Page 78 of Ruined Omega

The air I’ve been holding trapped in my lungs finally streams out in a silent sigh of relief.

The omega passes the keys through the bars, and I hand them to Tal. He reaches around, and with slow precise movements he inserts the key in the old-fashioned lock and turns it. Even though he takes great pains to be as quiet as possible, the faint scrape of the rusty deadbolt seems excruciatingly loud in this silence.

The latch comes free. Baen reaches around and removes it from the hasp.

One of the guards snorts, mumbles something in his sleep. The Alphas remain statue-still, staring at the guard intensely until he settles back to sleep.

Tal swings the gate slowly, slowly, taking care not to let the metal creak or clank. As soon as it is open. Canaris bursts through, rushing toward the guards on silent feet.

“Canaris!” Tal hisses.

But Canaris has already pounced on the first guard. With a brutal twist, he breaks the man’s neck.

The other guard startles awake, but Baen is on top of him in a flash, coiling one sinewy arm around the Farlander’s neck in a chokehold. The Farlander’s eyes bulge. His tongue lolls. His body goes slack. Baen holds him a few seconds more until he’s sure that he’s dead.

Through it all, the young, feral omega looks on with a gleeful glint in her eyes.

Canaris strides back, wiping his hands as if he’s disgusted to have even touched a Farlander. Nevermind the fact that he’s caked in mud.

“Couldn’t risk them waking up and finding us gone,” Canaris whispers to Tal. “This will buy us some time.”

“Let’s use that time well,” Tal whispers back. “We need to get out of here.”

He moves to pick me up.

“Wait,” I say and place one hand on his hard chest.

“What is it?”

At my feet lies the pill bottle where Abaddon dropped it yesterday. I stoop and pick it up, raise it to the starlight. There are only four or five pills left inside. I unscrew the top and dash the remaining pills into my open palm.

“Hines,” Tal whispers insistently.

I stare at the pills for one more second. Yesterday, they were my most important possession. The only thing that mattered was holding off the mutation. But now the change is complete. I’m an omega. There is no going back.

And I wouldn’t want to go back if I could.

This is who I am now.

This is my destiny.

I fling the last of the pills into the cage where they plip into the mud. I toss the empty bottle after, saying goodbye to the life I’ve known.

“Okay,” I whisper. “Let’s go.”

Tal squats, and I mount him, riding piggy back. I look to the other Alphas. Baen is on the left, his close-cropped hair and sinewy muscles edged with pale light. Shaggy Canaris is on the right, his silvered hair lustrous despite the mud.

But the young omega is nowhere to be seen.

“Where did she go?”

“I don’t know,” Tal says. “I didn’t see her leave. But we don’t have time to stick around.”

We sneak out of the Farlander encampment. Tal takes the lead with me on his back while Baen and Canaris flank on both sides, hanging back a couple of paces to form a protective wedge. They move as one, a bonded pack.

It’s a little weird to think that I’m the connection holding them together.

Just before we reach the edge of the clearing, I scan my eyes around the treeline, searching for any sign of the omega. I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure I see a pair of reflective cat’s eyes shining in the shadows.