5 - Unplanned Plans

“Weston? Is that you? What time is it?”

Jace’s voice cuts through the silent darkness of the hallway. He was followed by Andy, both of them holding bundles of papers for the Pack School.

Weston approaches the two as they all walked towards the direction of the brother’s apartment.

“Hey guys. I just want to speak to Amir.”

“Amir’s asleep, man. Can’t it wait ‘til mornin’?”

“It really can’t. I need his advice.”

The two looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders.

“Is everything alright, Weston?” Andy asked worriedly, mirroring Jace’s worried expression as well.

Weston sighs, “Don’t worry, guys. I just really need to pick Amir’s brain. He’s the pack strategist, after all.”

Jace and Andy nodded as they continued their walk in relative silence. When they reach the door, Andy opened it and entered followed by Jace, then Weston.

He looked around the three-bedroom apartment and noticed Amir’s door slightly ajar. Jace placed the bundle of papers in his arms over the center table in the room before opening their little brother’s room.

Weston was trying to ignore the anxious look Andy had been throwing his way. It was probably about the rogue omega they had been housing for the meantime and it would be embarrassing once he learned that this sudden visit was actually about Millan.

It was some time when they heard Jace coaxing Amir off his sleep so they decided to follow inside the omega’s room.

Jace was standing beside the bed and calling over Amir’s sleeping figure.

“Hey, Amir, wake up.”

Amir lets out a snore and shows no signs of consciousness whatsoever.

Weston contains a groan. Andy sighed and stepped beside Amir’s other side to help his Beta brother in waking up Amir.

The two siblings take a good five minutes to gently coax the blond out of sleep.

It took every ounce of Weston’s restrain not to just give him a good shake and be done with it.

Waking Amir from a deep sleep has never been the best idea, grumpiness being absolutely unavoidable.

“Urgh, I swear if you woke me up for some prank shit, I will be really pissed.”

Andy coughs uncomfortably.

“No, Amir. Weston needs to speak with you.”

“Huh?” That has Amir waking up fully, sitting upwards instantly.

“Yeah, could I?”

Amir sighs, he nudges his alpha and beta brothers out of the way and stands up, leading the way out of the room while rubbing the last bits of sleep out of his blue eyes.

*****

“So, what’s going on? You haven’t slept.”

It’s not a question.

Amir doesn’t even need to call upon his legendary deduction skills to see how tired and jittery Weston looks.

“I need to figure out what to do with Millan.”

Amir nods, unsurprised.

“You gave him two weeks to get himself together before leaving. You don’t feel comfortable with that decision anymore?” Amir says everything without judgement and always stays level-headed regardless of the dilemma.

That’s the main reason he’s the one Weston goes to when any kind of leadership crisis surfaces.

“I-”

“Is it because he’s cute?” Amir waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

Scratch that. Amir’s a childish twit.

He does make Weston laugh though, which is a relief to this ball of anxiety he’s been dragging along since Millan's arrival.

“He IS cute. He’s very pretty. But no, that’s not it.”

“What is it then?”

“Well, for starters, he’s an omega. I’m not sure I’m comfortable sending him back to fend for himself. It seems harsh.”

“Andy told you he was omega though, when you decided to send him away in the first place. ”

“I know, it’s just- now that I’ve met him, I guess, I just figured, despite his gender, his pack decided to banish him so he must have done something terrible to deserve that.”

“But when you met him, he didn’t fit that profile.”

Again, not a question, but Weston nods anyway.

“Here’s what I think we should do,” Amir has that face- that game on face.

It has Weston settling more comfortably on the couch, turning his body to face his friend.

“We should put a tail on him. Have him followed and be observed during his stay. Like a probation period where we test his ability to interact with and adapt to our pack. Then, we decide what to do with the information collected. Either we send him away, we let him stay longer as a guest or we make him pack.”

Weston nods. It makes sense.

But would he be risking the pack’s safety by letting a rogue stay for that long?

Amir lets him ponder in silence which Weston is grateful for.

“What do I tell him?”

“Nothing. It’ll be easier to judge his character if he thinks he’s leaving and if he doesn’t know we’re watching him.”

“I don’t know about that. It seems cruel to lie to him.”

“Yeah, I get that, but if he knows he’s being watched...”

“I know, I know. You’re right.”

“As usual.”

Weston snorts and shoves Amir.

“Could you send Jace to my study first thing in the morning?”

“Yeah. Good call. Jace is subtle and impartial.”

“You’re biased.”

Amir smiles, not bothering to deny the accusation. Of course he is biased. Jace is his brother after all.

“But yeah, you’re right.”

“As us-”

“Don’t. ”

As Weston accompanies Amir back to his room, the latter turns around, facing him.

“How hard was it to get those two idiots to wake me up?”

Weston shakes his head, grinning.

“They really are idiots, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, well. They’re my two idiot brothers.” Amir shrugs and goes back into his room.

*****

His heart isn’t in his chest anymore.

That’s the only possible explanation. It’s been teared apart and beaten on the ground, but it’s still beating.

How barbarous.

Couldn’t they just kill him already?

Ribcage void of anything meaningful, how is he still

alive?

“Worthless… Defective.” Alpha repeats those words so much, Millan thinks he’d benefit from a class on the use of synonyms.

He laughs.

Why is he laughing?

How can he laugh when he hurts so bad?

Abnormal. That’s a good synonym.

His mother’s devastated stare is enough to renew the pang in his heart full force.

Is he laughing or crying?

He shuts his eyes closed firmly.

Everyone’s gone.

His mother’s face, the last memory of his pack.

The omega catches his pending and shameful whine just in time to swallow it right back.

He groans instead, hopping off the bed forgetting about his bad leg. He sits right back.

This whole day of resting in bed, being fed and looked after by nurses should have been a delight, it should have felt like a vacation.

But it hadn’t.

His day was more like hunching over maps trying to figure out where to go once he leaves the Blayne Pack then hiding them from Nara and the nurses.

It was, quite frankly, exhausting.

What’s worse is that he thought he’d have figured it out by now, but all that’s been figured out is how much trouble he’s in.

Every pack surrounding the Blayne Territory is now marked red. Even if he finds a way to cross a territory undetected, he’s got a handful of territories left to go through before he gets to an unmarked one.

Once he gets kicked out of that one, he’ll have to find a way to cross to the Eastern Lands which is practically impossible when you’re a rogue and completely suicidal if you’re a Rogue Omega.

Millan's royally fucked.

*****

Millan is standing.

No, Millan is WALKING.

Millan is walking and it doesn’t hurt! Or well, it hurts, but it’s tolerable which is much better than the day prior.

When Nara enters the infirmary room, the omega is pacing with a slight limp, testing out his new found mobility.

Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise, not thinking the remedy would have acted so fast. It takes a moment for Millan to acknowledge her presence, not stopping his exercise when he does.

“Morning, Nara! Look! My leg is totally healed! It’s a miracle!” the energy flowing out of the omega clashes with the dark circles under his eyes.

Nara smiles in the hopes of hiding the growing pit of worry in her stomach.

“I can see that. Could I still check on it to make sure?”

Panting, Millan nods and sits on the bed, propping his leg up. He takes the glass of water from his nightstand to satisfy his thirst while Nara undoes the bandages, frowning.

Nara was surprised the omega can put any weight on it.

“Well it IS a bit better than yesterday, but it’s not really healed yet. Doesn’t it hurt still?”

Millan shrugs, still gulping down his water. It stings, sure, but he’s had to deal with a lot worse in the past.

“I think I’m going to put a little more ointment on it, just to make sure the infection is totally gone.”

Millan nods distractedly while eyeing Nara as she retrieves the creamy substance from the closed cabinet.  

An antibacterial ointment is a pretty damn pragmatic thing to own, Millan mulled over.

God knows how badly he would have needed that creamy miracle in the past.

“Okay, all done.” Nara gets up to put the precious remedy back in the cabinet. “Just be careful and don’t push yourself too much.”

After locking the small door, she shoves the key in the pocket of her smock gown. Millan smiles.

“Don’t worry about me, Nara. You’ve done a great job. I’m totally fine, look.” He proceeds to put all his weight on his bad leg and braces himself to jump.

“Millan, don’t!” The doctor, alarmed by the dangerous display, rushes to his side just as Millan's leg hits the floor.

He whimpers and tries to regain his balance as he leans heavily on Nara. “Argh”  

Fuck that did hurt a lot, he regretted.

“Millan, why would you do that?”

“M’ stupid.” He manages between gritted teeth, holding his breath and waiting for the pain to subside.

It isn’t a complete lie. He lets Nara’s shoulder go and sits on the bed, swiftly hiding the newly acquired piece of silver in the rumpled sheets.

Nara’s eyes are enough to scold him and Millan doesn’t wait for her to do so verbally. He raises his arms in defeat.

“I’m sorry, I'm sorry. I know. Taking it easy from now on.”

The alpha shakes her head in disbelief. She has never met an omega so daring.

“Also, try to get some sleep. Have you slept at all last night?”

Millan shrugs in lieu of a response.  

Why would she care? This place is weird, he mused on.

The omega coughs awkwardly under the scrutinizing gaze.

“I think I hear a patient screaming in another room. You should probably take care of that.”

Nara sighs and shakes her head, choosing not to push him further.

“Sure, I’ll do that. Have a good day, Millan. Oh and take a nap.”

As soon as she closes the door, Millan forces himself to lie down on the bed and count to a hundred, making sure she isn’t coming back.

He then gets up to the cabinet and opens it using the key he effortlessly retrieved from Nara’s pocket.