Wolf-less Omega Luna

CHAPTER 26: REALIZATION

Alana’s POV

Walking couldn’t be that hard, could it? Because my brain urged me to move. Put one step in front of the other and move. Do something. Anything. But I couldn’t materialize any of it.

Bile quickly dampened my mouth and I felt blood drain from my entire body.

How did this happen in less than a second? How did we go from being all merry and making toasts to nearly gagging to death from wolfsbane poisoning?

I looked hypnotized and felt hypnotized. Goddess, I was hypnotized.

Axel practically dragged me around from one canopy to another, remedying the damage my ignorance caused.

As Axel led the way to the house, I saw Britney from my peripheral, standing with the Alpha who was staring at me earlier. I had no idea what he was saying to her but he had her undivided attention.

She maintained her peacock pose, coiling her long hair in between her fingers, and not appearing like someone recovering from a wolfsbane burn.

As if sensing my eyes on her, she cracked her head backward in my direction, paused, waved lightly, and then flashed me a mischievous lopsided smirk.

That was when the realization dawned on me.

Of course, it was Britney.

I was a fool. A pawn in Britney’s never-ending game. An object of mockery for her. The fraud. The imposter.

She always saw me as insignificant and how could I not have known that ‘a moment of reflecting on herself’ as she said, would never be enough to make her see me as an individual?

How did I not see this? She hated me from the day she knew about my existence and I had now gotten the life she so craved for.

A moment of self-reflection could not possibly revoke the hate Britney harbored for me that made her try to drown me in the stream when I lost my pack and had just been brought to Crescent Moon pack.

A moment of self-reflection could not suffice for Britney smearing fish all over my leg while I was asleep for rats to feed on me.

It could not.

But I was so desperate to be acknowledged by an evil person that I accepted her half-ass apology and left her alone in the kitchen where the drinks were unguarded for her to mix them with wolfsbane.

Even if I tried, I could not muster any fight or rage. I just trailed behind Axel, half alive, half wishing I was dead.

We passed Coral and Axel’s parents in the sitting room as we made it upstairs and Coral dipped her head to me, giving me a sympathetic tight-lipped smile.

There was no way I was going to look at Axel’s parents after this.

How could they see me with the same eye after this? Whatever bit of regard they had for me as being Axel's mate had to be tossed in the ocean now.

A Luna who couldn’t oversee a simple party and make sure that drinks were in order.

“Alana, It’s all okay now. Come back to me,” Axel's soft voice pulled me from my train of thought as we stood in front of the room.

“I’m fine.” It was the first word I managed to mutter since the devastating sight “my” cluelessness caused me to witness earlier. And it was a blatant lie.

“Everybody is okay.” I made out from the words Axel spoke.

But was that enough? The ‘what ifs’ flooded my mind, dragging the tears that had been brewing to the surface.

If someone had died, I would have been branded the murderous wolfless omega Luna.

If someone had died, I wouldn’t be any better than the rogues who attacked my pack, destroyed it, and probably killed my parents.

“What if it was worse?” I choked on the words as they rolled off my tongue, scraping the walls of my mouth like sandpaper.

What was Axel still doing with me? It would be better for him to reject me already and banish me immediately.

No matter what I thought, no matter what I heard, I couldn’t change who I was. — Incapable. —

I couldn’t be a leader. I couldn’t have the perfect life, the perfect mate, or the perfect pack, because I was just… insignificant.

All of this dawning on me broke whatever thin thread held me together and I let the tears fall freely, finding their way to Axel’s chest.

“Here, let’s get you out of that gown and into something comfortable.”

Once again, Axel’s low voice pulled me from my zombie state back to soil and I took note of the room we were in.

It was his. His calming scent domineered the room.

A king sized bed with mahogany frames settled at the center of the room, draped in dark blue sheets with large, soft pillows resting on the crown of the bed. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Beside the bed was a table made of similar wood that had books heaped on one side of it, and the other half covered in medals, ancient mugs, and artifacts. A guitar sat at the foot of the bed in front of a mirror twice my size.

Half the floor was covered in a soft Persian rug that matched the earth-toned curtains that ran from the ceiling to the floor.

The sound of the zipper coming off my dress jolted me and I inched away.

“It’s okay, Alana, it’s just you and me now. We should get you into something more comfortable to sleep in.”

“Okay,” I muttered.

He didn’t seem angry with me or disappointed. Was it just a show of pity for me? How could he still feel the same way for me after the humiliation I just put him up with?

His hand lingered at the end of the zipper for a second before he let it pool down at my legs, exposing all of me to him.

As conscious as I was about myself, I had nothing to be ashamed of in front of Axel.

His hand grazed my exposed back soothingly and he pressed himself into me, hugging me tight from behind.

In one clean swing, he took off his clothes and slowly led me to the tub, set me down gently, and bathed me.

“Here, you can wear this.” He passed me an oversized light shirt that had his scent imbued in it. “It should help you sleep. And it’s way more comfortable than that,” he pointed to the floor where my gown lay.

“Thanks, Axel.” I pressed the shirt on my nose and inhaled a lung full of his soothing scent before slowly putting it on. “I’m sorry…”

“Hey, Alana,” he inched closer to me. Invading my brain cells with whatever toxins he carried in his scent. He had put on his boxer briefs, exposing his chest and arms that pulsed violently with thick veins.

“I’m sorry…for the embarrassment I put you through. Everybody must hate me now. Including you and your parents.”

“First Alana, nobody hates you. Secondly, you have nothing to be sorry about because mistakes happen all the time. This was your first event and you slipped at some point after having done a great job, but it’s fine. Don’t let it get to you.” He pushed back my hair and took my face in his palm.

I was now a sobbing mess.“I screwed up. I left the drinks unattended and …”

“Shshh, shshh,” Axel cooed. “It’s okay. It’s over. Alana, look at me.” And I did. “You can’t let this get to you. It’s one thing to face a setback but the real deal is how you handle it and come back out on top. Nurse that wound of yours and come out bigger and better. Do it for yourself. And you’ve got me, baby, it’ll be okay.”

Maybe he was right.

“Thank you.” I heaved. And I was. Thankful.

I don’t know how quickly I drifted into a deep sleep as Axel crooned and petted me, planting soft kisses all over my sore body, and whispering reassuring words into my ears.