Page 40 of Stray Omega

Shadow and Ghost both got a thorough scratching behind the ears too, then Embla backed away.

It’s time for me to go, friends.

Smoke’s tail stopped wagging. He dropped his head and whined again. He looked up at her with hurt in his eyes, silently begging her not to go. If he had wanted to, he could have barked to alert the alphas, but he didn’t do that.

Sorry, friend. But I must…

Embla gave Smoke one last scratch on the top of his skull.

“Good friend,” she whispered.

Still crouching, she took a step back. The dogs were silent, but they never took their eyes off her. She watched them for a moment in the moonlight.

They reminded her so much of her old friend, the one she lost, and tears stung her eyes so suddenly and unexpectedly that she gasped softly in surprise.

I must go. I must…

But her feet simply wouldn’t move. She stayed rooted in place as if she had been carved right out of the rocky ground.

After a little while, Smoke got up, walked over, and gently laid his head on her knee.

“Source,” Embla said.

She didn’t know exactly what the word meant, but she’d heard the alphas use it when they were exasperated—especially Orwen—and it seemed appropriate to use it now. She knew that she should go. The forest was her home. But the loneliness that waited for her back in her hidden burrow seemed too much to bear.

Fine, I will stay.

Smoke’s ears perked up, and his bushy tail started to sweep the ground. He lifted his muzzle to her face and licked her. A moment later the other two dogs joined in, wagging their tails so strongly their furry behinds wiggled with happiness.

Embla scratched them all behind the ears again. Then she plopped down on her butt and just sat, looking at the moon and the waterfall.

She knew she would probably regret staying, but she couldn’t help it.

A day’s worth of companionship had been enough to remind her how much she needed friends in her life.

Embla sat for a while with the dogs, just breathing in the night. Then she said good night and crept back inside the darkness of the grotto.

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