Page 50 of Ruined Omega

As Tal nears, he glances down at my raised loincloth, then gives me a chastising look.

“Now is not the time, boy,” he growls.

But his own cloth—the tattered remains of his Outsider denim—is nearly busting apart with his own arousal. And little wonder. With that beautiful half-omega ass right next to his face, he’s no doubt getting a noseful of her sweltering cunt-scent.

“Not the time for what?” Hines cries from over shoulder.

Tal grunts and rolls his eyes.

Suddenly, the rain starts to fall. I can hear it rushing over the ground in a wave toward us. The half-omega squeals as the fat cold drops start to pelt us like stones.

“We need to find shelter!” I shout over the roar of the gale.

Tal simply nods, and we set off into the woods as the sky shatters.

CHAPTER 16: HINES

As soon as the storm rolls over us, it turns the world to night, and being deep in this old-growth forest just makes matters worse. All around us, the tree trunks are creaking as they sway in the ferocious wind. Wet leaves blow past. Some of them stick to my bare thighs. My nose fills with the odors of rotten wood and wet moss.

“Up there,” Baen calls in a low voice. “Beneath that overhang.”

Tal responds, following the sound of the other Alpha’s voice. He is still carrying me over his shoulder like a wet sack.

I can tell that we are ascending a rocky rise. I try to turn and look over Tal’s shoulder, but between the darkness and sprays of windblown rain I can hardly see a thing.

Then a double strobe of blue lightning illuminates the forest, and I see it. A cliff tucked amidst the giant trees, its stone face slick with rain. In the middle is a small, dark cavity. Just enough space for the three of us to huddle, to take shelter from the storm.

The cliff disappears like a mirage, swallowed up by the darkness, but its afterimage is still burned on my retinas. I have a strange premonition that something will happen in that cavity. Something fearful.

Thunder booms, vibrating the stones and the trees.

We rise. Tal leaps deftly up the piled boulders. He is not even slightly burdened by my weight on his shoulder.

God, he is so strong. Both of them are. Both he and Baen.

That thought brings back the squirmy ticklish feeling in my lower abdomen. I tell myself it’s just a slight discomfort at the pressure of Tal’s round, boulder-hard shoulder pushing into my belly. But I know that’s not true.

It’s the other thing.

The change that’s happening in me.

I already need to take more pills.

Tal reaches the top of the rise and ducks inside the shelter of the stone cavity. Baen is already waiting there. The cliff blocks the rain, which is a relief, even though my sweatshirt hoody is already soaked and clinging to my skin.

Tal sets me down against the deepest wall of the shallow cave.

Outside, lightning blazes again, three flashes in rapid succession. The light paints a monochrome image of the forest—tangled limbs, column-like trunks, and a scraggly underbrush of briars and bushes.

Again the scene blinks out, leaving only a spectral echo in my vision. Again the thunder booms like a cannon, so loud it vibrates my teeth.

The two Alphas are on either side of me, bracketing my body with theirs. I sense that they are surveying the surroundings. Tasting the air. Listening for pursuers.

In the ensuing silence, I carefully reach into my pocket and take out the pills. I try to do it silently, but my hands are shaking with adrenaline overload, and the capsules chatter inside the plastic bottle.

“Tal,” Baen whispers. “We have a problem. The half-omega…”

“I’m not an omega,” I mutter as I unscrew the lid.