Page 32 of Ruined Omega

“Wait!” I gasp.

My voice comes out scratchy and weak. But it’s enough to get the Alpha’s attention. He freezes, and his gaze latches onto mine.

“You are cold. Your garment is wet. I must remove it.”

As soon as I hear that deep guttural voice with its strange, foreign-sounding inflections, I know that this is the Alpha I heard before. The one speaking to Tal over the radio on the motorcycle.

My mind grows more alert, and the memories of recent events begin tumbling into place, fitting together like pieces of a puzzle.

I recall the long, lonely ride through the punishing rain as the bike automatically drove me toward the Zone. At last, the engine slowed, and the motorcycle steered itself off the ruined highway, its tires squelching to a stop in the thick mud. Then this Alpha appeared out of the rain.

He hid the bike inside a clump of scrubby vegetation, then slung me over his broad, muscled shoulder and started to run.

We went through some kind of underground passage. Pitch blackness echoing with the sounds of dripping water. From time to time, my fingers brushed the walls of rough-hewn stone as we flew past. How the Alpha navigated that tunnel in total darkness, I do not know.

Then there was more rain. More mud. More feverish delirium, until at last we ended up here in this shelter.

My attention is yanked back to the present as my dress is yanked down my hips.

“No…don’t,” I whimper.

But the Alpha ignores my frightened pleas. He bunches the wet cloth in his fists and drags it down my thighs and off my legs, leaving my helpless shuddering body completely exposed except for my underwear.

The Alpha discards the dress over his shoulder. It hits the floor behind him with a wet smack.

His gaze rakes over my body. I feel it like a fingertip tracing over my bare skin, roving over my breasts, my belly, my inner thighs, my wet crotch.

Beneath his loincloth, something jumps.

Something big.

I manage to clamp my weakened thighs together and twist my hips to hide that place from the Alpha’s hungry stare. An explosion of jealous, lustful rage flares behind his eyes, and for an instant I think he’s going to pounce on me and force my legs apart again.

But he does no such thing. Whatever urges are stirring inside him, he keeps them in check.

For now, at least.

I open my numb, trembling lips, tensing the half-frozen tendons of my throat as I struggle to force a full sentence out.

“Who…Who are you?”

The Alpha moves forward with slow, catlike grace, and kneels over me.

“I am Baen.”

His voice is a low, rolling purr that vibrates deep into my muscles and the marrow of my bones. The sound is so rich and strong it seems to warm me from the inside out.

“What is your name?” he purrs.

“Hines,” I half-cough. “Shelley Hines.”

The Alpha frowns.

“A strange name for a female,” he mutters.

On my belly, the cold numbness of my skin transitions into an uncomfortable pins-and-needles sensation as my blood warms and my nerve endings prickle back to life. As the numbness fades, I realize that Baen is touching me there, rubbing circles on my abdomen.

I flinch under his touch, but I’m too weak to pull away.