Chapter 2

The Omega

a/n- To all my readers. Chapters 2 - 6 part 1 have been modified to enhance this story. A great deal of time and effort has gone into these modifications. If you have already read these chapters, you may wish to read them again. If this is your first time reading, enjoy!

Clary woke with a start. She looked at the clock, 5:14 am. Something was wrong. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach, and through her parabati bond with Alec. Fear and dread. Those were the emotions coursing through him. But why, Clary thought. What could cause this kind of fear in her parabati? Alec was the Institutes most fearless and fiercest warrior. Nothing scared Alec, except his sexuality. What could have happened that was so bad that it could put this kind of fear into the most fearless person she had ever known? She had no idea, but she was going to find out.

Slipping out from beneath her sleeping mate's arm, she slid out of bed. Jace stirred in his sleep but didn't wake. Her beautiful alpha was a heavy sleeper. Jace was her alpha, and she was his beta. They had mated last month, after her eighteenth birthday when she presented. Jace was only a month older than her. Alec was the oldest of the Lightwood's and our leader. Slipping into a long robe she tied it quickly and headed for the door. At the door she stopped. Maybe he had just had a nightmare. He has been plagued with them since he had presented as an omega three months ago.

Since that day everyone at the Institute had been treating Alec differently. Like he was unworthy of being here. Like he was no longer one of them. It didn't help that Robert and Mayrse were awful to him, saying the most horrible things a parent could say to their child. They seemed to take every opportunity to say the nastiest and most hateful, hurtful things. They reprimanded him for even the smallest mistakes in training, adding extra training sessions set at a grueling pace. Every mistake made in the field was somehow his fault, rather he was there or not. If he was there, it was assumed that he had failed in leading and covering his team properly, making him responsible for any mishaps or injuries. If he wasn't there, he was blamed for not being there. If he had been there to lead the team and fight, nothing would have gone wrong. He was damned either way. Izzy, his twin sister, and I both have been outraged at Izzy and Alec's parents for how they've been treating him.

They treat him like he's no longer the best Shadowhunter in the Institute. Like he isn't the most skilled warrior with every weapon here. Like he was no longer the best archer the Clave had ever seen. He's never once missed a target. It was like everything he had worked for and trained for during the first seventeen years of his life had vanished in the blink of an eye on his eighteenth birthday, when he presented as an omega.

Alphas are considered the strongest in our race. Betas are strong, but not as strong as alphas, and omegas where considered the weakest. Now that Alec was an omega, most of the Shadowhunters at the Institute were treating him like he wasn't the fierce warrior with angel blood running through his veins that he had been, one of the best Shadowhunters alive, like he was no longer one of them. It didn't help any that when a male omega presents, his sexuality is revealed. They were either homosexual or bisexual. They could only be impregnated by men. Alec had been hiding his sexuality for years. Only Izzy, sister, and I had known that Alec was gay. And now that Alec was an omega, he had been getting a lot a lot of shit and was being bullied and called nasty names by his own people.

Alec doesn't tolerate bullies. He doesn't tolerate the taunting or the insults. He'll take anyone on in hand to hand combat. Nobody has ever been able to beat him. Only the four of us, me, Izzy, Simon, and Jace know that for years Alec's been secretly taking various mundane martial arts classes and has been incorporating what he's learned into our training. He's mastered every course he's taken. We are the best that the New York Institute has ever seen. The best of the best. Even the Clave has taken notice of our skills in combat. And as for omegas being weak? What a joke.

Alec may be an omega, but he is stronger than any alpha I've ever known. He doesn't cower down to any alphas will, not even his parents. Why not? We don't know. But Alec is Alec, omega or not. He was born and bred to be a strong alpha. Having two alpha parents it was assumed that Alec would present as an alpha and was raised accordingly.

Robert and Mayrse where embarrassed and ashamed after Alec's presentation. That much they made clear. They had wanted to send him away. To sell him off to the highest bidder. "Omegas are breeders after all." But the Clave wouldn't allow that. He was still a person and not property. He couldn't be sold. Plus, he was still a Shadowhunter. But then again, there hadn't been an omega Shadowhunter in centuries. Until Alec.

After the Dark War, the Clave was desperate for more Shadowhunters. Our numbers had dwindled greatly due to the casualties. My father, Valentine, started the Dark War. Thankfully, Alec put an arrow through his heart. I felt his guilt the instant that it happened. Guilt for killing his parabati's father. But it didn't matter to me. It was actually a relief to me. I didn't love my father and he didn't love me. I felt no grief over his death and had told Alec as much. I tried to reassure him that he had nothing to feel guilty about. My father was a deranged monster and had waged war against us, his own people, to gain The Mortal Instruments. He wanted to use them to raise the angel Raziel.

In the time of Jonathan Shadowhunter, the first of the nephilim, the angel Raziel gave him the three Mortal Instruments. Should anything catastrophic ever happen, the Mortal Instruments could be used to summon Raziel. The summoner would be granted one wish. Valentine was going to use that wish to kill off all downworlders. The downworlders were made up of four species, vampires, werewolves, seelies, and warlocks. Together the downworlders outnumbered us three to one. Regardless, we couldn't let Valentine carry out his plan, outnumbered or not. We might fight demons, and arrest downworlders who break the laws set out by the Clave, but they were people too. So Shadowhunters and downworlders united to fight against him in the Dark War. Each side took heavy losses, but the various species were now safe from Valentine and his twisted views and hatred for the downworlders.

Alec was called a hero for killing Valentine, and for his combat skills during the battle. He fought nonstop for over nine hours, killing more demons than anyone could count, then Valentine himself. He battled his way through hundreds of the demons Valentine had somehow managed to release into this world. And now Alec was afraid? Filled with fear and dread? No. No nightmare could put this kind of fear in Alec. Something was defiantly wrong. And I was going to find out what it was.

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