Page 26 of Advocate Omega (Unforeseen Paths #1)

Zander

As much as I want to stay in Gabe’s house and soak up my newly found acceptance of my potential relationship with Lucan, I can’t.

After our sexy shower when Luc fucked me against the wall, we got dressed, and not even five minutes later, Griffin and Gabe came back.

It’s later than I thought; the sun is setting, and we are supposed to attend a fancy meeting with all the other Kato alphas—oh, and Gabe’s creepy grandmother, aka the shaman.

The Kato Clan is more modern, so they all gather in a town hall like everyone else, and I find myself clutching Lucan’s hand tighter.

There’s a mix of betas and omegas among the alphas present, which confuses me.

I suppose it makes sense that something this important would garner the attention of the whole clan.

I just didn’t think they would all be here.

People stare at me like I’m a freak. It makes my hackles rise.

No one will make eye contact with Lucan, though.

They’re probably too afraid to. It’s weird being at the side of someone like him.

Someone who could make them all drop to their knees with a single command.

I wish I could do that. Wish I could just tell everyone to stop fucking looking at me like I’m a bloody steak.

“Luc,” I whisper.

“Not now, sweet.”

I huff. I want him to growl and flash his impressive canines.

I want him to beat on his chest or…something.

Griffin walks Gabe over to a seat in the front row of the auditorium-style room and kisses him sweetly.

Then he sits in one of the bigger, throne-like chairs facing the crowd.

Eight other alphas make up the line, and Griffin is the smallest of them.

All nine alphas sit up taller when we stop before them. The one all the way on the left looks at me for a bit too long, and Lucan curls his lip and snarls. I smirk when the alpha looks away.

“Lucan Moonsong,” A blonde alpha with thick arms and a long beard, rumbles. Without thinking, I wedge myself under Luc’s arm and hide in his armpit. Look, Gabe might say his clan isn’t like the others, but I don’t know that for sure. Right now, I need safety and reassurance.

“Oberon Katoa,” Lucan says with a dip of his head. “Thank you for having us on such short notice.”

I don’t look to see the alpha’s expression. “I trust you realize what dangers you’ve invited onto our doorstep by coming here.”

Shit. I was afraid of that.

“Harboring a Sorrel wolf is asking for trouble.”

Lucan doesn’t like that. His heart thumps faster, the sound so loud in my ears.

“It’s his choice to remain at my side. I am not harboring him,” he snaps, and the next time he speaks, the entire room falls silent.

“The Moon Clan has lost sight of morality and honor. They took Zander Sorrel against his will, set on forcing him to be bred by countless alphas.”

I hear the rumbles of growls rising in a crescendo. The alphas of this clan don’t like the sound of that. “Would you allow something like that to happen, Griffin?”

“Never,” he answers swiftly. “I would kill any wolf that tried.”

“And what of you, Oberon? Would your pod allow strangers to snatch away your omega? Breed him without consent?”

Oberon snarls out his answer. “I’d slaughter their entire bloodline.”

Jeez. These males are ready to kill for their mates. I dare a peek at them, still keeping my cheek glued to Lucan’s side. “Zander has just as much right to decide his fate as every single omega here.”

“Why do you speak for him?” The alpha who was eye fucking me asks.

“Go ahead,” Luc urges. “Tell them.”

I swallow hard and slowly creep away from his side. I wring my fingers and steel my spine so I don’t shake. There are so many people staring at me. “My sires and father were held prisoner by the Terra Clan.”

The alphas don’t take their eyes off me, waiting for what I’ll say next.

I gulp again because I haven’t exactly told any of this to Lucan yet.

Chewing my lip for a few seconds, I quickly formulate how much I want to say.

But if I want these wolves to help us, I have to be honest. And that means coughing up the whole truth— all of it.

This could change everything.

“My father was often taken to be… bred ,” I choke out . “Whenever his heat cycle came, his alphas would be sedated, and he would be tied up. I—”

Lucan slips his hand in mine. “I was often in the room.” I flinch, closing my eyes and trying not to think too hard about all that I saw. “And this happened before… before …”

“It’s okay,” Lucan soothes.

“He was taken often before I was born.”

Lucan stiffens, and the rest of the room gasps.

“I don’t know for sure that I’m…if I’m… Anyway,” I breeze right past that.

“I still have Sorrel blood, and I’m still an omega.

” Fuck I don’t want to cry right now, but I can’t help it.

Tears squirt from my eyes, and I swipe at them.

“I don’t know why that matters, but it does, and I really don’t want to end up like my parents.

O-okay? So p-please just let us stay here for a little while until we can figure out where to go. ”

“Satisfied? You made him fucking cry,” Lucan booms and pulls me to his chest. Murmurs sound off from the nine alphas, but they aren’t being decisive enough, so Luc takes matters into his own hands.

“We are staying here for a week, and we will need accommodations and private lodgings. Make it happen,” he orders, his tone laced with authority that no one can ignore.

Wolves whine and howl, chairs skid over the tile as footfalls echo off the walls.

But I stay right where I am, worried sick that I made a horrible mistake.

Once the room empties, and I’ve collected myself enough to stop being a mess, I manage to face Lucan.

I know he doesn’t care about my lineage, but the entire reason he’s in this mess is because his clan believes that I’m one hundred percent Sorrel.

And I don’t know that's the case. My sires assumed I was theirs due to my hair and fur in my wolf form, but Sorrel blood is strong. My father’s genes might’ve just overpowered whatever alphas… bred him.

Lucan was chased away from his home, thinking I’m some rare wolf, and what if I’m not? I know he wasn’t truly happy, but he had a place in this world. He had a home and hobbies. He had…safety.

No one was after him, no one was trying to hurt him. This is all my fault.

“You know this doesn’t matter, right? Whoever sired you. It doesn’t matter.”

I shrug and hold my arms.

“Look at me,” Luc says gently, but I can’t.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. And now that you ordered the entire Kato clan, they’re probably going to want you to be their Prime Alpha now. And that means…”

“It means nothing.”

“But you told me, you said that you would have to—”

“With my own clan, sweet. Wolves that share my blood. Remember, all clans come from one pod at one point or another. Baby, please, look at me.”

I shake my head, so he squats down and finds my eyes. “I don’t care where you come from. I only care about you .”

“I let it happen!” I yell at him. “I let my father get taken. I could’ve fought back! But I didn’t. I was too scared. Too afraid it’d happen to me .” I slap my chest. “And look at me now? I’m one wrong move from it happening. What is so fucking special about Sorrels?”

“You’re one of the last Great Wolf clans. Old blood.”

“Great Wolf?”

He nods slowly. “You weren’t raised around other pups, other wolves. You were,” he growls, “baby, you were enslaved . You couldn’t have known.”

“So we are what? Better?”

“Dying out,” he says, taking me by surprise. “Our entire species is almost extinct. My clan is the only one left that has successful breedings between alpha and omegas, and even then,” he swallows, “we lose pups. Fewer and fewer omegas and alphas are born.”

“So they want me to give them babies. Just like the Terra Clan.”

“They want you under the assumption that you’ll be able to bring fresh blood into our clan.

If you are bred every heat, and have successful births from each, those offspring would be put into pods when they come of age, and all omegas born from you would have the same fate until eventually, the clan revives itself. ”

“That’s fucking disgusting!” I roar.

“I know,” he soothes, taking my hands. “I know it is. Why do you think I tried to get you to run? Why I didn’t let them find you?”

“But if I’m not even full-blooded Sorrel, it’d never work anyway.”

“And they’d still try.”

I feel sick. My hand flies to my mouth as I swallow down the vomit.

“My clan has lost all honor. All sense of right and wrong. They only care about survival.”

“Why didn’t you stop them? Did you know they were going to take me?”

He’s quiet, and I don’t like that he is.

“Did you know , Lucan?”

“Of course I knew,” he whispers. “I just didn’t think…I didn’t realize…”

I back up.

“Listen to me,” he continues. “Listen to my words, not the ones in your head.”

He knew and did nothing. He was perfectly fine letting this happen to a stranger.

Content to just live out his life in his stupid cabin while an innocent omega was raped and ripped apart by his clan, all for the off chance they’d somehow fix the problem.

How come I didn’t realize this before? If I hadn’t found him that night, if I hadn’t decided to take a chance, I would’ve been caught eventually.

And if it weren’t his clan, it would’ve been another. Is this my fucking purpose in the world? To be breeding stock? All my stupid ideas were never going to amount to shit. I was never going to be anything but what I am —an omega.

Lucan reaches for me, but I growl and snap my jaws. “Get back.”

“I never once helped. I never agreed to their plans. I would have never let it happen.”

“But you did!” I scream. “You let it happen when they ripped me from my life and stuffed me in the back of that van!”

“I didn’t know they actually did it until that night!” he booms. “Until you escaped and I heard their howls, I had no clue they went through with it! Please , Zan, you have to believe me that if I knew, I would have stopped it. I would have. ”

I shake my head and keep backing up, not knowing what to believe.

He knew they were going to do it, and he didn’t stop them.

He could’ve prevented it all . And to think it could’ve been a different omega.

Someone who wasn’t me. Would he have acted the same then?

Agreed to go through a heat with them, too?

Does he care about me , or am I just the only omega he has?

“Leave me alone, Luc, I need to…just…leave me be .” I turn my back on him and march out of the auditorium.