Omega Mine

Grayson could still hear his mate’s worried cries echoing in his head as he fought the three Alphas attempting to steal her from him. The smoke was thick, burning his eyes and clogging his lungs, but he didn’t slow down as he slammed his fist into one male’s face. Blood flew and bone crunched beneath his knuckles as the male’s nose broke.

He didn’t allow himself a chance to enjoy the feeling of causing destruction and pain, too anxious to return to Josie and protect her. Leaving her with Jameson, the Omega she warned him not to trust, was eating at his conscience.

He needed to get to her now!

His concern for her was so great that he didn’t sense one of the Alphas move behind him, not until claws sliced at his back, cutting through his shirt and sinking into his skin.

He bellowed in fury, spinning around and swiping at his attacker’s jugular, nails lengthening into sharp claws. He latched onto his neck and kept going, cutting through flesh until his fingers locked onto bone. Wrenching hard, he severed the male’s spine before slamming his boot into the male’s chest. He flew backward, mostly just a lax corpse, hitting the ground with a lifeless thud.

That left him with only two opponents, and he felt his odds of walking away from this encounter in the next few minutes increase… Until two more people rushed into the fray; an Alpha female and a Beta male.

Grayson didn’t get the chance to issue a roar of challenge. At that exact moment, the walls shook and the ceiling trembled above them all. With an ominous groan, the building collapsed, and everything faded to black.

“Grayson!” Josie screamed, the sound cutting off as her voice cracked. Tears stung her eyes as she stared in horror at the remains of the building. “No, no–”

“We have to keep moving,” Jameson snapped, grabbing her biceps in a bruising grip and shaking her until she looked away from the destruction they’d left behind. She looked at her companion, but she didn’t feel like she was really seeing him, the image of the collapsed building filling her head until she thought she’d vomit. “We’re so close to the wall surrounding the city, Josie.” He shook her again. “Stay with me!”

She nodded brokenly, and her chin wobbled.

“He’s not dead, okay? You’ve mated him; you’d feel his passing.”

Her breath caught, his words sinking into her like a blade. Sharp and painful, they cut her apart. He was right; she could feel Grayson’s presence in her mind, just past the despair and fear shredding her heart. Their bond wasn’t strong enough to speak with one another, not yet, so she had no idea how injured he was, or anything.

All she knew was that Grayson was alive, and he needed her!

“We can’t leave him there,” she cried, turning to run back toward her mate.

“No!” Jameson’s arms bounded around her waist, yanking her off her feet and dragging her further away from the ruins. She struggled in his grip, but she was still weak from her heat, and the longer he held onto her, the more she noticed pain radiating along the areas he touched, even through her clothing. “I’m not letting go until you see reason! Going to him will get us all killed. We have to leave, and hope that he finds us.”

Josie shook her head, flailing her legs wildly to escape him. But it was no use. He was stronger than her, hauling her into the forest. The building disappeared from sight behind a wall of vegetation, and she lost it. Tears slipped down her face as the strength in her body gave out. She went lax in his hold, whatever fight she had leaving her in an instant.

“Up you go,” Jameson murmured, lifting her up and cradling her in his arms. He sprinted toward the wall she could now see off in the distance, the moonlight reflecting on the thick metal surface. “It’ll be fine, Josie. Your mate isn’t the kind of male to succumb so easily to death.”

She hoped he was right. Grayson was a fighter–fierce, and stronger than anyone else she’d ever met. Josie would feel it if he were gone. In her heart, in her soul, she’d feel his passing.

Grayson is strong, she reassured herself, wiping at the tears that continued to run unchecked down her face. Grayson would survive this, and he’d find her. She just needed to be somewhere safe when he did, otherwise everything he’d gone through would be for nothing.

“You can put me down,” she said softly, relieved when Jameson released her without protest. Her legs felt weak as she stood on her own, either from the fear and panic stuttering her heart, or the effects of the mating heat that had thankfully ebbed once more.

“You’re not going to do anything rash, are you?” Jameson asked quietly, observing her like she was a flight risk.

She shook her head, rubbing her aching arms from where he’d touched her. “I’m fine to continue.”

She wasn’t, not in the least. But Grayson was tough. He was strong. And she was his mate; that same strength resided within her, that same fierceness. She just needed to channel it for now, to be resilient until he came for her.

Then she’d let herself be emotional; when they were both together again.

Grayson… Please be safe, she prayed silently, following Jameson

They reached the thirty-feet high wall faster than she’d anticipated, given how far away it had looked several minutes before. Once they were close enough, Jameson crouched down at the base of the metal structure, hands roaming along the sides. “There should be a loose–ah ha!”

A bolt popped free of a panel slightly protruding from the wall, and he wiggled his fingers through the crack, stretching it as wide as he was able until his entire hand fit through the growing hole.

“How the hell did you know there was a loose panel?” she asked incredulously, dropping to her knees beside him. Her face was wet, both with her tears and sweat that was beading on her forehead, an ever present reminder that her heat might have eased for the moment, but it was lurking just beneath the surface.

She did her best to ignore everything she was feeling, grabbing ahold of the panel’s edge and helping him to pull. The metal bent and groaned the harder they struggled until, finally, they pried it off from the wall.

“I’ve been acting as a city guard for the past few years. This perimeter was breached a while back when a newly captured Alpha managed to escape before he was confined to the arena. He made it out of the city by clawing through a small part of the steel wall and escaping to the other side.”

Josie’s eyes widened in disbelief. “And Ortega had it repaired like this? Why not something stronger?” It seemed like a boneheaded mistake on the city commander’s part.

“Oh, he thinks that the hole’s been welded shut and is now incapable of being breached.” He smiled at her then, some of the stress leaving his face. “Luckily for us, I oversaw the repairs myself, and at the last minute ‘Commander Ortega’ requested the hole be concealed with a panel and bolts to cut costs.”

“That’s brilliant,” she murmured.

Jameson shifted, dropping the panel behind them before leaned down to inspect his work. They both stared into the hole, taking in the beams and poles that made up the wall’s frame. The wall itself looked to be about two feet thick, and she knew that she’d have no trouble fitting through.

But Jameson was bigger than she was, with wide-set shoulders. And Grayson was almost twice his size. How could they make it through without issue?

“Squeeze through there,” he commanded softly. “I’ll watch your back in case anyone is looking for us.”

Immediately, she was on edge. “Why would anyone be looking for us? The guards that spotted us inside are all dead.”

The Alphas attacking them had been vicious and swift; she couldn’t imagine any human would have survived it.

“Maybe they are dead,” Jameson finally said, cutting through the silence that was quickly growing tense between them with each passing second. “But it’s better to assume one of them reported us through a walkie-talkie before they died, or that someone managed to make it out. Even still, all of the prisoners were released tonight, and when they start clearing debris, they’re bound to find bodies of Alphas and Betas.”

Her heart clenched painfully, but she nodded. “And they’ll look for Grayson,” she commented dully.

Jameson nodded. “He’s who they want. He’s their prized ‘beast’.”

Josie was quiet for a moment, tempted to ask him why he’d been here for years, leaving her mate trapped and starved like an animal. But she pushed the thought aside. She’d ask those questions when Grayson made it back to her. When she wasn’t alone with a male she didn’t fully trust.

Eyeing the hole once more, Josie slowly began to crawl through it. She was almost through to the other side when she heard Jameson enter the space behind her, grumbling under his breath at the tight fit. Hearing him struggle made her acutely aware that Grayson would have an even harder time.

What if he couldn’t fit? How the hell would he get to them?

He’ll think of something…

After a few minutes, they both cleared the hole, and Josie breathed a sigh of relief. Her eyelids were heavy and her limbs were shaking as they began to walk deeper into the woods.

“Where are we going now?” she asked, looking around. Nothing was familiar in the slightest. There were no trail markers, no dirt roads, just endless trees.

“My original plan was Hinkley,” Jameson commented. “Sierra will be able to provide us with shelter for the time being while we wait to hear back from Bethany.”

“I’m not sure that’s a wise choice.” Josie bit her lower lip. “The first time I met Ortega, he asked where I was from. If you’re right, and they’re going to dig through the rubble to try and find Grayson, then what are they going to do when they can’t find him?”

They were going to look for her. She was his cellmate, his only guide to the outside world.

Almost as if he could read her mind, Jameson bit out a harsh curse, running his hands through his hair. “Fucking hell,” he snarled under his breath. “I should have realized–Bethany would have known better. Goddamnit!”

Jameson punched a nearby tree, hissing in pain a moment later when the skin on his knuckles split.

“Are you worried about her?” Josie asked hesitantly, unsure if she wanted to dive into this subject now. “You said it’s not normal for her to be out of communication for so long.”

Jameson nodded. “I’m sure it’s nothing, but she knew how close you were to mating Grayson. Why wouldn’t she have her second-in-command lined up to help us escape if she couldn’t help herself?”

Josie pursed her lips. “I thought the rebellion placed those bombs to get us out of here.”

He sent her a sidelong glance before sighing. Pushing a branch away from his face as he walked, Jameson said, “It’s not just Bethany that’s been out of reach. It’s been the entire command center. I can’t get through to anyone, and neither can the other operatives that were planted here. Not in Hinkley, or the arena.”

“Then how did you orchestrate an escape?” she asked curiously.

Josie might work for the rebellion, but she wasn’t an active operative like Jameson. She was a ‘sleeper agent’ only. It wasn’t her job to contact the command center, or to speak with anyone outside of the town she’d been placed in.

Josie’s job had been to blend in with her townspeople and wait for a chance to breach the arena without drawing attention to herself. From there, she’d gather intel, return home and inform Sierra of her findings, who would then reach out to command on her behalf.

That was it. This was her first real mission, and it had clearly not gone as she’d expected at all. And it felt as if every new revelation left her grasping at straws, trying to figure everything out when nothing made sense.

And now Jameson was telling her that he’d been iced out by the command center. What the hell was going on?

“The other operatives that were planted here with me,” Jameon began, sighing again. “We have an agreement of sorts. If we need an emergency evac, we know how to get a signal to the others if command can’t help. I managed to get a hold of them, and we set up the escape ourselves.”

“That’s pretty impressive.”

He nodded, jaw clenching. “It shouldn’t have been necessary.”

No, it shouldn’t have.

Josie took a deep breath, releasing a disturbing thought that was beginning to bounce around in her head. “If you can’t reach anyone at the command center, then what happened to them? Do you think their location was compromised?”

Had the humans found them and attacked?

Jameson looked at her again, uncertainty shining in his eyes. “I don’t know, Josephine. I just don’t know.”