Just An Omega

Eight

Four Years Later

“Arlo, breakfast,” Danelia called out from the kitchen.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” Arlo said as he sat down to his coffee. Danelia brought the plates over to the table and slathered peanut butter and strawberry preserves all over her toast.

“That’s all you’re eating?” Her uncle asked.

She answered between bites, “Yep. I got errands to run.”

“Alright.” He said as he ate his steak and onions.

They finished their morning meal in their usual comfortable silence.

“Okay. I’m gone.” Danelia said as she chewed the last of her toast and rose from the table, placing her plate into the sink.

Since waking up in the Cleese Pack Hospital, Danelia moved to Arlo’s hunting ranch, Reen-Phair Ranch. There she worked as her Uncle’s second in command, head of the household so to speak. Seeing as how Arlo wasn’t much of a people person, she always stood in as ‘the face of RPR.’ She had learned how to run the business first hand from Arlo and had excelled as the ranch wo-manager.

The irony of the situation was that as much a she despised being referred to as an omega and what station it entailed, as the wo-manager she still performed some of the same tasks. She scrubbed toilets and helped maintain the three thousand plus acreage just as much as she haggled with clients and handled balancing the books. In the end she realized that it was never being referred to as omega, it was how low they were treated.

She had finally gotten the respect she deserved as her uncle’s do-it all, be-it all employee that ensured that their guests’ needs were taken care of. And she rather liked the way her life was going.

She feared she would have regretted staying with her family if she had. It was a bad situation that would have only been made worse for her had she stayed with the Cleese Pack.

Now that she was human, she didn’t have any ties to the wolves, other than familial ones. She was free. And still all alone. Four years had passed but Danelia never felt whole any longer. Her lupa was permanently gone and she had had to deal with the utter emptiness of her life now that her wolf spirit was never to return. For the first six months she had to fight for the will to even open her eyes. She became afraid to even sleep at nights, thinking that when she awakened she would lose another piece of herself to the darkness. Over time and from constant reassurance from her uncle she got over it. But not really. Other than having the empty feel of herself she missed her family as well as Carmichael. When she awakened in the pack hospital room alone save for her Uncle Arlo, whom took the sixteen hour flight just to see to her well being, it both touched and saddened her. She questioned where the rest of her family was, Arlo explained that he had to order them to leave to get some rest so that he would take his turn to keep watch over her.She nodded and accepted that, if there were any better time to leave, it was then. She felt a stab of guilt when she chose to leave them behind with only a single letter for them to read.

She said she was okay with their choosing to stay in the Cleese Pack, but she truly wasn’t. She missed her family more than she ever thought she could. Going back wasn’t possible, even making a simple phone call was too much for her. So she left them be. She figured they would be better off without her causing any more distress. The only good thing to come out of her debacle was that she no longer thought about Noland to the point of obsession. It was as if when her lupa left, so had Noland and whatever connection they had. Danelia gave her thanks to whatever higher being was at work for that miracle.

However, there seemed to be a bad side to that as well. She had no one to connect with other than her uncle and some of the other employees that worked on the ranch. The more days that passed the more isolated she felt. Arlo worried over her too much, almost suffocating her. He knew what his niece was going through. He had been through his own kind of hell and there was no one there to pull him from it but himself.She was so young though. Only seventeen then and she had taken on a world of hurt that not many could.

On her second week living with her uncle, he presented her with a two-week old German Sheppard she named Beauregard Morrigan Phair. Or just Beau-Mo for short. Danelia fell in love with him straight away. He took up some of the void that had come over her life at present. In a sense, he became a lifeline that Arlo hadn’t known he was giving his niece. True it wasn’t a wolf but Beau-Mo became the next best thing. He trailed her wherever she went and when she wasn’t busy with chores she spent her time house breaking and training him. For a puppy, he was very obedient and always willing to be her guard dog whenever they drove into town. He even acted as a guard on those occassions he was left at the house alone. And as he grew so did his intelligence.

Everyone thought their dog was smart but Beau-Mo really was. Whenever spoken to he had a way about giving someone his undivided attention. And he had a knack for eavsdropping, Danelia found out on the day he was to get groomed. He overheard Danelia and Arlo talking in hushed tones and decided that he didn't like the idea of someone triming his nails or shampooing his fur so he took both Arlo and Danelia's car keys and hid them in the basement.

When they finally found the keys, so stunned that they were Danelia and Arlo couldn't do anything but laugh about it and try to be extra careful about what they said around him.

Yet, even with Beau-Mo as her constant companion, literally running circles around her, she was restless and always needed to do something. House work was nothing since her uncle kept a clean house anyway.

Since they ran a hunting ranch where guest came to hunt for big game like elk and deer and the like, she began target practice. It wasn’t a favorite pass time of hers but it did relieve her stresses.

Whenever she found the down time she took up fencing as well. At first she liked the idea of having a skill that not many people had. Soon she realized it was more. Fencing was less celebrated lost art that became a challenge for her to fixate on. She took to it like a duck taking to water. Her instructor said that she was a natural, she pared and thrust with a skill unlearned. It became an outlet to her. Not as physical as mixed martial arts, as her uncle suggested, but more so intuitive. In fencing you had to watch your stance, hold your ground if need be, but know when to retreat to gain the upper hand. To anticipate where the next hit would come from, meant that a counter attack would soon follow. At that point in her life she needed something to consume her mind, if only for a few hours.

With she and her uncle and Beau-Mo the dog so far away from people on their ranch there were yet still close enough to civilization. She felt a peace she thought could never be disturbed. But it was.