The Omega's Predicament

Chapter ten

It was hard for Bella to imagine a time in her life she had been more tired than right at that moment. She had barely slept. She knew she could have squeezed in a few more hours, but it was as if her body knew she had an important meeting and committed mutiny. Tossing and turning, watching the clock on the wall, she barely managed to close her eyes. And when she finally did fall asleep, she managed to oversleep!

She had bounded out of bed, pulled on her clothes, having no time for anything other than a quick ponytail and a spray of deodorant.

Which was unfortunate as she had the Silverstream meeting today. And she was not prepared. Something that was painfully obvious as she sat, in her chair, in Alpha Winter's office, wildly leafing through papers, unable to find the one she needed.

Alpha Winter turned slowly in his seat, his bushy, gray eyebrows raised in surprise as he looked at her. He had never seen his Omega bite her lip in frustration, growl under her breath, unable to quickly provide him with the answer that he had asked for. "Omega?"

"Yes," Bella breathed, continuing to search, "The border... The border in question..." If she didn't find the answer soon she was going to scream. Alpha Winter and Beta Taylor were both looking at her as if she had sprouted a new head. And then there was Alpha Green, sitting on the opposite side of the desk, with his chin resting on his large fist, watching her as well, and their hateful Omega sneering in her direction. And Beta Cooke, who was walking around the room restlessly, studying Alpha Winter's pictures and keepsakes, his books and decorations. He hadn't acknowledged Bella's presence at all but he still made her nervous.

The room felt small and cramped and it wasn't even a little room, it was Alpha Winter's personal office, a spacious room in his house. But the two Alphas were looking at each other as if waiting for the other to take one step out of bound, to make just one mistake, and they wouldn't hesitate to pierce the other's throat with their sharp fangs. The tension had been growing since they sat down. Having both Beta's in the room didn't help. Beta Cooke's circling added only pressure to the situation, he sly glances at Beta Taylor who stood stiff as a board at Alpha Winter's side with his hands clasped behind his back, refusing to humor Beta Cooke by reacting to his movement yet also watching him like a hawk, every step he took. It was stifling in there, Bella's throat threatened to constrict with every breath she took. And her head was growing increasingly heavy.

"Is three hundred and twenty-two miles south of the Peak," the Silverstream Omega supplied with impatience. He was tall and wiry, and sitting down didn't hide that fact, he looked as though he couldn't quite fit any chair without appearing to be folded in half in the wrong place. He also had the uncanny ability to look down his long, thin nose on you while not even looking at you. Bella knew he disapproved of her, it was impossible not to know it the way he showed it with every fiber of his body. "A five-day journey from here as the wolf runs," he added matter of factly.

"Yes," she whispered, having just found the paper a second before he said it, feeling deflated and small in her chair. Which wasn't hard to do in the present company.

Alpha Winter huffed in confusion at Bella before turning in his seat again. The old chair creaked with the weight of him, filling the loaded silence. This was not the first time during this meeting that Bella had had to have help with her facts. This was not a good look for the pack, and certainly not a good look for Bella. "And it will stay that way," he declared.

"We need more land," Alpha Green stated. "Our pack is growing, we have rock and stone under our feet, not the soil we need."

"You run in the mountains," Alpha Winter pointed out. "That has always been your pack's way."

"Ways change. The mountain forests are growing thin, we need more land to expand into." Alpha Green sat back in his chair with a shrug, stretching out his legs in front of him and crossing his ankles. "Northcreek territory has had its borders set for too long. We need space." His frown deepened the scars that ran deep down his face, from forehead to jaw, and further, disappearing down his shirt. Bella knew he wasn't an old man, but the scars that pierced his face, made his age indeterminable. And they made her nervous. He made no attempt to hide them, they were proudly on display, he tied his hair back to make sure they were seen. It was a signal to other wolves, and it worked in his favor.