Page 8 of Stray Omega

CHAPTER 4: EMBLA

The mean alpha, the one named Orwen, growled and tugged at Embla’s leash.

It was daybreak.

The silvered bars of moonlight through the branches had been replaced by golden spears of sunshine as the dawn crept over the treetops and poked through the canopy of leaves overhead. The monotonous trill of cicadas had faded, giving way to the loud and busy twittering of birds. And already, the cool evening air had started to warm with the coming day.

It was that time of day when Embla would usually retreat to the safety of her hiding place. She preferred only to move about in the shadows of the night.

But this morning, she had no choice.

This morning, she was leashed and collared.

Her struggles had been futile. The three dominant alphas had easily overpowered her tiny body. The mean one had held her down while the leader fastened a strip of leather around her throat and the young one attached a leash made of braided rawhide.

Fighting them was out of the question. Embla had already tried that, and it had ended in failure. She was lucky that she had come out of that tussle with only minor wounds. Her thigh still smarted where she had rolled across the hot coals, but the burns were not bad. She’d had far worse in her day.

The real problem now was the leash.

She wasn’t going anywhere with that thing strapped to her neck.

And that wasn’t all. The alphas had also forced a twisted strip of cloth between Embla’s teeth and tied it tightly behind her head, robbing her of the ability to bite them.

Embla was totally at the alphas’ mercy.

She sat on the leaf-strewn forest floor, staring up at the three massive alphas who towered over her, their muscled bodies limned in the soft morning glow filtering through the trees. She could smell them too. A rich, musky scent that spoke of masculinity and dominance.

Front and center stood the massive, bearded leader. The one whom Embla had made the mistake of inspecting while he slept. His name was Ark, apparently. Despite his brutal warrior’s body, there was a cool, unhurried confidence about him.

Then there was the mean one holding the leash. The one who had caught her. He was called Orwen. He had dark hair and a clean-shaven jaw that was nicked with fighting scars. The ring through his nose accentuated his brutal appearance.

And last there was the youngest one. Embla was less afraid of him. He was Leros. His face was also clean-shaven but not marred by as many scars as Orwen’s. He had longish light brown hair and a piercing through the center of his supple bottom lip.

Embla found herself fixating on that lip ring, involuntarily wondering what it would feel like brushing against different parts of her body.

Bad.

Now was hardly the time for such thoughts.

At least Embla knew their names now. Ark. Orwen. Leros. She had understood very little of what the alphas had spoken, but she had understood that.

The leader had wanted to know her name too, but she had refused to say.

She did not trust him.

Truthfully, Embla’s language skills were rudimentary at best. Beyond the knowledge of her own name, she knew very little. She remembered some words from her parents before they had died. Then she had picked up a few more words from the bad alphas who had held her captive for most of her childhood. Later, after she had escaped, she would often sneak into their encampments to steal supplies, and she sometimes overheard them speaking then as well.

But Embla had very little experience using language herself. Practically none, in fact.

And to make matters worse, these three alphas who now had her leashed and gagged—Ark, Orwen, and Leros—they spoke with an accent that was very unfamiliar to her. Their voices were deep and rumbling like the thunder.

Despite the unfortunate situation Embla found herself in, those voices stirred a shameful, ticklish feeling in her lower abdomen.

She knew what that meant. Her heat was coming soon.

That thought sent a shiver down her spine.

The only ones who seemed to have any sympathy for Embla’s position were the three dogs. They had names too, as Embla had soon learned. The gray one was Smoke, while the black and white ones were Shadow and Ghost, respectively. The three of them now sat at their masters’ feet, ears up and heads cocked as they watched the omega curiously.

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