Page 7 of Unruly Omega

Chapter Seven

Locke

Against my better judgment and the opinions of my friends, I was sitting next to the bear who only hours ago had positioned himself in front of us as though he might go in for the kill.

I shouldn’t be here, but I had to be.

I hadn’t told my friends that he wasn’t an average feral bear.

This growly, snarly bear who happened upon our lands was my omega.

My fated mate was in front of me. Couldn’t or wouldn’t shift back to human. I didn’t know his name or where he came from—nothing about his human side other than the blue eyes that had taken my breath away.

There was no way I could tell him, of course. He was under duress. There was no telling what they’d done to him. His scent told me he’d come from a research facility. The smell of disinfectants and chemicals laced his natural pheromones. Still, underneath it all was the scent of my mate. Musky, rich, decadent, almost chocolate that made me want to crawl up next to him and let our bond heal him. If it could.

My if-only list was a mile long.

Still, I really shouldn’t be in here. He might rush me before I could shift and I’d end up ground meat.

Not the encounter I wanted to have with my mate.

“I hope you’re okay,” I whispered with my back to the wall. “I can feel your heartbeat. It’s strong and steady. Sometimes when shifters come here, they aren’t so strong. You’re probably hungry and tired and scared, but we would never hurt you.”

The bear across from me huffed out a breath through his nose.

“I would never hurt you. Damn it. I wish I at least knew your name.”

Nothing was happening. I wished my words stirred something inside him like his presence did in me.

My omega was probably too overrun with fear and pain to even register that I was his mate.

Because if he was my omega, then I was his alpha. No question about it.

“I’m sorry we had to dart you,” I said, scooting a bit closer.

The bear tucked his paw underneath him.

“I can’t even remember the last shifter we had to dart. We don’t make a practice of it. I wanted you to know that. We take care of people here, or we try to. Maybe that’s the reason you came here. Did your bear feel like you could come here?”

Of course, he didn’t answer.

My bear felt the shifting of the night. It would be dawn soon. I should get some sleep. I got up and stretched out my back. The bear’s eyes zoned in on my every move. His lids drooped, but I believed he was fighting the aftereffects of the tranquilizer.

“I don’t really want to leave you in here alone. I’m sure you don’t understand that and want me gone, but I can’t leave. But I need some sleep—at least a few hours. I wish you could ask me to stay.”

I let out a long sigh while I debated my options.

Stay and get some sleep and risk my life.

Go and not get any sleep and risk my omega thinking I’d abandoned him.

Somehow I settled on the previous idea. No sense of self-preservation over here.

I crept closer to the large black bear housing my mate and slid down the wall once again. Five seconds ago, I’d decided to leave, and now I was making myself at home.

Mated life, I supposed.

“I have to get some sleep. I could ask you to promise not to slice my throat with those claws of yours, but I don’t know if you’d agree to that.”

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