Page 5 of Unruly Omega

Considering how we’d been taken, it very well could be.

Please. You can do whatever you want, but we need to make contact with people. Farmers will not be associated with the lab.

Then, just as I thought he’d agreed, as we came within a dozen yards or so of the home, he veered off, crashing through the hedges and onward.

Where are you going?As if I expected an answer at this point. I had to let him go and trust he had our best interests at heart. For the first time in years, I wasn’t hungry, and apparently the lack of exercise my human form experienced did not affect his animal athleticism.

We ran on until even he slowed, lifting his nose and sniffing the air then making a turn and following his nose. Shifters. Other shifters. The bear knew his business. I could only hope he’d relinquish the body to me when we got wherever it was he was going.

If not, maybe someone there could help.

Chapter Five

Locke

“What is it?” I flailed my arms and legs to untangle them from the covers when someone knocked and then entered my room in the dead of the night. When that person didn’t immediately answer, I growled. “Who is it?”

“It’s just me,” Zeph answered, chuckling.

“What are you laughing at?” I stepped into a pair of pants and tried to collect my thoughts. Goddess, he’d woken me out of one of those dead sleeps. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“I’m sorry. I did knock several times.”

“Shut up.” I flicked the lamp next to my bed on and took in his blue-light-blocking glasses and oversized hoodie. A sure sign he had been pulling an all-nighter in the security room. We’d set up cameras at strategic locations around the property in case someone decided to breach our borders or came by looking for shelter. Not all of the people who came to us knocked on the front door. Some got here by the skin of their teeth or, worse, with soldiers on their tails. “Wait, why are you here?”

“I came to report activity on the border. It’s a bear, but he’s not moving like one.”

“What does that mean?”

“Just come. You have to witness it for yourself.”

We went to the security room, and I plopped down in a chair next to Zeph. He used the mouse to turn back time on the camera feeds, and I watched closely. It was probably just a regular bear, though Zeph didn’t have a reputation for jumping at spiders.

“There.” He pointed to the screen. The screen was darker since it was the middle of the night but, sure enough, a form came onto the screen, its movements hurried but defensive innature. Checking all around him. Raising his muzzle to sniff the air. Usually bears displayed lazy movements almost on the verge of clumsy. Zeph was a panther, and he said we moved like bowls of Jello but somehow got to our destination.

“What makes you think…” I leaned forward to get a better look. The bear was missing some hair. And this bear had blue eyes.

Bears didn’t have blue eyes.

But shifter bears did.

“How long ago was this?”

“Fifteen minutes or so, but he’s still there. He dropped to the ground the second he crossed our borders. He’s fast asleep, I think.”

I grabbed my cell, thankful I’d brought it with me, and called the others. “Let’s go.”

We sprinted through the house toward the area where the bear was, and everyone shifted at once. We ran toward our target under the light of the full moon, but, once we got there, the bear woke up.

I shifted back to two legs and put my palms out. The bear let out an ear-splitting growl, rising up on his hind back legs to show me how big and bad he was.

Scars marred his belly, and there was more than one tuft of hair missing. Bears weren’t a species that tore their hair out, even when feral. His nails were sharp, and his teeth didn’t appear in the best shape.

This bear was a survivor.

“My name is Locke. You’ve entered our sanctuary.”

“It’s pack, Locke. Just admit it. We’re a pack.” Zeph’s outburst caused the bear in front of me to huff out a warm breath and growl again, this time more menacing.

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