Page 3 of Pack Obsession

My lungs burn with each desperate breath, smoke from the crashed bus behind me still clinging to my clothes, my hair, and my skin. The mountainside drops away sharply to my right, loose rocks skittering down with each pounding step. Behind me, Danica’s scream to run pierces the storm!

I dodge between trees, drenched to the bone from the rain, grateful for advice from my brother, Kai.Always be ready to run, Case,he’d say.Sometimes, that’s all you’ve got.He was right—running is what Omegas do best, what we have to do best.

The crunch of heavy boots on gravel gets closer. I risk a glance back, and my heart stops. A Nexus government enforcer in his bottle-green uniform with the gold word Nexus printed on his sleeve is gaining on me.

My foot catches on a root, and I go down hard, pain shooting through my knee. Before I can scramble up, a hand fists into my back, sending me back down. I cry out as I’m shoved face-first into the ground, pine needles and wet dirt pressing into my cheek.

"Going somewhere?" His weight pins me down, one knee digging into my spine. I can barely breathe. His scent is all wrong, chemical and sharp, as if they try to mask their natural smell. "Did you really think you could run from us?"

I struggle, but he just laughs, twisting my arm behind my back until tears spring to my eyes. "Get off me!"

"You don’t get to give orders," he snarls. "You don’t get to make choices. That’s not what you were made for. Obeying Alphas–"

"Fuck you," I spit, tasting blood where my lip split against the ground.

The media and Nexus make it out that Omegas are to be treated as celebrities, as someone special, but in truth, many see us only as objects. We’re seen as women made to be rutted by Alphas, at their mercy… and the rumors I’ve heard about the Nexus guards treating Omegas harshly are clearly true.

They say we’re loved, but behind the scenes, many despise us.

"You don’t deserve to escape." He wrenches my arm higher, and I scream. "You belong to Alphas. That’s your only purpose. You’re nothing without us. No one."

The words hit harder than his hands because they’re the same ones I’ve heard whispered my whole life—in school hallways, in Nexus propaganda, in the pitying looks Betas give us on the street—but like hell am I accepting it.

I buck up hard, using every ounce of strength to twist sideways despite the knee in my back. The sudden movement catches him off guard, and his weight loosens just enough. I wrench free, rolling away fast. My palms slam into the dirt as I push myself up, leaves and pine needles cutting into my hands.

He lunges for me, but I’m already pivoting, driving my knee up between his legs. He howls, doubling over, but before I can get my balance, his hand cracks across my face.

Stars explode behind my eyes. I taste copper and salt.

His hand snatches my jawline, squeezing as he groans from pain, his face twisted in agony.

"Just like your kind fights dirty. But that’s why you need us—to teach you your place?—"

The rest of his words cut off in a grunt as something—someone—slams into him sideways at full speed. The weight disappears from me, and I gasp, stumbling backward to find a strange man in black driving his fist into the enforcer’s face. Each punch is sharp, controlled.

It’s raining harder now, running down my face, soaking me.

The enforcer goes limp and falls over, not moving. Shit!

The man in a balaclava whips in my direction, and even through the mask, I feel the intensity of his gaze as it sweeps over me.

"Are you okay?"

His voice is softer than I expected, wrapping around me. For a moment, I just stare at him—at the broad shoulders outlined in the daylight, at the way he positions himself between me and the enforcer. Who the hell is he?

Then my brain kicks back in. Strange Alpha is still strange Alpha, even if he did just save me. I ignore the way the world tilts and retreats quickly.

"Wait—" He reaches for me, except I’m running away fast.

Branches whip against my face as I slam through the underbrush, the mountain trail disappearing beneath my feet.

I glance back, and the masked man is gone… fuck!

This is my chance to escape the Nexus enforcers, the strange Alphas, and to avoid being forced into the Nexus facility to wait for my heat to come, to be matched with random Alphas.

In hindsight, my friends and I shouldn’t have separated. Rule number one of being an Omega… never be alone because we are sought after by all Alphas. As if I needed Nexus’ endless government regulations to tell me that. The bus collided so fast—metal grinding against metal, glass shattering, then chaos as Nexus guards came after us amid the thickening smoke—and we got separated as we ran for our lives.

Kayla’s yelling something from somewhere to my left, but I can’t see her through the dense trees in that direction. Can’t see anyone. My combat boots slip on slippery leaves, and I catch myself against a tree trunk, the bark rough under my palms.

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