Chapter Text
27 April 2021
When you are born in a pack, especially to the omega heir, you are involuntarily taught how to be discreet and lie easily.
Claire was born 8 years ago, on 8th August 2013, to her 21 year old omega mother. Male omega mother. She was born as the grandchild to the ruling pack of the UK, residing in London. Even though democracy has been established, pack monarchy still continues to this day in every continent, in every country. This world can never be free of condescending assholes who wanted power and Claire’s grandfather was one of those people.
“Mama, can I please go?” Claire jutted out her lower lip to convince her mother, knowing that they never failed to work.
“You know your grandparents would never approve, Lia. And I cannot go against them.” Louis, the mother of the pouting eight year old heaved back a sigh as he took in his daughter’s expression.
“But what if I convince Nana? She can convince grumpy granddad.” Claire bounced up and down on her heels, looking as eager as an eight year old could about something they so deeply wanted.
“You may, if you think you can convince them.”
Claire let out an excited yelp as she trudged down the pack house hallway to go to her lovely grandmother.
.
“Dad, c’mon, you said I could go without a doubt.”
“Yes, Kate. But, I agreed for May 2nd not May 1st as I have a match that day. And you know that if I cannot drop you off, I would rather that you do not go.”
On the other side of the world from where Claire resided, lived her doppelganger who went by the name Kate. Kate was also born on the same day as Claire, in the same year and possibly at the same place, this was known by both of them, though their parents did not suspect.
Kate had also been born to the heir of the United States of America’s leading pack. One would ponder about how such a vast country would require at the least two packs to lead it but no one batted an eye when the Styles family managed to gain power in both the packs and when became leaders, decided to merge it into a single form making them the greatest ruling pack to exist since the past three centuries.
Desmond Styles, her grandfather, had died two years after Kate was born, leaving her alpha father to manage the whole country by himself. Kate’s grandmother, Anne, had remarried the eccentric businessman who had once visited America and decided to settle in the amazing country and still lived with her and her single father.
Harry who was now the leader of the biggest and the greatest pack in the world resided in Beverly Hills, LA. He not only managed the pack and the country but also was a highly reputed basketball player, having played 87 matches by the time he was 30 and winning three championships.
Currently, the father-daughter duo were arguing about a summer camp that was being held for children from the age of 7 to 9 in the San Fernando Valley area of California which was not very far from where they lived. According to Harry, the camp was for children who were adventurous and risk takers, willing to dive headfirst into a challenge and so, he approved of his daughter spending three weeks to camp, make friends and learn. Unbeknownst to him though was his daughter’s real reasons to actually go to that camp.
And that reason was exactly why she was currently insisting on arriving a day early to what had previously been planned. But, knowing her father as well as she did, she knew he would eventually cave and agree to dropping her off a day early. He was like that, her father, always catering to her every whim, how materialistic they may be. Managing a country and being an athlete often didn’t give him enough time to spend with his daughter who was constantly craving the touch of not only him but also her mother and he was lacking in both the departments.
“Please, daddy. I want to go on the first day so that I don’t feel like an outsider the second I step in and start to learn all the tricks and stuff from the first day on. Please.” Blue eyes pleaded to Harry as the speaker of the lines dragged the ‘e’ out in the last word. And Harry was one weak man when it came to his daughter.
“I’ll ask, okay?” Harry hid a grin behind his hand as he watched his daughter skip the steps to her room muttering excitedly about something ‘C.’
.
Louis was sitting at his small wooden ancient desk in his room, cutting out some kind of new and advanced poly-wool fabric he had purchased at the market recently for the jumper he had designed when his jovial daughter skidded into his room, sliding on the wooden tiles with those cute Mickey Mouse socks they had bought for Easter last year.
“Guess who just convinced both grumpy granddad and Nana to let her go for three weeks to LA?” She eagerly got in front of her mother, accidentally stepping on his new fabric and tripping herself into his lap.
“Who, my love?”
“You gave birth to that person, that’s who. I just let Nana do her magic with granddad, I really don’t know what she does to the grumpy old man but whatever she does, works like magic. I pouted at her for three minutes straight while granddad was like ‘absolutely not,’” she modulated her voice to a deeper pitch to sound like her grandfather which she undoubtedly failed at miserably, “and then Nana was like ‘no, let her go.” and poof! That old man agreed instantly as Nana glared at him.”
Louis chuckled at Claire’s silly imitations of her grandparents, her facial expressions and her hand gestures as her curls bounced with the force. He sometimes wondered how he had been blessed with such a beautiful child.
The day he had first laid his eyes upon her, he swore to whoever was out there that this child would not grow up without the full love of his parents like he had, his childhood spent time taking lessons on how to be the perfect omega everyone wanted to marry rather than with his father who he truly believed hated him and his mother whom he loved and adored but was never free to spare a moment for her own children.
But, unfortunately, he was not able to provide that for Claire, what with her father leaving moments before she was born and never having returned to take care of his own child. And, him being medically unable to look after her as he had suffered from postpartum haemorrhage, from which he had taken one and a half month to recover fully but was still able to feed her after a week from the incident.
In the end, Louis was proud of his daughter for understanding and sympathising with him always and in every situation. It was like that part she got from her father, because even if Louis was the most empathetic person, he was not made for sympathy.
Looking at his daughter now, flocking through his newly made designs and dresses with a bounce in her steps, Louis just hoped he had raised one capable daughter. But, whatever the scenario the little miss was not allowed to interfere with his work and just as he was about to warn her to stop, he was hit with the rich scent of butter and cardamom that affected his sinuses.
“Just because I have allowed her to go, does not mean she can flounder there alone,” Louis straighten ups as he hears the demanding tone of the man who he referred to as ‘father’ but also the man who failed to be it, “That does not mean you are allowed to go with her though, Louis. She will take one of your personal guards with her and she is not to leave the campsite under any circumstances. She also needs to call you at least once a day and meet with the guard every day. If she fails to adhere to any of the things forementioned, I will personally call the guard to bring her back.”
“Yes, father.” Louis bows his head in mock respect, showing what little decency he has left for the man who rules over the country of the Englishman.
“Good. I will arrange for her to leave on the evening of the 30th.” With that, the alpha pack leader was out of his door, leaving behind a bitter taste in his mouth and an eight year old who remained as stoic as possible to let her mother ponder in peace.
“Guess we have everything planned out now, don’t we, Lia?” He mutters to his daughter who is too busy playing with his new fabric to pay him any attention.
.
“Kate! I just called your coordinator and she has agreed to let me drop you off a little early at 8 am.” Harry hollers the whole thing to his daughter, his voice resonating through the whole central packhouse so that his daughter rushes down to meet him.
And when he sees her little form approaching, he continues, “I can drop you off on May 1st at any time after 7.45 am. So, I have agreed to 8 because that way I can make it to the before game practice.”
“That is absolutely, utterly, magically amazing, Dad!” Kate jumps up in the air to high-five her father and ends up hugging her father for a good whole minute too. “I have to go start packing, now!” She rushes back up the stairs she had just climbed down from, leaving her grinning father on the lower level.
Harry thinks about the impromptu and totally unnecessary date her coordinator had pursued him into. She had said that if she was doing him a favour by letting his daughter come early, he could do her a favour and go on one date with her, to which he had thought about and conceded. After all, he really needs some action going on in his life, literally and figuratively. Harry also thinks about telling Kate about his date but then thinks about what she doesn’t know, won’t kill her. So, in the end, he keeps it to himself instead.
1st May 2021
When Claire thought about the valley they were going to spend their time in during the camp, she pictured rolling lush green hills and a river flowing in between them where wild but not dangerous animals roamed in. Basically, a place that was inhabited. A place where there were no shops or markets, no cars causing air pollution, endless stars dotted in the sky without the light pollution. A place with solace and silence.
What she did not know was that the USA was as developed as one could be, even though their technology could never outrun that of Japan who were in constant competition with them but it was still filled to the brim with gadgets and huge ass glass buildings.
Growing up in an ancient part of London, where their packhouse resided meant that Claire was clearly not very acquainted with wooden cabins or tall buildings made entirely out of grass. That was not to say that she hadn’t seen some before but it was clearly on a much smaller scale than this.
This part of the town was filled with beautiful white and red houses, three young mountain slopes rolling around the ground in lush greenery and creeks that were recommended for swimming.
As she viewed the scenery running towards her as if trying to catch up with her moving car, she opened the window shield and stuck her head to take in a mouthful of fresh air which was abruptly put to a stop as she was pulled inside by her mother’s personal guard, Zayn.
“Come on, Zaynie, at least let me enjoy the non polluted air of this valley.”
“I would, darling. It is just that if your grandfather hears of this by the driver, he will probably fire me. And you know I love Anya too much to leave just her as the personal guard to your mother and you.” Zayn side-eyed the girl as she giggled into her hand, probably understanding that he meant her and her mother were one piece of work to take care of.
“Mama would have a fit if you left us, Zaynie. He doesn’t say it very often but you and Anya are his only two friends.” Claire tried to smile softly in his direction but instead what was presented was a grimace. It was truly a shame that an omega as lovely as Louis was not allowed out of the house under strict rules put in effect in 2012.
“We have reached the desired destination.”
Both Claire and Zayn looked up as they heard what the driver said, in front of them were several big tents lined up in a row with different labels put on the poles in front of them. On the further right hand side were ten to twelve wooden cabins lined up as two hexagons.
“Looks fun.” Zayn commented dryly. “Let’s go and leave your luggage in the wooden cabin assigned to you, so that I can check the area and also arrive at the hotel before dusk.”
They skipped to the biggest tent in the cluster, labelled as the ‘Coordinator’ to meet with her and get to know her assigned room. Inside the tent was an elaborate wooden table piled up with trinkets on the top, there were also two bundles of paper lying scattered on it. When they glanced up to greet the teacher, they were inherently surprised to find the seat empty.
“Well, guess we just have to help ourselves with the room assigning, then.” Zayn said, as he reached over the trinkets to pick up the bundle that was labelled as ‘rooms.’ But, before he could grab it, two tiny hands were already gathering the sheets in their arms.
“Don’t worry, Zaynie. I will look through it and see which room is mine.” Claire nodded at him to show that she was capable of reading and understanding what was written in those sheets of paper and in response, Zayn just shrugged and let her go through the sheets to find her name and room number or more like, cabin number.
Claire was flicking through the papers with her index finger pointed in the direction, trying to find the ‘c’ section, why were there so many ‘a’s anyway? Do people not have a different letter to name their child with?
When she finally reached the desired section, she instantly found her cabin number to be 6 which was the end of the first hexagonal shape mesh area. She also found the teacher she had to report to daily and details about her daily activities. Before keeping the sheets down though, Claire also flicked to the ‘k’ section to check something out, before abruptly pulling the sheets down as she saw Zayn glance at what was taking her so long. “Let’s go.”
.
“Harry!”
He glanced up from fixing his daughter’s bag straps as his name was excitedly called out by someone. Coming towards him was a vision of a woman with dark black hair cascading down her shoulders to her waist and icy aqua blue eyes that showed mirth and joy at the same time. She was wearing a white and pink floral jumpsuit that accentuated her short, curvy figure and made her look taller than she was. To her jumpsuit was attached a tag that read her name and designation in bold sans serif, ‘Coordinator - Sage B.’ So, this was the woman who had asked him out on a date.
Being a reputed basketball player of one of the biggest teams in the country on top of being the barely 31 alpha leader of said country, meant that he had binary, non-binary, cis and trans people flock themselves on his door regardless of their secondary gender. He was a very famous personality, especially in the continents of North and South America.
So, he wasn’t surprised that this very attractive woman had asked him out on a date, what he was surprised about was that she was exactly like his type. Not exactly to a ‘t’ but you know as close as one can get to what he wants or who he wants, really.
He was shaken out of his sudden internal monologue as he heard her say, “I see you have decided to take me up on my offer after all.”
“Yeah,” he says sheepishly, running a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his forehead.
“Offer?” A little voice murmurs to his side and he looks down to see cerulean blue eyes boring into his with confusion and questions filled.
“Nothing for you to worry about, young lady. Your lovely father was just so excited to drop you off and now what you should do is drop your luggage off at your designated cabin which is,” the woman by the name of Sage flicked through the sheets of paper in her hand which both of the other people in the room hadn’t noticed before, “cabin number 6, right at the start of the campsite.”
“Sweetheart, do you wanna drop your luggage off on your own? Or do you want me to come with?” Harry turned his head to face his daughter after assessing the delectable piece of ass the woman standing in front of him possessed, he really needs to have sex.
“I can do it myself, dad.” Kate stated, almost in defiance. And trudged down the green garden towards the cabins as the older woman present, gestured to it carelessly with her hand.
“Will she be alright?” Harry worriedly asked the coordinator, looking wistfully at his daughter’s back.
“Oh yes! Our camps are all children-friendly, we have already scrounged the area for any wild animals lurking around to check if it is safe for children to roam around alone. Also, I am really sorry if I came off as rude but I did not think you would appreciate me telling your daughter about us.” Sage shyly blinked at Harry as if to convey her innocence in the matter.
“No, no. It’s no problem, really. It’s better that she doesn’t know or she’ll think you coerced me into some shit or something. She is quite overprotective even if she doesn’t look like it.” Harry chuckled at his daughter’s antics, remembering the one time he had dated this man whom she hated so much, she actually punched him in the face and she was six at that time, six , such strength was possessed by six year olds was unknown to him.
To divert the attention away from his daughter, Harry questioned Sage about their date, “So, when is the convenient time for you? Maybe, you can give me your number so that we can coordinate as I am getting late for my practice.”
“I am free a week after today, but I’ll text you the details of when exactly, wouldn’t want you to get late.” Sage giggled as she entered her number and information on the alpha’s mobile.
“See you soon.” She added as an afterthought as the alpha bounced down the three stairs to reach his Range Rover as soon as possible. In response to her greeting, Harry messily waved one of his hands as he backed towards his car, his bodyguard standing stoically outside the gate.
.
Claire climbed the steps of cabin number 6 two at a time to reach as fast as she could and greet the person inside waiting for her.
Zayn had left after incessant pleading from her, saying that she was a big girl now and could take her luggage and unpack it on her own. Zayn had argued and sighed for three minutes straight but had eventually conceded and left, saying that he would be back to check in on her again tomorrow.
As soon as she reached the entry gate for her cabin, she took a deep breath to throw it open but before she could act upon the impulse the gate was opening from the inside and a figure was colliding into her shouting “Laire.”
She inhaled the soothing scent of rain and tea as she enveloped the other person in her arms, murmuring, “Kate, I missed you.”