Beautiful Omega

Six

Beds were supposed to mean comfort, a relief to an aching body after a long day. I did not feel that way.

I had been given a room at the edge of the house on the second floor, sharing a hall with the packs higher ranked wolves. Cole, Blake, Grey, and two enforcers would have their heads laid on pillows nearby, likely resting easy unlike me.

My room was fairly spacious with a nightstand in one corner and a single dormitory-like bed in the other beneath a window. It was simple in its look but its value was more luxurious to me than anyone could guess. It was the first time I had a room and a bed to sleep in, the first time that I owned anything other than a cramped cell.

After more moments of restlessness, I began to feel angry at myself. For the first time in my life, I could rest in comfort, but I just couldn't. Years of being at Smith's mercy had made me apprehensive about even the slightest interaction with anyone. His cruelty often came in many forms in whatever way he pleased. There were the rare moments that he behaved generously to me only to rip away whatever gift he had given, even if it had been just a brief moment of humanity.

How could I know that this pack wasn't simply doing the same thing? Waiting for me to settle into this comfort, only to turn on a dime and make me a breeding slave for their own devilish delight. The thought made my stomach turn.

Silently I stared at the closed door, just waiting for it to suddenly swing open and for a flood of vicious males to pour in and tear me from the bed. It would be just any moment now. Maybe they would even be in wolf form to shake things up a bit.

A strangled chuckle rattled from my mouth and into the quiet air of the room.

Quietly I rose from the bed and slipped on the clothes I had been given earlier. The slippers were thin, but what ground I couldn't cover with them I prayed my wolf could.

Thoughts of where I would go swam in my mind as I neared the door. I could see the mountains, the desert, the sea; all of the places Data had told me of. I could be free for the first time in my life if I could make it out of this house.

I was grateful for this pack's hospitality. How could I not? But I could not remain here on the sweet and naive thought that such niceties will last even till morning. Wolf life for females was not something to be desired or envied.

I turned the knob slowly, my breath halting from concentration. I could hear the small gears within the wooden door move, and I prayed to the moon goddess that the other wolves on the hall could not.

I edged the door open and peered out into the dim hall where all of the doors were closed along the silent corridor.

I could see the first landing of the stairs only steps away, a distance I closed in a long and agonizing moment. I peered back down the hall and strained my ears, but none of them had seemed disturbed by me.

"Have you told Grey yet?"

I froze on the landing. Voices drifted up from the lower floor, likely coming from the dining area. I recognized Blake instantly, his voice now carrying a deep and cautious tone different than from before.

"No. You don't . . . think he can hear us do you?"

Blake sighed. "Likely not. I'm projecting over the house to make everyone tired, especially him. We should be able to talk fine for now."

"I never told you how creepy that power is before," the other male said a bit uneasily. "Seriously."

"Probably because I rarely use it fully. Now, what about that trail again?"

I could hear the shuffle of feet and ruffle of papers downstairs, the other male getting a map most likely.

"Sydney found two scents southwest of where the box was found here. They go back into the forest about a mile before turning sharply west to get back across the border."