Chapter 10 My Mate is Here pt 2
Julian
After the warriors settled, Kayla pointed out the rooms on the third floor for Lucian and me. She looked at Duncan then.
“Alpha Duncan, if you could follow me, I’ll show you to your suite on the Alpha floor,” she stated.
‘You and Lucian come with us. We clearly need to find out what she knows, and you’re not going to want to leave her side anyway,’ Duncan smirked a little. ‘Congratulations, by the way.’ He sounded a little wistful. I know that he’s not in a hurry to find his, but there’s always a little bit of envy in the joy when someone close to you finds their fated mate.
I grabbed Kayla’s hand again, and she looked up at me before casting her eyes back down. “Beta Julian, are you sure you want everyone here to see you holding my hand?” she asked tentatively.
“Let them all know you’re mine, kitten. I’ll shout it from the rooftops. Unless you would rather we hold off until we can get you out of this pack?” I asked, realizing that some of her reluctance might stem from how omegas are treated here.
“It’s just…well, let’s get Alpha Duncan settled, shall we?” she said, again giving me the impression that she had something she needed to say but was afraid to come out with it. I let her decide about holding my hand on the way to Duncan’s room, and I was a little disappointed when she dropped mine and took a position in front of the group. I glanced at Duncan, who frowned at the interaction, as if he was trying to puzzle out what was going on.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for us to get to his room. Once we were inside his suite, Kayla came back over to me and grabbed my hand again.
“I’m sorry, Beta Julian,” she started.
“Just Julian. You’re my mate,” I interrupted.
She gave me a small smile. “Julian. It’s not that I don’t want to claim you or show you off, but here…omegas who mate with ranked wolves aren’t treated well. If it’s a wolf within the pack, then usually they’re rejected immediately. If it’s a guest, like you, then suddenly they’re assigned to tasks that keep them away from their mate for the entire visit, and the Alpha pressures them to reject them. Since most of the pack visitors are allied packs, they have the same philosophies about us. There are very few times that an omega mates with a ranked wolf and actually gets to leave the pack with their mate,” she whispered.
Duncan, Lucian, and I all growled low. “That’s barbaric. The alpha has no right to interfere in a Goddess-given mate bond,” Duncan exclaimed.
She looked over at him sadly. “He would tell you that he’s not interfering. He just conveniently has “negative information” about the character of the omega to share with the person if they look like they’re actually considering accepting the bond, or suddenly that omega has been assigned to the alpha’s children’s rooms and something will go missing, which conveniently gets blamed on the omega. Then he’ll put the omega in the dungeon with the promise to let them go once they’ve served their punishment, and the mate never comes back.”
I looked at Duncan, rage simmering in my stomach. His eyes were black with anger. I could see him arguing with Conn. Nemo took that moment to speak up. ‘No one is taking our mate from us,’ he growled. ‘I know. We won’t allow it. We’ll leave tonight with her if we have to,’ I reassured him.
I pulled Kayla into me and buried my face in her neck. She was about eight inches shorter than me, so I had to lean down a bit, and I took advantage of the opportunity to wrap my arms around her. Taking a deep breath of her scent to calm myself down, I asked her, “How would you like to handle things, then? I want you; I won’t be giving you up, and if they try any kind of shenanigans, I will rain hell down on all of them,” I said roughly. She giggled a bit when I said “shenanigans,” and her little giggle was a beautiful sound.
“I think it’s best if we keep things as neutral as possible while we’re in public areas. This floor’s rooms are all soundproof, but the warrior floor that you’re on is older, and not as many of those rooms are. There’s also a lot more activity on that floor. I’ll get my things packed and be ready to leave with you when you all go, if that’s all right?” she asked.
“If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do,” I told her.
“Kayla, I’m happy to have you join our pack as our beta female. Congratulations, sincerely. We’ll have a chance to truly celebrate you joining us when we get back to the pack. Unfortunately, right now, our group has a lot to accomplish while we’re here, and I can already see that the Moon Goddess paired you with Julian for a reason. Can you tell us any more about how omegas are treated here? Or is that something that you are willing to get into when we get back to Crescent Moon? You see, we did not come here just for the mating ball. Luna Queen Gwen specifically asked us to come and check out the pack,” Duncan asked her, and I was surprised that he told her that. I know she’s my mate, but she’s still technically bound to Alpha James and Blood Moon.
“Alpha Duncan, I’m happy to tell you anything once we leave the pack. My mother said she was going to get a message to the Luna Queen. Thank the Goddess that she managed to do it,” she replied, shocking us all.