Page 5 of Mating the Omega
All these thoughts played in my head as I made my way carefully over the pointed ends of the bars, and then I was inside. It was a long way down, but my hands hurt, and there was a glint of water not far away.
Fuck it.And I jumped.
CHAPTER SIX
The landing knocked the breath out of me and I spent a good five minutes just lying on the ground staring up at the sky, waiting for my lungs to work again. I made a note to climb down the next time I broke into a werewolf enclave.
Once it got easier to breathe, I rolled to my feet and staggered off in the direction of the pond I’d seen. The place was packed with trees and just their presence made me happier than I’d been in a long time, but still I hurried. My hands were getting worse, the itching turning to burning. If I didn’t wash them soon, the reaction would be impossible to stop.
There! I caught the scent of water, off to the right, and veered in that direction. Moments later, I broke through the undergrowth and fell to my knees next to a pond that couldn’t have been more than ten feet across. I didn’t care—it was water, and I plunged my hands under the surface, rubbing feverishly at the skin until the burning started to lessen. It wouldn’t go completely; by this time, some of it had soaked through my skin, but it was only a couple of spots and I’d gotten it off the outside. My body would work through the rest.
About the time I decided I might be safe to move on, I heard the low growl of an engine in the distance, coming closer. Was it a regular patrol, or did they have sensors on the top of the wall? Fuck. I took off at full speed away from the sound of the engine. The pond seemed to be spring fed, which was a shame. If the books I’d read as a kid had been right, I could have thrown them off my scent by following whatever stream fed it.
I climbed a tree, hoping to catch my breath, and to try to figure out where the security team—that had to be who it was—were looking. I didn’t even consider that it might be an evening tryst—my luck hadn’t been that good since my first heat happened.
There. Back where I came from.I climbed down again and headed away from the wall, hoping to find civilization and blend into a crowd before I was spotted.
My stupid luck, though, got the better of me.
Not five minutes after I’d left my tree, I damn near ran into one of the local shifters. We both froze, staring at each other. I couldn’t make out much about him, except that he was huge, and that was really all I needed to see to know I didn’t want to be caught by him.
He raised his hand in my direction and I spun around, heading back the way I came at my best speed. He shouted behind me, answered by another shout more to my right, and then I heard the crashing of the bushes as he came, hot on my trail.
There was no way I was going to be able to outrun him on his own territory—I’d have to out think him.
I dodged and weaved through the trees, gaining a few feet only to double back in the hopes he’d keep running in my original direction. It worked a couple of times, but he always figured it out, which was frightening. I’d hoped he’d be one of those big guys that got riled up and stopped thinking—I’d used that a few times to get my ass out of sticky situations. No such luck here, though. He was a good hunter and knew how to read a scent trail, which I had to be leaving behind by now.
But if he was busy chasing me, maybe the trick was to stop running…
It only took them about fifteen minutes to find me once I stopped. I had to admit, I was impressed. I’m pretty good at blending into the background—most omegas are, or if they don’t come by it naturally, they learn that protective camouflage pretty fast. So when the big redhead hauled me down out of the tree I’d climbed, I didn’t put up much of a fight. Well, maybe a little, enough that the dark-haired guy with him, easily as huge as his redheaded buddy, cuffed me across the back of the head with sufficient force to make my eyes water.
“Settle down. Humans shouldn’t be sneaking in here; it’s not safe for you guys without an escort.”
Red drew in a deep breath, then pulled me close and sniffed at my wrist. I guess the water had washed away my protective menthol shield. “I don’t think he is.” He frowned and raised the wrist he held so high that I had to stand on tiptoes or I would have been hanging in mid-air. Another sniff, this one with his nose buried deep in my armpit, and he nodded. “Yep. He smells a bit like my cousin Bram.”
Dark cocked his head to one side and leaned in for his own sniff. I kicked at him out of pure contrariness, and ended up with both my legs caught in a stranglehold against his hip.This isn’t how the night was supposed to go.I growled and tried to punch him, but Red grabbed that arm too. Dark laughed and inched his way up my legs until he could sniff at my groin. “Definitely wolf, but I don’t know. I don’t know what he smells like.”
“We have to take him back anyway. Maybe someone else can figure it out.” Red eyed me thoughtfully, and my heart sank. I recognized that look. If I let them take me back wherever they were talking about, I might never get out again, and I’d be stuck here, slaving away for whatever Alpha was fast enough to mate me, or for whoever won the fight if they got me locked up first. Dad would never know what happened to me—he might even think Orvin had caught up with me, and he’d go home and get himself killed trying to get me back. The thought sent a shot of cold adrenaline through my body, and I began to throw myself around, hoping to loosen their grip enough to get free.
Red laughed. “Easy now, you’re going to hurt yourself.” He nodded to Dark, who let go of my legs. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I tried to bolt, but Red still had my arms, and all I managed was to wrench my shoulders so hard a whimper escaped.
“You’re hurting the boy,” Dark said.
“If he’d stop squirming, he wouldn’t get hurt. I’m not the one moving around.” His hands squeezed my wrists, thumb pressing on the nerve hard enough to bring me to my knees. “There, that’s better.” He let up on the pressure, but I stayed down. I wasn’t going to invite that kind of pain again. And maybe, if I played scared, he’d relax and I’d have another chance to break away.
Dark pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt. “We got him. It’s a wolf, but not one of ours.” A voice crackled out of the speaker, too distorted for me to make out, though Dark and Red seemed to have problem with it. “Roger that. Be there in about ten minutes.” He put the walkie away and patted me on the head. “Well, you wanted in. You’re in.”
What the hell did that mean?
Red pulled me to my feet and twisted one of my arms behind my back. He patted me down, taking my phone, my wallet, and my car keys out of my pocket. There wasn’t anything else to find. “Come on, pup. Let’s go see what the big guy says.” He pushed a little on the arm and gave it just enough extra twist to promise a world of pain if I fought back.
I went with them quietly, playing the dutiful omega while I watched for a moment’s inattention on their part, and an opportunity to escape on mine.
The entire time, I wondered who they were taking me to see. And was it salvation, or total disaster?
My life didn’t allow for much in between.
CHAPTER SEVEN
