Chapter 16: The Omega & Her Escort

Beta Seymor dropped his phone upon seeing his alpha holding someone else’s hand—Diana Ritchell’s hand!

“You dropped your phone,” said Diana as she took a seat. Letting go of the alpha, who she once feared, she received a low dissatisfied growl from the towering man behind her.

Looking back at him, Alpha Dylan immediately took her other hand before he pulled her to take a seat beside him.

‘Okay? Who is this dog and where did the wolf go?’ Diana could not help but bite back her chuckle after seeing this hundred-and-eighty-degree turn of countenance.

“Pick up your phone,” Alpha Dylan commanded, snapping his poor beta from his trance.

“Y-Yeah! I dropped it! Oh, yeah. My phone dropped from my hands…” Shaking his head from the reverie of nightmare and reality clashing into one in front of him. With his back against the two, he felt a glaring gaze pinned on him, making him look at the source of such hostility.

‘Ask her when to do the welcoming ritual and the mating ritual! Quick!’

The booming voice of his alpha inside his head was enough to make him drop his phone the second time around. The glare intensified, pulling Beta Seymor once more to reality.

“You dropped your phone again, Beta.” With arms crossed before her, she cocked her head and leaned against the couch. “Have you gone senile suddenly?”

Picking up his phone, Beta Seymor immediately sat on the opposing couch from Diana. “Your amazing entrance just left me in awe to the point of—”

The towering muscled alpha beside Diana cleared his throat. Beta Seymor surely did not want to be the receiving end of such killer muscles. “I mean, as the Beta of the Blood Claws Pack, I want to know when you are going to hold the welcoming ceremony—”

‘And the mating ceremony, damn it, Seymor!’

‘You should have asked this yourself!’

“—and the mating ceremony? Having both ceremonies in one day can save us both the hassle, you know. I mean, I am so not pressuring you, Miss Diana.”

Alpha Dylan took this as a cue and turned to the overly silent woman beside him. Looking down at her, he saw how her reddish brown eyes were in deep contemplation. “The mating ceremony can wait, but the welcoming ceremony can’t. I need to assure myself and my wolf that you are safe twenty-four-seven even when you are within my territory’s premises.”

Looking up at the man beside her, Diana nodded. She wanted to come clean with her plan and to make him understand her side. “You know why I killed those women, right?”

Alpha Dylan nodded. “You wanted my power. Yes. We talked about it already.”

“You said about having too many enemies that were why you rejected any bond between us. In a way, I am like you, Alpha—”

“Dylan. Call me Dylan, Diana.” There was an absolute tone in his voice. No. It was not his usual alpha command, but it was his need as her second-chance mate.

‘I never thought you will fall into my hands this easily, Alpha Dylan of the Blood Claws Pack.’

Nodding her head, she continued. “—Dylan. I am like you because I, as well, have many enemies. That is the reason why am I here.”

Upon the mention of enemies, Dylan, who was stopping himself from grinning from ear to ear, growled. Vibrating the stale air of the office, both Diana and Beta Seymor showed their necks as an act of complete submission.

“Alpha, please!” Beta Seymor plead. “Miss Diana is an omega! Control your temper!”

Like a magic word, upon the mention of Diana, the malevolent force that slammed Diana and Beta Seymor’s wolves vanished.

Alpha Dylan stood up, tugging his hair as he trudged to the large window. With his back against the two, his shoulders were stiff, a telltale sign that he was controlling his beast that was threatening to come out at the mere mention of Diana being in danger. Having lost their first mate, both Dylan and his wolf hated the very thought of losing Diana.

Diana inched herself to her chosen mate—not her fated mate. Before she could take a step forward, Beta Seymor stopped her as he shook his head, warning her in silence.

She shook her head as an answer well. Pulling her arm from Beta Seymor’s grip, Diana stood behind Alpha Dylan. “Listen and listen well because I won’t be repeating this again.”

A low growl answered Diana. She took this as a sign to continue.

“I came to you with an agenda of my own and you know that. The first time we met I knew I will use you for your power.” Diana hid her clenched fists inside the pockets of her loose jogging pants. “When I arrived in your pack after scheming the deaths of all those girls in the Tribute Ceremony, I did not really care when you pushed me to the pit of the hierarchy chain of your pack. Remember when I told you about gaining a connection to a single pack member of Blood Claws Pack is like having an access to power? That was what I am thinking. No. That is still what I am thinking.”

“I know.” Alpha Dylan turned around. He closed the remaining distance between them by cupping Diana’s cheeks. “What I don’t know is about your enemies.”

“Will you trust me if I say I won’t harm you, your loyal people, and your pack?”

For a minute, Alpha Dylan stared into her eyes. Leaning his forehead to hers and not minding the presence of Beta Seymor, he closed his eyes. “The moment I asked you to try our bond, I decided to carry the burden and sins along with you. Do I trust you? Not yet. Will I betray you? Never. Will I betray the pack for you? I chose to die with you as soon as I punished you. Do you accept my answer, Diana?”

A pair of bright blue eyes stared down at Diana.

‘This is the reason why I cannot blame you even after having an indirect connection to my past’s tragedy. You are a hero living in a shadow of a villain. You are upright and loyal. I see it in your bright blue eyes that you mean what you said. I do not know if choosing you is a blessing or my demise, but having you as my chosen mate? I will gladly put you to good use, Dylan.’

“I accept it so long as you accept my will to let me fight my own battles. This is not a matter of trust anymore, Dylan. It is a matter of personal vendetta. This is my revenge, their blood debt to me. Not you and not even our bond can stop me. Do you accept that?”

Alpha Dylan was thrown off guard for a good moment. Taking a deep breath, he looked elsewhere before shifting back his gaze to Diana. “I will accept it. No. I accept. But please, let me know when the burden of vengeance is too much to bear. I told you by the lakeside. You can have me. Use me.”

Smiling at him, she did not let him see the malice reflected in her eyes. She turned to the shell-shocked Beta Seymor. “You can prepare my welcoming ceremony, Beta Seymor.”

“W-What about the Mating Ceremony?” Beta Seymor did not know how he was able to pull himself together amid the revelations he had witnessed.

Shrugging, Diana glanced at Dylan and slyly grinned at the latter. “It depends on how usable your alpha is, Beta. For now, let us say, hmm… Let us say, he is still under observation.”

THE WELCOMING CEREMONY DID NOT CREATE ANY STIR both within the pack our or outside the pack. It was due to the request of Diana to keep the welcoming ceremony private. With her as the new member of the Blood Claws Pack, the alpha as the official initiator of the ceremony to formally link her to the pack, and the beta who acted as the witness while bearing all the paper works to be submitted to the Werewolf Committee.

Diana, who requested to remain as an omega in title even when her wolf would be a luna both in power and strength after Alpha Dylan accepted her as a pack mate and as a mate, glanced at Sally’s sleeping form.

She jotted down words using an invisible ink before she crumpled the parchment. When it was crumpled enough, Diana looked behind again and saw a snoring Sally. Opening the window, she dropped the crumpled paper as if it was only a trash, and then she closed the window. Diana did not leave her spot, not until she heard the familiar flapping of wings.

Gone was the crumpled paper, replaced with a petal of a bougainvillea.

For the nth time, Diana glanced at the water beside Sally. It was the water that Sally wanted her to prepare because the latter was too tired to get her own glass of water. It was the same water she would give Sally every night ever since they started sleeping in the same cabin—a glass filled with poison. And its side effects? Soundless sleep after taking it orally.

 Clad in her oversized worn-out cloak, Diana left the comfort of the isolated cabin. A few steps away from the door, she was met by a pair of bright blue eyes that gleamed amid the darkness that surrounded the forest.

The sound of the twigs snapping resonated. The forest became eerily quiet in the presence of the apex predator in the midst.

From the darkness, as if he was one with the shadows, a colossal black-furred wolf moved toward her, eyes not lingering on other places but her.

“It is not like I will be lost, you know? I know where the dungeon is.”

The colossal blue-eyed black wolf hovered over Diana. With only the moons peeking through the branches of the forest, the beast and the woman stood a foot away from each other.

The gigantic black wolf hung his head low as if he was asking Diana to touch his head. Diana smiled at Dylan’s antics. Without second thoughts, she caressed his soft fur, letting her fingers get lost in the softness of his fur.

“Guide me to him, Dylan,” whispered Diana. This soft command earned her a whining growl before it turned and looked back at her, asking her to follow him and stay close to him. “Of course. Now let’s go. The night is not getting younger, Dylan.”

Because there was no mind-link connection between them yet, silence ensued between the colossal black wolf and the cloaked woman as they trudged through the night. But for both of them, especially Diana, the silence was not suffocating but rather… it was comfortable. As someone who experienced the thrill and the fast-paced fated mates union, she did not get to enjoy anything. Instead, she was always worried about pleasing her mate and pleasing the pack.

‘This is not too bad,’ whispered Diana at the back of her mind.

A couple of minutes walk led Diana to the restricted area of the Blood Claws Pack. It was located at the center of the pack and was surrounded by high-voltage gates. Though there were no guard wolves in sight, it did not fool Diana. She knew that this was the most heavily-guarded area in the pack. All the elite forces were patrolling here. The only reason that she could not sight anyone was that she was this big black wolf whose footsteps were more dominant than the others.

Beta Seymor welcomed them by opening the highly advanced dungeon doors. “You can tell him to shift now, Miss Diana, or he won’t fit in.”

Beta Seymor did not have to say it twice. The big black wolf ran to the nearest tree where a hidden pack of clothes was placed. The next time he appeared, he was already clad in a pair of cargo shorts and a hoodie while being barefooted.

“Let’s go.” Swiftly taking Diana’s hand and interlacing their fingers, Alpha Dylan made sure to guide his mate as they went down to the lowest level of the dungeon.

The deeper they went down, the darker the place, and the colder it got.

On instinct, Diana shivered. The coldness was seeping through her skin.

“Wear this.”

“!!!” Turning around after feeling the warmth of his hoodie placed around her shoulders, her sharp sense of sight could somehow make out the fact that he was naked on his upper torso. “Thank you.”

He hummed at her as he tightened his hold on her hand.

He hummed at her as he tightened his hold on her hand. “This is the cell of the person you are looking for. Do you want me to stand outside and wait?”

For a moment, Diana kept on staring at the door heavily guarded by two elite gammas. “You can listen. By then, if you don’t change your mind about me, then I will be your secret mate.”

 There was a small window on the metal door.

Upon Alpha Dylan’s fingerprint, it allowed the prisoner to hear what was happening outside. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, Alpha?”

“It’s not him. It’s me.” Diana lifted her hood and showed her face through the window while maintaining distance.

“Who are you? I am certain I did not spawn a child.”

“I am here to offer you a deal.”