It was a bit awkward getting greeted by my mom as soon as I entered through the doorway.

"Did they enjoy our family secret specialty? What did they say? " She peeked at the empty container, crinkled her eyes and nose from the excessive joy she felt. "Wait until I tell your papa!" The smile on her face prevented me from telling her what had truly transpired earlier.

"They loved it, but Rana still chose to be with Mason." He felt a twinge as he told the lie; he never liked lying to his mom. 

"It's fine," she told me. "This is a normal part of life. Courting is a very long and slow process. I know when I was your age, " She began to hum a little tune before continuing, "Your father was as persistent with his affections as you. He was a very handsome fellow, you know? When he first asked me to be his mate, it had been after two years of courting. I accepted immediately. You should have seen his reaction; he was slack-jawed and everything. I was surprised when he told me that he thought I would decline. We had been together for so long that I couldn't imagine my life without him. In the end, he continued to court me. He was a true romantic. That man... " She gazed into the distance with a faraway expression. I could immediately tell she was recalling an old memory. "Even though I told him that he no longer needed to do so, he kept insisting he would court me. That ended up being what brought us closer together."

I tried to imagine my buff, bearded, scary-looking dad courting my beautiful, sweet, innocent-looking mother, and let out a little chuckle.

"Oh!" My mom smacked her palm with her fist and said, "I almost forgot to tell you. The village chief told us to have our children prepared, but unfortunately, I don't remember what the occasion was for. Oh my goodness, ahh! My mother began to scream when my father silently appeared behind her and picked her up, swinging her around in a circle. When she finally opened her eyes, she began to laugh out of elation. "Darling! When did you come home? Why haven't you said anything? " I watched as my father put my mother down.

He answered, his voice as deep as a grizzly bear's, "I came home a few minutes ago. I just loved hearing the sound of your voice and didn't want to interrupt for a second." She leaned into his chest bashfully, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. She tilted her head back, and their eyes met lovingly.

I coughed to get their attention. "What did I need to prepare for?"

"According to the chief, a distant pack is coming over to make an alliance with ours." He goes to sit down at the table. "Many of the wolves in his group are close to your age and mateless. Apparently, they are also here looking to find someone to be their significant other. " Edith placed food in front of her husband, and he ate it ravenously.

"What's the occasion? Why did the chief suddenly accept it? " I asked. Did the distant chief have a child who wanted to marry Rana? Not on my watch... I already have to deal with Mason. '

"In exchange for mates, they will be trading us for exotic fruits and vegetables. A win-win situation for us, seeing as we don't have to worry about inbreeding or have to resort to kidnapping." He winks at my mother.

"Darling! You shouldn't be saying those things in front of Noah! " My mother slaps my father's bicep.

"..." I just nodded, unable to understand what had just transpired or if it was just some inside joke between the two of them. Noticing my look of confusion, she begins to explain.

"I guess it's time you knew. When I was a child, I was kidnapped from my own pack and forced to do another pack's bidding. In that pack they treated their omegas like slaves, male omegas suffered harsher treatment and were treated as abnormal. That's how I lived my life and how I thought it would be for the rest. That is until I met your father—he was a soldier at the time, and he took me away from that horrible place like Prince Charming. " She said, as she made loving eyes with my dad, her eyes became serious, "He had been ordered by his pack to check out the accusations made against the pack that had kidnapped me and... apparently he fell for me at first sight. Actually, you could say that I had fallen in love with him at first sight too..." She placed her hands on her cheeks in happiness, her eyes softening at the memory. "It was only later that your father and I found out that we were true-mates and he began to court me. It was really hectic, and any time we spent apart made us sick and cranky, right darling?" My mother looked at my dad expectantly.

"Yes, I couldn't bear to spend any more time without her, and as a soldier, it would happen more often than I wanted. I ended up quitting to become a hunter for the village; at least then I could be gone for a few weeks and not for a few months. If anyone dared to touch your mother back then while I was gone, I would have snapped their necks into two. It was a good thing nothing happened to her while she had been kidnapped in the other pack. " He said with a frown.

"What about your parents' mom?" I wondered aloud. Surely they would have wanted to know whether their daughter was still alive...

"Oh! I went to meet them afterward to make sure they knew I was in safe hands. We cried and your father received their blessings. Of course, who were they to refuse? He had gotten their one and only omega daughter back... It was a moment of celebration. Oh no! " She looked at the clock, "It's getting late.Go out and bathe before it gets too dark. You still have to meet the other pack, it's common courtesy. " She went to give me a basket full of soap that smelled like lavender and a stone scrub.

"Take care of yourself!"

I smiled at her, put my sandals on and left the house. Walking towards the river, I noticed that all the teens left in the village were there, many of whom were already mated, not mated, or in the process of dating. I noticed the lack of children. Maybe that was why the chief allowed foreign packs to come here. He probably didn't want the village to start declining in its inhabitants.

I begin unpacking my items in the corner of the river, away from any prying eyes. Our pack had a showering system that every resident had to follow so as to avoid any unwanted attention from occurring between the two genders and to provide safety and security to the omegas in the pack. Our pack didn't have to worry about any harassment between any second genders, as only the males were alphas and the omegas were females.

It was normal for everyone to be naked together. For instance, the males bathed with each other while the females bathed with each other. For me, I was a bit uncomfortable with the whole situation of bathing with the other alphas. My mother and father treated me normally, but I always ended up having to deal with people teasing me for having a body similar to an "omega's".

If that was even possible. I couldn't help but feel exasperated at the whole notion and rolled my eyes. 'I haven't even presented yet.' My eyebrows furrowed. Don't get me wrong, my body isn't feminine at all. Although I didn't have thick, burly muscles like my father, I still had muscles. I was lean and I had a six-pack from hunting—this morning I had just overslept from writing so many letters last night. What else did I need to do to be seen as an alpha? It made no sense to him.

Suddenly, catcalls, whistles, as well as nasty comments began to get louder and louder. I turned my head to face Mason, staring directly at me.

"Nice body, runt!" Mason jeered at me looking at my genitals—he was swimming in the river, his dark muscular body glistening from the water. I sneered at him and turned around, used to the comments. If only Rana could see at that moment how much of a jerk Mason was, it was obviously his revenge from earlier this morning. At least he's not going to beat me up... ' I thought of all the times I had gotten pummeled by this guy growing up. I tried telling my parents, but whenever my parents confronted Mason's parents about it, they would just say we were roughhousing. His mom would say, 'You know how alpha boys are, and they have a ton of energy.' And so on. I was so deep in thought that I hadn't noticed that another teen, Maximus, had left the river until he went up to me and slapped my behind.

I flushed with embarrassment, and turned to stare at them with rage filled eyes. Honestly, what was so entertaining about making fun of people?

"Sexy," Maximus said. 

"It's so nice and plump," Kace agreed. "He doesn't even have facial or body hair! The perfect omega~" He said, in an attempt to rile me up. The two of them were together with my father on the hunt.

They continued to whistle and catcall.

I'm still betting on what this guy will present as! How much money are you willing to offer? " Titus yelled over the commotion.

Most of these guys were alphas, with only a few being betas. I had never heard of any males in our village presenting as omega in my entire life, but I did know that male omegas were shunned, treated as abnormal, and bullied in other villages. At that point, I pitied them. Even my mother had to go through something so traumatizing when she was younger, but in the end, they had still treated her much better than the male omegas. Omegas, in general, had a difficult life; I wonder if the same could be said of female alphas. Were they also treated differently? Or were they praised just like male alphas were?

After all this time, I still did not know what my second gender was yet. My dad told me I was a late bloomer and that I would grow into myself and become like him someday. 'I know for sure that I will present as an alpha.' I thought to myself, determinedly.

"Noah, mate with me..." I look up when I see Axel invading my personal space. As he spoke, I noticed that his eyes held a predatory sheen in them. He scanned my body from head to toe. I shuddered at the disgusting feeling those eyes gave me.

"Woah bro... slow your horse. We're just teasing him—although he does have a sexy bod. Don't do something you'll regret, like mate with an alpha, " Maximus said before he dunked his head into the water.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything... but even if you tell me that he hasn't even presented as any second-gender yet." He said it quietly, too quietly as I was unable to hear his last statement before he began to stare at my body intensely as though he was trying to uncover something.

A flush covered my entire body at the constant staring. Creep. I ended up moving farther away from the group. It was getting hard to ignore them when you had someone breathing down your neck the entire time.

As I moved, I could hear him call out, "Your nipples are pink." Goose-bumps appeared all over my body. I tried not to let the situation get to me, but I ended up covering my chest and private parts. I could feel his gaze following me every step of the way.