Page 3 of Fractured Fang: Omega

In their minds, if I didn’t have a job within a pack, I wouldn’t have a purpose. The only skill I had was art. And I loved it. I wanted to live and breathe my work. Financially it had value, at least so far it had. But my parents didn’t care about money as much as being a contributing member of the pack, pulling my weight by building or cooking, taking care of animals and plants, or even cleaning. They didn’t value one task above another as long as they saw a purpose for it, and that was what they were missing when it came to art. They just didn’t understand its purpose.

If only they saw the beautiful, intricate pieces of art I could put together. When my brush met canvas, the things I created brought tears to my eyes. They’d also brought plenty of frustration for me, as I’d learned my craft. But each moment of self-doubt or being flustered made me better at bringing my visions to life.

It didn’t matter. Not to my parents. In their eyes it wasn’t work, plain and simple. They would never accept it as anything more than a distraction from my true purpose.

If they couldn’t accept my art, I had a hard time believing they’d accept me adopting and raising a deaf child of a witch. They were just too set in their ways.

“Looks like you’re almost ready,” Morgan said, startling me.

I closed the back of my car and faced them. Morgan was the forerunner of the Asilo pride. They didn’t have an alpha. He was an omega who ran the whole show. He ran a tighter ship than many alphas I’d seen but with a gentler hand.

Asilo was small as far as packs went or even prides. That was by design. Asilo served a very specific purpose, helping to rehabilitate omegas who had been harmed and give them a place to seek asylum and recuperate from whatever injuries life had handed them, physical or mental. The world was not always kind to omegas, and this place, this community, remained secret from most shifters. Even the council barely knew what it did.

“I’m mostly ready,” I said.

He nodded. “It is good that you are reuniting with your family. I think this is the right step for you.”

If only I did, too.

I sighed. “I hope so. Or at least a step in some sort of direction. I need to find a place to settle, either with a pack or in the human world.” And the human world had been too much for my beast. It was a last resort but one I had promised Levi I wouldn’t take off the table completely.

“You’re not going to find a place where you belong until you open up your heart to your parents and talk with them.” Morgan was right; if only it were that easy.

This was a conversation we’d had before many a time. “You think that’s the answer to me finding a place in this world? Making peace with my family?”

“I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

I grinned. “You sure I can’t just stay here?” I didn’t really want to, as much as I loved it. It was definitely time to go; even my wolf was getting antsy, and this was a place he thrived from the first day. It was definitely time to move on to the next season of my life—of our lives.

Morgan shook his head. “The goal of everybody who comes here is eventually to leave and find a home elsewhere. Some stay, but this is not the place for you.”

I knew that was true. Morgan had told me as much when I first arrived. This was only a permanent home to a select few, the forerunner and his lieutenant being one of them. He had a crew of right-hand omegas—thetas, he called them. They all lived and grew here together.

“You don’t mind keeping hold of my art? I’ll come back for it. Eventually.” I couldn’t risk it being destroyed. It was awful to have a feeling in your gut that your parents would use their destruction as a life lesson, but I did. I might be an adult, but they were my parents and would always treat me as a child—especially given my “abundant bad choices.”

“It is fine where it is. Although I put a few blank canvases and some paint in your car.”

My eyes went wide at that, panic seeping in.

Morgan held up a hand. “It is not much, but you need to take some with you. You’ll go crazy if you don’t have access to a brush.”

I groaned. “All right,” I said. “I get it.”

“There’s some finished pieces as well, that you could take show your parents.”

I shook my head. “Maybe eventually, but I’m not ready. They barely know that I enjoy art. They don’t even know that I went to college. And they really don’t know about Levi.”

Morgan snorted. “You can tell them in your own time. You don’t have to tell them everything. If you don’t wish for them to know about how Levi came to be in your care, then it isn’t a story you need to share.”

“Aren’t you all for communication?”

Morgan gave me a hard stare. “Communication is important when people need to know things or if it will help them understand where you are coming from. But ultimately, it is your story to share, and if you truly feel that your parents do not need to know, then don’t tell them.”

He was testing me. I may not want to talk to my parents, but over the few weeks I’d been here learning about myself and attending the therapy sessions with the group, I realized I longed to have that connection with my family. I was a pack animal. My wolf craved the connection. That didn’t mean it would be easy to share.

The fact that I had run here to Asilo to escape a human was embarrassing. Even thoughts of Rick, Levi’s biological father, left an icky feeling in my stomach. Some wolf I was.

“Do we really think Levi will be okay with me gone for a while?” I asked though we had talked about this several times. That was going to be the hardest part of all of this.

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