Hunting Their Omega

Relocating

Aurelia

The woman named Sl@sh left me with the three others and took off down the tunnel ahead of us, muttering how much of a pain in the ass I was. God, did I ever dislike that woman. She was a royal b***h.

I turned my attention to Ray when she extended her hand toward me. I realized that she was holding a pair of grey sweatpants and a matching sweater in her hand.

"Thank you," I muttered, taking the clothes from her and quickly dressing.

She seemed much nicer than the first woman and gave me a sympathetic smile before saying, "You're welcome. I'm Rayna, by the way, but you can call me Ray."

"I'd like to say it's nice meeting you, but I'm not so sure that's the case yet," I said with a light, humorless chuckle before adding, "I'm Aurelia."

"I would love for us to chat some more, but we really do need to leave. Maybe I can answer a few of your questions while en route to the next safe house," Ray suggested.

"Thank you." I forced a smile.

I wasn't trying to be a b***h or difficult, but everything that was happening was a lot, and all I wanted to do was wake up and find out it was all just a nightmare. Unfortunately, I had a feeling it wasn't, though.

I followed Ray and the two beefy guys through the tunnels. The guys had machine guns and were holding them as if they were expecting to use them. It sent an uneasy feeling through me. I had been so busy arguing with Sl@sh earlier that I didn't really pay attention to what she said about having to leave in a hurry because the location had been compromised.

"We're going separately from the others since you're at the end of your heat cycle. Sl@sh didn't want to compromise all the Omegas if you happened to attract unwanted attention," Ray said, giving me another sympathetic look over her shoulder.

"By unwanted attention, I take it Sl@sh was referring to Alphas?" I asked bitterly.

"Yeah, Sl@sh is her nickname; her real name is Sasha. She can come across as a b***h, but once you get to know her, she's not that bad." Ray explained, making me snort. Not that bad? Doubtful.

"Why Sl@sh?" I found myself asking.

"She's deadly with a blade. She might only be a Beta like me, but she's fierce as hell and can take care of herself," Ray explained as we turned down a new tunnel.

The tunnels were empty except for the lanterns hanging from the stone walls along the way.

"Beta?" I asked curiously.

Ray glanced over her shoulder at me with a deep assessing frown.

"You really don't know anything about our world, do you?" she asked, but it was more of a statement.

"No, but I'm still not confident you guys aren’t all on drugs or something," I said truthfully, which made her chuckle.

"I'll give you the rundown of our world when we get in the van," she said just as we reached a dead end and a large rock. There appeared to be natural light seeping in through the edge of the rock.

Great, we were f****d if that was our only way out of this cave. The rock was as big as the two beefcakes combined. We would need heavy machinery to move it.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, the two beefy dudes shouldered their guns and took a position on either side of the large rock.

I gasped when they lifted it with minimal effort. Was it a fake rock? Maybe a blow-up rock? There was no way they should have been able to do that if it was real.

Once the rock was out of the way and my mind decided to start working again, I glanced up to see a large hole in the stone wall that led outside.

I squinted as I peeked through the hole. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the bright light, but when they did, I noticed thick trees surrounding us.

The two guys held their machine guns in a ready position and seemed more tense now that we were outside. The nervous energy surrounding us put me on edge.

"This way," Ray whispered as she grabbed my arm and pulled me behind the guards, pushing their way through the thick trees.

Of course, I gave the rock a feel on the way by and it certainly felt real. Strange. How the heck did those guys move it?

I noticed that even Ray had her hand on her holstered handgun, looking ready to react if something happened.

What kind of mess did I get myself into?

We moved slowly through the forest, trying to remain quiet.

I had a million questions going through my mind, but I knew now wasn't the time to ask them.

After walking for what felt like forever, we reached a massive tree with long, dangly branches covered in tiny green leaves. I had never seen such a beautiful tree before. The thin branches looked almost like curtains around the sides of the tree. The tree trunk had to be monstrous for how wide the branches fell.

The guard pulled the branches back like curtains, and I once again gasped at what it revealed. Hiding behind the greenery was a large black cargo van.

"Get in, Aurelia," Ray instructed, moving to the van and sliding the back door open.

I hesitated momentarily. Once again, wondering it was a mistake to trust these people. But the sound of a twig snapping in the distance had me jumping into the van like my ass was on fire.

One of the guards cursed as all three seemed to move a little faster after hearing the sound.

"We need to go," Ray said urgently, hopping in beside me.

The two guards got in the front, and the one behind the wheel quickly fired up the ignition.

The van started moving opposite from where we came, driving through the curtain-like branches. The guards obviously knew where they were going since I couldn’t see anything through the branches until we reached the other side. Once we did, I realized we were driving down a narrow, dirt road surrounded by more trees.

There was a tense silence in the van as we sped down the road, and the passenger guard kept his gun in his hands, looking outside as if he expected an ambush at any moment.

After several minutes, Ray relaxed slightly and leaned back in her seat.

"That was tense," she muttered with a sigh.

"What's going on?" I asked, unable to stop the question from leaving my lips.

"Our safe cave was compromised. One of our scoots spotted some of the counsel's guards searching near our cave. We had to move all the Omegas before they found our location, or they would have seized every last one of you. Trust me, the councilmen and their guards are not your friends," she explained with a humorless chuckle.

"What's an Omega?" I heard Sl@sh call me that several times," I asked.

Ray looked at me for a long moment before letting out a defeated sigh and saying, "Alright. I know this will all sound bad-s**t crazy to you but hear me out. When we get to the next safe house, I can prove everything."

I said nothing and waited for her to continue.

"You're a werewolf; we all are," she said and paused for her words to sink in.

When they did, I buckled over in hysterical laughter.

"Okay..." I drawled at her joke.

"It's true. None of us can shift into our wolves because of a curse placed on our kind long ago, but we still are werewolves," Ray added, sounding frustrated as I continued to laugh.

"Look," she said, drawing my attention back to her.

She bared her teeth at me, and I immediately noticed the long canines.

My eyes widened but then narrowed when I said, "So you got implants. It's weird but not unheard of."

"What about this," she said, and suddenly, her eyes darkened a shade, and her pupils dilated.

She could tell that I was still skeptical, so she lifted her hand in front of my face. My mouth dropped open when her nails turned into long, sharp claws before they retracted and turned back to nails. I blinked several times, wondering if I was losing my mind, too.

"Now, do you believe me?" she asked.

I said nothing, too stunned to formulate words. Fear crept into my veins as I scooted as far as I could away from her.

Ray rolled her eyes before saying, "I won't hurt you. I would have done it by now if that was my intention."

"Do you want me to continue, or do you need a few minutes to process?" she asked.

"Go on," I said hesitantly, not sure if my brain could handle any more of her craziness, but at the same time, curiosity was getting the better of me.

"Alright, so, in our world, each werewolf is born with a certain rank. Alphas are at the top of the food chain. They're bigger, stronger, and more powerful than the other ranks. They're usually the head of a pack and have a harder time controlling their animal instincts."

She paused for a minute to let that sink in before she continued, "Then there're Betas. We're usually the working-class rank, often used for regular jobs like healthcare, finances, retail, etc. Sometimes, if the Beta is big enough and passes a series of tests, they are used as guards."

I nodded without thinking, encouraging her to go on. I didn't exactly believe what she was saying, but her words fascinated me.

"Lastly, there are people like you, Omegas. You're usually born smaller, physically weaker, and in need of constant protection. Before the curse, most of your kind couldn't shift into their wolves. You were considered at the bottom of the pecking order in a pack and often cast aside due to your weaker nature. Things changed, though, after the curse, and I'm not sure it was for the better."

“Wow… Glad my kind was so well respected back in the day,” I said sarcastically.

She sighed, ignoring my words as she continued, " It's believed that the curse placed on us was because of the way Omegas had been treated. They were often rejected by their mates and abandoned by their packs. Or worse, enslaved, mistreated, and given the most tedious jobs within a pack. Now, thanks to the curse, Omegas are cherished and highly sought after. The curse made it so that an Alpha can only procreate with an Omega and vice versa. Unfortunately, because of how Omegas used to be treated, there aren't many remaining in our world."

"What about Betas? Can't they procreate too?" I asked.

Ray nodded before saying, "Yes, we can procreate but only with other Betas, leading to all the children we birth holding the Beta rank. Eighty percent of the werewolf population holds the Beta rank. Then, another seventeen percent are Alphas. Omegas only make up approximately three percent of our kind."

I was certain my eyes looked like they were bugging out of my head as I took everything in.

"That's just the basics; once we're at the safe house, I'll go into more detail with you. Like, explain the heat cycle you just went through and how it affects an Alpha. I'll also explain the politics in our world since the curse happened. There's a major push-pull happening between our people and the werewolf counsel, also known as our government."

"Thank you for..." I started, but the words turned to a squeal when the van suddenly abruptly swerved, causing my head to slam hard against the window.

"Ow," I groaned, my eyes closing as I rubbed my temple. I felt something warm and wet against my skin and quickly realized I was bleeding.

"f**k, we've been found," the guard in the passenger seat announced as the driver tried to drive around something in the middle of the road.

My eyes widened when I realized it was a man. A giant man. And he looked angry as he stood in the middle of the road, blocking our way.

The driver tried to swerve and drive around him, but a second figure darted before us. Our van veered further off the road and slammed into a large tree, causing the front windows to explode.

Stars blurred my vision as my head hit the seat before me.

It took a while for my vision to return to normal and the buzzing in my head to stop. When it did, I glanced behind us to see the two large men approaching with rifles pointed at the vehicle.

Panic filtered through me.

I glanced at our driver and noticed he was unconscious, slumped over the steering wheel, and something long and thin was sticking out of his neck. A dart, maybe?

Fuck.