My One and Only Alpha

Chapter 13

When Zayn dropped Louis off at the forest to hurriedly return to Niall, the Omega immediately ran into his omkin's arms. He quickly told them that he knew what they were all staring at (his scarred neck), but that he didn't want to talk about it yet, and promised he would later. They agreed to drop the elephant in the clearing and then Louis addressed the other thing that needed mentioning. "You guys know about Niall, right?" he asked excitedly, getting exuberant nods from every wolf around.
"I'm so happy for him," Draco sighed dreamily, a hand subconsciously traveling to his uninhabited stomach. "I had no idea that's why they were stocking on food-I really should have put that together. Considering he'd been absent from work...I'm such an idiot," he chuckled, shaking his head with a wistful undertone to his demeanor.
"I haven't seen him yet, how is he?" Kurt asked, having heard the news from Daven last night after his Council meeting.
"Happy, but he's really sick," Louis replied, all Omegas (besides him and Jax), cringing because no submissive looked forward to that particular part of pregnancy. Although it would be fantastic to know you had puppies growing inside you, violently hurling for a varied and unpredictable amount of time was not ideal. Louis would still take that over being barren forever-but he had to distance his mind from those kinds of thoughts or he'd cry again.
"Does he have one or two? Or is it a litter?" Draco asked, looking between Kurt and Louis because they seemed to have the most information on it-Parsel had only told him that he was pregnant, nothing more. He'd defended Zayn's right to privacy until he made an official announcement to the pack, and though Draco respected his Alpha code, he'd been desperate to know.
"Litters don't even happen anymore, Draco. And Daven told me Zayn said one," Kurt responded, answering the question for Louis as well because he hadn't lasted long enough to hear of anything after the meeting adjourned.
"Aww, that's so cute," Draco squealed, picturing a single puppy with Zayn and Niall's shared features and needing it here immediately. "I can't wait to meet them."
Their gushing about Niall and Zayn's breeding wasn't showing any signs of stopping, so Katniss decided it was time to get their attention. "Hey guys, you can talk more about it on your food break, but right now I need you to focus," she said warmly, chuckling when they broke apart and stood to attention like they'd completely forgotten where they were-they probably had.
Norman sauntered up to stand next to her and gestured to his son, needing to remind himself to call him by his name and not his cub title. "Louis, if you're feeling up to it, we'd like you to share your knowledge of hunting," he suggested politely.
Louis shuffled to the front of the group and just let himself start talking, not sure what kind of information he was supposed to grant them with. He briefly explained how to utilize a controlled summon of your wolf's instincts into a hunt, and then instructed everyone to halfway call theirs forth for practice. Once that was a decent success, and no accidental turnings occurred, he went over the general rules of hunting: where to stand in position of the wind so you won't be detected, how and where to strike the animal (because it obviously differed from hunting as an actual wolf), and blahblahblah...
He explained that if push comes to shove, and they can't seem to get it down in their human form, they can of course shift and let their wolf pounce on it, but it's crucially important to try both ways, since that was why they were here. They couldn't afford to mangle all their food as they would in their wolves; this food was for the pack, so they should only be using bows and arrows to get this done.
With the help of Katniss and Norman, Louis successfully taught his present omkin Omegas to hunt down and kill an animal with an arrow, having them practice on trees until their arrows consistently hit the trees, and when they were ready, he set them loose.

---

Eventually, it was time for the Omegas' break, and Norman howled for their return, confident that even if his howl scattered forest critters, after the break was over, they'll have come back. Louis was the last to return to the clearing and he handed off his latest squirrel, skipping over to the fallen log where the Omegas sat with their small baskets of their favourite berries and greens in their laps.
Norman announced he was going to wheel the most greatly stacked cart back to the village so it would be ready for a refill after lunch, and Louis waved him off, finally sitting down when Katniss gave him the go-ahead and said she'd be staying here with them.
Finally, he could relax. Except not for long, for once he met his omkin's eyes, they followed Katniss's advice and brought up the thing she'd urged them to 'talk about later.'
"So, Louis...who gave you that Alpha's bite?" Jax smirked, popping a cherry tomato in his mouth and winking at Louis as he sighed in exasperation.
"Can nobody guess? Come on, don't make me say it," Louis pleaded, raising one eyebrow at his omkin and hoping one of them would say it for him.
"It was Harry, wasn't it?" Draco pressed, the omkin's food forgotten as they held their breath in anticipation.
"Of course it was," Louis groaned, ripping out a patch of grass from the forest floor and chucking it at all four of his lined-up and cackling idiots.
"Louis, Gods, this is huge!" Kurt shouted, setting his basket down and leaping off the log to engulf Louis in a congratulatory hug.
"Guys, don't get too crazy about it," Louis asserted, returning Kurt's embrace and then pushing him back onto his log. "I just dropped in front of him and his Alpha took over. It's not like we're mates or anything, and besides...I think he regrets it," he admitted a tad depressingly, unable to hold his fears back from his omkin.
"I don't think so," Draco said with a confidence that Louis wished he had. "Even if he considers it being...not the best idea he's ever had, this basically means his inner Alpha has already decided on you," he stressed, tossing a blackberry in his mouth with a held-up finger and swallowing it before continuing. "It doesn't matter that you dropped; an Alpha wouldn't just lose control and bite an Omega he or she wasn't interested in."
"Yeah," Kurt echoed, pointing at Draco and nodding his head. "Exactly. And by giving you his mark, he won't be able to stay away for long. He's imprinted himself onto you, and that kind of attachment can't be ignored forever."
"I hope so..." Louis confessed, rolling his eyes at his omkin's cubbish giggles and demanding they share their food with him. He'd obviously forgotten to pack any-he hadn't even dressed himself. He's a mess.