BRANDED OMEGA

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4

WHEN YOU LOSE EVERYTHING

BETTY'S POV

I moved before I could think.

I threw myself at him.

He stumbled back, surprise flashing across his face as my claws sank into his skin. His scream tore through the underground room, and for one brief second, his grip loosened.

That was all I needed.

Using every ounce of strength in my small frame, I twisted and shoved him off balance. He crashed onto the floor with a heavy thud.

The other two men froze.

They hadn't expected me to fight back.

Neither had I.

Then they exchanged a look and started toward me.

Slowly.

Confidently.

My stomach dropped.

I couldn't fight both of them. I knew that. They knew it too.

The smirks on their faces made that painfully clear.

I hadn't thought this through.

Brilliant, Betty.

Still, I raised my claws.

If I was going down, I wasn't going down quietly.

A growl rose in my throat.

Then someone screamed.

"Grab them!"

I turned.

The female omega who had spoken earlier lunged forward.

She was older than me, with a scar running along her temple. Her chains rattled violently as she threw herself at one of the men and wrapped both arms around his leg.

"Get off me!"

The man kicked at her, but she held on.

Then the others moved.

Every omega in the room attacked.

Chains clattered against the floor as they grabbed the men, clawing, biting, tearing at whatever part of them they could reach.

"Get off me, you insects!" the bulky man roared.

But they didn't stop.

I stood frozen.

The room erupted into screams.

Blood splattered across the walls.

Across the floor.

Across the omegas who had finally decided they had nothing left to fear.

They tore into the men with a desperation that made my chest tighten.

Not because they believed they would survive.

But because they knew they wouldn't.

"We need to leave. Now."

Eva's voice echoed sharply in my mind.

"Footsteps are coming. They must have heard the screaming. Those bastards probably mind-linked the others."

My body finally obeyed.

I spotted the keys on the floor and rushed toward them.

My hands shook as I grabbed them.

One by one, I unlocked the silver chains.

The moment the last omega was free, I looked at them.

"Come with me."

My voice came out low and urgent.

I gestured toward the exit.

"Come on. We can escape."

Nobody moved.

For a moment, I thought they hadn't heard me.

Then the woman with the scar looked at me.

Her expression was calm.

Too calm.

"We don't have a reason to go on," she said quietly.

My breath caught.

"You should leave. The others are coming."

I stared at her.

"What?"

The other omegas nodded.

No.

No, this wasn't happening.

"You can leave," I said, stepping closer. "We can all leave."

She shook her head.

"We've lost too much."

"But—"

I stopped.

Because I finally looked into her eyes.

Really looked.

And I understood.

I knew that emptiness.

I had seen it before.

In my mother's eyes before she died.

That cold, distant look.

As if the person was still standing in front of you, but something inside them had already left.

The woman's eyes were tired.

Soulless.

Finished.

"So go," she said.

Her lips curved into the faintest smile.

"We have nothing left to live for."

My chest tightened painfully.

"Omegas will always be abused in this pack. We will always be treated like slaves. There is no escape."

Her voice remained calm, but memories flickered across her face.

"We learned that the hard way."

Nobody spoke.

"We watched our mothers die. Our fathers. Our brothers and sisters."

Her voice cracked.

"Mates."

She swallowed.

"And even our children."

The silence that followed was unbearable.

"But you..."

Her eyes settled on me.

"You still have something to live for."

My throat burned.

"You reminded us that we should fight until the end."

She stepped back.

"Now go."

I couldn't move.

Leaving them felt wrong.

Leaving them behind felt like abandoning them.

But I understood something then.

They had already made their choice.

And there was nothing I could say that would bring them back from wherever their minds had gone.

"They're getting closer," Eva warned.

I looked toward the door.

Then back at them.

These people weren't my family.

But pain had a way of creating bonds that blood sometimes couldn't.

We had suffered together.

Shared the same darkness.

I knew their stories.

They knew mine.

For a brief moment, inside that underground hell, we had belonged somewhere.

Together.

My eyes burned.

"Goodbye."

The word barely left my lips.

Then I ran.

I ran through the metal door and didn't look back.

Because I knew if I did, I might never leave.

Tears blurred my vision as I pushed them back and ran toward the opposite direction of the approaching footsteps.

Behind me, the screams began again.

Growls.

Howls.

The sound of claws meeting flesh.

I heard everything.

But I didn't stop.

I couldn't.

So I ran.

I ran until my lungs burned.

Until my legs felt like they would collapse beneath me.

And then—

Light.

I froze.

A thin ray of evening sunlight slipped through an opening above me.

My heart began pounding.

There was an old, rusty ladder beneath it.

Freedom.

The thought nearly brought me to my knees.

I grabbed the ladder and climbed.

One step.

Then another.

With every movement, I came closer to the world I thought I had lost.

I reached the top and pushed against the wooden hatch.

It resisted.

I pushed harder.

Finally, it gave way.

Cold air rushed over my face.

I pulled myself out.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe.

I stared at the evening sky.

The fading sunlight.

The trees.

The open air.

It was beautiful.

Painfully beautiful.

Tears gathered in my eyes before I could stop them.

I hadn't realized how much I missed the sky.

How much I missed breathing air that didn't smell like blood, sweat, and death.

My knees gave out.

I fell onto the grass.

The blades pressed against my skin.

I touched them with shaking fingers.

Real grass.

Real air.

Flowers grew nearby.

Just outside that underground nightmare, life had continued as if nothing had happened beneath the earth.

I breathed deeply.

Greedily.

For the first time in what felt like forever, I was breathing without chains around my body.

I was free.

At least, I thought I was.

I forced myself to stand.

I needed to keep moving.

Then I heard footsteps.

My entire body went still.

A scent drifted through the air.

Someone was behind me.

I spun around.

Too late.

A hand grabbed me.

A white handkerchief was pressed roughly over my nose and mouth.

I struggled.

The smell hit me immediately.

My vision blurred.

Through the darkness creeping into my sight, I saw a man staring down at me.

Smiling.

My body weakened.

My knees buckled.

Well... f**k me.

And then everything went black.