Page 24 of Omega and the Beast
No,no, no, what was happening?
Panic ripped through Callista. As much as she wanted to confront Father Conal, now was not the time. The sun had nearly set, and it sounded like the entire village was outside. They would not have come in peace.
“Open the gates!” Adonis roared at the guards. Callista yelled at them not to, but her voice was lost, drowned out by the roaring cheer that came from behind her, the creaking of wood and metal as the gates were opened, and the shouts coming from beyond the wall.
As the gates opened, she could hear Father Conal, his voice louder than ever, shouting something. She couldn’t quite make out his words at first, so she turned to hush the Betas behind her, swinging her arm to indicate they should quiet. They fell silent immediately, some of them frowning, but their expressions cleared when they realized what shewas trying to hear — the voice of Father Conal ringing out as though he was at the pulpit.
The opening doors revealed a large crowd armed with torches and pitchforks. Despite the anger and fear twisting their faces, she recognized many people from the village — the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the bookseller, the blacksmith – and their eyes all widened with fear as they stared through the open gates.
Father Conal had planned his moment perfectly.
While she’d been looking behind her, then at the doors and the crowd, the sun had set completely, and Adonis had shifted form. He no longer stood before her as himself — he faced the villagers as the Beast.
And he was angry.
Without giving them a moment to collect their nerve, the Beast reared, seeming to double in size as he spread his clawed arms, making even the hulking blacksmith seem child-small. His mane bristled; his horns raked the darkening sky. Massive jaws stretched, ropes of drool shaking from his teeth like banners from spears, caught in the wind of his roars. As the Betas without the castle drew back in fear, Callista threw herself forward against the Beast’s side, doing what little she could to shield him with her small body. He stilled, snarling and panting, but didn’t try to dislodge her.
She might be the only thing holding him in place, but she wasn’t afraid. All she knew was she couldn’t let him go out there. The villagers would scatter, and he would chase them down — or worse, they wouldn’t, and he could be killed. Neither option was one she could stomach.
“Hold your ground!” Father Conal ordered, spreading his own arms, sleeves flapping like the wings of a bone-white carrion bird. “There he stands! The most foul beast! Evil! Savage! We must kill him and take our vengeance on… take our vengeance on…”
The male’s voice trailed off once he’d turned his head and met her gaze.
She bared her teeth at him.
“You’re alive! Good! You…” His voice trailed off again as he blinked. Realized. His face twisted. “No, you’re supposed to be mine! You weren’t supposed to —”
The Beast snarled at him, cutting off his words, and Callista tightened her arms around him.
“I wasnevergoing to be yours!” she shouted, her voice almost as harsh as the Beast’s. Something about the way Father Conal said it, the way he looked at her, made her skin crawl as suspicion wormed into her head. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew I was an Omega. You thought once my father was gone, you could claim me! You didn’t expect me to run, and you came here to kill Adonis and ‘rescue’ me, didn’t you?”
Her words caused a ripple of reaction in the cowering villagers, even more than the priest’s orders had. Their fear visibly receded, eclipsed by confusion as they listened and saw the Beast was being held by her rather than attacking them, even though she was clearly no match for it. Some of those she faced were beginning to look beyond her, their confusion growing as they realized she and the Beast weren’t alone. That others stood behind them. Their friends, their neighbors… their children.
Father Conal paled before rage flushed his face. He straightened, pointing at her. “She’s as foul as he is! A monster and a sinful slut Omega! She’s seduced him! Kill them, kill them both!”
No one moved. Not at Father Conal’s command, anyway,although Callista was dimly aware of the castle residents coming forward, filling in the ranks at either side of her. She never took her eyes from the priest, grim satisfaction like hot coals in her heart as she watched him take one step back, then another as he realized his power over the villagers was fraying. He might have made them forget about Adonis and the castle, he might have preached about the evils of Alphas and Omegas, but he could not make them blind to the evidence of their own eyes. The vicious, bloodlusting Beast… harming no one. The wicked, wanton Omega… holding him. All their lost loved ones… standing tall and fierce beside them.
“You’re the monster!” Callista shouted, shifting to stand firmly in front of Adonis, which the Beast apparently didn’t like because he growled and tried to push her aside. “You put a curse on Adonis and everyone else, made us forget, but he’s no Beast, no matter how he looks! And all the innocent people you’ve sacrificed, they’re here! Look!” Callista gestured at the Betas behind her with a sweep of her arm. “Adonis took in everyone who you cast out, so who’s the monster?”
“Father?” A young Beta female stepped out of the crowd at Callista’s back. Her name was Diona, and she came from Callista’s village. They hadn’t known each other well; in fact, Callista only knew her as the village’s most recent sacrifice. “Father, it’s me!”
“Diona!” A male named Norin started to shove past Father Conal, who tried to grab him, but the other man jerked away, too intent on his living daughter to care about anything else. He had never gotten along well with Father Conal, like many of the families who had ended up sacrificing their children. “You’re alive!”
Diona surged forward while Callista pressed backagainst the Beast, keeping him in place. She could hear the low undertone of his growl, but he stayed where he was. The amount of willpower it cost him must be monumental; she could feel his hard muscles shaking with the effort not to attack.
But it was worth it.
Father Conal caught again at Norin, babbling out the first words of the sort of hellfire speech that had always brought his village under control before, but Norin would not be denied his reunion.
“Let go of me!” he yelled, bulling forward. When Father Conal would not be shaken off, Norin seized the priest by his cassock and threw him down over the threshold of the gate.
The very instant Father Conal hit the ground, he screamed.
It wasn’t a human-sounding scream.
Norin spun around, clutching his daughter to his heart even as he stared. They all watched in horror as Father Conal thrashed onto his hands and knees, his back arching… then buckling and bubbling beneath his robes. The sounds of bone crunching filled the air as he seemed to swell — no, not seemed to. Hedidswell, growing unnaturally larger, fur sprouting through the fine weave of his clothes where it did not tear away by the monstrous bulk of his changing body.
The curse had rebounded on him the moment he’d stepped on castle ground, turning him into a Beast as well. White fur over mottled grey flesh, like bones poking through cemetery earth, gaunt and twisted, with an elongated head bristling with too many teeth for his new jaws. He threw back his head and howled with pain and terror, eyes rolling in his sunken sockets.
