack was slaughtered just because I am a runt. I didn’t kill them. Those damned feral wolves ambushed my original pack and killed them.

I took a deep breath and all I could detect were the usual smells of the market and the nearby forest. There was no trace of an unusually enticing scent. I remembered my mother said that a strong odor was usually the first indication that one's mate was nearby but there wasn’t.

I was finally out of their earshot and at the forest's edge. I sped up to a jog and almost teared up when the memories of my original pack reeled back to my mind. It would be half an hour before I could re-enter no man's land. At this point, all I wanted was to enjoy the noise of the forest and away from the people who enjoyed seeing another person in pain.