Part 9

After the announcement of war, the bonding party quickly dispersed as new and old families left to prepare themselves for the coming separation of war, violence and possibly death. The night was already at an end and the red dawn would bring the prediction of the loss of lives in the coming conflict.

Stiles walked in a daze as he was escorted by his new mate back to what would now be his home. A place of probable luxury but a birdcage nonetheless, meant to enclose him from society and only available for the pleasures of his mate. Already sensing the danger of the man gipping his arm and dragging him along, Stiles knew that he had to start planning his escape and find a way to help his father.

The clothes he was wearing were tight and constricting, their cumbrance only making Gerard tighten his grip and drag him faster until he started tripping every few steps. Fed up with the slow pace of their group and having to pick Stiles up off the ground when he fell, Gerard had one of his men flag down a sedan chair for the Omega to be carried back to the compound he called his house. Still moving towards the outskirts of the city, the group were intercepted by the arrival of Stiles' transport. All but shoved into the sedan chair, the young boy caught himself from splatting on his face and arranged his clothes in a comfortable position for the rest of the ride home.

Speaking to one of the four burly Betas that were carrying the wooden box, Gerard gave him the address to the complex of buildings that made up his household and strict instructions to stop for nothing until they reached the gates. Making sure that Stiles' was in the sedan chair; Gerard smirked and closed the latch, which effectively locked the boy in from the outside, to make sure that he didn't go anywhere.

"I'll see you at home later, my sweet" Alpha Argent crooned to his mate before he stepped back and watched the vehicle move quickly down the end of the illuminated street. He sighs as it turns left, out of his sight.

Stiles quickly turned and looked through the wooden latticing that made the back of the sedan chair and watched as Gerard nodded to his men who then, as one mass, jumped to the nearest rooftop and started running west towards the palace of her Magnificence Alpha Martin. Confused by the actions of his mate not returning home to prepare for war, Stiles knew that, if the older man was not retuning until later, this was his only chance to escape.

Stiles did not know how long it took to reach the gates of his new house because the streets slowly became less illuminated (though, the sun was slowly coming up) and it was normally difficult to see anything anyway through the lattice of the sedan chair. Not only was no one to see the Omega inside, the Omega was denied interaction with the outside world and they were completely cut-off from each other.

Finally the sedan chair stopped. Stiles knew that they must have reached their destination because, even these Betas, were not dumb enough to defy Alpha Gerard Argent by not taking him directly to his determined destination. Even if the Omega did not know where he was, he knew that if he did not escape now he would never be able to leave the probably tight security perimeter of the compound once the gates closed behind him.

Hearing shouting from outside, Stiles felt the sedan chair stop and lower to rest on the ground. The Omega saw all four of the carriers as they ran to what looked like the main gate of the household. Two men, presumably guards employed by Alpha Argent, stopped the four men and started to briskly interrogate them on their origins and who was in the vehicle. Not knowing who it was, only that they had been instructed by an older Alpha to bring him there, the four Betas tried to finagle the guards into letting them or their passenger in or at least giving them payment for their service.

Seeing that everyone around him was distracted, Stiles knew a chance at freedom when it presented itself. Many years of experience from escaping from his own house to play at the small creek at night on his father's property meant that the Omega was very skilled at opening the numerous kinds of locks his father bought to try and keep him in his room. Pulling out the thin knife his mother had given him out of his waist belt; Stiles slid the blade between the door and the wall and lifted up under the latch bar enough so that it was no longer resting in front of the door.

Checking once more that no one was looking as he dared not think of the consequences of trying to leave his mate Alpha Argent, Stiles thanked the gods that the door was opposite the Betas and Alphas still shouting at the gate. The Omega blushed as he indecently hiked up his skirts away from his feet so that he could run freely. To avoid being seen so improperly, the young man quickly slipped in the alleyway opposite and ran until the yelling behind him could not be heard. He chose to remain in backstreets so not to be seen so unfittingly dressed. When he was far enough away and out of sight, the Omega stopped to take a breath and work out where he was from his surroundings. Not recognising anything around him, the Omega righted his clothes and risked being seen from the main road that he could hear two streets over.

Walking cautiously to the end of the lane, Stiles hid himself in the shadows away from the illuminated main street but walked close enough to see the bakery that his mother often took him to as a boy as a treat after he attended the daily Omega school classes in housekeeping and child bearing. The Omega sighed in relief as he knew his father's house must only be five more blocks over and two blocks down. Seeing a break in the passing traffic of rickshaws and other sedans chairs, Stiles walked as fast as he could in his constricting clothing to the safety of his father's territory.

Finally, after an exhausting night that was still not even half over, Stiles saw the impressive red gates of his father's residence given to him when he received the position of Sheriff; it would not become part of his legacy. On his death, it would pass to his only child's Alpha (not to Melissa if she outlived him), then to any Alpha children Stiles had.

Seeing Parish, one of two guards on rotation employed by the Stilinski's, Stiles rushed to the gate wanting to be inside and safe as soon as possible.

"Omega Stilinski?!" Beta Parish said in shock at seeing the newly mated Omega, having expected to only sparingly see the Omega now that he had a new family.

"Hey Parish, still not comfortable with Stiles, huh?" The Omega chuckled at the proper manners of the only slightly older man. Though never mated, the Beta was a good friend and companion to Stiles due to his lonely status, not only as an Omega, but also as the Sheriff's only child. "Can you let me in please?"

"Sure! Go right on through." Parish said as he unlocked the chunky box on the wall beside the gate. He pulled the lever that was safely inside to open the heavy silver gates. Not only was the gate silver to stop anyone from forcing it, but mountain ash was laced in the wood of the walls to prevent anyone from jumping directly over the walls; the only safe way to enter a house was through the door.

"And Parish, if anyone comes looking for me just send them away, okay?" Stiles asked, knowing that it put Parish on the line for disobeying an order from an Alpha but willing to risk it for this small semblance of freedom for a short time. "Thank you so much."

Beta Parish nodded as he watched the Omega slip through the gates and up the path to the main entrance hall. Closing the gate with the lever and then locking the box, Parish looked around the empty streets with his glowing eyes, trying to see anything or anyone out of place. Staying alert the rest of the night was a small price to pay for the Omega who was his friend and kind to everyone he knew.

Knowing his way to his father's chambers even in the dark, Stiles swiftly walked there and barged through the doors. Not alerted by the noise because of no foreign scent in the room, Melissa slept on through the intrusion as it was a regular occurrence for Stiles to barge in. Having momentarily forgotten that her son was to be living somewhere else, the Beta awoke from her doze with a start, immediately alerted that Stiles being there meant that something was terribly wrong.

"Stiles!" Melissa shouted in surprise and worry as her son approached and climbed onto her bed. "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't stay Mother! My mate is Alpha Argent Senior and l knew my life with him would be a life in a cage. Besides, with the announcement of war l couldn't in the right mind consummate my mating when l knew Father was preparing to leave, maybe for the last time." Stiles sighed in sadness as he thought about his and his father's situation right now.

"Oh Stiles." Melissa hugged her son tightly to herself, trying to lend the Omega her support. "You know that once a match is made, nothing can break that contract. Even if we wanted you to stay, the Enforcers would come to take you back to your mate, if he hasn't already sent someone to get you."

Tears slipped through the Omega's long lashes as he let his emotion over the night's events bleed out. Soon sobbing over his loss of freedom and choice of mate, Stiles knew that this was his last chance to show his true emotions.

"Where is father?" The Omega asked shortly after his tears had dried as he knew time was of the essence if he was to say goodbye to his father, accepting that there was nothing he could do to save him from his fate of war.

"In his study devising battle strategies of course." Melissa smirked at seeing Stiles recover smoothly from his sadness and quickly revert back to his normal self.

Walking through the hallways of his father's household, Stiles retraced the steps that he had taken thousands of times having grown up in these walls. Knowing he would rarely be here again, except when presenting his newborn to his family, the Omega wanted to memorise everything. He walked past the tapestry room, the room that held histories and stories from their past to teach lessons to younger generations. For some reason, he entered the cold and musty room. Even when the Sheriff and his tutors were teaching him history lessons and using this room, Stiles still had no interest for the decaying tapestries that hung there.

One colourful, giant tapestry that caught his eye depicted the story of Loki Silvertongue, mother of Fenrir, who would bring about the end of the world. From what the Omega could remember, the story went that the gods feared for the safety of Ásgarð and payed a giant builder to construct a wall. If the builder could complete the project in one season and did so without assistance from any man he would receive the goddess Freyja, the sun and the moon. The builder's payment would be forfeit if the job were not completed on the first day of summer.

The builder agreed to the offer if he could use his stallion, Svaðilfari, to help him on the job. All the Æsir were amazed at how quickly the work progressed. At the end of winter, the walls were so high they were impregnable. Three days before the beginning of summer, only the entrance to the walled fortification remained to be done. Since it was Loki that had brokered the deal with the builder, Loki would face death if he did not devise some scheme to cause the builder to forfeit his payment.

Loki, in the guise of a mare, enticed the stallion to stop helping the giant pull the stone to make the wall. Loki distracted the stallion all night and because of this, the stone needed to complete the wall the next day was not ready. Because the wall was not completed at the bargained time, the giant's payment was forfeited and he was killed when he disputed this. A number of months passed before Loki was seen again. His romp with Svaðilfari had resulted in him giving birth to a foal. He returned to Ásgarð leading the colt and gave him to Odin.

The Omega thought on Loki's deception and how he had used his magic to aid his father and how he had helped his people stay safe behind the new wall. Though it was morally deceitful and wrong, the only person that got hurt was the giant; but it's not like there were any giants here that could get hurt. Getting his inspiration from this story, Stiles had made his decision on how to not only free himself from his new mating bond, but also how to save his father from possibly dying in battle.

Stiles knew where his father kept his armour, though it was designed to be worn by someone much bigger than himself, and knew that it could easily be modified to fit him.

Running now in glee and fear of being found and stopped, Stiles stripped off his fancy and delicate clothes. Cutting off his Omega braid with the dagger Melissa gave him, the Omega quickly changed clothes leaving his dagger and a note for his parents to find in the morning. Checking to make sure that the armour was on properly and he had his father's sword, Stiles left the armoury and headed to find his father.

His footsteps now heavier and harder to manoeuvre, the young boy quickly made his way to the 'official' part of his father's room where his large Sheriff's home office was located. Quietly pushing open the heavy oak doors and seeing that his father had fallen, passed out drunk because of the bottle of alcohol lying empty next to his arm, the Omega kissed his forehead and grabbed his father's orders from his desk to take his place among the army and to ensure that his father could not follow without revealing his son's true identity. This would have led to the Omega being sentenced to death for deception.

Slipping out the back door and heading towards the stables to find his long time horse and companion Jeep, the young Omega, now disguised as a commonplace Beta, slipped out into the twilight and towards his chosen future of war.

Kate watched as her father threw a tantrum of epic proportions after learning that his newly acquired Omega mate had been brought to the gates of the house to be let in but, due to the incompetence of the guards, had used the opportunity to escape. Her father had only come back and was the only one to notice his Omega absent. This meant that the Omega had an all-night head start. Though caring little for Omegas, or anyone else besides herself really, the Alpha had to applaud the Omegas daring in escaping from an Alpha like her father; the little slut was probably just a fool rather than brave Kate thought. Anyone with brains knew that the first place he would go would be back to the safety of the incompetent Sheriff's arms.

"Kate! You will bring him back." Alpha Argent demanded of his beautiful and lethal daughter. He knew there was a risk that Kate would bring the Omega back damaged, but Argent didn't care what he looked like because any wounds could be covered and he only really needed the boy to breed. Kate was an ideal choice to bring him back though, because she could scare him enough that he would never even think of leaving again in fear of the punishment Kate could dish out so artfully.

Nodding her acceptance of her task, Kate was disappointed that her departure to war would be delayed because of the selfishness of this pathetic Omega. She hoped though that soon she would be on her way to the frontline, possibly even running into that old Alpha pet of hers.

Fanart:

Everyday Stiles and Omega-wear: post/82926046036/this-is-my-visualisation-of-stiles-when-hes

Stiles at the dressmakers: post/82925677177/not-a-very-good-manipulation-but-l-did-what-l

Chapter Notes:

Sorry for the late update, l've just been so busy wth my latin assignments but since l'm on holiday l plan to write a few more one-shots and chapter of this and other fics :D