The Broken Wolf

“If you stop moving, you will die.” I tell my self, dragging my injured ankle behind me.

  

I narrowly escaped this time attack, my old pack won’t stop coming after me until they are sure I’m no longer a threat. Staying a lone wolf is getting unbearable at this point. That’s why I’m heading in the direction of the only place that can provide temporary safety till I figure out another way.

I have to get to blackridge territory. It’s the only place where they won't think of looking for me, after all why would a murderer like me hide in the most powerful alpha territory?

My clothes now turned rags are soaked with blood, the wounds have stopped bleeding but they are still healing. Though the process is slow considering the fact that the weapons used on me where dipped in wolfsbane. Enough to kill an ordinary wolf but enough to drastically slow down a wolf like me.

I continue to push forward, my body screaming in protest. I had used most of my energy in fighting my attackers and now I’m hungry and weak. My left arm hangs uselessly at my side, my lungs burns with every inhale. 

Maybe a little rest won't hurt

The wind shifts and I catch it- a scent. Strong male and Alpha. I pause in my movement and hold my breath. I wait.

A howl tears through the trees.

I let out out a shaky laughter. I made it. I was on black ridge territory. My legs gave out before I could shift. Not that it matters. I haven't shifted in years.

A black big wolf snarling at me from the trees is the last thing I see before I pass out.

When I open my eyes, I am staring into a woman's wrinkled skeptical face. A healer, I will later learn. 

I try to move my body but it feels like a boulder was placed on top on me. I open my mouth to speak but a strangled noise is all that comes out of me.

She sniffs at me, huffs and mutters under her breath, “Another useless stray.”

She still wraps my wounds. She works in silence, doesn’t bother to ask me any questions, not that I can answer if she does.  She examines me, sees no wolf and to her and them, that is enough.

I am deemed an omega.

An omega is the lowest rank in any pack, barely a step above humans. An omega is either born without a wolf or born with a very weak one that it is gazed upon as a liability in the pack. No one bothers with them, no protection. Their voice doesn't matter.  

It is the perfect opportunity I am given, I can hide in plain sight. No one will even look twice at me. I don’t want them to find out who I am.

Later that evening, I am finally able to move on my own. The healer asks me to walk around the healing room. She assesses my movement and nods in approval.

“Here take this.” she pushes a steaming bowl into my hands after I sit down on the bed. “Drink,” she orders.

The smell coming from the bowl is pungent, and I force myself to drink it in one go. I hand the bowl back to her, trying not to gag. 

“Thank you,” I say pushing strands of my brown hair away from my face. I can feel the medicine take effect, the pain starts to fade almost to a point of being numb. I begin to sweat profusely.

She gives me a curt nod.

The door opens and a man steps inside, he reeks of power. Not powerful enough to be an Alpha or beta. So maybe a warrior or guard.

His gaze falls on me then slides away in disinterest.

“I will be moving her to the Omega quarters,” he tells the healer. “Alpha orders.”

They gave me a mat in the far corner of the Omega's quarters. It’s a large room and more than twenty omegas watch me as I slid under the thin blanket they gave me. I lay my head, the cold from the cemented floor seeps through my mat. I force my body to relax and let sleep take me away.

By the next morning, the whispers has started. I have just walked into the dinning hall when I hear it.

“She doesn't talk.”

“Did you see her back yesterday?”

“She must have been whipped.”

The mess hall smells of burned stew and unwashed bodies. Like all other packs, the omegas were the last to eat. The others dine in private while the Omegas wait for scraps. I sit on the floor, bowl in hand and avoid their eyes.

A chunk of bread hits my shoulder. I don’t flinch. I refuse to give them that satisfaction.

“She thinks she's better than us?” someone sneers.

A mocking laugh rings out behind me.“She won't last a week.”

I ignore them, dip a piece of bread inside my stew and bring it to my mouth.

I moan from the taste. This is heavenly.

Minutes later, I am licking my bowl. Some of the omegas stare at me in disgust, but I don't care, it been long I ate something this good.

And then I feel it, like ice down my spine.

A presence enters the room pressing down on every inch of me. 

The alpha. His aura was like nothing I have felt in years. Dominant. Unyielding. A power that don’t just demand submission, it commands it. The omegas scramble to their feet and drop to their knees. I move slowly, my body stiff with healing wounds. My eyes flicks up, just for a second.

Caden Blackridge.

He is taller than I expected. Broad shoulders. He seems to fill the room. Dark hair, a face carved in stone. His eyes- gods, those eyes like storm- pause on me. Just for a heartbeat too long.

His gaze shifts and I release the breath I didnt know I was holding.

He moves past me with his beta at his side. I bow my head, but not quickly enough for I saw a flicker in his gaze.

Later that night, when I lie on my mat, eyes wide open and darkness pressing in from all sides. I realize I should have moved faster, should have stayed down. But something inside me had stirred when he looked at me. It wasn't fear neither was it attraction.

It was recognition of a power stronger than mine, maybe if wasn’t dormant. She would have bared her teeth in challenge.

And from the flicker I saw in his eyes, something in him had noticed.

I closed my eyes and drifted off.

Bodies are strewn around me, blood soaks the grass coloring it a deep red. I can taste the metallic tang of blood in my mouth.

A gasp sounds from behind me and I spin around in panic.

His face is drained of all color as he stares at the bodies. “What have you done?”

I wake up with a gasp, rivulets of sweat running down my body. I try to calm my racing heart. It's just a dream.

I stare at my trembling hands and take in deep breaths.  I can't get my mind off the dream that was once a reality.

It will never happen again. Never. No one will know who I am.

With this thought in mind, I lie down back but sleep doesn’t come. 

That night, as the wind howls outside and the other omegas snore around me. I hear a whisper in my mind.

It wasn't words but a sound. A low terrifying growl.

My wolf.

For the first time in years.

I roll unto my side, heart thudding. Maybe I wasn't broken like I expected. But I have to be careful, because if they found out, if he finds out, I will be dead before the moon rises again.