Page 29 of Knot the Alphas' Feral Omega

The government’s watchdogs for out-of-control shifters.

Fuck!

I whimpered and watched the others move quickly as soon as Lilah’s teeth were occupied. Wire bindings were fastened around all of her paws, binding them together. Once she was immobilized, the handler she’d bitten managed to pry her jaws off his arm, and then a muzzle was hooked over her face andefficiently buckled into place so she couldn’t snap at anyone anymore.

No...

I watched helplessly as the handlers carefully lifted Lilah and carried her to the open back door of the van. She was placed in the back, and a blanket was tucked under her head before the doors were closed, and the handlers all climbed into the front of the van.

Even the roar of the engine as the van started up and drove away couldn’t cover up the pained wail of the wolf now locked in the back section, and my heart broke even more as I watched our scent-match be taken away.

14

Lilah

I was lost, I was fucking terrified, and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move. I couldn’tmove.

I wiggled, my paws all caught up and pinned, and my heart pounded as I struggled not to panic. Everything inside me wanted to howl, and god, I couldn’t stop myself from growling every few seconds, desperate to get away, bite, or...

Every ounce of rational thought was gone. I was all instinct, all fear and terror and agonizing pain from having been rejected.

God, Oliver’s face. He hadn’t even waited to hear what I had to say. He hadn’twaited.

That was partly my fault. I would have been stupid if I hadn’t seen Oliver’s hesitation about me. He’d been perfectly polite and even affectionate with me over the weeks I’d been living in the house...but there had always been hesitation there. His eyeswere guarded as he looked at me, mistrust simmering in their depths as if I had an agenda and he couldn’t figure out what it was.

I’d wanted to ask more than once what his reservations were and what hishistorywas, but I’d never gotten the courage to do so.

And now I never would.

I howled again, the sound muffled by my muzzled snout. My teeth tingled with the urge to bite, even though I knew that biting that man earlier was the reason I was in here in the first place. It hadn’t taken long for them to show up on the curb in front of me, slowly surrounding my wolf form with quiet words that were probably meant to be soothing. Humans were leery of shifters, even though we had integrated into society without a problem once we came out of the metaphorical closet.

Even so, many would report us merely for existing if they suspected that we were shifters, and that went double if we were caught shifting in public.

I knew all of that rationally, but I hadn’t been in my rational mind when my wolf form had ripped into existence, shredding my clothes and letting out a desperate howl that I knew for a fact could be heard far away, especially by other shifters.

I hadn’t been expecting the mild pang ofpainthat rang through my chest at my howl, nor the familiar warmth that it elicited. I somehow knew it was Killian, and a big part of me had wanted to go back to the house to see if he was there, to see ifhewould let me explain.

My wolf had been fully in control, though—and I’d run. I’d run hard, far, and fast, and I knew I wouldn’t stop again until I got...somewhere.

And now I was trapped. I was locked up; I was caged. And I had a sneaking suspicion where they would take me as soon as they got out of the city limits.

The rehab facility for feral wolves was not kind or pretty, to say the least, and I couldn’t even argue that it wasn’t where I deserved to be right now. The way that my instincts were screaming at me, the way that I hadn’t been able to control my shift...

The rational part of me didn’t want to go, of course. But I kept howling and writhing against my restraints, and in the back of my mind, I had to admit that I was in no shape to be around other people—not now.

I continued to howl, whine, and plead in the back of the car, where nobody could hear me as we drove. Eventually, the smooth pavement under the car turned to the bumpy grind of gravel, and the sun surrounding the car changed. Fresh grass, decaying leaves, and fresh air overtook the exhaust fumes, and I knew we weren’t in the city anymore.

Confirming my worst fears.

The car finally came to a stop. Bound up as I was, there was no way I would be able to get away even if I did try to struggle, and I lay, docile, as they picked me up and slowly carried me into the facility.

“There you go. See, that’s okay, isn’t it?” one of them—the one that was carefully holding my head so it didn’t bounce at an unpleasant angle—cooed at me. I could tell he was doing his best to comfort me, but the moment we walked into the facility and the sterile scent of antiseptic and bitter drugs hit my nose, all was lost again.

I snarled into the muzzle and thrashed my body as best I could as they made their way through the building. Along the way, one of them peeled off. I could feel the muzzle filling up with foaming saliva, and in the back of my mind, my rational mind continued to shrink away, eaten by my instincts and the aching, desperate sense oflossin my chest.

I lost them. I lost them. Theyrejectedme.

I whined, and a loud buzzing sound made my entire body jerk. I barely had the wherewithal to look around, to see the long hallway with barred doors—all with keypad locks beside them and red lights signaling that they were locked down tight—before I was carried into a room and carefully set down.

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