Page 82 of Unhinged Omega

Something snaps inside me. A snarl rips from my throat, feral and desperate. Too bad it doesn't translate into the immense physical strength I'd need to throw him off me.

"She'smyomega!"

That gets his attention.

It's far from the first time I've made that assertion, but his reaction leaves me wondering if it's the first time he's actually believed me. Geo freezes, his grip on my wrists loosening just a fraction. I see a flicker of... something in his eye. Frustration, certainly. But there's more to it. Something I can't quite place.

Something that looks almost like?—

The tower door slams open again, cutting off my train of thought. Nikolai bursts out, his mismatched eyes wild as he scans the area.

"Which way did she go?" he demands.

I bare my teeth at him, a growl building in my chest. As if I'd tell him anything. As if I'd help him recapture my moonlight goddess.

But with Geo pinning me, I suppose it's bettersomeonereaches her. If Nikolai gets to her first, I can just kill him. It's better than her being ripped apart by that monster, or anything else that's lurking in those woods.

"The forest," I hiss, managing to wrench one arm free from Geo's grasp. I point toward the treeline where I last saw that silver hair disappearing.

A whistling sound cuts through the air, followed by a deafening explosion. Heat washes over us as another rocket impacts near the tank. The monster's enraged roar drowns out even the ringing in my ears.

"Fuck!" Nikolai snarls, whirling toward the source of the blast.

I follow his gaze and spot Diesel, that absolute fucking moron, fumbling with a grenade launcher. He must havethought he was helping, trying to take out the monster while he was distracted.

All he's managed to do is piss the massive alpha off.

The monster's head snaps around, those eerie blue eyes locking onto our little group. With most of his mask blown away, revealing his heavily scarred face and razor-sharp teeth, the fury in his burning blue gaze is clear. He abandons the wreckage of the tank, each thunderous step bringing him closer.

Well, shit.

"Truce?" I croak out, still struggling against Geo's iron grip as he stares at the monster with a dread that's utterly foreign on his face.

Nikolai's lip curls in disgust, but he gives a curt nod. "Truce."

Geo finally releases me and I scramble to my feet. We form a rough semicircle, weapons drawn. It would almost be poetic if it wasn't so goddamn terrifying. Three alphas who, under any other circumstances, would be at each other's throats, temporarily united against a common enemy.

The monster charges.

We open fire.

The sound is deafening, a cacophony of gunshots that would drop a small army. Bullets ping off the armor soldered onto the monster's muscled body, and quite a few sink into his organic flesh, but it's barely slowing him down.

What the actual fuck is this thing?

"Aim for the joints!" Nikolai bellows over the din. "Try to slow him down!"

I adjust my aim, targeting the monster's knees, abdomen, throat, anywhere that looks like a weak point. But it's like looking for a hinge in a brick wall. A very angry, very mobile brick wall that wants nothing more than to rend us limb from limb.

As I watch the monster shrug off our assault like it's nothing more than a light rain, I start to understand why Nikolai was keeping him in that pit. He's not just another escaped experiment or irradiated monstrosity.

He's a weapon.

A perfect killing machine.

And knowing Nikolai, that's exactly what he saw. How he sees everything and everyone. Tools to be used. Weapons to be wielded.

It's probably how he sees Cosima, too.

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