Omega's Tarnished Heart [MxM] (Moon Cave Book 2)

Chapter 12 - "Letting Go of Control"

"I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways" 🎵 - Toren if he listened to Michael Jackson... probably lol

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TOREN • POV

The first thing I encountered when I arrived at work for my first official shift that early morning, was staring. Curious staring. It wasn't so intense that it was blatant or even outright. But every once in a while, an uncomfortable shiver would tickle the back of my neck and I'd turn around, only to meet the eyes of a peering human who'd quickly avert their gaze.

I'd swiftly excused myself for the bathroom, worried that there was something amiss with my appearance, but upon looking in the small, slightly stained, frosted mirror, I couldn't find the problem. My clothes were worn and threadbare in some areas, but they were clean and neat. My face was clear aside from a shadow of stubble and a few tiny scars from using blunt razors. My eyes were their usual amber brown, not Kenzo's supernatural copper blue. My curly, black hair, although wild, wasn't crazy enough to draw attention from the next person in the slightest.

My heart was slowly sinking like a loose anchor, as my brain put together the simplest explanation it could, insecurities from my past rearing their heads like lurking crocodiles in swamp water. I sighed tiredly, running my fingertips over the dark bags beneath my eyes. My fingers soon found themselves caressing the shells of my ears. I touched them wistfully, wishing that there was some way I could fix them. I was a goddamn werewolf, I was a supernatural being roaming a very human earth, yet I couldn't have something so mundane as my hearing? Wasn't that an unfortunate twist of fate? The moon goddess really had it out for me when I was created.

Instead of standing in front of the mirror recalling every shitty hand I'd been dealt throughout my twenty-two years of life, and blaming the only higher power I believed in for all my problems, I selfishly added hearing aids to my long list of future purchases. It would be at the very bottom of the list of course, since it was hardly a necessity over food and well... the new pack I was a few measly dollars closer to starting, but it would be nice to feel their comforting weight back and maybe the added spatial awareness would make things a little bit easier. I could work on my lip reading when I had time and stop making my colleagues so uncomfortable around me.

"You're stupid," Kenzo snarled and I flinched, the derogatory adjective hitting a nerve almost instantly. Why? I was stupid because I finally wanted to belong in social place, around a group of people without feeling like a fucking freak? It wasn't so problematic for Kenzo, he was a wolf and a large percentage of wolf communication was body language - not that we'd interacted with any wolves at all lately. But I was his human counterpart, his host, and as the main being, I had to deal with human interactions the most, I had to work ten times harder to belong in any communal setting.

"You're stupid because you're doing it again! You're giving in to the demands of people who don't give a fuck about us we don't give a fuck about them! We're gonna work a couple more years, just to make a few more grand for fucking hearing aids so we can have a tiny bit of useless atmosphere?! Just to make people like us?! We're here to work, not make god damn friends with humans! And we wouldn't be here if you just asked MIKA FOR FUCKING HELP!" His rant tapered off into an unhinged screech of frustration.