The Tribute (Clexa)

Chapter 20

"What is this?" Lexa asked as she watched the eight men and woman who made up her frightening protection detail unpack the wooden crate.

"The second you enter Polis; you need to be recognized as our new Heda. Sheidheda wants there to be no mistaking who the next Commander is. He has a special gift for you and your omega." Anya seemed excited and was obviously fully aware of what was in the crate.

"Clarke is not my omega," Lexa quickly refuted when she saw the look the blonde made when Anya said those words.

Anya rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do, but do not say it again," Lexa almost snarled. "Clarke is her own person. She does not belong to anyone."

Anya turned and bowed her head slightly to Clarke. "Lexa is correct. I am sorry, and I hope I didn't offend you."

"You didn't. We both know what you meant. I am the Tribute. Lexa won the Conclave. I get it," Clarke said almost sarcastically.

"At least you have stopped calling yourself the prize. That's real progress, seken," Anya pointed out.

Anya looked so proud, and Clarke thought the alpha the oddest of people. The things Clarke did that made her fos proud often were things that she was almost ashamed of, and sometimes things she thought were a big deal, Anya made nothing of. In this case, Clarke wasn't sure what to think. It wasn't as often now, because Lexa and everyone else had gone out of their way to make her feel accepted, but every once in a while, and only for a minute or two, she did think of herself as the prize, but then she would shake the feeling away. She was doing her best to undo what the Ark had done to her, but she knew it was going to take time. Stray, not so welcome thoughts, would enter her head, but she was getting better at banishing those thoughts and keeping them at bay. No longer was her mind a black abyss of despair. Even when she did fall into the darkness, she was now able to see a light at the end of that tunnel, and in that light, she saw a real potential for happiness.

If reaching that happy, light place meant no longer thinking of herself as a prize, then that was what she was going to do. The new people in her life had been instrumental in getting her to realize that she had worth as an individual, and that she was deserving of a life that didn't involve sadness, obeying every command, and fearing every person that came near her.

She had surprised herself that morning when the others were playing the ball game. Before, once she found out that those people were the Masked Gona who had so terrified her the one time, she would have gone skittering back to hide in her tent, but after seeing them as people who could joke and laugh and play a game, she no longer feared them. The realization that two of them were omegas nearly floored her. Two of the most frightening people Clarke had ever met were omegas. It was astonishing, and she thought that if the Ark ever came down to earth, she wanted those two omegas, with their masks on, at her side to scare the ever-living shit out of the alphas on the Ark.

Anya startled her out of her thoughts when she added that she enjoyed it when Clarke got a little bit snarky like she just had. "You have sass in you. I am going to get it out of you one of these days, and I hope when I do it is you telling me to stick it up my ass for trying to tell you to do something that you don't want to do." Anya got a dreamy look in her eye. "That will be an amazing day."

Lexa gave Clarke a look. "Ignore her. She has always been this way."

"I'll take your word for it." She looked forward to the day where she would be brave enough to tell Anya to stick it.

Gustus, who was always nearby, cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. The eight gona had unpacked the crate and had two packages, neatly wrapped in paper and tied with twine, waiting for their Heda and Clarke.