Page 35 of Advocate Omega (Unforeseen Paths #1)

Lucan

“Lucan,” Oberon barks, and I jerk awake.

Fuck, I’ve been hardly able to keep my eyes open. The wheezing started a few hours ago, and now I taste the poison constantly. A horrible metallic tang coats my taste buds and dampens my senses. Sweat coats every inch of me. I’m shivering but hot. It won’t be long until I’m soiling myself, too.

“Look,” he whispers, and my eyes travel to where Arlo has been kicking at Iris’ corpse.

He’s managed to get her upper half moved over a few inches, and there, under her right arm, is what appears to be a loose stone.

I gasp at the sight, wondering how the hell something like that would exist. Damn near ripping his arms from the sockets, Arlo stretches further, using all his strength to kick the dead wolf.

Claw marks are gouged into the stone, and the visible piece moves.

Twisting, he extends his claws on his foot and manages to slip one between the cracks.

It lifts but quickly slips free of his hold and connects with the rest of the floor.

“It’s a way out,” Oberon says almost too loudly.

I tug on my binds, knowing that if I were at my full strength, they couldn’t keep me confined like this. “Can you break free?” I ask.

Oberon tries, his muscles bulging, but ultimately the shackles don’t budge. They were forged with the intent to restrain shifters. I glance down at Iris, desperately trying to ignore the pains in my chest, and wonder if she has a mate—a pod of her own.

“What’s that?” I ask, nodding to something shiny poking out of her pants pocket.

“A gift from the fucking fates,” Arlo says excitedly and reaches his foot out again.

It takes him six tries, but he secures a bobby pin of all things. Wedged between his toes, he lifts his foot to Oberon’s mouth. The alpha plucks it from his toes with his teeth and shrugs, as if to say Now what.

“Spit it into my hand.”

Oberon deadpans. Through clenched teeth, he growls, “How?”

“Just try .”

I watch the two of them have a silent stare down before Arlo begins a countdown. “One…two… three .”

In what feels like slow motion, the bobby pin launches from Oberon’s lips, spit and a flash of silver flying through the air, and successfully lands in Arlo’s open palm.

But at the last moment, it slips. This starts them off on the task of trying over and over.

At some point, I pass out. When I come to again, the pair are bickering and arguing because the bobby pin somehow landed too far away and Arlo can’t reach it.

No, it’s by my feet now. This is what all of us have been reduced to.

Imprisoned alphas that are trying to escape with a bobby pin.

I glance up at the ceiling, my eyes fluttering as I hold back tears of rage.

None of this would have happened if I had been vigilant.

If I had thought this through. Who did I think I was, waltzing into a clan like the Terras and assuming nothing would go wrong?

“The way out is right there!” Arlo hisses. “We just need to—”

Iris moves.

We all hold our breaths as the dead wolf twitches.

“What the…”

Her body launches up, off to the side, and a head pops through the ground like a gopher. Dark golden eyes and cropped red hair enter my vision, followed by a growl.

“Who the hell are you?” Oberon demands.

My nostrils flare as the male’s scent enters the room. It’s wrong and I’m not quite sure how. I smell alpha and omega on him. But then, mingled with his confusing aroma is something sweet.

Something mine.

I snarl, jerk at my restraints, ready to rip off my own limbs if it means finding out why this wolf smells like Zander.

“Will you move ?” a voice I shouldn’t be hearing carries up from the hole in the ground. “Seamus, move your ass. I can smell him. I need —”

“Zander,” I bellow, fighting with everything I have, and the wall cracks from the force I’m pulling on the shackles.

“Shh!” Oberon hisses. “They’ll hear!”

The redheaded male climbs out of the hole, eyeing us with deep-rooted suspicion and feral hostility. “Luc!” I hear my mate whimper before his starlight colored hair appears in my line of sight.

I howl against my will.

“Fuck,” Arlo hisses.

Zander launches from the hole, his little hands touching and grabbing at me while his eyes inspect every inch. “I’m so sorry,” Zander cries, kissing me quickly. “This is all my fault.”

“Shut up,” Oberon growls, prompting me to snarl back.

The newcomer, which I assume is called Seamus, creeps towards the door and presses his ear against it.

“I was so worried, and I got stuck in the woods. And you ordered me . But then it went away and I’m—we—fuck, Luc, are you okay?”

Too wrapped up in his nearness, I don’t answer, I nuzzle his cheek, familiarizing myself with his scent. Thanking the fucking gods that he’s okay. “My heart,” I rumble.

“How do I get these off?” Zander asks, frantically looking around the cell.

Seamus grunts and scrambles to Zander. He touches my mate , pulls on his arm, and touches his throat. I see red. “I will gut you, wolf!”

“Someone is coming? Who?” Zander ignores me.

“B-B-a-a-d.”

“Do you know how to get these off?” He points at me while I snarl like an animal.

The poison is toying with me, making everything and everyone a threat.

“B-Bad. G-G-o.”

“We can’t go. I have to get them out.”

The wolf growls and snaps his canines at my mate. “Get away from him!” I scream.

Seamus pushes Zander. He doesn’t stop until Zander is back in the hole. Then he walks up to me, roars in my face, and rips my shackles from the wall. I collapse onto my knees, ready to attack, but I have no more strength.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck ,” Oberon chants, while Seamus moves to release him and Arlo.

“C-C-o-mi-ng. C-Com-ing,” the redhead repeats, shoving everyone towards the hole.

When I don’t move, and I hear Zander scream at Seamus to help me, I finally scent the alphas approaching the cell.

“Leave me,” I tell him, knowing I’ll only slow them down.

Seamus easily breaks the chains around my neck, a feat that should startle me, but doesn’t. He squats down, points at the hole, and growls in my face. “M-M-ate. M-M-a-te.”

“I know that’s my mate,” I tell him through a horrible wheeze.

“H-Hurts. H-Hurts h-hi-m.”

“Lucan!”

“M-M-ate.”

I force myself to move. Seamus helps me down, revealing a narrow stairwell that leads into dank darkness. I stumble over my feet before familiar hands grab my waist.

“Come on,” Zander urges, taking my hand and pulling me.

Oberon and Arlo resort to carrying me once we hit the bottom of the stairs. Wolves are already barreling down it, right on our tail. I’m limp in their arms, utterly useless as we navigate through the underground tunnel.

Zander’s frantic breaths, the fear in his sweat, and the occasional muttered curse when he trips send me back to the first night we met. When he was terrified and vulnerable, but unlike then, I can't protect him, and I’ll never forgive myself for it.

Seamus leads the way, and the male grunts when we come to a split in the tunnel, urging us to go right.

My feet drag across the dirt and rocks, but I try to keep them moving.

When a howl sounds through the tunnel, the alphas on either side of me pick up their pace.

We won’t make it out of here without being recaptured.

“How much further, Seamus?” Zander pants.

He doesn’t answer, only secures his long fingers around my mate’s wrist and drags him along.

Not more than a minute passes before we reach a wooden door.

It’s ripped open, light flooding the space, and I wince.

Fresh air wafts into my nose, the sun only just beginning to rise in the east. The exit to the tunnel spits us out into a narrow gully.

Once we are all through, Seamus wedges a large boulder in front of the rickety door.

“It won’t hold,” Oberon tells him. The male just grunts and drags Zander up the dirt.

“Why would they have something like that leading to their prison?” Arlo asks, helping me up and over the incline.

“My father said that this town used to be a human smuggling port at one point. This must have been how they brought in contraband without anyone knowing.”

I glance in the direction we came from and spot the enormous concrete building where we were no doubt being kept. We aren’t far enough away. Now that we are illuminated under the rising sun, Zander gets a good look at me. He whimpers, rips free of Seamus’s hold, and shoves Arlo out of the way.

“You can’t carry me,” I rasp. “I’m too heavy.”

“Shut up,” he cuts me off, wrapping my arm around his narrow shoulders.

Seamus abruptly stops, cocks his head, and tips his nose. “H-H-ide.”

“Hide where?” Oberon demands.

We are completely vulnerable out here. A few sporadic trees won’t offer much cover. There’s a loud thud back down in the gully.

“Where?” Zander adds on.

Spinning, the young wolf looks at all of us with concern etched into his features. After a beat, he taps his chest, then points at the gully.

“No! You can’t!”

He grunts again and points deeper into the forest. “H-H-ide.”

“Let him go,” I manage to say. “He can hold them off.”

“What?” Zander balks, glaring at me. “He’s a kid!”

“He’s also stronger than any of us,” Arlo points out.

Oberon nods. “Go, Seamus. Thank you.”

“Luc, do something!”

“I can’t…” I wheeze. Fuck this is so bad.

Seamus hesitates for a moment longer, then sprints towards the gully.

“Move, Zander,” Oberon orders. “We’re out of time.”