In a pack, there are two kinds of wolves. Always have been, always will be, by order of pack law. Oh, the difference between them varies between packs, but the laws always make sure there are two kinds. These kinds are the Alpha...and the Omega. The meek, the small, the kind, are the Omegas, the lowest of the low, and the peace-makers and joy-bringers for all wolves. Without them, all wolves would fight until blood soaked the land. The strong, the proud, and the fighters are the Alphas, the highest of the high, and the war-makers and food-bringers for the pack. Without them, all wolves would starve and wither away. All pups are taught this, and with good reason. The two kinds are forbidden ever to breed; to do so warrants the highest punishment of all-death. But the prejudice doesn't stop at the laws which govern it, and even the two kinds of pups rarely play together comfortably. Their heritage is too different, their somewhat acquired morals too dissimilar to fit in. Still, they are pups of the same pack, and pups shall ever be curious about that which they do not know. Take for example, these two here...
Ah, yes, here's one. My, isn't she impressive. What a stunning little Alpha pup, with her tawny-gold fur and her piercing brown eyes (who knew brown could be piercing?)...yes, she'll make a fine leader someday; authority practically rolls off her at every step. That is what little Kate is destined for, by birth right and strength right- leadership of the West Jasper Pack. Her paw trail leads back to a cliff, the Cliff, in fact; home and den for all Alphas of the pack.
Oh, another pup approaches the little female's clearing, which she has apparently staked for her own in a very serious tone of voice (or should I say growl?). This little male is silver and gray to her gold, and his eyes, a rather pleasant sort of blue, are guileless and friendly, as is his very aura. Instead of striding commandingly, he practically dances down the trail, his head swinging wildly as he tries to take in everything. His pawprints lead in a meandering sort of way back to a rather small clearing and dried riverbank. It is the Stream, young Humphrey's home, and den to all Omegas of the pack. Slowly but surely, he is making his way to Kate's clearing, and sky knows how she's going to feel about that. We'll just have to see, won't we?
She's on alert. She's scented him, or heard his mutters of delight every time he finds something new, or has simply sensed him with the blessings of awareness she was born with. Either way, poor Humphrey still isn't aware of the tawny female sneaking up behind him; otherwise, he might be running instead of sniffing that flower, however pretty it might be. But he definitely notices the growl she lets slip not half a foot from his wagging tail, and he snaps up the flower and whirls around with a gasp, his ears back and his tail curling farther between his legs in fear as he realizes that this is Alpha territory, and this is a very angry Alpha.
He instantly sits down and crouches low, all meekness and quiet, and the flower falls to the ground. It's a pretty one, bright pink with subtle accents of gold, very pretty indeed, and Humphrey has obviously come to the same conclusion, as he slowly looks up through long lashes and pushes the flower to the still bristling Kate.
"For...for you?" The voice is shy and questioning, and slowly the fur on the female's back lies flat again. She gives him a judging look, and he quickly drops his eyes down to his paws again and neatly wraps his tail around them, all prim and proper submissive again. Slowly, she reaches down, and a deft twist places the flower behind her ear.
"Come." It's all she says, and he follows with a jump and skittering steps. Carefully, she instructs him on how to play 'Caribou and Wolf' with her, and he spends the afternoon hunted and afraid. But it's a good kind of fear, because afterward she makes him swear to return tomorrow, and he's so happy and he doesn't know why. Omegas aren't wolves to ponder happiness, however. They simply accept it when it comes and create it when it doesn't. The little female goes home troubled, however, not quite sure why she's happy, and her sister notices her silence. She questions it, but she doesn't comment, and the seed that has been planted is allowed to grow another day, at least.
They play for months, on and off, and slowly, Humphrey, peacemaker, learns to fight and hunt, while Kate, warmaker, learns to laugh and play without baring teeth. It's a perversity of everything they've ever learned about their future roles, and while Humphrey is content to just live and let live, Kate, with her father's long talks of duty, honor, and destiny, isn't so sure.
The setting is a moon lit night on the edge of autumn, high on a mountain ridge where they've taken to meeting lately, as Humphrey claims it has a beautiful view and Kate isn't one to argue with him, not on this (not on anything, if she'd admit it). They are curled together in a patch of grass, watching the stars and resisting the urge to sing at the full moon, eyes bright and hearts full. Kate swallows, opens her mouth, and ask the question that's been bothering her for days.
"Are we doing a good thing?" Humphrey's ears perk, then swivel toward the girl he will admit, in a bumbling sort of way, that he loves. He rolls onto his front, and asks her a question in return, though he already knows the answer.
"What do you mean?"She rolls over with him, and neither can deny the thrill they feel when their sides press against each other. She gives him a critical look, dampened by sadness and pain.
"Us. You know...an Alpha and an Omega, just...hanging out like this, being friends like this? All the laws, saying stuff about how we're 'two different breeds of wolves'...Are we doing a good thing?" Humphrey looks at her a minute, no longer able to avoid the same question he's been avoiding, and he reaches out to nuzzle her with startling intensity, a show of affection that sends her mentally reeling, before curling away from her into a small, slightly shaking ball.
"I don't know." She's frozen for a moment, in shock and in despair, and then Kate, future Alpha, gets up and walks away, never to return.
She leaves the next morning with the rest of the future Alphas, off to Alpha school, and she'll be gone for the rest of the winter, only returning well into spring. Humphrey will look for her for a couple of nights, before the two halves of the pack are united and he realizes she's not here. He meets a never mentioned Omega sister (for them, the outside world could not exist while they played, but in his bitterness, he believed Kate was ashamed of being related to an Omega), Lilly, and he strikes up a friend ship, if only to be closer to her. Lilly's an airhead, but she's sweet and kind, and more perceptive than even she knows, and she heals Humphrey back from the brink of heartbreak. In the lean months that pass, Humphrey reunites with the Omega friends he became distant from once he started meeting Kate, and Lilly joins their group. Humphrey leads his little group and become the perfect Omega: funny, sweet, comical, easygoing...but some part of him, every new moon, drives him out to a lonely cliff or forest or plain to practice hunting and catch his own dinner for once. Something distinctly un-Omega-like...
Just as it is very un-Alpha-like of Kate to notice a beautiful flower that passes by on a hunt, or to stop on help a turtle on its back once in a while.
Perhaps they've a chance after all.