The Alpha's Omega Mate-Chapter 47: Nyx’Zariel.

~Dahlia POV~

When I woke up the next morning, my body throbbed painfully, and my skin, still sore from all the beatings and whatnot that I had suffered the day prior, sizzled with pain; and I felt weak. So weak, but this was mostly because I’ve not had good food for a couple of days now.

Deciding to breeze through my chores, I quickly had myself cleaned up and headed first for the pantry where I gathered all the necessary items for preparing breakfast before heading for the kitchen next to give them to the kitchen staff.

I had just finished from the laundry and was heading to Beta Orion’s manor when a mournful shout came from the palace gates, causing everyone around the vicinity to turn on the direction of the noise. I was even further shocked when three women rushed into the palace, crying profusely and even rolling on the dusty ground. And between their sobs, they kept crying for Beta Orion to come to their aid. To save them.

Their attitudes puzzled me and I stopped to watch, to see what had gotten them so worked up and agitated. However, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way because then a small crowd had begun to form around them and me— being the ever curious one— inched towards them too.

I slicked my way through the crowd from the sidelines, grateful for being the one barely noticed until I skated to the front row where I could clearly see the women wailing, and their shouts were so loud, I feared it would wake up the dead.

And goddess, something about their wailing hit something deep inside of me. It felt dragged from their soul... agonizing ...and my breath caught when one of them wouldn’t stop scratching her arms even as blood seeped out from the open cuts.

Just then, Beta Orion rushed out of the house, his rich cloak billowing behind him as he walked over to the women. A worry line had formed between his eyes and these past few days that he’s been taking up most of Alpha Zarek’s role had somehow made a stamp on his face, making him look about a few years older.

He bellowed; "What is going on here?!"

But the women wouldn’t stop crying. They wouldn’t stop screaming and they wouldn’t stop rolling against the floor, ignorant to the sharp rocks lining the surface. And ignorant to his question.

"Women?" He tried again and when they still wouldn’t respond, he crouched close to one of them— the one who wasn’t rolling so much— and barked; "WOMAN!"

She froze.

Her big honey brown eyes blinked up at him then, the corners streaked with tears. Her oval face was all red and blotchy and her dress was loose around the corset.

She bowed. "Beta."

Despite being so far away from them, I heard the shaking in her voice. The tremor. And could visibly see the way her body literally shook like a leaf in the wind. She murmured; "Pardon us..." hiccups, "...but our sister was just murdered."

And as soon as the words left her mouth, the small crowd gasped. Frenzied conversations between people started and soon enough, the entire place became a conundrum of hushed whispers.

"Be quiet!" Beta Orion snarled, causing the crowd to immediately go silent before he turned his attention back to the woman. "What did you say?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"My sister..." she drawled, her voice distant. Shaky. "She was killed in the woods sometime last night. We don’t know when, it probably happened this morning."

The more she talked, the more a strange kind of tension rippled through the crowd. Goosebumps spread across my skin as I listened to her say everything that she could about the dead woman, and I was just about to slink away— to prevent myself from hearing more gruesome descriptions the death than what I have already heard— when she added;

"We found her this morning, in the woods. Her body was like stone... hard like a fuckin’ rock and grey. Her eyes were bloodshot and there were trails of dried blood by the corner of her eyes, her lips, her ears..."

"AND HER DAMN NOSE HOLES!" One of the other wailing women shouted, causing the crowd to gasp in both fear and shock.

I vaguely heard someone say something along the lines of; "nostrils" but I paid no attention to them as that was the least of my problems, or anyone’s.

The main problem was the murder! The freaking strange murder!

Elder Samwell stepped forward, his large belly bouncing as he pushed his way to the front of the tight crowd. He scanned our faces quickly, desperately, and as if hating how frantic we all seemed, he shook his head and bent over as he asked the women in a small voice;

"Are you sure of that which you speak?"

"Yes!"

"I swear on the goddess!"

The two women answered simultaneously and he leaned away, rubbing his face as if to ease away the worry lines appearing. It was fruitless.

"I’ll be mad if I find out this is a lie—"

"Then come with us, let’s take you to our sister’s corpse!"

Elder Samwell had just opened his mouth to speak when another loud cry came from the gates and this time, the already agitated crowd didn’t waste a second in turning in its direction.

It was a young girl and her mother, and they were both screaming loudly, sobbing and saying something about how they’d found their father— a popular slave master— dead and as hard as stone at the back of their house.

It was the same description. The same tales. The same everything.

I froze.

Just then, my eyes landed on Beta Orion’s and he looked just as frightened as everyone else was. His face had gone extremely pale— devoid of any color—and the frown on his face was so deep, it looked like his face was about to cave in.

Elder Samwell stepped back in terror as he glared at the two wailing families. His voice wasn’t loud but we all heard his next words loud and clear enough to gasp in fear... to clutch our hearts... to shake in panic.

"These are the telltale signs of the rise of Nyx’Zariel." He said slowly, as if even afraid to say the words, and everyone broke into panic.

I barely noticed when a guard ran to Beta Orion’s side and even barely listened when he said his next words; "The Alpha is awake."

And usually that would’ve had the entire pack cheering in joy but nobody moved. I even doubted that they heard him.

But despite the strange deaths... nor the women and children who now looked between a state of joy and panic— as if they didn’t know which of the emotions to lean towards, I felt elated.

The heaviness that I didn’t even realize had settled within my chest no longer felt like it was there.

Alpha Zarek was finally awake!

— and coincidentally, it was around the same time that Nyx’Zariel made her signature entrance.