Page 10 of Omega Hunted

Dominance.

Pain. Submission. Pinned. Helpless.

A whimper cracked out of me, and I curled into a ball, both arms over my belly, please, please, please —

The wolf growled⁠—

It was —

Not a growl.

Words. Underneath. There were words underneath the growl. They weren’t clear, but they were there, and I stared up into amber eyes to see the wolf had become a man, on his knees in the snow over me, big—Goddess, he was big—his hands going to me before I could flinch, one to my shoulder and one under my head, and the words came clear all at once in an urgent voice I’d never heard before.

“Hey. Omega. Hey, look at me.”

“No…”

“Fuck, you’re bleeding. Stay with me, omega.”

“Don’t hurt us…”

I sobbed, and the shaking took me so hard no sound got past it, and then his arms were under me, lifting.

“My baby girl!” I yelped as I gripped hard.

“I’ve got you.”

He smelled of cold air and snow and pine, and my cat stirred weakly inside me. “Cassian,” I whispered into his throat. “Ronan.”

He went very still over me.

“Fuck,” he choked out.

I closed my eyes.

This was how it ended.

Chapter Four

CASSIAN

The omega’s weight was nothing as he slumped unconscious, and gripping him under his thighs and shoulders, I ran barefoot in the snow.

Coming down the road as a wolf, there hadn’t been time after to grab anything from the back step, and there sure as hell wasn’t time now. The road was a mess of white, the wind bitter, but my body was burning hot enough to take it for as long as needed. Three miles back to the house. Uphill all the way. I’d done worse runs.

The omega mumbled into my throat.

Half-words I couldn’t quite catch, breath shallow, and his face was wet on my neck. Snow melt? Tears, maybe? Whatever it was, the cold of it was startling. He shouldn’t have been this cold. He was already past shivering and into the still, dangerous quiet that came after. I looked away almost immediately. He was too pale, almost thin, with a cut under his hair that was running with blood, bruises on his face, but beneath all that, there was something beautiful that sat wrong beside the damage. My wolf noticed before I did, settling with a low, satisfied rumble that had nothing to do with rescuing an injured omega.

Help him.

I clamped down on him hard. Down, I told him. Down. Now. He’d never been a wolf who took orders well from me, and he didn’t want to take this one either. He strained against the cage of my will, every step, every quarter mile, his attention locked on the slight omega in my arms with a focus that horrified me. My wolf was the most awake he’d been since the night Raff died, straining toward the small cold weight in my arms with a focus that made the scar in my chest pull tight, and the only thing I could do was run.

He was fully present for the first time in years.

For a stranger.

Help him.