I woke up with a pain in my neck from the poor sleeping position I had on the couch. I must have nodded off during the movie without realizing...I quickly snapped my head up ignoring the sore neck as I checked my mate. My chest tightened at the sight of him. He was wide awake and hadn't changed positions since sitting next to me to start the movie. I hadn't ordered him to sleep before falling asleep myself. He had stayed up the entire night waiting for my order. He had stayed... Tears welled up in my eyes at the realization. I pulled him to my chest and crushed him against me.
"Sleep. Go to sleep." I choked out the words trying to contain my emotion.
"Thank you alpha." His voice was the same monotone but I could hear the exhaustion now it. Without another word he closed his eyes and his breathing evened out.
How could I have been so stupid? I got too comfortable last night watching the movie and didn't even think about his needs before letting myself fall asleep. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Normally the omegas were sent to bed by the nearest wolf at 9 pm every night. They had a schedule that they fallowed everyday so we would always know where to find them and count them in their barracks. The person in charge of scheduling also scheduled a wolf to go around the house to look for any misplaced omegas. They should have been looking for him everywhere but no one had come to check on him. I started to feel enraged at the unknown wolf responsible but I stopped myself. I was just using them as an excuse for my own short comings. The only person responsible for my mate not sleeping last night was me.
I looked down at the boy. He was out cold now. He must have been so tiered. I squeezed him to me once more before picking him up and walking down the hall to my bedroom. I laid him on the bed and gave him a kiss on the forehead before heading out. I needed to notify the the omega handler immediately or else they would be freaking out over the missing omega. I was confused as to why I didn't see people running around searching already since they new the count was incorrect last night.
I passed the barracks on my way to the door and it was full of sleeping omegas. They still had an hour before they needed to prepare breakfast. My uncomfortable sleep had woken me up earlier than usual. I saw all forty beds neatly lined up and holding a sleeping omega. Well one was noticeably empty. My chest squeezed again wondering how I could have let that happen.
I continued on to the office door situated next to the barracks and knocked 3 times. A high pitched female voice called out "come in." What was she doing here?
I walked in to the room, no longer sad and remorseful, now pissed. "Alis. Where is Paplo?"
I was referring to the head coordinator. Alis was his assistant. A position I would see to it she wasn't in for much longer.
"I wanted to give him the day off so I agreed to work the whole day." She smiled sweetly at me as if I didn't already know why she would agree to do such a thing.
"And I'm assuming you were the one who was supposed to sweep the house for missing omegas last night?" I kept my voice low but I could barely contain myself.
She still kept the pleasant smile up but her eyes betrayed her fear. "Yes alpha."
She was walking on eggshells now and was keeping it formal. "So tell me why my mate wasn't sent to bed last night?"
She visibly swallowed. "Which Omega was you mate, they all blur together sometimes."
I almost ripped her head off at the comment but I decided to beat her at her own game. "Oh you would remember this one... he has the most beautiful emerald green eyes, the greenest I have ever seen."
I smile wistfully as if remembering them fondly as I looked into her own pale green ones. Green eyes ran in Alis' family so I knew mentioning not only that they were more beautiful than hers, but reminding her that it was her kin I spoke of would be a smack in the face. I could see her smile tighten at my words.
"Surely no Omega I know of fits such a description." She countered through clenched teeth.
"Oh, shall I continue to describe him? Maybe something will jog ur memory..." I goaded.
She kept stoke faced as I continued my verbal onslaught. " His hair is honey blonde. Almost like yours... but his is soft and shiny looking."
She didn't reply only looked down at her hands. I decided to stop playing and speak to her seriously now.
"Why did you go so far as to neglect him? I know your upset but you have no right to endanger him like this. You are responsible for the well-being of 40 pack members. The fact that you let your own personal feelings dictate how you treated one of them is sickening. If left unchecked you wouldn't just give him sleepless nights or spending the day in a closet, you could kill him. And then what? You suddenly believe the universe will make you my new mate? It won't. No, after my mate dies i will be joining him shortly after and it would be both our blood on your hands Alis!" My words came out in a growl at the final second and she snapped her head up to meet my gaze.
"I'm sorry alpha. I saw you asleep on his shoulder in front of the TV but I didn't want to wake y-" I growled interrupting her.
"Bull-fucking-shit! Leave." She attempted to speak up. "Now!"
"The Omegas need to be woken and given their orders! Wh-" she tried to argue.
"You are no longer qualified for this position. I will be taking care of the omegas for today." I growled. I didn't care if I had to take command of 100 omegas it wouldn't make up for my failure last night.
She didn't say another word just ran around me and out of the office. I sighed, she would have to be kicked out. Even if it wasn't my mate she would have to be kicked out. The omegas may be treated like furniture but neglecting one was treated the same as neglecting a child. We would not stand such blatant cruelty towards someone so helpless they couldn't even eat without being told to do so. They may do all the chores and be ordered around as servants but we alway made sure their needs were met. They ate the same food as the rest of the pack, their clothes were just as new and they were protected just like the children were in the event of war. All packs agreed never to harm the children and omegas of enemy pacts because they were both defenceless.
I picked up the clipboard from the desk and read the daily tasks. It didn't specify which omega did the tasks. I guess that was because they were all equally capable of doing the work given to them. So on the paper were just a list of jobs to be done. I flipped the page and saw another list. It was of all the underaged omegas who were too young for work but old enough to learn. It had the parents last name on the side and the task they would be learning for the day. I saw the last name "Sharp" on the list and recalled the six year old child of my second in command. They had been heart broken to learn the child was an omega but I still saw the love in him and his mates eyes when they looked at their omega daughter.
She was loved just like any other child. That wasn't always the case in families who birthed omegas. Just like it wasn't the case in Alis' family, her aunt left my omega in the pack orphanage until he was old enough to start serving the pack. As clueless as the omegas were, ones like him were even worse off since they didn't even have family to show them at least a little love.
