Page 40 of Escaping Monsters

I was heading back inside when I noticed the ball of paper that the cat had also regurgitated. It had unfolded on the driveway, revealing a torn flight luggage tag. On it, someone had started to write words and then crossed them out.

I lifted the tag and saw under the pen scratches, there was the name Oliver Hunt.

A metallic tang filled my mouth as panic flooded through me. I recognized the baggage tag immediately. I was the one who wrote Oliver’s name, only to scratch it out and toss the tag in the trash. The sight of the name made my head spin with anger and fear.

Escaping my pack had become increasingly more difficult every time I managed it. I had always been looking for a weakness in the pack’s defenses. Oliver had been that weakness. He had a growing fascination with me, and I had used that to escape, only to realize that trusting Oliver was a dangerous mistake.

I didn’t understand how the magical cat found a luggage tag I threw away five states ago or why he brought it to me of all things.

“Omega?”

I lifted my head to see, clear as day, Oliver Hunt standing at the end of the firehouse driveway. I wouldn’t have recognized him if I wasn’t just thinking of the man. He had a scruffy beard and his ash-blond hair was so knotted, dreads were forming. His handsome face was gaunt, and clothes hung off his massive frame.

His jaw was slack, and he looked as shocked as I felt.

Panic spiked through my system, and I turned on my heel, running for the firehouse. The crashing of boots pounded behind me, and I knew he was catching up.

“Omega!” he roared.

I flew in through the door and kicked it closed, locking the deadbolt just in time. A knock came pounding on the wood, shaking the thick frame. I leapt toward the stairway when Oliver yelled through the door.

“Let me in, Omega.”

The order stopped me in my tracks, constricting my air as I tried to push back against it. Oliver’s emotions flooded my system, longing, betrayal, seething hate. There was no resisting his will. My hands raised to let him in.