Page 30 of Marked Omega

The center of our territory and the home of the Source.

“All right,” I tell her. “Have a look for yourself.”

I swing around so that my back is facing the city, and now the omega, who is bent over my shoulder, has a clear view of our destination, illuminated by the golden rays of the low morning sun.

“Wow,” she gasps with awe. “It’s…it’s beautiful.”

She’s right. The city is indeed beautiful. The pride of our homeland. It was built long ago, before the big change. According to the stories of the old-timers, it was quite ugly then—sky choked with smoke and noxious fumes that blotted out the sun. So many people they were practically packed in like ants, and nothing but solid rockcrete for acres.

But now, after a century, the city has come back into harmony with nature. Trees and grasses have burst through and grow in the roads where cars once drove. The towering buildings of steel and glass are tangled in climbing vines as thick as an Alpha’s wrist. Flocks of white egrets soar through the city canyons.

It is our home, and we will be there soon.

“You know,” the omega says. “If you put me down I can—“

She yelps as I swat her behind again.

“You’ve already run off once,” I tell her. “We’re not going to play that game again. I’m carrying you, end of story.”

“Fine,” she grumbles as her small hand reaches back to rub her reddened tush.

Hasker approaches and speaks in a hushed voice.

“Boss, the omega’s heat is coming back something fierce.”

He doesn’t have to tell me. With her perfect little butt bent over my shoulder, I’m fully aware of the alluring scent wafting from between her legs. It’s nearly unbearable.

When I first smelled her yesterday, the intensity of her pheromones threw me into a feral mania of lust. Thankfully, Hasker managed to quell her needs a little bit in that cavern. But he’s right, the effects are wearing off, and her estrus is growing stronger again.

And I know full well what Hasker is getting at. We can’t bring her back into the city like this. It wouldn’t be fair to our brethren in the tribe. We need to mark her first.

When an omega has been marked, her scent changes, among other things. It is the first step in the bonding process. We must see to that necessity before we return to the city.

“We’ll take her to our cave. I don’t want to be interrupted.”

Hasker nods. He is clearly eager, as we all are, finally to relieve some tension with the omega.

“Cave?” Lily asks, twisting and squirming on my shoulder. “What cave?”

She squeals as my hand comes down once more on her bottom with a sharp and satisfying smack.

***

A few minutes later and we can hear the low hiss of splashing water.

“Is that a waterfall?” Lily asks from my shoulder.

I’m impressed. Her ears are nearly as good as mine. From what little I’ve heard about them, outsiders are supposedly far less sensitive than we who live here in the zone. But I also know that Lily’s body is undergoing changes as she becomes conditioned by the power of the zone, and the closer we draw to the Source, the deeper and more permanent those changes become.

She may still be an outsider in her mind and her way of thinking, but her body is all omega now.

Soon we come around a low, wooded hill, and there before us is the waterfall. Its white water spills down from a rocky outcropping about thirty feet up and crashes into the dark pool below, churning its surface with white foam and raising plumes of mist that sparkle with a pale rainbow. The fragrant grass grows right up to the black, volcanic rocks lining the pool, which are furred with moss.

“Oh wow,” Lily whispers on my shoulder as she twists around to look. “It really is a waterfall!”

As we approach, a fishing heron pauses to eye us suspiciously, then raises himself on broad gray wings and flaps off over the trees. Lily gasps at the sight of it. She is a curious little creature. Do they not have such things as waterfalls and birds on the outside?

Then again, her awe and curiosity is inspiring in its own way. It reminds me of those things that I all too often take for granted.