Page 34 of Advocate Omega (Unforeseen Paths #1)

Zander

“Fuck my fucking life !” I roar into the trees, clawing at the stupid bear trap attached to my foot.

Lucan would be proud of me, even if he is on my shitlist currently.

I mean, I ran so fast . Nothing and no one could catch me.

I was like a damn rocket zipping through the trees with only a single focus on my wolf brain.

Find Gabe. But, as most things in my life tend to go, I got about three hours away from the Terra Clan and ran right through a bear trap.

A human bear trap in the middle of nowhere.

I’m naked, bleeding, and the spikes are impaled right through the soft, squishy part of my foot.

I can’t tell if it was my injury or something else that washed the alpha command from my brain.

“AH!” I scream again, trying to get it off .

I know there is a way to do so, but I haven’t figured out how. I’m in pain, my balls are touching dirt, and I can’t think straight. This is all Lucan’s fault.

I’m not talented, okay? I’m just not. No one trained me for gallivanting through the woods and finding a town a million miles away!

How was I supposed to find Gabe, anyway?

It’s not like I have his scent on me anymore.

Lucan made sure to smother it with his, and since I can’t see the sun, navigating by east, west, or south is out.

I’m tempted to call for help.

Maybe a deer will trample over the contraption on my foot and free me somehow.

Maybe an actual bear will bite my foot off, and I can limp the rest of the way.

I whimper, cradling my ankle with one hand while wiping the snot from my nose with the other. Focusing on my current predicament only works for a few more minutes before I’m outright fuming and devastated all at once.

Lucan ordered me to leave him. He used his stupid Prime Alpha magic on me, knowing I wouldn’t be able to disobey him. He promised me that would never happen—that he’d never make me do anything I didn’t want to.

And look, I get it. Shit hit the fan fast , but I could’ve helped. We could’ve been captured together.

It’s not like I haven’t been the Terra Clan’s prisoner before. I know how it all goes. I could have maybe convinced them to free everyone and keep me instead. Aren’t I the valuable one? The one everyone wants to sample and taste?

Shivering, I curl my right leg to my chest and hold it. What even happened back there? How did they all manage to hide from us so easily?

Lucan was hurt.

Fuck, he was hurt badly , and I have no way of knowing if he’s okay. What if he isn’t?

I claw at my throat.

Gods, what if he’s dead, and that’s why I want to find him instead of Gabe?

“No,” I whimper as fresh, hot tears splash over my cheeks. “This is all your fault,” I tell myself.

There is no one else to blame. This is all my fucking fault.

It was my idea to save omegas —to have those dozen wolves follow us into the viper’s den and gather intel.

It was my idea to do this , and now look?

Look at what you’ve done? I press my forehead into my knee and cry.

I cry so much I start hiccuping and hyperventilating.

Why did I do it? Why couldn’t I just be happy with how things were?

Lucan and I could’ve just stayed with the Kato clan forever, had babies, and a house…I didn’t need to be anything or anyone other than his.

What if I never get the chance? What if I never know if that’s what I want instead?

A fiery urge to help, to go and save my alpha coils around my heart, demanding I get up and run to him. Lucan wouldn’t let a bear trap stop him. Lucan wouldn’t let anyone stop him. I know that to be true. He’d tear down the fabric of the universe if it meant saving me.

With a growl, I pull myself together and study the metal device chomping on my foot. There’s so much blood over the teeth and rust. I wonder if wolves can get tetanus?

I try again to rip it open, my muscles straining and a vein in my neck pulsing. Strength is not my forte. Just as I’m about to extend my claws and tear off my own foot, a twig snaps behind me. I jolt, shriek in fear, and twist to look over my shoulder.

“Oh fuck no,” I growl when two wolf eyes stare at me through some thick bush. Golden and locked onto me, a rumbly growl reaches my ears. “You fuck right off, buddy. I’m naked and afraid right now!”

As if this situation couldn’t get any worse. Seriously, Fates? This is how you’re going to let me die?

“Shoo!” I hiss and wave my hands at him. “Go find a rabbit.”

Oddly enough, I can’t really tell if this is an animal or a shifter. All I’m getting is male funk.

“Doggy want a stick?” I ask, grabbing the one beside me and tossing it in the opposite direction.

Those eerie golden eyes don’t move whatsoever.

“Oh come on!” I whine and throw my hands up.

“I have the love of my life to save, okay? Lucan needs me . He’s probably hurt and trapped.

And if he finds out you saw me naked, phew , you do not want to know what he’ll do.

Even if you are just a normal wolf and not—” My words die in my throat as dark red fur emerges from the bush.

A long snout, sharp pointed ears, and a gangly body stalk towards me.

The wolf is emaciated. Patches of his fur are missing, and one of his front paws is missing a toe.

His head lifts as he scents the air. I brace myself, ready to be mauled to death, but that never happens.

The red animal sits and taps its tail over the dirt.

A long pink tongue rolls out of his mouth as he pants expectantly.

“Well…aren’t you… cute ,” I croak and gingerly reach forward. Up close like this, I can easily tell this isn’t a normal wolf. He’s too big. He’s not Lucan big, not that many are. Most shifters come nowhere near his horse-sized body, but this specific male is definitely a shifter.

“Are you going to turn me in?” I ask, petting his neck. His fur feels awful. “Are you part of the Terra Clan?”

The only answer I get is a swift lick to my wrist before he bumps his head into my hand. I scratch at his ear, prompting the wolf to collapse on his side. His legs sprawl out, paws poking at my nude thigh, and those golden eyes stay locked on me.

“Can you help me?” I whisper, stroking his chest and upper belly. “Please?”

Another bump to my hand.

“I can’t just pet you all night,” I tell him, but he’s undeterred. “Five more minutes, and then I have to get out of this trap. My mate is in trouble.”

The wolf growls and pops onto his feet. I rear back when the male advances, pushing his muzzle into my neck and smelling me thoroughly.

An involuntary laugh slips out as his wet nose presses into my ear and blows a hot breath down the canal.

“Alright, that’s enough.” I shove his face away and go to ask again for help, but he trots off.

“Hey!” I call out. “Come back!”

The wolf vanishes.

“Seriously?!” I groan loudly, accept I’m totally screwed, and go back to ripping at the trap.

Curled in a ball, freezing, and completely helpless, I keep howling.

It won’t stop. I don’t know who I’m calling for.

Lucan can’t hear me, Gabe is too far away, and my parents are dead.

I won’t let you howl alone. But he is! Lucan made me leave him.

My chest hurts, and I can’t seem to make myself try anymore.

Maybe this is what happens when an omega finds their alpha.

All of my usual methods of self-soothing don’t work. I need my mate. I need Lucan.

Through a loud sniffle, I open my mouth once more to bay at the moon when a masculine grunt startles me.

My head snaps up off the floor, the darkness hard to navigate with only a sliver of moonlight piercing through the trees, and I search with my nose for the source. “Hello?” I croak.

Another grunt.

“Who is there?” I bark, forcing my frozen body to sit up. “Show yourself, dickhead.”

Orange light blasts through the bushes, and a body appears.

The male is skinny with a buzzed head, wearing ratty old clothes.

I think his pants are jeans, but it’s hard to tell.

I try to scramble away from him, but the trap keeps me put.

Balling up my fists, ready to throw a punch, I growl and bare my canines. “Stay back!”

A bag dangles from his fist. I try to keep my scary, I’ll kill you face intact, but he throws it at me, and a wad of material rolls out of the canvas.

It's clothes. I glance back at the male and spot the missing pinky finger on his left hand.

The lantern in his right makes it hard to tell his eye color, but they look dark.

Is this the shifter? The one from earlier?

Before I can ask, he grunts and points at the bag. Keeping one eye on him, I hurry to get the clothes, finding a shirt and some sweat pants. I can’t put the pants on because my foot is still trapped, but I do slither into the shirt. At least it’s long enough to cover my junk.

“Who are you?”

He studies me, cocks his head, then inches closer. “Whoa, buddy, not too close.”

The male ignores me and kneels at my side. I growl, elongate my claws, but his eyes are wide… pleading. With careful movements, he sets the lantern down, picks up the now-empty bag, and shows me the inside. A name is scribbled in what appears to be Sharpie. It looks like a kid wrote it.

“Seamus?” I ask carefully.

He nods, then holds the bag to his chest. His dark eyes lower to my foot, and he points at it. All he does is grunt, so it doesn’t surprise me that the noise comes out in the form of a question.

“I don’t know how to get it off,” I admit. “Do…do you know how, Seamus?”

He nods again, then crawls over to my foot.

Locating some gizmo that I hadn’t seen before, he presses down on two springs, and the trap opens immediately.

I gasp, a rush of pain and sensation returning to the limb, and I hurry to move away from the demonic device.

Seamus points aggressively at my foot, then waves his hands around.

“Um…huh?”

Frustrated, he wiggles his fingers, points at his foot, then mimes the motion of walking.

“Can I walk?”

A big, brilliant grin forms on his face, and the motion makes him seem so young.

Layers of dirt coat his face, and some stubble lines his jaw, but with that smile, I’d say he’s only eighteen.

I try to scent him to determine what kind of shifter he is, but his smells are confusing. “Um, I think so,” I finally say.

Crawling over to my side, he gently takes my wrist and puts the sweats in my hand. Nodding at the pants, he smiles again.

“Where did you come from, Seamus? Do you live here? Can you tell me?”

The smile dims, and he frowns at the ground.

Grunting, he closes my fingers around the fabric before standing.

Okay, he wants me to get dressed. I wince and whimper when my foot goes through the leg hole, but once it’s done, I feel better.

No longer trapped and vulnerable, I stand up, knowing it won’t be long before my foot is back to normal.

“I need to find my mate.”

Seamus cocks his head.

“Mate,” I repeat and place my hand over my chest. “My alpha.”

He growls at the word.

“It’s okay,” I soothe. “Do you know the Terra Clan? I need to get there.”

Lifting his left hand, he scratches at the short hair over his scalp and blinks. A full-body tremor pulses through him before his head twitches and shakes. When he whimpers, my heart drops.

“Did they do this to you?” I ask carefully, gesturing at his missing finger.

He hides it behind his back and snarls.

“Seamus…”

A series of grunts, vague hand movements, and wild eyes is my only answer. He grabs the lantern from the floor and takes my wrist.

“I can’t go with you,” I insist, trying to free myself. “Please, I need to find Lucan.”

He stills.

“I don’t know if he’s hurt…safe…I—” My voice cracks, and I swallow down the urge to cry. “ Please . I need to find him. It hurts me here.” I rub my chest.

Those dark eyes search my face for long seconds before he blows out a breath. Something washes over his features, similar to surrender. “M-M-ate.”

I nod eagerly. “Yes, my mate.”

“H-H-ur-t.”

“He could be hurt. Trapped, even.”

He grunts and looks down at the bag.

“Y-Y-ou o-o-ome-ga.”

“I am.”

I watch as his hand comes up to his chest, rubs the space there, and he stutters, “M-M-ee n-n-o one.”