Page 24 of The Sad Omega

They were still torturing my body when I blacked out, but at last I was free…

Chapter 10

IRIAN

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Isca wasn’t answering any of my texts, and he’d been worried and sad when he left us the previous day.

After I’d annoyed Talius multiple times about it during the morning, he finally stood up from his desk where he'd been trying to work.

“Okay, okay. I’ll ask Johnson to send someone over there to see if he can find out anything. I can’t go myself – if they scent an alpha hanging around uninvited, that’ll be an invitation for trouble.”

“Please, can you do it now?” I begged.

“I’m going,” Talius laughed at me, holding up his hands in mock surrender as he exited the room.

An hour later, Johnson was in his office reporting back to him. I wasn’t in the room. I wasn’t eavesdropping. But I did feel waves of concern rushing down our mind-bond. I was on my feet in an instant, but Talius was already in the doorway.

“The pack has gone. The scents are all muddled, but Johnson detected a faint omega scent heading into the forest alone. He thinks it was Isca, and that he left before the rest of the pack. He's sure Isca was afraid.”

My heart pounded. A cold wave of fear rushed over me and my legs felt like jelly. Moisture prickled at the corner of my eyes and threatened to tumble over.

Talius wrapped me in his warm embrace, comforting me.

“I’m going to look for him,” he told me.

???

TALIUS

There was a lot of leaf litter on the forest floor, and a confusing array of odours, from mossy growth and decaying timber, to the many small creatures that inhabit those dark, shaded places. My wolf’s nose worked its way through the overload of smells, separating and identifying them.

Then I caught it. Only a trace at first, but unmistakable. The sour scent of fear and the tangy odour of sex. Multiple participants. It was sickening but at least I knew he had to be close. I kept searching.

I found him, eventually, a pale heap of discarded flesh on the forest floor, bruised and broken. I sniffed him carefully. If not already dead, then about to die.

I shifted back to human form. All I could do for him now was bring his body home. Bring him home to be cared for, if only just the one time, if only to prepare his body for its last journey.

Kneeling, I gently picked up the poor broken omega. He was so frail, barely more than bones and smeared with blood, so much blood. The dark red stains a jarring contrast on a body so deathly pale. He hung limply in my arms, eyes closed, unmoving. One of his hands hung loosely, at an unnatural angle, the bones crunching vilely as I lifted him. Tears filled my eyes, and anguish flooded me as I ran my eyes over him. It was hard to breathe. This poor delicate omega had died alone and unloved. Hot tears escaped and trickled down my cheeks. I held him close, willing the warmth of my body to bring him back from wherever he had gone. I knelt there on the cold forest floor, Isca cradled in my arms, while my warm tears splattered on his face.

A burst of anger ripped through me, choking me with its intensity. I could barely breath in my fury and grief. My rage directed at the cruel alpha that had mistreated his mate so vilely. Possibly he'd been tortured. Judging by the blood and horrific bruises, he’d been abused before being discarded. That he had been used by the rest of the pack was clear from the mixture of scents. I shuddered, thoughts turning to the evil alpha and the vile betas that ran with him. Irian had been right to warn me about him. I cursed myself for not paying more attention to his warnings. Irian was a caregiver, of course he had sensed that something was not right. Now it was too late.

I knelt on the damp leaf-covered ground, holding the little omega’s limp body, useless tears spilling onto his pale face. How sad to die unloved and discarded in the silent forest. I bowed my head and rested my forehead against his. Pain twisted in my heart. I lifted my head and howled.

A soft whisp of warm air caressed my neck.

He was not dead, not yet!

A tiny tendril of hope sprouted inside me. Maybe this could still be made right. No omega – especially not a mated one – should die uncared for and alone in a forest.

I got to my feet, tenderly carrying his damaged body. In this state, he could not transform to heal, and I wouldn’t have been able to carry him if I did. So although speed was vital, I could do nothing more than walk with him in my arms, gently caressing his face and begging him to hold on until we got somewhere where he could be cared for.

Irian must have scented my arrival, because he met us at the boundary of our property. He gasped and went visibly pale when he saw the battered body in my arms.

“Should I call a doctor?”

I shook my head.

“No. He needs a healer,” I told him. He nodded once, and apparently understanding from the tone of my voice that haste was essential, shifted and raced back to the house.

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