The Alpha's Omega Mate-Chapter 45: Chills.

~Dahlia POV~

Despite the way my heart hammered against my chest like the devil’s drumsticks and the bone deep fear I had at the time as Nyx stretched out her hands towards me, I took it.

She helped me up slowly, much to my surprise, and to the surprise of those present and then she unfastened her ceremonial cloak from around her neck to drape it around my now-almost-naked body. I froze.

"Lady Nyx..?" My voice was small, strained. Drained. Just exactly the way I felt—without life— but Nyx didn’t respond, she didn’t even flinch under the pressing eyes of everyone.

She said in a loud voice. "Henceforth, until the Alpha wants his personal slave back, Dahlia here will live with me... dine with me and will be under my protection!"

Again, I froze just as the crowd gasped.

"Lady Nyx?"

"Who’s this woman?"

"But that’s the thief!"

The array of words swarmed around us, threatening to swallow us into some deep dark hole of noises and while I was outwardly affected by their words, Nyx gave no indication that she was.

She stood firmly in front of me in a protective stance, and from this angle, I couldn’t help but take a lungful of her exquisite perfume. She smelled divine. Like heaven.

—And the way she fiercely protected me made me feel seen. Wanted. Liked. in a way that I have never ever felt in my entire life.

The thought made a special kind of warmth bloom in my chest, but upon realization that this was Nyx we were talking about... the one who seemed to have about 4 different types of past—some that I knew of, the warmth dissipated, replaced instead with confusion.

I wondered why she was helping me.

If this was some sadistic way she’s decided to get under my skin or use me for her weird tendencies, then it was probably working because now, I was so torn, I didn’t even know whether to stand behind her, remaining grateful to her or to stand with the crowd ready to kill me, while I waited for her to strike me.

"You seem to forget that you’re also under the Alpha’s protection. For now, he’s indisposed... and for that reason, you are under my protection!" This time, it was Jennifer who spoke up.

Her angry eyes blazed with fury but right now, I could not ascertain if she was mad at Nyx for commanding so much power, or if she was mad at her for saving me. Maybe it was both. She snapped; "And that girl is a thief!"

"Did you find anything on her?!" Nyx bit back, stepping forward towards Jennifer in a manner that seemed challenging. Even some of the elders backed away, probably from fright or from the prospect of witnessing something juicy to gossip about later.

Jennifer’s face reddened with immense fury. She bared her teeth at Nyx in rage, and didn’t even back down when a few elders materialized by her side, whispering sweet nothings to her.

"She’s a thief." She spat, shaking her head against the elders. I do not know what they were saying to her, but clearly she disagreed; " and I’ll not stand idly while you insult my power." She seethed while I had to force myself not to roll my eyes at her weak attempt at enforcing authority.

I saw a Nyx flash a smirk at me but before I could ponder over what it meant, she turned to one of the elders, the one named Samwell, and snarled; "The girl insists that she didn’t take a thing! You also didn’t find even a speck of dust on her but none of you stopped to consider any of that, did you?"

"They don’t answer to you, they answer to m—" Jennifer began to say but before she could finish, Nyx interrupted her,

"And y’all would’ve branded her if I didn’t step up to help her, right? RIGHT?"

"No... no!" Samwell rushed out with a flushed face.

"Is that how things are done here?"

"No. That i-isn’t!" He supplied again, now visibly flustered.

"Is that how you would treat lil ol’ me and my Bebe if we were ever found in a situation just like this one?... Despite knowing fully well that she’s the Alpha’s youngling?"

When she said this, Jennifer’s face darkened with pure rage. It worsened when a few elders began to nod their heads in agreement. And it wasn’t until that moment that I realized what she was trying to do. She was messing with Jennifer. She didn’t even care about me one bit but cared all about going against Jennifer’s authority.

But why?

That I’d never know.

Some elders with Samwell leading pulled her to the side and from the way they nodded a little too quickly at everything she said, I deduced then that they were trying to placate her. And I trembled in fear, wondering if this was the point where she’d let me go for something better... something that wasn’t necessarily tagged a thief.

They returned seconds later with satisfied looks on their faces but just as Elder Samwell opened his mouth, as if to talk, Jennifer stormed off, looking more jealous than I’ve ever seen anyone be in my twenty four years of existence.

Nyx’s eyes gleamed with mischief. A gleam that only lasted for a few seconds until she noticed how the crowd began to disperse too, most of them leaving because their ’Luna’ had left.

She snapped; "That’s it. I don’t care about anything else. I’ve saved the girl. The Luna is gone. The slave girl can go too." And with that, she strutted off, completely forgetting that I was even still there. I didn’t even get to properly say thank you.

And then it made sense.

Okay, maybe I knew this already. Maybe I already knew that all of these charades had been nothing but a power play and that Nyx never really cared about me— especially not because she recognized me from the Silver moon pack. But it still hurts. The pain still felt raw to think that I had now been reduced to being everyone’s pawn.

Everyone’s game.

Everyone’s way to show just how powerful they could be.

The sun was scorching, beating down mercilessly against my battered body, but I felt cold. A chilling cold was seated deep down my bones.

And I hated my life.