My One and Only Alpha

Chapter 12

Camila led Harry straight through the forest to the specific 'herb tree' she has been burying Louis' remedies at. She had no idea why-it seemed extremely counteractive to the confidentiality they'd been working to uphold-but nevertheless, the Pack Seer and Pack Alpha were now stood just a few steps away from the biggest secret in Chehalis.
She got nervous when Harry began to curiously sniff the air, possibly recognizing something reminiscent of Louis' scent, but he furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head, as if literally tossing the sudden suspicion out of his brain. He gathered and moved his long curly hair over one shoulder and crossed his arms, waiting for Camila to disclose everything she knew, and she sensed he wouldn't be this patient for much longer. "Harry, it might be better for you to ask me what you want to know, would it not?" she asked mysteriously.
He narrowed his eyes but played along with her equivocal style of communication. "Louis," he began carefully, not sure what kind of question she was even looking for. "What is he?" he settled on.
"Do you not know?" Camila challenged, giving him ample time to answer, but judging by the glare she was being burned with, it was apparent she wasn't getting a response, so she dug deeper. "He is an Omega, first and foremost. Alpha, allow me to ask you some questions...see if you can't answer your own," she proposed dramatically, receiving an exasperated huff from Harry, but a nod all the same.
"Go on," he impatiently encouraged.
"Have you ever seen Louis submit to or respect any of your Alphas by default of their gender?"
"Are you mad? No, his resilience is staggering," he replied, scratching at his nose and then returning the arm to the twist he'd made at his chest.
Camila pretended to ponder this and began to walk in a circle around the Pack Alpha, holding her hands together at the small of her back. "Mmm. And do you believe this impenetrable defiance is a constant and conscious attempt, or does it seem to be a natural and automatic reaction?"
Harry's head followed the circling Omega until she passed behind him, turning his head to the other side when she came back into view. "Seems pretty natural to me," he responded with a sniff, internally laughing over the fact that he seemed to be falling ill as a result of separating from Louis. Not good.
"So, you're saying Louis has immunity to an Alpha's compulsion, and it's an instinctive thing...not done by his own efforts," she summarized, much to Harry's annoyance.
"Would you get to the point?" he snapped, coughing into his fist and groaning in disdain. He wanted to go back. He wanted to hold that sweet Omega all night, feel the little puffs of his breath on his chest, curl his fingers into his sandy hair and-
"I am, my Pack Alpha. Tell me...how does he act with you?" Camila asked, successfully pulling the Alpha out of his yearning thoughts.
"That's why I'm here, Cam. I pushed Louis into a drop, but I hardly put any force into my compulsion at all," he besought, wanting her to get to her magical solution.
"So, in essence...what you're telling me...is that Louis shows absolutely no Omega traits in the presence of Alphas-which by the way, he never has in his life-but that he submitted to you at the drop of a leaf?" she spelled out to him, halting her circle to practically stare into his soul.
Harry's eyes widened and his lips slightly parted in surprise. Is she really implying... Camila slowly and meaningfully nodded her head in agreement and began her circling again, confirming his suspicion before he had to voice it. "Does he know?" he asked.
"He's known since his second day here," she replied flippantly, ignoring the Alpha's subsequent growl of agitation.
"You know, Cam? For being as notoriously vague and cryptic as you are, you sure have a fat fucking mouth," he said tonelessly, eyes dark and wholly unamused with their little secret-keeping.
Camila growled back and rounded on the Alpha, throwing her hands up in a manner that suggested she'd expected this from him. "You know, that's why I said 'not here' to you, Harry. If Lauran ever heard you speak to me that way, she'd have a fit. Pack Alpha or not, we all grew up together, Harry. Don't insult me because you can. I'll have you know that I dreamt of Louis' coming three years ago on the day of his banishment, and for three years straight I shared a mental link with him. His emotions were torture, but the only thing that kept me going was knowing my Pack Alpha's mate would eventually journey to Chehalis to fulfill his destiny, and all would be set right."
"But why would you tell him?" Harry demanded, not backing down from his aggression, regardless of her personal struggles.
"Because! He was having confusing thoughts about you already, so I let him know why. I told him nothing more than what he needed to know, and I'm doing the same with you. I know a lot that I can't inform either of you of; that's just how the future works. So, you'll just have to suck it up and wait...see for yourselves," she grunted, angrily fixing her tangled necklaces.
"I can't mate him, Camila," Harry said matter-of-factly, causing the Seer to freeze and sear him with a furious glare.
"Will you two stop fighting this? You cannot run from this, Harry-it's fate! The Spirits foretold it to me, and no matter what you do, it will happen. Why are you resisting? You realize that makes my three years of suffering mean absolutely nothing?" she shouted, overly done with the true mates' mirrored hesitation.
"Stop poking your nose where it doesn't belong, Camila. You did not have to tell him, but you did, and now I have to deal with the consequences from it. You do not know what I am currently dealing with. You know the rogues are targeting me, right? They're all working to come down on my head. Roman is out there trying to finish what he started-don't you realize what that means? If I bonded Louis, the first thing those monsters would do is go after him. I can't put him in that kind of danger. If I let myself have my Omega, and he was taken from me, my very soul would die. They would make sure I saw it. And I don't care if they killed me a mere two seconds afterward, those two seconds of unthinkable agony I would feel at losing my mate would make your three years look like a skin rash," he growled, irises black and menacing.
Camila, entirely unafraid, grinned pointedly at his speech, like she'd gotten the answer she wanted. "This is why you'll ensure you mate him. Your Alpha already loves him too much to leave him vulnerable. Your soulbond will protect him before it will cause him harm," she insisted.
Harry sighed heavily as his rage dissipated and began tying the top half of his hair with itself behind his head. "Whatever, Cam. Thanks for your unparalleled wisdom," he drawled sarcastically.
"You'll thank me someday," she remarked with an overload of snark, biting her lip over another victorious grin.
"Louis will have questions when he wakes up and can't remember anything. Tell him whatever you have to-I don't need his whiny complaints directed at me. I can't let myself get any more attached to him than I already am... but way more importantly, tell everyone else to keep silent about this too. Louis is my concern, and my responsibility. Mine. Tell everyone privy to my Omega's drop to leave him to me," Harry ordered, completely unaware of the massive contradiction he'd just made.
Camila blinked rapidly and chuckled to herself as the Alpha turned and swiftly withdrew from the forest, returning to his village. "Whatever you say, Styles."