Chereads / Solace of the Inured / Chapter 4 - New Friends

Chapter 4 - New Friends

Birds chirping~

The sunlight shines through the windows onto my face...

I open my eyes drearily, unbeknownst to many the event with Axel didn't get to me as much as I had expected... I could hear a little growl in my head—it seemed to be disagreeing with me, but I ignored the disapproval in favor of focusing on him instead.

'Oh is this my wolf?' I wondered abruptly, just as fast as it appeared it disappeared. 'I scared him away.'

Sigh-

I head to the kitchen and grab the leftovers and begin eating.

What occurred yesterday caused me to end up not being able to meet with the distant pack. In my disappointment, my mind began to wander off and go back to the areas where Axel touched me causing me to feel like upchucking everything I had just eaten.

It was early in the morning so I doubted that anyone would be bathing in the river because the people in my pack were not early risers.

Bathing all alone, by myself, sounded appealing at the moment. "And I wouldn't have to worry about Axel any more... and the incident didn't actually...he didn't actually go through with it..." I said in an attempt to convince myself that I was mentally ok, and in the end, it worked.

I stand up from my seat after I finished eating and begin packing, wanting to wash off the dirty feeling pervading my body. I tell my parents where I was going, and they immediately got up from bed in a panicked stance.

My mom's eyes looked as though she was asking me if I was alright with that. I gave a small smile and nodded, they mumbled back to me in confirmation after giving in, albeit reluctantly, that they understood.

"Take care, Noah. We'll be here if you need us." My mother said to me before I left.

The village contrary to popular belief was very large. My house was right across from the center and a bunch of houses encircled around it kind of like a town square. All the houses looked the same on the outside, wooden and small. It didn't really matter because we were outside most of the time. The ground was made out of paved textured stone. When you head West you would find a clear wide river, warm in the morning and cold in the afternoons and nighttimes. I myself much more prefer warmer water, but apparently alphas like colder water so over the years of bathing in cold water I developed a tolerance to the cold—although I did get sick a couple of times, in the beginning, it didn't stop me because we wolves had a fast regeneration speed. My fever went away pretty fast and I rejoined my kin, nothing would stop an unconventional alpha like me. To the East—everything was based on the placement of my house, was the market place where merchants and visitors alike went to. The hunting team, including me, would go there to turn in their catches of the day and our entire village is surrounded by the woods. To the North was the entrance to our village, the area there was cleared from trees, which allowed people to enter after going through the security. There were no walls built to protect our village as we believed to only take as much wood as we needed, in replacement, our soldiers spend 3-hour intervals before switching out protecting the surrounding area and checking the woods.

I began to head west before I hear an unfamiliar voice call out to me to gain my attention. I turn around to see a beautiful young lady about the same height as my mother at 5'3—she had bright blue eyes, a sharp nose, and pink lips. Her skin could rival mine in paleness, and she had blonde hair. Behind her, I see six others, and all of them are equally as gorgeous the girl in front of me. Two of them had strawberry blonde hair, brown and green eyes respectively, they were tan and wore some unfamiliar clothing both were female, one looked 5'9 and the other was 5'5. One was short, pale and had short black hair...she was very cute wearing the same thing as the others and looked like she was 5'0. The last two were males one had ginger hair like my father with green eyes and fair skin, he looked like he was 5'6. While the other one had short dreads, brown eyes and was dark-skinned in skin color and looked like he was 5'8. I was the tallest at 5'11, well I inherited some of my dad's height recalling that he was almost 6'3.

'Are these people all from the distant pack?' I thought in confusion. I wait until they reach me. They all looked like they came straight out of a painting I averted my gaze to avoid staring for too long.

"Hi! Are you the one we didn't get to meet yesterday? We heard that an emergency happened so you couldn't come.." The blonde girl said, her voice sounded like a wind instrument. It was very pleasant to listen to.

"Yes, well something dire had come up at the time and I couldn't really... leave," I answered vaguely. Flashes of the incident popped into my mind, I shook my head to get rid of the memories.

"Oh no... well glad to know you're doing better, I'll introduce us to you, I'm Reina, the girl with strawberry red hair and green eyes is Remy, the one who has the brown eyes is Dara. The cute Asian girl is Holly, and those two boys over there are Oliver and Benjamin. Oliver is the redhead, and Benjamin—I call him Benji, is the one with the short dreads. They wave at me with smiles on their faces.

I smile back at them. "My name's Noah." They stare at my face for a long time. 'Did I have food stuck on my face?' I touched my lips just in case to find nothing. 'Huh...' I thought confused.

"We were hoping you could direct us to the bathing area. We kind of got lost.." She begins to laugh in embarrassment.

"We wouldn't have gotten lost if you hadn't run off last night when the chief was explaining directions. Your brother made us search for you without any please or thank you, I swear that man lacks common courtesy for anyone that isn't you." Dara said upset.

"I just saw a bug on the ground that I've never seen before and got curious." Reina rubbed the back of her head.

"Reina's the queen at getting lost." Oliver laughed out.

'So they want to go to the bathing area, huh? Well, I guess my plans for today are gone. Though I must admit that their group is smaller than I had expected.' I looked at the items they were carrying, they must be getting tired holding it up.

"Ok" I said. "Follow me I'll show you the way." I start walking.

"Wait! Could you please wait a little longer? My brother is coming." She said apologetically.

"Gael's coming? And here I thought I could finally spend time with my friends..." Holly said dejectedly.

"Agreed. Even though your brother's hot-" At that Reina begins to sputter, "-our pack trained us so that we could fight back in case anything did happen." Benjamin said.

"Yeah, but my brother doesn't want to see us getting hurt, he's kind like that." Reina defended her brother. "We've all been together since childhood you guys should know how he is by now!" She pouted.

"Kind? That guy is kind? Don't make me laugh-" Dara started before someone placed their hand on her head clenching it tightly. She turned around slowly in fear to see Gael.

"Who are you talking about?" Gael said in a cold tone. His voice was deep and smooth like velvet.

She began to sweat heavily, saying nothing.

Gael looks at his sister and her gang of friends. "I was told to come here by mother and father, I could care less what the rest of you think." He said before we locked eyes.

My heart thumped... he's so handsome...my face began to flush...

When she said brother I never expected him to look like this...Gael looked to be as tall as dad. His eyes were silver with slivers of gold in them. His jawline looked like it could cut stone, and his hair was a deep black. His skin was slightly tanned and muscles could be seen even with his shirt on showing that he probably went out hunting more often, but compared to my dad he wasn't as hairy, thick in size or burly. I could hear a quiet whining in my head, I pulled myself together. 'What am I even thinking? This guy is obviously an alpha, I should be more attracted to omegas.' I said while shaking my head.

"Ok, then please follow me." I lead them to the river, the loud chatter had stopped once Gael joined the group and a thick tension could be felt, the only ones who hadn't noticed were Gael and Reina. I glanced back and saw Gael walking confidently with his hands in his pockets...so cool... I can't wait until I present as an alpha.

They arrived at the river. Immediately everyone's mood brightened up and they began to strip. I felt a huge culture shock befall on me as they did so, 'Oy... I'm a stranger you know? Are they open to strangers in their pack?' When I saw them all go in to bathe together, I immediately made to turn around and leave quickly. 'Is it normal for the guys and the girls to bathe together where they're from?'

Unluckily for me, Gael had noticed my attempt to leave and called me out, he wasn't undressed like the others and had found a spot under a tree to watch them under in case something bad happened. I looked at him, 'Obviously they would be comfortable stripping in front of him because they grew up together but for me someone they've only met today and an alpha?' I was a bit confused, I ignored the fact that I hadn't presented yet.

"Hey... aren't you going to bathe too?" He squinted his eyes at me.

I couldn't tell what he was thinking when he said that so I just stared back at him while trying to keep my turbulent emotions under control. Before I could tell them that I only came to guide them here and that I had planned to bathe all by myself Reina began to shout my name, which caused the others to copy her.

"Come on Noah! There's plenty of room in the river." Reina yelled out standing up in the water unabashedly.

"Yeah! We're all omega's here... except for that guy other there, but you don't have to worry about him attacking you. He's got no feelings for anyone other than his sister!" Remy said.

At those words, Reina splashed Remy's face with water.

My eyes widened in understanding. 'So they mistook me as an omega? That makes more sense...damn my genes. So that meant that Oliver and Benjamin are male omegas.' I thought and my eyes widen.

"Quit standing there and join us!" Oliver shouted. His pale body blinding my eyes in all of his n*ked glory.

I continue to stand there dazedly, doing the opposite of what Oliver wanted.

After a while, understanding finally dawned on Gael. It seems as though he misunderstood Noah's predicament, and chalked it up to the omega being embarrassed around Gael, who is both a stranger and an alpha.

"If you don't want me to see you undressing, I'll turn around," Gael said suddenly and stood up before turning around.

I turn my head to look at him. In my mind, I could feel my wolf come out from his dormant state and stare at Gael.

Everyone gasped in shock, Gael... caring about another person's feeling? Even Reina had her mouth open. At Gael's insistence, a thought suddenly popped into my mind.

'Oh no, I lost my chance to leave...it'll be suspicious if I decide to go now. Gael might find out that I was actually an alpha, tell the rest and then tell the chief about how a pervert watched their omegas bathe naked in the river...' My imagination went wild. I closed my eyes then reopened them, I made up my mind. If I'm with these omegas then the incident from before may not happen again.

Making sure that Gael was still looking away—even though we were both alphas—my wolf barked at me in disagreement, would be alpha anyway, I still felt conscious of him. I begin to strip my clothes off, as I did I felt a shiver go up my spine when I finished undressing and look up to see everyone staring at me with wide eyes, I blushed then decide to head into the water and sit on one of the rocks. I thought I felt Gael's heavy gaze, but every time I checked his head would be turned so I paid it no mind, for some reason though my body felt hot whenever I thought of him staring at me. 'Why would an alpha be looking at me in the first place anyway?' The thought doused the flame in my body a little. Noah's wolf kept quiet, not wanting to remind his host about the incident with the other alpha that had happened just yesterday. He whimpered in sadness, he took it upon himself to repress Noah's memory little by little so it would not affect his host.

Dara on the other hand actually did see Gael staring intently at Noah and evilly smirked, she spoke loud enough so that everybody even Gael could hear her, but I was too busy trying to not let it on that I was actually an alpha.

"Wow! What a rockin' body! Your freckles really make you stand out..." Dara whistled in appreciation. She looked at Gael only to see him facing the other way. He ignored her completely. 'Che, that's no fun.'

Unaware why Dara had suddenly said that I found that I was not as uncomfortable with those comments coming out of her mouth than I had been when it had come out of the mouths of the other alphas in my pack. Together with Gael guarding the area I felt more safe and secure. Even my newly awakened wolf agreed, showing his stomach in my mind every time I took a glance at Gael. Of course, afterward, I took the time to admire the naked bodies around me, if I did get caught I should take the time to make the most of my situation before I get exiled. My wolf whined at me being unfaithful to my mate... 'mate?'

Other than that it was the first time in a while that I felt comfortable bathing. I remember to clean the dirty areas that Axel touched with his hands using my lavender-scented soap. My body began to heat up even more and I began to feel dizzy. The smell of a faint citrus scent that I had been smelling since earlier had gotten stronger over time making me lose the control over my senses.

Apparently this caused something to stir within the other omegas because when I looked up from where I sat Reina stood right in front of me.

"Mind if we help you out?" Reina said with a perverted grin, I could see everyone had the same look as her. She grabbed the soap out of my hand.. while the others grabbed their own and they began to wash me leaving no place untouched.

"Eh.. ah! No..ahn.."