A Heart So Dark And Lonely [t.n]

Chapter Two

    His breath was visible in the cold air. Theo trudged through the snow, his hands stuffed between his under arms to keep them warm. There was a slight migraine that thrummed beneath his skull, seething under his rage. A result of the hangover from yesterday.

    He might have drank a little more than he should. Crabbe and Goyle had been rather generous, gifting him a dozen bottles of good rum for his birthday.

They drank half of it last night and Theo kept the other half hidden beneath the loose floor board under his bed. Out of reach from his alcoholic father.

    But whatever high he'd been on yesterday had completely depleted when morning came. Theo was back to being his self-deprecating self, made worse with a hangover.

    His mood plummeted even more when he left the dreadful house and made his way to the marketplace, where he was exposed to the sore reminders of his cruel solitude.

    A young couple around his age had been nuzzled together in the cold of winter, holding up the line to the fresh loaves of bread Theo was wanting to buy. He scowled and stormed away.

    Even Betas found their mates.

    What about him?

    Theo wanted to curse at the universe for his misfortune. Scream at the Gods and pluck the devils from Hell to strike a deal.

But he couldn't find the energy in himself to do anything. All he did was trudged gloomily towards the edge of the village after his initial burst of anger had disappeared.

    He had to stop letting his emotions get the better of him. He wasn't a prepubescent teen struggling to cope with his Alpha attributes anymore.

    Theo was a full-fledged Alpha.

    He should have better self-control.

    If Blaise had witnessed his little slip-up, he would never hear the end of it. It was bad enough that his friend dubbed him with the nickname runt. He didn't need to give Blaise another reason to rub salt onto his wound.

    He was always one step behind Blaise and Draco.

    No matter how hard he trained, he couldn't catch up to them. His combat skills were no where near as perfect as Blaise's was. And in his other form, he wasn't as quick and powerful as Draco.

Not only that, he was the youngest in his friend group and the only one that hasn't found his mate yet.

Sometimes he wished he was a Beta, like Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle. Life would've been much easier that way. No annoying Alpha physiology to worry about and no incessant longing for the perfect Omega.

His Omega.

Not to say that being a Beta would mean finding a mate any easier. But still, Theo liked to believe that he would have stood a better chance at finding a willing mate that way.

    He felt less pathetic when Draco had been in the same boat as him last year, before he had found his true mate in a neighbouring village that was being pillaged by raiders.

    Maybe Theo should abandon his initial plans of building a cabin on the outskirts and instead travel the world in search of his mate. But what if he couldn't find them? What if he travelled to the ends of the world and still came up empty handed?

    What if he didn't have a mate?

Maybe they died and Theo was subjected to a lifetime of being lost and alone. Would any of the Betas even want to settle with him?

    The more he thought about it, the more he fell into a state of depression.

    He stopped as he had arrived at the outskirts of the village. Before him stood the great forest that seemed to stretch on forever. This was their hunting ground, and where he had planned on building his new home.

    Theo sighed as he regarded the tall trees. He would have to come out here in the next few days and cut some of them down for materials to build his cabin with. He had to start doing something eventually, if he really intended to leave.

    Cabins in the woods don't just magically build themselves.

There was the sharp sound of a twig breaking. Theo straightened up to his full height when he heard the rustling of the forestry growing louder. Something was approaching the edge of the forest.

A large white wolf stalked out between the trees. Silver eyes glinted as it pinned him with a deadly gaze. As if daring him to run.

Draco.

Theo let out a breath of relief as his hand inched away from the dagger attached to his belt. The villagers had been worried about raiders attacking them ever since one was spotted in the depths of the forest last month.

Draco had killed the threat and brought back a head.

But that didn't ease the public much. Everyone feared that it could have been a raider scout. So the Betas had been taking turns guarding the village while the Alphas patrolled the forest for any illicit activities.

Theo's round was tomorrow morning.

Residue blood tainted the white fur around Draco's snout. He stood still as a statue as he waited. His ears twitched as he picked up the sounds that Theo couldn't hear in his human form.

A few minutes later, Theo spotted Blaise sauntering towards them from the back gates of the village. He looked annoyed, as usual.

"Hey," Blaise greeted with a nod as he regarded Draco and him with calculating eyes. "I thought I was on guard duty next?"

"I was just on a walk," Theo answered, shoving his hands into his coat pockets.

His friend nodded before he shrugged off his long coat and folded it neatly. Then he opened one of the large wooden mailboxes by the walls and placed it inside, along with his other pieces of clothing that he discarded and folded.

Normally, Theo would just chuck all his clothes into the mailbox instead of going through the hassle to fold them. Especially in winter, when it was freezing cold and he needed to shift immediately because he didn't want to risk freezing his balls off.

Theo was silently looking out into the forest, allowing Blaise some privacy as he discarded his final piece of garment. He watched as Draco sniffed at the air, his eyes studying everything that moved beyond the shrubs.

"Well, I'll see you blokes later." Blaise said.

Then an agonised groan escaped his lips as Blaise's skin ripped apart, and his organs and bones altered itself to take on the form of a big black wolf.

The transformation was always a painful experience.

He exchanged one last look with Theo before he leaped over the shrubs and bounded into the forest.

Draco watched him disappear between the trees before he lowered his head and picked up the carcass of a deer.

His silver gaze met Theo's as he passed him by. Draco dragged his hunt into the village and Theo watched the powerful silhouette of silver white fur disappear.

He wondered to himself if he would grow stronger when he had a mate to protect. That seemed to be the case with most Alphas. He had seen it happen with Draco.

Theo was as sure as the sun will rise that he would do anything to protect his mate when he found them. Nothing else would matter to him. Not even his own life.