Omega Mine

Josie didn’t get a chance to walk toward the basin filled with water from last night and use it as a half-assed method of rinsing her hands. Instead, she beelined for Grayson as he growled menacingly, stepping toward the thick metal door as it unlocked. She barely made it behind him as the door swung open, light pouring in from the hallway and bringing his meager room into stark clarity.

It was so depressing here. Obviously, being imprisoned was terrible, but there was just no… life within these four walls. Nothing but gray concrete, a thin bed, a basin and a toilet. How had Grayson not gone absolutely crazy after decades of this? How had he only lost his memories and not his sanity?

His anger was all Alpha, so she wasn’t concerned with his bouts of aggression as long as he didn’t harm her, but she didn’t think she could handle captivity like this. Not without coming out irreparably damaged. And to know he’d suffered like this for just over forty years…

“Seven,” a guard called from the hallway, his deep voice vaguely familiar. It must have been the same guard that had brought him back to his cell last night. She’d only been able to make out the tenor of his voice through the door, but she could still identify it easily enough.

Grayson snarled under his breath, taking a few steps forward until he was filling the doorway. “What?” he snapped, his voice turning more deadly than she’d ever heard it before, which was surprising given how he’d talked to her.

“Step aside and let the woman come out into the hallway. She’s to go to the Commander,” the guard answered, not elaborating any further.

The news made Josie’s brows raise in surprise. Were they letting her go? Surely they were, but why had he phrased it that way? Why did she need to see the Commander before she was released?

Did it matter?

She should have been elated that she was being set free. She’d told herself this was what she wanted, what was needed to get vital information back to Bethany, but…

She found herself staring at Grayson’s profile, heart jumping in her throat. She was going to leave him down here, and who knew how long it would take for him to be freed? The thought settled over her like a two-thousand pound weight, nearly crushing her.

She didn’t want to leave him.

Fuck, she really didn’t want to part with him, which was more damning than any other thought she’d had about their possible situation.

Maybe Grayson was her mate.

Of course he is. What other malnourished Alpha would share his meal with a stranger? None. Which one would share his bed to keep a stranger warm and comfortable?

He was seeing to her needs first, another trait for a mated Alpha. The only thing left to confirm her increasingly massive suspicions was for her scent to emerge and for him to catch a whiff. Then she’d have nothing left to speculate.

Leaving is a good thing, she reminded herself. Get out, tell Bethany. Reunite when he’s freed.

“No,” Grayson all but snarled at the guard, who sighed. She was still lurking safely in the room, unable to see anything but Grayson from her position. “She’s mine, and she stays here.”

Her eyes widened, butterflies taking flight in her stomach at his declaration, even though it was insane to feel excited by his claim. He was a damned prisoner. So was she. They weren’t calling the shots here.

“It’s not possible. Acting out will only make things worse for yourself.”

“I said–”

Two small, coiled wires shot from the doorway and straight into Grayson’s abs, the smell of burning flesh filling the air as electricity crackled, little lights exploding from where the wires met his stomach.

Josie let out a panicked scream, terror filling her. Was that a fucking taser?!

Roaring, Grayson launched himself at the guard, but more tasers struck him, volts of electricity hitting him in waves until he eventually fell to his hands and knees. His lips peeled back to display his teeth, his fangs gleaming in the hallway’s light before he collapsed, completely unmoving on the ground.

Josie was frozen on the other side of the room, still hidden from view and scared of moving an inch. Her first thought was to run to him, to turn him over and make sure he was alright, but her feet remained rooted to the ground. Faintly, she could hear his heartbeat from across the room, strong and steady, and it was enough to relax her a fraction, though she still didn’t leave her spot.

“Tie him up before he wakes.”

Three guards stepped into the closed off room, all of them surrounding Grayson. She saw a flash of silver as one pulled out handcuffs while the other two held him pinned to the ground, as if he’d spring up at any moment and attack.

Hell, maybe he would. She didn’t think electricity could keep him down for long.

A fourth guard, the one calling the shots, stepped into the room, ignoring Grayson and heading right for her. She scooted back until she slammed into the wall.

“Don’t come any closer,” she hissed.

“Relax, please,” the guard said. He inhaled, blinking hard in surprise before he looked over his shoulder at the others. “Keep an eye on Seven while we’re gone. We don’t want him to do something stupid when he wakes and finds her gone.”

“So I am being released?” Josie asked, wishing she could feel even a bit of relief at that. Instead, she felt like a wild animal who’d just been cornered, her worry for Grayson overriding everything else.

He didn’t answer her, simply reaching for her arm and pulling her toward the door.

Ignoring her struggles and cry of outrage, the guard practically ripped her out of the cell, dragging her down a long hallway that sloped upward. They passed through a metal gate surrounded by more guards until finally she spotted the same set of double doors she’d been dragged through last night.

“I’ll come willingly,” she told him, struggling to keep up with his long stride. “Can you just let me go?”

Jaw clenching in anger, the man looked around right as they made it to the closed doors, pivoting to see behind them before he shoved her rather rudely into the wall.

“You’re starting to smell, Omega,” he said under his breath, reaching into the pocket of his pants.

Her face blanched, eyes widening in fear as his words registered.

“What–I’m sorry, I think you’re mistaken–”

He huffed, pulling his hand free of his pocket and holding out his fist to her. “I don’t have time to explain anything to you. Take this. It’ll help for the next few hours.”

When she didn’t move, he grabbed her hand, turning it over and dropping something small into her palm. She didn’t need to look down to know what it was; she’d been very familiar with the shape of this pill for as long as she could remember.

And if he had one of these, and could scent her, that meant he wasn’t a human. He was like her. Josie eyed him warily. He wasn’t built like an Alpha or Beta, and he didn’t have glowing eyes either. He had to be an Omega, but what was he doing here as a guard? Her guess was that he’d been sent here by the rebellion, but that didn’t make sense.

If he had been sent here, then surely he would have been the one ordered to search for Bethany’s son, not her. He’d seemed familiar enough with Grayson just now. So why had Josie come here to find an Alpha that had no doubt already been accounted for?

Her head was reeling, trying to make sense of everything while only having a few pieces to a puzzle.

“Why are you giving me this?” she asked, taking a quick look at her palm. Sure enough, he’d given her a light blue scent blocker. Before she lost her nerve, Josie brought her palm to her mouth and swallowed the pill. She’d have preferred down it with water, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“You aren’t being released,” he stated, voice so low she could barely hear him. When she did, her heart skipped a beat. “The Commander wants to see how much damage Seven has inflicted after your night together, and then you’ll likely be returned to his cell. The pill is to prevent you from being noticed by Ortega’s Beta bodyguard.”

Because her scent blocker was wearing off. Shit. When they took her right back to Grayson’s cell, she’d go into heat as soon as the new pill wore off.

She must have gotten lucky, and her scent hadn’t been strong enough to cause a mating heat yet.

She had a few hours at most before everything crumbled down around her, but she was so focused on this new information that she couldn’t even feel afraid of what was going to happen next.

All she had were more questions than answers. Why hadn’t Bethany told her a year ago that there was already somebody undercover here? Unless he was new? But even then, he’d clearly been around Grayson and could have reported that he’d been found.

It seemed Josie had been left in the dark, and she didn’t like that at all.

She shook her head in confusion, needing to verify her suspicions. “You’re like me, aren’t you?” An Omega.

He hissed out a breath, eyes narrowing. “If you want to last another night down here, you won’t say something like that again. Do you understand?”

Not a denial of his Omega status, then. Josie nodded.

“And we’re from the same place?” AKA, rebellion.

He barely nodded his head in acknowledgement. Before she could ask him how long he’d been here, he said, “I’ve been waiting a long time for you. I was starting to think you’d never come.”

Her head snapped back as if he’d struck her.

So he had been here before her… What the hell was going on?

“We need to go. I can’t delay any longer and your scent is gone, so you should be safe from detection.”

With that, his grip tightened on her arm and he pulled her through the double doors, leading her right toward the set of stairs that had gotten her into this mess in the first place. No, she reminded herself, it had been a guard who’d given her different directions than Sierra had, leading her right to Commander Ortega and imprisonment.

Another guard… Had she been set up?

Josie stiffened, torn between wanting to grab the Omega dragging her around by the throat and demand he give her answers, or to play the part of frightened human and keep both of their identities under wraps.

In the end, she chose the latter, hating that she’d likely been manipulated by the very people she’d sworn her allegiance, and her life, to.

As he practically dragged her up the stairs, she couldn’t fake the fear that began to spread the closer they got to the Commander’s doorstep. He’d been an asshole last time, and she doubted that would have changed in twenty-four hours. What was he going to do when the only sign of Grayson’s viciousness was a tiny bite mark on her neck?