The Omega's Discovery

Dylin's village wasn't much more than a modest collection of cabins spread across a wide artificial clearing, but Fennis thought it was perfect. The wide, slow-moving river that flowed through the natural clearing behind them also burbled its way through the village, with channels cut to water the Wolves' small field of crops on the far side, next to deerskins curing on poles. Dylin gave a human howl, when the couple came to the edges of the town. A signal to his pack he'd returned.

While he knew that Dylin's pack was supposed to be friendly, he still feared their disapproval as various Wolves paused to greet the returning Alpha.

But he couldn't help the bemused chuckle that burst from his lips, as four pups came barrelling towards Dylin on two legs. His mate laughed joyously, scooping up the smallest pup and placing the youngling on his shoulders, as the other three peppered him with questions. Dylin would be an amazing father, he realized with a pang of confused heartache.

The Omega wanted it. He had always wanted to be a mother of a huge litter, with the beautiful children of his true mate growing in his womb. The longing for a mate, his true mate, sprang upon him with the ending of his first heat. His soul called out to its missing piece, a fragment of itself that he had lost before he was conceived. His heart had always belonged to this amazing Alpha, who gently tumbled with these younglings, and never cared a jot about propriety.

A small pup, who was still learning how to coordinate all four legs, bumped into Fennis' calf, looking up with a tilted head and curious, deep brown eyes. Fennis smiled, crouching down to flash his glowing blue eyes. "I'm like you, little one. You needn't fear me," the Omega whispered. The pup wagged his black tipped tail, and yipped happily. It was a good thing that it had a mother, otherwise Fennis would have scooped it up, and kept the adorable child.

Fennis looked up as the three pups not on his mate's shoulder tumbled his way, competing with each other for his attention. He tumbled down, as they crawled on him, sniffing him in the way pups do. Their small compliments on his scent made the Omega beam.

But then it stopped. In fact, all manner of quiet chatter in the village stopped. Fennis looked up, confused until he saw her. She was a striking silver blonde Wolf with forest green eyes, and Fennis looked up at Dylin for guidance. His mate set down the pup, and knelt, while baring his vulnerable neck with his fists on the tamped earth in submission.

Fennis did his best to mimic the pose, shaking in fear. He felt the power emanating from the Alpha, raw authority he would never want to cross if his life depended on it. This Wolf was the Packleader, and the Omega knew if he gave a good first impression, it would go smoothly. If he was to be accepted as Dylin's mate, he needed to submit to the Alpha who sired him. Fen wanted nothing more than to be Dylin's mate, and bear his pups, already he knew he wouldn't refuse Dylin when he went into heat.

He held as still as he could as the Wolf scented him, her warm breath ruffling the hair between his ears. His heart was racing out of control, what if he was rejected? It had been a matter of hours, and yet it would be devastating news. *Please, find me worthy...*

Then the air shimmered. A pale, strong hand wrapped in white leather bindings now appeared in his line of vision. "Stand, mate of my heart's blood."

Fennis nearly collapsed, and Dylin's mother gently smiled as he got to his feet. "I-I am Fennis Novar, Omega. Well met, Packleader." He kept his eyes firmly on the ground, as the Wolf looked him over. Gaia forbid they find out about Insiam. He feared it would be a shame on Dylin's honor, were the Alpha's son to mate with him. He'd been with another Alpha, and soiled with another's seed. Though Fen could never regret his mate, and still longed for his child.

"Well met, Omega. I am Ana Cambel. Welcome to the Resistance, mate of my son." Ana placed a callused finger under Fennis' chin, lifting his head. Her green eyes, not unlike Dylin's looked into his, lit with a soft understanding. "I hope you enjoy our way of life here, Fennis. I wish my mate was here to meet you. Human soldiers sent by the Sovereignty killed him several years ago."

Fennis nodded, blinking slowly. He understood that pain. Human soldiers could be the cruellest of creatures. He'd seen more than enough to know they weren't to be trusted.

"You have a good heart, Fennis. I am proud to one day call you my son by marriage." Ana tilted her head, scrutinizing Fennis' face. She murmured softly as she looked into the Omega's eyes, "The allMother gifted you with the most unusual color of eyes..."

Dylin cleared his throat awkwardly, and trying to distract her, no doubt. "Mother, I earned enough scrip for the pups' medicine. Hopefully they will be strong enough to fight the sickness."

Fennis looked at his mate in horror and confusion. How could pups fall sick? There were very few illnesses that Wolves fell prey to, and none required more than herbs, or perhaps a medicinal tea. Yellow Wolfsbane was the typical answer,a cure-all of sorts. Human medicine usually was poison to their bodies.

Feeling a growing alarm at his mate's tone, he scanned the faces of the pack, seeing the same emotions on the Wolves gathered. It was as if the pups would soon die. That could never be allowed, not if he had a say in the matter.

"Dylin, what is wrong with them?"

Dylin's jaw clenched as he muttered darkly, "Humans poisoned them." He brushed his hand over Fennis' shoulder, pain filling his eyes, as he added, "You need to know what they are, Fen... And those bastards call us the monsters, the evil ones."

Dylin guided Fennis to the sick bay, a cabin that was slightly larger than the others in silence. It was a tragedy, Fennis knew, that all Wolves were being vilified by Lord Morningstar, being made the enemy of his nation. Fennis felt that the people might accept his kind, if there was a better ruler in their capitol.

But Fennis, in his nearly thirty years of experience with human cruelty, had never seen anything even remotely close to what had been done to the pups lying limply on the cots. His blood had all but boiled when Dylin opened the wooden door, and the pups came in to his line of sight.

Their thin arms were dotted with puncture marks, and stained with black ribbons of the toxins that flowed through the younglings' veins. The worst was their glassy eyes that restlessly flicked about the room. The blind pain in those brown orbs...

Fennis repressed his urge to vomit. He needed to help them.

"This... In all of my years... This is new." Fennis felt his feet carry him to the female pup of their own accord, and he gently rubbed her balding ears. Helplessly, he tried to comfort her. It was as if... "They're rejecting their true forms," Fennis muttered through his numb lips. This was... A tear fell from the Omega's eye as the barely one year old pup turned her dull eyes up at him.

"I'm sorry, little one. I'm so sorry." Fen placed a tender kiss to her forehead, gently holding her in his arms. Humming tunelessly, he rocked the infant, even as she weakly tried to find his chest to nurse. Oh, how he wished he could produce milk for her, give her the nourishing food that Omegas were made for. "I don't have any for you, sweet girl." His tears fell on the cot, leaving dark stains in the canvas. "I don't know what to do."

"We're all at a loss, boyo." A red haired Omega watched him, her bright violet eyes filled with grief. "You can't just separate Wolves from their true selves, but that doesn't seem to matter to the humans. Our Wolves that monitor the compound found these poor things half dead, discarded in a heap of rubbish." The Wolf sighed, as she rubbed the lapis pendant around her neck in agitation. "I've tried everything I know to help Kaite and Tomas, but none of my magic is working."

Fennis had to do something. These poor children couldn't be allowed to die. The Omega accepted the small bottle of milk, and let Kaite hold onto him as she managed a few gulps. Her small hand closed around his shirt, as her eyes drifted shut. Kaite trembled as she slept uneasily.

Nightmares. At less than two.

Fennis felt a powerful force bubble up from a part of his soul he had forgotten existed, as he watched her shift, trying to escape the fear. His hands were tingling slightly, and it was all he could do to gasp a prayer to the allMother as he placed his palm on the pup's forehead. "Make her well, Mother, I beg you."

Fennis' eyes burned with the magic flowing through his veins, and he saw briefly a field of wildflowers, and himself as a young pup. The memory grew as he let the energy flood into the fragile pup, just as he had healed the wounded stag in the meadow, when he was but a child.

The humans had nearly erased the faint recollection of his innate power, but as the glowing nimbus of blue light faded away, he remembered. He remembered the fear that the orphanage had instilled in him. No one must know, the Wolf housemother had insisted, her furred ears laying flat against her skull in fear, You would be shot on sight for what you are.

Fennis had come to repress his power until he forgot its very existence, only remembering hazy images, and the tingling in his fingertips as he altered creatures' fates.

The Omega looked up, upon hearing a soft whimpering, and feeling the nubs of Kaite's teeth tugging on his hand. The sickly pup now was a fully functional Wolf, her true self's paw about to bat at his chest. He let out a startled laugh, the feeling of hope running through him. He could help them.

He could help his people.

-:-

"Fen? How did - How did you do that?" Dylin sank onto the sick bed next to his mate in utter disbelief. The pup, who not minutes before was beginning to make the journey to the Nightlands - the only heaven Wolves knew - was now fawning over Fen, licking his face and snuggling into his arms.

Dylin was familiar with magic. It was common for the pack to see Rhowena perform complicated spells to ease their lives. From healing wounds, to the irrigation system she had devised. He seen what seemed at the time to be miracles from his sister in law, but this... This was beyond the Alpha's ken.

And it was his mate that had done it.

"He's a bloody Celestial, that's how." Rhowena, his older brother Samule's mate, appeared to have been hit by lightning. Her violet eyes held a sort of wild joy, making Dylin wonder if Fen was more than just a Wolf born of an Omega's womb.

If he was more than what he appeared to be. In other words, a creation of more than sinew and bone. Something divine. How much of his mate was still a mystery? What else didn't he know?

"Fennis, my powers may be grains of rice next to yours, but I can teach you what I know. I am Rhowena, your mate's sister by marriage." Rhowena halfway curtseyed, in her short dress, and Dylin's eyes rolled. She was a dramatic Wolf, no doubt about that.

Dylin brushed Fen's hair away from his forehead, as his Omega sighed, looking up into his eyes. Those azure irises seemed to shimmer softly, the shades of blue they contained shifting even as he watched.

It was all the confirmation Dylin needed to know that Fen was someone special. And somehow he was chosen to be the true mate of this perfect creature... It was more than he could wrap his head around.

He could only pray that he was worthy of such an honor.

"Dylin, I..." Fen sighed, leaning against his chest, and murmured, "I think that would be a wise decision, Rhowena." Dylin's Omega pressed his face into his chest, his words muffled as he tried to be rational. "I feel a long path ahead of us - allMother help me - and any preparations I can make could save lives in the end." Fen took a shaky breath, and he pulled away, looking in Dylin's eyes. "I don't know what is to come, but I feel like something was awakened inside myself today."

"I will be there with you on your path, Fen." Dylin took a deep breath, his voice adopting a unique double timbre as he spoke his solemn vow. "I swear on white oak and mountain ash, I will do my best to protect you. Wherever you go, I will follow."

The Alpha gritted his teeth, as the vow took hold inside him, settling into the fabric of his mind. It was a nagging sensation, like a word on the tip of your tounge. Something that just evaded your grasp, but was a distinct part of you. Just another piece of himself, guiding him along the allMother's path.

Whenever a vow was made on the trees sacred to the allMother, it ingrained itself into the Wolf who made it. In life, it would direct your actions, making choices simpler. It was unbreakable, except in death.

"Dylin..." Fen tentatively reached out to caress his face, his hand stopping just short of the Alpha's cheek. His shimmering eyes glowed softly as he made his own vow. "I swear on white oak and mountain ash that I am yours, until my dying breath." The Omega's eyelids fluttered, as he took several shallow breaths. When at last he looked into Dylin's eyes, his own had soft ripples of navy interspersed within his normally cobalt irises. "It was all I could give, Dylin."

"It was more than I would ever ask."

Dylin watched as his mate's eyes burned with blue fire once more, and the air shimmered around Tomas. Within a few seconds, the dying pup was once more shifting easily between his forms. Another miracle.

He had so many questions, all of which pertained to Fen. The only things that the Alpha knew about Celestials was that they were supposed to be myths, and the last to walk the earth in the stories was the White Wolf. He had heard the legend, every Wolf knew about a little about her. But now, his rational mind said this wasn't a hoax. His mate was almost a god...

Dylin turned the spit his pheasant was roasting upon, and looked about his cabin. He'd never thought much of furniture besides the basics, just a table and a few rough stools, with his sleeping platform on the wall furthest from the door. The fire bowl in the center of the room was where he cooked his meals, with the scant cooking tools he had. Not much more than a pot, and a few utensils.

It wasn't fitting for a Celestial. Not in the slightest. Gaia help him, he didn't even own a comfortable chair!

And yet the first thing Fen said was how much he loved it. His beautiful Omega was straightening up the cabin, humming tunelessly as he organized the few outfits Dylin had and the new clothes the pack had found him. He began hanging them on the rack, and Dylin caught a glimpse of Fen pressing his sheepskin coat to his nose. The soft smile on the Omega's face when he pulled away was priceless.

His mate was astounding.

"Dylin, do you think we might..." Fen hesitantly sat next to him on the low ledge running around the fire bowl, picking a piece of lint off of the loosely knit sweater he was wearing. "I'm afraid of what is to come Dylin. I feel as if I have a dark cloud hovering around me..." Fennis' eyes roved around the room as his voice cracked, and water welled up in the beautiful orbs. "I'm scared, my Alpha."

Dylin took the pheasant off of the fire, sticking the pole into the sand around the flames. "Don't be scared," he murmured as he took his mate's face in his hands. "I will protect you."

Fen nodded, the corner of his mouth curving up weakly. "I know you will." Fen leaned into his mate's touch, like he was drawing strength from him.

Dylin sighed, resting his forehead on Fen's. There was so much he wanted to say. How beautiful he found his smile, the lone dimple that appeared at random. How much he wanted to know him; his likes, dislikes, and hobbies.

His Omega looked so lost, as he searched Dylin's eyes for answers he didn't have. "Please, don't forget that I'm still me. Whatever a Celestial is, whatever I am, I'm still your Omega."

"Fen, I will always see you as the beautiful Omega you are." Dylin brushed his lips over Fen's cheek, their light touch on his mate's face causing his heart to pound in his ears. Gaia only knew how fast the Alpha was falling. He couldn't explain just how much he needed Fen. The primal instinct inside him said this was right, this was normal.

But his mind was screaming to take things slow. He knew they had only met eight hours ago, but Dylin had been contemplating telling Fen the three little words for four of those hours.

He was in deep trouble.