Page 30 of Knot the Alphas' Feral Omega

“There you go. There you go. Be careful with her legs; she’ll swipe at you if she gets the chance,” the one holding my head instructed. He held me firmly as the bindings on my legs were undone and then made soft, soothing sounds as the others in the room slowly backed away, leaving me in the arms of the final man, my head still firmly muzzled.

I hated it. I growled aggressively and swiped at him like he’d said I would. I couldn’t even be mad at myself for being predictable because my instincts were screaming, desperate for me to get away. My muscles bunched, and I tried to swipe again, but the man kept dodging me like this was an old game for him.

“It’s okay. They’ll be here soon with some medicine to help you out, sweetie,” the man said. His voice was sickly sweet and condescending, and I growled again, wanting him to know how infuriated I was.

He didn’t care, though—of course he didn’t. He just held my head still while my body struggled, and a few minutes later, the door opened again, and someone in a long, white lab coat walked in.

“New intake,” the man holding me said, his fingers carding through the fur behind my ears as if he werepettingme. “Found near the main road, just off Fifth Street. Called in by a neighbor who saw her shift and run away howling. Seems to be already pretty lost to the ferality, if I were to guess.”

The man—a doctor?—nodded and crouched next to me, his hand gently landing on my flank. I kicked out at him, but like the other man handling me, he didn’t seem bothered even a little by my aggression. “Any idea what caused her breakdown?”

I hated the way they talked about me as if I weren’t there. I wanted to return to human form and tell them exactly what had happened and how my heart was breaking from what Oliver had said and done.

But when I reached for that spark inside of me, the human side that was ordinarily so easy for me to access, I found it just out of reach.

I whined and tried harder—to shift, to communicate, to make themunderstand.

But I couldn’t. I was a scared wolf, a hurt omega, and I couldn’t be human right now. I couldn’t, I couldn’t, Icouldn’t.

“She’s an omega wolf, and she was near some prominent houses in the district where several alpha packs are located. I checked the registry on the way here, and two of them are registered to court omegas. If I had to guess, something happened with one of the alphas of those packs, and it upset her.”

The hand on my flank moved, and I was still this time. I just couldn’t anymore. I kept growling low in my throat, but it almost felt involuntary at this point. I let the doctor manhandle me as he checked me over, and his voice was smooth and professional when he spoke again.

“She appears uninjured, which is good. I’ll administer the sedative and then draw her blood to match her against the omega database and figure out who we need to call.” There was a slight pause, and then he said to me, “You’ll be here until you can shift back. I’m not anticipating it happening quickly, unfortunately. Cases of sudden ferality like this don’t usually recover quickly, but I hope you’re the exception to the rule.”

There was another pause before a sharp pinch on my flank made my growls die out in my throat, and I slowly slumped against the floor. Only once I was entirely relaxed did the man holding my head release me. All I could do was lay there as I felt another pinch—presumably the doctor drawing my blood—and then my muzzle was removed with careful fingers.

“You’ll be okay,” the man soothed, gently patting my head before he stood up. I wanted to balk at the blatant condescension in that gesture, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t move and could barely breathe. The pain in my chest from the fractured, fragile bondthat I’d formed with Oliver and the others was dulled from the drugs they’d given me, and a few seconds later, I heard the door buzz open again and then shut with a final sounding slam.

A low whine escaped me, but I couldn’t stand up. I couldn’t doanything.

All I could do was lay there on the ground, hurting and mindless, and slowly slip away into unconsciousness as the drugs took effect.

15

Killian

I stayed in wolf form for three days after watching the SRU cart Lilah away. I couldn’t go back to human form, not when everything inside me ached so badly that all I could do for the first day was howl.

Emmett and Oliver shifted during that period to try and come find me, of course; I felt them when they reached out along our pack bond, prodding and trying to figure out where I was, who I might be with, and if I was ever coming home.

I knew Oliver felt guilty, though not for the reasons I thought he should. He didn’t feel guilty for rejecting Lilah and tossing her out on her ass—no, of course not. The guilt he felt was that he had made the decision unilaterally for the pack rather than sitting Emmett and me down to explain why he believed we should reject Lilah.

Of course, I knew why he hadn’t. He’d been so blinded by hurt and pain and rage that the only thing that he had been able to think of was getting rid of the source, and I knew for a fact he’d been looking for a reason to cut things off with Lilah ever since I brought her home. He didn’t trust her or his own instincts. I didn’t understand why, but it wasn’t my place to understand why.

I didn’t go home until I felt I could reasonably face him and Emmett without biting their heads off. When I did reach that emotional place, though, I still couldn’t look them in the eye.

When I returned to the house, it was empty; they were both at work, making it easy for me to shift into my human form on the porch before letting myself in. The beep of the security system sounded as I made my way to my room, and I knew that Oliver would be informed that I was back home through the app on his phone. If he could get away, he would probably try to make it home to catch me before I left again.

I didn’t care, though. I quickly got dressed and looked down at the closed door of the nest that Lila had so painstakingly built during her time with us.

I knew it was wrong, that it was her private space that she’d wanted to share with us during a special moment, but...well, I didn’t know if she was ever coming back here.

And I wanted to see it.

I slowly made my way down the hallway and paused just outside the closed door, my heart pounding far more than I would have expected, considering I was alone. It took a second before Ifound my courage, but then I pushed the door open and peered inside.

I’d expected it to be destroyed or broken back down to the guest room that the room had been before Lila had come into our lives. I knew Oliver; any reminder of his bad behavior was on the chopping block, including the nest, so I was surprised to see that the room was exactly how I assumed Lilah had left it.

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