Page 68 of Stray Omega

CHAPTER 25: ORWEN

Orwen stalked down the streets of the ruined city, grim-faced and silent. Overhead, a flock of white birds swooped through the cool green shade of the vine-tangled towers, but the alpha did not notice them. He did not notice any of his surroundings. All he could see was the face of the omega, innocent, beautiful, and infuriating.

Did Ark really expect him to go through with this?

To be bound to a Farlander?

Of course, Ark still stubbornly refused to accept what the girl was. But what else could she be? They had found her in the Farlands, and no one here in the Central Ruins knew who she was.

Orwen grumbled to himself as he automatically turned a corner and ducked down an alleyway overgrown with dense weeds and ferns.

He had been through all of these thoughts a million times.

It was pointless.

In a way, Orwen understood his pack leader’s infatuation with the girl. There was no other omega like her anywhere in the Zone. Her smooth, fair skin and forest green eyes. Hell, even covered and dirt with leaves and twigs in her hair, she had still looked gorgeous, like an angel that had lost her wings and crash-landed out of the sky.

But the girl was no angel, that was for damn sure.

Okay, so she had cleaned up nicely. She was acquiring the language with astonishing rapidity. She was even learning to mimic the posture and manners of a proper omega of the Central Tribe.

That’s all it was, though: mimicry. Orwen knew damn well that the girl was tameless at heart. He could see it in the flicker of green fire dancing behind her eyes.

And the thing that pissed him off so much was that he liked it.

He liked her defiance.

The other omegas were all meek, submissive creatures. Oh sure, they might bicker and squabble amongst themselves, but as soon as an alpha would stroll by, they would shut up like frightened rabbits.

Not Embla though. She was defiant to the end, and that lit a fire inside Orwen’s heart that made him feel more alive than he’d felt since…

The alpha growled to himself and snipped off that train of thought.

It was too painful to think about all he had lost.

Without even realizing where he was going, Orwen crossed an empty street, weaving between the rusted bones of ancient automobiles left behind from the old times. He slipped into another alley, its shadows as dark and enveloping as his thoughts.

No matter how he tried, he could not steer his mind away from Embla.

He was wrong about one thing, however, Orwen told himself. It was not in his heart where the omega’s attitude lit a fire.

It was in his balls.

It was in his stupid cock, which grew as rigid as a steel girder at the mere mention of the omega’s name.

What he felt for her was not love. It was lust.

But even that was unforgiveable. She was, after all, his mortal enemy.

Orwen came to a halt. He blinked and looked around at his surroundings like a sleepwalker waking up from a dream. He was no longer outside in the empty streets of the city. He was indoors, within a dim, cavernous space with dark walls, a high domed ceiling, and a faintly humming spherical device dominating the center of the room.

The Chamber of the Source.

It was as if his feet had automatically led him to this place. But why?

Orwen glanced around the room again. As usual, the chamber was occupied by small groups of alphas and omegas who had come to pray or meditate or simply relax in the presence of the Source. Orwen could feel its power vibrating in his very cells.

Across the chamber, there was a woman’s cry. It was the omega Hines. The one who was friendly with Embla. She was in labor. Her alpha mates were encircling her protectively, helping to bring the children into the world.

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