Page 65 of Stray Omega

“Yes,” Jora went on without looking up. “I heard all about the way that he beat you in front of the Council. You didn’t deserve that, Embla.”

So, Jora had heard about that incident too. Was there anything the omega didn’t know?

“If you ask me,” Jora continued, “Ark is asking too much of you. It’s unfair to expect you to fit in here in the Central Ruins. Your home is in the Farlands after all, right? And of course Leros, well…he looks up to Ark so much that he’ll just go along with anything his pack leader says, you know?”

Embla didn’t answer, but she felt an uncomfortable weight in her belly.

Jora was right, Embla felt so out of place here.

“Why Orwen no like me?” she asked.

Jora’s fingers stopped working at the braid.

“You really don’t know?”

“No,” Embla shook her head lightly. Her eyes suddenly felt achy with tears.

“Oh, in that case I really should not have said anything.”

“Please,” Embla begged. “Need know.”

Jora let out a sympathetic sigh. “Well, I suppose you do have a right to know. I mean, you’re going to be permanently bound to Orwen in a few hours. Well, as you probably know, there are many alphas here in the Central Ruins who dislike Farlanders like you. Of course, I don’t feel that way, but…”

Embla wasn’t even sure that she was a Farlander. Of course, her earliest memories were of the wilderness, and she had spent much of her childhood as a prisoner of the Farlanders. But she felt that she was different from them.

She did not say anything, however. She did not want to interrupt Jora’s story.

The dark-haired omega continued.

“Anyway, Orwen has some very personal reasons for hating Farlanders. You see, he was born to a pack consisting of four alphas and one omega. When he was very little, three of his alpha fathers went on an expedition into the wilderness. They were ambushed by a tribe of Farlanders. Two were killed, and one got away, but he had very bad injuries. He made it back to the Central Ruins in time to tell what happened. But he died shortly after that from his wounds.”

“Oh no,” Embla said. Her heart ached for Orwen and his loss. She knew what it was like to lose loved ones.

“Yes, I’m afraid it’s true,” Jora said sadly. “And it gets worse. You see, Orwen’s fourth father was a very hot-tempered young alpha. He had not gone on that expedition because one alpha needed to stay behind to guard the omega. But after learning what happened to his pack brothers, he flew into a rage. He ran off into the wilderness to get vengeance against the Farlanders who killed his companions, but he ended up getting murdered too.”

A tear rolled down Embla’s cheek. She was beginning to understand why Orwen seemed unhappy all the time. He must have had such a difficult childhood without his fathers.

Jora shook her head.

“I can understand the fourth alpha’s desire for revenge, but it was an irresponsible thing to do, leaving the omega alone like that. And then, with all of her alphas dead, Orwen’s mother fell into a deep depression. Even the love of her children could not lift her spirits. You see, when the mating bond is broken by death, it can cause the surviving mate to lose her mind…”

“What happen?” Embla sniffed. “What happen Orwen mother?”

Jora’s perfect black eyebrows scrunched together in a pained expression.

“She killed herself.”

Embla gasped.

“So now I guess you can see why Orwen hates the Farlanders so much.”

Yes, Embla could see. All this time she thought Orwen only disliked her because of her disobedience. Because she had bitten him. Because she had peed on the floor in the Council Chamber. Now she understood that it ran so much deeper than that. Orwen didn’t just dislike her. He hated her for what she was. In his mind, she was no better than the brutes who had killed his parents and ruined his life."

“Source,” Embla muttered.

Jora shook her head again. “If you ask me, it’s very irresponsible what Ark is doing. And dangerous too. If an alpha and omega go through the Ritual of Binding and one of them does not truly love the other one, it can actually kill them both. They will be cursed and their bodies will wither away.”

Was that really true? If so, Embla could not go through with the ritual. It was not just her life at stake, but Orwen’s too.

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