The Alpha's Omega Mate-Chapter 77: The wrong place.

~Zarek’s POV~ 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

She wouldn’t look at me.

She wouldn’t talk to me.

And that hurt more than a thousand deadly words would.

Suddenly, the room grew tight, suffocating. My breath came in short, struggling pants; and I knew that this was supposed to be the point where I’d take my leave, but my limbs wouldn’t move.

My brain screamed at me to go, to leave, but my body betrayed me. It felt rooted in place, my eyes glued to Dahlia’s back.

I knew she wasn’t asleep by how tense her shoulders were and how her body trembled slightly, so it was obvious that she was doing this to avoid me— or ignore me— as the case may be.

"Alpha, I’ll take my leave now. I have another patient to attend to." Dr Ava’s usually soothing voice snapped me out of my reverie, and I glanced at her to find her already watching me, the expression on her face unreadable but weird.

Even Sadie, the blonde slave girl watched me with the same expression lining her features. It was like a mixture of confusion and wonder... like they wondered why Dahlia would act so weirdly around me, and why I was doing nothing to punish her for it.

I nodded. "I’ll leave now too," I said slowly, "I guess you can take care of them right, Sadie?" I asked, my eyes latching on the slave girl’s, and I noticed how she instantly dropped her gaze before muttering a quick;

"Yes Alpha."

"Good."

And with that, I stormed out of the room with both women watching me leave like I was something from another world.

As I went, I couldn’t help the rage that bubbled up within me like a boiling soup. Couldn’t help the way my wolf whined within me like he’s been injured. Maybe Dahlia’s silence hurt him more than any injury would, but right now, that was barely the cause of my rage.

My anger was directed at Jennifer and at the stunt she’d pulled this morning— the stunt that now has driven a wedge between Dahlia and I.

The sound of my feet hitting the floor echoed as I stormed up to the fortress. On my way, I passed by the training grounds and my eyes thinned into fierce slits when I saw Orion training with Jacob, one of the new intakes. The boy was relatively fast for a newbie but Orion was faster.

When the training guards and warriors noticed me staring, they stopped their fights and bowed their heads. Even Jacob bowed too, but Orion, probably not noticing that I was present, or totally ignoring me, didn’t stop.

He sent a blow to the boy’s midriff that had him flying across the field.

Fury.

And then he stopped. His eyes met mine for a brief second and I saw him freeze—barely visibly— before he bowed too.

"Alpha," his tone was clipped, almost sassy. "I nearly didn’t see you standing there."

Something in his voice felt cold. Almost eerie, but since no one seemed to notice it too, I decided to ignore it.

I nodded. "I was only passing by. What caught my attention was how good you train. And I wanted to see if I could train with you too sometime."

At my words, I saw the smile on his face falter. He gulped. "Alpha, you probably do not remember this, but I do not spar with you. I always refuse to."

"You can retrain me." I drawled daringly, "I cannot remember a thing about fighting, and you could help me out with that. Couldn’t you?"

Orion’s eyes flashed with a mischievous glint. He smiled then, a crooked one and then nodded. "Yes, I could." He said, "...and I would. Do you want to start now?"

Silence.

My mind drifted off to Dahlia and how she had ignored me earlier, refusing to talk to me or even spare me a glance. I could see Jennifer’s face as well floating around my mind’s eye, laughing tauntingly in my face as she pointed a perfectly manicured finger at me.

I needed to distract myself with something.

And Orion here felt like the perfect punching bag.

"Alpha?" His voice was sharp now, taunting, reminding me of Jennifer’s taunting laughter that I had imagined.

A frown etched its way up my face as my jaw ticked. "Okay." I whispered, shedding off the cloak around my shoulders and dropping it to the floor. And then my tunic followed.

I noticed the way many of the warriors around shifted away from us but still watched in curiosity. Even Jacob the wounded had risen to his feet to pick up my discarded clothes on the floor and had now joined the gathering crowd.

Orion flashed a smile at me but for some reason, it wasn’t him I saw. It was Jennifer, and it was her face contorted in pleasure as she pushed herself down my cock.

Rage.

It was the only feeling I felt at the moment, and it spread across my chest as I took a stance in front of Orion with both of my fists raised to shield my face as I rounded him slowly.

I could tell from the way he squared up, chin tucked, fists loose but ready, that he wasn’t going to make this easy. But that was good for me because I wasn’t here for easy.

The field was quiet except for the obsessional murmurs between the warriors gathered around and the scuff of our bare feet on the soil.

Sweat already clung to my shoulders, warm and ready. Across from me, Orion rolled his neck and flexed his fists. He was big, built like a wall, but I had more than fifty pounds of raw strength on him and a reach he couldn’t match. That said, the bastard could hit like a freight train.

We circled, slow at first. My eyes tracked his shoulders, the twitch of his jaw. He feinted left and then came in low, throwing a hard blow into my ribs.

A hard hit.

A groan slipped past my lips and I staggered backward, and smiled. "That’s hard. Is this how this works?"

Orion flashed me a grin. "Yes, but by the time you finally get the hang of it, I’m sure I’ll have picked about three of your teeth out of your mouth."

"Not bad," I said.

He grinned, already ducking under my counterpunch. He was fast and I was distracted. He knew that but he didn’t do too much; and I respected that.

I let him come at me again—jab, jab, then a hook—but this time I caught his arm mid-swing and used his own momentum to shove him back. His heels scraped the floor, and before he could recover, I drove a fist into his chest. He staggered, chest heaving, and fell to the floor with a loud thump.

Now my grin was genuine. The crowd had broken out into a wild frenzy. My body pulsed with excitement.

"Want to go harder?" I asked.

He didn’t answer with words, instead, he just charged. We clashed like bulls, fists cracking against our forearms, ribs, shoulders, and anywhere we could touch. I let my strength take over—pressing him, breaking down his guard, controlling the space like it was mine.

But Orion kept swinging, even when his lip split and blood ran down his chin. He wanted it. He wanted to break me. I could feel it in every punch he threw.

When I landed an uppercut to his chest, it lifted him a little off his feet before he hit the floor, a loud groan slipping past his lips as blood spurted out of his mouth.

I offered a hand but he didn’t take it. Orion refused to stand back up.

"You hit like a goddamn truck," he said.

I smiled.

"I’m no longer fighting." He muttered, his lips breaking into a smile. "Call me a coward and I do not care if you insist you’ve lost your memories and everything that comes with it. But you’re still fast. And still strong. Nothing changes the fact that you’re an Alpha wolf."

"And you’re a Beta wolf."

"A beta wolf that doesn’t enjoy pain. I derive zero pleasure from unnecessary suffering... especially when I’m not the one inflicting it on someone else."

I smiled at that. That was the Orion I knew. "That’s dark."

"Not as dark as your punches or the twisted way you fight like it’s a tournament." He spat.

And even though a smile graced my face, I still didn’t feel sated. I felt unfulfilled... like most of my anger— the one I had expected to let out— was still stuck somewhere within my chest.

I gritted my teeth as Dahlia’s expressionless face flashed in my head, and with a groan, I helped Orion to his feet and strode away from the training ground.

My mind was still a mess.

My heart, a brewing storm.

I was nowhere close to feeling better, and that is why I have decided to face my problem head on. That is why I have decided to direct my anger at the one who made me this way in the first place.

The one who put me in this uncomfortable situation.

Jennifer.