My eyes narrowed suspiciously. I was sure that if I called the pack guard, they’d come running to defend a pregnant omega - even if they treated us like garbage, we were still useful vessels for breeding. But I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I opened the door a bit wider.
“Who are you?” I asked.
He smelled like Scarlet Ridge pack, but he had a weird scent that made it difficult to distinguish his ranking. I couldn’t see his face underneath the hood, either.
“Do you want out?” he asked bluntly.
“What?”
“Do you want to escape this pack?”
I stared, stunned. Nobody ever talked about escaping the pack. Not since the incident five months ago with the omega who ran off to the neighboring pack, Indigo Mountain.
“Are you a narc?” I asked.
“Stop making a joke of this,” he growled. “I’m offering you the chance to leave this place.”
I crossed my arms. “Why? Why me? Why not any other omega in this shithole?”
“I saw those alphas bullying you tonight,” he muttered. “This is the life omegas lead here. Being used for breeding, being treated like dirt even while pregnant… Is this the life you want your pup to have?”
That question cut me down, fast. I thought about my unborn child. If, on the off-chance they were born an omega, they would have to live this same crappy life I had. If they were an alpha, they would be forced to join Gunner’s alpha army and continue this vicious cycle of abuse.
“No,” I stated.
“Then will you take this chance?” he asked.
I still had my suspicions. “Why are you helping me? Who are you?”
Suddenly he lifted a hand. Something thin and silver dangled from in-between his pinched fingers. A key. My heart rate increased. He had the key to my shock collar.
“Just answer the question,” the strange shifter growled. “Do you accept this offer?”
“Yes,” I said quickly.
Wordlessly, the man reached over and undid my collar. He caught it before it clattered noisily to the floor, then stashed it away inside his black coat. The sudden loss of weight and pressure clenched around my neck felt strange. It was weird to feel a weight lifted off my shoulders - literally.
“Go now,” he ordered. “And don’t come back.”
For a minute I was too stunned by the entire situation to move. I stood there, dumb, like a deer in headlights.
Then the man snarled, with his wolf’s voice intertwining with his own. “Get out!”
Startled into action, I ran down the hall. I chanced one last look back at the strange man, but he was already gone. Maybe that was for the best.
I lifted a hand to my neck. Maybe the collar was still there and I was just hallucinating. But it was gone. And I wasn’t making this up.
I was really free.
Well, not yet, exactly. I still had to getoffthe territory.
But anything was better than living in this hellhole.
I took the back roads. They were abandoned since it was close to curfew. No sign of any wolves. Gunner had grown slack about assigning guards to patrol the borders since all the valuable omegas wore shock collars anyway. He didn’t care as much if betas or alphas tried to run off, I guess.
The tree line began up ahead. If I could just get there, I would be fine.
The moon’s pale light glowed overhead. I felt its powers. My skin tingled. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone for a run as a wolf. Gunner forbid it around the same time he integrated the shock collars. Said it was too much of an effort to take them on and off just to give omegas a little time to run around for no reason.
