Page 7 of Unable Omega
Sage
None of the sleuth members were impressed with my story, and neither was I. What did they want from me? My time at the lab was spent being drugged and lying on the cold floor. White shiny walls and floors all around me. Even the ceiling was a chilling metal. It was always cold. I had shifter healing and the high temperature of a bear, but even my fur couldn’t stop the shivering.
It was clear they didn’t believe me.
Maybe they would ask me to go. If they thought I was a liar, I wouldn’t blame them. They had built some kind of haven for shifters like me and they had to be careful about who they let in.
There were two cubs here. One belonged to Markus and the other to the alpha, not alpha. From what I’d gathered, Locke was in charge, but he didn’t accept the title of alpha.
Interesting. All the alphas I knew were absolute assholes and loved to throw the title around as much as possible.
They probably demanded it be used even in the bedroom.
Gross.
I lay there, hooked up to an IV, groggy from the pain meds Markus had given me a few hours ago. Rob had brought me in food, but again, no eye contact.
He did bring one of every kind of food imaginable. And from the scent of it, he made it all himself.
Still, with him being standoffish and scoffing when I relayed not knowing a whole lot about my time at the lab, the last thing I wanted to do was bring up the fact that my bear was sure he was our mate. My alpha. The one Fate had made just for me and by some miracle had made us meet.
He wanted nothing to do with me. That much was clear.
Maybe, once I got better, I would simply disappear into the night and get out of his hair.
I wanted him to have a good life. Not having to be around a mate he didn’t want.
Everyone was so kind here. Even though they didn’t believe me, or seemed not to, they treated me with care. Locke’s mate Kellan came in with their daughter, Elise, and stayed with me for a while, asking if I needed anything that the alphas hadn’t asked about. He said we omegas had to stick together.
They offered me a remote to the TV on the wall or something to read, but the only thing I wanted to do was listen to the sounds outside. People moving around. Talking to each other. The sounds of doors shutting and opening. The laughter of an omega. Whispers of an alpha. Howls and the cawing of a nearby crow. I watched shadows pass from different distances outside the window. It was like watching one of those ambiance videos. This one was titledShifters in the Eveningfor sure. The sounds were far better than the ones in the lab. There was one shifter, a lion, if my nose and my senses fared well, that never stopped crying at night. He would wail and sob. It was the saddest thing I’d ever heard.
And then one night, he didn’t.
I never saw the lion again. And those sobs that I once cursed for interrupting the peace of the night, the only peace I had, well, once they were gone, I lamented their sounds.
Knowing that something had happened to him sank a knife into my heart.
Tears flowed down my face as I thought about all of them. If I could have, I’d have taken them with me. Saved at least one.
I cried until I fell asleep, until the survivor’s guilt scooped me up and fed me to the night.
I opened my eyes to white. White walls. White floors. Crying. Screaming. Beeping medical equipment. Clanking metal. Dragging chains. The beating of fists on the walls all around me. The smell of antiseptic and blood and torn flesh.
I crab-crawled backward until my back hit the cold wall.
Mary came in, whistling that sickening tune she always did. Instead of putting my tray on the floor beside me, she put it down at the door and slid it across the sterile floor, the contents spilling everywhere. “Now look at what you’ve done,” she said, fists on her hips.
“I didn’t,” I tried to say, but my mouth wouldn’t open. I slapped and clawed at my face but found no lips. No opening. I didn’t even have teeth. At least as far as I could tell.
I tried to open my mouth and scream, but nothing came out.
Mary came across the room, pulling the large, metal syringe from her white jacket pocket. “Don’t worry, Sage. I’ll make it all better.”
I woke up screaming. Patting my face with my hands. It was a dream. Oh, fuck me, it was one of the worst nightmares I’d ever had.
“Hey, hey, Sage, it’s me, Rob. You’re okay.”
I flailed, not wanting to be touched. Then, I wrapped my arms around myself and rocked. “It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. I can speak. I have a mouth. It wasn’t real.”
