Page 2 of Omega Haunting

“He’s not,” I sighed back at my inner beast. “Old man believes what he’s saying but that doesn’t mean it’s true. How does he expect to turn an apple into something that will contact my true-mate?”

“How do you turn moonshine into a ward that will blast the balls off a fucker if applied correctly?”the furry guy shot back at me.

“Elbow grease and magic,” I sighed.

“Elbow grease and magic,”he agreed.

Eventually I fell asleep and dreamt that Dern and Morgi were both pelting me with apples carved into earpieces that so many folks use for their phones these days. They had barrel upon barrel of them and kept tossing them at my head shouting about how my true-mate would be here to save me any minute now. I hoped wherever he was my alpha wasn’t privy to the insanity my pack drove me towards sometimes. I loved them – they were more than family, they were pack – but sometimes I wondered how much of their crazy rubbed off on me.

***

When I sent a message to my family’s group chat that I wouldn’t be at work that night I was greeted with the exact response I expected. The moon was hanging out her full, pregnant belly for everyone to see and I was off to play nurse-maid to an old hound. The full moon was our busiest night of the year. We shut down shop to the public and got a lot of our warding magic out of the way for the next lunar cycle. I loved working on the full moon but sometimes a wolf has to be selfish. Sometimes he has to chase the wild goose to find out if it’s really going to lay the golden egg. Tonight was that night for me.

I was the youngest of six siblings. All of my older brothers had already met their true-mates and my parents were talking about having another set of kids. I grew up surrounded by a lot of broken homes. So the fact they were still together and liked each other enough to want to do life ‘all over again’ felt like magic on its own. Of course, they were true-mates. Everyone, except Dern, said that made life easier. Despite whatthe widower said, I decided to believe that meeting my other half would make my life easier. My parents were happy. My siblings and their mates seemed happy. The few of my friends who had already found their other halves were happy. It was only Dern claiming that whoever I’d chosen in the Other World would cause me a headache. I wondered for a moment if it was easier for him to remember Ormund as a headache now that he’d been gone so long. I couldn’t imagine finding my other half only to lose them later. That was life though. Everything and everyone came in cycles. Here today and gone tomorrow.

I stopped outside Dern’s front gate and shook away my musings. I only half-believed that he’d be able to put me in touch with my alpha. The other half of me firmly believed either he’d finally gone senile on us or that this was a desperate cry for company. If it was the latter, I’d figure out a way to include him in more things. No one should sit alone and rot unless that’s what they wanted.

A hinge on the screen door squeaked, startling me back to the present. The time for musing was over and whatever was going down was happening soon.

“You gonna stand out there all dang night or are you gonna get your tail in here so I can tell you how this works?” Dern called out.

An owl hooted as if we’d interrupted his nighttime meditations and took off from a nearby tree.

“Hoot-hoot to you too,” Dern growled and motioned for me to come in.

He beckoned with the impatience of a wolf waving in a pup as a storm swept into our mountains. I took one more deep breath before stepping inside his yard. I made sure to close the gate back up because my whole life my sire said good gates made good neighbors. Good fences and respect for them kept territory disputes to a minimum. Times were better now but both of myparents and their ancestors grew up when fighting over who owned a dandelion to toss into a pot was a big deal.

As I walked up Dern’s porch steps, I said a silent prayer for those who’d come before me and hoped that the first stop in the afterlife was a feast. Dern sighed and furrowed his brow. He’d picked up something over the pack link but didn’t mention it straight away. First, he led me inside the home he once shared with Ormund. I followed him over the hardwood floors of the living room into the kitchen where he already had coffee and the fixins on the table.

“Help yourself and just so you know, I have proof that no one good goes hungry in the afterlife. I’ve never bothered to ask the assholes.”

“Good to know,” I said, waiting for him to sit down before choosing a chair across the table from him.

We made up our coffee in silence and Dern picked up his mug with both hands. For a moment, I tried to unwind time and see him as a young fortune teller. I wasn’t sure if he was born here or moved here later on. Even during the days when our pack didn’t have much we shared what we could. Well, most of us did anyway.

“I wasn’t,” he shook his head. “Ormund either. Though, you’re going to find out home is a lot more than where your placenta hits the dirt. It’s a lot more than ---” Dern sighed. “It’s a lot more than a lot of things.”

“Can I ask you something?” I sat my mug down.

“I’m not senile, if that’s what you want to know,” he chuckled.

“Good to know but no, I wanted to ask if you know who my mate is? If you do why go through so much trouble and so many apples?”

“I do,” he sat his mug down too and leaned back in his chair. “But telling you’d cause more harm than good, I think. Notbecause I think you’d be trouble or he’d be trouble but because there are some things. There are always things of course. First, you’d think I was crazy – maybe.” Dern shrugged. “I think this way works better for everyone. The only thing is, he’s going to have to figure out a lot on his own. Well, not exactly on his own. The apple only works in one direction. He’ll hear you but he won’t be able to speak back.”

“Will he even understand me?” I asked.

“Probably,” Dern shrugged. “I’ve seen enough to believe he will. It’ll take a while for him to figure it out, though.”

“Because alphas are hardheaded?” I laughed.

“No, because hearing voices that no one else can usually means you’re fucking nutty, pup,” Dern sighed and pointed to the apple sitting next to the coffee pot. “It’s ready for you. In fact, he’s probably hearing us now. Maybe. It’s hit or miss what he’ll hear.”

“Do you know his name?” I asked, leaning forward hoping for at least one little bread crumb.

“I do,” he nodded. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t. Anyone could show up and claim to be your mate. Then bad shit would happen. We don’t like liars, and we don’t like alphas who….” Dern shook his head and glanced over my shoulder. Then the old wolf sighed again and shook his head. “I’ll tell you next full moon if he hasn’t figured it out.”

“Is he from around here?”

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