Clar·ke ['klaŕk] noun. an Omega [ōˈmāɡə] noun. (lowest ranking in a pack) Werewolf ['werˈwo͝olf] noun. (a human capable of assuming the form of a wolf while retaining human intelligence) with a quiet confidence that screams loud. She is humble but strong, stable but rebellious, giving but not naive, and chooses her battles wisely. She'll stay silent until it's time to fight, and when that time comes: fight, she does.
The 100: Inhumane
Book One: Into The Woods
Chapter One: Rough Landings
Created By
ClexaWarrior2018
Clarke blearily opened her eyes, her head pounding as a small groan slipped past her lips. The darkness of her drowsiness slowly ebbed away from the corners of her vision, forcing the muffled parts of her brain to start sorting themselves out. Without warning, her body was suddenly jolted forward only to be viciously slammed back against her seat a second later, making the back of her head collide harshly with the metal of the wall behind her.
Other gasps of pain and surprise sounded from all around her, and somewhere beneath the metal under her feet she could hear a muffled yelp slice through the air. The blonde lifted her head, her gaze dragging across her surroundings frantically as she tried to ignore the now throbbing part of her skull, knowing that the tender flesh would probably bruise over later but not entirely able to make herself care at the moment.
She was in a dropship, with other teens her age surrounding her on all sides. Each one of them were strapped into their seats, and some were even pressed up against the walls in a tight press for space. Shaking off her newfound headache, Clarke tilted her chin upwards, parting her lips and curling her tongue to taste the air so that she could capture the various scents wafting throughout the enclosure.
The blonde immediately gagged as an overwhelming wave of fear scent filled her nostrils: thick, musky and tainted with a vivid trace of many Alpha pheromones. It was everywhere - the thick aroma making her feel lightheaded and her tongue heavy. She huffed hastily, blowing the smells away and running her tongue along the sides of her teeth to rid her mouth of the raw flavors. But there were also hints of other aromas.
Almost absentmindedly, she could make out the bittersweet tang of adrenaline and excitement - the almost absent tinge of sweat and wet fur mingling in with other tastes as well. Somewhere in another part of the dropship, the faint scent of curdling vomit and spittle reached her senses. The bridge of her nose crinkled in disdain, though she couldn't really blame the poor person for losing their rations when they were currently being tossed around like rag dolls.
"Clarke!" Ears pricking, the blonde whipped her head to the side at the sound of the voice. She'd recognize that soothing timbre anywhere. Her chin tilted upwards reflexively, her nostrils flaring as she sniffed the air once more, trying to locate - "Clarke! Over here, Clarke!" Almost immediately, as if her eyes were trained to do so, her gaze locked onto the person she'd been looking for. Octavia Blake.
Her first instinct was to surge out of her seat and run into the safety of her friend's arms, but the belt buckles dug into her chest and chafed against her wrist, forcing her to do the only thing she could and return the shout. "Octavia!" The brunette sent a smile her way, her eyes glowing as they locked with Clarke's. The blonde could see the fear in them though, and as the dropship rattled and shook around them, she couldn't stop the fearful yelp that passed her lips.
Not even a split second later, the sweet aroma of Octavia's Beta scent washed over her, the younger girl's instincts driving her to calm her fearful friend. Her muscles immediately relaxed and her breathing evened out at the aroma. Everyone's scent held a hint of cold metal and stagnant air, a side affect of their time spent in space, but underneath the bitter and dank layer of fragrance lied their natural scent.
Octavia smelt like the Eden Tree, with the sweet tang of its leaves and the musky undertone of the soil held inside its small pot. The brunette's scent was the only one that smelled of even the barest hint of earth, and that factor alone had made hiding her extremely difficult. Born a second child, Octavia had been hidden under her room's metal floorboards for sixteen years, until she'd been caught while at the Unity Day Masquerade Party.
Her mother had been floated, and she'd been thrown into the Skybox while Bellamy, her older brother, had been stripped of his rank as a Guard. It just so happened that the cell Octavia had been thrown into was the one right next to Clarke's, even though the blonde's cell had been number 3.1.9 and the brunette's had been 1.6.7. Apparently, the Skybox's numbering system was made so that it only made sense to the Guards.
They'd talked through the vents in the walls, and even though they couldn't see each other, they'd quickly become friends. When she'd run out of her cell the moment the Guards had tried to put the wristband on her, that's when she'd first spotted Octavia. The two had been completely at loss for words, before they'd both embraced in what could only be described as a suffocating hug. Then her mom had showed up, she'd been tranquilized, and well - now she was here.
All around her, the other Betas in the dropship were following the brunette's lead, pumping out their own calming pheromones in waves. Immediately, everyone slowly started to calm down, their fears quelled by the soothing aromas of the Betas around them. She wished she could do the same, but releasing even the barest hint of her scent would immediately reveal her as an Omega, and she'd heard enough stories from the Ark to know what happened to unmated Omegas.
Besides, an Omega's calming scent wasn't nearly as effective as a Beta's. With that thought in mind, Clarke tugged at the straps criss-crossing across her chest anxiously, her instincts keening at her to just roll into a ball and hide. She couldn't though, not with how securely she was buckled into her seat. And even if she weren't, she wasn't going to hide anymore, be her a damned Omega or not. She'd just spent a year locked away in a steel cage.
She wasn't going anywhere.
"What the hell was that?!" A boy's voice called out as another shudder shook the whole dropship, the sudden sound of metal peeling off of metal making everyone wince. Even though the question wasn't directed at her, she yelled out in reply. "We're gonna breech the atmosphere soon!" She squeezed her eyes shut, another explosion making her ears pulse. When she looked up, everyone was staring at her, some with fear in their eyes and some unnaturally calm.
Either way, they were all waiting for her to say more.
Her skin prickled at the unusual feeling of having everyone's attention on her. Being an Omega didn't give her a lot of opportunities for it, but the mixed scents of everyone around her masked her own, and the Alpha aroma of her mother from when she'd hugged her still lingered on her skin, so anyone who could smell her probably thought she was an Alpha. She tugged on the straps overlapping her chest nervously.
Gathering her courage, she spoke loud enough for everyone to hear her. "Everything on this ship is over a hundred years old, when we hit the atmosphere, we just gotta give it some time to settle." There were a few nods at her words, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed Octavia flashing her a proud smile, the Beta still releasing her calming pheromones as the majority of the delinquents had started to calm down.
She took in a deep breath, hoping that she was right. Suddenly, the screens around them flickered to life. Thelonious appeared on them, standing tall as everyone's attention was glued to at least one of the TV's. "Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now." Even though the man wasn't there, Clarke could almost smell the Chancellor's Alpha scent wafting off of him in thick wisps, and the low grows of the Alphas around her told her that she wasn't the only one.
"You've been given a second chance, and as your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you but a chance for all of us - indeed for mankind itself." She shifted in her seat at the man's words, her skin prickling and crawling. The hair on the back of her neck shot up like hackles, her senses immediately alert. Slowly craning her neck around, she tilted her chin towards the ceiling of the dropship, locking gazes with more than a few pairs of eyes.
They were watching her, nostrils flaring and lips parted as they attempted to taste the air around her - to find her scent. Her mind flitted back towards the memory of her mother being allowed entrance into her cell once month to inject a special serum into her bloodstream: a suppressant, advanced in not only restricting her heat from surfacing but from masking her naturally sweet Omega fragrance as well.
With the chemicals still in her body from her last dosage, added in with the scent of her mother still clinging onto her clothes, she knew they wouldn't be able to smell anything, but her nerves were still on edge. Why are they looking at me like that though? Then it clicked. Alphas were naturally dominant, something she'd learned very early on, which was why every Alpha around her was currently snarling at the flickering image of Jaha.
They weren't staring at her because she smelled like an Omega, they were staring at her because she smelled like an Alpha and wasn't acting like it. If she wanted to sell her lie, she would have to start challenging the Chancellor like everyone else. But I'm not an Alpha. She was an Omega by blood, they would figure that out when her suppressants wore off, better to take her chances now rather than lie and possibly piss them all off later.
For know, she would just have to accept them seeing her as an unnaturally docile Alpha. "We have no idea what is waiting for you down there," She almost snorted. Comforting. Everyone around her sneered at the words, though the Betas were more calm about it. She didn't bother trying to sniff out any other Omegas since they were probably on their own suppressants and their scents would be almost completely stale.
And even if they weren't, their best bet would be to not participate in the shows of anger, since if they did they'd have to risk releasing their pheromones. No, better to not let anyone know of their dynamic yet: the safer choice for everyone. The Alpha's didn't hold back their anger though, and some made a show by straining against their buckles, as if trying to reach the screen so they could clobber the flickering image of the Alpha Chancellor.
She looked around, watching the faces of the other delinquents around her. Some actually looked bored, others more concerned about the continuous rattling that was still going on outside of the dropship walls. The rest though, were all gathered in barking and growling at the various screens attached to the metal walls. A particular Alpha caught her eye, the bridge of his nose crinkled in a vicious growl and his eyes blazing.
He bared his teeth, and for a second, she caught the flash of his slowly elongating fangs. Dread consumed her at the sight. If any of them shifted while still strapped in this metal coffin - which was still crashing through the earth's atmosphere, nonetheless - they'd all be dead long before they reached the ground. "Shit." She muttered under her breath, eyes darting around the enclosure as she tried to think of a solution.
The boy was now shaking, his knuckles white as they clenched and unclenched around the buckles holding him down. With every second that passed his growls were beginning to sound more animalistic, and a few of the other teenagers around him were starting to notice too. The excess growling started dying down as more and more people started taking notice of the borderline shifting boy, all of them holding their breath.
She watched helplessly as he squeezed his eyes shut, reaching up to cradle his head in his hands as he let out a deafening roar of pain. His Alpha pheromones shot out of every pore on his body - a warning, a challenge - and it was affecting them all. The other Alphas in the room were now all focused on the boy, their inner Alphas bristling at the idea of a good fight. They all started snarling lowly, rising to the challenge.
Clarke watched in horror as even a few Betas started drowning in the amount of pheromones being released, slowly but surely succumbing to their own instincts. Savage barks and growls suddenly sounded from all around her, and the blonde pushed herself against the back of her seat as a girl across from her - a young Alpha, no doubt - started shaking too, her eyes burning with a quiet rage.
No no no no no no - this can't be happening! She was desperate for something - anything - to keep them from all shifting. In a small enclosure like this, even she would be forced to shift, alongside every other Omega currently in the dropship. The havoc would quickly turn from a malicious fight into a Hunt once all the Omegas were revealed, and they'd be torn to shreds in the midsts of it all. It would be chaotic.
More and more people around her started shaking, and the boy who'd started it all was already showing the first telltale signs of his shift. Fur was sprouting out from beneath his wrist and behind his ears, while wicked long fangs and claws had already started to make themselves known. At the rate at which he was shifting though, he was obviously fighting the transformation, since normally the whole shift only took a few seconds.
The person sitting next to her flinched, their breathing becoming obviously erratic. She realized it was because they were probably already so on edge from everything that was happening around them. She turned her head to look at the person sitting next to her, about to reassure them, before she froze. She went rigid as she took in the features of the boy staring back at her, frigid azure irises locked with soft chocolate brown ones.
Wells stared back at her, his knuckles almost white as he gripped the straps overlapping his body, his pores releasing a faint fear scent. It was only the sound of a particularly vicious snarl that snapped her out of her stupor. Everything came crashing down onto her. Her friendship with him, his smile, his laugh, his humor - his betrayal. Images flashed before her mind's eye, memories of him and her and then both of them - memories of her father.
She felt hot tears prick at the corners of her eyes at the thought. A soft smile, a proud smile, bright against glowing eyes filled with tears and then... Anger, red hot anger - throbbed inside of her chest as she fought against the memory, but it crashed down on her like a wave, drowning her. A split second of starry darkness, a soundless scream, and then nothing. Nothing but darkness and death. That was it - the last straw.
Clarke snapped.
The blonde lunged at him, her entire body lighting up with fury as the loudest snarl to be let loose from anyone in the dropship so far slipped past her lips. The sound was so loud she swore her eardrums popped. Then again, that could've been because they'd finally hit the earth's atmosphere. Either way, she found she didn't very much care at the moment, the only thing she was focused on was Wells.
The commotion caused some heads to turn their way, even going so far as to silence a handful of the Alphas who'd been answering the shifting boy's challenge. Wells jerked back from his seat as he spoke to her softly, trying to make himself seem smaller and calm her down, but she was furious. She snapped at him, the bridge of her nose crinkling and her eyes blazing. Ignoring the importance of keeping her dynamic a secret, she started smothering him with her pheromones.
She could tell by the way that he gagged that he could taste the anger and hate in her scent, and deep down, some part of her felt pleased - the wolf part. She didn't realized she'd called onto her wolf until she felt her there, just under the surface of her skin, having loyally answered her beckoning. The presence of the beast loomed over her, comforting and warm, like a protective shield.
Clarke didn't start panicking until she felt her wolf start to take over. She winced as her teeth cracked and split, allowing larger fangs to peek through her gums and take their place. A numb sensation spread throughout her body as she started feeling herself transform, every vein and blood vessel singing to be let free and to run wild. She fought against it though. She couldn't shift - not like this - if she did, then they would know.
At that moment, her secret of being an Omega was quickly forgotten. There was something bigger - more important - that she had to hide. She had to control her wolf, because if she didn't… She tried to shake her head, a whine escaping her lips. No, she couldn't think about that. They can't know! She wouldn't let them. Grasping at any and every sliver of self control left in her body, she latched onto the presence of her wolf, and pulled.
She could feel the beast bristle and thrash against her grip, fighting to be set free, but she only tightened her hold. Suddenly, a wave of something crashed over her, filling her lungs and clearing the haze in her head. It registered a second later that it was a calming scent - Octavia's calming scent. Thank god I have you as a friend. Clarke thought, silently praising the brunette for being the best friend ever.
The Beta's pheromones washed over her like a soothing river, calming the fire in her veins and making her wolf fall limp. From there on, it was easy to finish reeling in the rest of the beast, successfully containing it. Once her inner animal was fully docile, the blonde looked up groggily, her head a little light from the amount of exertion she'd just put herself through. The hazy figure of Octavia filled her vision, before the image sharpened along with her vision.
"Clarke! Clarke are you okay?! Clarke!" Forcing herself to sit straight, the youngest Griffin just nodded at her friend, trying to radiant some semblance of composure. "I'm okay." Even she didn't believe herself, but she forced more words out of her sore throat. "It's fine - I'm fine. Thanks O." She could tell the young Blake didn't believe her, but she seemed to relax slightly at the sound of Clarke using her nickname.
She looked around, noticing more than a few pairs of eyes on her, watching her. She almost flinched at the number of gazes locked onto her with, but instead furrowed her brows in confusion when she saw the look in their eyes. Awe. They're looking at me with awe. Why, though? She'd almost shifted and killed someone, that wasn't something to be awestruck by, even if her victim had deserved what he'd gotten.
Thinking about Wells though, only served to remind her of the boy who'd started the whole fiasco. She whipped her head to the side, craning her neck as she tried to get a view of the shifting boy. There were beads of sweat tumbling down his skin, his whole body practically vibrating nonstop as his chest started to cave and snap, before the bones reformed into something bigger, snapping one of the straps criss-crossing over his chest.
Right as he was about to fully unleash his wolf, an idea struck her. He needs to calm down. The transformation could be triggered by vast amounts of any emotion, rage most commonly, but could be reversed if the assailant was soothed - also known as being brought down from their high. And who'd just proven they could calm people down in the most quick and efficient way? The young Griffin whipped her head to the side, spotting her brunette friend almost immediately.
"Octavia!" The youngest Blake perked up at the sound of her friend's voice, turning her gaze to lock with that of the blonde's. Clarke could tell she was scared: her eyes were wide and frenzied, though she was holding herself together better than most others around her, and her own body was shaky slightly, fighting against the pheromones around her that were urging her own wolf to surface and fight. Despite that, she was concerned, for Clarke.
Probably thinks she's gonna have to stop me from shifting again. The thought made her stomach turn, guilt broiling inside of her veins, but she shoved the feeling away. There were more urgent matters to be tended to. "Calm him down!" She jerked her head in the shifting boy's direction, noticing out of the corner of her eye that his face had broken and snapped, flesh falling and peeling down his chin as his nose slowly started to reform into a snout.
The brunette cocked her head to the side, confused - her mind not working right due to all the frenzy around her. "Use your calming pheromones like you did for me! Calm him down - calm them all down!" She saw the exact moment when the words and their meaning clicked inside Octavia's head. Her eyes went wide, bright and glowing, before she flashed the blonde a grin. "Quick thinking Griffin!" She shouted, before turning towards her target.
Octavia grit her teeth, no doubt from the effort of trying to force through the wall of pheromones surrounding her with her own. The small grin tugging at the corner of her mouth though, told her she'd succeeded. The boy doubled over while in a halfling faze, a few parts of him wolfish and the rest still fairly human. She could tell Octavia's calming pheromones were surrounding him as his shoulders sagged, the lines on his face evening out as his ragged breathing lessened.
The blonde had made her words loud enough for everyone to hear, and soon enough the other Betas were all working together as one unit to calm the entirety of the delinquents down. Turning back to watch her friend's progress, the blonde winced as she watched the nameless boy start shifting back into his original form. His half formed muzzle shrunk into a crude nose, the rest of his transformed body parts rebuilding themselves until he was normal again.
When the process was done, he groaned in exhausted, looking half dead on his feet. He turned towards the Beta who'd soothed him, smiling crookedly. "Thanks." He rasped lowly, the shift having taken most of his energy. Octavia was struggling not to pant from the exertion she'd just forced upon her own body, her pheromones slowly disappearing from the air in thin tendrils. She sat up straighter as he addressed her, before shrugging and looking away.
The brunette nodded in Clarke's direction. "Don't thank me, it was her idea." The blonde froze as the boy turned his neck to give her a lookover. For a split second, his brows furrowed in confusion, his nostrils flaring, before he dipped his head in the youngest Griffin's directions. "Thank you." He said again, before turning away for good. She barely had time to react before he did, but had managed to give him a quick dip of her head back.
She let her blue eyes scan over the rest of the teenagers in the dropship, glad to see that everyone seemed to be calming down at a steady rate. The sound of static buzzing and crackling snapped everyone out of their stupor, directing their attention towards the TV's in the dropship once more. Apparently, while they'd all been lost in their problems, the pre recording of Thelonious had glitched and paused, but was now resuming.
" - survival were better, we would've sent others. But frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you...expendable." Snarls and angry howls rose up in the air immediately at the words, and even Clarke's Omega instincts couldn't stop her from joining in with the others. Cold air hit her gums at she pulled back her top lip, baring her teeth as an unfamiliar sound tore through her throat: a low growl.
As soon as it did though, she clamped her mouth shut, clenching her jaw. Getting angry so quickly after what had just happened wasn't exactly a smart idea. They had to make sure they kept their heads before they lost them. Literally. "Stop it! Stop riling each other up - unless you actually do want everyone to shift and kill each other!" Her voice was loud and strong - commanding, even. It surprised even her at how much like an Alpha she sounded.
Most of the other delinquents turned to look at the blonde at the sound of her voice, taking into account her words as they shifted in their seats uneasily. With the eyes of almost everyone on her, she fought the urge to shrink away from their gazes, knowing that it would only lead to them snapping at her. Instead, she bared her teeth at them lightly, her top lip only partially peeled back as she let a low warning growl slip past her lips.
Her lungs pinched together, unused to snarling and growling so much, but she pushed forward, needing to convince the others that she wasn't weak, and that she wasn't lying. An Alpha that sat a few chairs away from her growled back at her, puffing out their chest as a torrent of Alpha pheromones was thrown her way. She almost gagged, a bead of sweat rolling down the back of her neck as she fought the urge to just show her neck in submission and stop resisting.
Some part of her though - the small piece of her that had led her to snarl at Wells - flared at the thought of kneeling down to anyone, and without even thinking she snarled back at her challenger. The other delinquents watched the interaction, trying to understand where she stood. Her show of dominance didn't come with any Alpha pheromones, and yet as far as they could tell, she was acting like one. Well, for the most part at least.
She was calmer than a normal Alpha - more rational. She'd kept a cool head when most everyone else had been snarling and snapping at one another, even though she'd been one of the first few to start shifting. She'd gotten herself under control, and then she'd gotten them under control. For that, they were confused, and that confusion could cause curiosity, which could be a problem for her in the future. For now though, they backed off.
Clarke released a deep breath of relief, forcing herself to not look back at Wells as her eyes locked with that of Octavia's. The Beta was looking at her with concern, her calming scent now being solely directed onto her, trying to help her compose herself. She took in a deep breath of the aroma, giving the brunette a nod of gratitude as she started to listen to Jaha along with everyone else. "Your dropsite has been chosen carefully." She almost scoffed.
Sure it had. If they were expendable, then why would the Council care where they landed? That is, if they landed at all. "Before the last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain," Most of the prisoners around her perked up at the mention of the Mountain. It had been one of the topics they had learned about in Earth Histories. "It was to be stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years."
The Chancellor's speech was cut off by some cheers. "Yeah Finn!" The blonde turned her head at the sound of the words, her blue eyes widening at the sight of a boy floating towards her, doing backflips while in midair. "Spacewalk Finn strikes again!" Another boy called out, and Clarke blinked in surprise as Octavia pumped her hand into the air and let out a cheer. By this time, she'd completely tuned out Thelonious and what he was saying.
Her attention was instead directed at the beanie wearing boy who was now floating in front of her. "Check it out," The boy stated, his eyes on Wells as he quipped at the Beta. Clarke took in a breath, Finn's Alpha scent making her nostrils sting. He smelled like cold steel and a musky undertone, but not the comforting kind, it was...unnerving. "Your dad floated me after all." Chuckles filled the dropship at his words, only working to boost Finn's confidence.
The Beta's mouth opened to speak, but Clarke beat him to it, nodding towards Finn. "You should strap in before the parachutes deploy." Brown eyes flickered towards her, roaming over her body, as if for the first time realizing that she were there. "Hey, you're the traitor who's been in solitary for a year." His scent was overwhelming as he floated closer to her, his nostrils flaring as he took in her fragrance.
She snapped at him, noticing how his orbs darkened and his smell grew huskier as he took her in. "And you aren't listening." She growled back, her mind growing fuzzy at his odor. "If you don't strap in, then when we hit the atmosphere and the parachutes release, you'll be thrown against the walls and most likely snap your spine against one." It was a stretch, and she knew it, but everyone knew her mother was a doctor, so he couldn't actually go against her words.
His jaw worked back and forth, obviously debating whether or not to listen to her or let his stupid Alpha pride lead him to his death. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a few boys who had been reaching to undo their straps letting their hands fall back towards their sides, not wanting to take the risk and choosing to instead listen to her words. She almost smirked when she saw that Finn had noticed the boys' actions too, but held back.
The Alpha narrowed his eyes at her, leaning in closer to take another whiff of her scent. She froze. Her Omega instincts told her to fear the Alpha - to submit and let him do with her as he pleased so she wouldn't be hurt by disobeying him, but the wolf inside her raged at the thought of submission. She could smell the smallest hints of her own fear scent release from under her pores, and a split second before Finn could notice, a snarl sounded from behind him. "Hey!"
They both looked over to see who'd yelled, their eyes landing on Octavia as she strained against her straps, her teeth bared at the Spacewalker as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Stay the fuck away from her!" The Beta warned, her once calming scent now sharp and protective. Soon enough, all the other Betas around her acted out of instinct, growling at Finn along with her. If one of them had the urge to protect, all of them had the urge to protect.
Betas had a weird connection like that. They worked together even if they had their own differences between one another - their instincts compelled them to. The shaggy haired Alpha boy bared his teeth back at them, but relented and headed back towards his seat, the Betas around him snapping at his heels along the way. Taking a deep breath, Clarke finally started to calm down.
"Are you okay?" Octavia's voice called out, and without looking she nodded in the other girl's direction. "- and finally, do not take off those wristbands." The blonde caught the last of the Chancellor's words, before she was thrown back in her seat. Screams split through the air as they were thrown around inside the dropship, the only thing holding them down being the buckles that criss-crossed over their chests.
In the back of her head, Clarke wondered if Finn had made it back to his seat fast enough to strap back in. Honestly though, she found she didn't much care. A shower of sparks blew up above her head and she tucked her chin to her chest, praying that they didn't get set on fire. The ship shuddered again, the metal around them groaning loudly as the thrusters outside of the dropship burst and sputtered.
She gripped her straps tighter, her whole body shaking as the calming pheromones the Betas were releasing were quickly masked over by the pungent aroma of to many fear scents to count. Her jaw throbbed as she clenched it tighter, and her eyes were squeezed shut so tight she swore she would black out just from the effort she was putting into keeping them closed. Another few sparks bursted off to right, making her gasp.
The metal around her groaned loudly, before she was almost thrown out of her seat as she was then slammed back against her chair. Her blood thrummed against her eardrums violently, her head throbbing as she unclenched her jaw with a hiss of pain. Groans sounded all around her, and as her vision started focusing once more, it took her a second to realize that everything was still. She blinked, looking around as she tried to catch her breath.
Everyone else was doing the same, sharing looks with the people around them as they traded glances of wonderment and tried to compose themselves. Eyes searching for Octavia, she sighed in relief when she found her. They traded nods, letting the each other know that they were okay. The lights flickered as someone spoke up. "Listen," They all did, straining their ears to hear whatever the boy was trying to point out.
It took the blonde a second before she stopped trying to hear something, and realized that it was what she couldn't hear that was so important. Nothing - she couldn't hear anything. The boy voiced her thoughts. "No machine hum." Everyone shared glances, some laughing. Clarke and Octavia shared a smile. For the first in her life, everything around the blonde was utterly and absolutely...silent.
"Whoa. That's a first." She couldn't help but agree. Soon enough though, the moment was interrupted as a series of clicks rang throughout the air, and the straps holding them down to their seats unclasped. She reached down, pulling the straps away from her as she shot up and out of her seat. Head snapping upwards, she searched for Octavia, her first instinct telling her to find her way to the Beta.
She was caught off guard when a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her flush against their body. She almost growled (she was surprised that it was her new first reaction rather than cowering) before the familiar scent of her friend washed over her, making her immediately relax into the embrace. She wrapped her own arms around the younger girl, letting out a relieved breath as she gripped the brunette harder.
"Octavia." She said in almost a whisper, glad that her friend was safe. In response, the Beta nuzzled her cheek in reassurance, pulling away slightly as she flashed her a smile. They laughed, letting a little bit a distance come between their bodies, but never fully letting the other go. "I can't believe we're still alive." Octavia mumbled, looking around as Clarke nodded in agreement. Their thoughts were cut off by another's shout.
"The outer door is on the lower level! Let's go!" Eyes widening in alarm, Clarke watched as all the other delinquents rushed to reach the lowest level of the dropship. "No! We can't just open the doors!" She rushed after them, only a few sparing her a glance but none actually listening to her. Octavia was right behind her, silently agreeing with the blonde. They'd crashed down in a giant metal coffin, what if something had seen them and was waiting for them just outside?
Gripping the metal railing, the blonde quickly made her way down the latter, a voice catching her attention as she made her descent. "Hey, just back it up guys! Back it up!" Finally off of the latter and too focused on stopping the others from opening the dropship door and possibly killing them all, the Omega missed the way Octavia stiffened next to her at the raspy yet smooth words. She pushed her way past the crowd, mouth parted to speak, but Octavia beat her to it. "Bellamy?"
Clarke stiffened.
While up in the Skybox, one of the first things Clarke had managed to get Octavia to talk about was her family, more specifically: her brother. She would go on and on about him and how he'd practically raised her, retelling stories of how he'd play games with her to keep her occupied, or about the time he'd traded his rations in for money to buy her a doll. She hadn't actually told the blonde his name until after a month though, fearing that she would tell others about him.
After reassuring the younger girl that she wouldn't tell anyone (and that she couldn't even if she wanted to - she was in solitary), Octavia had finally revealed his name: Bellamy. That's when the two had really started to trust each other, and friendly conversations soon turned into sharing secrets and telling their dreams to one another. In the time span of a couple months they knew more about the other than anyone else - they were best friends.
The only thing left to share, had been what they looked like. Now though, that wasn't a problem. For the first time ever they could put a face to the name, and now with being able to talk to each other without a wall between them, they were more like sisters than friends. Clarke had never known what it was like to have a sibling before, but now she did, because of Octavia, and as she looked over to the boy - no, young man - in front her, she felt nothing but respect for him.
The two embraced, speaking to each other in low whispers. The Omega almost smiled, but instead breathed in Bellamy's scent, already knowing what he was (Octavia had told her) but wanting to become familiar with it. She almost coughed though as the overpowering smell of gunpowder and bitter steel bit at the back of her throat. There was a softer undertone of something fresh and soft - most likely some of Octavia's scent that had mingled with his.
It didn't block out his dominant Alpha pheromones though.
She found her nose wrinkling at the scent, wondering how he could be related to Octavia in any way if their fragrances were so different. Maybe it's just because they have different dynamics? But they were blood related, they should have some kind of shared aroma. They have different fathers! The blonde remembered her friend telling her about that. So if they'd each got dominant scent genes from their different dads, then of course they would smell extremely different.
Still though, there was something in Bellamy's pheromones that rubbed her the wrong way. With Finn's scent it had been more obvious - you could smell it right away, but with Octavia's brother it was different. There was a musky tint to his natural smell, something to be suspicious about. But Clarke had no proof, and even if she did, she wasn't about to ruin her best friend's reunion with the last family she had left.
"What are you wearing?" The Omega finally caught on to the sibling's conversation, her nose twitching as the brunette's pheromones quickly went from calm and happy to angry and betrayed. "A Guard's uniform?" The blonde's suspicion only rose. Bellamy got kicked off the Guard when Octavia was discovered, and the uniform he wore looked a size too small for him. So why would he be wearing it? What was he up to?
"I borrowed it," The Alpha quickly reassured. "To get on the dropship." Of course he did. "Someone's gotta keep an eye on you." He spoke with a smile, but apparently Octavia missed his teasing tone, and instead took him seriously. She turned to grip Clarke's shoulder and yanked her forward so that they stood shoulder to shoulder. "Someone, already is." The Beta quipped, her tone slightly bitter.
The Omega locked eyes with Bellamy, not missing the way his pupils turned sharp and unwelcoming at the sight of her. She could tell the older boy was internally bristling at the thought of someone else being near his little sister, but before he could outright attack the blonde, the brunette held him back and started pumping out her calming pheromones, trying to keep the Alpha in him docile.
His nostrils flared, but he looked away from the blonde and instead went back to gazing at his sister. He opened his mouth to say something, but Clarke missed his words as someone in the crowd behind them spoke, her ears pricking at the sound. "Hey! - that's Octavia Blake, the girl they hid under the floor!" Cruel laughter rang out at the words, but the Omega was in no way amused.
A flare of anger shot through her veins, and without even giving herself a second to hesitate, she parted her mouth and snarled loudly, the bridge of her nose crinkling in barely suppressed anger. Another growl off to her right made her falter slightly, but as her blue orbs flickered off to the side, she wasn't entirely surprised to see Bellamy also baring his teeth at the rest of the delinquents, Octavia holding him back from lunging at them.
The brunette herself also had her face twisted in anger, but being a Beta she was naturally calmer than others, so Clarke knew that she would sooner brush off the words then act on her anger. That didn't mean she was untouched by the words though, and the blonde could see the flicker of hurt that flashed across the brunette's irises before they turned both angry and annoyed. When Clarke looked away though, her eyes locked with that of the Alpha's.
His sharp eyes looked as if they were peering into her very soul, and she lightly pulled back her upper lip in warning, not knowing if the act was suppose to be judging or curious. As soon as he saw her unease though, he just huffed at her, turning back to snarl at the delinquents one last time before he gripped his sister closer to his side. "Come on," He grumbled, resting his other hand on the latch of the dropship door. "Let's give them something else to remember you by."
"Yeah, like what?" The Beta asked, seemingly genuinely curious. The Alpha boy smirked. "Like being the first person on the ground in over a hundred years." Octavia's expression at the words could only be described as ecstatic. The older of the two siblings pulled down the level with a quiet grunt, pressure panels immediately bursting at the action as the door of the dropship jerked and groaned.
The crowd of teenagers behind her all took a consecutive step backwards, low murmuring rising up to fill the silent air as everyone shuffled their feet against the metal floor, anxious to finally be able to see the ground first hand. The hatch popped free with a deafening crack, before smoothly falling the rest of the way to rest against the outside ground softly. Clarke gasped as bright light stabbed at her eyes, but she didn't dare blink.
The first thing she noticed, was the smell. Hundreds - thousands - of new and unfamiliar scents crashed down upon her, making her senses kick into overdrive to try and comprehend them all. She took in a stuttering breath, the air so crisp and sweet on her tongue that she almost moaned. A light breeze brushed into the dropship, coating over her like a refreshing blanket, and for a split second she felt as weightless as a cloud.
Her ears pricked at the sound of the wind kissing the leaves of the trees looming before them, the crackle of shrubs brushing against shrubs making a shiver race down her spine. She could barely believe it when another faint sound reached her eardrums: the low, long whistle of a bird, chirping loudly while basking in the morning sun. Wildlife, there's wildlife down here! It all seemed too good to be real.
A flicker of movement caught the Omega's eye, and she smiled fondly as Octavia stepped forward, only stopping her footfalls when the tip of her boots were hanging off the edge of the dropship's door. The brunette turned to look over her shoulder at her, laughing as she held out her hand for Clarke to take. "C'mon." She whispered, as if the world around her would shatter if she spoke too loudly.
Without even giving herself time to think about it, the youngest Griffin took the hand of her best friend, walking forward until they stood shoulder to shoulder. They shared one sideline glance, their eyes gleaming as grins split across their lips, before they moved in sync and jumped onto the ground as one. It was official, the sound of leaves and grass crunching under her feet was Clarke's new favorite sound.
Without warning, Octavia let go of her hand and threw both of her's up into the air, tilting her head back as she howled. "We're back bitches!" It was like a switch had been flipped. All the sudden, all the delinquents clustered inside the dropship behind them whooped and yelled before then pouring out of the metal structure with the force of a tidal wave. More than a few shoulders knocked against the blonde's own, but she didn't mind.
The brunette beside her wrapped her arms around her small frame, shaking her around and trying to lift her in the air in celebration. When she found that her friend wasn't as easy to lift as she'd first thought, the young Blake instead settled on draping her arm around Clarke's shoulder, giving her a few rough squeezes of happiness every few second. She laughed. "O stop, you're not giving me enough room to breathe."
"Clarke what're you talking about? We're on the ground! - you don't need to breathe to enjoy that." The Omega only rolled her eyes at her Beta friend's words. "Right, of course - undeniable logic." Octavia scoffed playfully, before she suddenly turned on her heels and enveloped someone else in a bone crushing hug. "Bellamy!" Finally able to breathe, the blue eyed criminal palmed the area the brunette had been squeezing a little too harshly.
Well, better him then me.
She heard a deep chuckle and turned around, smiling faintly as she watched brother and sister reunite once more. The Alpha boy pulled away from his sibling's hug, but didn't let go of her. His eyes flickered across her form, his instincts pushing him to make sure his kin was well and unarmed. He huffed in amusement. "Not so much of a little pup anymore, are you?" The young Beta punched him in the arm playfully. "And don't you forget it."
Caramel irises peeked over his sister's shoulder, landing on her figure. Their gazes locked, and for a few seconds no one said anything - no one even dared to do so much as breathe. Finally though, the older boy huffed, shaking his head before he looked up at Clarke. His gaze was different, softer - curious instead of cold and calculating. Eventually, he nodded in her directions, speaking in a slightly gravelly tone.
"And you are…?" Clarke faltered in her response. "C-clarke. Um...Griffin - Clarke Griffin." Something in her stomach turned at the way his eyes narrowed at her words, the tiniest hint of teeth glinting beneath his twitching lip. He recognized the name, she could tell. Sensing the unease quickly thickening in the air between the two, Octavia jumped back, wrapping one of her arms around her blonde friend before tugging her closer.
"O what're you doing?" Bellamy asked, his nose crinkling as he took a step back. The younger of two siblings only rolled her eyes as an answer. He gestured towards her wildly, as if she weren't even there. "She's a Griffin. One of the priv- " Octavia whipped her head around to shove her face right in front of Bellamy's - nose to nose - so fast that for a second the Omega feared she'd snapped her neck. Either that or given herself whiplash.
Luckily, that wasn't the case.
Unluckily, she was pissed.
"Shut up! Don't you dare finish that sentence Bell! Don't. You. Dare. " She was practically snarling, her teeth bared and her hands curled into fists at her sides, yet she was obviously holding herself back. "I know who she is, and honestly? - I don't give a fuck. She stopped being privileged the day they locked her up, just like me." The mud eyed boy looked startled at the words, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
Finally, he closed his mouth, a vein in his neck straining as he clenched his jaw tightly. His gaze only gave its attention to Clarke for the flicker of a heartbeat before he looked back at the Beta, his eyebrows pinching together tightly. After what felt like years, he finally spoke, his words low and muttered, but his tone seething. "People like her are the reason you were locked up." His words were cold - final. Octavia moved to retort, but he spoke again.
"People like her are the reason mom is dead."
The brunette froze.
Clarke stood off to the sidelines the whole time, having moved away a few feet when Octavia had moved to defend her. The gratitude that she'd felt for her friend mere moments ago gave away to guilt. The Apha wasn't too far off. She herself wasn't part of the Council, but her mom was, and her father had been called upon for advice more times than she could count. Both of them had offered input with every trial - every execution.
Clarke had never been to a Council meeting, or offered them any input, but that didn't stop her from feeling like the blood on their hands automatically transferred onto her's just because they were related. As far as she cared, the Griffins were a family of murderers. She was pulled from her thoughts when the sound of Octavia's voice reached her ears. "No, no you're wrong. She had nothing to do with mom's death."
There were tears in her friend's eyes, Clarke could tell, and Bellamy didn't miss the light gleam of wetness coating his sister's irises either. "O…" Her murmured weakly, reaching out to grab her, but she pulled away with a fierce strength. Glaring up at him, eyes blazing, she spat at him. "That was the Chancellor - not her. So you can't blame her, promise me you won't blame her." Octavia was pleading now, the look in her eyes desperate.
The Omega took a step forward, reaching out for her friend with the intention of comforting the brunette, but the second she did the Beta's scent crashed down on her. She almost choked on the amount of pheromones being released by the young Blake, noticing that the girl's usual aroma of sweet citrus and musky soil wasn't even noticeable, too masked by the fragrance of fear and confusion.
In the back of her throat, the blonde let out a low whine, her breaths becoming slightly ragged as the pheromones around her started making her thoughts become muddled. She slapped a hand over her nose and mouth, trying to steady herself, but failing. Not for the first time in her life, she cursed her dynamic. Just as her knees started to buckle, the pheromones disappeared, pulled away by their creator.
Octavia wrapped an arm around her back, frantically muttering hushed apologues against the shell of her ear as she helped steady the blonde. "'Ts fine." She managed to say, her words slightly slurred. She felt herself being set down on the ground as her back pressed against something cold and hard: the side of the dropship. Blue eyes blinked open, fluttering closed at the sun that pierced at them, but then parting once more.
Clarke sighed. "I'm sorry O. I...I didn't mean for that to happen." She could feel the brunette shake her head next to her. "Nah, it's fine. I mean, it was my fault, I should've remembered that you can't…" There was an awkward pause at the end of her words. They both turned to look towards Bellamy. The young Alpha was standing straight, his body stiff as his face looked strained. "You're…" His voice was husky and cracked, and he coughed.
"You're an Omega." It wasn't a question, more of a statement, and after a second of hesitation the blue eyed criminal nodded. "Yeah." Her mouth felt dry as she said that one word, her tongue poking out to quickly swipe over her chapped lips. The Blake brother growled lowly at the action. Octavia was blocking his view of her a second later - protecting her. "Stop it, stop it right now Bellamy. You're not thinking straight."
She was right, he wasn't - Clarke could tell. Before she'd been locked away in the Skybox, she'd spent countless hours working in the Medway with her mother, Abigail Griffin, one of the Ark's finest and most renowned doctors. She'd treated more than a few Alphas with the same look on their faces as Bellamy wore on his now. They'd been Alphas who'd attacked Omegas, savagely raping them and claiming them without a second thought, all to satisfy their ruts.
And with every single Alpha like that she'd treated, they'd all gone free. The Omegas had been blamed, for being careless and weak - for not fighting back. How could they, though? There were laws against Omegas ever harming anyone, and they'd be floated either way. It was sickening. But those laws don't apply down here. The thought struck Clarke like a godsend. Octavia didn't have to defend her - she could fight back herself.
She stood up on strong legs, pushing past the brunette. The Beta gasped and yelled something at her, but she ignored it. She approached the caramel eyed boy before her, trying to pass off her trembling body as shakes of anger, as if she were about to shift. The Alpha grit his teeth, obviously fighting against his baser instincts to lunge at her - to take her and make her submit so that she could bare his pups.
The thought almost made her gag.
Instead, she walked right up to him, her nose almost brushing his. Without a second thought, she called on her wolf, and almost sighed in relief when the beast answered her immediately. She let herself embrace the animal, if only slightly, to fuel her. She allowed her wolf to peel back her lips for her, feeling blood rush to her ears when the creature snarled. "This isn't the Ark, down here, I will protect myself." Her voice rumbled with the wolf's presence. "You can't touch me."
The words were enough to make Bellamy bristle as he bared his own fangs, but she knew he could see her wolf in the blazing pulse of blue that tinted her irises, and something inside of him - his own beast, probably - beckoned him to back down. He did so begrudgingly, his brown eyes burning with a dark anger, before he tore them away from her gaze, instead letting his sight dart down to the ground.
His next action was barely noticeable - barely there at all actually, she could've ignored it if she wanted to - but it took her breath away. Painstakingly slowly, as if he were fighting against it - and he probably was - Bellamy tilted his head to the side, his chin pointing towards the ground in the slightest of bows she'd ever seen. A dreadful sense of realization crashed down on her like a bucket of ice cold water.
He'd just submitted.
Behind her, she could hear Octavia making small gasping sounds, probably trying to form words but unable to. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a few of the other delinquents around them staring, some surprised and some confused, a handful of the more questionable ones even had their eyes narrowed in suspicion. Clarke took a step back, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.
Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit dammitdammitdammit! Her mind was racing, trying to come up with a ready excuse, but she knew any lie she came up with wouldn't be believable. Hell, the truth was even hard to believe, almost more so than any lie she could think of. While she'd been having her internal meltdown, Bellamy had straightened up, his face contorted in a way that suggested he'd just gotten muck stuck on the underfoot of his new boots.
He glared at her, sweat trickling down his forehead. "What the hell was that?! What did you do?!" She just shook her head. "Nothing...I - I didn't do anything. That…" Her eyes flickered to the side. "That was all you." His nostrils flared. He didn't believe. He took a step forward. "Now listen to me here Princess," She flinched at the nickname.
"Bellamy, stop." It was Octavia, once again stepping forward as her personal savior. She pressed a hand against her brother's chest, trying to get him to step away from her. He shook her away though, only giving her a split second of his attention before he continued to snarl down at the blonde. "Stay out of this O. As for you…" He glared at her. "You're gonna tell me what you just did to me because I never would've submitted," He hissed the word low. "To an Ome- "
She punched him.
Time stopped.
Her ears pricked at the sound of gasps and a few laughs sounding from all around her, but she didn't look to double check - she couldn't. Her eyes were glued onto the image of the boy in front of her - the Alpha boy - who'd been knocked to the ground be the sheer amount of strength she'd packed behind the blow. Her outstretched hand dropped back down to her side numbly, the knuckles warm and stinging.
Bellamy's forehead was pressed against the grassy terrain, his once neat hair now frazzled so badly that curly tendrils drooped down, long enough to cover his face. One hand was clutching his face almost absentmindedly, while his other was resting against his head, his knuckles a shocking white as he tore at the grass with a death grip. He was shaking. His entire body was being wracked by vicious shivers of anger, his scent quickly turning thick and musky.
He was about to shift.
And when he does, he'll shred me to pieces. The thought snapped her out of her stupor. Not even Octavia will be able to protect me. Before her brother had even managed to hit the ground, the brunette had rushed over to his side, wrapping her arms around him to catch him as he fell. Now, she was gripping the back of his shirt, her eyes wide. "Bell? Bell?!" Her gaze flickered up to lock with Clarke's. She expected hate, anger - loathing.
All she saw though, was fear.
"Clarke, run."
She did.