Could they be soulmates?

When Alpha meets Omega

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By Authoress Kamara

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Chapter 3:

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Carlos has marigold on him, but he needs more ingredients to properly heal that wound. He can’t leave the wolf here; he might bleed out, die right in the middle of this meadow with nobody but a stranger besides him. “Um. . . shit, just. . . just hold on—”

“Carlos!”

The omega’s head snaps towards the direction he came from and there, like a glowing savior, is Gavin, standing at the top of the hill. Carlos has never been more thankful in his life to see the big giant, and he watches as the beta dashes towards them, trampling through the flowers to get to them.

Carlos’s more concerned about the wolf than the flowers at this point.

“Jorge told me you’d be out here— oh, holy shit!”

The injured wolf flounders again, unable to support himself on his back legs, but he snarls and snaps and growls at the newcomer, ears flat against his head.

“We need to get him back, he’s going to bleed out,” Carlos rambles, worry in his eyes, “We can’t— we can’t leave him like this.”

“I don’t know, Carlos,” Gavin says, uneasy. “He looks pretty bad . . . and if he won’t let us touch him . . .”

Carlos glances back at the wolf. “Can you carry him? Y-you’re stronger than I am. I can’t let him die out here.”

The wolf drops his head to the ground. Carlos reaches out again, the wolf growling, but he’s too weak to snap at the omega when he rests his hand along the uninjured part of his flank. “He can’t bite you, he’s too weak. We could call for help but. . . but they’ll take too long to get here.”

He’s right and they both know it, but Gavin still seems like he doesn’t think it’s a good idea, even though the omega has successfully been able to touch the wolf without getting his hand bitten off. “Yea, I can carry him,” he finally says with a sigh, cautiously approaching the two.

It seems like most of the fight has left the injured wolf, because he doesn’t snap when Gavin replaces Carlos’s hand with his own, smoothing over the wolf’s side. “Listen,” he murmurs softly, “I’m Gavin, and this is Carlos. We just want to take you somewhere where we can patch you up, okay?”

With great care, Carlos reaches and tries to find any sore spots to avoid, wincing when the wolf yips in pain and apologizing under his breath. It takes a little maneuvering, but he manages to get the bloody wolf on his back, straightening up with little difficulty. “He’s mostly fur,” he huffs with a bit of an amused tone, “scrawny thing really.”

Carlos breathes out shakily in relief when Gavin picks the wolf up and he stands, wobbling over before catching himself. The wolf doesn’t look too happy, but they’re already hastily walking back in the direction of their pack, blood dripping down on the ground occasionally from the open wound.

“He doesn’t look like he eats much,” the omega mumbles, eyes trained on the wolf. “He’s. . . he’s a silverback. I’ve never seen one before. Do you think he’s from the mountains? Living all the way up there?”

“Probably. I’ve never seen one in person either. Either that or he’s a lone wolf, but they don’t live too long from what I hear.”

Carlos swallows and refrains from saying anything else.

The wolf is nearly unconscious when they reach the pack, and everyone can smell him before they see him. Wolves peer out from their caves and pause their activities to watch Gavin carry the wolf towards the infirmary with Jorge hot on their heels, demanding answers out of concern for all.

The infirmary is empty, and Jorge directs Gavin to lay the wolf on the floor while he and Carlos prepare the herbs and medicines. Another healer, Yara, stumbles through the doorway and dismisses Gavin.

The beta doesn’t want to cause any trouble, so he dips out of the cabin and leaves the three to do their work on the injured wolf.

A few hours later, Carlos emerges from the infirmary and almost walks right into Leo, who looks like he’s been pacing in front of the building for awhile.

“Carlos! Are you hurt?” the younger omega cries, taking his friend by the shoulders and holding him in place to check him over. “I was so worried, everyone is talking about you and Gavin and the outsider. Did you get in a fight?”

Carlos is dazed, tired from the work, but he hugs Leo back and shakes his head. “No, no I didn’t,” he mumbles, pulling back and running his fingers through his hair. “I just. . . I found him like that. In the meadow, bleeding. I guess Gavin followed me after he woke up.”

“Carlos, this isn’t like you bringing home wounded animals for us to nurse back to health. This is an outsider . Erik isn’t happy. . .”

The omega rubs his face. “I know,” he utters quietly, hoarsely, “but I couldn’t leave him there, Leo. He was going to die. I can’t. . . I don’t know how I’d feel if I left him there to die alone.”

Carlos is clearly distraught over the whole thing, and he knows Erik isn’t happy. When he came into the infirmary after learning about what happened, he had a deepset frown and he was quiet.

Jorge told Carlos he’d talk to him, but he feels like this is going to be his fault and some pack members might ridicule him for bringing in an outsider.

Sensing Carlos’s distress, Leo wisely leaves that subject alone and begins to tug the smaller omega away from the infirmary. “Is he going to be okay? The wolf?”

“He should pull through,” Carlos sighs, glad that Leo is going to drop the subject. For now. “He’s been hurt real bad, by other wolves, which is why he isn’t healing quickly. We won’t know who he is because Jorge wants to keep him in that form. If he shifts, his wounds might kill him. His leg is broken so . . . he’ll have to be in that form for awhile. But I said I would take responsibility and look over him until he shifts back. I just. . . I just want to know who he is.”

There had been something that compelled him to help the wolf and Carlos had been bothered by it since then.

“Do you think he’s from the mountains?” Leo muses outloud, clearly also curious. “I hear they don’t treat their omegas well . . . Their pack leader is brutal. And if he is from the mountains, why would he have been attacked by other wolves? Maybe he deserved it—”

Carlos stares at Leo with furrowed brows. “Don’t say that,” he apprehends, ignoring Leo’s look of surprise. “Don’t assume things. He’s an alpha, he’s almost dying, and he’s scared. I could see it. We won’t know until he shifts back, so you can ask your questions when he can talk.”

The younger omega blinks rapidly, unused to Carlos speaking to him like this. “You’re. . . defending him? Carlos. . . you don’t even know him.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

Carlos is tired, hungry, and just fed up with the events that happened today. He doesn’t need to be drilled by his best friend when he’s been through this much already. When they reach their cave, he turns to Leo and stops him.

“I’m going to sleep. Don’t wake me up for dinner, I don’t need to be ridiculed by everyone else.”

Skipping dinner is for the best.

Leo doesn’t argue and Carlos escapes into the confines of the cave where he shucks off his boots and crawls into bed, drawing the blankets up to his chin with a low rumble, turning on his side. It’s too early for real sleep, and his stomach rumbles, but he shuts his eyes anyways and forces himself to go to bed.

<<>>

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The next day, Carlos wakes up later than usual and finds that Leo isn’t curled up next to him in his bed. Instead, the brunette is curled up under his own blankets sound asleep, snoring softly into the wall.

Carlos’s stomach is empty, no longer growling, but Jorge is going to be very unhappy if the omega doesn’t eat something. So it’s with a groan that he dresses and heads towards the kitchens, others roaming about and glancing at Carlos when he walks by.

He doesn’t like all of the attention. Hopefully it dies down soon.

Sure enough, Jorge is in the building, a plate set out for Carlos already. The elder omega motions for Carlos to come in and eat, though it’s more of a command because Jorge isn’t going to let him leave unless he eats.

Carlos settles down with the plate of food and eats quietly. Jorge leans back against the counters with his arms folded across his chest, watching him eat. It’s when he’s about halfway done does he decide to speak on the matter of yesterday.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how mad is Erik?”

He hears Jorge sigh and he gives him a short side glance.

“He was at about a 5 last night, but maybe he’s more at a 4 now. He’s not too happy with me either, but I’m his mate and he has to deal with it.”

Anything above a 5, everyone knows, only results in trouble.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Carlos chews his lip and pokes at his food. “The last thing I wanted was to upset anyone, especially him, or drag you into this.”

Jorge leans off the counter. “Don’t blame yourself for anything Carlos. I willingly helped, because I would have done the same. What matters is that you saved another’s life, which is an honorable deed, even though they are an outsider. We’re very isolated, so when we see wolves that aren’t in our pack, everyone’s bound to worry.”

He steps towards Carlos and he ruffles his hair reassuringly. “After you eat, I’ll take you to Erik. I’ve already talked to him a little bit but he’ll want to hear your side of the story, okay?”

He mumbles out a sad, “Okay” before he finishes the rest of his breakfast with Jorge at his side.

Jorge walks him to his cabin after breakfast and Carlos can’t help but feel nervous for a couple of reasons. He’s going to talk to the alpha inside his own home, inside the home he’s built for himself and Jorge, and Carlos hates to intrude. Also, Erik is still mad, and that puts a damper on Carlos’s mood too.

The cabin is warm inside, sunlight streaming in through the windows. Decorations hang on the walls, bringing life to the small home, and Carlos steps on a large bear skin rug when Jorge leads him into the living room. Ah, he knows this rug; Erik killed a bear during their courtship when it had attacked Jorge in the forest a number of years ago. They were teenagers, while he and Leo and Kai were still pups.

Erik is seated on one of the hand-made leather couches with a cup of tea in his hands, head of ash brown hair not brushed through. It’s like the alpha had just woken up not too long ago.

He’s alert, however, when he sees the two omegas, and he motions them forward and sets his tea down on the table in front of him. Jorge guides Carlos to sit down on the smaller couch a few feet away from where Erik is sitting.

“So tell me exactly what happened out there,” Erik finally speaks and he sounds so tired.

Carlos swallows but Jorge rubs his shoulder reassuringly for a moment, gentle ushering him to speak. His throat is dry but he swallows and sits straight.

“W-well I was going to the meadows, Jorge asked if I could pick marigolds while I was there. I was just. . . walking when I found him. The wolf. I saw something ahead of me and went over to it. He was. . .he was hurt real bad, bleeding out and covered in dirt and mud. I just couldn’t leave him like that.”

There was something linking him to the wolf.

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TBC