Page 20 of The Sad Omega

“He’s working down by the shed this morning,” Johnson told me, getting up from his seat, and we headed out to meet the young alpha.

The regular thump of metal into wood, and the sharp crack as old wood reluctantly split, led us towards the shed. As we approached, I saw an unfamiliar figure working near the woodpile. He was swinging an axe deftly, although even from a distance I could see how slight he was. The pile of chopped wood was decent though. Another older beta was stacking the wood for him.

“Did he chop all that himself?” I asked Johnson.

“Reckon so,” he replied. “There was barely any left this morning, so this is all his work. Andy’s supervising but he’s too old to chop much now. The kid’s a hard worker, I’ll give him that.”

The supervising beta made a hand gesture when he saw us draw near, and made some comment to the young alpha, who laid down his axe, and straightened up as we walked over.

“This is Agel,” Johnson indicated the young man, who was watching us warily. Or more accurately, watching me warily, since my scent would instantly identify me as the pack Alpha, and the one who would decide if he had a home here or not.

“Hello, Agelius,” I said, adding the alpha honorific to his name. “I’m Talius.”

“Good morning, sir. Just Agel is fine, sir.”

Agel made eye contact as we introduced ourselves, but then assumed a submissive posture, shoulders down, head bowed, eyes lowered. Doing that and also declining to use the alpha honorific for himself, he was doing everything he could to make himself as small and unthreatening as possible.

I looked him over critically. His clothes were ragged and hung on his frail form. Even with a few days of good food and a few good sleeps (since he now had a roof over his head), he looked gaunt and wan. Exhausted too, in a bone-weary way. It wasn’tthe work he was doing for us though. From the haunted look in his eyes, I guessed it was the fatigue of long days of having nowhere to go and no-one to run with. Wolves were pack animals and young males that didn’t have a pack often didn’t last very long.

“Johnson tells me you’re looking for a pack to join. Is that right?”

“Yes, sir, it is.”

I itched to tell him to knock off the ‘sir’ stuff, because we didn’t do that sort of formality in our pack, but I held my tongue. He was trying to show respect and doing what he could to find a place for himself.

Nodding my head towards the pile of firewood behind him, I said, “Looks like you’ve been working hard this morning. Time for a break. Let’s take a walk.” I motioned for him to come with me, and after a few words with Johnson, the two of us walked down the driveway, towards a place where we could look out across our expansive farmlands.

“So tell me, why are you looking for a pack right now?” I asked him as we ambled. “Why did you leave your old pack?”

He told me his last pack had been his birth pack.

“It was fine there,” he said wistfully. “Our Alpha, Gerius, was old, but he was kind and everyone respected him. He used to let the young alphas stay with the pack until they found a mate and left to start their own packs.”

“What happened?”

“He died, unexpectedly. I’m not sure what happened but suddenly we had a new Alpha and it wasn’t Gerius’ second-in-command, it was another younger alpha from further down the succession line. He took over and things went downhill straight away.”

“If your old Alpha's second was also an alpha, why didn't he just take over?”

Agel shrugged. “He wasn't very strong and he hadn't expected to take over so soon. The new Alpha had several friends that stood with him... I think he might have been planning a takeover for a while, though my friends and I hadn't heard anything about it. We were too young, I suppose. The new Alpha used to bully the omegas and beat up anyone who stood up to him. He kicked all the young alphas out of the pack not long after he took over. I wouldn’t have wanted to stay there with him in charge anyway.”

“But you had nowhere to go.” It wasn’t a question, but he answered it anyway.

“No. None of us did.”

“And no mate?”

“No, sir,” he pulled himself up straighter, shoulders back, chest out. Underneath all that humility, there was still pride. “I needto sort myself out first. I’m barely feeding myself at the moment.” He looked away, a flush of embarrassment on those pale cheeks.

It was a difficult admission for a young man. Humiliating, in some ways.

“What happened to the other young alphas?”

“I don’t know. We thought we’d have our best chance of finding some place if we split up. It’s hard enough finding a pack that will accept one extra alpha, much less three or four.”

“Very true.”

I said nothing more for a few minutes, while I thought about it. Agel shifted restlessly by my side, but remained silent.

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