He woke up abruptly with a horrible pain in his chest.
Fear.
He was about to jump up from wherever he was when a pair of hands stopped him. He growled instinctively, tensing his muscles and baring his fangs at any danger.
“Hey, calm down. I'm not going to hurt you.”
He recognized the scent before understanding what the voice was saying. With his arms still drained of strength, he managed to rub his eyes in an attempt to clear the clouds of darkness from his vision.
Once the fog lifted, Anna's face, just inches away, was the first thing he saw.
“Welcome back to the world of the living, Hendrik.” The Omega flashed him her best smile, her white teeth and huge green eyes lighting up with joy when their gazes met. The floral scent of jasmine quickly filled the Alpha's nostrils, and he couldn't help but frown at the sensitivity of his sense of smell. “I'm glad you're back. It's best if you stay in bed until you've fully recovered, okay?”
“Where am I?” His voice came out painfully hoarse and dry, the burning sensation on his lips surpassing the discomfort, while the constant tightness in his chest began to become unbearably annoying as he regained clarity of thought.
He tried to focus on listening for any reaction from his wolf, receiving nothing but a pained whimper that made him look like an exhausted cub.
What had happened?
He cleared his throat as he sat down on the mattress, wondering what was causing that strange feeling settling in the middle of his chest.
He felt terrified, desperate for something he couldn't fully understand.
“You're at Edward's house,” Anna explained, as sweet and calm as usual. “He ordered them to bring you here after you fainted.”
Well, he certainly didn't expect that.
“Did I faint?”
Anna nodded and walked over to the wooden desk in the corner of the room. Hendrik's gaze wandered cautiously around, there was no other furniture except for a chair made of the same material placed next to the bed, as if it had previously been used to watch over his sleep, and a perfectly organized wardrobe at the other end; the place looked so empty and lifeless, but at the same time, it was filled with that essence that he would recognize without hesitation.
A penetrating scent, much more powerful than any other wolf in his pack, even his own or the Council members'. It resembled the smell of nature itself, as if the forest and all the life that coexisted there belonged to a single creature.
Yes, it was definitely his father's scent. Of a Pure Alpha.
“That's right, you slept for four days.”
What?
But he... Four days? But...?! He wasn't even attacked! He didn't fight in the battle! What weakened his body so much?
Shit.
The memories came back to him in a sudden rush of blurry images.
The Omega in the middle of nowhere, the bloodstained whip, those horrific wounds on his back, Keith's anguished face and all his justified reproaches. Like a punch in the stomach, he also began to remember all those unexpected emotions that had taken hold of his spirit and forced him to behave so strangely, how desperate his wolf had felt to save that stranger.
Hendrik had not only used his saliva to heal an unconscious Omega, which was strange and disrespectful enough, but he had also sunk his fangs into his neck.
He marked him.
Fucking hell, he really had done something crazy like that.
When he realized, he didn't feel nervous or regretful; on the contrary, an absurd joy filled his soul with delight. If his wolf could materialize on the outside, it would surely have him jumping and purring with delight all over the forest.
We found our Omega. After waiting so long, we found him!
He sighed. It was all so fucking complicated and difficult to process.
The rational part of his mind just wanted to reprimand him for those unexpected actions, but something deeper inside him, something he didn't fully understand, felt enormously grateful for having followed those impulses.
“The Omega,” he croaked painfully. “What happened to him?”
He couldn't believe he actually ended up passing out when he reached the village, after barely enduring the whole way back. Why the hell couldn't he hold out a little longer? He couldn't even imagine the reaction of the rest of the pack when they saw him with an unconscious creature on his back. What did they do to him? Were they able to help him? Did the healers mend his wounds? Had Edward and the Council intervened before they could tend to him?
Fuck, he had to get some answers as soon as possible or he would end up losing what little sanity he still had left.
Anna pretended not to hear, seemingly struggling not to look back at him. She took a couple of random bottles from the desk and examined them closely while reciting the instructions to follow during his recovery.
With his patience beginning to wear thin, the Alpha interrupted her and, in a slightly more demanding tone, asked the same question: what happened to the Omega?
But silence was her only response.
“Anna...”
“I'm not allowed to talk about it,” she finally murmured, meeting his gaze. Hendrik knew her well enough to notice the discomfort that was beginning to take over her face and her scent. “I'm very sorry, but those are Lucas' orders.”
Lucas, an elderly Omega who had joined their pack during the darkest days of the war, and managed to save dozens of inhabitants thanks to his healing abilities, or at least that was what Hendrik used to hear from Alexander's stories.
Lucas was probably one of the oldest creatures in the entire village, having lived since the time when Hendrik's grandfather led the wolves and, over time, becoming the best healer in the entire pack. Edward trusted him blindly, and all the Alphas and Omegas viewed him with genuine respect and admiration.
If those orders really came from the Omega, Hendrik understood why Anna was so reluctant to share any information. After all, she was one of Lucas' best apprentices, and perhaps in the future, she would reach his level of knowledge and skill.
She would never disobey the commands of someone she admired so much.
Aware of this, he decided that it would be best to get answers on his own; he couldn't remain in that agonizing darkness for another second.
He pushed aside the blankets covering him and stood up in clumsy movements, noticing for the first time that he had been dressed in loose gray pants on his lower body and a white shirt wrapped around his chest.
For a moment, his vision failed and he lost his balance. He forced himself to hold on tightly to the chair beside him to avoid falling as the sudden fog cleared and the dizziness disappeared, and when he felt stable enough, he walked slowly to the door of the room.
Anna, determined not to let him go, quickly grabbed his wrist, causing him to stop immediately. The Alpha let out a sharp exhale before turning just enough so that their eyes met again.
“Hendrik, you can't leave yet, your condition is still delicate,” the Omega repeated in a neutral voice, although they both knew that this was nothing more than an absurd excuse to keep him isolated from whatever was happening outside.
“Anna, tell me where the Omega is,” he tried once more, getting the same silent response. “Fine, I'll find him myself.”
He took the fingers clinging to his skin and, with all the kindness he could still muster, pulled away from the touch without causing the slightest harm. He resumed his walk straight to the exit of that room.
“Hendrik, wait!”
As if the gods hated him more than ever, when he opened the door just a crack, he encountered a presence that, unfortunately for him at that moment, he knew perfectly well.
His imposing height, surpassing Hendrik's six feet, stood authoritatively before the Alpha's emerald eyes.
The same emerald eyes he had inherited from the being in front of him.
His eyes and hair were exactly the same as Hendrik's, identical in color and shape. The difference was that the young wolf used to wear his chestnut curls down to his shoulders, always looking messy and out of place, and his father seemed reluctant to allow a single strand to grow more than a few inches, keeping the locks trimmed.
They were so alike, yet so different at the same time.
Edward's features were sharper and more pronounced than his own, and his body was much more muscular as well, covered with countless war scars that Hendrik would never have.
His presence was probably the most noticeable difference between the two. No matter where he was, or what situation he had to face, Edward's scent would always make it clear that he was the Alpha with the most authority in the entire pack.
And that anyone who dared to challenge him would have to be a fucking idiot.
“What are you doing standing up, cub?” his father asked as soon as their eyes met. Hendrik immediately noticed how the usual hardness of his countenance softened when he came face to face with his son.
Behind him, Anna insisted again.
“Hendrik, please go back to bed. You're in no condition to go out.”
He tried to refuse and make it clear that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, but before he could get a word out, the leader interrupted him.
“You heard her,” Edward said in the same neutral, raspy tone he used when speaking to the members of the pack. He pointed his chin toward the interior of the room without taking his eyes off him. “Obey.”
This time, he couldn’t refuse. If he started an argument right there, he was sure things would become much more complicated than they already were.
With an exhalation intended to relieve some of his unease, he turned and walked into the bedroom, inwardly hoping that his father wasn't so furious that he would deny him at least a little information before he ended up tearing his own hair out in desperation.
“Anna, leave me alone with him.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
The Omega said goodbye with an apologetic smile and left the room quietly. As soon as Edward closed the door behind him, the intensity of his fragrance took over in new waves from every corner of the room, overshadowing even the scent of lavender.
Although Zolvryck wolves were known for carrying the vehemence of powerful scents, Hendrik's smell was much more like his mother's.
It was laden with herbaceous and relaxing nuances that seemed more related to a comforting essence, and it was nothing like the usual harshness that a pure Alpha should display.
Even though he loved the delicacy of his scent, he sometimes couldn't help wondering if it was somehow related to his apparent inability to become a true future leader.
Frowning, he tried to detect any trace of emotion that might escape into the air—annoyance, anger, resignation, any slight sign that might give him some idea of what was going on in his father's head. He sniffed discreetly, but found nothing more than that absurd aura of authority that surrounded Edward at all times.
Even though they came from a family of pure wolves, which made them both worthy of becoming leaders, Edward Zolvryck's power was evident to anyone who encountered him. His presence and the way he managed to put everyone under his command was something that Hendrik, apparently, had not been able to inherit.
He cleared his throat and turned to face him. It took him longer than expected to find the right words to begin a speech he hadn't even prepared.
“Dad, I...”
“I thought something bad had happened to you...” the Alpha interrupted him. Edward walked toward him and, closing the distance between them, enveloped him in a strong, protective embrace. “Don't ever scare me like that again, cub.”
Hendrik was taken by surprise, but he quickly returned the show of affection. He hugged his father and rested his chin on his shoulder, just as he used to do when he was so small that he could easily hide in his arms; he closed his eyes, allowing himself to soak up the familiar warmth that enveloped him for a second.
“I'm sorry,” he said sincerely after a few seconds. “I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to worry you.”
Edward nodded and hugged him for a little over a couple of minutes until he finally pulled away just enough for their two pairs of green eyes to meet. After all those years of living alone together, he had learned to recognize the subtle but significant changes in his father's gaze.
Perhaps he believed that keeping his fragrance free of any emotion was enough to hide his feelings from others, but it seemed he could never completely control the sparkling glints in his emerald eyes.
Hendrik knew perfectly well how, in the blink of an eye, the fierceness in Edward's pupils softened every time he looked at those he loved most.
Just like at that moment.
“How are you feeling? How long ago did you wake up?” he asked in his role as an overprotective father as he looked him over for any wounds or marks. On another occasion, Hendrik would have laughed at how distressed he sounded. “Do you need Lucas to come see you?”
Contrary to what he had imagined, Edward didn't seem angry with him, not even a little annoyed, in fact. Which made no sense at all, Hendrik had broken one of the most valuable rules that the Alpha himself had imposed more than a decade ago, the same rule that no wolf had dared to even think of disobeying.
So why was he acting so damn calm?
“Dad,” he ventured, choosing his words carefully and calmly. “What happened to the Omega?” he finally dared to ask.
That simple question was the trigger he had been waiting for.
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