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Akihito’s bare skin prickled with the awareness that someone was watching him. It was an eerie feeling, but one he was becoming familiar with. Over the past few weeks, he’d felt it frequently. The hairs on the back of his neck would stand straight up. He could feel someone’s gaze on his back like a physical presence, but when he turned around, there was no one there.
The young Omega looked around the bathing pond. It was a small, secluded little pool created by damming up one of the many local freshwater springs. This particular one was surrounded by a dense thicket of underbrush and trees and as such, had been claimed by the pack Omegas as their own private bathing area. Alphas were not allowed.
But that didn’t change the fact that someone was watching the Omegas bathe. Akihito was certain of it.
His pretty blue eyes looked curiously around for signs of the Watcher, but all he could see were his friends- splashing and teasing one another, floating and sunbathing on the bank. No one else seemed to be aware that there were eyes on their nude bodies.
The Omegas were happy, excited and getting ready for tonight’s Run under the Pink Moon. It was an annual tradition based on a very dark past. There was a time when unmated Omegas were sent out nearly naked into the woods every Spring to be hunted down by Alphas and forcibly mated under the full moon. It was a barbaric tradition. But just like the blood sacrifices of Lupercalia had turned into the giving of candy hearts on Valentine’s day, so too had softened the Running over time. It was now more of a campout for the younger, unmated members of the tribe that started with a great big game of hide and seek. The Omegas would go hide and the Alphas would seek. Then everyone would get drunk and rowdy around a bonfire and sleep under the stars. Now, that wasn’t to say a lot of matings didn’t happen on the Running night, quite a few always did, but it was all consensual and in good fun.
Akihito wasn’t any good at contact sports, hated anything that required him to play rough, but he loved playing hide and seek. He was the best at it. There was always a prize for the Omega that was last to be caught. This year, it was a beautiful white fur that Akihito wanted very much to wear this winter. Fei Long was drooling over it, but the prissy Omega wasn’t willing to do what it took to win it. Akihito was. He didn’t care how dirty or scraped up he had to get to worm his way into the best hidey holes. Akihito’s ability to hide was legendary, and the bane of his mother’s existence. He was forever jumping out and scaring her as a kid.
Distracted by his excitement for the upcoming fun, he forgot all about the eyes watching him as he dunked himself in the cool water and washed away his scent to the best of his ability. The Alphas were good trackers and the less of a scent trail he left behind, the better off he would be. Akihito had even washed his clothes the night before. He was ready. He was totally gonna win that fur. Fei Long was going to shit a brick when he saw Akihito rocking it this winter.
The young Omega grinned and swam over to his friends Kou and Takato who were also participating in the Run for the first time that night. This was going to be SO much fun. Before long, the three friends were laughing and trying to dunk each other. And Akihito forgot all about the Watcher.
Hours later, after merry festivities and far too much delicious food and drink, the Omegas stumbled to the starting line. Most were wearing outfits that were utterly impractical for a serious trek through the woods, but that didn’t matter as they slipped off their dresses and transformed into their wolves. Akihito’s wolf was a small, silvery grey wolf with a fluffy coat far better suited to snowy climates. He looked nothing like the rest of the black wolves around him. His genetics were a throw back to his grandmother’s Northern heritage. It was an unfortunate color for the aspiring hide-and-seek champion, but nothing a little mud couldn’t cover.
Akihito was planning on going as far and as fast as possible but not beyond the pack land’s border. Their territory was patrolled constantly by the Alphas who protected it from rogue wolves, and patrolled even more heavily in the days leading up to Running night. Older, already mated Alphas were posted throughout the woods to keep the younger ones safe in the dark.
So when the horn blew, the little grey wolf took off like a shot into the trees, with a false sense of security considering the many dangers that lurked in the woods at night.
The light from the full moon illuminated the forest and made everything look like an ethereal, shadowy dream world. It was so beautiful. Akihito started out running fast, but after a while, he slowed to a brisk walk. It wasn’t until he heard the sound of a horn blow in the distance that he picked up his pace again. That signalled that the Alphas were on the hunt now. Akihito hoped all his Omega friends had found good places to hide. Not as good as his though.
He sidetracked to a stream and ran up the middle of it for a long time to hide his scent trail. His clever paws carefully picked his way through fast running water and around slippery stones. He was just getting ready to jump up on the bank and make his way to his final hiding spot when disaster struck.
Three of his four paws stepped on a large patch of wet moss, slippery as ice, and flew out from under him. He went down hard, his head cracking against a rock and his back ankle rolling to the side with a loud ‘pop’. Akihito’s pained yelp rang out loud in the quiet forest.
The Omega lay there for a moment panting through the pain as the world spun around him. His leg was throbbing. If it hadn’t been for the icy shock of cold water soaking into his fur, he might have lost consciousness. Whimpering from pain, the little wolf slowly dragged himself out of the water using his forelegs. He tried to stand but he collapsed with a pitiful whine. Any attempt to put weight on his back leg was agony.
Akihito was just contemplating transforming back into his human form so he could palpate his rolled ankle and assess whether it was broken or just badly sprained, when he thought he heard something. All of his senses went on high alert when he heard a rustling in the trees. His heart jumped into his throat and he froze. Barely breathing, Akihito listened to the dark forest around him. He heard nothing. And that was far more terrifying.
The forest only went silent when there was an apex predator nearby.
His skin prickled with the feeling that he had earlier at the bathing pool. He could feel eyes on his body again. Someone, or something, was watching him.
Akihito tried to reason with the fear coiled in his belly. The pain was just making him tense, and chances are the person watching him was one of the older Alphas supervising the game, hiding out of sight and unsure of whether or not to intervene. So, hedging his bets that the Watcher was friendly, Akihito let out a low whimper of Omegan distress- a call for help in his wolf form.
The silence that returned was deafening. The dark shadows of the trees stretched tall across the forest floor. If it was a member of his pack watching him, they would have come out in response to his call for help. But whoever it was, remained hidden.
Suddenly, winning a game of hide and seek didn’t seem so important anymore.
Darkness loomed. Akihito felt alone and very, very frightened. He wanted to go back to the others. Shifting his weight and tucking his back leg up under him, Akihito began to limp back to the bonfire area as quickly as he could on three legs. His heart sank as he realized how far he had to go. He never should have gone this far. He was pretty sure he was still on pack land, but not entirely certain. Everything looked different in the dark.
The small wolf made his way home slowly and surely, but as he walked, he could still feel those eyes on his skin. Every now and then he thought he heard a rustling of the leaves behind him. He felt certain that something was tracking him. Whoever, or whatever it was, stayed out of sight in the shadows, but Akihito was keenly aware of its presence. Every few steps, his head whipped around to check the shadows behind him, certain that he was about to be attacked.
But each time, nothing. Nothing stirred. Not even the wind.
The dark forest was perfectly quiet and still. He couldn’t smell anything but the scent of pine and dirt. But Akihito’s instincts were screaming at him. His wolf knew something was out there, stalking him, hunting him. His terror increased with every painful step he took.
So when he saw the shadows of three large Alpha wolves materialize out of the shadows in front of him, he went bounding towards what he thought was safety.
The sudden feeling of relief was washed away in a flood of pure terror when one of them snickered wolfishly. The sound was low and sinister and slapped him with the realization that those weren’t his packmates. Their unfamiliar scents reached his nose all at once. Most horrifying, at least one of the Alphas was near rut.
Rogue wolves.
Akihito shrank in fear, going down on his forelegs with his shoulders drawn up in terror as three large black Alphas prowled towards him. With a terrified whimper, he turned tail and ran as fast as he could back the way he’d come. Adrenaline made the pain in his leg inconsequential. The wolves howled in delight as they gave chase to the terrified Omega.
They were much bigger and faster than him, and should have caught him easily, but some predators just like to play with their food. Every direction Akihito ran, they cut him off by swooping in front of him and chasing him back, biting at his legs and tail. They were just toying with him. Terrorizing him. The poor little wolf sobbed in fright with each snap of their giant jaws. One of them snatched the tip of his tail right off, making Akihito scream with pain as the clump of hair was yanked out by the roots.
The chase ended in a clearing, the full moon shining down at the panting grey wolf in the center, whirling around desperately while three darker wolves approached from three different directions, hemming him in. There was nowhere left to run.
Akihito’s heart stuttered in his chest. It hurt to breathe. The realization sunk in that he was about to be raped, and possibly killed by a pack of wild Alphas. The small wolf took a submissive, pleading stance, making himself as small as possible, begging for mercy with his vulnerable body language.
The wolves transformed into their humans and stood in encircling him. They were ugly with scars, overgrown hair and nails, with broken teeth. The way they smelled indicated that bathing was not something they did often. The body odor was nauseating. The one with the scarred face kicked the pale wolf in the ribs. Akihito whimpered.
“Shift. I wanna see what we caught.”
Akihito shook his head. He didn’t want to. He was more durable in his wolf form with his claws, fur and tough hide to protect him. His fleshy, naked human was a lot more vulnerable.
A huge hand gripped him by the nape of his neck and yanked him up so hard it pulled his skin and fur tight across his throat. Akihito wanted to bite him, but didn’t dare.
“That better be the last time you ever say no to me Omega bitch,” he snarled in the boy’s face, using his other fist to punch the soft meat of his lower back, right above his kidney. Akihito’s pained yelp rang out loudly in the quiet night.
The two other men moved in, fists and feet ready to brutalize him if he didn’t obey. Akihito quickly transformed into a pale, delicately built blond with a beautiful heart-shaped face. The Alphas’ eyes flared with desire as they looked hungrily on his fine bare skin.
“Please don’t hurt me. Please, just let me go,” he pleaded desperately. This seemed like a nightmare. Like a horrible mistake. How had such innocent fun turned into this?
They laughed at that in a nasty, contemptuous way.
“Now why would we do that? Not every day such a pretty little bitch comes across our path. Gonna need lots of bitches for our pack. You’ll be the first, but we don’t mind sharing,” the scarred one snarled, bending down low to catch Akihito by the throat.
Akihito gasped. These wolves were truly feral. Degenerates, outcast from their packs. A sane Alpha would never consider sharing their treasured Omega.
Rough hands grabbed at his tightly pressed together knees, prying them open so they could see more of Akihito’s beautiful naked body. His pale skin glowed in the moonlight as he fought beneath the larger, stronger, meaner men who just laughed at his helpless struggles. One man pinned his wrists, another spread his legs, and the ringleader took his place between them. He bent low to sniff at Akihito’s hole, then crowed, “Smells like a virgin is on the menu boys!”
He lined himself up to brutalize Akihito with no prep, pressing himself between the Omega’s soft thighs. The boy sobbed, his back arching in a desperate attempt to break free. He screwed his eyes closed so he didn’t have to watch and that was when he heard it.
A deep, malevolent growl.
All four figures in the clearing froze in place. The growl slowly rose from being barely audible to so loud it seemed to shake the trees and the very ground beneath them.
It was the sound of pure, unadulterated RAGE.
The forest transformed from perfectly silent into chaos as every animal close enough to hear the rumble ran for their lives. Birds shrieked into flight, sleeping deer stumbled into a sprint, even the squirrels scrambled branch to branch in their haste to get away from the panic-inducing growl.
It was the single most terrifying sound Akihito had ever heard in his life. It made his blood freeze in his veins. All he wanted to do was hit his knees, bare his throat and beg for mercy from the apex predator.
It seemed to make the Alphas feel the exact same way, because they all crouched down. Instinctively defensive, their hands instantly released Akihito. Their heads whipped right and left but Akihito somehow already knew where the sound was coming from. He watched transfixed as the rumbling growl slowly faded out, and a pair of glowing golden eyes emerged from the darkness.
A Sigma wolf.
The large figure stepped out of the shadows of the treeline. Everything in his brutish bearing bespoke power and malevolence.
The entire group was frozen in horror at the sight. A split second later, the Sigma was running towards them at a truly inhuman speed for something of its size and bulk.
By the time the Alphas turned to run from the monster, it was already too late. He simply tore the head off the first one he caught. Akihito screamed as he watched it happen only a few feet from where he cowered on the ground. The Sigma’s giant hand grabbed the slowest Alpha by the back of the neck, breaking his run with a backwards flick of his wrist, snapping his spine as easily as cracking a whip. The man’s limp body dangled helplessly in the Sigma’s grasp. He lifted him like a broken toy, and twisted his head right off his shoulders just as easily. There was a horrible wet, tearing, popping sound. Blood arched against the sky as the Sigma tossed the decapitated corpse aside. He’d torn the Alpha apart midstride and hadn’t even stopped running.
The Sigma was now ahead of the two Alphas. He turned and stopped them in their tracks, forcing them to turn back in the exact way they had toyed with Akihito when he tried to escape. They tried to run in different directions so the Sigma used the head of the Alpha he’d just killed to stop one. He threw it so hard, and so fast, Akihito didn’t realize what he’d done until it smashed into the skull of the second Alpha. It nearly took his head off. A second spine snapped and both skulls shattered with a sickening crunch. The second Alpha collapsed like a puppet without strings- still breathing, but already dead in every way that mattered.
The forest was eerily, terrifyingly silent but for the gurgling, rasping sounds of the second Alpha slowly being asphyxiated by his own crushed larynx.
Akihito began to scramble backwards towards the tree line as the Sigma’s golden eyes locked onto the scarred face of the Alpha that had kicked the Omega in the ribs and punched him in the back. The Alpha snarled at him, and took an aggressive posture but it wasn’t a fair fight. It wasn’t a fight at all.
The Sigma tore him apart as easily as eviscerating fine silk. The Omega screamed and covered his eyes as the huge Sigma punched through the Alpha’s ribcage and grabbed a handful of squishy, fleshy lungs that he then dragged out with his fist. The ladder of the Alpha’s ribcage opened outwards like a book- the slender bones popped and crackled as his vital organs were pulled out through his chest. The Sigma reached his other hand inside the gaping chest wound, seized his now visible spine and began to pull. The Omega watched in stupefied horror as the Alpha’s body was folded backwards in half. His brain hadn’t quite caught on to the fact that he was already dead.
His disbelieving eyes met Akihito’s as his back bent in a direction it was never meant to go. The look of shocked horror in his face was something Akihito knew he would never forget as long as he lived.
The Sigma then ripped something else out of his chest, but Akihito had seen enough. He could feel the calculating gaze of the predator on him now.
With a swift pivot that made him entirely too aware that he was putting his back to the huge predator, Akihito was up on his feet and running, scrambling for the trees. He knew he couldn’t hide from the monstrous beast. Couldn’t fight. Couldn’t do anything but die just as quickly and pathetically as his attackers had, but he had to at least try.
The only thing he could hear was the sound of his own frantic panting, his clumsy footsteps and the pounding of his heartbeat. If the Sigma was in pursuit, he couldn’t hear him at all. Perhaps… perhaps he wasn’t chasing him? Perhaps his urge to kill had been satisfied and he was feasting on the carnage of the dead Alphas back in the clearing?
With this spark of hope in his heart, Akihito allowed himself a quick glance backwards- only to see an enormous shadow closing in on him incredibly fast.
With a terrified cry, Akihito launched himself further and faster, begging his little human legs to carry him faster, but it was no use. He’d already been running and fighting for so long. His lungs burned and his calves were cramping. His injured leg was screaming with every painful step. He couldn’t outrun the beast at his back.
Panting, he spotted a large tree with a big opening at the base, just big enough for him to fit inside. The thought that he could hide from the Sigma pursuing him was a ludicrous, idiotic idea, but it was the only option left to him.
Veering left sharply, his feet slid in the slippery pine needles that covered the dark forest floor, and he retwisted his injured ankle. Whimpering, limping, with the taste of vomit in his throat, Akihito scrambled on his knees toward the dark hole at the base of the huge oak tree.
But it was too late.
Like tree trunks themselves, two solid arms planted themselves in the ground just ahead of him. Akihito slid to a stop just inches away. He could feel heat radiating off the massive body over top of him. His thighs hemmed Akihito in at the sides. The naked, helpless Omega was trapped, caged in by the lethally powerful muscles of a wolf dynamic so rare and deadly they were whispered about like ghost stories under cover of night. Like a mouse caught under the paw of a lion, Akihito dropped to his knees and curled up in a tiny quivering ball of terror.
For a long moment, Akihito stayed there, eyes squeezed shut, panting in fear, expecting to be torn apart any moment. He could feel the Sigma’s breath hot on his neck.
But nothing happened.
Time seemed to stop. Each second spent under the looming presence felt like an eternity. The forest around them seemed to be holding its breath.
The night was quiet and still.
Gently- incredibly, unbearably gently- a warm hand petted the length of Akihito’s spine and it sent a shiver coursing through him. Though the smell of blood hung heavy in the air, the Sigma’s scent was warm and comforting. Like invisible tendrils, his soothing pheromones caressed Akihito’s trembling limbs until he went limp with exhaustion.
The Omega whined then- a quiet, needy sound full of questions. His eyes filled with stinging tears.
The huge monster looming over him moved. Too afraid to even turn his head to look, Akihito could see the shadows moving in his periphery. The giant Sigma settled next to him on the forest floor. He heard something dripping next to him. Fluid hit the leaves covering the ground with small, steady ‘pat-pat-pats’. Finally, curiosity got the best of him.
Akihito peeked over.
The moon cast an ethereal glow on the predator’s face. It was all hard angles and chiseled features, but surprisingly elegant for the bulk of his body. He was inhumanly handsome with long, shaggy black hair that hung nearly to his waist. His sharp golden eyes gleamed in the darkness, full of interest and fixed on Akihito. There was a tenderness in them that the Omega hadn’t expected after such savage violence.
He sat on his haunches, balanced back on his heels. It was eerily gracefully for a man of his size. One hand’s claws were dug into the dirt, the other was patiently extended towards him. In it, was something Akihito didn’t recognize at first.
It was a dark, fleshy blob of meat with thick strings hanging from it. The scent of iron was overpowering. Something was dripping out of it. Long strands of the thick fluid broke and fell onto the leaves leaving little dots that looked black in the moonlight.
‘Pat- pat- pat.’
Akihito stared in confusion. Every now and then the meat blob twitched, seeming to move on its own accord.
'Pat.'
Slowly it dawned on him what he was looking at was a human heart- still trying to beat as if it didn’t yet comprehend that it had been torn from its home in the chest that used to surround it.
He gasped and his eyes widened with comprehension as they met the steady golden gaze of the powerful Sigma. The giant wolf smiled gently, encouragingly... lovingly. Then, once more with an open palm, he proffered his bleeding heart to Akihito.
And that… was when the Omega blushed.
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