Arrange Marriage With Cruel Alpha

15 years later

Flashback: -

Their soft giggles filled the night's calm, quiet air.

"Damon!" Allen reprimanded in a whisper, but it fell short due to the blissed-out smile on her lips: "Damon, stop it, you big goof." She swatted at Damon's hands, but those two colossal she loved so much just kept teasing her overly sensitive skin.

The Omega always got ticklish after a particularly good orgasm, which Damon always loved to indulge in. And Damon had successfully drawn three out of her. Which was a new record for them.

And the Alpha was damn proud of himself.

"How are you feeling?" Damon finally stopped sickling and laid one of his hands flat on Allen's side, stroking her still clammy skin. "Any regrets?"

Allen's smile softened as she recognized her Alpha shift in mood as self-doubt. She laid her own palm on Damon's cheek. "I feel fine, no regrets," she promised. "It was perfect; you were perfect."

Up until that night, Allen and Damon had yet to go all the way, but then Allen got her heat after a long time, and neither could hold back any longer.

"It was." Damon agreed, his hand landing on Allen's hip, then pulling the smaller omega closer, wrapping her up in his arms, "my perfect omega."

As Damon leaned in closer, Allen smiled and whispered against his lips, "My perfect Alpha." Then Damon was kissing her, soft and tender and, oh, so slow.

"I wish we could stay here forever." Damon confessed, and Allen could feel the gloominess that seeped into his tone: "Just you and me."

"I know." Allen agreed, but they both knew they couldn't.

"We should run away from all this responsibility." Damon suggested suddenly, looking at Allen seriously, then quickly went on when the Omega frowned, "Yes, Allen, we should just run away, you and me."

"Damon," Allen whispered, "God, I wish it were that easy."

"We could get out of this primitive town and get our own little apartment in another city." Damon had a wistful look in his eyes. It wasn't their first time exchanging such fantasies. "You could open your own flower shop... because you love flowers too much," Damon teased her.

Allen hummed thoughtfully, a pleased smile on her face because, damn her, Alpha knew her so well. "And you could open your own firm," she suggested as she snuggled into Damon's chest. "You could be the local hero; help save the small people."

This time Damon hummed, "Yeah, but I would actually train more for that. You know, after we complete our bonding, we will plan children, so in the future, when they grow up, I can retire and train pack pups." It has been his dream ever since he started training pack pups. But Damon had so many duties as an Alpha that it's not possible for him now. Damon loves kids, and it's like his dream to train each and every kid inside his pack.

The difference was that in his dream, he didn't want to train only his pack pups; he wanted to train every defenseless pup who needed someone to fight for them, but they didn't have anyone. Specially Omega, it's not like Damon ever told her about all this, but Allen knows; she doesn't know how. But she knows.

Allen chuckled, "I wish we could just run away. So, you can train everyone, and I sell flowers to others." She sighed heavily, then on a lighter note, "But I'm pretty sure our sister's will haunt us down, then lock us up with a ball and chain to that fancy ass Alpha seat waiting for you."

Damon chuckled and tightened his hold on the Omega, kissing the top of her head.

Yeah, Allen could definitely be there, in Damon's arms, forever.

Flashback Over: -

"Mum!"

Large, strong arms pull Allen out of her daze, causing her to yell in surprise, then shake her head to try and focus back on the here and now. When she registers the smell of something burning, horror builds in the pit of her stomach, and she starts to panic.

"It's okay," a soft voice whispers into her ear as the strong arms keep holding her securely. "Nothing happened; you just... burned the pancakes... again."

Damn it.

"I'm so sorry, Alex." Allen sighs heavily, rubbing her face. "I guess I just... nodded off."

"You need to get more sleep; you're working way too hard." Allen smiles warmly at his almost 15-year-old son, who's already loved her, even protected her sometimes, and matured way beyond his years. Sometimes he makes Allen feel like their roles are reversed.

"Alex, I'm fine, I promise." Allen tries to sound as authoritative as she can; the last thing she wants is to make her son feel like he needs to take care of her and not the other way around.

Alex looks unconvinced, but fortunately doesn't push any further. "Here, let me finish up the pancakes," he suggests instead, then takes the spatula out of his mother's hand, leaving no room for arguments. As for a normal human 15-year-old boy, it's impossible for him to do all this, but he is a wolf and an Alpha boy.

When they sit down to eat, Allen eyes her son suspiciously when she notices how he's fidgeting with his fork. Alex sneaks a few glances at her as he bites his lower lip, a small frown between his eyebrows.

Allen recognizes that look; it's the one he gets when he needs to tell or ask Allen something but is afraid to do so.

It's also a carbon copy of his father's expression.

Allen clears her throat and shakes her head in an attempt to get that thought out and away. "What is it, Alex?" She finally asks, an amused smirk on her face.

Alex struggles with himself for a short moment longer, then opens and closes his mouth a few times before he finally spills out. "We umm have this project in school," he says cautiously, and Allen already has a bad feeling about this: "We need to write a project about our genealogy, and I was wondering if there's anything about my father's family you could supply me with."

The world around Allen spins as she grapples with herself to get her head straight enough to respond to her son.

This was far from the first time Alex has asked about his father, and so far, Allen has managed to get away with as vague a response as she could. She wanted to ward off any pain and protect her son from feeling the same abandonment that she did.

So she lied.

But the older Alex got, the more he wanted to know, the more he could understand way beyond just what Allen was telling him.

"I'm sorry; I already told you; I have no idea what happened to them." Allen manages, in an even voice, "I could speak to your teachers; explain the..."

"Stop hiding!" Alex snaps, cutting her off, causing his mother to jolt, "I'm not a child anymore, or stupid."

"Alex, I didn't." Allen tries, but her son won't hear it.

"I know you're lying to me." Alex hisses.

Allen swallows hard, watching her son with a painful gaze. "Son, I wish..." Allen clears her throat and takes a deep breath when her voice wavers ever so slightly: "I'm so sorry. I wish I could give you the answers you need, but I... I just can't."

Alex stares at him for a long moment before his features soften, and he stands up and hugs Allen. "Sorry, Mum, I didn't mean to upset you." He murmurs softly.

And damn it, Allen despises the fact that she made him miserable. But she did somehow raise a good boy.

After Alex leaves to catch the school bus, Allen heads back into her room to get ready for work. But she stops at the threshold and stares long and hard at her bed, almost burning a hole through it.

Every so often, memories of their times together would haunt her; they would just blind her suddenly in flashes. As the years went by, it happened less and less, but when it did, it was always so painful.

Allen never wanted to be that stereotypical, pitiful Omega that was branded and defined by being rejected. She fought tooth and nail against it to not get sucked into it.

But it was part of her biology, and her inner Omega would mourn. Sometimes less and sometimes more, and for the most part, she got it under control. Yet it was still always there, just under the surface.

There are days like today where it just won't leave her. Especially with Alex bringing it up.

Taking a deep breath, which does nothing to calm her, Allen takes hesitant steps towards her bed and slowly lowers herself to sit on her knees. Then she reaches under the bed to pull out a small suitcase, and she retrieves from inside it a beautiful mahogany box with carvings of a wolf on it.

Holding it with trembling hands, Allen gets up and sits on the bed. For a long moment, she just stares at the box and at the beautiful wolf carved on top of it, with his large, majestic wings spread out to his sides.

This box was the first gift she'd ever received.

Every so often, when the mood would strike, she would open it. There were days when all she could do was stare. And on days where she had to go through every single item in the box, she spent a significant amount of time holding and examining every one of them.

It has been quite a while since she last opened it, and when she finally does so now, a small whimper escapes her lips before she can stop it.

Allen is so caught up in the contents of the box that she doesn't notice the wide, black eyes watching her through the gap left open by the door.

Alex tippy toes back to hide in his room and waits for his mom to leave the house before he sneaks back out and makes his way to his mother's bedroom. Normally he would never dare to enter her room without her actually being there, let alone touching her belongings, but Alex was sick of all the mystery and being lied to.

He wasn't stupid; he knew Allen was hiding something from him. Which he could understand, because as far back as he can remember, his mom always had at least a sliver of pain in her eyes. Of course, he was happy; they had a great life together, as difficult and as simple and minimalistic as it was. But even at a young age, Alex could see how haunted and hurt his mother was.

Alex hated that, and he wished there was something he could do. But he also wanted to know the truth.

So,, he rushes to his mother's bed and retrieves the box from inside the small suitcase under the bed. He takes a deep, shaky breath as he braces himself for what he will find inside the box.

He'd never seen it before, but seeing the way his mother reacted to it, Alex just knows that it must hold some answers to all the burning questions he has.

Finally, he opens it, and the first thing that catches his eye is a picture of his mom with a man he had never met before, but he just knows right away.

This is his father.

For the most part, Alex looks like a carbon copy of his mom. All except for his height and his eyes. His deep black eyes, just like his fathers,

The next thing he notices is how young they both look, and then he notices how different his mom looks in the picture. She's wearing a smile Alex has never seen on her before, one that makes her look so much more joyful than he'd ever seen her. And she's also wearing expensive clothes, like some royals. Which Alex has seen in other pictures before but never in real life. At least not that much.

Alex can almost feel his heart crack as he stares at his father's face. At how happy they both look. At how the Alpha is holding the Omega so tightly and protectively. Lovingly.

Taking another deep breath, Alex lays the picture aside on the bed, then starts rummaging through the rest of the content in the box. There were a few other photos in the box, all of his mom and alpha father.