The Omega's Predicament

Chapter one

Rain was pouring down. Harsh wind tore through the rocky tunnels in which Bella sat. Wind that made her damp, heavy curls slap her in the face, and she pushed the mass of red hair away with a growl. Shivering, she wrapped her arms around her naked legs and pressed her forehead to her knees. She wasn't cold, it wasn't that. She was just annoyed and frustrated, and tired. So damn tired of pretending.

Night had fallen while she had been sitting there wallowing in self-pity. She squinted at the downpour she could just about make out through the opening of the cave. It was pitch black outside, she could barely see anything, and not just because she wasn't wearing her glasses. Her wolf eyes were sharp and keen, her human ones not so much.

She was being ridiculous, hiding out in these caves all too much lately. She used to only come up here when the world became too real, when she needed to think, when she needed to be alone.

The caves were far north in the Northcreek territory, located at the foot of the mountains that made up the natural border between them and the Silverstream territory. Other wolves would never run up there, not during a storm like this. Even she was dumb for coming.

She had been avoiding him, childish as it was. Had been for the last six months. She had been taking great pains to avoid any accidental meetings, always been where he wasn't, and vice versa. That didn't mean she hadn't seen him around, though. She had seen him from a distance, glimpses here and there before she made an excuse to leave. She was acting ridiculous and she knew it. But she was running out of excuses. And running out of time. She would have to face him eventually. Christmas was only three months away.

Darn that Lukas Mallard.

She groaned again, a sound that echoed around the cave, when she realized she hadn't seen him in five years and he still managed to reduce her to this mess, hiding in a cave of all places. She should be over him by now, he shouldn't be allowed to have her acting like this anymore. She was not a child any longer. She was the pack Omega, damn it! A grown woman. And she was far too busy and important to sit around, mulling over a childhood crush that came into her life again after so long, only to mess with her head this way.

And he didn't even know it. She had never even had the nerve to tell him.

Stupid Lukas Mallard.

What would he say to her when he saw her again? A polite 'hello'? A 'how have you been all these years'? Or perhaps, worst-case scenario, 'I'm sorry, do I know you'? Maybe he had seen her around but just didn't remember her. Or worse, didn't care at all.

Another groan and she slapped her hand over her face. She had been doing so well, she had risen to the position of Omega, she was important to the pack and she loved her work. She really did love it. She was striving for perfection and order and her life reflected that. She was an adult, twenty-four, completely in charge of her own life. Why was she suddenly reduced to this shivering thirteen-year-old with her first juvenile crush overpowering her whole mind? Surely something was wrong with her.

A lightning strike lit up the mouth of the cave and Bella stood. The storm was getting worse. She had been out too long. She refused to stay there any longer. This was it. Done. She was done. No more would she think about Lukas Mallard. No longer would she be reduced to a little girl. She was an adult, now. It was time to start acting like it.

Her claws scraped the rock floor as she shook out her red-golden fur. She was still damp, but it didn't feel bad at all on her wolf body. Snapping at the air, her breath was a white mist in the darkness. Her ears twitched. The constant drip that always sounded in the cave was replaced with a steady stream in the violent weather. The wind raged outside and a whistle ran through the caves her human ears hadn't been able to pick up.