Run Away With Me

Chapter 26: Useless but smart.

Since the beginning of my time on earth, I was convinced that I was an inconvenience. Not because my three-year-old self had self-esteem issues, but because the people around me – specifically my mother and father – thought so.

The moment I jumped out of my mother's vagina and they deduced that I was an Omega with capital letter 'o' was when my life ended. I was locked up away in my room, left alone to contemplate the meaning of my existence.

I never minded it, but that doesn't mean I loved it. The only people I ever saw were my older brother, and the maid/tutor that was entrusted with me.

Nobody else.

It was a good thing that I didn't care for the life outside my door; I hadn't even believed it existed. My tiny world was all I needed. My father and mother were mere faces on pictures, and that was fine, while my brother was my best friend. It got lonely when Fran had to go to school and play with his friends, but I never complained, I was already an inconvenience, I didn't have the right.

I was useless.

I am useless.

And powerless, too.

But I was safe.

Until Alpha Rodent and his damaged mentality came strutting into my life with his sword.

In hindsight, a six-year-old shouldn't have had such low self-esteem, considering that at that age I was supposed to feel powerful on my father's shoulder.

But it can't be helped, that's who I am. Even when Monra did his very best to convince me otherwise, and even if people needed me afterwards – for business or whatever – I still remained what I am.

Shameful.

Useless.

Powerless.

And as I lie here, looking into the frozen eyes of death, it was all the more prominent. Shame rises in me. If I wasn't an Omega in Heat, I could've made my escape. And now I had no way to save myself or the people I call friends.

Yet, my desperate command was heard by the black wolf. He stops, eyes unblinking and hot breath not registering on my skin. It seems as if even the wind stopped in anticipation on what would happen next.

Will he take an abrupt bite of my head when I least expect it, or will we remain this way forever until I die of exhaustion or fear?

But fifteen seconds, and counting, had gone by, and he didn't so much as moved a muscle. He isn't breathing, he isn't blinking, and even his fur seems to not rustle in the wind. Or maybe all this is but a hallucination and I've actually been dead for awhile.

Maybe this was my personal hell, hung on the string of chance while anticipation eats away at me.

Thirty seconds pass. He still hasn't made a move.

With much difficulty, I manage to raise my arm, poking his snout with my pinky finger. I wait, counting three hippopotami as I do so, waiting for him to eat me or something.

Nothing.

Did he actually stop? As in stop with all he was doing? Stopped moving, stopped breathing, stopped... being? Is he dead?

Is Nao dead?

"Nao..." I whisper, my voice sounding unnecessarily needy, "stop stopping." He doesn't react, glazed eyes still on me. I begin to panic, something I do too often for it to be healthy. My chest hurts, a million emotions having a party inside.

I push myself up on my elbows and wrap my whole hand around his jaw, shaking him as hard as I could. His head moves, but when I take my hand away, he finds himself in the same situation of a moment prior.