“Say that again.”
The boy standing in front of Nyra swallowed.
“I-I didn’t say anything.”
Nyra tilted her head.
“Interesting.”
The boy glanced around the cafeteria as if someone might come to his rescue but nobody did, not that there weren’t people watching, there were plenty, Almost everyone in the cafeteria had stopped eating.
Nyra folded her arms across her chest.
“You called her useless.”
The boy’s eyes flicked toward the girl sitting behind him.
“She is.”
A few people winced.
Nyra smiled, it wasn’t a friendly smile.
“You’re right.”
The boy blinked.
For a moment, he looked relieved then Nyra continued..
“And you’re an idiot.”
A few laughs broke out around the cafeteria.
The boy’s face reddened with anger and embarrassment.
“What did you just say?”
“You heard me.”
“I’m a Beta.”
“And?”
“You’re an Omega.”
Nyra’s eyebrow rose.
“And?”
He stared at her.
She stared back.
That was the problem with Nyra; she didn’t know when to back down, Actually, that wasn’t entirely true.
She knew exactly when to back down.
She simply rarely found a good reason to.
The boy stepped closer.
“You should learn your place.”
Nyra looked down at herself then she looked back at him.
“I’m standing right here.”
Someone at the nearest table snorted.
The boy’s jaw tightened.
“You think you’re funny?”
“No.”
Nyra picked up her bag from the bench.
“I think you’re boring.”
She stepped around him.
He grabbed her wrist when she was about to leave.
The cafeteria went silent.
Nyra slowly looked down at his hand, then back at him.
“Let go.”
He didn’t.
That was his second mistake.
His first had been opening his mouth.
Nyra twisted her wrist free with a quick movement, caught his arm, and forced him to stumble sideways into the table behind him.
Gasps erupted around them.
She didn’t hit him, she didn’t even need to because the message had already been delivered.
Nyra adjusted the strap of her bag.
“Next time you want to prove you’re stronger than someone,” she said calmly, “pick someone who actually cares about your opinion.”
The boy glared at her.
Nyra smiled.
“And leave people who can’t defend themselves alone.”
She walked away.
Behind her, someone whispered the words everyone on campus already knew;
“Yep. That’s Nyra.”
Another voice answered.
“The Omega with an attitude.”
Nyra heard them, she always did, but just didn’t care.
By the time Nyra left the university grounds, the sun had begun to sink behind the hills.
Nyra walked along the familiar dirt road toward the small house she had called home for as long as she could remember.
Her bag hung from one shoulder, her university jacket was folded over the other.
She was tired, the kind that came from spending six hours listening to professors explain things she could have understood in half the time if they had simply gotten to the point.
She kicked a small stone along the path.
“Two hours,” she muttered.
“Two whole hours on something that could have been explained in twenty minutes.”
“You could always become a professor.”
Nyra stopped and slowly turned around.
The old woman standing several feet behind her was holding a basket of vegetables against her hip.
Nyra’s expression softened immediately.
“Were you following me?”
“I was walking home.”
“You were following me.”
“I live in the house you’re walking toward.”
Nyra smiled.
“Fair point.”
The woman shook her head.
“Come.”
Nyra walked to her.
“You’re late.”
“I had class.”
“You always have class.”
“That’s usually how university works.”
The woman gave her a sideways look.
Nyra grinned.
“I’m serious.”
“I know.”
They continued down the road.
The woman was called Mara.
To everyone else, she was simply Mara, one of the older servants who had worked in the territory for years but to Nyra, she was Mama.
Blood had not made them family but love had.
Mara had raised Nyra from the time she was a baby.
She had cooked for her, taught her, scolded her, protected her, and listened to countless stories about university professors who apparently had a personal mission to make Nyra’s life difficult.
Nyra had never once questioned why though she appreciated and loved Mara so much.
As far as she knew, Mara was her mother, the only mother she had ever known.
“So,” Mara said, “what happened today?”
“Nothing.”
Mara stopped walking.
Nyra took three more steps before realizing she was alone and turned.
Mara was staring at her.
“What?”
“You only say ‘nothing’ when something happened.”
Nyra sighed.
“You know me too well.”
“I raised you.”
“Exactly.”
Mara smiled.
Nyra walked back toward her.
“Some guy was bullying a girl.”
“And?”
“And I told him to stop.”
Mara’s expression became serious.
“Nyra.”
“I didn’t hurt him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Nyra looked away.
“He grabbed me first.”
Mara closed her eyes briefly.
“Of course he did.”
“I handled it.”
“You always say that.”
“Because I always do.”
Mara stared at her for another moment.
Then, unexpectedly, she laughed.
Nyra smiled.
“There she is.”
“Who?”
“My stubborn girl.”
Nyra rolled her eyes.
“I’m not stubborn.”
“You are extremely stubborn.”
“I prefer ‘determined’.”
“Of course you do.”
They resumed walking.
For a few moments, neither spoke then Mara glanced at Nyra.
“You know, not every battle has to be yours.”
Nyra shrugged.
“Maybe not.”
“Yet you keep choosing them.”
Nyra looked toward the setting sun.
“Someone has to.”
Mara didn’t answer.
Something about her silence made Nyra glance at her.
The older woman was looking at her strangely not with anger or disappointment, something Nyra couldn’t identify.
“Mama?”
Mara blinked.
“What?”
“You’re staring.”
“I was thinking.”
“About?”
“Nothing important.”
Nyra narrowed her eyes.
“That’s my line.”
Mara laughed again.
“Then perhaps you should stop using it.”
Their house wasn’t large.
It sat at the edge of the territory, surrounded by trees and a small garden that Mara insisted on maintaining herself.
Nyra dropped her bag beside the door and immediately headed for the kitchen.
“I’m starving.”
“You were just at university.”
“Exactly. They had terrible food.”
“You say that every day.”
“Because they have terrible food EVERY DAY.”
Mara placed the basket on the counter.
“There is stew.”
Nyra’s eyes lit up.
“You’re officially my favorite person.”
“I thought I already was.”
“You were. Now you’ve been promoted.”
Mara laughed.
Nyra grabbed a spoon.
“Don’t.”
Nyra froze.
“Don’t what?”
“Eat straight from the pot.”
Nyra slowly lowered the spoon.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were.”
“I was checking the seasoning.”
“With a spoon?”
“How else would I check it?”
Mara shook her head.
Nyra laughed and reached for a bowl.
This is how a normal ordinary evening was to Nyra; Dinner.
University complaints.
Mara reminding her that she needed to sleep earlier.
Her insisting she could survive on four hours of sleep.
Mara refusing to believe her.
It was just…
normal, Comfortable and safe.
Nyra loved it, She had never needed much, never cared about being wealthy or important.
She didn’t care that some wolves looked down on Omegas.
She certainly didn’t care about the whispers.
‘Omega’.
The word had followed her her entire life, some people said it with pity, some with amusement while others with contempt.
Nyra had learned a long time ago that people often treated you according to the label they had given you.
So she simply refused to behave according to theirs.
If being an Omega meant she was supposed to be weak, she would prove them wrong.
If it meant she was supposed to stay quiet, she would speak.
If it meant she was supposed to accept disrespect, she would refuse.
She didn’t need anyone’s permission to know her own worth.
Later that night, Nyra sat by her bedroom window with a textbook open on her lap.
She read the same paragraph three times, nothing registered.
She frowned.
“Come onnnn.”
Her eyes drifted toward the forest beyond the house.
The trees were dark beneath the moonlight.
She had always liked the forest.
There was something about it that made the world feel less noisy.
Nyra closed her book.
Tomorrow was another day, another lecture, another assignment, another opportunity for someone to remind her that she was an Omega and another opportunity for her to remind them that she didn’t care.
She stood and stretched.
“Goodnight, world.”
She turned toward her bed.
Behind her, somewhere deep within the forest, a wolf howled.
Nyra paused.
She looked back toward the window.
Another howl answered from farther away then another.
Her brows furrowed.
“That was strange” she thought.
She couldn’t remember hearing wolves this close to the house before.
For a moment, an unfamiliar feeling crawled over her skin.
Something almost like recognition but Nyra shook it off.
“I’m tired.”
She closed the curtains.
She didn’t notice Mara standing in the hallway.
The older woman had heard the howls too but unlike Nyra, Mara wasn’t confused, She was afraid.
Her fingers tightened around the small pendant hidden beneath her clothes.
For years, she had kept it buried and prayed no one would ever come looking.
She stared at Nyra’s closed bedroom door then she whispered something Nyra couldn’t hear.
A name, A name that had not been spoken aloud in twenty years and somewhere beyond the trees, the wolves howled again.
Mara closed her eyes.
The past was beginning to wake and she knew it wouldn’t stay buried forever.
Thank you so much for reading Nyra: The last blood.
See you in the next chapter, don’t miss out, the fun’s only getting started.
Leave your comments, they’re very much appreciated.