The Omega's Bite

Chapter 2

Ayesha 🐺

Mama lay crumpled beside the table, her body unnaturally still, the basket of herbs overturned across the floorboards. Green leaves and dried petals were scattered everywhere, stained darker by the liquid dripping from the corner of her mouth.

"No, no, no." My voice broke apart as I crawled toward her, my shaking hands grabbed at her shoulders, trying to lift her, trying to wake her up. "Mama, look at me. Please look at me."Her skin felt cold, too cold.

My chest tightened so hard I thought my ribs would crack open from the pressure. Just this morning, she had been smiling at me, talking about peach cobbler and winter preparations, laughing because I nearly tripped over the firewood outside. Now her eyes were half-open but empty, and my pulse pounded violently in my ears."Mama?" I tried again, but there was no answer, and there will never be an answer from her, which terrified me more than tears ever could.

"What happened?" My voice cracked. "Why!!"

A woman reached toward me like she wanted to comfort me, but I jerked away before she could touch me. I didn't want comfort; I wanted my mother. Out of nowhere, a heat hit me, and a massive fire exploded in the  center of the clearing, sending me back away from my mother's body. Flames climbed hungrily into the darkening sky, sparks twisting upward like dying stars fast and big. 

I was shaking my head, violently refusing to believe what I was witnessing; my mother's body was being burned before my eyes, and there was nothing I could do about it. And then something snapped inside my knees, and I nearly gave out. "No." Everything inside me went cold. No, no, no." I stumbled forward, but rough hands caught my arms before I reached the flames.

"Let me go!" I screamed, fighting wildly. "LET ME GO!"

"It's already done," someone muttered.

Done? What's DONE?! 

"She passed peacefully," another woman whispered.

Peacefully? There was nothing peaceful about this, not a damn thing. And that's why something feels wrong about the whole event. I finally stopped struggling, not because I accepted it, but because something strange hit my nose; it was faint, almost hidden beneath the smoke. I took a deep breath, and there it was again, a sharp bitterness just underneath the scent of the burning fire; it was sweet and then rotten underneath. 

The smell was unnatural, making my stomach twist violently cause I knew that smell, I knew what it meant, even when the word echoed through my head, instantly, something was wrong, very wrong. My eyes lifted slowly toward the flames, the strange scent disappeared briefly beneath the smoke before returning in small waves whenever the wind shifted.

My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin, alert and uneasy. I swallowed hard."What happened to her?"

There was a brief silence before I heard footsteps approaching behind me. Alpha Darius Vale stepped beside the fire, his hands calmly clasped behind his back. 

"She passed in her sleep," he said smoothly.

My eyes narrowed slightly."She was fine this morning."

The Alpha's expression didn't change."She has been sick for years."

That's true, but still something clawed sharply at my instincts. The scent hit me again with that strange bitterness. Ignoring him, I inhaled softly this time, trying to place it. Then it hit: herbs, burned flowers, and metal. That realization made my stomach turn even harder. My mother had made it her mission to teach me about plants my entire life, from healing herbs to sleeping herbs to dangerous herbs. 

And something in that smoke reminded me of warnings she once whispered while crushing roots at the kitchen table."Some poisons smell sweet before they kill." My pulse stuttered. "No, impossible." I refused to believe it, and I stared harder into the flames.

Questions start flying in my head. Why burn her body so fast? Why not wait for me? Why not prepare her properly? Nothing about this felt right. My wolf paced violently now, not in grief, and I didn't try to calm her down because I was too worked up. 

I barely realized I was trembling until Alpha Darius spoke again."You should rest."

My gaze snapped toward him immediately. Rest? My mother was burning in front of me, and he wanted me to calm down. Instead of calm, something cold settled in my chest before I locked eyes with Alpha Darius. What I saw wasn't grief or sympathy, but relief. It was gone just as fast as it came, but I saw it. My heartbeat slowed. I needed to calm down because something had happened here, and I needed to find out what had really happened. 

I slowly looked back toward the fire one more time, the bitter scent touched my nose one last time, and deep inside me, I could swear something ancient whispered: "Remember that smell."