Omega's Run (34 page)

I could smell how wet she was, a heavy, heady scent that mingled with the ever present jasmine and gun-oil, so I wasn’t at all concerned that she was ready for me. As soon as I felt the head of my cock line properly with her I shoved forward, pressing her harder into the tree and burying myself inside her in one smooth motion. Without a pause I pulled back and shoved forward again and she pushed back against me, meeting me thrust for thrust.

This fuck was a frenzied, primal thing. Hard and fast, almost painful at times, all mingled with an insane pleasure that came from being with a woman that could not only handle my strength and the punishing tempo but urged me to fuck her faster, harder. The words spilled from her mouth between grunts and moans, her fingers clutching at the tree.

Eventually, I pulled out of her, ignoring a moaned protest from her and spun her around to face me. I reached down and cupped her ass, lifting her into the air and slamming her back against the tree as I slid into her again. Her legs came up to circle my waist and I dipped my head, licking and kissing at the small scratches left on her breasts by the rough bark of the tree.

Her nails dug into my shoulders as that pressure built up higher and higher within us both. She bit and scratched and clawed at my skin, drawing blood, driving herself down to meet me just as I thrust up into her, muscles clamped around me until that pressure finally became too much and I buried my face between her breasts. I exploded inside her, just barely having the presence of mind to slide a hand between us and gently rub her clit with my thumb. It took a few moments but just as I finished coming inside her she came apart in my arms.

It was like watching her completely implode then rebuild herself from the inside out. That moment when she came and the world vanished for her and there was nothing but our bodies and the lightning along her nerve endings. Then, slowly, she came back to herself, the world coming into focus and it was like waking from an amazing dream.

“Why is it,” she gasped. “That we always seem to end up fucking each other’s brains out?”

“Do I hear a complaint in there?” I asked, smug smirk firmly in place on my lips. She scowled and slapped my chest. “Ow,” I said in a deadpan tone, though it really had hurt, a lot more than expected. She was still getting used to her new strength. We separated and I set her back down on her feet, leading her over to the middle of the clearing.

“Ready to head back?” I asked.

She thought about it for a moment, worrying at her lower lip, before she nodded. “Yeah, I gotta try and talk to Macy again, I think. She didn’t take it well when she found out I was a Hunter. Gotta see if I can do something about that.”

I nodded. I understood the sentiment but I wasn’t really sure what she could do. “Not sure what you could possibly do about that one, to be honest. If she’s going to hate you she’s going to hate you. It’s not fair but I’m not sure that it’s your responsibility to try and fix that.”

She shrugged and I had to smile. She had become pretty damned comfortable being naked around me. I wasn’t a hundred percent positive that she was even consciously aware that she was just standing there, out in the woods, completely bare.

“Maybe not. But I think I have an idea that she’ll respond to.”

She wouldn’t say more than that, no matter how I bugged her, so after a few minutes we shifted back, again with me rolling around on the ground like an idiot. It only happens when I go full wolf, I swear, and I have never been able to figure out
why
. It doesn’t happen with my hybrid shift. I pushed the thoughts aside and Ava and I raced each other back to the house.

I’m proud to say that she beat me, but only by a tails length.

We slipped inside and showered. The temptation to fuck her again was strong, but she wanted to go talk to Macy and I needed to see Markus and William so we just showered quickly and dressed again in clean clothes. I found my pants and vest on our bed. They smelled like Markus so it appeared that he had collected them and brought them in for me after I’d left them out on the edge of the property.

Ava lifted up on her toes and gave me a deep, searing kiss, before she turned and sauntered away in search of Macy. For a moment I worried about letting her go alone, but I was confident my girl could protect herself, so I let her go and stalked off in search of my brother and his Arbiter.

I found them in the dining area again. Seated at the same table from the day before. No one else was around and as I approached I caught the tail end of their discussion.

“... seen anything like it before. I’ve never even
heard
of anything like it before,” Markus was saying. “To make the change without the full moon to show her how to do it... it’s unprecedented William.”

“I get that, Markus. Really, I understand. You’ve only said it about thirty times now. But that doesn’t really mean anything to me. Ok, it’s unprecedented. Splitting the atom was unprecedented until someone did it. So was climbing Mt. Everest, swimming the English Channel and any number of things that normal humans have done over the centuries. What you haven’t explained is exactly
why
that’s got you chasing your tail like a lunatic.”

Markus glowered at William. “I am
not
chasing my tail, Boy. But you have to admit this is strange, isn’t it?”

“Who cares?” I asked and pulled out a chair next to William. “She did it; freaking out about it isn’t going to change anything, right?” Markus nodded, reluctantly.

“I guess,” he muttered and I had to smile, seeing the old man acting more like a petulant child than the aged Arbiter that he was.

“We’ve gotta settle on what we’re going to do
after
the full moon,” I said, interrupting William just as he opened his mouth to tease Markus. I could tell by the smug grin he was trying to hide that he was going to rib the old man, and while normally I would have been happy to join in, but there were more pressing matters to discuss.

“Well, we’re all heading to Arizona to link up with the rest of the pack,” William said. “We’re at about 98% confirmed from the out of state members. Only twenty or thirty haven’t yet responded.”

“I haven’t figured out what Ava and I are going to do yet, but we’ll have to decide sooner rather than later.”

“You’ve got an idea though, don’t you, Boy?” I glanced over at Markus, not for the first time, impressed with his insight.

“A few thoughts have been circling,” I admitted. And they had. Ever since Colorado I had an idea that had made more and more sense the longer I thought about it. “Got a few questions that could help settle it though. Got a minute Markus?”

“For one of you youngins to pump me for information again? Sure. Why not?” he muttered.

“Thanks. Ava is a Median. What does that mean, long run, for her?”

“Well, for one she’s gonna keep getting these visions, dreams, whatever they are, and she’d better listen to them. They’re trying to tell her something important when they happen.”

I nodded and motioned for him to continue. “On top of that it’ll be good to have her around when going into or even just through another pack’s territory.”

“Why is that?”

He hummed, pinching his lower lip thoughtfully for a moment before he shrugged. “I can’t give it a solid explanation, really. Medians are sort of considered like priests, or priestesses in this case. Shaman type characters. There haven’t been many and if she’s with you, a pack will, more often than not, welcome you as honored guests. As long as you and your people are respectful and don’t cause any trouble you’ve basically got an open pass to travel anywhere without stepping on any toes.”

I mulled that over for a minute before a question occurred to me. “But how are we supposed to prove that she’s actually a Median? I mean, anyone could come in and say ‘oh, this member of my pack is a Median, we request a place to sleep for the night and we’ll move on in the morning,’ ya know?”

Markus shrugged. “Couldn’t tell ya, Pup. But any wolf-kind worth their salt is gonna know something’s different about yer girl. I could tell right away she was different, I just didn’t know what it was until she mentioned that dream she had. That’s when it all clicked and come together.”

“What’re you thinking, Remus?” William asked, staring intently at me.

“The Alpha Wolves gave me an idea. An excuse for us to move around, even a way to claim some territory. If I plan it right, we can grow a small pack and start taking the fight to the Hunters.”

William and Markus both raised a brow at that one, giving me nearly identical incredulous stares. “You’re going to
hunt
the
Hunters
?”

“In a manner of speaking. And I have a way to do it that’ll keep us off official radar and legitimize our moving around the country.” I turned to William. “When you branded me, you wanted me to find something new. Something of my own. I think I might have an idea how to do that.”

“What’re you thinking?”

“I’m going to build my own pack. Going to build a pack of wolf-kind misfits with nothing to lose. A crew that, like I said, can bring the fight directly to the Hunters. With Ava’s knowledge and the right combination of strengths and skills, we could do a lot of damage to their power base here. Because, let’s face it, we did some damage last week, but I’d be willing to bet that Mathias already has new labs up and running, humming along at full speed.”

They both nodded, but William had a pensive expression on his face.

“I hate to say it,” he started and I interrupted him.

“Then don’t.”

“I hate to say it,” he said again, glaring at me and I sighed and leaned back in my seat, arms crossed over my chest. “But you’re an Omega. There aren’t going to be many wolf-kind that are going to be thrilled about an Omega as the pack’s Alpha.”

“That’s why I’m only going to recruit
other
Omegas, or new wolf-kind if the situation arises where it’s necessary.”

I’ll be honest. I took a slightly perverse pleasure in their dumbfounded expressions. Especially Markus. It wasn’t often that I was able to surprise the old wolf and twice in as many minutes was an especially rare treat.

“An entire pack of Omegas?” Markus muttered once he’d managed to gather his wits. “That’s actually a pretty brilliant idea, Boy. But at the same time, it’s dangerous. Usually a wolf is made Omega for good reason. Some of the characters you’re likely to run into won’t be the kind you’d want to share a space with.”

“And some of them made honest mistakes. Some of them are looking to redeem themselves for their poor choices. It’s only fair I give them a chance.”

Markus and William couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so we just sat and talked about other things for a while. Unimportant things. It wouldn’t be long before my family, my pack, was on their way out of here and I would be separated from them again. But I took some solace in the fact that I finally had something to look forward to. When I’d left Washington, I’d wondered if an Omega could ever outrun his past.

I finally understood that, no, you couldn’t outrun your past; that was impossible. The past would always be there. All you could do, was run toward a future of your own making. And do everything possible to make sure it was a future worth fighting for.

For the rest of the day, people wandered in and out. Ava and Macy came in together about an hour later. Macy went to her table far away from us but I noticed that she sat a little closer than she had the day before. Ava slid into the seat next to me and said that she and Macy had worked some things out. She didn’t have any new bruises so I figured that it had been done through conversation, not confrontation. She was going to train Macy to fight while we were here, get her into a better condition to handle and protect herself.

The next few days passed with a lot of the same. Chatting with my brother and Markus while Markus worked with Evan, trying to get the man to accept his new condition. It was tough going but it needed to be done or he likely wouldn’t survive his first change. Ava and Macy worked together, day and night, and by the end of the week I have to say that Macy had become a rather impressive student. Her instincts, power, and determination made sure she learned quickly. She was still really rough around the edges, but she had enough to build on and I was sure in a few months she would be a pretty deadly opponent. I was glad that I wouldn’t have occasion to fight her myself. Strong as I was, Macy was scary
fast
.

The day of the full moon was a quiet one. Everyone felt a certain degree of nervous tension, but no one wanted to do much. We ended up lounging in a media room on the third basement level, watching movies and pigging out. The new pups in particular needed to build up their energy reserves. The changes took a lot, burned a lot of calories, and with our already rapid metabolisms it could be dangerous.

As a group, the eight of us made our way out to the forest. Stripped of clothing we waited, just at the edge of the trees. Ava and Evan shivered slightly in the cooling air but the rest of us simply waited. When the moon came out and shone, brilliant and full upon us, I felt him stir.

The wolf was awake. He was wound up and anxious. He wanted to play, he wanted to fight. He wanted to
run.

Ava made her change, swiftly, with minimal noise. Chloe was again preternaturally swift in her change and she padded over to nuzzle at my girl, the two of them bounced about a bit, playing as we waited for Evan. Evan still hadn’t changed.

“Come on, Boy,” Markus muttered in his deep growl. He was holding back the change focusing on his self-imposed charge. “You can’t fight the wolf. You don’t want to, trust me. Just let it go. Work with the beast. Open up, just a little.”

Evan shook and trembled, his hands balled into fists at his sides, every muscle taught and quivering with tension. Sweat stood out on his face and for a moment I thought we’d have to knock him out, let the change happen while he was unconscious so it wouldn’t kill him. But then it happened. With the usual sickening cracking and snapping that accompanied most of our transformations, Evan slowly vanished, and was replaced by a powerful red wolf. He stood nearly waist high on me, if I’d been a wolf he’d probably match me shoulder to shoulder. His coat was a deep tan with a cream undercoat, shot through with streaks of brilliant, gingery, red.