Pack Fever: Omegaverse Romance, page 4
Then we’re gone, and we’ve left behind everything.
One day, I’ll return, but most likely, it will be when I’m pregnant and with my Alphas… I can’t even comprehend that. It scares the hell out of me.
In truth, today is the second worst day of my life—the day I lost my father still burns fiercely in my memory. But to have my family torn away, to feel my world breaking away from me as I’m carted off like a criminal… it’s a fresh, raw wound I doubt I’ll ever heal from.
The grunt of the engine and the rhythm of the wheels against the wet road are the only sounds inside the bus. Outside, a storm rages, as if the heavens are furious. We’ve been driving for hours, the road stretching out forever. Thunder cracks violently, and I flinch in my seat, my skin coated in goosebumps. Large drops of rain roll down the bus windows.
I’m brought too close to the memory of that other storm that haunts my dreams—the one that took my dad.
I shift in my seat uncomfortably. Rumors say the Nexus facility is days away from our place, in a location so remote, I sometimes wonder if all the things I hear about it are more myth than reality.
As another boom rocks everything, my stomach knots, and guilt gnaws at me. Maybe if I hadn’t insisted we go to the stupid audition, my dad would still be with us. And maybe I wouldn’t have gone out and the enforcers wouldn’t have caught me, and I sure as hell wouldn’t be on this bus.
Groaning internally, I chew on the corner of my lower lip, dropping my gaze to my hands in my lap, twisting my fingers over one another just like Mom.
I feel trapped—in my own skin, in my situation, in this world—feeling as if there’s no way out, and somehow, I have to suffocate in this straitjacket, or I’ll lose my mind.
Casey places her hand over mine and tightens her hold. She knows about the accident, about how rain affects me, but it’s been years, and I hate to bring it up too often. There’s only so much someone can take with talking endlessly about grief.
I glance up at my friend and force a quirk at the corners of my mouth in an attempt to show her I’m fine.
“On the bright side, we don’t have to worry about traffic on our way to our… deluxe accommodation, right?”
Casey gives me a half-smile, her eyes filled with affection. “You don’t need to pretend with me, babe,” she says softly.
I remember all those times I’ve been there for Casey, when her brother, an Alpha, stepping into his prime at twenty-five years old, was on the hunt for his Omega. He was rejected by Nexus as a potential Alpha for their females. His lack of bank funds made him not worthy. He’s been depressed, seeing the majority of Omegas go through the facility. Though there are situations where some Omegas meet up with Alphas during their heat before Nexus claims them, it’s extremely unlikely. I wish him all the luck, though it has put stress on their home life while he juggles jobs to build up his wealth.
Even if Alphas can be with both Betas and Omegas, there’s something primal inside these dominant men that call them to Omegas. It’s a well-known fact that Alphas can only knot inside an Omega but not inside Betas, and that experience provides the ultimate mating bond. Something we’re taught at Omega school, but I suspect reading about it will be very different to experiencing it.
“Thanks.” I lean my head against Casey’s shoulder. “I think I needed to hear that.”
Across from us, Kayla and Jess are deep in conversation, probably not even noticing it’s storming outside.
“We’ll get through this,” Casey whispers.
I nod as we hold on to each other.
The storm hasn’t let up, and if anything, it’s grown fiercer as the day leans into the late afternoon. The sky’s a heavy blanket of dark storm clouds as we drive along a winding road that’s descending, snaking its way through the dense woods.
Cars pass us occasionally, their headlights piercing the gloom before they vanish around the next bend. I grip the seat in front of me in a death hold, and as we go around a sharp curve, I glance back to see how many more cars we’re holding up.
There’s only one. A massive pickup truck, black with tinted windows and too dark to make out the driver, but it's the kind of truck that should have the antlers of a freshly caught deer strapped to its grill. They’re gaining on us too quickly, and my gut turns that they’ll slide right off the road.
I’m not the only one watching them. So are the two enforcers.
Turning back around, I focus on the road ahead, unease creeping under my skin.
We sway with every turn, and every now and then, our back tires slide across the wet road. I can’t stop the images of my dad’s accident from flashing in my mind, the screech of tires on wet asphalt.
Then, in a split second, there’s a loud, dull thump and the feeling of us being struck by something solid from behind. We all lurch forward, crashing into the seat in front of us, seeing there are no seatbelts on the bus. My heart’s in my throat, and a whimper dances in my throat.
“What the fuck!” Casey mutters.
The bus pitches forward quickly, tires losing their grip as we slide all over the place, fishtailing as we go downhill.
A scream pulses past my throat as the driver yells something at us I don’t hear.
We’re careening sideways as Casey finds my hand.
Her grip is a lifeline, but I’m lost in a whirlwind of adrenaline. My heart is thundering in my chest, vivid images from the accident flashing in my mind.
Spinning out of control.
Me crying out for Dad.
Us flipping onto the roof of his sedan.
And just like then, the bus is losing control fast, the tires not finding purchase on the drenched road.
“We’re going to crash,” I yell, the words tearing from my throat.
I need to get out. I need to escape.
That manic desperation comes over me, and I can’t stop seeing us upside down in the car, Dad dead. And it’s about to happen again to all my friends.
“Calm down,” Casey says over the screeching tires, the grunting and now smoking bus engine.
Kayla and Jess are huddled close, holding onto the seat in front of them as the bus swerves left and right. We’re speeding up now as if the brakes no longer work, hurtling toward the edge of the road. All four of us are thrown against each other in the middle of the bus in the aisle as the driver fights the steering wheel to gain control, shouting at us to hold on.
But it’s no use.
The bus slams into the trunk of a massive tree, and the sickening crunch echoes in my head. The front windshield shatters, and the driver is flung out, as if he’s nothing more than a rag doll.
Jess is screaming.
We’re all thrown forward, tumbling and trying to stop ourselves. Dread swallows me as I feel myself spiraling to my death. My world tilts into chaos as the bus lurches back onto the sloping road, the steering wheel swinging wildly left and right.
“We need to grab the wheel. We gotta control this thing,” Kayla screams, but no one’s moving as we’re barely holding on, bodies flat to the floor between the two rows of seats, and I sure don’t want to be flung out the window.
I stare back at the enforcers at the rear of the bus, and they’re shoving open the escape window at the back, one of them already climbing out.
Hope gathers in my chest that we’ll escape this death trap.
Barely seconds pass when suddenly the whole bus crashes onto its side. We must have slammed into something as we’re all thrown forward, skidding across the floor. We rush up to the front, and I grab hold of a seat, catching myself, then snatch Kayla’s arm to stop her. The other two hit the front of the bus.
Looking back, I see both enforcers behind us have left us in the bus. Assholes.
Casey moans and pushes to get up, her face streaked with tears and terror.
Then the hiss and crackle of smoke bursts out as the engine at the front seems as if it’s going to ignite.
“We can get out the back,” I state, but as I glance back, I discover another flame flicking and growing from the back tire. With the wind, it’s curling around the rear window, meaning we’d have to pass through the fire to escape that way.
Fuck!
Heat burns against my skin as the putrid stench of smoke grows more intense. My panic is in overdrive. Dread slams into me. For those few seconds, fear trumps my anxiety. I scramble to my feet, with Kayla alongside me as though she somehow reads my thoughts.
“The bus is gonna blow,” she cries out.
Jess leaps to her feet and drags Casey up with her. Kayla is rushing to open the escape latch that’s normally on the roof of the bus. With us being on the side, it’s reachable. She wrestles with the latch, but finally gets it open. We lunge for it, squeezing out, one at a time, desperate to escape. As we spill out onto the road, a brutal boom erupts behind us.
I cry out as the force of the explosion of the engine flings us away from the bus.
Landing hard in a shrub on the opposite side of the road, the branches claw at my skin. My head throbs with a sharp ache. For a split moment, I can’t move, the shock of the fall, the explosion, the accident holding me down.
Groaning, I finally shove myself up as a deep pain in my hip protests. My ears are ringing, and the world tilts, but at the sight of the bus, ice fills my veins.
My ears are still ringing as monster flames and smoke curl up from the bus in a thick curtain.
Oh, fuck!
I’m coughing and choking on the smoke from the burning rubber. Farther behind the bus is the black pickup truck, doors open, but there’s no one inside. Are they helping my friends?
“Casey! Kayla! Jess,” I yell, needing to find my friends. I stumble onto the road, now cloaked in smoke. I can barely see the road on either side of the crash site from the smoke, the oncoming night, and the storm still pounding down onto earth.
Glancing around, I hear my friends calling back to me, so I know they survived. The flames cast an eerie glow around the bus, but I force my aching body toward the sounds. Smoke as thick as a blanket is cloying, clawing at my nostrils and the back of my throat. Each breath becomes a struggle. We need to get the hell away from the fire. Hobbling, I push through the pain radiating from my hip.
“Jess,” I call out, moving on instinct and adrenaline. Her earlier response had sounded closest to me.
Suddenly, I can make out Jess’ silhouette in the smog at least twenty feet down the road from the bus scene, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I rush forward until she comes into view. That’s when I notice she’s not alone. A huge figure towers close behind her—an enforcer who escaped the bus.
As if my world falls into slow-mode, I watch the man pull out something from his pocket. Terror slams into me, and the moment I scream out, “Jess, watch out,” he tasers her. The air crackles with electricity, and her body convulses. She crumples to the ground in a heap.
I scream, confusion pounding into me. Why the fuck did they need to taser her?
Wild, frantic fear thumps in my ears just as the enforcer turns toward me, taking calculated steps in my direction. His grin slices through the gloom as he approaches, a ghastly sight on his dirty, streaked face while he’s gripping the taser gun.
“You’re not going anywhere, pretty Omega,” he says loudly, taking a step closer. “You are now the property of Nexus after breaking the rules.”
My heart’s in overdrive against my ribs.
We’ve survived the crash, so why would they use tasers on us?
My pulse hammers in my throat as I step away from the enforcer, his grin chilling.
“Look,” I begin with a raspy voice, the smoke scraping my throat as I break into a cough. “I’ll come with you. Just put the taser away.”
He just smirks like a fucking asshole.
“We’ve been in a goddamn accident.” Rain lashes down on me, rolling down my face and slipping under the collar of my shirt. Its icy fingers rush down my back.
That dark amusement in his gaze tells me he doesn’t care, which leaves me shaking. What else is a man like him capable of?
My gaze darts frantically, seeking an escape and my friends. That’s when Kayla emerges in the distance, darting around the rear of the bus with the other enforcer on her heels. She’s shouting for Casey, telling her to run into the woods, to get away.
I have a decision to make.
As my own enforcer edges closer, my skin creeps at his taser at the ready.
With a surge of adrenaline, I spin on my heels and bolt into the woods at my back. The storm growls overhead, rain coming down in sheets, turning the forest ground into a mudslide.
My feet keep slipping, and I catch myself with the low-hanging branches, but fear pushes me forward. Otherwise, how can I help my friends if I’m caught? The only chance I have to save them is to escape myself, then sneak back to the crash site and rescue them. In this storm, the enforcers getting backup help will take a while. So, that gives me time to get my friends away from them.
But first, I have to shake off this enforcer, then return to my friends and not get caught.
A branch whips me in the face, and I cry out, the pain so sharp it leaves me in tears. I stumble over dead logs and trample on shrubs that tangle around my legs. Glancing back, the enforcer never relents. His shadowy figure charges after me through the woods like the devil himself is chasing me.
Dread comes over me at how in the world I ended up in this situation.
Driving forward, I keep going, frantically checking over my shoulder every few seconds. The distance between me and the enforcer grows, and hope pulses inside me that I’ll actually pull this off.
Another look over my shoulder. I lose sight of him when my foot catches on a root. The ground suddenly disappears.
Before I know it, I’m falling, tumbling down a steep decline, and my stomach’s in my throat with a roller-coaster sensation.
I cry out desperately as my world blurs in and out. My fingers finally grasp onto a root, but it’s ripped out of my grasp from the momentum of my fall. A sharp ache digs into my elbow and up my arm as I use it to lean on, the same arm that had been banged up in the car accident with my dad. It hurts.
Air rushes past me, the rain drenching me. There’s mud everywhere, leaves stuck to me. Hitting a rock with my ass, I cry out, and the branches I slide over aren’t helping.
Then, in a final, savage stop, my head connects with something hard, and stars explode behind my eyes. I have no idea what I hit… It’s dark, and everything is happening too fast.
Whimpering, I lie on my side, knowing I’ve failed, knowing the world around me fades fast. Instead of escaping the enforcer to go back for my friends, I’ve left them alone. With that crushing realization, the shadows and suffocating storm slip over me, and I’m taken by darkness as I pass out.
Chapter
Three
DANICA
My eyes blink open to a forest.
I’m half-buried in a hollowed-out tree trunk, as though I’d rolled into it when I slid down the hill. I savagely shake as fear runs down my spine.
I had passed out under a damn log, and now it’s the next day, morning sun overhead. The storm’s gone, and somehow, I survived. But what happened to my friends?
Coldness wraps around me as I quickly inch out, my mind going over the bus crash, the chase, the fall. A sharp pain travels up my arm and centers on my elbow, where I broke it in the car accident years ago. It’s never fully healed. Holding on to it, I ride the waves of pain.
I’m caked in mud, some of it dry on my arms and clothes. My body feels as though I’ve been run over by a truck, then backed over several times. Every part of me aches, my hip still smarting when I turn on the spot to take in my surroundings.
Rolling hills surround me. I’m in a valley with a stream farther in the distance, broken trees here and there, and a jungle of shrubbery.
My thoughts swirl on my friends as I stare up the hill. They’d be long gone by now, but the last time I saw them, they were alive, which is something.
Jess had been tasered, so I can only assume they took her to the Nexus facility. But what about Casey and Kayla? Did they get away? God, please let them be safe.
Glancing back up the slope, the mountain that leads up to the main road is steep, covered in mud, dead branches, and bent trees. Even if I tried, I wouldn’t make it far without breaking my neck.
Still unable to believe I survived the fall, I drag myself to the stream to clean myself off, unsure what I’m going to do. My nerves are dancing under my skin, but I can’t freak out. That won’t get me anywhere.
Deep breaths.
I’ve got this.
Going back home won’t work. The enforcers will be watching the place and waiting for my return. Do I want to lose my freedom because I went to a club with my friends, and be watched like a lab rat while being prepped for an Alpha? Or worse…
Fuck that!
Another option for me is to survive on my own. I’m not going into heat yet, so is it wrong of me to just vanish for a while? Though I would have preferred if my friends were with me.
There is the small problem that I have no belongings with me and not a cent to my name right now, but I’ll find a way to make this work. There are lots of assistance homes for Beta females around the country, and they don’t ask questions or for proof. I know they help pregnant Betas after Alphas abandon them. It’s a huge issue in our society. So, these community centers help clothe and feed females, and I’ve heard they can even help find you a job.
First, I need to find my way out of the forest.
Semi-convinced of my plan, I crouch by the stream and splash icy-cold water over my face. It’s crisp and refreshing. The gurgle of the water is calming, as is the stillness of the woods, with only the occasional bird chirping in the distance. Lofty trees surround me with wild branches, brimming with palm-sized green leaves.
