One

Chapter 17

Everything returned back to normal, for the most part. It was clear from Jamie's posture, shoulders dipped down, a softer hint to his Petrichor scent and the general relaxation throughout his body, that he trusted Brandon more.

It was something the young Alpha was extremely proud of. To have earned, perhaps re-earned the trust after pushing Sean too far on their first run.

Brandon wasn't going to put himself in another position where he had to beg for forgiveness, yearning to earn the trust back.

This time, he wasn't going to lose it again.

Especially not after learning part of their horrific past. No, Brandon was going to do his absolute best to make sure that, from here on out, Sean, Jamie and the rest of the community only had positive interactions with any Alpha.

Realistically speaking, Brandon knew that was impossible. After all, the pack was only human ; they were bound to make mistakes.

Anyone who had a bad day, was sleep deprived or overall grumpy could snap at the wrong moment, at the wrong place.

And normally, that wouldn't be an issue. Normally, a flared up temper would be met with surprise, sure. But most, if not all of the time, both parties understood and apologized, more so the annoyed person who snapped.

Yet Brandon refused to believe it was okay to expose Sean and Jamie to such a reaction. At least, not without seeing an Alpha's response to it.

They wouldn't have any experience with Alphas apologizing for their wrongdoings, if they had been in the hands of Corrupted.

Corrupted didn't care if they did something wrong, because in their eyes, they never could do wrong. Their actions were justified through their warped sense of thinking, the loss of humanity and their animal instincts were primarily focused on need, need, need.

The need to dominate, to be in charge, to have someone subservient to themselves. Someone like that would never apologize for their actions.

In fact, they would blame the victim. Blame Sean, Jamie or Royal for any perceived wrongdoing. For being punished, being abused. The Corrupted would twist and corrupt their victim's mental sanity until it was nonexistent.

They'd never apologize.

But the Alphas in the pack would. And seeing how Sean had already been shocked simply by observing how kind and gentle the Alphas could be with the rest of the pack... Brandon could guess how the pup would react to an Alpha apologizing in person.

Plus, he had a pretty good feeling with most of the Alphas in the pack. They had already proven themselves by giving Sean the space he needed.

They had read the Omega's body language and understood that he was afraid. Terrified of being near anyone ranking higher than him.

Which was a rather absurd concept within their pack. To their understanding, the highest ranking creature was not the Pack Alpha.

It was the Pack Omega.

After all, Omegas were created due to the presence of a gestating Alpha. While an Omega's wolf tended to be much weaker, softer willed compared to the rest of the pack, the same couldn't be said about their nature.

Omegas were strong, physically and mentally resilient. They had to be since before they were born, turned and survived the transitioning process.

Nature had created them to be capable of soothing an Alpha, soothing their mates and pack.

A weak-willed, feeble creature that flinched at the shadow of a leaf caught in the breeze, would not be able to do so.