Chapter Six

Keira except her face is more round and soft 😍😍😍 ^

Bridger's POV

I didn't get even a wink of sleep last night. I had stayed up most of the night, sending emails to the few packs that were available on The Elder's registered list. It's very new technology and The Board wanted werewolves to become more accepting of technological advancements in the supernatural race. It's clear that many of us are not accepting of it, but my pack and a few others embraced these attempts. Packs had the choice of whether or not to put themselves on the list and make it available for whoever can access the site. It makes communicating easier but most werewolves don't see it that way. The list consists of the names of the packs, the rank, the population, the overall rating by Inspectors, and a breakdown of that rating.

Now, I'm just waiting for responses.

I emailed four packs last night with one of them being located in Canada. I had explained the omegas' situation the best I could as well as requested a waiting period so Jenna could have her pup here since she seems so comfortable and safe in the care of our medics. The only concern I have is the corruption of the rating system. The Elders can be easily persuaded into giving packs a better rating on upkeep, safety, and such so they'd look more attractive to werewolves looking for alliances or permanent places to stay. The Elders are corrupt and I've always wanted to see a change in their system but until now, there hasn't been.

Maybe one day.

"Beta Bridger?"

My hateful thoughts are interrupted by a soft voice. I look up to see Keira standing in the doorway of my office. I smile at her but she doesn't return it. Her face tells me she's troubled so I gesture for her to come in. I close my books and my laptop and give her my undivided attention.

Her therapist in the pack had passed away recently and though everyone is supposed to go to Arron's delta with concerns, many people have found me more welcoming. And as the beta, I can't just turn them away even if listening to their problems isn't part of my job description. I'm supposed to be Arron's second in command, by his side every hour of every day and giving him my advice for everything pack related. But neither Arron nor I want that. If he were a different person, then doing my actual job would be easier and I'd be eager to help out.

However, unfortunately, Arron is just a shitty person.

Keira takes a seat in front of me and places her clasped hands on my desk.

"I know that Alpha Arron and the new omega...Kian? Are mates," she says.

I frown. "How did you find that out?"

Her face turns red and she clears her throat, shifting in her seat. "I wasn't eavesdropping! I was just walking by the common room and I overheard you two talking about Alpha Arron."

She was definitely eavesdropping. I try not to crack a smirk knowing how nosy Keira and her friends are. I've caught them several times eavesdropping on important meetings and they'd go on to come up with an excuse far from the truth. I couldn't get mad at them, though. They're adorable when they fight each other to find the right excuse, stumbling over their words and making absolutely no sense.

"So um..." she sits back in my chair, "if they're mates does that mean that Alpha Arron will stop trying to get with me?"

I don't answer immediately. Arron has been obsessed with mating with Keira ever since she and her two dads moved into the pack years ago. I had told him to wait until he turns eighteen and when he did and his mate ended up not being in the pack, he went straight back to trying to court Keira. Despite constantly trying to pursue her, she rejected him, stating that she wants her actual mate and not an angry alpha. Arron had even thought about using his pheromones to get Keira to agree to be with him but I quickly advised against that. Being rejected by an omega has hurt his ego pretty badly.

I don't blame Arron for being attracted to her. She's gorgeous and gentle like any omega would be but also strong and stubborn like any zeta would be. She's Arron's type to a T and I'm happy she's not with him. She'll be eighteen very soon and hopefully, will find her mate who will be much better than Arron.

"Not exactly," I say, "they're going to reject each other."

Her eyes widen and a gasp escapes her mouth as she covers it with her small hands. Talking about rejection between mates is almost taboo. No pair of mates should ever think about rejecting each other. In a traditional pairing, there's a dominant wolf and a submissive wolf - this doesn't apply to all. Rejection could harm the submissive one so badly that they could die while the dominant could lose his mind and/or become rogue, going back to only primal instincts and having to face immediate death before they can escape and bring terror.

"R-Reject?!" Keira repeats, "oh Goddess! Why?!"

I shrug. Neither of them confirmed it but I knew that they didn't feel even the slightest pull of the bond. Plus, it's very clear neither of them wants each other. It's rare, but sometimes mates can find each other and not feel anything between them. Scientists had a fancy word for it that I can't remember at the moment but I liked to call it Goddess' Glitch. She never makes mistakes, but I do believe there are things that She does that can get lost in translation such as werewolves never getting their wolf counterpart, alphas not having the Alpha Gene, and mates not having a bond. In this situation, it's basically where she forgets to tether the souls of the people together or the souls somehow get untethered so that when the pairing finds each other, they feel nothing and hardly acknowledge each other as mates.

So the rejection wouldn't hurt them, it might benefit them actually.

"They're not fit for each other," I say, "I don't want to get into details as this isn't any of your business, but just know this rejection won't hurt either of them. And I don't think Arron will stop trying to pursue you, I'm sorry."

That makes her eyebrows narrow as she crosses her arms over her chest.

"Well, can you please talk to him again? Ask for him to leave me alone? If my mate isn't in this pack, my dads agreed to let me go out with an epsilon to find them. I don't want Alpha Arron to cause any trouble for me when I do."

I've talked to Arron before to get him to leave her alone. He only accused me of wanting her too.

I nod. "I'll talk to him, but I can't guarantee he won't throw a tantrum when the time comes."

That gets me a giggle as she stands up from my desk. She thanks me for my time and quickly exits my office, leaving my door open as it was before she came in.

When I hear that she's gone, I sigh and rest back in my seat. I put my hands behind my head and lean back before closing my eyes. Sometimes I feel like I do more in this pack than Arron does. In the past, he put almost all of what should have been his duties onto me so now he expects me to do more than what I really should be doing. It's tiring but someone has to do it and do it correctly. Arron is too...Arron to get things done efficiently so that leaves everything up to me. I can't imagine how this pack would be without me. If something were to ever happen to Arron then I'd take his place since I can't imagine him having children any time soon. Many people have vocalized their feelings about Arron's way of leading and said to his face how they'd rather me be their alpha than him.

It only made Arron dislike me more. Like I said before, big ego.

It makes me happy, in a twisted sense, that his only mate is rejecting him. He doesn't deserve an omega and as ideal as it is for an alpha to be mated to an omega, a relationship between him and one would only turn out bad. He needs someone to beat him off of his high horse, someone strong enough to put him in his place.

Kian wouldn't do that...he's too timid and his want to obey seems too strong. That's the only flaw omegas have: the strong need to constantly obey. Though here we've managed to make our omegas here headstrong. Take Keira for example, constantly rejecting Arron and taking her own path. I wish to be able to do that with Kian - maybe even Peyton and Jenna. But Peyton already seems incredibly stubborn, he only follows what Kian does and Jenna needs to focus on her pregnancy. I'm not saying that he isn't strong because Goddess knows the traumas he's been through and for him to make it out and accept help shows his strength. But I have trained many omegas to teach them how to fight and stand up for themselves. Kian and his friends need that kind of training especially since they're not staying here. So if I can't reach Peyton or Jenna, I'll try my hardest to reach Kian and his lessons may possibly trickle down onto them and his other friends.

With that decided, I stand up from my desk and organize my items before leaving. While locking my door, the scent of sweet strawberries invades my nose and I know exactly who it belongs to. I look up and my eyes immediately land on the small omega who I was just about to go find.

"Kian?" I say, confused, "is something wrong?"

He quickly shakes his head, brown eyes wide as always. Goddess...he's so cute.

"I-I..." he pauses as he straightens himself up, "I wanted to ask something."

I quirk my eyebrow up at him which tells him to go on.

"Peyton is getting...um...r-restless. He wants to know how long we have to st-stay here."

"Are you not enjoying your stay?" I tease, holding back a smirk as his eyes widen to saucers and his mouth falls agape. He vigorously shakes his head.

"You can be honest," I say, "it won't hurt my feelings if you don't like our pack."

"I-It's not that! I promise" he says quickly, "it's just that...w-we had plans."

"Plans?"

He nods and I figure that's the end of it. I want to explain to him that I've already contacted packs around the country to see where they can permanently stay but I know he and Peyton would be against it at first, so it's better I get more details before telling them anything. In the end, I don't want to force them to go to a pack. They had the courage to escape their old one and I'm sure they knew what they were doing when they did it, finding my pack just happened to be a mistake. I do, however, hope they deeply consider relocating to another pack. It can be dangerous to not belong to a pack as an omega, there are too many predators out there who seek out omegas and do horrendous things to them for some type of gain.

"I've thought it over and decided to extend your stay until Jenna has her pup, it's only to ensure she stays healthy throughout her pregnancy and delivers a healthy pup."

He seems to think for a second before slowly nodding which causes me to smile. I can see just how deeply he cares about his friends. If anything, his friends are his only pack. Wait...

Jace rumbles in my head as if the mere absurdity of my thought woke him. 'You're not thinking about...no way, Bridge. There's absolutely no way'

I ignore Jace, knowing he'd be against the idea that's budding in the back of my mind. It's not a good idea by any means, but...there's a possibility I can make it happen.

"Wait a second, Kian," I say. "I've been thinking about something...you have to hear me out."

He looks up at me with a frown and when he doesn't respond, I take that as my cue to keep going.

"I'd like to train you," I say, "I've done it with the other omegas and they all enjoyed it." That's a stretch but he doesn't need to know that.

He stares at me as if I just grew two heads right in front of him. Confusion spreads across his face as his brown eyebrows crease together. His body tenses and I begin to worry he took it the wrong way.

"I'm Arron's beta," I explain, "I trained with him as an alpha my entire life and I also took on Iota lessons when I was a teenager. I took it upon myself to put omegas and pups through Eta-level training sessions and I'd like to do the same for you."

"Why?" he asks.

I gesture for him to follow me into my office, not wanting to disturb anyone else on this hall and not wanting them to be part of our business either. He does reluctantly, folding his arms across his chest and taking small steps behind me. When he's in my office, I close the door and gesture for him to sit where Keira had sat minutes earlier.

I hum as I walk over to my bookshelf, pulling out some books that would be useful for the conversation.

"Do you know anything about omegas?" I ask, knowing the question sounded stupid and almost offensive. Hopefully, he doesn't take it as an insult. Most packs don't even acknowledge the true purpose of omegas.

"What?" he asks, "I...am one."

I laugh as I crash down in my chair in front of him. I place three books atop my desk. They're old, dusty books that I found in the oldest library known to werewolves. The library is located in Greece - where the first werewolf pack originated when leaving the Goddess' Beforelands for the first time. These books are stolen but...no one needs to know that.

"I know you are one," I say while cracking a smile, "but I'm going to assume based on how you've been mistreated by your pack that you don't know exactly what you are. And don't be embarrassed, most don't, because nowadays, omegas aren't respected the way they used to be."

He stays silent as he watches me open the first book: a dark velvety blue cover with gold engravings. It's dirty and when I open it, dust pours out and makes Kian cough. He leans away from the desk, waving his hand around to break the dust in the air.

"Sorry, I don't take good care of my books," I say sheepishly, "I really need to clean."

"I-I can do it for you," he offers quickly as he stands from his seat.

Without thinking, I reach across my desk and grab his wrist to stop him. He tenses up before I even touch him and when I do, I fear his body will break with how rigid he becomes. Something tells me not to let go so I don't. I hesitantly brush my thumb against his soft, warm skin. Slowly, while looking him in the eye to note any discomfort, I bring his hand over to me. I bring his wrist to my nose and inhale. I close my eyes as my wolf purs as his sweet scent enters our body.

"A-Are you...are you scenting me?" his voice brings me back to my senses. Surprisingly, he doesn't sound alarmed, just awkward or embarrassed.

I shake my head. "I'm not. Your scent is just...really good."

His face turns a furious shade of red and he quickly slides his hand out of my grip. I let it go easily and watch him cross his arms again while avoiding my gaze.

I go back to the topic at hand. "But you don't have to lift a finger during your stay. We have cleaners, I just don't let people clean my private spaces."

"O-Okay," he hesitantly sits back down and I lift up in my seat to go back to our discussion.

"I found this book when I was about fifteen," I say, "Arron's father was the alpha at the time, and my dad, his beta. My dad made me travel with them to Greece for a conference and I stole some books for an ancient library there-"

"The first library?" he asks as he leans in to listen, "t-the first library of our kind?"

I nod. "You know of it? A lot of us don't know about it. But yes, these are books that I stole from it. I could get in a lot of trouble for stealing something so sacred, but as long as it stays between you and me, then I should get away with no consequences. Can I trust that this will be a secret between us?"

He quickly nods as he stares at the books with wide eyes. His blush is long gone.

"There are a lot of theories that circle around the library. Some packs say The First Elders had written these under Goddess' guide and others say Goddess Herself wrote these and sent them down with the first wolves to leave Her lands. They say She told them to build the library and during the Land War in the 1400s between us and the original dominant species on Earth: Vampires, we lost a great deal of it thanks to them."

Contrary to popular belief, vampires and werewolves are not mortal enemies. They had fought us because we were trying to take their land when in actuality, we had no idea what to do in this new world, in this new realm. We hadn't known about vampires until then, they were just a myth to us and a way to get pups to obey. To us, vampires were just superhumans with sharp teeth and we'd tell our pups that if they didn't obey, the vampires would eat them.

Boy were we wrong.

No one won the war, however. Vampires realized we were just a lost species who were sent to earth against our wishes and upon further consideration, we managed to coexist peacefully alongside humans without any issues. That is until we realized that they were and still are taking our omegas and using them to breed.

Kian hangs on to every word I say. He stays silent as I explain to him the significance of all the books in the library including the lost ones. Most of the books have been translated and the ones I have aren't the exact original copy, but I took it upon myself to learn our ancient language and it is translated word for word.

"These books I have here are mostly about Goddess' wishes for pack function," I say as I open the blue one. I flip to a page I marked the first time I read it. "This page discusses the purpose of omegas based on Her views."

I slide the book over to him. I watch him scan the words before his face reddens a bit and he looks up at me. He swallows thickly as he slides it back to me.

"I'm...not good at reading," he whispers as he looks down. "They didn't teach me."

What the fuck? How could his pack take something so crucial away from them?

'They made it say that their omegas rely solely on them' Jace says 'they have to take away every. Single. freedom an individual can have and one of those is the ability to read'

I can't imagine not being to read. Reading is such a great and incredibly important skill to have.

"I can teach you," I say, "I'll train you and also teach you how to read."

"You don't have to," he says while shaking his head. "I-I've got on well without it."

"But it's important," I press, "reading is important, I won't let you or Peyton or even Jenna leave this pack without knowing how to read. And I'm training you so that you can protect yourself. I trained Keira and all the others. Being completely self-sufficient is important and your old pack took that away from you. It's time you get it back, am I wrong?"

He shakes his head and I take that as an agreement.

- - -

Word Count: 3056

Bridger stands for omega rights and I find that sexy af