Chapter 4: The Hellish Paradise

Even if I deny it, Blood Dawn Pack’s territory indeed boasts beauty and elegance I’ve never seen before.

The City Above is a place crafted straight from a dream. Something about this pack made it liveable, even for an Omega like me.

The Resting Day has come, and Omegas did flock to most of the malls, parks, and bars.

            I meandered through the exquisite and silent gardens near the Alpha’s private residence, where the fountain-river greeted me with its sparkling waters. I mentally mark the paths and clever places for hiding if I ever need them. 

This garden, which has become my instant favorite, is near the Alpha’s private residence. I don’t want to bother myself running into him more than often. Maybe once a month of taunting and seeing that grim amusement brightening his face is enough.

Omegas on rest day is a day where we feel like we’ve never been an Omega. Even the Betas and Warriors and others treat us with little respect. Some of them even gave us a forced smile.

I wasn’t stupid enough to hope for more since I am one of the properties of the Alpha. Not really an asset but more of a liability.  

A cluster of palm trees lined the riverbed, their leaves swinging and swaying as if going along with the song of the wind. Wild and free, its green color shone like jade in the light of the joyous sun above.

As a child, I have climbed enough trees to not mind the height. Not that I planned to escape this pack, but … it was good to know. At least, I know what I might do should I ever be desperate enough to risk it.

This garden and the Alpha’s residence is the one closest to the border. The said border is only marked by the lifelessness of dry grass ahead. Some say those lands belong to the Rogues. I wonder how many Omegas manage to step their foot on those lifeless earth and survive. 

Alpha Cain won’t be foolish enough even with his powers to chase the escaping pack members further. If an Omega survives and manages to step foot in that part of land, then there will be Rogues to face. Not to mention hateful humans who despise werewolf kind—armed with silver bullets and Moon Goddess knows what else.

The garden was silent and empty. The gardens are a part of Alpha Cain’s private residence but he allows anyone to roam around them as long as they don’t make a mess. His residence consists of an estate, a manor, a small waterfall beside the manor that snakes down to the long river and flows to the fountain—situated in the middle of the crowded plaza.

The quietude here is strange for such a large estate. I hoped to see Omega-Servants which I heard Alpha Cain hand picked them himself to live within this property. To live with him. Though like us who dwell in The City Under, the Omega-Servants also reside in the lowermost part of the manor below the ground.

A balmy breeze scented with…hyacinth and lavender, I realized—if only from the small garden my sister used to tend back when the Luna of the Iron Wood Pack was alive—floated down the labyrinth of greenery, carrying with it the pleasant chirping of a bird.

As I turned around, about to pick a flower secretly to put behind my ears, when I saw him. He was wearing the same expression back when I saw him for the first time in the iron-spiked gates of the Blood Dawn Pack.

Alpha Cain just stood there, no bodyguards. His blue-black hair ruffled against the breeze, his shaved face clean. He was wearing a simple sleeveless white t-shirt and black jeans. No one else around him save for the butterflies flapping their wings around the flowers. His baldric had been laden with knives; I don’t know why it’s necessary considering that this Alpha has killed four other Alphas and taken their powers for himself.

Somehow, I found myself imagining sneaking out and tackling down the wisteria vines as I make my way to him in a dramatic slow-motion scene where I was the assassin and he’s the smoking hot villain in which killing him wouldn’t be so difficult at all—if only he didn’t turn around and yield that killer smile towards me. 

“I’ve been watching you from a distance,” he purred, his teasing smile made me wanna grow claws this instant and tear it away from his face in a single swipe. “You’re always frowning.”

“Is it part of an Omega’s responsibility to always smile at her Alpha?”

He didn’t reply. Instead, he ran a hand on his blue-black hair. Everything around me is still, eerily still as the Alpha walked forward to a set of statues situated around a circle of roses as if they are guarding it. All around me is full of green. The symphony of colors found its place alongside the beautiful Sunday morning. I can’t deny that this place was far more civilized than I’d thought, but…

The Alpha walked in front of me, obviously silently commanding me to follow wherever the hell he is going.

But when that silence became more than what it is…I realized it’s not eerily silent. It’s peaceful. Like a silent echoing with peace. This place is full of peace, away from the murmuring crowd and judging eyes. This place shouts utter peace, if I was willing to admit it.

And I admit it.

“It’s so peaceful here,” I glanced at him, who was now striding beside me. Somehow, I’m not afraid of this monster—I’m never afraid of this monster. This Alpha.

“You talk to me as if we’ve known for a long time.” His brows were raised in a challenging manner.

I snorted. “Should I curtsy and give my sincerest apologies, my Lord-Alpha?”

His pout turned to a smile. “No. you’re—” he loosened a sigh before looking down at me again. He’s so tall that my neck hurts from constantly having to look up. “You really are one hell of a hellhound for an Omega.”

“I take that as a compliment, Alpha,” I cooed like a baby.

He roared with laughter as his head whipped to the manor looming to the eastern horizon, barely more than a building of white and alabaster.

Alpha Cain suddenly stopped from his long strides. We lingered at the edge of an open field of lanky meadow not far from the river. The vibrant green-and-yellow field was deserted. And from a distance, a solitary tree stood nearby. A hammock on its branches. We walked towards it and paused a healthy distance away. 

The apple tree rose in full, glorious bloom. The petals of its flowers litter the shaded hammock on which I’m pretty sure this Alpha beside me had never sat. Or maybe it belongs to someone else—to his mother, the previous Luna.

A breeze set the branches rustling, a waterfall of white petals fluttering down like snow. There was nothing in the tree save for that hammock, or behind it.  A prickling sensation ran down my spine. I’d spent enough time in the woods to trust my instincts that this tree is more than what it seems.

Or maybe I’m just overthinking things.

“You’re not afraid of me?” His voice was hoarse, probably because we’ve been silent for a while. An Alpha like him never goes silent, I’m pretty sure of that.

“Should I be?” I tilted my head to the side, giving him a wide grin that reached my face almost as if I’m a Cheshire cat.

Again, he didn’t answer. I don’t know if that's a good sign or a bad sign. Whether he's already calculating what punishments and how many punishments to give me or maybe he just has nothing to say at all.

If this was another time, I might have thought that Alpha Cain is just a shy lover boy who can’t even say ‘I love you’ in front of his crush without stammering.

But this is the Alpha who conquered us, took over four packs in just a matter of years for what other Alphas may take as decades, shove Omegas in The City Under, which is really a city that stretched far and wide under this very ground I am standing.

We just kept on walking and walking. Silence kept on shrieking at me as if to say ‘speak the fuck up’.

“You’ve warmed on me in less than a week.”

“Excuse me, Alpha? Me? Warm?!” I snorted a laugh again, this time I almost tripped over his foot when I laughed so hard I thought my stomach would spill on the grass.

He just shook his head. But in the corner of my eye, I knew he’s having a hard time hiding his smile considering he always upholds his stone-cold face and ruthless façade and cruel mask in front of everyone.

            We walked away from the apple tree a minute later, as if Alpha Cain doesn’t want to linger longer than five minutes near it. We approached a bench in an alcove near the statues surrounding a rose garden, blooming with foxglove.

But it was the sound of steps on shifting gravel filled the air. Two pairs of light, quick feet. I straightened, peering down the way we’d come, but the path was empty. I scanned the garden again, the field—carefully, carefully watching and listening for those two sets of feet.

Am I to be punished for breaking some rule because I’ve been with the Alpha and had smirked at him a couple of times?

Someone stood behind me—no, behind the Alpha. There were two of them, but they didn’t see us thanks to the hanging foxgloves and wisterias.

A faint sniff and a quiet giggle echoed from far too close. Standing behind the alcove sure makes us hard to notice. “You know what, Juliet? The Alpha perhaps like you if the way he fuck you so hard is any indication.”

            My heart leaped into my throat. I cast a subtle glance over my shoulder. The Alpha beside me paled.

Juliet. I knew that name. I do—

I had to turn around. They can’t see me with the Alpha. I had to face it. The gravel crunched, nearer now. The two women are now a few feet from the bench. The Alpha’s hands clenched into fists as he gripped my wrist.

“You—”

“Alpha Cain!” A feminine, old voice cut across the garden. I jumped out of my skin as she called him again. The two women are now straightening their backs, especially Juliet who sniffed the air as if she could smell him. And me.

 “Alpha, it’s lunch time!” The old woman shouted again. There’s something in her voice that resounds authority but at the same time affection. Like some mother calling for her son to eat lunch.

The Alpha looked at me one last time before he whirled away towards his manor, without even bothering to say goodbye.

“What a disrespectful jerk.” I huffed as I stomped my foot, heading for the river.