Forsaken Omega
Chapter 3

Kieran looked over the faces of Felix's pack mates. Most of them seemed eager for Felix to lead the moonlit run. Rain had been noticeably absent during dinner time, which disturbed him.

He thought about sending Scarlett and Damien to discreetly ask some of Felix's pack mates about where Rain was, then decided not to. In the end, Felix's underlings would report to him everything they'd heard and witnessed. Not out of loyalty but out of fear,

Kieran mused, but ruling through terror could only get a lead alpha so far.

He couldn't find Rain in the gathering either. Had she holed herself up in her room on purpose? Most likely, Felix didn't allow her out of her room. As punishments went, it wasn't necessarily a harsh one, but wolves were social creatures. Starving a pack mate of the company of the pack would eventually leave them feeling empty.

Scarlett appeared next to him. All around him, Felix's pack mates were starting to undress and shift. Kieran remained where he was.

"I overheard two of Felix's enforcers, Dale and Colin, talking earlier," Scarlett whispered in his ear. "What did you find out?" Kieran asked.

Dale and Colin probably didn't even realize Scarlett had been listening to their conversation. Even when they were kids, his sister had always been good at tracking, spying, and appearing invisible. She was a dominant female wolf but was capable of toning down her aggressiveness to nothing.

"Felix is planning to have your omega killed tonight. He'll send someone to tell Rain she's free to join the hunt, but in reality, she'll be lured into a trap set by Colin and Dale."

Silent fury filled Kieran at those words. Felix was leading Rain like a lamb to the slaughter. Kieran had butted heads with deceptive and dangerous lead alphas, but Felix was in a class of his own.

If Kieran found a traitor in his own pack, he'd deal with the traitor personally. Felix didn't even have the guts to execute Rain on his own.

"What do we do now?" Scarlett asked.

The plan had been to find Rain and extract her during the run. Good thing Kieran thought quickly on his paws.

"We'll proceed with joining Felix and his pack mates on the run as his guests. Once Felix believes we're still running alongside his pack, we'll break off. You and Damien head back to the house, get the car running," Kieran said. "Meet us on the highway." They agreed on specific coordinates to meet.

"You're taking a huge risk," Scarlett reminded him. "If things go wrong, Felix could hunt you and Rain down. In a one-to-one challenge, I know he'll be an easy kill for you, but Felix will have the might of his entire pack." "That won't happen. Trust me," he said.

Scarlett nodded. In the end, his orders were always absolute.

Kieran took off his clothes, noticing the admiring glances of the pack omegas and even some of the betas, and pretended he didn't see them. In the blink of an eye, he shifted. He had always felt a deep connection to his inner wolf, so he could change forms quicker than most lead alphas. That always gave him an advantage in pack challenges.

He entered the woods with Scarlett and Damien behind him. Kieran placed a small distance between him and Felix's pack. He noticed Felix and some of his enforcers checking if they were following, then the group resumed the run. Felix's pack mates started to howl and yip as they delved deeper into the forest.

Moon Craze. Some shifters fell under the spell of the full moon and gave into their baser emotions. Kieran and his pack were more disciplined than that. Kieran let out a low growl to Scarlett and Damien, a signal for them to branch off from Felix and his pack. Scarlett and Damien returned south, back to the Silverbite Pack House like Kieran ordered, and he started his hunt. He had taken note of the scents of Felix's special inner circle earlier on. Kieran liked to mark his potential prey for emergencies like this. He caught Colin's repulsive scent first, then Dale's. Kieran didn't need to put his tracking skills to use for much longer. A howl of torment soon reached his ears. Rain. He sprinted in the direction of her cries. The sounds of r!pping flesh soon filled his ears. Had Kieran arrived too late? White-hot anger took hold of him as he spotted a large male wolf, Colin, standing on top of a slender, smaller wolf. He r!pped into her underbelly with his sharp teeth. The smell of copper filled the air. Crimson soaked the dry bed of leaves Rain lay upon.

Kieran hadn't been aware of streaking forward like a silver bullet. He slammed into Colin, driving the surprised alpha to the ground. Kieran would've preferred to torment Colin a little further, to let him feel an inkling of the pain he inflicted on Rain. No time for that. Kieran closed his sharp teeth into the side of Colin's neck and r!pped out his throat. He sensed Dale behind him. Kieran spat out Colin's blood, spraying it into Dale's charging face. The alpha growled, coming to a halt. Kieran was on him in seconds. He pounced, digging his claws into Dale's fur. The wolf cried out underneath him. Kieran could take his time killing this one. Dale struggled uselessly against him. Kieran was bigger, more vicious. He bit into Dale's neck. Blood spurted out, drenching his coat and face. Kieran finally put the alpha out of his misery. Then he padded over to Rain. The female omega remained unmoving. She stared at him, yellow eyes filled with nothing but terror. Certain there were no wolves nearby, Kieran shifted back to human form. Kneeling next to her, he ran his fingers through her fur. "I'm not here to kill you, Rain. Relax. I'm here to save you." Kieran flashed her a smile, although no doubt he looked ghastly, covered in Dale's and Colin's blood. "You're coming home with me." Rain couldn't make sense of Kieran's words. He wanted to take her, a dying omega, with him? Where was home? Why did Kieran kill Colin and Dale? Had it been for her sake? God. Kieran had ended her two former tormentors like a well-oiled machine. If Felix faced a monster like Kieran in a challenge circle, he would never have stood a chance. Kieran didn't wait for Rain to answer. He picked her up. She gasped at the sharp pain in her lungs. She could see her insides hanging out of her. It hurt so much. Too much. How could one person bear so much agony? Kieran kissed the top of her head, and for some stupid reason, that made her feel better. A silly kiss made the pain more bearable.

Kieran carried her the entire time, walking past familiar trees and landmarks, past the forest she had ceased calling home the day Felix killed her father.

Rain wove in and out of consciousness. She didn't know if Kieran faced any more obstacles, because the next time she woke, she lay in a bundle of blankets, her head supported on someone's warm lap. Kieran.

She tried turning her head, but he rested one large and callused hand on her forehead. The mind-numbing pain she felt earlier was gone. She wondered if he dosed her with painkillers because she felt a little high.

"Don't move," he told her. His eyes glowed gold in his face, like twin sunbursts. She probably imagined the concern there. "You're safe now, Rain. No one else can touch you, not without facing my wrath."

"No one but you?" Rain didn't know where she found the strength to utter those words. At the very least, it got a chuckle out of Kieran. It was wrong, how comfortable she felt with her head in this strange alpha's lap. Wrong for her to associate him with safety. "Sleep, Rain," Kieran said. He must've woven some kind of spell over her or his voice of authority simply brooked no argument. She fell into a deep sleep.

The next time she woke, she found herself in an unfamiliar bed, a comforter thrown over her body. Rain felt morning light on her face. She sat slowly up in bed, wincing at the slight flare of pain.

Rain studied her surroundings. She was in a room much bigger than hers back at the Silverbite Pack House. The bed she lay on was soft, the sheets well-worn, and they smelled like lemon fabric softener.

There was a chair next to the bed. A desk on her left, facing an enormous window. Tall trees looked back at her. but it wasn't the familiar forest she'd grown up in. Felix had probably assumed her dead and had assigned her old room to someone else.

As for clothes, Rain only wore an oversized shirt. Nothing else. She tugged at the shirt and sniffed at it. It took her a second to realize this shirt had belonged to someone whose scent she recognized.

Kieran. Just thinking of the red-haired alpha made her heart race a little faster.

Rain bit her lower l!p as everything came flooding back to her. Colin and Dale hunting her. Kieran coming to her rescue. How he easily disposed of Colin and Dale like garbage.

Kieran was dangerous. Did he take her knowing he could? Kieran was a monster, but what scared her even more were her conflicting feelings for the alpha. Her body certainly wanted him. Her inner wolf certainly thought he was a worthy mate, as if that would ever happen.

Rain was an adult. She enjoyed s*x as much as any woman, but what if Kieran finally got sick of her? She was the daughter of a traitor. Her own lead alpha wanted her dead. Was there even a place for someone like Rain in Kieran's pack, or would he kick her out once he was done with her?

Her breaths came out short. The door to her room opened, and a woman in her late forties entered. She had a severe expression on her face, and her gray hair was tied into a long braid.

"You're finally awake. I didn't think you'd wake, not after three days of being unconscious," the woman said.

Rain's wolf identified the woman as a fellow werewolf, but her scent puzzled her. She neither smelled like the dominant alphas nor betas, nor the submissive omegas.

Wait. Did the woman say she had been unconscious for three days?

The woman started giving her a check-up. When the woman lifted her shirt, Rain tried slapping her hand away, but the woman caught it. She didn't reprimand Rain, simply looked at the bandages covering her stomach. Rain stared at the wound as the woman peeled the bandages off. The injury looked weeks old. Stunned, Rain tried to touch the wound, but this time, the woman batted her fingers away.

"Stay still," the woman said, finally assessing her. "You're lucky to be alive at all. When Kieran bought you to me, you were almost dead."

"How am I still alive?" There were no stitches Rain could see. She then realized what this woman was. A healer. They were rarer than omegas. How was Kieran able to recruit a shifter healer to his pack?

"Kieran used his own life force to accelerate the healing process," the woman answered. Rain heard the disapproval in her voice. Only then did the healer's words finally sink in.

"What? Why? A shifter would only share his or her life energy with his or her bonded mate," Rain said.

"Normally, yes, but Kieran seems to think you're special," the woman said. "I can't see why. You're not any different from the omegas in our pack."

"That's enough, Grace," said a firm female voice.

A tall woman with model-like looks and long, auburn hair strode in. Rain recognized her. The dominant female wolf who accompanied Kieran. One of his enforcers. Scarlett, Rain remembered.

Despite Grace being older than Scarlett, Grace stepped away from the bed and lowered her head in acknowledgment. That told Rain Scarlett held a higher position than Grace.

Forest-green eyes similar to Kieran's assessed Rain. "How is she?" Scarlett asked Grace.

"She'll make a full recovery if that's what you're asking, but she'll have a scar," Grace replied.

"Your work is impeccable as always, Grace," Scarlett said. "Thank you. The pack is lucky to have you."

Grace only grunted, then said, "I'll fetch Kieran. He'll want to see her."

"I have a name, you know. You can ask me yourself," Rain said, lifting her chin and holding Scarlett's gaze. A dangerous move. Rain knew that dominant females could be as dangerous as the males in the pack. She continued, "Are you going to remind me I'm lucky to be alive, lucky your brother saved me?"

"Not at all, little wolf," Scarlett said. "I only have two words to say to you. Good luck. You'll need plenty of it."

With that, Scarlett walked to the door. Rain wasn't even aware that Kieran stood there, watching them.