Page 8 of Unruly Omega

The bear rumbled a low growl. It didn’t feel threatening. More an acknowledgement. Yes, he heard me. No, he wouldn’t promise anything.

“Okay, but at least give me a head start.”

I pushed my head back against the wall, and my eyes closed in seconds.

My omega had barged into my life today, and I chose to hold on to that thought as sleep took me.

Because who knew what the future would hold.

Chapter Eight

Kellan

The alpha fell asleep. Right there in the secure room, the almost cell, he rested his back against the wall and dozed off. My bear returned to pacing, huge paws padding over the cushioned floor. When he didn’t move, the bear growled and made threatening rumbles; why, I wasn’t sure. But the alpha simply dropped his head to the side in slumber, his vulnerable throat exposed to anything we might choose to do. How could he have so much trust in us? In a bear who was doing everything in his power to be threatening and the shifter within. Presuming he was aware of my even being one?

Of course he was. I had a vague memory of him ordering me to shift. Of the other guy saying he should use his alpha powers or something like that. But if he did have such gifts, they didn’t work on me. Unfortunately. While I had no interest in being bossed around ever again in life, neither did I want to be a bear for the rest of it.

Despite everything we’d gobbled as we made our way here, the bear finished everything in the pail and drank gallons of water from the self-refilling fountain. I hadn’t been dehydrated in the labs, since not only did I have the sink for water but was hooked up to IV fluids on a fairly regular basis. But all those miles I’d logged had left me dry. The water tasted so much better here, as well. In the cell, it had always tasted chlorinated as well as having an underlying bitterness. I’d long suspected there was some kind of drug in there, maybe to keep me compliant. This was sweet and clean and tasted only of water.

But I’d give a lot to capture some in a glass and drink it in my two-legged state. Even from where I lurked in the background, I knew it was critical that I make the shift back in order to be ableto communicate with the alpha and let him know where I had come from and what went on there. At least as much as I was able to convey because I wasn’t entirely sure I even knew enough to be useful. Or exactly how to get back there if they did want to go try to save the other omegas who were still there.

I hadn’t seen many others in my time there, but I had heard cries and sobs and smelled fear and sometimes urine when someone was tormented beyond the ability to hold their water. In keeping us separate, they had kept us from plotting together, I supposed. Or maybe it was just easiest for them in the course of their work. They certainly never treated us as equals, barely as sentient creatures.

I finally lay down, head on my paws, resting until the alpha awoke. Now that I had stopped moving, the aches and pains that had carried over through the shift came to the fore, reminding me of how I felt most of the time over the past years. Would I ever feel better? Probably too soon to hope for that.

Still unsure whether I was a welcomed guest or just a prisoner of a different kind in better lodgings, I settled in to wait for the alpha to wake up. He smelled incredible, and my bear was not trying to eat him, but all the rest confused the heck out of me.

Finally, sometime later, the alpha woke and sat up straight. “Omega, have you been watching me the whole time?”

I couldn’t answer, but I thought my posture probably did that for me.

“It’s time to shift,” he ordered.

The bear snarled and lunged at him, but he never moved, just stood his ground. We lunged again, but some force kept us from reaching him. Those alpha powers. I’d seen them in action in my old den, but never with a member attacking one of them.

And I didn’t want to attack him. He needed to know that somehow. But I couldn’t tell him any more than I could stop the bear from behaving so irrationally. Our old alpha always said ifyou couldn’t control your animal, you didn’t deserve to have one. He was probably right. Look at the situation I’d put the bear in when I caused us to get captured to start with.

The alpha asked me again and again to shift, and I tried, I really did, with everything I had in me, but with no success. Frustrated, I joined the bear in his next growl, making it loud enough to rattle my fangs.

The alpha kept demanding, I kept trying, and, finally, the window in the door opened and a beta told the alpha his meeting was about to start. He strolled toward the door as if there wasn’t a giant ragged bear snarling at him. The door slid open, and he stepped outside.

Leaving me alone again. And unable to harm the alpha. He’d managed to keep us at bay for a long time, but eventually I feared the bear would break through and really hurt him. I didn’t want that to happen.

Chapter Nine

Locke

Zeph didn’t ask why I suddenly wanted the security camera app on my phone, and I didn’t offer any information. There were enough whispers about me and the new bear already. No need to fuel their fire. But now that I had access to the camera in my mate’s room, I obsessed over it. Not because I was a stalker but because I didn’t want him to escape or hurt himself. Not that he could escape. Those walls were four feet thick with a steel grid inside.

No one could get out of there, not even one of the humans they pumped full of our DNA.

From what I’d heard, even humans had died in their so-called research. Anything for the advancement of the human race. Right?

I had a meeting in a few minutes and it was the first time I’d left my omega alone for more than an hour. He hadn’t eaten much or drunk a lot of water, but I had hopes that any minute, he would be able to shift and do…something other than lay there.

My poor omega. There was no telling what he’d been through.

I’d never sought revenge for the things the humans had done to us, only a shutdown of all their facilities. An end to the tragedies and experimentation.

---