Page 157 of Carmichael's Omega

A sudden snapping at our heels kicks up every instinct Cassie and I have. Run. Escape. Not quite understanding, I take off, my sister at my heels. We race into the desert night, leaving the cave behind, with the pack surrounding us. In the dark, I understand why they call the LoboGris a shadow pack. Their wolves blend with the night, disappearing and reappearing seemingly at random. Cassie and I, meanwhile, must stand out with our lighter-colored coats as beacons in the dark.

It feels like we have run through the entire packlands. Cassie and I are close to dropping from exhaustion when I feel a shift in the air. Carmichael stops us, standing in front of our wolves with a wide-braced stance, staring into the night.

"LoboGris!" he shouts suddenly. In the desert, it feels as though his words travel on forever in the vast expanse.

"I am the alpha! I have found my mates!"

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Cassidy

Carmichael's words hang in the air. Mattie and I wait, lying crumpled and exhausted at the feet of our powerful alpha mate. The pack shifts back to feet, unable to stop the compulsion, and Mattie and I are no different. Naked and covered in red dirt, my chest heaves in as I suck in precious oxygen. Carmichael's wolf held nothing back in our run, and my omega was up for it, but now she's curled up, nearly unconscious from exhaustion, leaving me holding the bag, so to say.

"Carm," Mattie croaks next to me, "the pup."

"Shh,Nene," Carmichael croons, but his voice sounds different. Powerful, strong, and with no room for arguments from his mates. Mattie falls silent again, his hand reaching out to entwine with mine.

"LoboGris, who will Challenge me?" Carmichael snarls again. He throws his shoulders back, teeth bared, claws hanging loose and ready at his sides. His chest and thighs gleam with sweat, and his ice-blue eyes shine as if they've captured the moon itself.

José, Rodrigo, and Holt rush toward Carmichael all at once. My heart leaps directly into my throat, beating madly at the sudden spike of adrenaline that their betrayal causes. Why? They are so close to Carmichael. They love him, and he loves them.

Warm, extremely unfamiliar lips kiss my mouth softly. It's just the softest brush of contact, and before I can even register the act, Rique is thrown backward, tumbling head over heels on the hard-packed desert ground. At nearly the exact same moment, Nico runs up and places his hand along Mattie's back and murmurs softly, "chulito." He follows Rique, thrown a little further. Both males hobble to their feet, teeth bared in macabre grins, blood-streaked claw-marks decorating their bare skin. They rush forward again, straight for Carmichael's throat.

Another male, Holt,having disengaged from Carmichael, grabs my thigh and caresses me. Like Rique, he only has his hands on me for a second before he's gone. Then another male, one I only vaguely recognize, manages to land a kiss on the corner of my mouth.

"Holy shit," Mattie croaks. My eyes widen on my brother. He's never cursed before.

Another male disrupts my train of thought when he slaps Mattie's bottom in a too-friendly gesture. Rique follows that male with another kiss, this time on Mattie's cheek.

Males surround us, snarling, baring their canines in blatant shows of disrespect. Carmichael is above us. The only sound from our alpha mate is a consistent, threatening growl pitched low enough to make my own chest rumble in response.

"What's going on?" I ask my twin in bewildered astonishment. The LoboGris have lost their minds, collectively. Maybe we broke them.

"No one can take my mates?Putos. C'mon,pendejos," Carmichael suddenly taunts the males, laughing meanly. I start to stand and look up at him, but his hand comes down on my nape, and he tugs me back into the subservient position at his feet.

More males swarm the three of us. Touching, grabbing, sometimes one of them manages to get a kiss in. Carmichael holds his position above us, even when both Holt and Rique try to grab Mattie at the same time. He simply thrashes them, tossing them away like before.

I squeak in fear when one male gets a good grip around my waist. I can't even see his face, but then José whispers in my ear. "It's exciting,sí?" He turns my head and kisses my mouth while I freeze in befuddled shock.

I hear Carmichael snarl furiously, and José is ripped away. Blood flecks my face from whatever wound Carmichael just dealt out to the male.

"My mates!" Carmichael bellows. The pack howls back, the males frothing mad.

I can't keep track of all the wolves. It's like being caught in the center of a whirlwind of bodies. Nothing sticks in my mind except my twin and my mate until I meet eyes that make my heart sink. Dark brown, full of malice. He looks like an older version of José. He comes closer, and I know that he won't be pulling at me gently or kissing my cheek. He's not alone, either, but has at least two other males at his back.

I open my mouth to scream, but before the sound has left my mouth, everything changes. The pack, Carmichael's males,ourmales, go from taunting Carmichael to attacking these newcomers with lethal intent. Even I can tell the difference.

Rique and José are on the male, attacking with a fervor that mocks the so-called battle Carmichael just had with our pack. Other wolves, ones I don't recognize, try to come closer to attack Carmichael. Some of them try to get to Mattie and me. Whatever Carmichael's males were doing before, it's over. The odd game of tag-the-omegas is now kill-or-be-killed.

The newcomers all die. Crying, Mattie and I find each other, cling to one another as our mate and pack kill more and more of the LoboGris. I see Alize for the first time since the run began, fighting off even more wolves. The agony of watching wolves die... die because they hate us just this much... fills me with pain. I'll live with these memories for the rest of my life.

Then, it's over. A quiet hush falls over what remains of the pack. There are only five bodies on the ground that don't move. It felt like so many more...

"No one else?" Carmichael snarls. My bottom lip quivers. Please, no more, I chant quietly in my head.

Rique stands up from his crouch, blood, and gore covering his chest and thighs. "I will mate them if you don't, Alpha," he calls out.

Holt approaches us, "I will mate them if you don't, Alpha," he repeats.

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