Omega Mine
Chapter 20

Josie clung to Grayson as he sprinted through the main hall of the arena, doing her best to not wretch all over his chest as the fierce pain clawing at her womb mingled with the sounds of men being torn apart all around her. It was sickening, listening to flesh give away a second before the smell of blood filled the air, agonized screams accompanying them both a moment later.

Vicious growls and inhuman howls sounded behind them, and she lifted her head, peering over Grayson’s shoulder and through the thickening smoke. Alphas and Betas, at least a dozen of them, were crowded around the guards, yanking assault rifles away from the humans before slicing at them with their sharp, claw-like nails. It was horrifying, but not nearly as terrifying as when those same Alpha males, at least six, stopped dead in their tracks, turning toward her and Grayson with a manic, carnal look in their glowing red eyes.

They inhaled, and she noticed several pupils expanding until the red faded to an almost pitch black.

Grayson turned to face the threat, his arms banding around her waist and under her ass to keep her secured to his chest. She whipped her head around to assess the threatening males behind her. Her mate unleashed a deafening roar, Alpha waves pouring off of him in heavy spurts. It didn’t affect Josie as it usually did; perhaps because she was too focused on the agonizing pain brought on by her mating heat.

The Betas, maybe eight in total, reacted immediately, dropping to their knees in submission. But the other Alphas, the ones most affected by her scent? They didn’t kneel, instead stepping closer to Grayson and Josie both, deep growls rumbling in their chests.

“They’re too far gone by my scent,” Josie told Grayson, her brow pinched with pain and worry as she held the taser Jameson had given her in a death grip. She turned more fully in Grayson’s arms, pointing the weapon at the closest Alpha, her hand trembling. “The Betas don’t react as strongly to an Omega in heat so they’ll submit to you. But unmated Alphas won’t notice anything other than my heat. It overrides their need to bow down to a stronger, more formidable Alpha.”

Jameson moved beside Grayson, holding out his gun as well, the barrel pointed steadily at another approaching male.

“We’re going to have to take them out, but I don’t have enough bullets in my gun to take out even one of them,” he said, voice filled with resignation. “There are too many to fight and we don’t have time. More guards will be here any second.”

Grayson stiffened, his grip tightening on Josie as another, far more primal roar passed his lips. The Betas on the floor jerked up from their positions on the ground, moving as a unit and attacking the Alphas beginning to surround them without a moment’s hesitation.

Josie’s lips parted in shock. “How did you do that? How can you command them like that with one sound?” she whispered in awe, watching as the Betas and Alphas began attacking one another in earnest.

It was brutal to watch her own kind begin attacking one another, barely sparing attention to the guards dead and wounded on the floor around them as they fought. Blood flew as the fire inside the arena swelled, the crackle of flames drowning out some of the cries of battle. Smoke filtered in from the flames licking along the walls and floor, spreading out until it was difficult to see more than a few feet from them.

Jameson fired a few rounds toward the males before the smoke grew to be too much, hitting the legs of several Alphas and taking them down before they got a chance to critically wound the Betas that were aiding them.

Grayson didn’t answer her, jaw clenching as he glared through the smoke. His vision was far more advanced than hers, even though she’d transitioned. She followed his gaze, kind of hoping to catch another glimpse of the skirmish in front of them. She’d never seen anything like it, and it gave her a glimpse into the power Grayson undoubtedly wielded as the Alpha Prime. What else could her mate do with enough time and training?

“Move!” Jameson shouted, and Grayson reacted, holding Josie close as he sprinted after the Omega, allowing the guard to lead them to safety.

More gunshots began to go off behind them, but Josie didn’t look over Grayson’s shoulder again, doing her best to ignore the feral cries of the wounded as they sailed toward the main doors she’d used to enter the arena just a few precious days ago. What had once been a solid, intimidating door, was now a pile of rubble, part of the ceiling and wall caved in to the point where it looked impossible to get through.

“How are we supposed to get out?” she asked hopelessly, wiping sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.

She was beginning to feel lightheaded, and she was so aroused that it felt like every slight brush of Grayson’s body against hers was a firework that went off, sending pleasure straight to her core. Without proper stimulation, that pleasure quickly morphed into tiny, stabbing aches and pains that were starting to drown everything else out around her.

She’d been doing her best to ignore the sensations. She didn’t want to lose herself to the lust of mating heat, not when they were in danger. But she didn’t know how to combat it anymore, replaceing it nearly impossible to focus on anything but the heat.

Jameson didn’t slow down, leading the charge toward the end of the massive hall. “There is a side tunnel that leads toward the forest. We just need to get out through there, replace our way to Hinkley, lay low and send out an urgent alert to our homebase. Once Bethany gets it, she’ll send reinforcements to come get us.”

Hinkley? They were going there? The thought of seeing her friend Sierra again nearly made her collapse in Grayson’s arms to weep in relief. She had done her best to not think about the outside world while she and Grayson had been trapped in the cells, but she’d missed her friend, her life, her home, even if it had just been a temporary location.

“The side exit is just ahead,” Jameson informed them.

A brief flare of hope filled Josie as she looked behind her. There, dead ahead and nearly hidden by smoky fumes and embers falling from the ceiling, was a nondescript metal door, blending almost perfectly with the deep gray wall surrounding it.

Suddenly, Grayson bit out a harsh curse, releasing his hold on Josie. She tumbled from his arms, landing hard onto the dirty, ashy floor with a cry of surprise. He didn’t react to the sound of her panic, instead turning toward the direction they’d just come and launching himself through the smoke.

Her head snapped up, eyes widening in fear as her mate met three other Alphas head-on, glowing red eyes the only thing she could see clearly through the ever thickening smoke. She sucked in a shallow, shaky breath, which was a mistake. Smoke filled her lungs and she began coughing, choking on the toxic air around her.

Jameson crouched down beside her, squinting into the dense smoke where Grayson had disappeared through while she struggled to get her breathing under control. If she could only make out hazy images and glowing eyes with her advanced senses, then he wouldn’t be able to see anything but a wall of smoke.

The Omega reached out as if to touch her, his palm pausing a few inches from her shoulder. “I can’t carry you, my touch will hurt if I’m too close to you for too long.” It was true, during a mating heat she wouldn’t be able to tolerate anyone’s touch but Grayson’s for more than a few seconds, not without extreme discomfort. “We have to keep going. Sev–Grayson will follow us, I’m sure of it.”

Growls of fury and pained whimpers exploded through the smoke, along with a sharp bellow of rage that she’d know anywhere. She lost sight of the Alphas completely then, the smoke too dense to see through, or maybe her mate had simply pushed the others back a great distance. She had no idea, and it worried her.

What if he couldn’t handle himself against so many opponents at once? He was so strong, but he was still malnourished after years of imprisonment. These other Alphas had likely only been recently apprehended, and they’d looked larger than Grayson; nearly twice as muscular. If they cornered him… What was she going to do if he didn’t make it out of this in one piece?

The thought had Josie’s breath freezing in her lungs, an icy knot of dread piercing the effects of her mating heat and overriding everything else. What was she going to do if her mate died? They’d only just found one another, so she could likely survive the brutal separation of death, but the mates that often survived were only shells of themselves.

Grayson hadn’t even been given a chance to know happiness, or contentment, or what it felt like to be loved. He didn’t have favorite colors, or foods, or ambitions other than to survive. He’d never even been given the chance to learn such silly details about himself.

She knew nothing about her mate other than how he made her feel. They simply hadn’t had time. And the thought of Grayson being gone from her life was–

“I can’t leave him,” Josie said fiercely, shaking her head quickly.

She wouldn’t.

“You think he wants you to stay here?” Jameson argued just as passionately. “The smoke is worsening, the ceiling can collapse at any second and we’ve got enemies surrounding us.”

“I won’t leave him!” she shouted desperately, hoping like hell Grayson would come prowling through the smoke and pick her up. Any second, she assured herself ruefully. Any second he’d return, and they’d get the hell out of here and never look back.

Except, she didn’t get a few seconds. Jameson wrapped his arm around her bicep, which was thankfully covered by the shirt Grayson had slipped on her, preventing skin on skin contact. He pulled her to her feet, helping her stand straight as her knees threatened to buckle, her head swimming with anxiety and more pain that was beginning to filter back in.

“We need to go!” Jameson shouted, tugging her toward the door.

“I can’t leave him!” she cried, feeling weak and pitiful. She wasn’t thinking like an operative, or a member of the rebellion. She was thinking like a mate, of an Omega that needed her Alpha.

“I’ll replace you! Go!” Grayson roared through the cloud of smoke, his voice faint but full of ire. He sounded alive and uninjured, and that soothed some of the fear lancing her heart. Reluctantly, she allowed Jameson to pull her through the door. As soon as they reached the outside, she sucked in lungfuls of fresh night air, the door swinging closed behind them with an ominous thud.

“Breathe later,” Jameson scolded, dropping his hold on her. He cast a quick glance around, fingers tightening on his gun as they spotted a handful of guards several feet away toward the front of the building. They didn’t seem to notice either of them, too fixated on tossing giant buckets of water onto a fire in front of the building. It didn’t seem to be doing anything other than delaying the inevitable, but she hoped like hell it bought Grayson time to escape.

“Which way do we go?” she asked hesitantly, fighting off the urge to cough. She didn’t think anyone would hear it, not with the fire roaring and the building beginning to groan as more flames licked higher into the night sky, but she didn’t want to take that chance.

Jameson nodded toward the forest off in the distance on their left behind the building, sticking close to the side of the building to avoid detection. Luckily they were wearing dark clothing, and they were covered in soot, another layer to help them blend into the darkness. She followed after him, wincing as every step was agony on her womb. Still, she pressed on, not pausing until they were near the forest’s edge.

It was only then that she heard the building groan again, followed by the jarring sound that seemed to shake the forest.

She spun around, heart in her throat.

The roof caved in. It was only a second later before the walls collapsed and the building became nothing but rubble.