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“Orderyou to lie still.”
And there it is. I whimper pitifully, my entire chest shuddering with the sound. His face twists into a strange expression, not one I know. His eyebrows draw together and the muscles in the hard edges of his jaw all twitch. My eyelashes flutter uncontrollably and every muscle in my body is tense and straining and on fucking fire from the effort. His fingers are hot and rough and painful as they dig into my cheeks.
I want to resist.But he says to lie still and Omegas have to obey the Alphas that bond them.“No…” I choke, coughing while my chest shudders and shivers, being torn in half by the desire to do everything that he says and the even greater desire to not do any of it.
His big, clawed hand releases my jaw and smooths over my forehead in a touch that’s as gentle as the last was brutal. “Shh,” he coos, voice a low purr. The muscles in his body ease. His chest starts to make this strange rumbling sound, like thunder only twice as frightening because I don’t know what it means, or what it precipitates.
At the thought, lightning flashes in the sky, refracting off of the dagger’s hilt still sticking out of his shoulder. I want to grab it, but the knowledge that he wants me still stays the motion of my hand and Ihatethat. More tears swim in my vision, making me momentarily blind. I shake my head rapidly, furiously, but he holds me down in the mud until I’m forced to either look up into his eyes or close mine. I opt for the latter.
“Understand this transition is difficult for you.” Fucking rich. “But you don’t need to fear me.” What a joke. “Not here to hurt you.” Too late for that.
His huge hand slides through my hair to the side of my face and his thumb roughly strokes the tears underneath my right eye. I shriek between my teeth and try to rip away.“Not here to command you. I’ll release you from the commands, fornow, but I’m askin’ you to stay calm. Promise I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Was that permission? It sounded like fuckin’ permission and I don’t hesitate. My fingers claw into the earth. Vines rustle…and then comes a tearing from beneath our bodies and the sound of something huge ripping, cracking…falling.
A shadow moves at the edge of my vision and the Berserker curses and shifts so fast, it’s like he’s pulling on an outer coat, instead of a second skin. He lunges to cover my body with his huge, furry, beastly form and, before I can so much as think to move, his hand — the size of my entire torso — maneuvers around my back. His claws sink into my sweatshirt and pain digs several grooves into my body when he throws me to the side.
I roll over the ground, skating over twigs and rocks and wet soil. A roar sounds behind me. There’s more crackling too, more wet mud sailing through the air, moss and water and bark, too. I look up just as the second tree falls — the first already has him pinned to the spot where I was lying just a second ago. The second comes to cover the first, two trunks cracking against one another that must weigh several tons between them. Still, he’s lifting up against them, refusing to give up.
I blink and the earth rattles and roars, dislodging three more trees from where their roots had kept them grounded for decades, centuries — until I came along. They fall and fall until he’s completely buried. The wind swirls. I hold my breath. He must be unconscious — stuck, at the very least.I should help him.The thought comes and goes and I feel panic and guilt and shame and pride roll themselves all into one and try to shove themselves down my throat. But I don’t let them stall me. Instead, I turn and grab the outstretched hands of my two best friends — Pain and Fear — and I run.
3 | Echo
Paradise River
I collapse onto the riverbank and, for as long as I can stomach not moving, I don’t.My chest rises and falls in waves that never crest. I can’t catch my breath. I can’t even begin to describe the agony I’m in, what with Pain and Fear tap dancing across every inch of my flesh. I ache. I’d do anything to be free of this fresh Hell.Maybe, a life of servitude isn’t so bad. The Berserker smelled nice, at least.Anything but that.
I moan out loud, unable to help the liquid that spills out of the corners of my eyes. I try to think of something else other than the agony, but my thoughts all return to last night and all of them confuse the shit out of me. I remember bringing the trees, bringing the vines, the rain, the thunder, the storm. I remember that he felt like a storm. The way he came so fast and hard and with such violence. Why did he bite me like that? Why did he try to talk to me afterward? I’m not sure which I hated more.
Or maybe…maybe I’m remembering it all wrong. It was coincidence, the storm, the lightning, the wet ground and the vines of the forest responding to my wants. There was no Omega power. His bitedidn’tact as some kind of trigger, giving me access to dormant powers…because something like that has never been known to happen before.
I prop my feet up on the rocks just below me and am just about to start the arduous and singularly painful task of peeling the wet rabbit skins from the blocks of swollen ice I now call feet when I hear the crackle of twigs directly across the river.
This can’t be fucking happening.
The Berserker hasn’t caught up to me, but along the way, it looks like six other Alphas did.
“No fucking way,” the Alpha closest to me with a Dark City Slayers tee shirt says, parroting my thoughts. My gaze drops to his clothing, confused. It looks like a band tee and it’sclean,suggesting these young Alphas aren’t part of a Gang Mountain gang, or any other. But Alphas don’t prowl outside of their cities unless they’ve got a really good fucking reason to… Like an Omega on the loose.
His face twists into a horrible grin as he plunges into the freezing cold river up to his thighs. Paradise River is deep, rapid and wide. He’s a fool to try to cross it. But…he is trying. I scrabble backwards, crab-walking up the muddy slope to the best of my ability, mostly dragging my injured leg. It oozes blood and my back stings where wounds crisscross over it. With fresh bites, I can’t move my head at all. I’m swollen and sick, not yet feverish, but barreling towards infection. I’m gonna die soon. I shoulda probably died a long time ago.
“You were right, Victor.” He takes another step.
The guy with the skin like mine — brown and freckled — whistles loudly and walks into the river alongside his friend. “I fucking told you I smelled Omega pussy out here.” He shoves the first guy in the chest as he struts past him, water sloshing around his feet, and then his thighs and then his waist… He wobbles and tumbles in —yes!— only to resurface a moment later. His friends all laugh and Victor curses them as he finds his footing.Frick!His confidence gives the others confidence and slowly, they all begin to wade in after him.
I’m so badly injured I don’t have it in me to panic. I should be dead. How I’m not is as much a mystery as the powers I exhibited last night. I know I can’t outrun the young Alphas, so I concentrate hard on the water instead, wondering if I could somehow freeze it, or maybe turn the muddy river bottom to quicksand and swallow the Alphas all up.
I think about doing it, focus on it with every ounce of fleeting determination left in me, but nothing happens. My Omega power — a power that I don’t understand at all but that was so bountiful the night before — dries up. Maybe, it never was.
“What would you know about Omega pussy?” A third guy says, this one wearing a white tee shirt painted over with a giant smiley face whose eyes are red Xs.
“I’m about to find out,” Victor says.
“I can’t believe the intel we got from Mirage City was actually right.” The first one — Slayer tee — laughs. “Though the letter didn’t say she’d look like this.”
“No shit. We coulda done a lot better for an Omega,” Smiley tee adds. “She looks fucking wrecked. We’ll have to be careful when we fuck her so we all get a chance.”
“I’m going first,” Slayer tee says.
