Pamoen sat at the kitchen table at her grandmother's and great grandfather's house sitting in her little chair. She stared blankly at them while Kara smiled.
"Where are your brothers and sisters?" Elevyn asked.
"The-they a-are on a h-hunt," Pamoen said, she took a chicken nugget from a plate and popped it in her mouth.
Kara chuckled a bit, noticing how her daughter seemed to enjoy being at this house than at her own house.
"Do you enjoy being here, Pamoen?" Kara asked her daughter as she got up to assist Elevyn in the kitchen.
"Does she go on a hunt often with the Alphas?"
Pamoen nodded her head at her father and popped another chicken nugget in her mouth. A small canine poked out of her mouth and one of her ears seemed to be chipped.
Artreus raised an eyebrow, thinking how weird this girl was but adorable at the same time. He got up and hugged her, kissed her on her forehead, and popped a chicken nugget in his mouth and went to the window.
"I wish-wish I cou-could stay here for-forever," she said as she stretched over the table.
The kitchen smelled like grease and old wood. Kara wiped down the counter, her movements slow and deliberate.
Outside, the fading light painted long shadows across the lawn, stretching toward the dense woods where Pamoen's siblings hunted.
Artreus leaned against the window frame, chewing thoughtfully. His eyes scanned the tree line, searching for movement in the gathering dusk.
Pamoen's small frame shifted beside him, her chipped ear twitching at distant sounds only she could hear.
The fading light outside deepened into bruised purples and grays, swallowing the edges of the forest where her siblings moved unseen. Artreus tracked the sway of branches, imagining paws padding over damp earth, the low vibrations of a pack hunting in twilight.
Inside, the scent of fried food clung to the air, thick and comforting against the chill seeping through the old windowpanes. Kara moved behind them, wiping counters with a worn cloth, her reflection ghostly in the darkening glass.
Pamoen got out of her chair and ran to the living room and picked up her model car box. She opened it up and began to take the pieces out, scattering them on the floor.
Kara came into the living room. "We're gonna be leaving soon so don't get too much going on that car, save it for next time."
"Okay," the young seven year old Omega said back to her mom.
Sous and the Alpha children were already home by the time Kara and Pamoen made it back home. Pamoen walked past her sire without saying anything, going straight to her room.
She went back to her car model that she had on her desk. Puimo entered into her room and handed her flyer.
"Here, I thought you may like this," she said.
Pamoen looked at it and saw it was a flyer that said Apex Youth Group.
"Its like a program and Omegas can join." She explained.
"Whe-where did you ge-get th-this?" Pamoen asked.
"I saw it in the woods on a tree but I didn't tell sire," Puimo said. "Go online and look into it."
Pamoen took the flyer and looked at it again. She smiled and hugged Puimo tightly.
The flyer felt rough between Pamoen's fingers, its edges slightly curled from dampness. She traced the bold letters spelling "APEX YOUTH GROUP" with her thumb, the ink smudging faintly where Puimo's grip had pressed moisture into the cheap paper. Outside her window, the last sliver of sun vanished behind the treeline, plunging the backyard into deep blue shadows.
Distant rustling came from the woods, squirrels settling, maybe, or something larger moving with deliberate quiet. Her chipped ear twitched again, catching a high-pitched whistle of wind through pine needles that the humans couldn't hear.
The scent of wet earth and decaying leaves drifted in, mingling with the lingering grease smell clinging to her clothes from Grandma's kitchen. Her room felt suddenly colder, the model car pieces on her desk looking like scattered bones in the gloom.
She really didn't have any friends at school and then plus to come home like this...she got along with her siblings but they were busy with Sous often. Kara hung out with Pamoen but her mother could do so much with holding down the house with cleaning and cooking.
"I do-don't think sire li-likes me," Pamoen said, she twisted in her wheely chair and looked at Puimo.
Puimo sighed. "I think...I think she doesn't know how to deal with you. You're different."
"May-maybe if I-I becom- become strong, she-she'll li-like me," Pamoen said. She held up the paper. "This-they can he-help!"