The Omega He Underestimated

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‎ The whip cracked like thunder through the air before it hit my skin."Argh!" I screamed in pain, tears stinging my eyes as the whip stung my back.It didn't matter how many times this happened. It didn't matter how many years this has been going on for. I would never be used to this level of cruelty. Not when it came from the one man who was supposed to protect me. "You useless little thing," Peter, my father, spat at me, venomsoaking his words. "You think everyone doesn't see how weak you are? How pathetic your wolf is?"Another strike came down on my back, and I flinched with my hand balling into fists. He didn't let that one sit beside another one came down on my back again."I raised you to be something," he hissed at me. "Not some runt of a creature who has her first shift at sixteen like a cursed mistake. And that wolf of yours, what can it possibly do?! You're lucky I haven't thrown you to the rogues, Seraphina. Very lucky."I bit the inside of my cheek until the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. The pain grounded me at least. It reminded me that I was there and alive still. That had to count for something.When he finally stopped, I took in a shaky breath. My back throbbed, skin raw and burning under my dress that I feared to move.Peter paced across the room, muttering insults about me to himself. I kept my eyes down as I struggled to get myself up."You're not going to be like this forever," he said suddenly, turning toward me like he hadn't just beaten me bloody. "Tonight is the moon banquet. Alpha Kaelen of Crimson Wood pack will be there, and you...you're going to catch his attention."My stomach twisted in a sickening manner as I asked him, "Why would he care about a person like me?"I didn't think he processed my question before he raised the back of his hand and made it collide with my cheek. It was so fast and so brutal that I lost my footing for a good moment."That's the problem I have with you. When you know you don't hav something, you have to pretend like you do! Why do I have to teach you everything?! You'll do what I say," he snarled at me.I kept my eyes trained on the ground, avoiding eye contact so he wouldn't slap me again and accuse me of being defiant."And if he doesn't look your way or even take a sniff in your direction, then I'll know it's because you didn't try hard enough. And if that happens, Seraphina..." He leaned close to me, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl I had heard before. "I'll make sure it's the last time anyone ever sees you again. And trust me, you won't be missed."I swallowed the growing lump in my throat, nodding quickly as my voice trembled. "Yes, sir."He straightened his back and smoothened his shirt as if the past few minutes had not happened and he had not threatened to end me."Go fix yourself. We leave in an hour. Make sure no one sees the bruises."With a single nod, I walked into my bedroom where I cried silently, the rest of the sobs ending in my throat and nearly choking me as I got in the shower and felt the sting of the water hitting my back. I watched as the water washed off my blood until it was clear.I returned to the room, where I struggled to zip up my dress due to the fresh wounds on my back. I stared at my form in the mirror, hazel eyes staring back at me. I barely recognized myself. I was a ghost of what I used to be, if at all I remembered what I used to be. I used makeup to hide the bruises and pulled my curls into an updo.And for a moment, I let myself have hope. I prayed to the Moon Goddess, hoping this would all end.~The Moon Banquet was one of the best places for politics. It was where future alphas were made and new alliances were formed. It was always held on unclaimed land so anyone could arrive except for rogues, but it was always hosted by one alpha.This year, it was Alpha Kaelen."I don't belong here," I muttered to myself when we stepped into the grand hall, hoping Peter didn't hear me.I could feel the stares on us as soon as we walked in. I felt the judgement that came with the looks as well. I was the daughter of the disgraced beta who had been banished from Crimson Wood pack for betraying the former alpha, the father of Alpha Kaelen.It made me wonder Peter wanted me to catch his eyes. After what Peter did to his father, I doubted that Alpha Kaelen would be happy to see us there."Smile," Peter hissed beside me in a whisper. "Stand straight and keep your head high. You are going to catch the eye of that alpha, even if it's the last thing you do."I could almost smell the desperation coming from him, but I simply nodded stiffly as we walked in further.The hall shimmered with gold and hints of steel made to look like silver. Wolves danced under the lights and the chandelier. I moved through them like a ghost, trying my hardest to avoid Peter for the rest of the night as I prayed and hoped that Alpha Kaelen wouldn't show up."Thank you," I said with a smile as I took a glass of what looked like wildfruit wine from a tray being passed around.When I drew it up to my lips, I felt Peter right beside me."He's coming out now. Do your best to capture his attention. I don't care how you do it," he instructed.I looked around the room, spotting far more beautiful and put-together women who would sooner pull his attention than I ever would.And then, I felt it. It was a sudden, violent pull right in my chest. Heat started to spread in my chest, following a magnetic pulse in the air. My breath stilled. My wolf, even as small as she was, started to stir in a way I didn't think I had ever felt her do before.No. My wolf never acted like this. She barely even whispered on most days. Now, she was wide awake, pacing within me with so much urgency.And that's when I saw him. Alpha Kaelen. I didn't need to be told that it was him.He was tall, power coiling around him like a bated storm. His face was sharp, and his dark eyes were locked onto mine. He looked like he had been searching for me for years."No," I whispered when I knew what this feeling was. I was starting to realize that it could only be one thing. One thing that would make him notice me that fast and me feel that drawn to him that quickly, even before seeing him."Mate."The word slipped out of his lips, low and dangerous. Like a purr. "Mate," I responded in a whisper of my own, my heart sinking as soon as I said that.I didn't know what to feel. The room faded with everyone else in the background, as if he was the only one I could see. And then it finally dawned on me.Alpha Kaelen was my mate.

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‎ From the way Peter was grinning beside me, I could tell I had gotten myself into something I would regret. After all, he had wanted me to catch Alpha Kaelen's attention. Even better for him now, I was Alpha Kaelen's mate."Mate."The word echoed in my mind, twisting my stomach. My heart pounded wildly as my wolf leapt up and started to pace once again, trying to claw her way out of me and reach for him like a wild beast.Not quite sure why I was making the first move, I took a step forward. The music had long stopped, and everyone was staring at what was happening in front of them. I didn't miss the air of discontentment from a lot of people at the fact that he was mated to a person like me, but it didn't register immediately.This could be my way out, I thought. I could be taken away from my father, taken out of the situation I was in. I could leave here tonight with my mate, and all of my problems with my father would be put behind me.Alpha Kaelen finally got over his shock and moved toward me with intent. People instinctively parted the way for him as all eyes turned to me as he finally reached me."You're my mate," I said quietly, knowing fully well that he knew that. I didn't know whether to smile or not.Alpha Kaelen's gaze never wavered past my face. He towered over me with an unreadable expression. My body trembled, but it wasn't in fear. The mate bond tugged harder at me, and I could tell from how he winced that he felt it too.Before I could open my mouth and say something else, his next words stopped me in my tracks."What an utter disgrace."It wasn't just the words that struck me across the face like a slap. It was the way he said it so coldly and so cruelly, like were not standing in the midst of all these people. I held my breath in surprise."You're on omega, aren't you?" He figured it out.The heat that had just been spreading across my chest was doused and put out by his words. Murmurs started to ripple through the crowd.He looked at me from my head to my feet, disgust pooling at his face."You don't even have to tell me you're an omega before I find out. You carry it in you. Your posture, your scent. You smell like complete weakness."I flinched. Each word sounded even more painful than the whips that Peter had dealt me earlier."I had expected that the Moon Goddess would have more sense than to do this to me," he muttered more to himself than to anyone else. "But I guess not."As if to make things worse, his eyes landed on Peter whose smile had completely faded from his face."And you," he said. "You were my father's beta before you went against his orders and betrayed him in the process. How am I supposed to be mated to your daughter with such history?"I was frozen. My feet were rooted to the floor, even with how badly I wanted to turn around and run out of there. It felt like my heart had been open, and Alpha Kaelen had wasted no time to crush it."I, Alpha Kaelen Spear of Crimson Wood Pack, reject you as my mate."Gasps filled the air in the hall, followed by silence as they all stared at me.I waited there with my breath held for the bond between us to snap as I had been told it would if someone was rejected. I had heard it was supposed to feel like a wire breaking in your chest and a gaping hole there.But nothing came.There was no snap. There was no emptiness. There was only the sharp, echoing silence in the hall and nothing more, leaving me even more confused than anything else."What..." I trailed off, looking over at Alpha Kaelen to see if he felt it too. If the bond was still there for him. But before I could get a good look at his face, he was turning around and walking away without giving me a second glance."That's so embarrassing for her," I heard someone whisper in a low, cruel tone. It was followed by laughter from whoever the person was talking to."I can't believe she thought he would accept her, knowing the history between her father and his father," someone else said.Soon, all I could hear was how foolish I was to expect anything from Alpha Kaelen. How hopeless I was.I was laughed at, pointed at, and they all had no sympathy for me. Not even in the slightest."I can't do this," I said as I turned to Peter, who was glaring at me as if he was only seconds away from having my head in his arms."What can't you do?" He asked, daring me to say what I was saying. "You can still fix this. You can convince him to take you in. Tell him you won't be weak forever. You'll train."He didn't care. He didn't care about me. I knew that a long time, but being faced with the reality of it was too much. All my father cared about was me getting him what he wanted. He didn't care that the man he wanted me to catch the attention of was my mate and had just rejected me.My legs finally moved, and I bolted. It was something I was sure I would regret, but I didn't care at the moment. All I wanted was to get out of there and be able to breathe.I just ran through the patrol guards and through the woods. Branches scratched at my arms, but I barely paid them any mind. I stumbled a couple of times, but I never fell. I couldn't afford to fall. Not now. Not after the fall I had just taken in front of that crowd.I reached home when the moon was at the peak of its glow, making a mockery of me. I stumbled through the front door and collapsed onto the cold wooden floor of the living room."Why?" I cried out, not sure if I was asking the Moon Goddess, my father, or Kaelen. "Why would you do something so cruel? Why me?! Why does it have to be me?!""He was my mate. And he just...rejected me," I rambled as I tried to come to come to terms with what had just happened and the burning humiliation I would have to carry on my shoulders now.Worst of all, the bond was still there. It was buzzing in my chest like a constant reminder of my failure. It was telling me that I wasn't free from this. Not even in the slightest.The door flew open, rattling its frame and almost coming off its hinges from how much force was used. I jumped to my feet as Peter stormed into the living room, his eyes gleaming with unadulterated fury."I was trying to tell you what to do so that you could salvage the damage you caused, but you ran out on me. How dare you?"He stepped toward me so menacingly, and his last threat toward me caused me to swallow the lump in my throat.My father was going to kill me.

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‎ "He rejected me," I started to explain myself to my father as he took slow and intentional steps toward me. A part of me knew it was useless, explaining myself. There was nothing I could possibly say that would stop him from doing whatever he wanted."You saw it, he didn't want anything to do with me," I added."And he said it's because you're an omega. A weak one. Which isn't exactly a lie, now, is it?" He asked me darkly.A small, rebellious part of me had the urge to snap at him and tell him he had his role to play in this as well. He was the beta who had betrayed Alpha Kaelen's father. Even if I wasn't an omega, it would have been hard for him to accept me as his mate anyway.I barely had any time to collect my thoughts when he exploded like a wildfire."You humiliated me!" He screamed like a man without flaws and faults. "You stood there and exposed your weakness without even standing up for yourself!"What was I supposed to say when my mate was attacking me with hurtful words? I was in shock."I told you to catch his attention, not disgust him!" He roared at me as his face twisted with pure hate. "Do you ever get anything right in your miserable little life?!"I did catch his attention. What disgusted him was not me exactly, but what I had been broken to become. And my father's history as well."I regret the day you were born into this world. You have always been a mistake," he spat with venom.His words didn't hurt anymore. They were simply refrains of what he had said before. There was nothing he would insult me with that I hadn't heard from him before. "I tried," I whispered weakly. My voice cracked from the slight effort. "I just...I didn't know things would end this way and-"A sharp slap across my cheek cut me off. My head jerked sideways, giving me a momentary whiplash. The sting of the slap was immediate and hot, reminding me of what kind of man I called my father."You were born wrong!" He hissed at me. "How else can a man strong enough to be a beta like me have something so cursed like you, an omega? I needed a weapon for a child. One that would carve a path for me. Why couldn't you be strong like the others?! Why did you have to shift at sixteen instead of when you turned ten like every other normal wolf out there?!"I remembered the night I had shifted clearly. Four years ago, sixteen without any hope of having a wolf after I had missed the chance to shift on my tenth birthday. It had happened so suddenly. One minute, I felt nothing. The next, my bones were shifting and turning.There was nothing I could say in response. He didn't need me to explain myself. All he wanted was for me to bleed, and I could tell."No, please!" Even then, I still couldn't fight off the urge to beg him to spare me as he grabbed my hand and dragged me down to the basement where I had been kept prisoner more than I would have liked.There was a dim light hanging from the ceiling, casting eerie shadows along the walls of the basement. Shadows that had spoken to me on lonely nights in the basement. I had been brought down here a lot as punishment.But it was different this time, and I could feel it."What... No, no, no. Please, don't do this. I admit that I made a mistake," I pleaded as he grabbed a leather I was familiar with. It was carefully threaded with silver so that only the person holding it would control where the silver touched so it wouldn't burn.Peter didn't care. He grabbed my hands and strapped them with the leather."I've had enough of you being weak," he said as he smeared something cold and dark across my chest. From the strong smell of iron emanating from it, I knew it was blood. And then he started to chant words I'd never heard before."I'm done waiting," he muttered under his breath. "If the goddess didn't bless me with a powerful child, I'll just have to make do with the one she gave me. I'll awaken something in you, Seraphina. Something even the most powerful alphas will have no other choice than to bow to."And that was how it started. Days of torture. He kept me tied up in the basement, bringing food and water only once daily before he would start his strange rituals.He would burn herbs, slice the palm of his hand, chant spells I didn't think he was supposed to even know about. Each night, there were more cuts and more symbols. My bones ached with fatigue.But I didn't cry. Not anymore. Something in me was changing, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I started to feel strange. Like something was crawling beneath my skin. I would wake up in the middle of the night with a burning ache in my chest, drenched in my own sweat. Worst of all, it felt like these emotions weren't mine. There was pure rage and so much loneliness.Kaelen.It had to be him. Each time I felt it, I also felt the tug of the mate bond.I felt his fury pulsing through me like fire. I felt his rage at everyone, everything, and even himself. He was clinging so tightly to control, desperately fighting the madness that clawed at his mind."Goddess," I whispered one night as I felt his hunger. It was so wide, so vast, that it didn't have a start or an end.Hunger for me.I felt his longing and his need every night, rendering me unable to sleep. The mate bond wasn't breaking, but it was evolving. It seemed to be growing.I soon started to lose track of time. The only thing that would wake me up to what was happening around me was Peter's voice. His methods were even more brutal than the last.One day, without warning, he burst into the basement in a hurry that made me panic. He moved fast as he untied my wrists. The silver burned, but I didn't scream."Go into your room now. Go put on something decent. Make sure it covers your sleeves and your wrists. Cover your bruises," he ordered me as he yanked me out of the basement and pushed me into my bedroom.With each stair I climbed, my muscles felt even more sore and my skin more raw.I picked a navy blue dress. It fit snugly across my skin, comforting me like the hug I longed for but never got. I smoothed my hair back and hurriedly put makeup on my face as I heard Peter's approaching footsteps."Well, come on!" He whispered aggressively at me as he grabbed my hand and led me out of the bedroom.My stomach twisted into knots when I smelled him. Pine and rain. Something natural and so familiar.Kaelen.I froze at the bottom of the stairs as my gaze collided with his. He stood in the center of the living room, his black coat wet from the drizzle of rain outside. His chest rose and fell like he had been running, and his eyes were so ferocious and locked onto mine, never leaving.I could tell without anyone saying anything to me. He was there for me.

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