Omega Mine

Josie could have sworn she felt the air around her grow cold in an instant as the deep rumble of Grayson’s growl filled the room. His eyes, which always glowed a menacing shade of red, seemed to burn brighter, the pupil almost completely nonexistent as he stared down at the bite mark Samuel had left behind.

The wound hurt like a son of a bitch, and was likely worse than it should have been because, as soon as Samuel had placed his fangs near Grayson’s mark, Josie had gone nearly feral with the need to keep the other male from removing his claim. She’d fought like hell, despite her injuries, to keep him from defiling the small bite Grayson had given her.

Not that it mattered.

She’d been physically too weak to keep the Beta at bay, and she’d already been rattled and distraught from several punches and kicks from Commander Ortega. She hadn’t stood a chance to stop any of it from happening, and it pissed her off as much as it pained her.

“I’m going to fucking kill them all,” Grayson remarked, his voice dark and deadly calm. Too calm, as if he was one wrong move away from absolutely losing his shit, ripping his cell door from its hinges and hunting down those responsible, no matter the cost to himself.

Alphas like Grayson, when provoked enough, could exude waves of power. They were invisible to the eye, but anyone weaker within several feet would feel an intense urge to fall to their knees in submission, to give in and bow down before the king, so to speak.

Now was no exception.

Josie felt the warm blast of his power as it washed over her, pinning her to the mattress as Grayson grew more and more furious, standing up and moving from her to pace the small cell.

“You have to relax,” Josie hissed through clenched teeth, struggling to get the words out as more of his power washed over her, threatening to flatten her like a pancake.

“Relax?” Grayson snapped, his head whipping toward her. His eyes were wide, the red glow nearly blinding her even in the darkness as he snarled, “I won’t relax until they’re all dead!”

Any rational Omega would have been terrified, but Josie? Even in immense pain, she still felt her insides absolutely melt at his declaration of murder in her defense. Every instinct was crooning that this was her mate. This fierce, bloodthirsty male was hers.

Maybe something was wrong with her beyond the obvious. She didn’t know, and frankly she didn’t care, focusing on the lust that began to build inside of her instead of the pain, hoping for a moment’s reprieve.

He stiffened, scenting the air. “You’re aroused,” he said darkly, eyes narrowing on her accusingly. “Why?”

She winced as she struggled to sit up, her desire quickly fading. Immediately he was at her side, gently placing his hands on her shoulders and pushing her back down until her back was flat against the mattress once more. His palms were warm against her bare skin, and she shivered, letting his body heat seep into her very pores.

“Don’t move,” he instructed irritably as she shivered again, grabbing the cloth from beside her. “I’ll stay here and finish cleaning you, but you need rest. Now answer my question. Please,” he added, his expression morphing from furious to somber as he gently began cleaning her bite wound. The more he gently wiped away the blood, exposing more of the wound, the more the snarl on his face grew, until Josie was sure he’d take a bite out of the next person he encountered.

“I find it attractive that you want to defend me,” she answered, hoping her honesty would ease his ire, at least for now. “When I mentioned Alphas and humans before, you seemed very protective of the latter. I guess I didn’t expect you to crave their deaths.”

She’d thought him loyal to those who’d chained him.

Which was why she’d been so hesitant to tell him who she was. Why she’d found herself locked in this cell with him. And now that she knew another Omega had infiltrated the prison, she felt the need to tell Grayson everything about herself. About the rebellion, about who he was.

Maybe telling him everything wouldn’t work against her.

His hands stilled on her neck for a moment before he continued wiping at the blood on her skin. “Doesn’t that frighten you? That I want your kind to die?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she wouldn’t give a damn if he broke free and slaughtered every person in this entire arena. She’d be right by his side if he chose to annihilate whomever he wanted.

She shook her head. “The humans in this city are evil as far as I’m concerned. They’re more than happy to place bets on who will die in the arena fights, to torture and kill people because they don’t understand them. They treat women like garbage because they can give birth to your kind.” Our kind, she added silently. “People like that shouldn’t be ruling over others.”

“I haven’t ever cared about who was ruling the outside world,” Grayson answered gruffly, growling deep in his throat as he continued cleaning the blood from her flesh. “I haven’t thought about much since I’ve been down here. Only the next meal. The next kill. Nothing else has mattered.”

Her heart hurt to hear his life broken down into so little, as if there was another wound piercing the organ. He deserved more than to be trapped down here, fighting for his life night after night.

He was the Alpha of all Alphas, his kind needed him. And Grayson needed purpose. Stability. The will to fight for his freedom. The more she thought about everything he must have endured these past few decades, the angrier she grew at knowing how Bethany had been treating her own son.

Bethany wasn’t just the leader of the rebellion; she was the acting Omega Prime in Grayson’s absence. She was involved in everything related to their kind, and she had to have known her son was down here. Instead of using every resource to free him, she’d instead secretly placed Omega rebels within the city and neighboring towns while Jameson monitored him from within. For what?

What the hell could Bethany be stalling for? Grayson could die at any given time. He was a prisoner, and she’d kept him as such for at least a year, given how long Jameson had been ‘waiting’ for her. There had been no rescue attempt that Josie knew of. Nothing to help remove Grayson from this place.

Only her, and she hadn’t even lasted ten minutes within the arena without being captured and placed down here after she’d received bad intel on where to go…

Which brought her back to her earlier thought. What if the guard giving her different directions than Sierra had done it on purpose? What if he’d led her to Commander Ortega’s office in the hopes that she’d be caught and imprisoned?

It was an insane thought, because that would mean the gate guard had known who she was, right…

What if it hadn’t been coincidental? She had so many questions, and no answers. But one thing she knew for certain; Grayson couldn’t stay here. Whatever original plan she had to flee and then meet up with him once he’d been freed was gone. There would be no release for her, but even if there was… She couldn’t leave him down here. Not anymore.

“If you had the chance to escape this place, would you?” Josie asked quietly, hoping like hell she wasn’t making a mistake by confiding in him.

“Where would I go?” Grayson questioned, sounding as if he was only humoring her. “I can’t even remember what the outdoors look like. I can’t remember where I’m from, who I am. I couldn’t function outside of these walls.”

Josie reached up, taking his hand in hers. As soon as their skin touched, it was as if she’d been hit by volts of electricity. The atmosphere in the room went taut with a carnal tension that couldn’t be overlooked, even though her body was physically aching. “You could come with me,” she told him. “We can find a way out of here, and I’ll help you figure everything out. Your place, your purpose.”

Grayson raised a brow. “Find a way out? When did you realize there was no being set free?”

Josie grimaced. He was right. Just that morning she’d been adamant that she was being released, and now look at her. A broken and bloody mess.

“I think we can both guess when,” she answered a bit cattily for someone who couldn’t even sit up on her own without pain shooting through her ribs and abdomen. “But you didn’t answer me. Would you come with me?”

He paused, eyes narrowing suspiciously as he tilted his head in contemplation. “I shouldn’t want to, but I don’t like the idea of being parted from you,” he admitted, his brow furrowing in confusion. “I didn’t enjoy watching you walk away from me, voluntarily or otherwise.”

Josie took a deep breath. “I’m an Omega,” she whispered, afraid of her voice traveling through the thick walls and being heard by anyone else. She wasn’t sure the other Alphas and Betas in this cell block could hear from so far away, but she didn’t want to risk it. “The reason I use scent blockers is because my scent would reveal that I’m not human, and if I’m discovered, I’ll be executed.”

Grayson didn’t move from his crouched stance beside the bed, his eyes locked on her face, as if he hadn’t heard a word she’d said.

“Grayson, did you–”

“Is that why I’m drawn to you? Why I feel less full of wrath when you’re near?” He interrupted. “Because you’re an Omega?”

She bit her lower lip, hissing in pain when she split the closing wound right open. “N-not entirely.”

He moved then, bringing the damp cloth back to her lip and snarling under his breath. “If you can’t talk without making yourself bleed, then don’t speak,” he grumbled.

Josie huffed, the urge to shove the cloth away and bite his fingers in reprimand for his surly tone nearly overwhelming. “I can speak just fine, thank you.”

“Then explain what you mean.”

“When I told you that Omegas can calm an Alpha from going feral with rage, it’s not just any Omega with any Alpha.” She locked eyes with Grayson. “In our world, there are things called mates. Do you remember anything about that?”

Grayson furrowed his brow, lost in thought. “Mates?”

“Some say it’s the other half of your soul. A perfect counterpart. Only an Omega who is mated to an Alpha can calm the storm of emotions that lives inside of them.”

Grayson tilted his head. “How do you know if you’ve found your mate?”

“It’s all in the scent,” she admitted, looking away from him as his stare grew more intense. “An Alpha can smell their mate. It’s the one true way to know that someone is your other half. There are other things that can hint at it, like being territorial, jealous, possessive… feeling the need to mark your mate is another.”

“To mark?” he asked, but his voice was low and threadbare as his fingers drifted over to the large wound on her neck, barely pressing into her ravaged skin. “With a bite,” he murmured softly, almost to himself. “I wanted to mark you, so I bit you. I’ve never felt the need to do that to anyone before you. And being near you has lessened the rage I’ve felt for years in a matter of hours.”

He stood abruptly, turning from her. The tension lining his frame was palpable, a dark energy filling the space between. It was so thick, she could have cut it with a knife, and that worried her. Was he upset by what she was revealing?

She had no idea, and he wanted to discuss it further. To tell him as much as she could before something else happened to separate them, but what if revealing too much too soon was a terrible idea? What if he couldn’t handle these revelations?

“Grayson?”

“That isn’t my name,” he snapped, shoulder stiffening. “You should get some rest.”

And with that, he busied himself in the darkness, pacing around quietly until she eventually drifted off, listening to the steady beating of his heart.