An Idol for the Omega

Chapter 2: The Airport, Take Two

Braden

"Alpha, you knew the Luna's flight wouldn't be until this afternoon, there's no reason to take your impatience out on me." I cross my arms, lightly grumbling at the towering man next to me. He just ignores me and continues to slightly bounce uncontrollably at my side. I arrived with Alpha Christopher nearly three hours ago, even though Luna Alec's flight isn't expected for another ten minutes still.

For the third time in the last hour the Alpha has snapped at me to get closer to the gate. Is he really worried that his mate won't see him? Alpha Christopher has already attracted a lot of attention, from females and males alike, during our wait inside the airport. We're so close to where Luna Alec will exit from that if we get any closer we're going to start making security nervous.

Maybe I should have stayed back at the pack house, but when the Alpha saw me on his way out this morning and asked if I wanted to go, I, too, was excited to see my Luna. Since, Luna Alec has been mated to our Alpha, the whole pack has felt his calming and gentle presence. Since he left to go visit his exchange family for a week, the whole pack has dealt with the Alpha's overly excited, aggressive and sometimes downright rude attitude. Alpha Christopher wasn't even like this before the small vet moved to town a year ago.

If I'd stayed back at the pack house, I could have found plenty to do. While I still have to train weekly with the whole pack, at least I'm an omega and not required to train daily with the warriors. However, my days are usually filled with work to do for the pack.

The kitchen is almost always filled with cooks and helpers, making a near constant stream of food for the large pack's hungry numbers. It's not required to live in the pack house, but most do although they take care of their own private living quarters, either single wolves or families. The communal areas, such as the large living rooms, TV room, computer room, game and rec room and the pup's playroom require help from many of the members to keep clean.

Help is usually required at the pup's playroom the most, taking care of the young of the pack. Aside from pack work and training, many of the members work in town, for the pack businesses, or study at the university a couple of towns over. Those that stay within the pack grounds all have our assigned tasks, but we all pitch in and help where ever there's a need. Even though our pack is one of the largest of the area, there aren't any strangers among its members.

I wasn't on the cleaning schedule today, so I probably would have been helping out with the infant pups. They're definitely my favorite, because they need a lot of cuddles and I can immerse myself with all the attention they require. I love smelling their sweet scent while feeding them and it brings me a sort of peace when I finally calm a particularly colicky one.

Right now, I'd take the loudest, messiest infant over the Alpha. Not that I'd ever say that out loud to him. He's still my Alpha.

The minutes tick by and soon the display board announces the Luna's flight arrival. I cross my arms and stand patiently alongside the hopping mountain of a man. Passengers slowly start to trickle through the gate and I notice that across from us is a large gathering of people that are starting to show a near-bursting amount of excitement.

A lot have cameras, while others have their phones out and held up above the crowd. There are posters with faces and names I don't recognize scrawled across them. Some say things like "That's my Jam!" and other phrases I would consider nonsense. I'm only twenty-two, but maybe I'm too old to know this trend. I'll try to commit it memory to ask some of the pack teens, maybe they'd be excited about a celebrity sighting.

My inner wolf seems to stir inside me, getting anxious. I've been trying to not breathe in all the unfamiliar and overwhelming scents that surround us in the airport but my wolf might be getting nervous with the sudden energy of the crowd. I glance at the Alpha, but he seems to be solely focused on watching for the Luna, his sharp eyes gazing through the crowd as he takes slow, concentrated breaths. I can tell when he catches his mate's scent, because his eyes jump to a specific point among the passengers and his breathing becomes faster and deeper.