The Omega's Three Mates

Chapter Six

"We need to move." Caleb's voice cut through the aftermath of violence, sharp as winter wind. "The safe house is compromised."

I was still trying to process the c*****e around us—the shattered furniture, the blood-painted walls, the weird black ichor that definitely wasn't coming out of those antique floors, the bodies of dead mutant dogs decorating a morbid tableau. Worst. Pinterest. Board. Ever. "Move where, exactly?"

"Back to pack territory." He was already on his phone, voice clipped as he fired off orders in what sounded like three different languages.

Something in my chest went tight. "And where's that?"

"Deep in the Shasta forest," Kalel answered, cleaning something dark and viscous off his knuckles. "About two hours from here."

Great. Just great. "So we're running away into the actual woods? Have none of you seen a horror movie?"

Mountain Man—Ransom—let out a rumbling laugh. "Trust me, little omega. We're not the ones you need to be afraid of in those woods."

Well, that wasn't ominous at all.

"Bloodmoon reinforcements won't reach us for hours," Shadow Boy (apparently his name was Ryder) said, checking weapons with terrifying efficiency. "We're on our own until we cross the territory line."

"Fabulous." I crossed my arms, trying to hide how badly my hands were shaking. "Just me and the testosterone brigade. Perfect. Because being the only girl in a group of supernatural CrossFit bros is exactly what I need right now."

Caleb's eyes narrowed slightly. Then he pulled out his phone again, fingers flying over the screen. A moment later, he nodded. "Maxine will meet us here."

"Who's Maxine?"

"Silvercrest Pack's top enforcer," Knife Boy—Luka—said with something like respect in his voice. "She's closer. And she's..."

"Not part of the sausage fest?" I finished dryly.

His perfect mouth twitched. "Precisely."

Right on cue, boots clicked against hardwood, and holy hell—if these guys were supernatural CrossFit bros, she was peak warrior goddess energy. Six feet of leather-clad badass stalked into the room, moving like a predator who knew exactly how dangerous she was and didn't need to prove it. Her skin was like burnished copper in the fading light, and her eyes... they kept shifting between gold and green, like they couldn't quite decide which color was more intimidating. Her black hair was braided tight against her skull in intricate patterns that probably meant something to someone who knew what to look for.

"My Alphas," she greeted, inclining her head to both twins with the kind of respect that spoke of ancient hierarchies. Then she turned that predatory gaze on me. "So this is our omega."

"I have a name," I snapped, because apparently I had a death wish.

Her smile widened, showing teeth that were just a little too sharp to be human. "Oh, I like this one. Reminds me of me at that age—all piss and vinegar and absolutely no self-preservation instinct."

"That wasn't a compliment, Savannah," Richard muttered somewhere behind me.

I flipped him off. "f**k off and die, Richard."

Before my deadbeat dad could respond, Maxine's head snapped up, nostrils flaring. "Shit." She crossed the room in three fluid strides and grabbed my arm, pulling me away from the others. "How long has she smelled like this?"

I jerked back. "Excuse me?"

"Your scent." She inhaled again, eyes shifting fully to that eerie gold. "It's... hell, it's like catnip for predators. You might as well be wearing a neon sign that says 'eat me.'"

"I don't smell like anything," I protested, but even as I said it, I remembered the rogues. The way they'd tracked me. The desperate hunger in their eyes.

"The neo-vampires will smell her from miles away," Kalel said grimly. "And we have to cross their territory to reach pack lands."

"Have I—" My voice cracked. I swallowed hard. "Have I always smelled like this?"

Maxine's expression softened fractionally. "No, sweetheart. This is new. Should have only developed in the last few weeks, around the time—"

"My mom got really sick." The words tasted like ash.

"Around the time the amulet started failing," she corrected gently, pointing to my pendant. "Your mother was smart. This thing's old magic, designed to suppress your wolf. But you're coming of age, and it can't hold back nature forever."

I wrapped my fingers around the silver, feeling its steady pulse against my palm. "This was supposed to protect me?"

"It was supposed to hide you," Caleb said, his voice unusually quiet. "Keep you human until you were ready."

"Ready for what?"

The silence that followed was deafening. Awesome. More cryptic supernatural BS to add to my rapidly growing collection.

"We need to mask her scent," Ryder cut in, all business. "Now. Before we hit neo-vamp territory."

Maxine was already digging through her pack. "I have an idea, but..." She pulled out what looked like ancient chains, delicate as jewelry but thrumming with something that made my teeth ache. "You're not going to like it."

"More silver?" I asked, noting that Maxine was wearing gloves which was probably why the silver wasn't burning her.

"Stronger silver." She held up the chains, which seemed to shimmer with their own inner light. "Old world stuff. It'll bind your wolf tight enough to suppress the scent, but..."

"But?"

Her eyes met mine, dead serious. "It's going to hurt. A lot."

"Absolutely not," Richard snapped, stepping forward. "You can't—"

"Would you rather the neo-vampires tear her apart?" Maxine's voice could have frozen hell. "Because that's what will happen. They'll smell her from miles away, and they won't stop coming. Not for her. Not for an unmated omega."

The room went quiet. Even the air felt heavy, charged with something I didn't understand but my body recognized on an instinctual level. Like the moment before a thunderstorm, when everything goes still and electric.

"Your choice, sweetheart," Maxine said softly. "But we need to move fast."

I looked at the chains in her hands. They didn't look dangerous. They looked beautiful, actually—all intricate links and strange symbols that seemed to move when I wasn't looking directly at them. Like one of those indie jewelry pieces you'd find on Etsy, if Etsy had a "supernatural restraints" section.

But I'd learned pretty quickly that beautiful things could still hurt you.

"Will it keep them away?" I asked.

"It'll mask your scent." She didn't sugar-coat it. "Won't stop them if they see us, but at least we won't be broadcasting your location to every predator in these woods."

I took a deep breath. "Do it."

"Savannah—" Richard started.

"Not your call," I snapped. "Not anymore."

Maxine's mouth curved in approval. "This is going to suck," she warned, uncoiling the chains. "But I'll be quick."

The silver touched my skin, and oh—

Oh hell.

It burned like ice, like lightning, like something ancient and angry trying to claw its way out of my bones. Like every nerve ending had decided to go supernova all at once. My knees buckled, but someone caught me before I hit the ground. Through tears I hadn't meant to shed, I saw Caleb's face, tight with something that might have been concern.

Through the haze of pain, I heard engines roar to life outside. Three massive black Humvees, like something out of a military movie. Because apparently when you're running from supernatural threats, you do it in style.

Caleb straightened, and the air in the room shifted. It was subtle, but unmistakable—like gravity itself had recognized who was really in charge. Even Maxine, badass that she was, inclined her head slightly.

"Formation," he said, his voice carrying that weight of absolute authority. "Maxine, take point in the lead vehicle with Luka. Watch for scouts. Ryder, rear guard. Ransom, you're with him." His eyes met his twin's, something silent passing between them. "Kalel and I will take the omega—"

"Savannah," I corrected, because apparently near-death experiences hadn't cured my attitude problem.

The corner of his mouth twitched. "Savannah," he amended, "in the middle vehicle. Richard—" His voice cooled several degrees. "Try to be useful this time."

I caught Maxine hiding a smirk. She might be a total badass, but even she deferred to the twins. And watching them now, the way they moved with that lethal grace, the way everyone else oriented around them like planets around twin suns... yeah, I was starting to get why.

Gear appeared from somewhere, weapons I didn't want to look too closely at being distributed with practiced efficiency. These people moved like a well-oiled machine, like they'd done this a thousand times before.

Maybe they had.

The forest loomed ahead of us, ancient pines stretching up into a sky that was bleeding from gold to purple. Somewhere in those shadows, monsters were waiting. Real ones, not the kind that lived under beds or in closets. The kind that could smell you coming, the kind that moved like liquid darkness and had too many teeth.

***

The Humvee's engine rumbled like a sleeping beast as we wound deeper into the Shasta forest. Ancient pines pressed in on all sides, their shadows stretching like grasping fingers across the unmarked road. The silver chains wrapped around my torso and attached to the manacles binding my wrists, burned with each bump and turn, sending jolts of arctic fire through my veins.

I was wedged between Thing 1 and Thing 2—sorry, Caleb and Kalel—in the middle seat, because apparently that was the safest spot. Though "safe" felt like a pretty relative term right now.

"How's the pain?" Kalel asked, his voice surprisingly gentle.

"Feels great," I bit out. "Like a spa day, really. Very refreshing."

A smile ghosted across his face. "Haven't lost your sass, I see."

"I'll show you sass," I grumbled through gritted teeth as what felt like ice and fire covered my body like a blanket. Clenching my teeth kept me from screaming in pain. "Thanks for your concern."

But Kalel had already turned his attention to the woods, his expression going sharp and predatory. The change was so sudden it made my breath catch.

"We're crossing the border," Caleb said quietly. His hand went to his thigh, where I knew he had at least three weapons concealed. "Into their territory."

The convoy slowed. Through the bulletproof glass, I watched Maxine's Humvee ahead of us ease around a bend with practiced precision. Her voice crackled over the radio: "Movement on the ridge. Two o'clock."

I pressed my face to the window, trying to see through the deepening shadows. The forest felt different here. Older. Hungrier. The trees were packed so tight they created a canopy that turned twilight into something closer to midnight.

Then I saw them.

They moved like liquid shadow through the underbrush—too fast, too smooth to be human. Shapes that belonged in nightmares, all wrong angles and predatory grace.

"Neo-vampires," Kalel confirmed, his voice tight. "Young ones, from the way they're moving. The older ones know better than to show themselves so openly."

"How many?" Caleb's question was directed at the radio.

"Pack of five," Maxine replied. "No, six. They're parallel tracking us."

"Playing with their food?" I tried to make it sound like a joke. Failed miserably.

"They're testing our defenses," Caleb said. "Looking for weaknesses."

"They can smell her," another voice cut in—Ryder, from the rear vehicle. "Silver chains or not, they know what she is."

My stomach clenched. The pendant at my throat pulsed in time with the burning chains, like they were having some kind of argument about who got to torture me more.

A sound split the darkness—not quite a scream, not quite a laugh. It made every hair on my body stand on end.

"They're calling for backup," Kalel said grimly.

"No s**t," Maxine's voice was pure steel. "Floor it. We're not playing tag with these bloodsuckers."

The engine roared as our driver—one of the Bloodmoon soldiers I hadn't been introduced to—accelerated. Trees whipped past in a dark blur. The neo-vampires kept pace, their shapes flickering between trunks like deadly shadows.

One of them appeared right next to my window.

I had a split-second glimpse of a face that had never been human—all sharp angles and hungry hollows, with eyes like black mirrors and teeth that belonged in a shark's mouth. It smiled at me.

Then Caleb's arm shot across me, blocking my view. "Don't look at them directly," he ordered. "They can—"

The Humvee swerved violently.

Something had landed on the hood—a nightmare made flesh, all rippling muscle and alabaster skin stretched too tight over impossible bones. Its fingers ended in black talons that left grooves in the metal as it crawled toward the windshield.

"Well," I said, my voice only shaking a little, "that's definitely not Edward Cullen."

A sound like a burst of static came through the radio—Maxine laughing. "Ah, fellas, the new girl is a keeper!"

The neo-vampire on our hood opened its mouth, showing row after row of needle-sharp teeth. Its tongue was black and forked like a snake's.

Then its head exploded.

I yelped, flinching back against the seat as gore painted the windshield. Through the mess, I saw Maxine's Humvee ahead of us, the barrel of something very large and very deadly protruding from her window.

"You're welcome," she said cheerfully over the radio.

"Show-off," Kalel muttered, but I heard the smile in his voice.

More shapes moved in the darkness. More of those awful sounds, like screaming static. The neo-vampires were pissed now, their game of cat and mouse forgotten.

"How much further?" I asked, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice.

"Thirty minutes to the border," Caleb answered. His hand hadn't moved from where it was braced across me, like a seatbelt made of solid muscle. "If we're lucky."

"And if we're not?"

A sound like ripping metal cut through the night. The rear Humvee's tires squealed.

"Then this," Kalel said with grim satisfaction, pulling what looked like a grenade from his jacket, "is going to get interesting."