All alone sitting on his bedroom's floor, Ari stared back at his reflection in a catatonic state.
Four days had passed, and those four days were enough to finally break him. He could already feel it, something had snapped in his mind and there's no way he was going to blame himself for it. There was no way that any of what happened was fair at all.
And it all started the day he was born.
Ari was trying his best to hold himself together, and while he did an amazing job at that, the cracks were still there gradually growing as the years went by until he finally shattered.
There was nothing to piece together anymore.
Not when he sat there on the floor staring at a bruised wounded body from his mother's loving blows. She was brilliant, really, she knew how to hide it well even though this physical abuse of hers is recent. It was only his body, never his face. Not when the attention was on them now that everyone knew the truth.
He's such a convenient outlet for her frustrations.
"Forgive me, alpha, but I was only respecting his wishes." He could hear her sweet polite voice from downstairs entertaining a visit from alpha Hawthorne himself. Oh, what an honor. "Aurelius begged me to keep it a secret, I didn't know what else to do."
The lies.
"I understand that you were doing it for him, but this was still a risky decision." The alpha's voice had a bit of admiration at the love and consideration his mother had shown by keeping Ari's 'secret'. A fool just like his son. "From now on, we'll have to take certain precautions around him. We must protect him."
How exciting, the life of a caged bird. Not that he wasn't already one, but now it is a different cage that he's being forced into. Delightful.
"I cannot begin to express my gratitude." Careful mother, Ari thought, your mask is slipping. The tone of her voice isn't hiding the hatred that's been brewing. "Really, I don't know where to begin."
Maybe by not littering your son's body with bruises, that is a start.
"It's my duty as alpha to oversee that no harm comes to him." Ari wanted to laugh at that if he wasn't feeling so bitter. Not only was he not affiliated with this alpha anymore, but he already spectacularly failed his job. "Speaking of which, when did you know about him being, erm, an omega?"
Since Ari was barley one years old.
"Only a few years," The nervousness was clear in her voice as the lies became more difficult. That was okay, though. Her charm was enough to make anyone fall for her lies. "Aurelius somehow hid it from me for a while, and I helped him get his meds because I was afraid for him. I didn't mean to keep it a secret from anyone."
She spoke as if she wasn't the one who forced him into keeping it a secret.
There was silence before he heard a sigh. "No, I see. I can understand that you did it for him."
"Yes, I am truly sorry. I was only respecting his wishes."
Ari stood up from his place on the ground deciding that he was too cold to continue sitting there without any clothes on. He wondered what would alpha Hawthorne think if he knew that his mother, his beautiful lovely mother, had just beaten him up moments before he graced them with his visit.
It was all too funny.
"You see, I came here to inform you about a few interested alphas in your son." Alpha Hawthorne could be heard shifting in his seat, probably feeling slightly awkward at bringing up this topic. "Omegas are rare, and it is no surprise that people would grow interested, so it's best if he settles down quickly. It's safer this way."
The illusion of having a choice in this situation is very misleading. Ari wasn't stupid, he knew he has the choice to choose between those suitors, but he doesn't have the choice to refuse settling for one. This wasn't how things went for omegas, especially ones who weren't his precious son's mate.
This was done to get him away from Alec and ensure that Alec would end up with his chosen one, Eli. He didn't want another omega in heat to ruin that for his son. It was best to get rid of Ari as soon as possible.
And he was nice enough to give him that illusion of having a choice.
"Oh."
It was all what his mother could say, but she was probably cursing internally because she knew of Ari's mark. She knew that he already had someone. All she wanted was to send him away, and this was her chance of doing so. If only he hadn't gotten this mark, then he'd be on his way away from here. If only whoever gave it to him took him away. It was all she thought about.
But Ari smiled as he walked down the stairs hiding all the bruises under his clothes. He smiled as he bowed his head in acknowledgment at the alpha of the Hawthorne pack, a pack he doesn't see himself belonging to anymore. And he smiled as he kept the pretense his mother loved to keep and sat beside her.
"Aurelius, good timing." The alpha brightened up at the sight of him, and his mother kept her straight face as she sat there wordlessly. "We were just talking about you."
Who would have guessed?
"About me?" Ari titled his head sounding genuinely surprised at that, and the alpha nodded his head at him with a smile. Did everyone forget they were werewolves with sensitive hearing?
He could hear them from his room upstairs.
"A few alphas are growing interested in you." Ari was told this as if he should be flattered, so he acted flattered as he looked down at his hands shyly. His mother silently observed. "If you're interested, I could arrange for you to meet them. They're all eager to get to know you."
"You mean..." He bashfully looked away and alpha Hawthorne chuckled at the endearing display.
How sickening, Ari thought.
"It seems like they're not the only ones who are eager." The alpha was satisfied with the shy smile he got from the beautiful omega in front of him, and the away his cheeks grew pinker at the attention. "I take it that you're interested?"
Tucking a strand behind his ear, Ari bit his lip nervously.
"I think so, I mean- I'd love it." He would have probably loved it once upon a time when he was still looking for an escape, when he was still naïve enough to think that this would be his happy ending, but now he is just sick. "I can't wait to meet them."
His mother tried not to show any surprise at his words or actions as she smiled awkwardly at their guest, but she kept on glancing at him with a confused look on her face.
The alpha didn't notice anything at all as he excitedly stood, happy that this visit went as well as he had hoped.
"That's good to hear. I will let them know as soon as possible."
They were all smiles and polite gestures until he left, and that's when his mother stopped at the door waiting for a while to make sure that she wouldn't be heard. That's when she turned to him.
"What game are you playing?"
Ari shrugged. "I don't know what you mean."
"Don't play dumb. Your mark."
His hand absent-mindedly traveled to it as if he just remembered it, but truthfully it never left his mind this whole discussion. This whole time he kept thinking of how he wished he was more like Constantine. Powerful, precise, and ruthless.
They'd all be dead by now.
Sadly, Ari was the complete opposite of all that.
Even when he stared at his mother's throat, even when he knew exactly where to cut, and even when he knew that if he ever did it he'd have Constantine to run to. Even with all of that, he still couldn't do it.
That's why he looked away from her as he answered her.
"My mark isn't visible, so any alpha would do. They'd just take me away like you wanted." He told her with his hand running nervously up his arm, hoping she'd not hit him again. "By the time they discover the mark, I'll be figuring things out away from here."
"Then you better start figuring things out." She made sure to bump into his bruised shoulder as she said that.
But Ari didn't even move, nor did he flinch. He just stared at her back already making a decision. If he's too weak to do anything, and he is too weak to see this horrible pack burn down with his mother, it was okay. He knew what he wanted, and he knew he couldn't do it himself.
Ari wanted this whole pack to suffer.
Good thing there's a killer wrapped around his pinky.