Page 54 of The Feisty Omega

“Where are we going?”

For kilometer after kilometer, leafless trees scattered sparsely across the landscape stretched lifeless branches to the sky. In over an hour, the only signs of life we’d seen were a couple of demoralized-looking birds huddling on the smooth white branches of a dead snow gum, and one rabbit bobbing its way across the short, tufted grass, its white tail invisible against a terrain speckled with freshly fallen flakes of white.

This was a wasteland of dead and dying trees. Which didn’t seem right. Something unnatural was happening here. These trees were meant for the icy, alpine climate, so why were they all dying? A few trees still stood resolutely brandishing their glossy green leaves, despite the slow death taking some of the boughs, leaching them white instead of the pretty stripes of cream, grey and green.

“I have a small block of land,” Talius turned his sparkling blue eyes on me briefly, before returning them to the road. His eyes seemed full of anticipation. “It was left to me by my great grandparents. I’ve never been there, but I think I can find it. No-one will find us there.”

I turned this over in my mind as I watched the stark landscape pass by.

“Up here?”

“No, it’s lower down. It’s farmland. It’s still some distance away. We…” he hesitated, seemed to mull something over in his mind, then continued, “we can start a pack there.”

I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I supposed it was logical. I mean, I knew we were destined to be together but I hadn’t thought about what that would mean. And Talius had never shared his plans for the future; apart from the time I thought he’d left without me, I’d assumed he'd stay in his birth pack forever. But it made sense. He was too independent to live his life out under someone else’s command. He was always going to be a Pack Alpha. That meant he was offering the position not just of mate, but of Alpha Mate. For a moment I stared at him mutely, my mouth open until a little sliver of drool spilled out, at which point I hastily snapped my jaw shut.

“Only if you want to,” he added, staring at the road ahead. Good, he’d missed the drool. I blinked. Sucked on my bottom lip. Noticed the whites of his knuckles on the steering wheel. Noticed the tension lines at the corners of his eye. He was starting his own pack and he was asking me to be a part of that. Did he think I was gonna refuse? Did he think I was mad, or what?

“Hell, yeah,” I grinned at him. “Let’s do it.”

The wrinkles disappeared from Talius’ face as the corners of his mouth curved and his eyes twinkled as they met mine. He lifted a hand off the steering wheel and we fist bumped. It might not be the most romantic declaration, but it was perfect for us. We were going to be pack. Even if it was just the two of us, we’d be Alpha and Alpha Mate. I shivered at the thought. He’d claim me and no-one would dare separate us after that.

???

The following hours saw us travel through a landscape increasingly covered in snow. The little car battled bravely over the asphalt which was disappearing beneath the soft white flakes. At some point, Talius decided the snow was deep enough, and stopped the car, deftly applying snow chains to the wheels before we continued on more slowly.

As we drove through the slippery conditions, I sat stiff and tense in the passenger seat. The general low visibility, and difficulty seeing where the road ended and the unsealed shoulder started - becauseeverythingwas white - was unnerving. I’d lived all my life in or near the big city and I found these conditions unnerving. Put me in a room with a hundred strangers and I could function perfectly, but out here in the wilderness I felt useless and vulnerable.

Talius took his eyes off the road for a moment, flicked me a glance, then adjusted a dial on the center console. A blast of heat blew into the cabin of the little car. Talius resumed staring intently through the windshield.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ve driven in these conditions before. I know what I’m doing.”

I trusted him, I did, but it was hard to relax. I inhaled deeply, breathing in the combination of alpha confidence and pheromones. My shoulders relaxed – a bit. I sat back in my seat and wriggled my feet under the hot air vent. Maybe it was the effect of the chemicals in the air, or maybe it was his words, but it suddenly occurred to me with blinding clarity that this was something I didn’t have to worry about. I had a partner who was well-equipped to take care of the situation. This was what it would be like going forward. Sometimes I would be the one who had the skills we needed, other times it would be Talius. But we were a team now. I didn’t have to do everything on my own.

Sometime later, the road began its descent out of the mountains, and the snow thinned out with the black of the asphalt reappearing in patches on the road ahead. The eucalypts were healthier here, the grey-green leaves shiny and abundant, small clumps of snow cradled in the crooks of the branches still, but only small drifts lying on the ground.

Talius removed the chains and we continued at a faster pace down the mountain. Although it was daytime, it was much darker down here. The eucalypts were densely packed, tall and straight, towering over the tiny vehicle winding its way along the forest road.

With the relief at safely leaving the snowy conditions behind, my spirits bounced back to normal energy levels.

This was an adventure! I had no idea where we were and OMG I was so out of my comfort zone but…road trip!I was there with my alpha and that’s all it took for me to burst into song. It was one of the funkier human songs that was popular at the present time, and Talius’ baritone joined me in the chorus. We smiled at each other as we sang the words.

The next couple of hours passed in a happy blur of badly sung songs until the trees thinned out and it was mostly farmland, and before I realized it, we were bumping our way along a narrow dirt road, Talius swinging the car this way and that to avoid the dirty great potholes that threatened to consume his tiny vehicle.

“Almost there,” Talius grunted, the back of the car sliding out as we negotiated a corner and bounced our way towards a metal gate blocking the entrance to an overgrown plot of land. The road ended here.

Talius stopped the car. The sudden absence of noise was in its own way overwhelming. Exiting the car, the freshness of the air was striking. Unlike in the mountains where it had been crisp and fresh, here the air was dusted with the sweet aromas of the different grasses. A rusty padlock hung from a chain around the gate. Behind the gate an overgrown driveway wound its way into the distance, disappearing in a curve beyond a clump of trees. Talius and I exchanged a look. Then we dissolved into laughter.

This was ridiculous! We were in the middle of nowhere. Neither of us had any idea what we were actually going to find here. And the most hilarious part was that we just didn’t care. Several minutes passed as we doubled over, the bushland ringing with our laughter, startling some birds into flight, their great wings flapping noisily through the air.

Eventually, Talius stood upright, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes with his sleeve. The gesture left dark marks on the pale sleeves.

“Do you have a key?” I gasped, struggling to speak through the final hiccoughs of laughter.

“No. I mean, I have one, but I didn’t bring it. I didn’t expect we’d be running away like this.”

“So I guess we just climb over then?” I suggested.

Talius’ hair flicked crazily as he shook his head. He looked wilder than usual, with the untamed locks flying everywhere, several days growth on his face, his eyes reddened and moist from the intensity of our mirth. But he looked happy.

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