Page 19 of Wild Omega

“Too long,” I mutter into the cloying darkness.

The shadows slip into my throat, clogging my airways, and I rock gently to remind myself the darkness can’t kill me. Not today.

Not unless I’m in heat; then all bets are off.

I don’t think the unhappy alpha in my head likes the dark either. At some point while I was stuck here, his tone changed. At first I got excited, thinking it meant he was closer, but that wasn’t the case. The keening crackle like TV static in my head seems even more distressed than before.

“Are you real?” I ask into the silent, chilly room. “Tell me I’m not imagining you. Just a small sign is all I need.” I might die if I ever get out of here only to discover what I’m hearing is tinnitus.

No one answers, and even the voices seem quieter than usual. I’ve been abandoned.

With a growl, I clutch my head in my hands and rest on my drawn-up knees. “Never doubt yourself, Red Hawk. They don’t get to take your sanity. Never ever!” Except I think I’ve been here so long I might be due to go into heat again.

Ray threatened I wouldn’t get out of here until after my next heat. Eight weeks of darkness and loneliness followed by another three days of biting inferno before I get to shower.

To distract myself, I think about the other omegas. The bitch squad probably reported that I’m having anepisode. Very convenient word, that is. Who are they to judge what sanity is in the first place, when they’re clearly murderous motherfucking psychopaths?

I miss O-4. Who knows what happened to a sweet woman like her? If anyone deserves a loving pack, it’s her.

A gunshot sounds somewhere outside my door, and I jolt upright. Did I sink too deep into the spy role? I strain to listen, wondering if my mind’s inventing things now.

No, I hear faint shouts in the distance.

“Help!” I scream, slamming my palms against the door. “I’m in here!”

What the fuck happens if this den of thieves gets raided but they don’t know I’m locked in a room in the far wing? The meal trays will stop and I’ll turn into a skeleton. Probably with so much unfinished business I’ll end up cursed to haunt this joint for a thousand years.

I pound on the door again, my breath catching as the terrifying possibility settles in my chest like concrete. “Help! Help me!”

More gunshots echo in the distance. I can’t tell anymore where real noise ends and the frantic beating of my heart begins. What if Red Hawk’s handlers eventually come for her and all that’s left is a pile of rat-chewed bones heaped in a corner of a forgotten nest?

I spread my feet and hammer both fists on the door. “Let me out, you damn sons of cock-sucking bitches. Let me out, or I’ll sic my ancestors on you and your offspring for thirty generations! You’ll never sleep again, you whoremongering haze stealers! Let me out!”

A bolt slides and the door smacks into me, sending me tumbling backward. “Fucking idiot!” I gasp out, agony running through my nose. My fingers come away sticky. “You made me bleed!”

“Miss? Are you okay?” an unfamiliar voice asks. The man promptly gags at the unholy smell in the room.

“Holy shit,” a second voice says, clearly appalled.

I have every intention of glaring at whoever slammed the door into me, but so much light blazes behind him I can’t see anything. My eyes water and I flinch away. While I cup my streaming nose with a hand, I hold one finger up, silently telling them to wait. When the pain’s under control, I slowly get to my feet.

The man hanging hesitantly in the doorway wears a blue uniform with OCB printed on the front in white letters. The cuffs, black baton, and gun on his hip look authentic enough.

Omega Crimes Bureau. Where the fuck have they been for the past eon?

“Took you long enough,” I hiss as I saunter past him, hitting an alpha-male scent cloud. Another OCB agent waits in the hall, covering his partner’s back.

“We’re here to rescue you,” the first alpha says gently, like he lets captives out of rotting cells every day of his life. “Please follow me, and we’ll take you to safety.” His gaze flicks through the dark room then back to me with alarm.

“Sure, but I need a minute first.” I wander back up the corridor, peeking into rooms until I find a bathroom with a shower.

The agents scurry after me. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have time for that, miss. We need to get you out of here in case we run into danger. And you need a medical assessment.”

I spin around and pin him in place with my glare. “You and I both know I reek of shit and piss, not to mention months-old haze. I’m not getting in a car or whatever pumpkin carriage exit you have lined up smelling like this.”

I stab one finger in his face. “In the first place, the other omegas don’t know about the bullshit I’ve experienced here.” I wave vaguely toward the pit I just walked out of before lifting my second finger. “And second, I’m an actress, and I have an image to maintain. I’m sure you have your pride too, right, agent?”

His eyes widen. “An actress? What movies?”

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