Page 47 of Unsubmissive Omega
Xeres gracefully joined us on the hillock. His cowl dipped in a solemn gesture firstly to me and then to Xander. He faced out over the assembled shifters and, making strange gestures with his left hand, intoned a solemn incantation. He repeated this over all four points of the compass, then raising his hand, switched to a language we all understood.
“Run with pure hearts. Honor your goddess, and the spirit of the land you run on. Honor your Alpha and his mate, stay true to the pack. My magic, an ancient and powerful force, will bind with your shifter magic to guide and protect you.”
Silence followed his words, the moment heavy with significance. Tonight we were part of an ancient ritual, one that had been enacted since the beginning of shifter time. There was the rustling of clothes, as some individuals stirred restlessly, but not a soul spoke.
Just then, the full moon appeared over the omega house, starting its nightly journey across the inky dome of the sky.
“What are we waiting for?” I called out exuberantly, breaking the silence, and shifted. Xander shifted too. It was only the secondtime I’d seen his wolf, and fuck me, he was beautiful. He was the embodiment of every desirable omega attribute… thick fur in a rich chocolate brown color, delicate snout, small alert ears, a lithe body, muscular legs and long bushy tail. My wolf rumbled his satisfaction and pride at such a fine mate.
Turning my head towards the moon, I gave voice to a long howl that rolled around the hills before returning back to me in the answering howls of the pack. Leaping down, and with Xander at my shoulder, I bounded into the forest, closely followed by the excited wolves.
For the first ten minutes, the pack ran close together. I set a pace that allowed everyone to keep up, even the little ones, so that everyone could experience the joy of running with the Alpha Mate. We ran flank to flank, a seething mass of many-colored furs swarming through the forest, wrapping around trees and reforming into a single mass again, like liquid metal sweeping along the forest floor. The elders pushed the young ones forward to run with Xander, knowing they would tire early and retire from the run long before the adults.
When I’d deemed sufficient time had passed, and the pups were beginning to lag, I accelerated, drawing the pack with me. The apparent wind increased, ruffling the hairs of my muzzle, stinging my eyes, its coolness against my hot breath drawing drops of moisture from my nostrils. Beside me, Xander panted, tongue lolling, a wild excitement in his eyes. I could see from the way his beautiful green eyes shone how much he loved this.
The leaf litter was thick on the ground, and the pads of our feet made little noise except for the occasional snapping of a twig. But the mass of a hundred or more bodies moving over the earth created its own sound, a deep thrumming of the earth as the elements connected: the earth, the wolves, and the deity thatgoverned us – the moon goddess. For a few hours every month, the universe was one, as it was meant to be.
As we ran deeper into the forest, higher into the mountains, pack members changed places almost continuously. As was the custom when a new Alpha Mate joined a pack, each pack member spent some time running alongside the Alpha Mate. It was a binding ritual, affirming the Alpha Mate as the soul of the pack, connecting them with each individual pack member.
One by one, my wolves took their place beside my mate, and I moved further away so they could run freely. I had given him the heads up that this would happen, and he seemed unperturbed by the constant changing of wolves around him.
The mood of the pack was joyous. This was an event that didn’t occur often in a lifetime and it would be remembered by those who took part for a very long time to come.
We raced on, cool wind in our faces, growing cooler as the night wore on. The moon rose higher, shining an ethereal light on her subjects, and the mass of bodies separated and spread out, all the colors of brown and grey and black standing out in stark relief as the wolves made their headlong rush through the trees and undergrowth.
Higher and higher we went, the pulse of the moon thundering in our blood, the rhythm of our footfalls in time with the beating of our hearts. The heady scent of sweat, damp earth and eucalyptus filled our nostrils; the forest floor crackled and snapped beneath our paws, each footfall a cool impact that contrasted with the heat of our bodies.
A cloud passed across the sky, plunging us into darkness. Looking around, I saw Xander pass between some trees. He’dsettled into a comfortable rhythm, and showed no sign of tiring, despite being unaccustomed to such runs.
Zendius appeared beside me, his eyes glowing with the excitement of the run. I had no doubt mine did too. We ran some way together, playfully leaping over occasional fallen trees and dodging around larger obstructions, before he fell back into the melee of wolves.
The moon came out again and the hides of my packmates rippled and glowed, more spread out now, and fewer. Some had already turned back. Then we were plunged into darkness again, as more clouds tracked across the sky. It was hard to see through the canopy, but a glance suggested that bad weather was coming in, obscuring the inky dome with dark grey ominous shrouds. I scented the air. Rain was coming.
I looked around, wanting to keep Xander close, knowing it would be harder to find each other once the downpour hit, but I couldn’t see him. We’d been at the head of the pack, so I slowed my pace and waited for him to catch up.
Wolves streaked past, running in twos or threes, or running solo. Still no sign of Xander. I slowed to walking pace. Had there been a problem? Had he stopped to help someone? It wasn’t unheard of for a wolf to get injured, caught up in the thrill of the run, failing to accurately assess the height of an obstacle or notice a hole in the ground, either of which could cause a serious leg injury. But it was rare. Pack runs were exceptionally safe, even with all the pheromones and adrenaline circulating in one place.
As the passing wolves thinned out to a sparse one or two, a deep unease crept through me. At no point would Xander have been running alone tonight. Wherewashe?
I reached out through our telepathic link, searching for him. But there was nothing… no response, no static, nothing. Just a vast emptiness. The link felt hollow, cavernous. It was different to not having a link, but it had never felt this empty, even before Xander had learnt to control his end.
Fear's icy grasp plucked at my nerves.
I lifted my muzzle to the sky and howled, calling on my mate, calling on my pack members. Howls returned to me from different points in the forest. But not Xander’s.
Frantic with worry, I hurried back the way I had come, until I found his scent, tangled with others of our pack. I followed it some distance, it didn’t deviate far from the general path we’d followed, and then he separated from the wolves around him, heading uphill. I followed the trail, a few paces later his scent disappeared. Completely.
I nuzzled around the leaves and underbrush nearby, but there was nothing…no scent, no Xander, nothing.
My frantic howls rang out helplessly through the forest, bouncing off tree trunks and echoing back tauntingly alone.
A grey muzzle appeared at my shoulder, then a brown one, then one by one the remaining members of my pack surrounded me, their howls blending with mine, as we called to the Goddess to return the soul of our pack.
Chapter 22
DARIUS
Xander was not in the forest.
