Page 12 of Unruly Omega

After what felt like an hour later, my mate, in human form, lay on the floor. He shivered and shook, and I had a blanket handed in to me through the window to cover him up.

“Where am I? Are you…is this?” His voice enfolded me in warmth.

“You’re safe here. Do you know what your name is?”

Selfish of me, but knowing that part of him, well, I was starved for it.

“Of course. It’s Kellan. Where in the hell am I?”

“This is a sanctuary for shifters who have gone through trauma.” I left it generic. He would tell us what happened to him eventually. “No one here will ever hurt you.”

“Humans?” he asked, scanning the room.

“No humans here. Only shifters.”

And then my mate with two bears inside him laid his head down and passed out cold.

Chapter Twelve

Kellan

“Before we do anything else, we need to check you for a chip.” The alpha was waiting when I woke again. After breakfast, that is.”

I opened my eyes, taking in the sun-bathed room around me. I lay in the center of a soft bed, between silky soft sheets, comforters piled over me. Pillows cradled my head. And the alpha sat on a chair a few feet away, wearing a camel-colored hoodie over a white T-shirt and jeans. He looked rested and composed, as if I was just any guest who stopped by to spend the night.

Instead of a bear who had menaced him for hours while he tried to command my shift.

“Where am I?” It seemed like the logical first question. “This is not where I last remember being.”

“No.” He stayed where he sat, giving me space, but he was such a tall, broad-shouldered alpha, he seemed to take up most of the smallish room. “You’re at Markus the healer’s place, and you slept the clock around.”

“How did I get here? I was in some kind of holding cell or maybe one for shifters who lose their sanity.” Those padded walls…

“That was in the basement of the alpha house. But once you shifted, we decided to trust that you would hold in two-legged form and I carried you over here.”

“Why did you feel safe enough to do that?” If my bear took over again, it could have run amok.

“Because I established contact with the bear, at least enough to make you shift, and we needed to talk to you about how wecan help you from this point forward. Now, get dressed and I’ll meet you in the hallway.”

After he stepped out and closed the door, I got up and realized I was naked. That meant, he’d carried me here from that other building nude in front of whoever was out and about on the grounds. Although shifters weren’t too wound up about nakedness, being hauled around like that stung a bit.

But I couldn’t fail to feel a little better at my improved circumstances. Now that I was able to shift again and was free of the labs, it was time to look forward. A stack of clothing was laid out on the dresser, and while the shirt was kind of big, the jeans fit well. I dressed and moved toward the door, only half surprised to find it unlocked. After all, the alpha had told me to come out into the hallway, but other than my escape route the other night, it had been a long time since I’d opened a door under my own power.

“Right this way.” The alpha waved me down the hall, and we emerged into a living/dining room just as another male came in carrying a platter of breakfast foods. The scents had my mouth watering. Eggs, bacon, pancakes… He set it on the table next to a bowl of fruit and other good things. “I don’t suppose you like coffee?”

“I don’t know.” I’d smelled it lots, both before I was taken and after, but no one had ever offered me any.

He stared at me. “How can you not know whether you like coffee?”

“I was fourteen when they took me, and in the labs, we were not given anything like that.”

“Fourteen.” Markus shook his head. “They must have had you nearly twenty years.”

“I don’t know. It was a long time.” I was trying to pay attention but the food was drawing me in. The only real quantityI’d eaten in years was what the bear had hunted and foraged on the way. Oh, and the pail in the cell.

“We have questions for you,” the alpha said. “We need to know everything about those who had you so we can help others.”

“Locke, let the omega eat his breakfast, okay?” The healer pushed the platter toward me. “But go a little slow. Your stomach is probably pretty shrunken, and it needs time to adjust. I promise you’ll never be hungry in the sanctuary.”

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