Omniscient Narrative
Breakfast ended the way it always did for Corey, that was with an empty stomach that wasn't quite hunger and a heart that felt too large for his chest.
He ate what he could, he usually took small bites, he was a slow chewer-a habit his mom had tried to stop-.
The pack food was plentiful, but omegas learned quickly not to reach too eagerly or else they wanted to get beaten.
They had to learn not to get too much noticed by the pack because being noticed was dangerous.
Across the hall, Alpha Ronan sat at the high table, his presence filling the space like smoke.
He was broader than Corey remembered from childhood, his shoulders heavy with muscle, his dark hair streaked faintly with silver though he wasn't yet forty.
Power did that to wolves. It carved authority into them whether they deserved it or not.
Ronan laughed at something one of the warriors said, the sound deep and booming. The pack leaned toward him instinctively, drawn by alpha gravity.
Corey didn't look.
He focused instead on the warmth of the wooden bench beneath him, the steady rhythm of his breathing, the faint comfort of Thane pressed close inside his chest.
He doesn't own us, Thane reminded him quietly.
"I know," Corey thought back. "But he owns the pack."
That included the rules. The assignments. The punishments disguised as "duties."
After breakfast, Corey cleared plates. Not because it was his turn, but because no one stopped him.
Omegas were useful that way-always there, always capable, always silent.
As he stacked dishes near the sink, an older omega named Mara brushed past him, her fingers briefly squeezing his wrist.
"You're too thin Corey" she murmured, voice barely audible. "I saved you some bread."
She slipped it into his pocket before he could refuse.
Corey's throat tightened. "Thank you," he whispered, eyes stinging.
Mara smiled sadly. She'd once been bright and sharp-tongued, a healer in training before her mate died in a border skirmish.
The pack had dulled her since then, worn her down into someone careful and quiet.
Kindness survived in fragments here. Shared in secret.
Corey tucked the bread away like a treasure because if they were to find him eating when it wasn't time to eat, he would be facing trouble.
The morning passed in chores, laundry, sweeping, mending torn training gear. His fingers were good with thread, something his father had teased him about lovingly.
"Not every wolf needs claws," his father had said. "Some of us hold the pack together with gentler things."
Corey wondered sometimes if that was why the pack had let him fall apart instead.
By midday, the air shifted.
It was subtle-an unease that slid beneath the skin, a tightening in the chest that Thane felt first.
Alpha's angry, his wolf warned.
Corey's steps slowed as he carried a basket of folded cloth toward the storage room near the alpha wing.
He could feel it now too, the sharp edge of Ronan's scent, dominance laced with irritation.
He considered turning back.
But the hallway was already too quiet.
"Corey."
His name cracked like a whip.
Corey stopped and turned, lowering his gaze immediately. "Yes, Alpha?"
Ronan stood at the far end of the corridor, arms crossed over his chest. Two warriors flanked him, their expressions carefully blank.
"You missed training cleanup yesterday."
"I was assigned to the south wing, Alpha," Corey said softly. "Beta Harlan-"
Ronan cut him off with a raised hand. "Excuses."
Corey swallowed. His fingers tightened around the basket handle.
"I need you to remember your place," Ronan continued, stepping closer. Each footfall echoed. "You don't contribute on the field. The least you can do is not slack off."
"I understand," Corey said, even though he didn't. He had worked until his hands cramped yesterday. He always did.
Ronan stopped an arm's length away. The alpha scent rolled over Corey, heavy and suffocating, pressing his shoulders down.
Submission hummed through his bones whether he wanted it to or not.
Thane braced inside him, a quiet wall.
"You're nineteen," Ronan said. "Unmated. Weak position for an omega. You should be grateful we keep you."
Corey nodded. "I am."
The lie tasted bitter.
Ronan studied him for a moment longer, eyes cold. Then he turned away, already bored. "Scrub the training yard tonight. Alone."
"Yes, Alpha."
By the time Ronan disappeared, Corey's hands were shaking.
He waited until the hallway emptied before letting himself sag against the wall, breath coming shallow.
Thane pressed warmth through him, steady and anchoring.
You did nothing wrong, Thane said firmly.
"I know," Corey whispered. "But knowing doesn't stop it."
He straightened, squared his shoulders, and continued on.
Survival meant motion. Stillness invited pain.
The training yard was empty by the time the sun dipped low, casting long shadows across packed earth scarred by claw marks and sweat.
Corey knelt with a brush and bucket, scrubbing dried blood and mud from the ground. It was thankless work.
Futile, even- tomorrow it would be dirty again.
The moon began to rise as he worked.
Corey loved the moon.
Not because of power or dominance or the thrill of the hunt, but because it reminded him of his parents.
They had always stood with him outside on full-moon nights, hands warm on his shoulders, voices calm as they told him what to expect when his wolf came.
"When you hear him," his mother had said, smiling softly, "listen to him"
Thane had come to him on his eighteenth birthday, not with pain or fear, but with a quiet greeting.
Hello, the wolf had said. I'm here Corey, I've always been here.
The memory eased some of the ache as Corey finished the last stretch of ground.
His knees began to hurt.
His back throbbed with pain.
But when he stood and looked at his work, a small sense of pride flickered.
He had done what was asked.
He always did.
As he washed his hands under the outdoor spigot, the night air wrapped around him, cool and clean. Crickets chirped. The forest breathed.
Corey closed his eyes.
"Someday," he murmured to the moon, "someone's going to find me worth keeping."
Thane's presence curled warmly around his heart.
They already will, his wolf replied. They just haven't found us yet.
Corey smiled, soft and hopeful, even as the pack slept unaware of the omega who endured for a love he had not yet met.