The Omega

Chapter 3

I dug my feet into the cold dirt on the forest floor, my heart pounding relentlessly in my chest. Crouched low to the ground, my ears straining to hear anything out of the ordinary. The cold air burned my throat as I gulped it down. I had been in the Ring for 3 days now, constantly moving to keep ahead of the males trying to track us. Most of the females went to the edge of the walls. That’s why I’m keeping to the center. The males will go to the edge, then work into the middle to find any females that haven’t been claimed.

I listened to the sound of a newly mated couple and sent up a silent prayer for the female’s safety. I shifted on my feet slowly looking at the forest around me. Just 11 more days… then I can get out. I stayed close to the ground resisting the urge to shift. My senses were stronger in my wolf's form, but my scent would increase and I’d be easier to track. I had to be smart about this. I had to think my every move through. There would be a benefit to being claimed early. He could protect me from him…the devil incarnate. My sister had warned me he’d volunteered to participate in the Ring once he’d heard I’d been chosen.

I moved faster along the forest floor. The faster I get to my cave the less chance I have of being tracked down by him. He knows my scent better than he knows his own and it’s the same for me. I would never be able to forget his slightly rotten smell, hidden by a sickly sweet orange scent. I could never figure out why he smelled like oranges.

I was almost there. I sped up ignoring the pains from my empty stomach. I had gone out to try and find something to eat in the fully stocked woods, but fear had clawed its way down my throat and drove me back to my temporary home. I could still feel its sharp talons trying to filet my lungs. The wounds were made worse by the cold fall air.

I felt the slight rise in the earth underneath my bare feet. My den was here. I stumbled upon it on my first day. The one day females were given to run and hide, to make the game fun for the males.

On that day I tried to make the most of it. Scouting the land around my den, I had found a large bed of moss and dug it up to be used for a makeshift bed. So far it only helped slightly, but had been better than the dirt. I also found a river about a mile away from my den. I had risked looking in a 2-mile radius that first day, mostly because of the scentless soap. I still haven’t passed outside of that 2-mile radius.

I stood up straight and stretched my sore muscles, it was surprisingly hard to stay crouched for so long. I allowed myself to slow down and walked the rest of the way to the top of my den. I jumped the 6-foot drop, glad not to have gone down like a sack of potatoes when I hit the ground.

The pain had laced its way up into my shins and a small groan passed through my lips. I stumbled forward and collapsed on the moss bed I had made for myself. Life is hard when you’re more tired than a mosquito who drank too much blood. I closed my eyelids, the need to sleep weighing them down and stilling my dreary limbs.

…

Trigger warning(sexual assault/rape)

His naked body loomed over me and he started pistoning in and out of me ignoring my pained cries. The male started pawing at my bare breasts before letting out a loud groan and rolling off of me.

I moved to get away from him and he roared climbing back on top of me and grabbing my shoulders. Spit flew into my face as he yelled at me telling me to be good and let his seed fill me up. He told me that he would love me more if I carried his child.

Everything shifted and his room fell away until I was watching him tear apart my room. He was yelling at me, I forgot to hide the contraceptives I had been taking after the first time he had emptied his load inside me. He came over to me and I cowered, curling up and pressing myself against the wall. His fist started coming at me, rage flaring in his eyes.

Read on
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I woke with a gasp. Electric blue eyes haunting my dreams and making any sleep I manage to get restless. Just 9 more days then I’ll be out of the Ring. I reassured myself constantly with a countdown to my freedom. In the history of the Ring, only 2 females in 100 years have managed to leave the ring unclaimed. Not that that had been a good thing. They had gotten their freedom and in doing so had been shunned by their packs for disgracing them by not being desirable enough to be claimed by a male.

I sat up slowly looking over to the other side of the den to the meager amount of food in the corner. I’d have to go out again to forage, though the taste of mushrooms and any other random veggies or edible fungi that I came across was getting old. In the 5 days I’d been in the Ring I had heard the sounds of 7 females being claimed their howls loud enough to make me cringe. I wondered if they howled from the pain of the bite or the pleasure of having their soul join another.

I got up looking outside my den. Night had started to fall and worry nipped at my stomach warning me of the dangers lurking in the dark. Danger taking the form of 2 bright blue eyes that I had once admired.
That I had once loved… My heart ached in response to the sudden overwhelming feeling of loneliness. I’m 18 and can’t stand to be without someone to hold me. How much more pathetic can you get?
   
I took a deep breath focusing on the satisfaction of stretching my chest and filling it with a new easier to deal with kind of pain. I moved outside the den and turned left heading towards the river. It was freezing this time of year, but right now I’d like to feel a bit numb.

Frost coated the slowly browning grass and I looked up to the small patches of stars that I could spot between the gaps in the multicolored leaves. The thin white cotton shirt did nothing to protect my body from the cold, but I figured that was the point. I knew a few females who would give in easily just so they could be warm again.
   
I shook my head and a small smile stretched across my chapped lips. I didn’t bother to lick them, my father’s stern voice ringing in my head about how I’m “just licking the moisture out of them.” I still don’t understand how that works but it wasn’t in me then to not listen to him and it still isn’t.
   
I had somehow dazed out thinking about my family and how pretty trees are in the fall that I hadn’t even realized I had come upon the sloth-like river. Who hasn’t zoned out thinking about pretty leaves even when their least favorite person could be watching them right? Right? I turned my head away from the slow-moving river looking behind me ready to scream, only to find that Pennywise was not behind me.
   
I sighed heavily and slowly took off my white pants looking around again just in case. When I felt relatively calm, I stripped off my slightly dirty shirt and dropped it on top of my pants. I took a deep breath before wading into the chilly waters. Why couldn’t it be a hot spring? The cold seeped into my bones trying to take over my body and claim me for the river.
   
I gasped and shivered so hard I felt my back crack in protest as my muscles spasmed. The worst part is over once I get the water over my belly button. I took a deep breath to steel myself against the cold and ducked under the water. I quickly shot up again biting my lip to keep the stream of curses from spilling out.
   
My long dirty blond hair reached my mid-back. My nipples hardened in the cold water, my arms wrapped tightly around my waist. The days of barely eating still hadn’t gotten rid of my small muffin top. My hips had stayed curvy and my butt was still round. I had rather large breasts, but I felt that all the curves and nice feminine features of my body that I had learned to appreciate were balanced by the chubbiness of my tummy. I admired the way my body felt and moved in the water before slowly getting out. Most of my lower half had been numbed to the cold.
   
The wind picked up and my teeth started chattering. I froze. My body locked up as fear seized control of my limbs. Something was wrong. Something was really wrong, I could feel eyes on me. I turned around sharply seeing a pair of bright blue eyes that had once made me feel alive but now froze my blood.

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