Page 4 of Unruly Omega

“Not too much. How can I help?”

“I received a phone call from Reggie in the other pack and he says there was an escape from the nearest lab. He thinks we might have escapees headed our way. Can you rally the troops and let’s go clean up the bunkhouse? Get the beds made?”

“It’s strange how you can speak to me so kindly but not to the group.”

I cocked my head, thinking about it. He wasn’t wrong. Not at all. “I don’t know why.”

Markus nodded but got up from his desk, shutting his laptop. “Might want to work on finding out why. You’re the alpha, after all.”

“I’m not…”

He held up his hand. “I know. I know. You’re not the alpha. Meet us there.”

I stopped by the storage area and picked up ten sets of sheets. Many were flowery or had wild prints. Some had cartoons on them. But they were clean and were more comfortable than anything they had slept in at the lab.

We relied on donations from the shifter community, both monetary and material. We would randomly receive orders for food or other supplies and we were grateful. We had no jobs outside of this place. I’d used my entire inheritance to pay for it.

That didn’t make me the alpha.

Everyone gathered in the bunkhouse, and we went to work like a well-oiled machine. Some swept and mopped. Others made beds like I was. We opened the windows and let the fresh air in since shifters, especially ones who had recently emerged from imprisonment, were especially sensitive to smell. We chalked it up to smelling the death and sickness smells from the labs, but we tried to help as much as we could until their senses got readjusted.

“When are we expecting people?” one of our other guests asked. He had come to us about three months before. He didn’t remember his name but we called him Butch. He seemed to like it.

“Not sure. In the next day or two, I suspect. A shifter should be able to run the distance in that time if they are physically able. If not, a week or so. Keep your eyes and ears open and on alert when you run. The other packs are listening as well.”

“Yes, alpha.”

Fuck.

Chapter Four

Kellan

I had shifted, somehow.

As I huddled in that patch of brush beside the highway, I struggled, shivering in the cold, trying to find my bear deep inside me. Was he even still there? I hadn’t heard him in so long, I wasn’t sure. And if he wasn’t willing or absent or wasn’t even there…what would I do?

I dug down deep, searching for the bear, hunting, begging, the old familiar voice, the warm rumble in my chest. None of that was there.

Two cars went by, and one turned into the parking lot while I flattened myself on the hard, cold ground, praying the twigs and leaves were concealing me. Headlights flashed in my eyes then darkness again. I couldn’t stay here much longer. Someone was going to notice my absence. Probably the person who activated the intercom. Sometimes I was summoned then left to sit for hours in the lab until they bothered to come in to torture me. Please let this be one of those times.

I strained and struggled, but no sense of my bear emerged. Nothing. More cars passed. Two more entered the lot. If nothing happened, I was going to have to run down the road in my boxers and hope someone not related to the lab picked me up. Someone not criminal. Omegas were often targeted by other kinds of evildoers.

How had I made it this far and ended up in a position not much better than where I started? Darkness overtook me, despair I’d always thought part of my captivity. In the ever-fading dreams of freedom, my emotions were that of joy and other positive things. Sinking into the grief and hopelessness, Iprayed for death. At least if the goddess took me now, I’d die free. Right?

And then, from that blackness, the bear roared free. Unlike what I remembered of ordinary shifts, this one ripped into me, breaking bones and tearing skin as the larger animal replaced my two-legged form. And then we were racing across the highway, headed for a patch of woods a mile or two away. Not because I wanted to but because the bear was 100 percent in charge. He’d been suppressed for so long, not only couldn’t I blame him, but I welcomed his help in getting us as far away from the lab complex as possible.

The woods went on for a lot farther than I had anticipated, providing us not only shelter from the eyes of those who might be watching but also a source of food. I’d been hungry to a greater or lesser extent my entire imprisonment, and while there were no cheeseburgers to be found here, there were roots and grubs and the remains of last year’s berries. It wasn’t enough, but a stream provided fish, and as we gained strength, his ravenous appetite drove us to hunting deer. As if he’d been hibernating, he crossed the lands devouring anything he could, seeking to regain weight and reach his full strength.

As I’d grown thinner, it seemed he had as well, but while we’d hunted before, it had never been with such vicious precision. I tried to slow him down, fearing it might be too much, but if he heard my pleas, he did not respond to them.

Finally, we emerged from the forest into an area of open fields, and a farmhouse appeared on the horizon. A line of clothing hung near the back door, and I had long enough to wonder why they hadn’t been brought in before dark before lapsing into gratitude that they had not. Nearing the house, I attempted once again to shift.

It’s time. I can dress and approach the people at the house.

Why wasn’t he answering me? Was the bear so angry at me? Did he blame me for everything we’d gone through?

Was it my fault?

---