Moon of Claiming

Chapter Eight: Niall

        “What in the hell possessed you to ask an Omega out?” Sirius questioned gruffly, taking another swig from his bottle of beer.

          I growled under my breath. “Don’t talk about Accalia like that.”

          Sirius’s eyebrows went up to his hairline as he stared at me like I was from another world. “You’re sunk, Niall,” he commented, setting his beer on the table. I sighed quietly, rubbing my eyes.

          “Doesn’t this place ever seem too empty to you?” I asked my Beta softly. He looked incredulous as he stared at me again.

          “There are seven of us living in here, Niall,” he said, spreading his arms out wide so as to include the entire house. “And you think that it’s empty?” I looked around.

          The “house”, or lodge, or castle, was over fifty thousand square feet of bedrooms, living rooms, fireplaces, ex cetera. There were two kitchens, twelve bedrooms, a game room, a fireplace in almost every other room, and you could see the forest from our back porch. We had parties here at least once a month; the entire pack was always invited, and they always were just barely manageable after they’d been drinking. Sirius and I were sitting in one of the living room, throwing back beers and watching the Summer Olympics in London. I lived with my two Betas upstairs, while my Gammas and Deltas lived downstairs. At the moment, the Gammas and Deltas were probably watching a movie in our home theater. I’d asked them to look over some videos tapes we made a while back, and then to compare them to the tapes we’d just made recently. It had been three days now and they still weren’t done with it.

          My eyes flickered over to the clock and I grinned; it was already eight. I stood up and sighed, stretching my arms out in front of me. I heard my elbows pop and smiled absently, rolling my shoulders. I was already wearing my favorite graphic tee and jeans that weren’t ripped, so I was good to go. I walked towards the front door, snagging my keys to my Jeep Cherokee on the way out. Sirius called a “goodbye” from his spot on the couch, but I barely heard him. I was too busy thinking about Accalia to worry about much else. I smiled to myself as I got in my car, remembering the carefree smile of the fourth-grade girl who used to run into my arms when she got off the bus. I could still feel her little arms around my neck sometimes, could picture her wavy black hair flying behind her as she charged down the steps to meet me at the bus stop. Some days, she’d run into my open arms with a grin, others with tears in her eyes. Then, I’d always wipe her tears away and hold her until she was happy again. I sighed sadly as I drove down the road towards Main Street. The days when she would run into my arms were long since over.

          I waved to people I knew who were walking down the sidewalk. A few girls that I used to date made cat calls and wolf whistles, but I only smiled and ignored them. I went down a dirt road to the Omegas’ house, my car lurching forward and to the side every few seconds. I pulled it to a stop just in front of the porch and took a deep breath when I saw Accalia. She was wearing dark jeans, blue feather earrings, a burnt orange one-shoulder blouse, and a dark blue beanie as she swung gently on the porch swing. I scowled when I saw my very recent ex-girlfriend, Astrid, standing over her in that threatening way of hers. I got out of the car, not bothering to shut the door. I walked up the porch steps silently as Astrid’s voice got louder.

          “You don’t even have the right to be talking to him,” I heard her say as I moved nearer. “You’re only a simple Omega. You should go mate with your own kind. What Niall needs is a real woman, not half of one.”

          “So, that puts you out of the running,” came the sarcastic reply. Then there was a growl and I saw Astrid’s arm shooting forward and her black claws marking Accalia’s cheek cruelly. And Accalia never said a word; she just sat there and took it like she’d put up with it her entire life.