Page 6 of Unable Omega (One Wild Alpha #3)

Sage

None of the sleuth members were impressed with my story, and neither was I.

What did they want from me? My time at the lab was spent being drugged and lying on the cold floor.

White shiny walls and floors all around me.

Even the ceiling was a chilling metal. It was always cold.

I had shifter healing and the high temperature of a bear, but even my fur couldn’t stop the shivering.

It was clear they didn’t believe me.

Maybe they would ask me to go. If they thought I was a liar, I wouldn’t blame them. They had built some kind of haven for shifters like me and they had to be careful about who they let in.

There were two cubs here. One belonged to Markus and the other to the alpha, not alpha. From what I’d gathered, Locke was in charge, but he didn’t accept the title of alpha.

Interesting. All the alphas I knew were absolute assholes and loved to throw the title around as much as possible.

They probably demanded it be used even in the bedroom.

Gross.

I lay there, hooked up to an IV, groggy from the pain meds Markus had given me a few hours ago. Rob had brought me in food, but again, no eye contact.

He did bring one of every kind of food imaginable. And from the scent of it, he made it all himself.

Still, with him being standoffish and scoffing when I relayed not knowing a whole lot about my time at the lab, the last thing I wanted to do was bring up the fact that my bear was sure he was our mate. My alpha. The one Fate had made just for me and by some miracle had made us meet.

He wanted nothing to do with me. That much was clear.

Maybe, once I got better, I would simply disappear into the night and get out of his hair.

I wanted him to have a good life. Not having to be around a mate he didn’t want.

Everyone was so kind here. Even though they didn’t believe me, or seemed not to, they treated me with care.

Locke’s mate Kellan came in with their daughter, Elise, and stayed with me for a while, asking if I needed anything that the alphas hadn’t asked about.

He said we omegas had to stick together.

They offered me a remote to the TV on the wall or something to read, but the only thing I wanted to do was listen to the sounds outside.

People moving around. Talking to each other.

The sounds of doors shutting and opening.

The laughter of an omega. Whispers of an alpha.

Howls and the cawing of a nearby crow. I watched shadows pass from different distances outside the window.

It was like watching one of those ambiance videos.

This one was titled Shifters in the Evening for sure.

The sounds were far better than the ones in the lab.

There was one shifter, a lion, if my nose and my senses fared well, that never stopped crying at night.

He would wail and sob. It was the saddest thing I’d ever heard.

And then one night, he didn’t.

I never saw the lion again. And those sobs that I once cursed for interrupting the peace of the night, the only peace I had, well, once they were gone, I lamented their sounds.

Knowing that something had happened to him sank a knife into my heart.

Tears flowed down my face as I thought about all of them. If I could have, I’d have taken them with me. Saved at least one.

I cried until I fell asleep, until the survivor’s guilt scooped me up and fed me to the night.

I opened my eyes to white. White walls. White floors. Crying. Screaming. Beeping medical equipment. Clanking metal. Dragging chains. The beating of fists on the walls all around me. The smell of antiseptic and blood and torn flesh.

I crab-crawled backward until my back hit the cold wall.

Mary came in, whistling that sickening tune she always did. Instead of putting my tray on the floor beside me, she put it down at the door and slid it across the sterile floor, the contents spilling everywhere. “Now look at what you’ve done,” she said, fists on her hips.

“I didn’t,” I tried to say, but my mouth wouldn’t open. I slapped and clawed at my face but found no lips. No opening. I didn’t even have teeth. At least as far as I could tell.

I tried to open my mouth and scream, but nothing came out.

Mary came across the room, pulling the large, metal syringe from her white jacket pocket. “Don’t worry, Sage. I’ll make it all better.”

I woke up screaming. Patting my face with my hands. It was a dream. Oh, fuck me, it was one of the worst nightmares I’d ever had.

“Hey, hey, Sage, it’s me, Rob. You’re okay.”

I flailed, not wanting to be touched. Then, I wrapped my arms around myself and rocked. “It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. I can speak. I have a mouth. It wasn’t real.”

“It was a nightmare, Sage,” Rob whispered. Oh, he was here. Sitting in a chair next to me. I opened my eyes and looked over to him. He had creases on his face, eyes drooping as if he’d just woken up. His sleepy look was as sexy as he was.

“Yeah. Nightmare.”

I pulled my legs up and encircled them, resting my forehead on my knees. I’d stayed in that position, lying on my side on the floor, for most of my time at the lab. The fetal position became my only comfort.

“Omega, please. Can I…can I hug you?”

I gasped and looked up at him. Goddess, I hated nothing more than the look in his eyes. Pure pity. “No. I don’t need your pity. Just leave me be. I know you hate me.”

The words flew from my mouth. Rob jerked back as though I’d slapped him across the face. “I don’t pity you. Please, let me hold you. You’re shivering.”

“It was always cold there. I’m used to it.”

“Well, I’m not.” He got up and sat on the side of the medical bed where Markus had me hooked up.

He reached for my knees and with warm, soothing touches, pushed my knees down.

Then he opened his arms for me. It had been so damned long since I’d been held.

Touched. Even when I was little, the comfort of my parents was few and far between and only for a second. “Sage, please.”

Ugh. He kept saying my name. If I had to leave here, to let him leave in peace, the sound of the man that could’ve loved me would haunt me forever. More than anything they’d done to me in the lab, Rob’s hurt would ache the most.

I leaned forward, intending for the hug to be quick but as soon as my head landed on his shoulder, all those ideas vanished. I melted into his hold. He growled low and deep, the sound weaving into all the crevices of me that I’d tried to keep anyone and anything from penetrating.

He undid me with one hug.

“You’re okay,” he whispered. “One day you’re going to be okay. You’re so strong for escaping and surviving. It was only a dream. You’re free now.”

I hung on every word from my mate. Did he know he was mine and that I, most certainly, was his?

We stayed like that for a while until I felt the shift in the room. The air popped and crackled. Rob’s hold became stiff and cold like the dream. “I-I have to go now. It’s getting late, and I need to sleep.”

I sat back, whiplashed from the change. “Sure. Of course. Thank you. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”

Pulling up the covers to retain some of his warmth, I turned my head toward the window. He wouldn’t get to see the hurt I was sure was written all over my face or the tears welling in my eyes. No. Only mates got to see tears.

“Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, the ice thinning a bit. It was too late. He’d frozen me out and I wouldn’t fall for that again.

“Probably not.” I closed my eyes and willed him to leave. Not because I wanted my mate to leave but because I couldn’t stand the gorge of distance between us when he was standing only a foot away.

The tears broke the dam and fell down my face as his steps left the room. The door closed behind him. His scent grew more faint by the second.

The physical pain I was in and had been in for months or years couldn’t compare to the way my heart broke as my mate walked away.