Chapter 39 - 38. The Omega’s Mark

Eden's heart skipped a beat. He stared at Glen, mouth open in shock. When the dominant walked away that day, asking for forgiveness, he thought his fated mate had refused him definitively. The teenager felt his heart break into a billion pieces. Throughout his stay in the magic dimension, he had convinced himself that the refusal was because of the curse, thus maintaining the slim hope that his fated mate would agree to be bound to him if they found a way to break the curse. By asking Glen to mark him, the omega wanted to confirm that it was indeed his condition that the Alpha had refused to become his mate.

If so, he planned to convince him. For that, he had prepared a whole series of arguments to shake the will of the alpha. At no point did he foresee a scenario where Glen was putting his heart and his life in his hands.

Reversed marking was referred to in ancient legends as the omega's mark. This test to which an alpha who wants to start a pack or takes over the lineage of a leader would submit to was the greatest test a Dominant of his rank had to pass for his mating and reign to gain the protection of the Moon Goddess.

Indeed, for a complete bond, partners are supposed to mark each other. However, according to this ancient belief, an alpha marked by his omega succumbs to the next full moon if the Moon Goddess refuses her protection. No one knows if this legend is true because for several centuries it has been forbidden for an omega to mark his dominant and no sub would have risked breaking the laws to verify the authenticity of a legend.

"Do you know what you are asking me?" Eden asked, incredulous.

"I read books on it." The alpha said with a shrug of a mock casual tone. "I just want to be sure that I deserve you, Eden."

"Are you putting your life on the line to figure this out?"

"I'm not, because you and I, we know that we are meant to be. I'm just doing something to make everybody else agree to the fact."

Eden was speechless and, again, his heartbeat sped up. The noise of somebody clearing his throat interrupted them and the two werewolves turned their heads towards the opening where the door was supposed to be. Connor and Greg stood in the frame and for once it wasn't the alpha's best friend who was displaying a mischievous smile.

"Sorry, we didn't want to bother you, but we figured you might want to continue this conversation somewhere else… somewhere less… full of… corpses?" Connor stated.

"I didn't know you were that romantic, Glen," Greg said with a grin.

"His definition of romantic is a bit half-ass if you want my opinion," Connor stated as he looked around the room, his nose wrinkled in a grimace of disgust.

The omega who had yet to meet the two humans frowned at their scents.

"You are…"

"They are my family. This is Connor Everett and Greg Douglas. They are both members of the WIA. Greg is a researcher and Connor is going to be Bloodhood's exclusive liaison Officer."

"What?"

"Eden," The Alpha called the Omega to focus his attention back on him. "I'll tell you everything you need to know. Before that, I want to tell you what I wanted to tell you when I woke up that day."

The younger man just nodded. Glen's gaze was so soft, so loving that his heart couldn't help but anticipate. This time around, he was finally going to hear the answer he wanted above all else.

The Dominant stretched his hand open palm up.

"My name is Glen Red Creek, I'm a ticking bomb werewolf who can't shift willingly and I've heard lately that I'm cursed. I've learned about my kind in books and I grew up in a human pack with a very loving family. There is a lot that I don't know and I'll probably make many mistakes but I can promise that I'll do whatever I have to so I never hurt you. Even if it cost my life. Do you still want me as your mate? "

Eden stared at the hand opened in front of him wanting for him to give his approval. He never had been the desired one. Until this day, Eden had been wanted for the status he offered as the heir of Bloodhood, a few times it was his beauty that had attracted but it never lasted. When they learned about his fur, they disappeared. He never had experienced this feeling of being desired for the simple fact of being him.

"I've got a lot of flaws, too. You won't be the only one who will have to put up with the other part. You don't know about me. I-I've… "

The Omega lowered his head and clenched his fists before letting out a silent, but anxious sigh. Without saying anything, he took off his t-shirt and loosened the lace of the sweatpants he was wearing to shift without tearing it apart. When he finished his transformation, he forced his head up, making eye contact with Glen. Tears threatening to fall he swallowed the lump in his throat.

"I've got a golden fur. Do you still want me as your mate? "

The face of the dominant didn't show any emotion. He just stared at Eden who felt his heart on the verge of exploding. Unable to resist the wait, the omega lowered his head again and pressed his eyelids together to keep the tears from falling.

"Why wouldn't I want somebody as beautiful and strong as you as my mate?"

Once he said that a subtle scent of cocoa beans and cinnamon, enticing and charming made Eden lift his head. Between a dominant and a sub, emitting those pheromones in such a situation only meant one thing: courting. Glen is asking if he can court him. Eden raised a hand, then placed it in the dominant's hand before releasing his seductive pheromones to answer the olfactory question.

After enduring in silence as best he could, Connor interrupted the two werewolves once again.

"Okay, is it over now? Can we get out of this creepy place? "

Glen rolled his eyes and answered in annoyance.

"No one asked you to spy on us, either!" He closed his fingers over the young werewolf's hand and walked out, keeping the connection.

"I had come to bring you some clothes since I suspected you would want to avoid walking around with your three-piece set in the air, but since I'm disturbing, I'm going!" He announced before turning on his heels, pissed.

"No, wait! I want them! Give me the clo-… " A pair of pants landed on the face of the werewolf who caught up with him before he fell to the ground.

"Thank y…"

A new item of clothing, a t-shirt this time, stuck to the face of the alpha who caught it. He waited until Connor was a distance away from throwing anything else at him and yelled.

"Thank you!"

Greg looked amused at Eden's puzzled face and spoke. "Don't worry, you'll get used to their childish behavior."

Glen turned to the Omega to ask him to wait outside while he changed, which earned him an amused raised eyebrow. As a member of a traditional pack, Eden didn't have the same standards regarding modesty as the alpha, but he didn't reply and walked out of the room. He took the opportunity to send a link to his parents and best friends who were waiting outside telling them he was coming as soon as his alpha was ready. He walked down the hall to where Connor and Greg were. He walked over to them, shy, and leaned against a wall to wait with them.

With their pack being traditional, he had had little opportunity to interact with humans so he was unsure of how to behave with those whom, if he understood correctly, his mate considered his family. The teenager was suddenly curious about how Glen had interacted with his family during the days he had been in the magic dimension. This question reminded him of the situation they were in a while ago. He opened his screen and viewed the alpha information.

[Glen Red Creek, fated mate

Level: ???

Race: Werewolf

Blood rank: Alpha

Type: ???

Class: Divine

Name: Warrior of the Moon Goddess

Stats: strength: 1000/10000

Speed: 1000/10000

Agility: 1000/10000

Intelligence: 9889/10000

Skills: Healing (Passive) Domination (Passive)

Stats are blocked. The subject has been cursed.

Current debuff: Shifting to werewolf form and wolf form is impossible. Time before death 77 days 20 hours 14 minutes 06 seconds.]

A relieved and frustrated sigh escaped his mouth as he read the end of the message and Glen arrived at the same time. He was dressed in linen pants and a simple black cotton t-shirt. Eden turned off the dashboard and stared at the one who had become his man a moment ago. Soon the worries were replaced by the joy that his memories of a few days ago had not exaggerated the beauty of his mate. The clothes Glen was wearing enfolded his finely-muscled body perfectly. A slight blush spread on Eden's cheeks showing everything he thought but couldn't say out loud.

"What's wrong?" Glen asked. He had noticed his worried look just before, just as he noticed the effect it had now.

"We'll talk later." Eden retorted in a firm tone trying to regain control over his face.

Eden knew they had to speak as quickly as possible to find a solution to the threat hanging over the Dominant's head. The moment he woke up was so chaotic that he hadn't had a chance to think about how he was going to approach the subject. The alpha stared at the younger man and his fingers parted a strand of hair from his face to tuck it behind his ear. The faint blush that Eden was trying to control grew stronger and spread to the tips of his ears. He looked away to hide his embarrassment.

"S-Shall we go?"

Pleased with the reaction, Glen couldn't help the slight smile that crept on his lips. He caught Eden's hand in his as the other duo watched in silence their interaction and they left the building.

Outside, members of Purples Eyes were cleaning up the place. They were removing the bodies and doing their utmost to remove all traces of the clashes with great care. The couple of werewolves followed the two humans who guided them to where the rest of the Bloodhood's members were.

Silver and Snow were chatting with the Purple Eyes' Alpha while Christopher, Dante, and Cherry were apart. The Luna's state of shock was over and she was back to her usual self. At least, it was so in the eyes of Connor and Greg who were clueless about the pheromones of comfort that the leader of the traditional pack was diffusing to appease his mate. All eyes focused on the group of four men approaching. Cherry, who was comfortably curled up in Dante's arms, was about to glower at Glen when she noticed the red checks of her best friend and his hand connected to the alpha's. The young omega's face flashed her first wholehearted smile since the start of the deadly fight.

The Purple Eyes's alpha was the first to speak. The woman with the triangle silhouette and generous hips turned to them. Her sienna-colored skin enlightened by scarlet red hair seemed to sparkle. She looked at Eden with a broad smile and, as soon as he was within arm's reach, she engulfed the young man in an embrace which, if he was not a werewolf, would probably have broken his ribs. Forced to let go of his mate's hand, Glen watched the omega endure the hug as if he knew he wouldn't escape it anyway. After a moment of hugs and teases, the alpha female looked up at the long-black-haired dominant, a smile on her lips.

"There was nothing to worry about. That was more than impressive. You found a very strong mate, Eden."

The omega followed the woman's gaze to his mate, who was smiling uneasily. Elma Softmane walked over to the young alpha and circled him while detailing him head to toe then sighed dramatically.

"I guess the suitor I sent didn't stand a chance against him. So, when will the marking ceremony take place? Or are you going to make a simple bonding ceremony since I heard they're fated mates? "

She slapped playfully the shoulder of Silver Bloodhood who, like his son, endured the mood of the Purple Eyes' alpha, silently.

The oddball dominant was her mate's childhood friend, and the alpha had given up on escaping her extravagance years ago. Only the Moon Goddess knew how two women with such opposed characters as Snow and Elma had been able to forge such a strong friendship. Nothing, not even the weight of the years or the fact that the female omega left her pack to become the Luna of Bloodhood had changed the bond and respect they had for each other.

When they heard the question from the woman waiting for their answer. The couple exchanged a look.

"About that, there is something I would like to say, Alpha."

Silver raised an eyebrow at the formal tone in which his son spoke to him. The last time this had happened was during the events of Crescent Moon.

"Speak," The Bloodhood's leader commanded.

"I want to mark my alpha.. We would like to ask our Goddess permission for our mating."