Hunting Ground

“Three years.”

“That is two years and six months longer than I. So you can tell me exactly what an Omega is-something that my lads haven’t quite managed to explain satisfactorily yet. I would like something more than ‘you make us happy,’ which is the best they have managed so far. My lovers tell me that, and it is good, no? My wolf pack-who are mostly men, and I do not swing that way-tell me such things, and it doesn’t sound too good to me. ‘You bring us joy’ is even worse, so I stopped asking. I need to know more, yes?”

His pained look was so exaggerated she couldn’t help laughing. “Disconcerting.” She tried to imagine what Charles would do if another man came up to him and said, “You bring me joy.”

“I don’t know all that much,” she confessed. “My teacher is a man who was married to an Omega for a couple of centuries before she died. The problem is, there aren’t many of us. We’re not as rare in the human population, but seldom Changed.” Su

“So I understand,” he said. “I had a skiing accident and was lucky the man who found me, a friend and a member of the ski patrol, was a werewolf-a secret he had kept for all the time of our friendship. I was dying, and he Changed me to try to save me.” He gave her a tight smile. “Me, I thought it was because we were friends-but he told his Alpha it was because he knew I was Omega and would be a treasure to his pack, and this the Alpha accepted as truth and did not discipline him for Changing me without permission.”

“Is he still your friend?”

He sighed and rocked back, the motion making his head hit the window with a soft thump. “Yes.”

“Then maybe he only gave the Alpha the truth he needed. A person quite often has more than one reason for doing something-particularly something so… big as Changing a mortal human into an immortal wolf.”

Something in his face loosened, and he nodded once. “Just so. I had not thought of it in that way.” He gave her a quick glance from under his lashes. “Truthfully, I had not noticed it bothered me so much until I spoke here with you. How were you Changed?”

She looked away.

“I am sorry,” he said, and he was suddenly a lot closer than he had been.

He’d abandoned his seat on the window and crouched on the top of the desk. From the speed of his change of position, he must have jumped there.

“It was a bad thing?” he said gently. “You do not have to tell me of it.” He settled, sliding one leg under the other so he rested on a hip. “For many it is not something they care to discuss.”

“A mad wolf will attack anything,” she told him hoarsely. If she closed her eyes, she knew she would see Justin’s face, so she left them open. “An Alpha’s mate was going mad, and he thought an Omega would help her maintain control. So he found me. He couldn’t force himself to hurt me, though, so he took a wolf who was blood-mad, moon-mad, and sent him after me.” And he’d hunted her and taken his time over the brutality that was a necessary part of the Change. “I don’t think I was the first he’d tried it on. But the others he failed with, they died.”

He held her eyes, his own intent. “Rough.”

She shrugged with a nonchalance she didn’t expect him to believe. But she didn’t want to cry on his shoulder. Though she suspected he wouldn’t have minded, Charles would.

She smiled, and it was genuine. “Things are a lot better now. Charles rode in like a white knight and rescued me.”

He returned her smile. “I met Charles. A very scary white knight.”

She nodded. “Yes. But that was exactly what I needed. So you want to know more about being an Omega?”

“Yes, bitte. I get that I am the bottom of the pack-but how am I different from the submissive wolves?”

“Did they tell you that you were on the bottom?”

He leaned a chin on his upright leg. “Not exactly.”

“Good,” she said. “Because you aren’t. You are outside of the pack structure. You’re the only one who can defy the Alpha.” She hesitated. “That doesn’t mean he’ll let you get away with it… but a submissive wolf, even a wolf who is a lot less dominant than the Alpha, would have trouble standing up to him at all. Most werewolves have a…” She fought with an exact explanation, then decided not to worry about it. He was a werewolf, he’d understand. “A built-in meter that tells them whether a wolf is dominant to them or not. If the meter doesn’t tell them right away… well, they usually fight it out.”

“This I have seen,” he said.

“Right, then. That’s something you and I are missing. I mean, I can still tell-even with humans-who is in charge and who isn’t. But it doesn’t have anything to do with their relationship with me.”

“Ja,” he said jerking his head up and slapping the desk. “I thought there was something wrong with me, that I did not feel this. That I did not feel the need to drop my eyes or bow my head.”

“They probably didn’t even think to tell you,” A

He took a deep breath and leaned forward. “I thought they had trouble hurting ones such as you and I.”

A

“Isaac, my Alpha, he told me that there was a problem, yesterday. I saw it, but I couldn’t decipher it myself. He says something scared you, and every wolf in the room was ready to defend you-and they were all looking at the wolves next to them to see who the problem was. That is to do with being Omega, too?”

A

He shrugged. “They tell me nothing. These wolves, they don’t talk much. Me, they will tell you, I talk all the time. Or maybe you have noticed. How can we solve things if we do not talk? Talking is useful. But I watch, too. The dominant wolves fight with each other and take care of the submissive wolves. The submissive ones, they are no threat. They need to be taken care of, though-a pat on the head. A reassuring touch is necessary for them.”

“I had it explained in very simple words,” said A

“Yes,” he said. “I have seen this.”

“Submissive wolves are the kinder, gentler wolves. They are missing the killing instinct. That doesn’t mean they won’t kill under the right circumstances, just that it is not their first answer to every problem. They don’t need to control everyone around them. With a submissive wolf, a dominant wolf will relax because the lesser wolf is no threat.”

“All right. Yes.”

“An Omega wolf is an Alpha wolf who is extremely zen.”

There was a little pause as he absorbed that. She grabbed a handful of nuts and came up with a bunch of Brazil nuts and a peanut. Angus, evidently, didn’t like Brazil nuts.

Finally, Ric said slowly, “An Alpha is the most dominant wolf in the pack, the most prone to violence.”

A