Omega Pride Ch. 09

"M...morning, Wyatt." She looked at her hand as she stretched, "must have shifted in my sleep...sorry about that."

Wyatt projected nothing at her. Delphi truly was entirely unaware that her wolf could take over, leaving Delphi dormant. She also jumped to her own conclusions on some incidents. Should he tell her?

Wyatt shifted back into his human form as Delphi got out from under the roots and started getting dressed in her clothes from yesterday.

"What's wrong?" Delphi turned and looked at him, concern entering her scent.

"You're wolf knows, Delphi," Wyatt told her as he went and grabbed his bag to get dressed himself.

"What?" Delphi dropped her pack in surprise. "H-how do you know that?"

Wyatt told her exactly what happened this morning while she blissfully thought she was asleep. Delphi put her back against a tree, shock over her face.

"She's...her personality never appeared that way to me before," Delphi's voice came out just a hint above a whisper. "She...she's always been. Just...just as submissive as me, not more dominant..."

"Why do you think she won't tell you and even act this way?" Wyatt asked her.

"I don't know..." Delphi closed her eyes and Wyatt could see that she was trying to communicate with her wolf, but as Delphi shut her eyes tighter, he could make out the growl and bark of her wolf.

Delphi snapped her eyes open and looked at Wyatt, worry and fear in her eyes, "What's...what's wrong with me, Wyatt? This isn't supposed to happen with weres like us."

Wyatt pulled Delphi close and let her head rest against his chest as she hugged him back. "You said your mother and father would often scold you for acting like an Alpha. Do you know if they did the same thing to her?"

"I don't think so. I can't remember," Delphi whispered. "Why would she act like an Omega with me, but different when I'm unconscious?"

Wyatt said nothing as he tried to think of the possibilities. "Perhaps...the answer might be at the pack grounds."

Delphi looked up at him, "But how? They're dead, they can't tell us anything now."

"But they might have left something behind, something we can scavenge for." Wyatt put his hand against her neck, stroking the side of her face with his thumb.

Delphi looked down as she thought on it before looking up at him with a nod, "maybe. They might have left something that hadn't been destroyed."

Wyatt nodded and leaned forward and kissed her comfortingly. "We will find the answer to this Delphi. Don't doubt it for a second."

Delphi nodded back and turned to pick up her backpack after they finished dressing.

The journey the first few hours were silent, even as the Caniapiscau River finally came into sight. But as they neared the Limestone Falls, Delphi had to stop and stare out. Wyatt looked over at her.

"We're...we're almost there." A feeling of realization breached her senses as she stared across the waterway.

Wyatt saw the many emotions that ran across her face, her eyes looked glassy. "Want to rest here for a while?"

Delphi looked at him. After a moment, she smiled at him. "Yeah."

She sat down in front of it and closed her eyes, hearing the Caniapiscau roaring pass them. She took in a deep breath. This was it. This was the irreplaceable scent she had tried so hard never to forget. She had to fight to keep the tears from rolling down her face...too late. One had crossed the barrier long before she put it up as the single tear trailed down her face.

"Delphinia, Quest-ce que tu regarde?" (Delphinia, what are you starring at?) A voice she hadn't heard in a long time spoke to her in French.

Impossible! Father?!

Delphi's head darted up toward the sound. There, across the river, was standing someone she wasn't expecting to see at all.

Her...herself?

It was Delphi's younger self, the nine-year-old her. The younger Delphinia stared right at her curiously. After a moment, the younger her raised her hand and waved with a broad smile on her face. Delphi stared at her and after a moment, she raised her own hand and waved back.

" Delphinia? À qui tu envois la main comme ça?" (Delphinia? What are you waving at?) Her father came into view and Delphi let out both a joyous and sad gasp.

She had inherited his dark auburn hair color, facial features (underneath that beard of his), and part of his caring and worrisome personality. He wasn't as muscular as some of the other males in her pack, but he carried himself well. She wished she had inherited his dark skin as well, but she inherited her mother's olive skin instead.

The younger Delphinia pointed directly at her with a smile on her face. " À l' humaine. Elle me ressemble comme deux gouttes d'eau. Mais en plus vieille." (That human. She looks exactly like me. But older.)

She could see her father stiffen a bit at the word human, but he went over to her, bent to her level and looked into the direction the younger her was looking. However...

"Je la vois pas Delphinia. Est-tu certaine qu'elle est là?" (I don't see her Delphinia. Are you sure she's there?) His eyes seemed to rove in every which way in her direction.

"M...mais Papa..." (B...but, papa," Delphi found herself saying the same exact thing as the younger Delphinia in unison, "Elle est just là... Tu la vois pas?" (she's right there...Don't you see her?)

"Delphi?" Wyatt's words got her attention as she looked over at him, "Are you alright? You seemed dazed for a second there."

She turned and glanced back over at where her father and she had stood.

...Gone...

Delphi stared blankly at the vacant spot where the vision had been. "Yeah. I just...saw a memory."

"Hm?"

"When I was little, I often came here to rest, relax, and view the river. My father usually went with me since it was a ways off from home... At one time, I thought that I saw someone across this river, and because I hardly saw humans, I waved at them in hopes that they would wave back. They did...but my father never saw that person even though they were right in front of me. I looked at him and then back at the person and they were gone. It never really bugged me back then, so I put it out of mind...But now, I don't know how," she looked at Wyatt, "but I believe who I saw back then was the 'me' now."

Wyatt stared at her, unsure of how to take that. He believed her with everything that was happening, but he was unsure of how to respond to it.

Delphi smiled and wiped her eyes before being helped up. "Just a few more hours to go. We won't find a better crossing point than here."

As they crossed, the way from there barely felt like a stretch, but the last few miles started to get a little gruesome because of how steep the pass was.

"Careful," Delphi warned as she jumped a certain way over what looked like a normal, flat road. "That's a deep ditch that normally gets covered this time of year. It will lead you all the way down there." She pointed at the steep hill down that was heavily guarded by trees, shrubs, and unforeseeable rocks and objects under the snow. "At one time, I led the other four down there. We got extremely lost, but somehow or another, I got us part way back home before my father and Monsieur Elliot found us. Needless to say, I got severely punished for that too. But we had a blast and Rémi, the thrill seeker himself, said he regretted nothing." Delphi let out a laugh and she could swear she heard Wyatt let out a silent laugh himself.

A knot formed in Delphi's stomach as they got closer. The air itself seemed to be getting quieter and quieter with each step they took, as if it was expecting them. Just a few more hills to go now.

Four....

...Three...

...T-two...

One!

There was the large clearing...formally known as the Méraudin pack lands. She felt the knot she held loosen up as it turned into familiar sorrow. Everything that remained of the manor was buried under the thick blanket of snow except for the few blackened chunks of burnt wood that barely peaked from under it. She knew they had to have been a part of the roof or maybe the staircase.

"Delphi..." Wyatt held out his arm to her, but she shook her head and walked forward.

"There must have been a blizzard recently. It never...was..." She was swallowed hard. "It never was this bad in the past." Delphi's fists shook. Even before they came here, she knew it was a possibility, she knew that it would be painful and that her former pack would be fortunately buried under the snow, but...but she didn't know it would be this bad.

She couldn't fight the tears that came this time, remembering everything that happened that night, how when she returned, the manor had collapsed and how everyone she had known and loved here were dead. She took shaky steps toward it, remembering the dream she had a few weeks earlier. "This...this was where the Beta, Monsieur Loup, lay...Here was Monsieur Elliot... Degaré was against the wall that stood here, and in the kitchen was...my cousin, Morgane."

"Delphi—"

"No...No," Delphi whispered. She felt in her heart that she needed to acknowledge this. "Here was Sylvianne, there was Fulbert, and next to him was Aline...Monsieur Sacha, and my Aunt Claire...and Madam Idette. And here...right here...was Alpha and Madam Alpha Raoul and Florence." Delphi barely wiped the tears away as she felt to her knees if a different area. "And this is where my p...parents lay..." Delphi shook as the emotion washed over her.

Wyatt watched her for a moment before sitting next to her. He reached around and rubbed her shoulder in an embrace as he let her cry it out. The bitter scent of sorrow struck painfully at him and he could feel the pain she was feeling. Though he didn't really know what the worse to expect could be when they came out here, it looked like they'd have a hard time looking for anything here, and from Delphi's reaction, it didn't seem as if she'd be willing to dig up anything here.

Between Delphi's sniffs, she suddenly stopped shaking as she heard a faint whisper in French.

"Est-ce qu'elle est en sécurité?! Aah!!" (Is she safe?! Aah!!)

"Elle s'est sauvée! Elle s'en sortira!" (She got out! She'll be fine!)

Delphi looked up around her, the sound of fire, screaming, growls, barks, roars, laughing, and gun shots rang in the air. "Do...do you hear that?" She looked over at Wyatt, who had removed his hand.

"No. What do you hear?" This could possibly be something like what happened earlier at the falls.

"My parents...they were talking about if I escaped or not." Delphi got up and turned, following her ears, the noises getting louder with each step.

"Dehors, tout de suite!!" (Get out now!!) She heard the roaring voice of Alpha Raoul boom at someone.

"AAAUGH!!!"

"LOUP!!!" The sound of Slyvianne's voice screamed in horror.

"No, no, no, NO! I don't wannaGO!!!" The sound of an unfamiliar voice in English spoke.

"Ninon, sort les petits d'ici, maintenant!!" (Ninon, get the pups out of here now!!) Madam Alpha Florence's voice shouted, resonating with the sounds of utter chaos.

"They...I think they were fighting with a µiyaς," Delphi spoke as she turned around toward another voice, unable to see, but she could hear everything.

"Degaré!" Morgane shouted as several bullets were fired off, accompanied by a yelp cut short and she too let out a scream that was cut off as another shot was fired.

Delphi's heart pounded in her chest as she turned again. Several growls, yelps, and screams erupted as shots were fired, blows connected, and bodies fell.

"Florence!!!" Alpha Raoul shouted before he was stopped and the sound of him suffocating came into play.

"Where. Are. The dolls?" The strange and eerie voice from before demanded. From the sounds of it, the voice was right on top of Alpha Raoul. "THE TOYS!!! WHERE ARE THEY?!?!"

"He won't understand you when you say it like that, Number 66." That voice...

"This voice belonged to the µiyaς that tried to kill me! And there was more than one µiyaς there that night," Delphi told Wyatt, her lips trembling. "Those weren't bullet holes in the Alpha's chest..."

"Aw, but Number 78, that's noFUN." The eerie sounding 'Number 66' spoke with a childish mannerism, switching between words like an unruly child and angry adult. "I wanted toPLAY with 'em, instead you--!!"

"Tough luck," Number 78 spoke, "you go deal with the pups if you want to play so much."

"YAY!!!"

The sound of a blunt stab, the Alpha letting out a dying, short roar, and clapping hands echoed in Delphi's mind as she heard what she assumed was Number 78 go upstairs while Number 66 moved down the hallway.

"They're going to kill the other three pups!" Delphi passed him and headed toward where the hallway was supposed to be.

"Three? Weren't there four?" Wyatt asked, trying to understand each step Delphi was taking.

"Remember when I told you? That Cerise went missing before this?" Delphi reminded him, franticness in her voice.

"Aww maan!!" Number 66 shouted, stomping its feet rapidly, "they're already dead! Number 81, you suck, you fucking prick!"

A faint androgynous chuckle was heard from what seemed to come from outside the manor. "Too slow..."

"When I get out there, Number 81, you're going to wish you weren't made!" Number 66 made this weird sound that could almost pass as a growl.

"Relax, Number 66," the sound of Number 78's boots came closer, "the deed's done. I killed the hit and we can leave now. Huh... I think I fell in love with her too."

"Of course you did," Number 66 complained like an upset spoiled child. "Let me guess, she had Beau-ti-ful eyes?"

"They always do," Number 78 snickered, "I always seem to fall in love with them in the momentrightbefore I shoot them. Alas, I'm a cursed man doomed to fall for his hits."

"Blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, can we gohomenow?" The sound of their talking became faint as if they were leaving.

"Th-there were—" Delphi began to shake again as she heard the fire cackling around them. However, she stopped when she heard a faint grunt, the sound of a familiar voice. Ninon!

" Les...enfants...de chienne...." (Those...b...bastards....) The sound of Ninon's voice was struggling but she was all right!

"My cousin Ninon hadn't died," Delphi told Wyatt, hope in her eyes. "She...she had ducked, stayed hidden, and waited until they were gone to get out." Delphi turned and began to trace out how Ninon got out. "She jumped out the window...tried to pursue them, but why would she do that if they were strong enough to overpower the Alphas?"

Delphi then took off into a sprint, looking at the ground with Wyatt right next to her. "She ran and kept ducking between the trees...but—"

Delphi stopped running as she heard a faint shot that almost sounded like it was only sharply cutting through the wind, making Ninon let out an ear piercing scream, one that made Delphi cover her own ears until it went silent. "She had gotten shot, sniped I think...by one of them." Once again, Delphi's mood whiplashed to distress as she started walking again. "She...she wasn't dead, but she was bleeding hard and had dragged herself over to—" She stopped and gasped, covering her mouth. Right in front of her lay the half buried decomposed corpse of Ninon Méraudin.

Wyatt's eyes widened too as even though he was only getting bits and pieces of what Delphi was hearing, each and everything she said was indeed true.

"This tree..." Delphi bent down in front of the corpse of Ninon. "Oh Ninon..." The waves of sounds from the past disappeared into nothingness; sound seemed to have returned to the right time around them. With an unsteady hand, Delphi rose to touch the skeletal one of Ninon's. "I'm so sorry..."

As she touched her hand, the world around Delphi seemed to spin, the edges getting darker and darker. Even Wyatt's sudden calling of her name got more and more quiet until the entire world faded to black.

~*~*~

Delphinia opened her eyes and turned her head toward the smell of smoke. Wait a second... She raised her hand and looked at it. She was dreaming? Again? She was just with Wyatt, she heard everyone's voices, and she had just touched Ninon—

"Ninon!" Delphinia popped up.

Was this really like the dream before? She ran through the wood and saw the manor on fire.

"C'est exactement ce qui s'est passé ... (This was exactly what happened...)" Delphinia whispered, once more unable to speak English.

Wait.

The front door was ajar. They must have left already! Maybe Ninon was still alive! She could warn her! Delphinia ran to the other side of the burning manor. No good! She had already gotten out and was after them! Ninon! Where are you?!

She ran as fast as she could and heard her heart stop as the sound of Ninon's ear piercing scream caught in the night sky.

"Non! Ninon!!" Delphi tried to run faster, resulting in her slipping down several times into the snow. "Ninon! Ninon!!"

Delphinia stopped as she saw her lying in the snow. "Ninon!"

Ninon spit up blood and looked weakly over at her. "D...Delphinia? Non. Non, t'étais pas censés être ici.(No. No, you weren't supposed to be here.)"

"Parle pas (Don't talk)," Delphinia shushed her, propping her up and pulling her against a tree out of sight. "Ninon..."

Delphinia looked at the bloody dress, seeing her skin darken and decay at an alarming rate.

"T'étais pas censé être ici, mais pas-Delphinia, regarde-moi, regarde-moi maintenant," Ninon made her look her in the eye, "Je sais que j'ai pas beaucoup de temps, alors écoute-moi maintenant. L'odeur de Cerise. Ils sentent comme ma fille et je sais pas pourquoi. T'est l'une des dernières d'entre nous, pleure pas ma fille. Sois forte, c'est le temps d'être forte maintenant, S'il te plaît sauve-toi aussi loin que tu peux.Quand ils ne seront plus sur tes traces, s'il te plaît, trouve Cerise. Trouve ta cousine. Elle est vivante, je le sais. Toutes les deux vous avez besoin d'être ensemble,vous avez besoin l'une de l' autre. Promets-moi, Delphinia. Promet-moi que tu la trouveras."

("You weren't supposed to be here, but—no Delphinia, look at me, look at me now," Ninon made her look her in the eye. "I can tell I don't have much time, so listen to me now. The three smell of Cerise. They smell of my daughter and I don't know why. As one of the last of us—don't cry, my dear girl. Be strong, the time to be strong is now—as one of the last of us, please, run away as far as you can. When they are no longer looking, please, please find Cerise. Find your second cousin. She's alive, I know it. Both of you need to be together. Both of you need each other. Promise me, Delphinia. Promise me that you will find her.")

Delphinia couldn't believe what she was hearing as tears streamed down her face. She grabbed Ninon's blackening hand, "Reste avec moi, Ninon ... (Stay with me, Ninon...)"

A sad smile played off Ninon's face. "Tu sais que je peux pas—(You know I can't—)" Ninon puked up blood as it became much harder for her to talk, her grip loosening. "Soit ... la louve forte ... qu'on a essayés de te dire ... de ne pas être......Delphinia ....sache ... que nous tous ... et tes parents ont fait ... ce qu'on a fait ... parce qu'ils...je ...t'aimais .... (Be...be the strong wolf...we tried to tell you...not to...be... Delphinia....and know...that everything...we...and your parents did...we did...because we...l....loved...)"

"Ninon..? Ninon...?!" Delphinia shook her, seeing the light fading from her eyes as the decaying flesh reached her face. Ninon's hand lost its grip and slipped out of Delphinia's, her heart let out its last beat. "Non...! Non! Ninon! S'il te plaît! (Please!) Ninon!!!!"

"Well, well. What kind of surprise is this?" The sound of Number 78's voice rang in her ears as she looked over and saw not just him, but the other two, Number 66 and Number 81, standing there as well.