Page 4 of Mating the Omega
They were getting closer.
I scrabbled on the ground, afraid to take my eyes off the approaching wolves, and found the keys more by luck than by any kind of talent. My heart pounded so hard my chest hurt, but I got the key into the lock and slid inside, slamming the door shut in their faces. The first one, a big deep gray with broader than normal shoulders, slammed into the side of the car, rocking it like it had been hit by a train. It was lucky he hadn’t hit the window, but if I didn’t get out of there he probably would, and then I would have burned all my luck and more.
For once, the car started without complaining. I put it in Drive and looked up to see the other wolf standing in my way. For a moment, I was paralyzed.What do I do?The wolf and I stared at each other, while the first one clawed at the door. I heard the trim ping away onto the pavement and the metallic groan of the metal giving way before the onslaught.
A faint groan wavered up from the back seat, and I made up my mind. I don’t know when my expression changed, but I knew the exactly moment that the wolf in front of me realized what I was planning. I gunned the motor in Neutral once, twice, and his eyes, widened, then I put the car back in Drive and put my foot to the floor.
Even then, he didn’t quite believe that I, an omega, a weak, submissive wolf, would deliberately try to run him down.
But I’m no ordinary omega.
He jumped out of the way just in time, and I fishtailed out onto the street, determined to put as much distance between us and them as possible. I didn’t even know where I was going. Away was a good enough direction for now.
We’d figure the rest out later.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was spring, and we had just arrived at the pay-by-the-hour motel we’d be staying at for the next couple of days. Dad had gotten some handyman work in the past town, which took care of the rent. For my part, I’d covered up my scent by taking up smoking, and lifted a few wallets from unwary people. Dad didn’t approve of it, but for once, the way people just gravitated toward me was useful. They were so busy being charmed, they didn’t notice I was going through their pockets. And it paid for food, and gas for the car, and sometimes put a roof over our heads.
I was going to have a bath. Maybe. It would depend on how bad the bathroom was. But we’d been living rough the past couple of days, and I was ready for even the simplest of luxuries.
“You got your ID?” Dad asked. He still limped, and sometimes his headaches were so bad he couldn’t drive, and I ended up doing it all. Living hand to mouth, sleeping in the car, and always looking over our shoulders was hard on him. He’d never entirely recovered from the beating. It worried me, and I’d come to the conclusion that our roving days had to end. But I needed to find the right place to end them.
I knew that ‘coming in’, as the cop shows put it, would involve giving myself to an Alpha. There was no question about it. But, if I was going to do that, I wanted to pick one. At least, if I picked him, I would know that I was getting what I’d asked for. Maybe the abuse, the tight regulations, the loss of independence would be worth it.
So, I’d picked up another burner phone and called my Uncle Tony. Dad didn’t know it, but we’d been visiting territories around the middle of the country ever since Christmas, checking out packs while I tried to decide which Alpha I could trust to be the least interested in me. Because mostly I just wanted to get pregnant, then have him leave me in peace. I could do that. And every heat made the desire for children that much stronger—it would kill two birds with one stone.
I rented us a room and helped Dad carry the backpacks inside. He sat down in the chair with a whoosh and put his hand to his head.
“You can sleep if you want,” I told him. “I’ll see what I can scrounge for supper.”
“You shouldn’t be wandering around on your own.”
“I have my secret weapon,” I said, and pulled out the pack of cigarettes. I pulled on a ball cap and checked my wallet to make sure I had enough money to buy burgers on the way back. “You rest. We need to talk about where we’re going next when I get back.” By then, I’d have learned what I could about the man who ran the local pack and made my decision to stay or keep moving on.
Abel Mercy Hills was his name, a warrior’s name and his pack’s name. Before we were herded into enclaves, Mom said there were many small packs, and shifters had more last names, but not now. The Alphas of the Mercy Hills pack ran a tech company, building software for humans. Someone like him, he’d either have all the time in the world to bother me because he was just a figure-head, or he’d be hands on, and I would only see him when my heat struck. I had my fingers crossed for the second one.
Dad wasn’t the only one this was wearing on.
I’d been fighting the guilt since Dad’s beating, my constant companion. I hardly slept any more, and it was only habit that had kept us out of the hands of Orvin and the other Alphas. Too many close calls, and I was tired and ready to belly up to anyone who promised to at least let me garden when I wasn’t at their beck and call. And they had to allow my Dad to stay, and get him proper medical care. Outside of that, well, I would have to deal with it, wouldn’t I?
I wish I knew what the fuck all the fuss was about.
To prove my point that I could be careful, I dabbed some of that menthol gel humans use when they get a cold over my pulse points, where my scent would be strongest. I pushed my hair, now down to my shoulders and curling in every direction, firmly under my ball cap, and lit a cigarette, to cover any lingering sign of omega in my scent. “There, no one will smell me or recognize me now. I’m going to have a scout around, see if there’s any work to pick up.” That would be my excuse for coming back late. “Get some sleep, Dad. I won’t be long.”
“Yeah, okay.” And that worried me more than anything else—he was giving up too easily. He got to his feet and made his slow way over to the bed, kicking off his shoes and more falling onto the mattress than lying down on it.
I left the motel in a grim mood. It was a good hour’s drive out to the enclave, which only gave me time to stew, and to worry every time I saw a police car. I had no permit to be off shifter grounds—at least, none for this name. I’d lost everything except my current identity in the last close call. They’d caught my jacket and I’d skinned out of it without even thinking about the phone and the wallet with all my cards in it. They came back for me later—I don’t know if they tracked me, or just visited every motel in the city looking for our car, but they found our bolthole. The only thing that saved us was that we’d gone to do laundry before we settled in for the night, and that was when Orvin’s enforcers has broken into the motel room. When we came back, the police were there, and we quietly got back into our car and left. I’d called our usual contact for false papers as we drove down the highway, putting miles between us and our hunters, but the line was disconnected. It took me two days to find someone who would do it for us—Orvin’s work, I assumed. And in the meantime, we’d toed all the lines in the world, trying to stay under the radar.
This isn’t getting you anywhere.I punched the button on the radio and started scanning stations, settling on one that played bright, cheery, unrealistic pop music. By the time I’d arrived at the gate, my hopeful mood had returned. And then it hit me—I didn’t have any papers. Just my current ID, which was for a human. Which absolutely wouldn’t get me past those gates unless I had a work order or a government permit.
Fuck.I pounded on the steering wheel, then drove past. Didn’t matter—I’d just go over the wall. I left the car parked in a field behind some trees, and took off cross country. The open field called to me, urging me to change and run like I hadn’t had the opportunity to in ages. I shivered with the pleasure of being out of the city—I hadn’t seen green grass and open spaces, except for some poorly maintained parks, since well before Christmas.
The wall was a tall concrete thing. I couldn’t imagine what it had cost to build, but then again, we shifters were taxed half to death to cover the cost of them. That’s why there were so few enclaves, and why many of them were becoming so crowded. A few years ago, the human government had begun allowing small communities to form outside the enclaves to ease the overpopulation, but they were strictly regulated, and required to be associated with an enclave so the shifters had someplace to run on full moon. Most shifters preferred the enclaves—they were safer for us. Humans were known to band together and attack when you least expected it and there were always stories running around about families dragged out of their beds and beaten within an inch of their lives.
All the trees near the wall had been cut down, but when I got closer to it, I could see ridges and notches where the forms the humans had used to build it had been. It might be enough to get me up the side. Wolves weren’t natural climbers, but I was desperate. I reached out and stuck a couple of fingers in the first tiny depression, and began my climb.
By the time I got to the top, I’d fallen off four times, my hands were sore, and I had nearly given up twice. But then there it was, the flat top, with the silver-coated bars at the top. I hadn’t brought gloves, so I pulled my shirtsleeves down as far as they’d go and went over the bars as quickly as I could, cursing the itching and the beginning of the burn where the cloth had pulled away from my fingers. I hoped there’d be water somewhere nearby so I could wash my hands before they started to swell. I’d only had silver burns once, when I was five, and we’d gotten a special permit to leave the enclave to take me to a museum for my birthday. A couple of human kids had been watching us, making me nervous. I’d wandered away to look at the bones of a prehistoric wolf when one of them approached me and offered me a present. I thought I’d been wrong and that he was giving me a birthday present. Instead, he’d seen the tags on our clothes marking us as shifters, and was playing a trick. I ended up in hospital, and my birthday trip was ruined.
