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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

~Arcay~

THE HUMAN OMEGA walked at my side along the beautiful white buildings of my home city. As we passed, Aldar citizens bowed their heads to us. My omega pressed himself against my side, and I wrapped my arm around him and held him close, pleased at his eagerness to be near me. I’d known he would stop being stubborn and see sense once he realized who I was.

We turned a corner, the city fell away and tall, dark trees surrounded us, creating a warm and isolated cocoon. Bird song rang out all around us, and insects fluttered in the air that stirred the branches. I turned to my omega. Now that we were alone, I wished to catch an intimate moment. His hair glowed golden brown in the sunlight, his eyes shining bright blue, and my breath caught.

He was just as beautiful as the jungle around us with its vibrant flowers and glittering lights. As I marveled at the sight of him, he lowered his eyes and looked down at me. He was taller now, or perhaps I was smaller, shrinking into the soft ground beneath my back. When had I lain down on the floor?

His beautiful face darkened as he lingered over me and an uneasiness settled into my bones. I shifted, trying to move away from him, but the ground was so soft my limbs sank into the moss and soil. Suddenly, the bird song stopped, the insects stilled, and the trees loomed too tall and stiff. A haunting laugh made me look up to Clay’s glowing blue eyes again, but this time they were cold and hard as ice. I shivered.

He said something, but none of the words were familiar to my basic knowledge of Panlin, and I could not find the translator anywhere. I had it a moment ago. Where had I put it? Did Kesk have it? My arms had sunk up to my elbows now, and I tugged uselessly at them. Clay stood over me, straddling my chest with his legs, and pointed my spear at my heart.

“I’m sorry,” I tried to say, but my words were strangled off before they could leave my throat.

He narrowed his eyes and twisted the spear in his grip. “Not yet.”

With a cry, he plunged the weapon into my heart—

I shot up, arms swinging to defend myself against the deadly strike, but it didn’t come. I looked around wildly, breath ripping in and out of my chest as I tried to reorient myself. There was no spear, no trees, no strange, big, and threatening omega standing over me. I wasn’t in the forest, or on my home planet at all. The familiar features of my quarters were picked out by the soft light from the windows. It was just a dream, that was all. A very strange dream.

I looked over to where Clay lay in the bed beside me…

And my heart stopped.

Where he should have been there was nothing but an empty stretch of pale fabric. I pawed it. The soft material was creased and cool. I threw off the coverings as if he might have burrowed beneath them to hide from me. He wasn’t there.

The bed was empty; Clay was gone.

My omega was gone.

The next moment I was up, the sheets thrown to the floor, searching the room.

“Omega,” I called.

I tried to sound calm so that he would come out from wherever he was hiding. If he was doing this purely out of some petty need to irk me I would have to punish him severely. I would not tolerate this kind of behavior.

Finding the room empty, I ran into the living quarters. Moonlight cast a dim glow over everything, picking out details with indistinct edges and deep, tripled shadows. He had to be in here. Perhaps he had gone seeking food or water, or to relieve himself. But in the darkness, I could only make out the curve of the seating and eating area, the sparse items, the decorative weapons on the walls. It was empty.

A cavity opened in my belly, and grew deeper as I searched every corner, calling for him over and over. There was no response and no sign of the omega. He was no longer here; only the faint scent of him lingered. Panic made my chest tight.

Then, with dread turning my stomach to ice, my eyes fell on the doorway and the faintest hint of light that seeped around its edge.

He was out of my quarters. Alone. On a ship full of unmated alphas.

I wrenched my spear from the floor.

***

I DREW IN air deeply through my nose as I stalked the ship, wearing nothing but my sleeping garments, tracking my prey as only a trained hunter could. On my planet I tracked quarries often, pursuing them for many hours through the jungle around my home city, and my skills were well known. I enjoyed the thrill of the chase, and the satisfaction of providing food for my people. But this time I felt no joy, and it was not food I was hunting . My very future hung in the balance.

The strength of Clay’s unclaimed omega pheromones were potent, like a bright trail of color against the dull background of the ship. I smelled the air again, tasting him on the back of my tongue. His pheromones were somehow stronger than an Aldar omega’s. I bared my teeth. The strength of his scent was both a blessing and a curse; it made it easy for me to track him, but it would also be easy for others to do the same. It was like a beacon drawing predators towards him, and I had to fight to keep my breath even and to not let my panic increase.

This was bad. He could be lost or hurt. Or worse. If an unmated alpha found him they would not hesitate for a single second to take him and claim him for themselves. I could already be too late. Images of another claiming Clay filled my mind , uncaring that he was not willing, forcing the bond on him. I was filled with terror and fury, both at him and for him. How dare he do something so foolish and dangerous? How dare he leave me? The strange feeling clenched my stomach so hard I feared that I would be sick.

The gods had finally blessed me with an omega. And not only that, but one unlike any other, beautiful and strange. My grip on the spear tightened. I had failed at the most basic level of what it meant to be an alpha—protecting your omega.

The trail led me on a convoluted path around the sectors. A small part of me was almost impressed at how far my omega had managed to get alone. He was infuriating, but he had wits, and perhaps he could avoid detection until I found him.

I slowed my pace slightly where the passageway forked, and the trail seemed to lead down both. He must have doubled back on himself, but which way had he gone? I could follow both, but that would cost me precious time. I scented both ways, trying to ascertain which was most recent.

A scream echoed up the left hand passage. It was high and strange, a human scream. It cut through me, turning my blood to ice.

Clay.