1. Mila

Chapter 1

Mila

T hick, wet branches whip me hard across the face as I stumble through the woods, eager to find a source of running water.

My cramps twist in my gut, ripping me apart from the seams, but I push on, knowing that if I can just make it through the first wave, then I will survive.

Even if I am a complete novice about my own fledgling Omega hormones and body, I still dare to hope, allowing myself to spy that light at the end of the tunnel that promises things will get better…

But they abandoned me, and finally, my knees give way, and I fall to the dirt where I truly belong.

The sky and the trees swirl around me, blurring into one massive, chaotic wall, and I'm losing consciousness.

Omegas can die if they don't receive an Alpha's knot during their heat, and is this the end?

Will I be joining my dad now after all?

I guess that's one silver lining.

A familiar pair of blue eyes swivels up before me in the gloom, and now all I can see is Oliver's face, framed by loose brown curls.

Then Lachlan's eyes appear, and Barret's, and to my surprise…

Gryphon's.

I'd have thought I'd be glad to see the back of that Alpha, but it appears he has already gotten so deep in my veins, my Omega crying out for him like some helpless damsel in distress.

He will never accept me, and from this moment on, I will forever be cursed with wanting a pack that will never want me back.

They didn't come to my father's funeral…

They weren't there when I needed them most.

Did they ever care?

I know Gryphon never did. But did Barret? Lachlan?

Oliver…?

It looks like Gryphon got what he wanted in the end.

He managed to get rid of me, the bastard.

I may never forgive him or the pack for abandoning me in my time of need, yet my body still craves them.

Oliver is my scent match, so by extension, that makes them all mine.

Even Gryphon is mine, and I growl in frustration, gripping fistfuls of dried leaves and twigs.

Stupid forest and stupid Gryphon.

But most of all, stupid Lily.

Fuck her.

I won't let her hurt Oliver or the pack.

I will return to them. But only to warn them about Lily.

After that, we go our separate ways.

But first things…. I need to survive this heat.

My insides coil up again, twisting and tangling like a nest of deadly vipers, and now I feel my way across the ground, looking for the softness of the soil.

Water has to be close by.

I drag myself through the undergrowth for God knows how long until I finally hear it.

A trickle of water.

There's a brook close by.

I haul myself closer, and once I find the bank, I roll, letting the babbling brook swallow me whole. I don't even feel the sharp jab of rocks in my spine. All I can feel is the soothing sensation of the currents, purifying my soul.

The water chases away the heat in my body, clearing my senses yet again.

But it just creates room for all my oppressive thoughts.

No Omega has ever survived their heat alone, and who knows if I will make it out alive.

I will most likely die out here.

Dusk settles around me like a soft blanket. Birds trill in the canopy, hopping from branch to branch, a chorus to my lonely ears.

I gaze up at a twilight sky through a web of branches, focusing on a lone star.

Somehow, I feel like it's my dad watching over me, and just maybe… I will make it through this.

I will come out kicking.

Another plunging pain in my stomach, one that sinks me lower beneath the surface, and I twist onto my side, gripping between my legs.

I suppose this beats being sold off to the highest bidder at one of those god-awful Omega auctions.

Oliver was lucky. He found his Alphas before he awakened, but if my real identity had been discovered earlier, then I would have been sent to that Omega Academy for training.

I would have never learned how to be a fighter or how to skin a rabbit with a knife.

I would have become a fragile little flower with easy-to-break petals, and it truly sounds like a fate worse than death.

Dying alone here in the woods is far more preferable.

Unless I was matched with the Hart Pack.

Now, that would have been a blessing.

But I'm not that gullible. No point in wishing for things that will never happen.

This is reality, and reality is a cruel, heartless bitch.

Just like Lily.

Memories return, and I recall all the times Oliver sacrificed his needs for mine. He sent his Alphas to save me, even when he was in heat.

If Lachlan and Barret had never shown up at the hotel, I would have died, or worse…

My identity would have been discovered.

Then there was the time the Omega bathed me and pleasured me during his heat and the time he took a bullet for me.

Shouts echo through the forest, and my heart punches against my chest.

Not now.

I can't be discovered like this.

"Over here!"

That sounds like an Alpha, and they must have picked up on my scent. Shit.

I bet I left a lovely gingerbread trail through the forest.

The voices draw closer, and I scramble out of the brook, only to go slipping through the muddy bank again when my weak fingers fail to find purchase.

"Found her!"

The Alpha splashes through the water, and I don't think.

I scream, and great. Very smart.

Attract all the local predators.

"Stay away from me!"

"Hey, it's fine…"

The Alpha kneels before me, getting his pants all muddy in the brook, and I don't see his face. It's masked in shadow.

All I see are his piercing gray eyes and the strong set of his jaw.

Judging from the calming aura he is channeling my way, he means no harm.

Who is he?

Two more people stop by his side, and one of them is a Beta woman. The other is a Beta man, and what is going on?

Who are these people?

The Alpha purrs for me, and I can't help it.

The sound sends me straight to sleep.

No…

"It's okay, Omega. We've got you now, and we are going to take good care of you. You are safe."

Safe? Yeah, right.

The rumble continues in his chest, and I don't even try to fight it now. I am just so tired and in so much pain.

If I die, so be it.

"Safe…" I whisper.

I finally pass out and the last thing I recall before the darkness consumes me is the scent of wet forest leaves.

Safe.