Page 3 of Tangled in Knots

Lies. Lies. Lies.

This is what I chant as I race for the heavily wooded area. I can’t hear anything as my legs eat up the terrain. I should hear people chasing me right?

I can’t think about anything else except getting to the back fence, though I wish that I was taller. I’m five-foot-two, a typical size for an omega. We tend to be smaller than betas and alphas, and I’ve often wondered if it’s so that they’ll feel more protective toward us when we mate. This is what I’ve always been told, though it could all be a lie.

There have been less and less people presenting as omegas in the last ten years, so alphas tend to mate as a pack. You’d think that I’d already be dating at least, but my father wouldn’t allow that either.

A branch snaps behind me, and I swallow a scream. Refusing to look, I jump over a log, my feet already moving as I hit the ground.

“Little omega!” a voice I don’t know yells, his words echoing through the woods. It’s a voice that promises dark and depraved things if they catch me. The trees amplify the sound, making goosebumps that have nothing to do with the frigid cold erupt over my skin. The only reason I’m wearing shoes is because I was playing with the idea of taking some hot chocolate outside to the back porch.

It’s going to snow tonight, and I love the first snowfall. Unfortunately, it’s really going to cramp my style now sinceI’m not wearing enough clothing for this. Leggings, with an oversized comfy sweater, that hits my knees, but not much else.

Fuck my life.

“You run so fast for a little rabbit!” Yet another voice yells with what I could swear is a sultry voice. All I can think of is how sloppy that is, now I know there’s at least three men chasing me. Maybe it doesn’t matter, because I can hear their boots eating up the ground behind me.

I wish I had longer legs.

“Little omega, you have an appointment with the auction house. Give it up! I don’t want to fuck up that pretty face,” the alpha, that I’m pretty sure kicked my door in, roars. He could just command me to stop, but I’m immune to it. My father learned early on that I had to be talked into things. The only reason I ran every day was because he asked me to.

Disappointing my father was my true kryptonite. I guess I don’t have to worry about that anymore. If this alpha is threatening me with the auction house and there aren’t any security guards here, then my father has to be dead.

There’s no way this would be happening otherwise.

Wasting my breath isn’t on my bingo card tonight, and neither is being caught by overbearing alpha thugs. I haven’t seen them, but now that they aren’t cloaking their steps, I can hear every stomp of their heavy boots as they chase me.

Fuck, they’re going to catch me.

I can see the fence and put on a burst of speed, hearing them curse under their breaths.

“Omega, stop!” the one with the deep voice barks, and nope, not a twinge. Completely immune. “What the fuck?”

“Special, little bunny,” Mr. Sultry says, but I don’t think it’s a good thing. Special is bad, I've always been taught. I want to be normal, but I don’t want to be caught, either.

The conundrum is real for me. Blood roars in my ears, insisting that I move faster, run harder.

I’m so focused on my goal, vaguely tracking where the two alphas taunting and yelling at me are, that I don’t hear the third when he launches himself at me, arms wrapping around my waist.

Throwing out my arms, I prepare for my face to meet the ground, but he turns mid-air, so that he lands on his back.

I turn into a hellcat: kicking, screaming, and scratching as soon as the masked alphas stomp up to me. Grabbing dirt, one of them shoves it in my mouth, covering my lips and nose so I can’t breathe.

Struggling now to not pull the dirt down my throat and into my lungs, I kick and try to pull his fingers away from me. He smells like leather and bad decisions, filling every crevice of my senses.

Then I’m out of air and try to inhale anything I can, which is the dirt that was shoved into my mouth. Huffing in laughter, the alpha chuckles as I wretch, twisting and shuddering as much from the dirt burning my lungs as his scent choking me.

“Be a good little omega and stop fighting,” he murmurs. The alpha is huge, with forearms corded with muscles, and I swear I can see every ab muscle in his stomach as his body flexes to control my fighting.

He’s wearing black clothes that remind me of something someone in a black ops show would wear, but I can see the weapons on his belt from here. It’s all a matte black, probably so no one will see him coming from the metal glinting in the light. It’s clear he’s the leader from how everyone follows his orders.

The alpha with the sultry voice moves into place without being bid to, pulling a rope out of one of the many pockets in his pants. “Hello, little bunny, this will be much worse because you fought. It was gonna be bad anyway,” the alpha purrs.

Such a seductive voice doesn’t deserve to be on this lithe monster of a man. He’s a bit thinner than the first alpha, grabbing my arms to begin to tie me up. The alpha underneath me wraps his legs around me to pin me down, and the alpha holding my mouth and nose lets me go as soon as my hands and arms are bound.

The scent of cedar invades my senses as soon as I can breathe, even as I turn my mouth to spit and hack.

Oh shit.

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