My Mate Is An Omega
Chapter 60

Caitlyn

POV

After my desperate decision to share my ancient powers with the leader of the bears, there was only darkness.

My mate was the first to fall. As soon as the transformation was over, the Alpha marched over to the light brown wolf and slashed his throat without hesitation. I watched life fade from Lance's green eyes, screaming until my throat was bleeding, and crying until I could no longer see. I later came to replace out that the stress of the situation caused our unborn pup to perish, leaving me with no other memory of the love of my life.

The pain I felt upon his departure from this world made me want to die too. There was no meaning in living a life without him, and I was eager to meet him again on the other side. Unfortunately for me, I was still useful for Maximus' future plans, so when Faye and I tried to take our lives using our own claws, he quickly stopped us. Too broken to fight him, I let him cuff me to prevent me from trying anything else before he dragged me out of the cave.

The next bloodbath I witnessed was the m******e of my entire pack. Diamond Tempest was winning by the time we walked outside, but the injured warriors were no match for the improved werebear. The Alpha jumped into the battlefield to finish off what was left of the wolves, cats, and foxes.

My mate, my friends, my family... they were all gone because of the monster I had created.

It didn't stop there. After I lost everyone, I was only a shell of the Luna I had once been, a pitiful creature weaker than the lowest Omega, but my suffering was far from ending. Maximus turned me into a slave; all of my days were spent inside of a dark, filthy cage. I would only step into the sunlight when he wanted me to share my gift with the soldiers from his army. One by one, I continued to create the most powerful beasts to ever walk the Earth, and they continued to destroy it.

First, they extinguished the wolves, followed by every other existing species of shifters. Then, the Alpha decided the witches were no longer useful for him, so he attacked their covens. He started wiping out every supernatural being in Canada, but in less than a decade, he had conquered the whole world. He even turned humans, the only creatures too weak to try to fight him, into slaves. Maximus and his army were unstoppable - anyone who chose to stand in their way perished before they could even make a move. In a world ruled by bears, there was only darkness.

"Cait..." A dim warm light shone through the freezing blackness. Although it was faint, even lower than a whisper, I recognized it too well. I could never forget it. "Caitlyn! Caitlyn, please!" The once angelic sound was urgent, desperate. I wondered what he was so scared of. "Please, open your eyes, beautiful!"

Instinctively, I did what I was told.

My eyes burst open as my mouth widened, my lungs searching for air. I started to come back to my senses, slowly being pulled from my nightmare. The rocky walls, the smell of blood, filth, and something... rotten. I was back at the cave where I had lost everything. Was this real? Did I just have a bad dream?

A warm liquid ran down my cheeks the moment my gaze fell on the muscular warrior in front of me. He was covered in red, but the forest in his eyes wasn't dull anymore - it was full of life, as it should be. Lance... he was standing right in front of me, pressing me against his chest as he held me in his arms. The brightest smile lit up his face, and he touched his forehead to mine, his heavy breathing hot against my lips. This was too good to be true, but it was definitely real.

"I'm so glad you're okay, beautiful. You scared me there for a second," he whispered, half-laughing in relief as his tears mixed with my own.

"What... what happened?" There were so many questions inside my cloudy mind, yet that was the first one I needed to ask.

"You passed out after you bit the fucker," he growled.

"Where is he?!" My eyes widened with fear. Lance was still alive, but if he somehow managed to-

"Dead." He pointed forward with his head. My heart almost stopped when I noticed the tall man lying lifeless on the stone floor. There was foam coming out of his mouth, and his once yellow eyes had turned a cold shade of red. "H-how?"

"Honestly, I don't know. Either they were wrong about your powers as an Original or something that shouldn't have happened somehow did." His words made zero sense to me at first, but he didn't hesitate to clarify. "Seconds after the bite, Maximus' face started turning red as his whole body began convulsing. His unexpected reaction distracted his Beta, offering me an opening to kill him. As soon as I did, I rushed to you."

"The bite... it was lethal to him." My she-wolf's voice inside my head startled me.

Then, it hit me. "Is this why you told me to do it? Did you know this would happen?"

She lowered her ears and looked away shamefully. "I didn't," she whispered. "I just wanted to protect our mate. If there was any chance the bear would keep his promise, I would risk the world being devoured by flames to keep Lance and Atlas safe."

I couldn't believe her words. Surely, a huge part of me was willing to do anything for them, but deep down, I knew I had the responsibility of preventing my powers from falling in the wrong hands. If the story about the original wolves was true, all of my ancestors had taken their lives to ensure the supernatural world wouldn't be destroyed. It felt selfish for me to ignore their sacrifices for a luxury such as love.

"But I also had a feeling..." Faye caught me off guard again.

"A feeling?" I huffed.

"More like a hunch. Kinda like the ones you had in the past," she clarified, and I had to listen. "Something told me Maximus couldn't force us to give him our gift, so when he did, it became a curse instead."

My head was aching. I had to shut our connection for a moment until I could process everything. In the meantime, I turned my attention back to my mate. "How long have I been out?"

"Honestly, it seemed like hours." The agony in his semblance was crushing me. "But it was probably five minutes or so."

Staring deeply into his pain-filled eyes, I felt the rush of adrenaline leave my body. And when it did, I was left with only the fear from my nightmares. "Oh, Lance!" I cried out as I dove my face into his chest, taking him by surprise. "I thought I had lost you!" "I should be the one saying that." He tightened his grasp around me nonetheless. "What happened, beautiful?"

"I dreamed about what would have happened if Maximus succeeded," I confessed, not caring about how insane I sounded. "There was so much blood, and pain, and... and everyone was gone!"

"Shh, it's okay, Cait. None of it was real. You did the right thing," he reassured me, rocking me in his arms. He gently lifted my face up to look into my eyes, flashing me a radiant smile. "You saved me, my Luna."

His words triggered something inside of me, and I jumped up in fear. I was the Luna of Diamond Tempest, and my pack had started a war against the sleuth to buy time for me to rescue my Alpha. However, if they hadn't come back yet, it could only mean they were still fighting.

"What's wrong?" Lance asked, his hand never leaving my waist as he helped me stand still.

"Our pack. They were fighting against the other bears."

His eyes darkened as he too entered Alpha mode. "We must hurry then."

Considering my mate was unconscious when he was brought inside, I was the only one who knew the way out of the cave. Just as we stepped out of the dungeon, we encountered Cordelia leaning against one of the tall walls, breathing heavily. There was an injury on her left arm, but other than that, she seemed fine. With how crazy the past minutes had been, I had completely forgotten about her.

"Cordelia!" My mate yelled worriedly as we both rushed to her side. I couldn't help but look around frantically, scared the warlock might still be alive.

"Good to see the two of you are fine," she panted. "What about the Alpha and Beta?"

"Dead," Lance replied promptly. "And the warlock?"

"Dead." She shrugged, much to our surprise. "Dark magic is more powerful, but it consumes your vitality slowly. It wasn't too hard to defeat him." He nodded. "We have to see if the others need our help."

Although the witch agreed, none of us were in good enough shape to fight. Despite not being a warrior, I was still a bit dizzy after passing out. My mate wasn't at full strength yet, and Cordelia had yet to recover from her recent magic duel. Still, we knew we had to do something to ensure our warriors would win.

But to our surprise, it seemed that they didn't need saving.

I couldn't believe my eyes as they scoured through the battlefield. It was dark, but Faye's sharp night vision helped me identify everything, from the pools of blood melting the white snowy fields, to the corpses lying around - bear corpses, mostly. I was expecting us to win; we had a solid strategy, and the advantage of a surprise attack when they were most vulnerable. We also had the numbers, considering many of our enemies had lost their lives in the recent attacks. However, I had learned to still be cautious when it came to werebears; I refused to count my chickens before they hatched. Thankfully though, everything went according to plan. There was only one detail bugging me.

If we had won, why couldn't I hear the usual sounds of victory?

As if to answer my question, a painful howl cut through the night. My heart fell as I recognized who was singing the melancholic melody. For a moment, I feared the worst. A loud scream left my chest as I stormed through the battlefield, occasionally tripping over the fallen shifters as I made my way to the she-wolf whose pearly white fur had turned crimson. I stopped dead in my tracks, realizing it was not her blood.

In her animal form, my best friend was lying on the ground, whimpering, with her head resting against the grayish wolf's neck in a tight embrace. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be having trouble breathing, his chest barely moving. A horrified gasp left my lips as I noticed the huge injury on his side. King, who always looked so grand and powerful, now had his life hanging by a thread.

"W-what happened?" My mate's voice was shaky as he stared at his wounded Beta.

"He was targeted by the bears. Three of them joined forces to take down his team when they realized they were losing. We were too late." James' voice was filled with pain. He was kneeling on the ground beside his son, pressing some kind of cloth against his injury in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Judging by the amount of blood in his hands, it didn't seem to be working.

"We called the pack doctor," Jasper went on, his eyes locked on King as Sasha cried over his shoulder. "We figured it would be faster and safe for help to come here than for us to take Luke back to the pack, but..." The Gamma couldn't finish his sentence, but it was clear as day. It was likely he wouldn't be able to hold on until the doctor arrived.

"No..." I whispered, fighting back my tears. A loud thud caught my attention as my mate dropped to the ground with his head down.

"First Dario, and now my best friend..." His fists were clenched, shaking.

It was too surreal. I was witnessing the scene, but I couldn't believe it. I had been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours, yet nothing could prepare me for this moment. It wasn't rare for warriors to perish in battle, but... why him? We were all suffering enough. Did the Moon Goddess really need him now? I was searching my mind for an answer, with no such luck. My whole life I believed I was weak, but I had never felt more powerless than I did now.

Another animalistic cry drew my attention. Pearl's pleading eyes locked on mine, begging me to save her mate. I wish I could, but I didn't know how to. Seeing my best friend's devastation made it impossible for me to hold my tears any longer. "Maybe... Maybe we can help," Faye's faint voice made my eyes widened.

"How?"

"The bite," she recalled, but I hesitated.

"We don't even know if what Maximus said was true. He died moment's after we bit him. What if the same happens to Luke?"

"It won't. Like I said, the bite can be a curse when used against our will, but if we intend to use our powers, it will be a gift," she clarified. "If we enhance his abilities, he will heal faster, which will offer him a bigger chance at survival. At least until the doctor arrives." I was still reluctant, but I figured it was worth a try. Luke was fatally injured; if there was any chance of saving him, we had to do it.

"I... I think I can help," I said out loud, and all heads turned to me.

"How, beautiful?" My mate's eyes glistened with hope.

"The bite," I told him through mindlink, not wanting to cause a scene.

When his expression fell, I knew he was as scared as I was. "What if-"

"It can't get worse than it is," I cut him off. "And Faye is confident it will work."

After a few seconds, he finally nodded his head. "I trust the two of you," he stated as he made way for me.

"Okay," I whispered to myself, taking a deep breath before kneeling in front of the fallen wolf.

Pearl lifted her head with confusion when she saw my canines grow, but she didn't stop me. In fact, everyone seemed shocked at what I was about to do, but they respected me. They all trusted me, and I couldn't let them down. I gently took King's huge paw in my hands, caressing it a few times as I mentally prepared myself. I closed my eyes, letting my she-wolf take over once again as we sank our teeth on our Beta's front leg.

When he winced, my heart stopped. I thought we had killed him, but then, a light golden glow surrounded his entire body. Scared, I jumped to my feet and stepped away slightly. For the next few long seconds, my friends and I just stared at King, hoping for any kind of sign that his condition was improving. At last, he took a deep breath as his heartbeat became just a little bit stronger, and we all sighed in relief.

Faye was right. I was still extremely confused, but whatever we did, it helped us buy Luke some time until the pack doctor arrived. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife as we silently watched the Salutary do his job. In the end, our injured friend was able to shift back before he fell unconscious, and we took him back to offer him proper care.

***

"So, how are you feeling?" My mate smiled faintly as he looked at his best friend, who was now on a hospital bed, hooked up to a bunch of wires. Megan hadn't left his side from the moment we arrived.

"Good as I can be," Luke replied. It had been a few hours since we brought him in, and he seemed to be recovering just fine. The doctor said my bite definitely helped him survive, but there was no visible change to him other than the more intense glow in his golden eyes. "Thank you for saving me, Luna."

"I was the one who brought you all into this mess to begin with." I looked away shyly.

"It's not your fault," he reassured me before turning to my mate with a playful expression. "Lance is definitely the one to blame. Stupid reckless mutt."

"Hey! I'm still your Alpha!" Lance growled, but he couldn't keep his act up for long. He was glad his best friend was still here with us. "You know, I'm curious to test your enhanced abilities. Maybe we should have a match when the doctors release you." "You know it wouldn't be fair!" Luke huffed. "Aside from being half-bear, you also received Cait's blessing. You're like, four times stronger than a normal wolf."

We all laughed at his remark. I glanced at the Beta Female, who was smiling at me. She didn't outright thank me, but her eyes told me how grateful she was. Being best friends, we could easily communicate with just looks. I winked at her, as if I said "that's what family's for."

"Well, we'll leave the two of you alone so you can... rest," I joked, making Megan smirk. "We'll stop by later to see how you're doing."

Lance and I said our goodbyes, leaving our best friends behind as we walked down the white halls of the pack hospital in silence. I didn't miss the way my mate couldn't stop smiling. As soon as we stepped outside and onto the light of the fading moon, he scooped me into his arms, making me squeal as he spun me around. When he finally stopped, he brought his face closer to mine, allowing our noses to touch. After thinking I would never see him again, the sparks that erupted from our touch seemed even stronger. "You are amazing, Cait. I'll never say that enough," he repeated the line he had told me a hundred times.

I would never get tired of hearing it.