The Rise of an Omega ✓

24a.

The atmosphere in the old house on 5th street was never a good one.

On days where Naomi would be out, the kids would feel like they could breathe, but there was still a tension hovering the air. Amelia blamed it in the energy the people who attended the meetings exhaled. That was not a place for a happy family to live. But they weren't a family, neither were they happy. So it wasn't a problem. Not for Naomi, anyway.

But that night, it was worse. The two teenagers - who, disobeying their mother's command, were at the top of the stairs, trying to be as much quiet as they could - felt like they could cut the air with a knife, so dense it was.

The tension in the place making the goosebumps rise in their arms. A shiver ran through Juliette's spine. Since she had been adopted and came to live in the house, she had never seen her sister stand up for herself like that. There were times where she would try to defend her younger siblings from their mother, but she never did it for herself.

So to see the girl not only coming back from death but challenging Naomi's reasons, was at the same time relieving and scary.

Amelia was doing the question the three of them wanted to know for a long time. But there were always consequences when you speak like that to someone like Naomi. And she was afraid for her older sister and what was to come.

"You know nothing about anything. Do you think you have the right to demand something?" She could hear their mother's voice, sounding disgusted.

"So explain to me. Tell me what I don't know." Amelia kept demanding answers.

Juliette descended the stairs slowly, avoiding the steps she knew that creaked, trying to not draw attention to herself. Albert whisper yelled at her, asking what she was doing, but she just shrugged and kept going. If Albert was too afraid to come near them, he could stay there. But she needed to see what was going on.

Standing in the last step, Juliette gradually turned in the direction of the kitchen. Still hiding her body behind the wall, she moved her head to the side to watch the two women there.

Naomi had her back towards the girl, and Amelia seemed too concentrated in her mother's face to look over her shoulder and notice Juliette spying on them.

"You want to know? Do you want to know that your parents were monsters? That they were not human?" The venom dripping in her voice making Juliette's heart accelerate in fear. Her eyes were as wide as Amelia's before the words they heard.

"You know who my parents are?" What once was a demanding voice, now was an incredulous whisper. Wet lines forming in her face as the tears fell.

"You heard what I said? They were not humans. They were werewolves." Naomi's words did nothing to shake Amelia. But for Juliette, it was another story.

A gasp left her mouth, and she had to cover it with her hand to prevent a scream to escape. Amelia's parents were werewolves? Does that mean she was one too? Thoughts were running quickly in the girl's head.

"What happened to them? How did you know them?" The words were barely registered in the girl's mind. But the urgent tone took her out of her head.

"You know. Don't you?" It was Naomi's turn to sound startled. Amelia took a deep breath.

"Yes. I know. Now tell me who they are." Juliette was trying her hardest to follow the conversation.

"How do you know? When did you-" But she was interrupted by a very hostile Amelia.

"It is not your time to question anything. You lied to me my whole life but now you are going to tell me everything." The girl had never seen her sister like that.

The redness in her face was not from shame or shyness like always. The sharp look in her eyes, staring directly at Naomi did not leave a doubt that she had a purpose, and she would get it. In any way she needed.

This sight was almost... frightening. Juliette could see her sister's hand trembling, and her fists clenching, it did not look like she was going to punch Naomi. It was like she was trying to hold back from jumping in her throat.

"Everything? So you want to know about the shame this family is since my mother got pregnant with a werewolf's baby? Or do you want to know how a human cannot generate a werewolf baby, and how my mother died giving birth to that abomination? Huh?"

Juliette felt like they could have knocked her over with a feather. Amelia didn't look any different. All the color in her face had vanished. And she looked like she could fall on the floor at any moment.

"Yes. You heard me." Something in Naomi seemed to be unlocked with the challenge and she couldn't stop talking now. As if it was a competition to see who had more shocking news. "Your mother was my sister. And her monster genes killed my mother."

"She was just a baby. You can't blame her for what happened." Juliette thought that Amelia should be really out of her mind with the shock to try to reason with Naomi's logic.

"Oh, and it wasn't her fault when she grew up to be a little monster? Always better than me in everything with that disgusting super senses and super strength. In that dysfunctional 'pack' family. As if they were not animals." Something clicked in Juliette's head at those words. And by the look on Amelia's face, she had seen it too.

"So that's what it is about. You were jealous of her. And you blamed her for something she could not be responsible for just because you wanted a reason to hate her." Amelia seemed frantic, looking at all directions lost in thoughts, trying to put the pieces together.

"She was a monster. She should've never been born. The existence of creatures like you and her are a disrespect to God." Her index finger was pointed in the girl's face. "But I am a good servant. Even after having my life destroyed by your kind, and having to live with my aunt, seeing that girl having a life that was supposed to be mine, I still took care of you."

If Naomi had ever looked so crazy, Juliette could not remember, and this was something she would not forget so easily.

The woman was trembling. Her whole body. Her voice was shaking and she kept moving her hands around. Amelia didn't seem scared like her sister. She was paying attention to every word that came out of the crazy woman's mouth. Juliette didn't blame her.

"And why you adopted me? What happened to them?" And here was. Juliette knew that this was the point Amelia wanted to arrive. Understand why she needed to be adopted. It was a common question for them.

"Your mother got married to another monstrous werewolf and they had you. But their perfect life had a short end when they died in a car crash." Naomi seemed frighteningly delighted to announce it. Juliette's heart tightened seeing the pained expression on her sister's face.

"You were on the car too, but survived. The hospital called me because I was on her emergency contact list. Can you believe it? We didn't talk for years and she put me in that stupid list." Naomi waved her hand around as if Amelia's mother was the crazy person in the story.

"I was the first to arrive at the hospital. I don't know why I went there. But when I saw you I thought God had a plan for me. So I took you." Juliette's loud gasp only wasn't hard because Amelia's own was louder. The girl took a few steps back as if she had been pushed.

"You stole me from my family?" Amelia voiced the unbelief Juliette was feeling.

"No. I did what needed to be done. If their family raised you, you would be a monster like them. But I chose to raise you like a normal person, and heal you from that curse." Amelia stepped forward in firm steps, stopping right in front of Naomi's face. Juliette took a step back unconsciously at the enraged look of her sister.

She didn't know where this fight was going to lead, but the shiver running in her spine told her to prepare for what was to come.