I Warned My Younger Self About Love

CLAIRE

Bright blue eyes stared back at me. I could barely recognize the girl standing before me. Her jet black hair stood firmly in a tight bun. The deep creases on her forehead and her terribly sunken collarbone made her look gaunt. We both could not believe she would still be alive to experience a new age. A new age of suffering. 

"Why are you standing there? Get back to work, you sleazy little wolf," a female voice barked out the order and slashed her whip across my back.  

Sighing deeply, I dragged my eyes away from my haunting reflection in the mirror and went back to scrubbing the toilet sinks. The angry she-wolf behind got even more annoyed that the biting stings of her whip had no effect on me and she whipped me some more, raining curses on me. 

I was already immune to these pains, three years was enough time to get accustomed to something….

I felt a tear or two streak down my cheeks as my skin welcomed each blow until the matron felt she had dealt with me enough. She only twisted her nose in disgust and moved on to another worker in the stalls. 

I was scrubbing quietly, not making a move to wipe away the tears from my face, when I heard it.

"Psst!" It came twice. I knew instantly who it was. 

I turned around to find Blaire peeking in through the door. She should not be here. She made a sign telling me to meet her behind the food warehouse when I was done and I nodded. 

"I really need to get back to work now." I signaled to Blaire. I would starve if I did not finish my work for the day. 

"Be more careful," my friend signaled back to me. 

My next duty point was the kitchen, there were two main kitchens in the clan, the one where the food for top families and wolf was made and the one where the one for normal clan members was made, as for omegas, we just got the scraps from both kitchens. 

I dreaded going to the kitchen for the upper class, it was hard to not run into trouble there. However, today proved to be my lucky day as I completed all my work in less than two hours and ran off not wanting to run by anyone in my age group from the upper class. 

Since my father had been the past Beta, they all used this to mock me specially and yet, there was nothing I could do about. 

Now that I done with the day's work, I found my way to the designated meeting spot and found my best friend leaning on the wall. 

"Have you been waiting that long?" I enquired and she nodded.  

"Are you alright?" Blaire inquired, her droopy eyes searching my face. 

My lips lifted in a dull smile. "No shit." I responded and she giggled.

We sat on the bare ground. 

Unlike me, she looked properly fed and taken care of. I had met her two years ago when I had just turned eighteen, the most miserable year of my life. She and her brother had been kind to me ever since. 

I had been unable to experience the transformation every wolf that age was supposed to experience. I had been confused and distraught, not sure what that phase of my life was going to bring. And then my father- the despicable man- threw me out of the house that night. When I asked where he wanted me to stay, he suggested I stayed where the omegas, the weak and extremely wounded wolves, lived out of shame. 

'I mean, come on! I know you hate me Dad, but this much?' I could not believe my fate. I had been born from a fling my father had and he hated me for it. He hated that I reminded him of his mistake. 

All my friends abandoned me. My dad? He never checked up on me, not even once. Even as the daughter of the beta, I was completely ostracized and made a subject of ridicule. 

"Jeez, Claire. You have cut yourself." Blaire's chaste tone snaps me out of my thoughts. 

"What?" I looked at her first, before noticing my blood stained hand. I watched the blood trickle out, intrigued. I did not feel the pain from the injury. I had become used to them. 

"And you did not know? Let us get you to the infirmary." Blaire asked incredulously and pulled me along. 

I smiled at Blaire's auburn hair as they bounced. She should know. She should know this was a normal occurrence for me. She need not panic. 

"I am fine, Blaire." I stopped us short when I saw she was leading me to the pack house. I should not be there. "And you really do not have to worry about me all the time," I told her, even though I knew my words fell on deaf ears. 

"Do not start with me on that one," she reprimanded me, rolling her eyes. 

"Your brother is the Alpha. You should not be seen with me," I reminded her and she sucked her teeth at the title. 

"Enzo set me up to this in the first place. Except now, I do it of my own accord and I totally enjoy it. It is my duty to worry for you, Claire. I am your best friend. Your only friend." She cooed. 

I could not forget the day she approached me after the transformation ceremony. She was not happy to be seen close to me at first. The members of the clan ostracized anyone seen close to omegas. 

She kept muttering on and on about how her brother pushed her into making a bet and how she had lost and how she had to be friends with an omega. 'A sore loser,' she had called me. 

I had laughed at the absurdity. I never comprehended why Alpha Enzo would do that for me. Or why he had commanded the men not to touch me, his sister had told me. 

Over time however, Blaire and I had become pretty close and she defended me the best way she could from mean pack members.  

It was late in the night when Blaire decided it was time to leave for the pack house. Her personal maid had come to get her. She embraced me and bade me goodnight. 

I lay on the thin foam in the room, reminiscing about my day. Blaire was my sunshine in the gloomy life fate had thrown at me and I was forever grateful she had lost that bet. I sometimes wondered how my life would have turned if she had not. 

I muffled a giggle at the thought of my best friend mimicking her brother and drifted off to sleep. 

****

She sat close to me in the meadow, the next day, after she had whisked me away from the day's work, insisting I needed the break. 

It was my birthday and I could not believe she had set up a mini party for just us. Cakes, confectionaries and drinks were splayed before us on the green grass. 

...Happy birthday to you….

My friend sang for me as I blew out the candles and laughed. As usual, I made the same wish- that Blaire remained a constant in my life. She was too good to be true. 

She enveloped me in a hug and kissed me on both cheeks. "Happy birthday, Claire." She smiled at me. 

"Thank you so much, my friend." I pecked her on her left cheek. 

She handed me a gift bag. "From me to you," she crooned. 

I held back the tears that pricked my eyes, took the bag from her hold and peered through it. A wool sweater and a box of perfume were in the bag. I pulled out the sweater.

"It is crochet. I made it myself," she said proudly. 

I beamed at her. "Thank you again." 

"You're welcome," she replied. "Now, Enzo asked that I give you this. He sends his wishes."

My cheeks flamed just as my lips curled in a shy smile. I collected the bag she stretched out to me. A beautiful red dress and a note laid in it.

Wear this for me. I will make everything right. Happy birthday. Enzo- the note read. 

My heart raced and my mouth hurt from smiling too much. 

"You like?" Blaire wiggled her brows. 

I gave a throaty laugh and nodded. 

"That is good then. I am about to tell you a secret now," Blaire's expression suddenly turned serious.

"Is everything fine?" I enquired. 

She waved her hand in dismissal. "Yes, it is. This will not be a secret in an hour or so. But I wanted you to hear it first."

"Okay?" I demurred. 

"Enzo plans to set up a transformation rite for you omegas next week," she divulged. 

"What is that?" I asked. I had never heard about it. 

"It is the rite of passage for omegas who were not able to experience their transformation at eighteen. It is believed to stir one's wolf awake. No matter who they are." She answered.

My eyes rounded in disbelief. "How is that possible?"

"I do not know. But Enzo is the Alpha. If he thinks it will work, then it has to," she explained. 

"How come I have never heard of it? Why now? Why has this ceremony not taken place since I was born?" 

I remembered all the ceremonies and rites we held as a clan, but this transformation rite was never done. 

"You should be happy and quit the barrage of questions," she said, looking disappointed at my reaction. 

My mind casted back to the room filled with omegas like me. I could imagine the thrill of excitement that would burst through the hall once the news spread.

Enzo was giving us all a second chance.