Chapter Text
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When Jensen Ackles was ripped from his omega mother’s belly his fate was sealed.
Jens and Fred Ackles had been driving back from the Greater Houston Area Pack, visiting Fred’s family, when Jens was blindsided by a lane hopping taxi cab. They said the car rolled three times, transforming itself into a prison of metal and screams. The paramedics were not trained in werewolf physiology and by the time the bus arrived at Dallas General the only life with any chance was the unborn baby.
When Antoine Ackles arrived with his delegation of alphas and family members his grandson and mate were dead and his premature great-grandson was fighting for his life. Antoine purchased the incubator and used his fortune to persuade two neo-natal nurses to take vacation time. Back at the pack doctor’s surgery, the tests were carried out, the baby was omega. Antoine was pleased. He had enough alpha blood in his pack and betas were two a penny. Another omega would bring status and a fine dowry to his coffers.
The baby was a month old before the human nurses were dismissed. That week held the night of the child’s second full moon. The baby would be named, shift to his wolf form, and it was the first chance for an alpha to lay claim on him.
Antoine did not find it amusing the way his subordinate alphas tittered like teenage girls at the tiny too-small five week old baby whose due date had only passed that week. No hand shot up to claim him. Antoine was not surprised, claims at first sight only happened in legend, and the mite was too fragile. It was too possible that the boy would not make his first birthday.
The moon was gibbous, almost at her peak. He raised the child in two hands as was tradition, but could have easily only used one paw. He would honour his beloved alpha grandson. “Luna, Goddess, accept this child, more blessed by you that he is one of your chosen omegas, I name him Jens’ son. Jensen.”
Antoine pronounced Jens as Yens but he sounded the J in the baby’s name, giving him his own identity, not only Jens’ son but his own wolf. He looked down as the cry wailed and the little limbs flexed. A frightful scream tore from the infant’s lungs as bones popped and grew. Then in his arms the Pack Alpha held a trembling warm grey wolf pup.
“Mamma?” Jensen-wolf tried with his mind.
“No son. You have no Mamma.” Antoine said gravely. He called forth his niece Beth and placed the cub in her hands, “Take care of him, Elizabeth, he is your charge.”
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Jensen always knew Aunt Beth resented him. She was kind to him. She cared for him, made sure he had enough to eat, was clean, attended his lessons and was respectful to her cousin and Jensen’s granduncle Anders, the Pack Alpha. However Aunt Beth didn’t love him like Trevor’s Papa or Sally’s Mom. Her eyes didn’t light up when she saw him coming, rather something sad and lost filled them.
She was with him now, combing his hair and telling him what a chance this was. Jensen bit his lip.
“Jensen! You will stop this infernal habit of biting your lip. Here!” She shoved the pink tinted lip gloss at him. He reapplied the tint.
“I don’t see what difference it will make to some dumb jock alpha, if I have pink shiny lips.” He pouted.
“Jensen.” She stopped her hair pulling efforts and swung around to crouch in front of him. “I have been there. I too was laid in a cradle for my first turning day and no alpha claimed me. I too spent my seventh birthday in hope and expectation that my match would be arranged that day. You know that Antoine, may he rest, had great hopes for your third claim day.”
“I remember all the visiting knotheads. I was seven not retarded.”
Beth slapped his face. “Jensen. You will not use such words.”
He rubbed at his cheek, not letting tears flow. He would not cry in front of her.
“I am trying here. I was sure that I would be picked on my twelfth birthday. That I would not be one of the omegas still clinging to hope on my eighteenth, one of the laughable ones claimed on the day of mating.” Beth swallowed hard. “You know it never happened for me. My heats dried up without the knot. Antoine gave you to me out of pity for my barren unclaimed state.”
Jensen heard the bitterness in her tone. He valiantly stopped himself from biting his lip but his nails cut half moons into his hands. He had been the salt rubbed in her wounds for the last twelve years. Today though, today if he was claimed, she would be proud.
If his mating was arranged today he would spend more time at the Pack House, secure in his status as Expectant Mate. He wondered who might claim him. Darren, the cook, often took pity on him in the kitchens when he was at the Pack House. Darren was older, in his forties, but he had never mated, and Jensen wondered if life as the chef’s mate would be so bad. The food would be good and he could almost see their pups getting under everyone’s feet in the kitchens. There was Simon, Alpha Anders’ third. Jensen shivered. He hoped Simon wouldn’t claim him. There was something cruel and icy in the wolf’s eyes. He thought he was safe, because Simon had touched Sally’s shoulders as she served at table on their week of voluntary pack service. Sally would be eleven next month and Jensen was fairly certain his unfortunate friend was going to be picked by Simon. The only other possible alpha from their pack would be Brock. He was closer in age, only nineteen, but he was a jerk, full of his own self importance and barely deigned to make eye contact with Jensen. Of course there could be visiting alphas, not quite the circus of his seventh birthday, but it was a possibility.
In the end it was a letdown. All the preparation, beauticians, hairdressers, new clothes, the freaking elocution lessons, was for nothing. Jensen had been presented to Anders, who had wished him well and expressed his hopes for a large dowry to the pack. Then Jensen had taken his place in the comfortable sitting room, with its fine furnishings and large windows and mirrors and he had waited. Sally and Trevor showed up with his birthday gifts. Darren had brought him his lunch and dinner personally and stroked his cheek, confessing that if the male form did anything for him, then Jensen would be it. An alpha from Phoenix took one look with his head around the door, sneered and left. The British Alpha who was there to make some business deal about their packs shared oil interests at least introduced himself as Alpha Sheppard. He gave Jensen some assessing gazes which Jensen squirmed under, not knowing why he felt so uncomfortable, but he still left without even touching Jensen’s hand. Finally after ten long and boring hours Anders and his second Harold came into the room.
“Hard luck grand-nephew. We will try again on your mating day.”
Jensen could barely hear the words.
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Not being claimed was a blessing in disguise. Aunt Beth marched into the Pack Meeting on the next dark moon and stood at the questioning place until Anders was forced to acknowledge the status-less omega.
“Yes Beth?”
“I want Jensen to have a life.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t want the boy to end up like me. Barren and useless to the pack, save as the caretaker of another omega’s orphan.”
“Beth...”
“Please alpha, let me have my say.”
Anders gestured for his supplicant to continue.
“The Ackles Pack is strong and populous. We need many talents to keep it running smoothly. Jensen is a clever boy. He is ahead of all his classmates at the pack school. I want to petition you to send him to a private human high school in Dallas. You know the chances of a last minute claiming are low. Let Jensen be of benefit to the pack and let him find some worth if he is not mated.”
“I will consider it.”
“That is all I ask, Alpha.” Beth bowed her head and stepped backwards to her seat.
She didn’t tell Jensen of her efforts on his behalf, for fear that nothing would come of it, but when fall came, Jensen was enrolled at Johnson High.
The omega thrived in his new school. It sucked being different and an outsider. He was chauffeured to and from the school by one of the pack alphas. He couldn’t shift during the day if he got itchy under his skin. He had a poor attendance record due to taking the full moon and day after off for the pack runs and when his heats started at thirteen, he lost days each time. But it was worth it. He worked hard making up for any missed classes. He kept his head down. He didn’t play sports. It wasn’t in his nature to be competitive. He would have liked to try track and field, but werewolves were barred from human sports due to their innate physical advantages. He made a friend, Chris, from his music class. Chris got him to join his band as an on-off member when Jensen revealed his singing voice. On-off because Jensen wasn’t allowed to socialise outside school hours. No matter how many times Chris invited him to practice sessions in Steve’s family garage, Jensen had to bow his head and mutter his polite refusal.
“I know it’s a werewolf thing.” Christian grouched one day when they were fourteen. “But Jensen, we all have seen other teenage werewolves around the city, and my brother told me a crowd of them took over a corner of the club he went to with Mindy last Saturday. How come you can’t come back to mine to study or have dinner with my parents?”
“’m omega.” Jensen picked at his nails.
“Huh? I don’t understand. Look dude. I’m not big on all that pack stuff and we don’t do werewolf studies until next year, which you’ll be getting a big fat A+ on, cheat!”
Jensen grinned, “I got an A on my human biology.”
“Geek. I’m serious here. Explain Ackles.”
Christian waited and waited. Finally before the bell sounded Jensen sighed, “You’ll find out when we do packs and biology and shit. There are alphas, betas and omegas. Lots of the first two, few of the last.”
“So you are a rare example of your species then?”
“Hey, dude, I’m not a world wildlife fund appeal. Not that rare. Alphas are the jerk jocks you see around town. They are bigger and stronger and they lead us. They are the reason I can’t try out for athletics. Betas are kind of like humans. Big and small, strong and not so strong, sometimes with leadership qualities sometimes not.”
“Omegas?” Christian prompted looking at his watch.
“We are more fertile...”
Christian made a choking noise.
“We can carry pups, whether our human forms are male or female...”
“Dude you’ve got a womb and bits?”
“Shush, Chris, I don’t want the whole state of Texas to hear us. I do not have bits. I have a pup pouch thank you. We omegas are usually smaller, slighter, less desiring of conflict. Our matings, marriages, are arranged when we are young and our alphas take us when we are eighteen.”
“So like, do you have a kind of fiancé then?”
“No. I don’t cause no one has wanted me yet.” Jensen turned his head away.
“Dumb alphas.”
“Yeah.”
“So are there female alphas? Do you get a big hot chick?”
“Ahem, no. I mean there are female alphas but they mate with a male alpha or beta and can have their own pups, children. If I mate it will be to a male alpha. My body needs their potent alpha sperm from their knot to procreate, but I self-lubricate to....”
“Stop. Oh My God. Stop. Jensen that is too much information. Knots and... Freaking hell, man. We had better be doing human history today because if I have to look at pictures of historic weres my imagination will go wild.”
Jensen laughed as the bell sounded. Christian hadn’t run screaming. Sure he was freaked out, but he had taken their cultural and biological differences well, and it looked like they were still friends.
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Electives...
What was he going to do?
Jensen ran a hand through his long hair. Aunt Beth hated it. She wanted to get clippers, but Jensen was secretly trying to catch up with Christian’s hair length. Besides the other guys in the band had way longer hair than either of them. Steve had a long braid at school which was so cool. Jensen couldn’t catch enough of his hair to tie back, yet, maybe by his dreaded eighteenth birthday in a few months.
Electives...
I wanted to concentrate on English and History related subjects, keeping on biology because he loved it. If he was human he would love to study journalism. Everything came back to how it benefited the pack. An omega would never be allowed to swan around being a journalist. Jensen doubted any wolf would be permitted to leave the pack for such a career. His favourite classes could lead him to teaching. He knew Pack Alpha Anders would approve and he would be guaranteed a role at the pack school.
He couldn’t and wouldn’t do it. He almost choked at the thought of being barren and having to spend every day teaching other wolves’ pups, never having any of his own. He’d rather die.
Jensen tapped his teeth with his pen. He wondered about something medical. He knew the pack would fund him if he could get the grades for medical school. He didn’t see himself as a doctor but perhaps a physical therapist, paramedic, or osteopath or a nurse? Anders would approve. He would be helping people. Doc Beaver could train him on the differences in werewolf treatment.
Happy with his decision, Jensen filled out the form to be mailed back to his school. All he needed to do now was stand up at the pack meeting and get Anders seal of approval on his decision. He unconsciously chewed on his lip. He had never stood at the bottom of the aisle in the meeting room, facing the top table of pack officers before, but he would do it tonight.
Beth told him he was acting like he was in pre-heat, as he moved the mashed potato around on his plate, making patterns as it became cold and inedible. “Just nervous.”
“Goodness, boy, you are a shoo in with Anders. He has asked about you each time I met him this year. He wants a productive pack member. You just remember to brush your hair before you stand up. I will have them saying I send you out scruffy.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Jensen rolled his eyes when her attention turned to the portable television. He asked to be excused and retreated to his room. He prepared himself with a little hair gel and lip gloss, uncomfortable reminders of his next and last claiming day.
“Jensen” Aunt Beth roared from the bottom of the stairs. “We will be late.”
Flinging himself down two steps at a time, he received an admonishment to act with more decorum. Then they ran for Aunt Beth’s two door rust bucket in the rain and drove the couple of miles from their home at the edge of pack territory to the meeting hall at its centre. Jensen noted the cattle paddocks and distant oil rigs in silence.
The first part of the meeting was as boring as ever, and Jensen wished he was allowed his phone so he could distract himself by messaging the guys. He saw George Ackles make his way to the question spot and rose to que behind the old alpha. Denise Silverberg and Kate Cole stepped in front of him but fourth was fine.
George asked for help with his beta-mate’s ongoing illness and Anders offered more regular house calls by the nurse. The sad case made Jensen’s hopes grow, seeing the need for medical care in the pack.
Denise’s omega son Karl would be having his seventh birthday soon and she wanted Anders to ensure there would be visiting alphas at the pack for the day. The Pack Alpha seemed irritated by her question and asked her why she thought he would treat her son any less than the other young omegas.
Kate stood to her full alpha height. She had a pot of the alpha shaving balm that her lab had developed from their own production of petroleum jelly and herbal ingredients. She asked Anders to let her team start marketing it to other weres. Anders said he was happy with the sales among the werewolf packs. Kate argued that she could sell it to the werecats in Dallas. Anders flatly refused, saying they wouldn’t deign to interact with the pussyfooters and that they would hardly be a good market the way they castrated any males deemed to have flawed genes.
Jensen was almost distracted from his own rising panic, as he watched the alphas at the top table unconsciously move to cover their junk. He wondered if he had ever unknowingly seen one of the secretive Dallas werecats.
Alpha Kate stood down, her face a portrait of displeasure as she brushed against Jensen. His palms were sweaty. He stepped up to the questioner’s place. He was sure his heart beat was loud enough to be heard at the top table. He licked his lips once and then again. He couldn’t form words. He couldn’t speak to all these alphas who had never considered him worthy enough to claim.
“Jensen, you have a question?” His granduncle’s voice was kind and low.
“Pack Alpha, I... I need to pick my subjects for the school year. I... I am thinking of health related ones, so to work with the doctors here, if I.... If I...” He couldn’t say it. Had never said it. “If I am unwanted...” His voice broke. He placed his palms on his thighs and hunched over trying to find his breath. It wouldn’t come. His knees went. He was vaguely aware of the Pack Alpha rushing to his side and stopping his head from slamming into the floor. Then everything went black.
Hushed voices drifted. Aunt Beth in a whining plea. Anders barking at her. Doc Beaver growling at them to be quiet.
“...you can’t do this. He is only seventeen. He wants to go to school...”
“I am doing it for him Elizabeth. This is his chance...”
“... how much will you get in dowry if one of them....”
“...not just a clause in the deal...”
“...he is too young...”
“I have made my decision.”
Jensen opened his eyes. He was in his own room. There between the guitar stand and the Nickelback poster was the Pack Alpha facing down his Aunt Beth.
“Jensen, how are you feeling son?”
He looked the other way at the concerned face of Dr Beaver.
“’m good.”
The doctor took his pulse and then passed him a glass of water.
“You collapsed at the meeting. Cause quite a stir, boy.”
“’m sorry.”
“When did you last eat?”
Jensen tried to think. He couldn’t eat dinner. He had skipped lunch making his decision.
“I had a pop tart this morning.”
“Beth.” Anders growled. “He is too thin. Look at him. What will they think of us?”
Beth muttered an apology but glared at Jensen for putting her in the alpha’s bad books.
Anders took a seat on Jensen’s bed. The omega swallowed hard at the huge alpha towering over him.
“Jensen. You don’t have to worry about your school subjects, because you are not going back there.”
Jensen sat up wide-eyed, “But my friends, Chris, the band, my studies. Why? Is it because I was weak at the meeting? I’ll do better. I’ll remember to eat.”
“No Jensen. The decision is already made. Will you listen to me? Will you remain silent like a good boy until I explain everything? If you have questions then I will answer them.”
Jensen nodded.
“Ackles Oil and Richings Petroleum have been working together for years.” Anders started and Jensen raised his eyebrows. Why would the Pack Alpha be telling an omega about the business side of things?
“Your great-grandfather Antoine and Julian Richings had started as rivals but by the time the pack passed to me we were allies on the world market. We have finally concluded negotiations on a co-owned distribution company for our Texan and Alaskan oil with Richings' North Sea fields. Julian is sending his twelve year old omega great granddaughter Emily to live with us. One of my lieutenants will claim her.”
Jensen couldn’t breathe again. He could see the words forming in the alpha’s brain.
“You will go to Northumberland, to the Richings Pack.”
His lips formed ‘no’ but he obeyed and kept silent.
“Alpha Sheppard who met you at your twelfth requested you personally.”
Jensen raised his hand. His granduncle took pity on him. “Speak.”
“Am I to... to mate with Alpha Sheppard?”
“No. Alpha Sheppard is mated since. I am assured that Alpha Richings' own grandsons will court you. Their ways are different to ours. You will have a say in choosing one of the ‘candidates’, as they call them. You will live on the Pack Estate and Julian has assured me that your education will continue. You may ask me.”
“When?”
“Saturday.”
“This Saturday?”
“Yes. Emily will arrive with her alpha chaperone on Friday and he will accompany you back to England.”
“My friends?”
“I am sure you will be permitted by Alpha Richings to remain in touch with your school friends. Simon will not prevent Sally from communicating with you. Now Jensen, if you will excuse me I need to find out how the pack meeting ended. Greg will call with some suitcases for you to fill with your belongings. I will expect you and Beth at the main house on Friday evening to eat with us. We will toast your future and you can meet your chaperone.”