Page 35 of Beta Lies and Cursed Lives
Nyx knows the battle I’m waging with myself. She’s going through it, too. And it must be even worse for Arlowe, being separated from the Alpha she loves.
I watch her back as she keeps walking away from us, her movements slow and trudging.
I shouldn’t have brought it up.
My feet hustle to catch up to her when a siren wails. It’s coming from every single building, so piercing that I have to cover my ears, as do my friends.
“What’s going on?” I shout.
Arlowe and Nyx both shake their heads before Arlowe motions for us to follow her. We jog around the building toward the pathway leading from the main building to all the secondary locations. When my foot touches the stone path, there’s a commotion and shouting coming from the direction of the main building. About five soldiers are running our way, chasing a male Omega, his golden collar bouncing with his rapid steps, his sweet scent turning bitter with fear.
The soldiers chasing him keep shouting for him to stop; one calls him by name in a pleading tone.
My brows draw tight, confusion floods my senses. The Omega draws nearer to us; his eyes connect with mine, wild and fearful, and then his collar turns from gold to red.
There is a terrifyingpop,and his collar explodes, taking his neck and head with it in a rain of blood, sinew, and bone. His body crumples to the stone path.
Everything stops. There’s no sound, no movement. I don’t think I’m breathing. But then, as my body begins to quake, Nyx collapses to the ground with a thud, and Arlowe starts to vomit like I had a moment ago. And I…
The soldiers surround the fallen Omega’s form, the Beta who had called out to him is ashen, his wide eyes catch mine. He is more shaken than I am, while the others shout orders and look at the body in disgust.
The soldier looking at me didn’t want this. I don’t know if it’s intuition or what, but I can just tell that this manfeltsomething for that Omega.
The creature inside my chest rages within its confines, and the Beta soldier stands up straighter. Through his sorrow, he gives me the slightest head shake, as if warning me not to do something. But I know there’s nothing I can do that won’t end in me turning out like that Omega, headless on the cold ground.
The Beta looks at his fellow soldiers and says something I can’t understand, and then he’s approaching us.
Arlowe is helping Nyx sit up, and I can feel their cringing as they attempt to move away from the Beta, but I put my hand out to them in a stopping motion.
The beast in me growls while a sense of calm washes over me that the back of my mind tells me I should not be feeling.
The Beta walks up to me, slow, his hands slightly in front of him, fingers spread. When he’s close enough, I can read the patch on the front of his uniform.
Hansen.
“You all need to return to your dorms.” His voice is quiet, soothing, despite the horror behind him. Despite the terror in his eyes.
The creature in me chuffs.Deceiver.
It doesn’t mean he’s lying to me, but…
My nostrils flare, and I scent him as his eyes widen, taking his aroma deep into my lungs. Muted, bland, like all Betas. And yet there is something beneath it that I can’t place. Something that doesn’t belong to a Beta.
His fearful eyes, the color of slate, turn pleading. My head tilts as I look him over, my actions foreign, like I’m not in control. When my chin lifts at him, I find myself saying in a calm voice, “We’re going.”
The man seems to almost deflate with relief when I turn to my friends’ questioning gazes and gesture with my head up the path to the main building.
I lead the way back in silence, the creature inside me warring with my fear and devastation.
This thing is beginning to gain some control over me. The thought sends my heart racing, and I feel dizzy.
As I cross the entrance, the voice inside me is clear.
We must escape.
Colton
She doesn’t want to touch us,Aubrey signs, a deep scowl on his face.It’s better this way.
