My One and Only Alpha

Chapter 3

Louis and Zayn were beginning to form a deep companionship voyaging the limitless forests together, and it already felt like they'd known each other for years. It was a friendship the Alpha was perpetually stressing over because Niall was literally going to end his life when he took one whiff of him. Zayn could only pray to the Gods that his fiery mate wouldn't feel completely threatened and decide to unleash his wrath on the poor banished Omega in fierce protection of their soulbond. Time will tell...
Louis, on the other hand, had been force-fed extensive and occasionally too personal details of Zayn's mate, Niall, and their bond by this point in the journey. He had heard just about every story Zayn had to tell, and each time a tangent was being gushed, Louis would smile and put on an act of enthralled interest, but secretly, he was jealous.
Not of Zayn's mate specifically, but Louis would be lying if he said he'd never dreamt of having a mate of his very own. Someone to be with him at all times, through every hardship-to share his love and life with. Of course, in his case, Louis knew no Alpha would ever want an uncontrollable and dominant Omega who has no heats and frequently uses howahkan he shouldn't even have. Louis is the ultimate depiction of everything an Omega is not, and he just had to accept and come to terms with it causing him lifelong solitude.
He sometimes feels competent in his ability to reconcile with his foreseeably lonely future, but then a love-struck Alpha starts gushing about his perfect bond, and Louis' pity party becomes a full house.

~~~~~

After their food break, Zayn thankfully shifted back to his wolf, thus ending another of said rantings, and Louis felt like he could finally breathe again. And yet, Louis found himself unshakably dwelling on the prospect of mating anyway. Mating...that thing he would never have. He was lying on the wolf's back, facing the sky and observing the treetops passing by like a river, while weak-minded thoughts relentlessly rampaged through his thoughts like a herd of oxen.
The Chehalis Pack Alpha is unmated. Harry is unmated. What are you going to do about it? his inner Omega taunted to him without warrant. For his own life, Louis couldn't comprehend why his Omega was so fixated on this Pack Alpha when he'd certainly never taken to the idea of one before. Why? That was most perplexing thing to him, for having not seen him once, the mere idea of Harry had his heart beating like the wings of a butterfly, and he couldn't hope to control it.
An unknown and anonymous Alpha, and his Omega was already running around inside of him, giddy with adoring anticipation. Are you serious, wolf? You don't even like Alphas, what's gotten into you?
Just as the Omega was wondering when they would reach this infamous river because it was nearing the end of the second day, Zayn suddenly stopped moving, and Louis craned his neck up to notice they were standing in front of it. Sighing with relief, he slipped off the wolf's back, ripped his clothes from his exhausted body, and threw himself into the cool water.
Zayn shifted back and flopped onto his butt as Louis simultaneously exploded into sandy-coloured fur, and he choked on a gasp, following the wolf with his wide eyes as it rolled around in the water like a puppy. Intrigued because he'd never met Louis' wolf before, Zayn stood up and made his way into the knee-deep water, greeting the animal with a pat between its ears. "Hey there," he quipped with a smile, scratching the sides of the Omega's cheeks. "You're just gorgeous, you know that?"
Louis playfully snapped his teeth at Zayn's hands and spun around to slap the Alpha with his tail, eliciting a righteous water fight that lasted longer than Zayn would ever normally participate in, but the fun was too uplifting to deny. They ran up and down the bank like energetic cubs, knocking each other over and wrestling for higher ground to win some prize they hadn't decided. When Zayn won every single match, they returned to the river to wash off, and lounged tranquilly in the shallow ends to come down from the excitement. Life, in this moment, was good for the both of them.
Eventually, the sun began its setting, and Louis ventured into the thickest woods in search of their food for the night. After sniffing at the dirt and following the scent of what he only knew was a mammal, he uncovered two rabbits hiding in a bush and gracefully pounced on them both, biting into their necks until they stopped thrashing.
There were times he felt a twinge of guilt for overpowering innocent animals, another trait of his Omega gender, but to survive, Louis had needed to convince himself that the circles of life had an understanding with each other and this circulation was unavoidable. Technically, that was true, but Omegas were hard-pressed to clutch to such concepts-killing was wrong, end of story. Weak little Omegas.
Louis trotted back to the clearing on the river bank with two dead rabbits in his proud jaws, and he came to find Zayn had made a fire while he was gone. He tossed the rabbits directly into the flames and the Alpha heavily scolded him for it, but he couldn't care. He laid himself down to get his breath back, and Zayn fetched the creatures back from the inferno so he could get to work on skinning them.
Louis watched him work with a slow mind, wondering why it was necessarily, or even logical to do such a thing. When Louis finally gathered Zayn was skinning the rabbits because he wanted the pair to have dinner as humans, he regretfully shifted back and put his clothes on, shaking the residual river water from his hair. He then tossed one of his breechcloths to Zayn, who thankfully accepted it with only a small amount of complaint, and scooted in to the log that was to be their table.
Their conversation over dinner consisted of any subjects they could think of to fill the time. It ranged from Harry, to Niall, to their parents, to childhoods, Louis' banishment, and so forth. They'd touched on a lot of this already, but now was the time for extra detail, and Louis met that challenge head-on. He had such an effortless and natural flow when interacting with Zayn, and it was clear the Alpha felt the same way, because they'd unknowingly talked their way straight into the dark cloak of night.
"Zayn, were we planning on sleeping at any point tonight?" Louis asked, snorting when Zayn glanced up to the sky like it had personally offended him.
"How did I not notice that?" Zayn muttered, looking back down and laughing with the Omega over their shared obliviousness.
"I don't know, but I can hardly keep my eyes open," Louis yawned, stretching out on his back while Zayn put out the ember-crackling fire and arranged their blankets in a neater manner than they'd previously been strewn.
"By all means, close them," Zayn chuckled, checking around their area for anything he might have missed because he didn't want to waste any time on that upon waking.
Louis yipped in contentment and transformed into his wolf without another word, crashing onto his side and instantly snoring afterward.
Zayn snickered under his breath at the Omega's antics, returning to his dirt-smudged blanket and timbering onto his back with crossed ankles and entwined fingers behind his head. What an Omega, he thought fondly to the brunette wolf beside him, staring at its snores and shaking his head before turning his gaze back to the spattering of stars above.
For being the one to spend a fair portion of this journey peacefully riding on a back, Louis certainly appeared to be the most exhausted. Which was understandable, since it was in his Omega nature to rest a lot, but he hadn't shown these kinds of traits until now, and Zayn realized with a gulp that he should be more concerned about that. Louis' recent behavior was vastly different than when Zayn had first met him-he was changing. It was as though each hour, Louis was a little more Omega than the last, and Zayn didn't know how to reverse that...if he even could.
See, while it's true that Louis is immeasurably stronger than his submissive kin, being around Zayn for an extended stretch of time has begun to bring more of his natural instincts to the surface of his demeanor. This could be fine-or it could be really, really bad, and Zayn has no way of predicting which outcome will see fruition.
To finally explain himself, if Harry were to reject Louis from the pack, the Omega boy would have to retrain his endurance from scratch. Zayn was in shambles from the feasibility of Louis having to face the harsh and unforgiving wild all by himself again. It would be all his fault.
Would Harry really reject him, though? This lone, tiny Omega? Zayn secretly thought Louis could turn out to be the perfect mate for his Alpha, given Zayn knows that Harry conveniently dislikes overly passive and submissive Omegas, and has a thing for curves. Louis' got curves, no denying that. Niall will destroy you, Zayn. Stop.
In any case, Zayn knows Harry like he knows himself, and Louis paints a good picture of someone who could not only handle the Pack Alpha, but also bring out the absolute best of him. Louis may in fact even be crucial to Chehalis, because if Harry never finds an Omega who doesn't worship him, he'll never mate. He's twenty-two, he needs to mate soon.
To put it simply in terms anyone could understand, Harry has been regarded and referred to as the highest authority of a legendary pack from the allied forces of the Great Fifteen since he was a teenager. He'd endured wolves (Omega or Alpha) bowing their heads at his every statement, adhering to do things for him that weren't even vocally requested, and dramatically submitting to him the second he walked into a room, all because he bore the exalted title of Pack Alpha.
In fact, Harry had experienced this automatic star-struck reaction from the public his entire life, considering he had been Chehalis's previous Pack Alpha, Desmond's, Chaska-firstborn Alpha son-with no brothers or sisters to share the load with. It was never-ending. Only his council showed him equal respect, which he was grateful for, but even they could kiss his ass sometimes.
It was an egregious understatement to say Harry was sick of being fawned over like he was a God among wolves.
Sick, for the annoying aspects of the attention, but sick especially because the only reason he was currently Pack Alpha at all had resulted from the tragic loss of his parents. Harry hadn't asked for this. While it would have been Harry's eventual responsibility to take over and assume leadership of the pack, it certainly should not have happened this soon, and in this way.
To come full circle, all this is how Zayn knows what Harry needs in a mate. He needs an Omega who will challenge him, fulfill him, and put him in his place when he needs it. One who won't ever cower away from speaking their mind, and will fight to the death to get what they want out of him.
And honestly, what better example of an Omega that perfectly fits that description could you ever find than Louis?
Well, Niall. Using an impressive amount of objectivity, Zayn can admit that Niall could have been a great match for Harry, had the fates put them together instead-but Niall ended up belonging to Zayn, and that's final.
Louis on the other hand...