Page 61 of Ruined Omega

The muddy smile lets out a soft chuckle. The hulking mud monster shambles along the wall of the cage slowly. A few feet away, there is a rusty bucket brimming with rainwater collected from the previous night’s downpour. The monster lifts the bucket, dumps it over his head, washing away the caked mud to reveal the deeply tanned skin underneath.

It is another Alpha. Tal and Baen relax slightly, but not completely. They continue shielding me with their bodies.

Once the new Alpha has been thoroughly doused, and the better part of the mud has been sluiced away from his body, he flings the empty bucket aside and shakes like a wet dog, sending a spray of glistening water droplets spiraling away.

Now we can get a good look at him.

He is powerfully built, just like Tal and Baen, but thicker and blockier—a brick of an Alpha. His head is covered in a thick, wild mane of dark hair, and his jaw is furred with a matching beard, which looks like it hasn’t been trimmed in many months. Underneath the dense growth, his face is handsome in a rugged, rough-hewn away

But the feature that stands out the most are the Alpha’s scars. His naked body is covered from head to toe in brutal whip-scars. There are so many, they look like tiger stripes. Despite this, the imprisoned Alpha stands before us proudly.

Metal gleams on his chest. One of his nipples is pierced.

“Who are you?” Tal asks.

The Alpha swipes his wet mane back from his forehead.

“My name is Canaris.”

He is speaking to Tal, but I can tell that his eyes are laser focused on me. Apparently sensing this, Tal and Baen move a little closer, hiding me from Canaris’s prying eyes.

“I’m Tal. This is Baen.” Half-reluctantly, he gestures at me with a jerk of his head. “She is Hines.” After a beat, he adds, “She’s an Outsider.”

Canaris’s pewter-gray eyes widen with surprise at this news.

“An Outsider?” he mutters. “An unchanged Outsider? And a pair of Alphas, too. How by the Source did you three end up in this hell hole.”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“Yeah, but I asked first.”

Canaris takes a step toward us. Tal and Baen tense again as if anticipating an attack, but Canaris raises his open palms to show he means no harm.

“Look, we’re in the same boat here,” Canaris says calmly. “Or the same cage, I should say. At the very least, we have a common enemy.”

“The Alpha with the burned face,” Baen says. “Who is he?”

“His name is Abaddon,” Canaris answers. He crouches, resting his arms on his knees.

Tal relaxes. The tension goes out of his shoulders. The muscles of his arms unknot. He gives Baen a quick nod to let him know it’s okay, then we all move forward. The mud squishes between my toes with each step.

Tal and Baen crouch. My legs and butt are already so muddy I just decide to sit down in the stuff. In a weird, gross way, it feels kind of nice, and it feels good to finally give my weary body some rest.

“Abaddon?” Tal says. “Why does that name sound familiar to me?”

“He’s not a Farlander, as I’m sure you noticed. He used to live among the central ruins with the other noble Alphas.”

While Canaris speaks, he mainly keeps eye contact with Tal and Baen. But occasionally his eyes drift to me, and whenever they do, I see a spark of curiosity in those depths.

He’s wondering what I am exactly. Tal told him that I’m an Outsider. But Canaris knows there’s more to it than that. He must be wondering why I haven’t been mutated yet. After all, I am unprotected. Totally naked, in fact.

And I can feel the faintest flutterings down below my belly.

Without my pills, the change is coming back, and with it my heat. I shudder to think about what will happen if I go into full-blown estrus locked inside this muddy cage with three massive Alphas.

“So what happened to Abaddon?” Baen asks.

“He was part of a pack. One of the most powerful and respected packs in the Zone. But his pack was killed in a freak accident. A fire broke out in the northernmost section of the central ruins.”