Hunting Their Omega

Run

Aurelia

Before I could process his words, chaos erupted. The guy holding me, who I believed was named Jaxson, pushed me out of the way before six giant men dressed in camo lunged at him.

Where the hell had they come from?

My eyes widened as I watched the vicious fight in front of me. The men sounded more animal than human as they dog-piled Jaxson and tried to subdue him.

I was snapped out of my shocked state when two more men dressed in camo moved toward me. One was reaching for a pair of handcuffs that dangled from his belt.

Shit.

I needed to get away.

I spun around before they could reach me and ran toward the hospital's reception area.

"Bring her back. If any of you mark her, it's your funeral," I heard Theodore warn, and I had no idea what he was talking about. Mark her? How the hell would they mark me? Like a tattoo?

I had no idea what was going on.

All this over government testing?

I passed a frightened-looking Janice at the front but didn't have time to stop, so I shouted for her to run as I continued toward the door. I hoped and prayed that she listened because I didn’t want her to get hurt.

"Run, Mate," Jaxson bellowed from where he was fighting six men and seemed to be holding his own. I knew he was talking to me even though I had no idea why he referred to me as mate. I wasn't about to ask, though. I did what he demanded and ran for my life.

I jogged daily, so even though I was short, I was fast. It helped that I was light and agile on my feet, too, making it easy for me to maneuver around obstacles.

After running for a minute, I glanced over my shoulder and found four guys in camo chasing me. How had they multiplied? I thought there were only two pursuing me back at the hospital.

Their eyes were laser-focused, like I was their prey, and they were the predators hunting me. One of them had his teeth exposed as if he was snarling, which made my eyes widen, and my feet move even faster. What the hell was wrong with him? A normal person didn’t snap their jaw like a rabid dog.

My body was still burning up, and I prayed for it not to get worse. The cramps were already extremely uncomfortable, making me lightheaded. If it got worse, I worried I might pass out.

Would they kill me if they caught me? The guy named Theodore, who I assumed was in charge, ordered them to restrain me. But since I ran, would he change his mind and kill me instead? Oh god, a fresh wave of fear washed over me. I couldn’t let them catch me.

I reached the end of the street, which was a dead-end, and started to panic. Where was I going to go? I couldn't turn around, or they would catch me. My only other option was to run into the thick forest beyond the road.

I glanced back and noticed my hesitation had given them time to gain on me, and there was barely any more distance between us.

Without further hesitation, I leaped over the concrete barrier at the end of the road and sprinted into the forest. Sweat trickled down my forehead, temple, and back as I pushed my body beyond its limits. I couldn't let them catch me because, deep down, I knew they had bad intentions. I didn't know how I knew it, but something told me I would prefer death over what they had in store for me. These weren’t ordinary military guys, or at least, they didn’t act like it.

My body was starting to lose steam; between the overheating sensation, cramps, and pushing my body past its limits, I could feel myself slowing down.

"Just a little further," I pleaded out loud as I dodged branches and trees, continuing to move forward.

I risked another glance over my shoulder and cursed when I noticed the four guys gaining on me. Their pace hadn't changed. What the f**k? Who were these guys? How was it possible that they weren’t losing steam like me? We had been running for a solid fifteen minutes at a full sprint they should have been slowing down by now. It was like they were machines instead of humans.

Not only that, but their mannerisms didn't seem human; they were growling and snarling, and I was pretty sure one was drooling while he snapped his teeth in my direction.

Was I dreaming? As the thought crossed my mind, a branch whipped across my face, making me hiss in pain and reaffirming that this was, in fact, real.

Maybe the testing went wrong and infected these guys with something like rabies. That thought sounded crazy, but looking at the men behind me, it didn't seem far-fetched.

I veered around a large tree and ducked under a low branch, trying to evade them. The next time I looked back, only two were behind me.

Had I lost the other two?

Hope sprang in my chest, but that feeling was short-lived when, out of nowhere, I was tackled from the side. All the oxygen left my lungs when I landed on the cold, damp ground with a heavy weight on my back. My head slammed against a large rock, causing black spots to invade my vision and a throbbing pain to erupt.

I couldn't breathe, let alone speak because of the heavy body pinning me down. One of his hands pushed my face into the dirt while his other reached for my hands.

I bucked and fought, but it was no use.

I couldn't see them, but I knew the other guys had caught up, and several more hands were on me.

“f**k, she smells so good,” one of the men groaned.

“I know. Imagine what she would smell like in our realm where there isn’t a shield to weaken our senses,” another added before inhaling deeply.

“I’m struggling with the urge to rut her,” another gritted out.

Rut her? What the f**k. I immediately started to struggle harder, but it was useless. My hands were being held on either side of my body and someone was pinning my head to the ground. I also felt something hard pressed against my ass which made a fresh wave of panic course through me. Did the guy pinning me down have an erection?

"Stay still," he growled next to my ear before I felt his nose against the crook of my neck. He was smelling me like Jaxson, but it didn’t feel the same. I didn’t want his nose on me like I had wanted Jaxson’s. It sent a disgusted shiver down my spine and a fresh wave of fear through my veins.

Tears prickled my eyes as I fought the urge to vomit. I felt helpless and vulnerable as these men groped me.

“Theo said not to mark her but never told us not to take the edge off,” one of the guys noted before I felt someone hook their fingers in the waistband of my pants.

"No, please," I cried out, still struggling as tears soaked the ground beneath me.

My body was on fire, and my vision was fading to black. I was losing consciousness from the lack of oxygen and hitting my head on the rock.

Just when I thought there was no hope left for me, one of the guys in camo dropped to the ground next to me. His eyes closed, and his body went limp.

Next, the guy on my back went limp and his entire weight fell on my back. The hand pinning my head slipped away and so did the hands restraining my wrists. I thought I couldn’t breathe before, but now with the added weight on my back, it was even worse.

Before I knew it, there was no movement or noise around me.

I could feel myself slipping into darkness just as my brain registered low voices in the distance.

I tried to call out for help, but the lack of oxygen in my lungs prevented the words from leaving my lips.

"She's going into heat. We need to get her out of here before the others come," an unfamiliar female voice stated sternly.

"How? They don't go into heat anymore without meeting their fated mate?" a different female voice asked, sounding surprised.

There was that word again, mate.

"Don't know. But now's not the time to ponder it. We need to go before they send reinforcements," a male voice snapped.

Someone shoved the body off my back, and I was finally able to suck in a deep breath as firm hands gripped my arms and lifted me off the ground.

I wanted to open my eyes and ask them who they were and what they were talking about, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t long before darkness completely consumed me, and my entire body went limp as I was thrown over someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes.