The Omega I Saved Stole My Mate-Now He Begs

I had saved Emma, an Omega, from a pack of rogue wolves. James, my Alpha and fated mate, welcomed her into our pack. But she fell for him anyway. She clung to him, following him everywhere he went. Whenever James mentioned her, his face twisted with disgust. "If I had known she would become this much trouble, I never would have done her that favor." On the day of our marking ceremony, Emma burst in again. She knocked over a candle stand, and flames raced through the room. I failed to escape. Toxic smoke filled my lungs until I could barely breathe. When they pulled me out, the healer said my wolf had gone dormant. I might never wake up. James hated Emma after that. He dragged her to my bedside every day and forced her to repent. He said every cruel thing he could think of. Then Emma held a silver dagger to her throat. James grabbed the blade from her hand. Blood dripped from his palm. "Emma, you'll never repay what you owe me in this lifetime.I haven't given you permission to die." Emma threw herself into his arms again. This time, James didn't push her away. They held each other tightly beside my hospital bed. No one saw the tear slide from the corner of my eye. In the end, I chose to leave our pack. James searched for me like he had lost his mind. Chapter 1 The head healer called James five times before he finally came to my room. He shoved the door open, then froze at the entrance. His hand stayed on the handle. He looked at me without moving closer. I pushed myself up against the pillows and managed a small smile. "Jimmy.Been a long time." James swayed. His eyes reddened at once. He rushed over, took my hand, and held it between both of his. His fingers shook. "Chloe..."His voice broke. "The healer said you woke up. I didn't dare believe it. It's real. You really... you really woke up..." I looked up at the face I knew so well. The healer on duty had just told me I had been unconscious for five full years. Five years had barely changed James' face. He'd changed his hairstyle. Gold-rimmed glasses framed the eyes that had once lit up whenever he looked at me. The gray hoodies he loved had become fitted suits. He looked older. More polished. More unfamiliar. I opened my mouth, ready to speak, when a figure appeared outside the room. Emma dropped to her knees beside my bed. "Chloe, you're awake. Thank the Moon Goddess."Tears streamed down her face. "What happened back then was my fault. I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry..." I stared at her. James frowned, stepped forward, and pulled her to her feet. "The floor is cold. Why are you kneeling? Stand up and talk properly." He glanced at me. "Chloe has a kind heart. She knows the fire was an accident. She won't hold it against you. Emma, stop doing stupid things in the future." Emma looked up at him through wet lashes. James looked away. I swallowed the words rising in my throat. James had forgotten to ask whether I forgave her. I had only woken up from five years of darkness. Pain kept stabbing through my head. I told myself to stay calm. This wasn't the time to fight. James poured me a glass of warm water, then turned to Emma. "Go handle Chloe's discharge papers.Move faster." Emma stood to leave. James called after her. He took off his suit jacket and tied it around her waist. "It's cold today. Why are you wearing such a short skirt, Emma? Do you have any sense at all?" When the door closed behind her, only James and I remained. He sat quietly beside my bed. I looked out the window. The open land I remembered had become a towering office building. The James who had once told me everything had changed too. He had given his anger, happiness, and pain to someone else. Only silence remained for me. After Emma finished the discharge paperwork, I followed James out of the hospital. He walked ahead of me, frowning as he complained about Emma's mistakes. "She keeps missing details. I'd told her three times to bring the right documents. She still mixed them up. She's careless with everything." He stopped beside a car I had never seen before and unlocked it. Emma opened the front passenger door and slid into the front seat as though it belonged to her. She fastened her seat belt. James had already buckled his. Only then did he seem to realize I was standing behind them. His expression changed. He hurried around the car and opened the back door for me. "I'm sorry, Chloe. Emma got used to sitting in the front passenger seat these past five years. You don't blame her, do you?" I said nothing. James seemed to take my silence as acceptance. The car's interior was pink. James and I had never liked pink. The car diffuser no longer carried the scent of freesia I loved. Emma's perfume filled the space instead. The car moved through streets I barely recognized. No one spoke. James finally pulled into the driveway of our villa and looked at me with guilt on his face. "Chloe, you just left the hospital. Go inside and rest. I need to attend a meeting about pack business.It can't wait." I stood in front of the villa and watched his car drive away with Emma inside. My eyes burned. James and I had designed this home before our marking ceremony. I had imagined us walking through the garden hand in hand, carrying grocery bags inside and cooking dinner together. If that fire had never happened. I unlocked the door. Everything inside looked exactly as it had five years ago. The furniture sat in the same places. Even the calendar on the coffee table still showed the date from five years earlier. It looked as though time had stopped. The refrigerator wasn't running. The closet in the master bedroom stood empty. At two in the morning, a nightmare pulled me awake. I reached toward James' side of the bed. The sheets were cold. The living room beyond the bedroom was dark. I was afraid of the dark. During those five years of sleep, darkness had surrounded me every day. I had searched for my Mate inside it. I called James. "James, where are you?" His sleepy voice came through the phone, thick and groggy. "What? I'm home..."He paused."Chloe! I'm sorry. I was half asleep. Wait for me. I'll come back." He had spoken the truth before he could stop himself. He had another home. Just not this one. I ended the connection. My tears finally fell. Emma had stopped James and me from completing our marking ceremony with that fire. Now I needed to leave. I would leave his pack. James would never be my Mate again. Chapter 2 Half an hour later, James pushed through the front door, breathing hard. He dropped into a crouch beside my feet. Pain filled his face as he looked up at me. "I'm sorry, Chloe. I..." His voice broke. He lowered his head before speaking again. "After the accident, I was in too much pain. I couldn't live in this house.Every time I closed my eyes, it felt like you were beside me.That's why I moved out." He took my hand carefully and pulled me into his arms. He wanted me to believe he still loved me. Yet Emma's scent clung to him. My wolf had not returned, but I could still smell it. Sex. Emma's perfume. James. On my first night home, he had left me alone. He claimed he had a meeting, then went to Emma's bed. I pushed him away. James paused, his arms falling to his sides. "Chloe, I'll take you to the Shadow tomorrow,"he said. "I'll stay with you. We'll find those five lost years together." The Shadow, our business corporation. James and I had built it together. Before I left, I wanted to see it once more. The next day, James drove me to the company in his new car. His phone kept ringing as he told me about the pack's growth over the past five years. He answered calls with quick, calm instructions. The awkward boy I had known had disappeared. Now he handled pack business with ease. Our pack had once been weak. James and I had shared one goal. We wanted Shadow Pack to thrive. We took in kind wolves who had lost their packs. We built businesses and gave them jobs. The Shadow had grown from a rundown five-story building into the skyscraper towering before me. James had done it. He had made our pack strong. Still, everything here felt unfamiliar. I was the one trapped five years ago. When we stepped into the building, James rubbed my hair. "I kept an office for you when we moved here. I believed the Moon Goddess would bring you back to me one day. And she did." His words had barely faded when he looked toward the open office door. Several people were inside, carrying boxes and files. James frowned. "What are you doing?" Emma stood in the middle of the room with documents in her arms. Her face went pale. A girl beside her spoke first. "You promised this office to Emma last week, Alpha. Did you forget?" Her name was Rose. Emma looked at James with wet eyes, her mouth pressed tight. James turned his face away from her. "Chloe is back. This office belongs to Chloe." Emma's hands tightened around the files. "Why?"Her voice shook,"You promised me..." "Enough."James' face hardened. "Chloe is back. That is the reason. You're an Omega, Emma. At the Shadow, you can only do basic work. Leave if you don't like it." Emma covered her face and ran out. Rose stared at James. "Alpha, you can't ignore everything Emma has done for the Shadow just because she's an Omega." Her eyes shifted to me. Hatred sat openly on her face. Then she turned and chased after Emma. James moved before he seemed to realize it. One foot stepped toward the door. He stopped himself. His right hand closed into a fist. The employees who remained looked at me from every corner of the office. Their faces carried open resentment. Nobody spoke. Their Alpha still treated me as his Mate. Their expressions said enough. For five years, I had given nothing to the pack. Now I had returned to take what they had built. I was a broken she-wolf. My wolf had fallen silent. I had lost my connection to the pack, to the Moon Goddess, and to James. They no longer considered us worthy of being the pack's Luna. My lips parted before I could stop myself. "Did everyone forget how that fire started?" James pulled me against his chest at once. "Shh."His hand pressed against my back. "While you were unconscious, Emma worked day and night for our pack.Forgive her, Chloe." Forgive her? When rogue wolves had beaten Emma, I had saved her. She had ruined my marking ceremony. She had slept with my Mate. Pain twisted through my chest. My mouth shook as I looked up at James. "You never punished her. You never wanted to punish her, did you?" I tried to pull away. James held me tighter. His arms locked around me until my breathing slowed. Only then did he speak. "I told Sarah and David that you woke up. They're coming back. We'll have dinner together tonight." He changed the subject. He refused to answer me. Sarah and David, our Beta, had been my closest friends in the pack. "What do you mean Sarah and David are coming back?" I stared at him. James' face tightened. He stayed silent for several seconds. "Sarah and David had left the pack." Before I could ask why, his phone rang. He looked at the screen and stepped away. "Chloe, rest here for a while.I need to handle something." Then he walked out. One minute later, I stood beside the floor-to-ceiling window. Below, James caught up with Emma as she tried to leave. Anger filled his face. So did reluctance. He pulled her into his arms. I watched him hold her. And in that moment, I wanted to know what James' face would look like after I left him. I would have my answer soon. Chapter 3 The dinner was at my favorite restaurant. The moment I pushed open the private room door, Sarah rushed at me and threw her arms around me. She laughed and cried against my shoulder. "Chloe, you woke up. You really woke up. He didn't lie to me." She pulled back and punched my arm hard. "Chloe, how could you do this? Five years. How could you make me wait five years?" The hit barely hurt. My eyes burned anyway. Then Sarah saw James behind me. Her face changed. A few minutes later, she wiped away her tears and looked at me. "David is handling a case in Europe,"she said. "He already knows. He'll deal with things there and fly back as soon as he can." Her hand closed around mine and stayed there. She held on so tightly that my fingers ached. She acted as if I would vanish again if she let go. My throat tightened. This was what seeing someone again after five years should have felt like. Someone crying because I was alive. Someone angry because I had been gone. The door opened again. Emma stood there with a gift bag in both hands. Her shoulders curled inward as she looked at me. Sarah's face twisted. "James, what the hell does this mean?"she snapped,"You brought her here? Who are you trying to disgust?" James frowned. "Emma wanted to apologize to Chloe in person.She made a mistake back then, and she's spent these years trying to make up for it." Sarah gave a short, bitter laugh. "Make up for it?"She stepped toward him. "Chloe lay unconscious for five years because of her. If she wanted to make up for it, she should havespent every day on her knees beside Chloe's hospital bed." Emma's eyes filled with tears. Sarah kept going. "Instead, she worked at The Shadow, stayed glued to your side every damn day, and played the part of a repentant little saint. All while serving as your assistant, waiting on you hand and foot like your own personal maid. Some punishment that was." "Sarah,"James warned. "Oh, shut up."Her voice rose. "You always said you hated her. You said you would make her suffer. You said you would never let her live easily after what she did to Chloe." She pointed at Emma. "So how did you punish her, James? In your bed?" Emma dropped the gift bag. The sound hit the floor between us. She covered her mouth, ran out of the room, and slammed the door behind her. James stood frozen beside the table. He did not go after her. The dinner ended there. Sarah kept sitting beside me, her hand still holding mine, but nobody touched the food. James barely spoke. I stared at the untouched plates until the restaurant staff came in to clear them away. By the time we left, my favorite restaurant had become another place I did not want to return to. James drove home with both hands on the wheel, though his mind was somewhere else. The car drifted toward the vehicle ahead of us. "James,"I said. He jerked the steering wheel and swerved back into our lane. His phone kept ringing. He picked it up, stared at the screen, and put it down again. A minute later, it rang once more. He repeated the same thing until the phone lit up again in his palm. This time, his thumb moved across the screen. Emma's voice filled the car. She was crying so hard that her words kept breaking apart. "I know Chloe is back. I should leave. James, I only loved you. Why does it hurt this much?" My fingers pressed into the seat. Emma sobbed. "If I had been the one hurt five years ago, would you remember me?" James' jaw tightened. "Maybe everything was a mistake,"Emma said. "Maybe I should have died in that accident." The brakes shrieked. My body pitched forward against the seat belt as the tires scraped across the road. James' face looked terrible. For a few seconds, he said nothing. His fingers stayed on the steering wheel while Emma's crying continued through the phone. At last, he turned toward me. "Sarah went too far,"he said. "I'm worried Emma might do something stupid. She isn't as strong as you are." The words settled in my chest. She isn't as strong as you are. He said it as if strength meant I could be abandoned. He reached across me and unfastened my seat belt. "You get out first,"he said. "I'll make sure Emma is okay, and then I'll come home." I looked at him. Five years ago, he had promised that we would be each other's family forever. Now he was leaving me beside the road to find another she-wolf. "Fine,"I said. I opened the door and stepped onto the sidewalk. James drove away before I had fully shut the door. His taillights disappeared at the end of the street. I stood there for a moment, breathing through the ache in my chest. I had no desire to spend another minute in his car, anyway. The scent of Emma's perfume still clung to the seats. It made my stomach turn. I raised my hand and stopped a taxi. "The pack cemetery,"I told the driver. My parents' photographs smiled at me from the headstone. I stood in front of their graves until my legs gave out, then lowered myself onto the grass. James and I had grown up together. When James was six, a group of rogue wolves attacked him. My parents found him first, but there were too many of them. They died saving him. James' mother had held me after that. I still remembered her arms around me, her tears falling into my hair. "Chloe,"she had whispered again and again,"from now on, we are each other's only family. We will never be apart." After that, James treated me like the most precious thing in his life. He used to follow me everywhere. He used to put himself between me and every danger. He used to say that he would protect me for the rest of his life. Now, he had left his precious thing by the roadside and rushed to another woman. I looked at my parents' faces. "It's been a long time since I came to see you,"I said quietly. "You aren't mad at me, are you?" My lips shook. "I didn't mean to stay away. Don't be so petty." The night breeze stirred the trees in the cemetery. Something cool slid down my cheek. I lifted my hand and touched my face. Tears covered it. I had not even noticed when I started crying. The wind carried my voice through the dark. "What do I do, Mom? Dad?" I pressed my palm against the cold stone. "I think I don't have a home anymore." Chapter 4 The next day, I went back to the Shadow. I wanted to take the work files I had saved on my old computer. Five years had passed while I lay unconscious. The office system had changed completely, and the screen in front of me looked unfamiliar. I operated on the computer for a long time, and I still could not figure out how the new system worked. Rose walked past me with a stack of folders in her arms. She glanced at my screen and rolled her eyes. "What year do you think this is? If you don't know how to use it, just ask ChatGPT." My hand stopped on the mouse. I looked up at her. "Chat GPT... what is that?" She froze for a moment. Then she covered her mouth and laughed. Her heels clicked across the floor as she walked away. My fingers tightened around my phone. I lowered my head and typed Chat GPT into the search engine. The animated icon appeared on the screen. Five years ago, James and I had stayed in this office until morning, trying to secure a partnership with a larger pack. I drank coffee like water while I revised proposal after proposal. James had stood behind my chair and rubbed my hair. "Chloe, don't rush. We have plenty of time." I stared at the screen. Time had left me behind. Those missing five years had turned everything around me into something distant. The office, the system, the people. Even James. I looked up, searching for him. He stood near the conference room with Emma beside him. She spoke smoothly as she explained information about a new product. James listened with his arms crossed, his expression relaxed. When she finished, he smiled and rubbed her head. The same way he used to touch mine. "We signed another major deal,"James announced. "Emma deserves the credit. Drinks are on me tonight." Cheers broke out across the office. Emma's face reddened as she looked at James. Everyone crowded around them, talking about restaurants and wine and what they wanted to order. I sat alone in front of the computer. The little animated figure on the screen smiled at me. A bitter laugh slipped out of my mouth. Emma left the crowd a few minutes later. She walked into my office holding a cup of coffee, her smile gentle. "Chloe, take a break. Have some coffee." "Thank you." I reached for the cup. Her hand slipped. Scalding coffee poured across my keyboard and screen. The computer made a sharp sound before the display went dark. Emma stared at the mess, her face pale. "I'm sorry, Chloe. I didn't mean to..." The door opened. James walked in and stopped when he saw the ruined computer. His face hardened. "Emma, I praised you twice and you already got carried away?"he said. "You're clumsy enough to ruin everything. What can you even do right? Get out." Emma covered her face. "James, I'm pregnant." The room went silent. "I don't want to keep lying to her anymore,"she cried. "I don't want to keep being the extra person, no matter how much I do." She turned and ran out. James did not look at me. He went after her almost at once. I stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, staring down at the street. Rain fell outside. James caught Emma near the entrance. They faced each other beneath the rain, shouting words I could not hear through the glass. Emma pushed against his chest. James grabbed her wrist. She cried harder. He said something. Emma shook her head. James pulled her into his arms. Then he lowered his head and kissed her. His arm held her close as if he had spent years waiting to do it. They looked like the man and woman at the end of a love story, finally choosing each other after every hardship. I was the woman who should have died in that fire five years ago. I touched the corner of my eye. My fingers came away dry. My phone rang. James. I stared at his name before answering. "Chloe,"he said, his voice rough. "Even without your wolf, I'll give you the marking ceremony we never had. I know you hate Emma,but the pup is innocent. I'll come home later and explain what happened today." I wanted to say:"You don't need to explain..." The call ended before I finished. I lowered the phone. That was enough. There would be no goodbye. I gathered the few things I had brought with me. My phone. My old notebook. The pen James had once given me after we signed our first contract. I placed the pen on the desk. Then I walked out of the office. The lobby felt familiar and strange at the same time. I crossed the glass doors and stepped outside. Rain had started to fall harder. I hesitated at the edge of the sidewalk, ready to walk into it. An umbrella opened above my head. A low voice came from behind me. "Sorry, Chloe. I came back from Europe late."