Part 45. Avas Truth

Staring at the Alphas in front of her, it became glaringly apparent that there was no escape. The omega had been trying to keep her identity a secret for a long time now. Ava dug her fingers in the edge of the table with more force than necessary, her knuckles turning white. Her throat tightened as she thought back at Nora and the tension that lingered in the cabin between them a few minutes ago. When the other omega pranced around, trying to gain her Alphas attention, Ava snapped her mouth shut. She didn't think she had ever felt so much out of place in her before. Combined with that, the rage her omega experienced on having an unmated omega—Nora in her territory drove her almost insane. Only when she left did Ava manage to breathe appropriately.





With Nora gone, they were all alone and discussing her secret. Of course. Ava had seen it coming miles away the minute she woke up in the guest room, all alone. The brothers started agreeing on telling their father, Jacob, about her true identity.




Dante nodded along, humming under his breath. "Yeah, I think so too."




"No. Please, I don't want anyone to know." She sharply said, unable to stop herself anymore.




The omega received a quirk of the brow from Zach, who was still hovering above her; his eyes are soft but hard at the same time as they made a short burst of eye contact. He pulled a stool, the scraping sound of its legs almost grating against her ears.




"Pray tell why not?" Ares glared at her, crossing his arms. "Do you also hope we go back pretending you are a beta?"



Ares was intimidating, to say the least, and he held more power than anyone else she's ever met. It radiated off of him constantly. The omega could remember back to when she first saw him; he was sure she's hiding something. Ava did not want to believe that he almost caught her, but Ares was close to unveiling her secret. She could feel the power come from the Alphas in waves, of course, but with Ares, there were no waves of power. It was just there at every existing second, alluring and dark. He didn't hesitate to speak his mind, the same way the Alpha did with Nora.




"Easy" Dante pinned his brother with a look that had him rolling his eyes.




Exhaling loudly, she mentally assured herself that she was going to be okay. The omega just had that gut feeling. She struggled to not look at any one of them, forcing her eyes to stay on her joined hands on the table.




Zach gave a little huff as he raised his eyebrows in her direction. His jaw set in a line, fingers curling into fists, and they banged against the table. The sound echoed around, sharp and harsh in her ears. "No, Ares is right. We need to know. How many lies are you going to feed us, omega? Is it fun manipulating Alphas, who are also your mates?"





"T-The story I told you about landing myself here is true." The omega ran her tongue over her bottom lip, chest tightening with the breath she had been holding.




"You were chasing a rogue?" Dante supplied quietly; his eyes settled on her.




"Yes. I lost his scent, however, and ended up in the woods with no way back."



And they know the rest of the story. Ava did not enjoy keeping her identity a secret for the moon's sake. Every minute has been hell, living in fear that they may uncover her secret any minute, and she would have to run away. Only when Jade extended a hand for help did the omega let herself be at peace.




"Do you know why tribes like us decide to stay in the woods?" Ava suddenly breathed, lifting her head.



"To protect your age-old secrets?" Zach said in a questioning tone.



The omega hummed. "We mostly do that to protect omegas of the Pack. My pack was no different, but our Pack Alpha....he didn't follow any of this."




Ares turned his head to look at her, their eyes burning into each other. The omega tried not to show any emotion on her face, aware that he could easily detect something, so she bit the inside of her cheek and decided to focus elsewhere.




"Huh? What do you mean?"




Tribes are a close-knit family, and they believe in keeping matters internal. Ava could be punished for spilling the details that went on in her Pack, named a traitor, but she didn't care at this point. Her mates wanted to know about her, and she would tell them. At least most of it.



She bit on her tongue and flared her nostrils to keep from giving in to that said instinct of curling into a ball.




"He actively sought people who would give handsome money for the unmated omegas in our pack...." Ava paused with her mouth slightly open. She would've continued if it wasn't for Dante's sound of disgust, his face scrunched.




Shivers run down her spine as she imagined the condition of her pack years ago, their sufferings and how her people still bore the repercussions of one wrong decision. Wrapping her arms around herself, Ava exhaled through her mouth.




"The old Alpha was greedy, wanted more money than what council was offering us. He would allow the wild rogues to cross the boundaries and abduct omegas in broad daylight. It was too late by the time we found out about his dealings with them."




Her pace slowed down unintentionally as her inner omega felt ashamed. Ava's head hung low, and she kept her lips connected shut. Her throat ran dry, fingers twitching as she held her breath. It would be a lie if Ava claimed that she has not been thinking about this moment, almost every minute of every cold and dark hour, ashamed to admit her fears to her mates.




"Unmated omegas were later sold in the market for highest bids...." Ava started lowly, vision blurring with tears. This was surreal and painfully real at the same time for her to recall, and she had no idea what the omega was supposed to do.




"As if we were some commodity in a shop. His rule went for a long time before my father overthrew him and took over. But the Pack Alpha already did the damage, and there's only so much my father could do to protect us."




Blinking back the tears, she continued. "The rogues to this day still sneak past our boundaries and abduct omegas."




"Is that why you were chasing that rogue?" Ares softly asked.




"Yes. He was trying to force himself on few omegas and I couldn't control myself. The rogues....they give up after a while of being chased, but this one provoked me." She let out a sigh, looking at her clammy palms, face heating up to admit her flaw.




"What about strengthening the patrolling? That would have helped." Zach offered.




Ava let out a dry laughter. "We are a small tribe compared to this pack. Omegas are higher in number than Alphas, which is why we cannot do that. Besides, nothing stopped those rogues from attacking us anyway. They also took my brother."




"What?!"



She distractedly hummed, her heart leaping up so erratically that the omega feared it would leave her body. Her eyes shone with tears. "I was very young, and they started throwing tear gas on us and firing. The whole thing is blurry to me, but I lost my brother on that day. We tried finding him everywhere and just accepted that he was no more."




The stretching silence followed kept her eyes firmly cast downwards, slightly embarrassed at revealing a little too much. It made her skin crawl, and she needed to steady her rapid breathing.



A hand was placed on hers as Dante looked at the omega with slightly squinted eyes and a soft tilt to his head. "We are sorry for your loss."



Ava thought about how she wanted to run, but not anymore. Granted, there was that tension again, the tension she'd felt earlier, so tangible that she could surely reach out and grab it. But also, their comforting looks made her hold on. She couldn't tell where these emotions are rising from all of a sudden, but they didn't go away.




"Fuck, that's horrible," Ares cursed, and she couldn't help but get drawn in by the movement of his lips, thin but shaped and viciously captivating.




"It was painful for our family a long time. We started to live with that grief but something shifted in my father." Ava exhaled loudly. "He made me train harder than an Alpha, taught me everything I needed to protect myself against these rogues. Our omegas are unsafe, and with these constant attacks, he asked me to promise him that I will only reveal my identity to my mate."




The omega couldn't help but think back to his expression, fear and anxiety of losing her as he did with his son. Also, Ava herself was traumatised by seeing the omegas in her pack go through the most horrible things. She also vowed to conceal her identity and pretend to be something she's not—a beta.




"Oh"
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I did try to summarise most of it, but if you still feel something is missing, let me know. I will clear it up! Also, please tell me what you think of the story so far.
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