Page 82 of Ruined Omega

My cry of pain pierces the silence like a needle. My shout is multiplied as it echoes through the Temple of the Source. It is a cavernous, circular room located at the very dead center of the central ruins. It is the heart of the heart of the Zone. A high, domed ceiling curves overhead, its surface lined in dark metal panelling. The floors are metal too, covered with snaking rivulets of black cables and conduits, all leading to the massive, spherical structure in the middle of the room—the Source itself, humming with energy.

The air here is warm and thick with the combined musk of many Alphas and a few omegas too. They have come to meditate or pray in the presence of the Source. Some of them look up briefly at the sharp sound of my outburst.

“Shhh,” Canaris whispers, beard tickling the shell of my ear. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it, Hines?”

Canaris is lying naked on his back on the floor of the temple, and I am reclining on top of him, my body held firmly in place by the hug of his massive, python-like arms.

I tilt my chin and look down at my belly and the gleaming steel needle that Tal just pushed through the upper lip of my navel. Already the sting is beginning to fade.

“Not too bad,” I whisper. “Not nearly as bad as my nipple.”

Canaris chuckles beneath me. The sound rumbles up through his chest and abdomen, through my back and spine, and straight into my deepest core.

Baen and Tal are kneeling over us. As Tal has the steadiest hands, he is in charge of the piercing while Baen assists.

I watch the long, hard needle being shoved through the tight hole. The feeling is oddly pleasurable. I can’t help but think of the other way these Alphas have pierced me, not with steel, but with their steel-hard flesh. The initial spike of pain followed by the delicious, blissful friction of hard rubbing against soft.

As the needle is pushed all the way through and out the other side, Baen slips a steel ring into the tiny wound cut by the needle’s passing.

A navel ring.

It is now my sixth piercing.

When I entered the temple an hour or so before, I had two. My earlobes. I’ve had those since I was a girl. The new piercings, however, are far more meaningful.

The piercing ceremony is an important part of the binding process.

Sloane and Lily explained it all to me after I arrived.

When we came in sight of the central ruins two days ago, my heart felt like it was going to climb out of my throat. I had never seen anything so amazing before.

The central ruins are nothing like the city hive where I have lived my entire life up until now. The hive is a dark place, shrouded in pollution and buzzing with sound.

The ruins, by contrast, are a place of light and quietude. A century-old city, from before the time of the Cataclysm, the buildings are now covered in giant winding vines as the man-made structures are gradually reclaimed by nature. The effect is breathtaking. When I first saw the city in the distance, it looked like an Emerald City.

My three Alphas let out a great roar as we approached, and when we arrived at the city’s edge, a small greeting party had gathered to meet us.

Sloane was there. The omega whom I helped escape from the SynerGen headquarters six months ago. She looks quite different now. The last time I saw Sloane, her white-blond hair was buzzed short in the style of a soldier. Now it has grown out into a wavy pixie cut. But that wasn’t even the most noticeable difference.

Her belly has grown huge. She and her Alphas have obviously been busy since I’ve last seen them.

Lily was there to greet us as well. Even though I had never her before—not in person, anyway—she still grinned and threw her arms around me in a great big hug. Somehow it felt totally natural, like seeing an old friend.

Okay, it was a bit weird sharing a naked hug with someone I had never seen before. But after everything I’ve been through over the past days, it didn’t seem like such a big deal.

Sloane and Lily both apologized for not telling me that they had sent Tal to protect me.

I told them that was nonsense.

I owed them my life for that. Tal had saved me. All three of the Alphas had. They were my protectors.

And so, with that, I was welcomed into the ruins and the tribe.

The four of us—Tal, Baen, Canaris, and me—we had already been bound within that muddy cage in Abaddon’s village. They had already marked me with their fangs, and all of the Alphas could see this mark on my neck. But there was still one step to be completed, and that was the piercing.

That’s what we are taking care of now.

Each of the piercings represents a bond with one of my Alphas.