Marked Omega (Quarantine Omega Book 1)

by Lizzy Bequin

  We can use this.

  We can use this to connect to the outside world.

  We can tell them all about what SynerGen is doing.

  I don’t know who we will contact, or whether they will even listen, but at least now we have a chance to bring their whole unjust system crashing down.

  Pained laughter falls from my lips as I stumble across the grass.

  But my laughter is cut short.

  From behind me comes a sound that turns my stomach and weakens my knees. It’s something like a roar, but wet and squishy and gurgling at the same time.

  I don’t even turn to look. I just run, as fast as my legs will carry me.

  CHAPTER 33: LILY

  It doesn’t take long before I know that I won’t get away. Ten seconds, and I can hear the grotesque sounds of the creature loping after me. Slurping, snorting, panting, growling.

  Five more seconds and I can actually feel the thunder of of its heavy footfalls.

  One second, and its hot breath washes over my bare back.

  I scream as the monster swipes its clawed hand, picking my ankle and sending me tumbling to the ground with my own momentum. I end up lying sprawled on my back, staring up into the blazing sun.

  Then the sun is blotted out as a shadow falls over me.

  This is it. I’m going to die.

  The Alpha standing over me used to be Bishop. Now it’s just a twisted monster, all muscle and sinew and brutality. The blast from Dr. Lucian’s gun blew away his lower jaw completely, but his Alpha accelerated healing has kicked in already, turning his wound into a grotesquely puckered maw that drips blood and spit. His bloodshot eyes stare down at me with pure hate.

  His mutated body is bulging with muscle, and his protective body suit hangs in ragged tatters, turn apart by his sudden growth spurt.

  Then I make the mistake of glancing between his legs, and I see the hideous, gnarled cock that is erect and throbbing with desire.

  He’s not going to kill me. At least not right away.

  “Oh no,” I whisper.

  A wet groan comes from that ugly hole of a mouth, and the beast lowers itself as it prepares to mount me. Without even thinking, my leg kicks out, striking him right in his dangling balls, and he tosses his head back with a high-pitched howl.

  I turn over and try to scramble away, but his clawed hand seizes my ankle and drags me back. He pins me down against the earth.

  Just as I’m about to scream again, something strange occurs to me.

  That awful searing pain that I was feeling—the pain of being separated from my bound Alphas—it’s gone away completely. No pain at all.

  Before I even have a chance to understand what that means, there is a savage snarl, the sound of a heavy impact, and the weight is immediately lifted from my back. When I roll over, I’m looking at two Alphas.

  One of them is Kadmon. He’s saved me.

  He and Bishop are fighting like feral dogs. They tumble over, biting and rending with their claws. At first, Kadmon has the upper hand. He has the element of surprise on his side. But he is also wounded badly from where Bishop shot him, and he is not fighting at one hundred percent of his strength.

  With a disgusting, gurgling roar, Bishop kicks Kadmon and sends him tumbling. In a flash, the disfigured Alpha pounces on my mate, ready to tear him to shreds.

  I can’t just sit by and watch this. I have to help somehow,

  “Leave my mate alone!” I shout.

  Snatching up a stone the size of a billiard ball, I let out my best battle cry and fling it at Bishop. The stone flies true and hits him at the base of a skull with a dull thunk.

  For half a second, I feel kind of proud of myself. I don’t think I could make that shot again if I tried a hundred times. Also, I’m pretty sure if I made that throw against an ordinary man, it would knock him unconscious or maybe even kill him.

  Bishop, however, is no ordinary man. Not anymore.

  He turns on me with a snarl, strings of blood and saliva trailing from his mangled face. His eyes are inhuman with rage.

  The beast crouches back on its haunches, preparing to pounce and tear me apart. But before it does so, something makes it freeze, tense muscles going rigid like a sculpted monster.

  Across the landscape comes an angry bellowing roar. Two of them actually. A two part harmony of brutality and rage.

  Addom and Hasker are charging toward us at a seemingly impossible speed. Their arms and legs are churning so quickly that they are little more than a blur.

  Bishop gulps. He stumbles backward, preparing to flee, but Kadmon’s foot sweeps his legs out from under him, and he tumbles to the ground.

  My Alphas are on top of him in the blink of an eye, snarling, tearing, beating, kicking. I turn away until the horrible sounds stop.

  When I look again, the three Alphas are standing up, shoulders rising and falling as they pant, their eyes glaring down at the broken thing on the ground—the thing that used to be Bishop.

  Hasker is first to rush to my side.

  “Lily!” His voice is taut with concern. “Are you hurt?”

  I shake my head.

  “No,” I tell him. “Not anymore.”

  He gives me a quizzical look as he helps me to my feet. Addom and Kadmon come rushing over as well. The younger Alpha’s muscular front is striped with blood from his wounds.

  “Kadmon,” I cry. “You’re hurt.”

  His grin shows no hint of pain.

  “What, these?” he chuckles nonchalantly as he glances down at the bullet wounds that have already begun to close. “Just a couple of flesh wounds. No big deal. The only thing that matters is that you’re safe.”

  The three Alphas have made a tight, protective triangle around me, and I can feel the relief wafting off of them like plumes of smoke. Their hands smooth over my skin, checking me for wounds and making sure I’m okay.

  At last, I finally let myself break down in sobs.

  “Lily?” Addom purrs, trying to sooth me. “Everything is okay. You’re safe now.”

  “I know, but…” I struggle to get the words past the lump in my throat. “When I was separated from you…the pain…oh God, it was awful…”

  The Alphas gaze down at me with sympathy in their eyes, and I understand that they felt that same pain too. That’s what led them here to save me.

  I turn to Hasker and place my hand on his chest.

  “Is that…Is that how it feels for you all the time?” I whisper.

  Hasker doesn’t answer. He just seizes my mouth in a fierce, painful kiss that communicates so much more than words ever could. Then Kadmon and Addom each kiss me in turn.

  We are distracted by a weak grunt from behind.

  “What is that?” Addom asks, gesturing.

  I turn around and see that Dr. Lucian has risen to his feet, and he is stumbling zombie-like toward the edge of the woods.

  “Beta,” Hasker growls. “Should we put it out of its misery?”

  I shake my head.

  “Leave him,” I say bitterly. “It’s what he deserves.”

  I pick up the data slate where I dropped it when Bishop attacked me.

  An eerie howl echoes in the distance. A moment later, it is answered by another call, and another. The sounds are coming from the forest toward which Dr. Lucian is mindlessly wandering.

  “Far-landers,” Addom says. “They’ll be here before long. It’s time for us to get out of here.

  “Come, little one,” Hasker says. “I will carry you.”

  He stoops to let me climb onto his back, and I wrap my arms around his thick, powerful neck.

  “I love you,” I whisper in his ear, and I can feel his massive heart start drumming just a little faster.

  “Hold on tight,” he growls. “And don’t let go.”

  “I never will,” I whisper. “I promise.”

  We set off, heading north toward the city. Toward home.

  EPILOGUE: LILY

  Heteropaternal superfecundation.
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  I know. Even though I’m a trained scientist, it was a new term for me too.

  It refers to a phenomenon where twins or triplets have different fathers. It can happen when a woman has several ova fertilized by multiple males. In the outside world this is a very rare occurence, at least for humans.

  But here in the zone, it’s pretty much the way things work.

  Over the past several months, Hannah and I have helped out with a lot of births, and there are a few trends that we’ve noticed.

  Alphas and omegas are always born in litters. Usually they are triplets or quadruplets, but the biggest litter we’ve seen so far is seven.

  Also, omegas are relatively rare. Maybe one per litter at most.

  There are fewer omegas to have babies, but when they do have babies, they have a whole bunch. And they are always mated to a pack of three or four Alphas. No couples here in the zone. It seems like all of this must be a part of Seraph’s “new plan,” although we still haven’t been able to dig too deeply into the AI’s secrets.

  But the strangest thing that we’ve noticed in all these births is that the babies seem to share traits with all of their Alpha daddies, not just one of them.

  Heteropaternal superfecundation. I can only assume that the same thing has happened to me.

  That little life force that I sensed in my womb before? It’s grown, and now I realize there are actually three little ones growing inside me.

  Three babies.

  Three daddies.

  One belly.

  Mine.

  You know, for a girl who was a virgin only half a year ago, I’d say things have escalated pretty quickly for me.

  I wonder if one of my little ones will be an omega? If so, I will name her Eva.

  And I’m not the only one who is expecting. I was right about Hannah. She was already pregnant by the time I showed up in the zone, and now she is getting very close. She looks like she could pop at any minute.

  “Hey Lily,” she says as she waddles over carrying some audio equipment and cables. “Remember when you asked me if there was anything I miss about the outside?”

  I smile up at her. We’re in the chamber of the Source right now, and I’m on the floor, working on some wiring that runs up from the promethium batteries buried below.

  “Yeah?”

  She drops the equipment and I offer her a hand to help her awkwardly sit down beside me.

  “Ice cream,” she whispers. “I miss ice cream.”

  My groan is almost orgasmic.

  “Holy shit,” I say. “I could eat a whole gallon right now.”

  I set to work hooking up the audio equipment into Dr. Lucian’s data slate, which is in turn hooked into the power system of the Source, the only electrical power in the entire zone.

  My Alphas are huddled around me protectively. Their inquisitive eyes follow my movements as I work. Despite my best efforts to explain this technology, they refuse to see it as anything other than magic.

  Yeah, tech isn’t really these guys’ strong suit.

  Hunting big game to keep me fed and clothed? Check. Starting a fire by literally rubbing sticks together? Check. Making love to me into the wee hours of the morning until I’m nothing but a panting, sweating puddle of love. Check. Check. Check.

  But anything to do with technology? Yeah…not so much.

  Still, I’m glad to have them gathered around me right now. The warmth radiating from their massive bodies makes me feel so safe and protected, and I really need that feeling right now, because I’m super nervous about what I’m getting ready to do.

  “Okay,” Hannah says after I have everything hooked up, “let’s give it a try.”

  I hold the small black microphone up to my lips.

  “Test, test, test,” I say as I glance at my three Alphas. “One. Two. Three.”

  A voice waveform wobbles on the cracked screen of the data slate, showing that it is picking up my voice. Hannah gives me a thumbs up.

  This has been in the works for several months now. There was a great deal of discussion with the council of the tribe. Plus, Hannah and I talked it out between ourselves too. We know that it is going to have major repercussions on the city hives of the outside world. But in the end, we decided that it was important for the truth to come out.

  We also waited until we had removed the tracking and monitoring devices that SynerGen implanted in us. It took us forever to locate the damn things—just a teensy little chip inserted beneath the skin at the back of our necks. We don’t know what kind of blowback there will be, but we know that SynerGen will be none too happy with us, and we wanted to make sure they couldn’t track our movements, just to be safe.

  We’re going to blow the whistle about SynerGen, the cataclysm, and the apparent government coverup.

  With Dr. Lucian’s data slate, we will be able to transmit our message out to the hives. We have picked our recipients carefully. The media is controlled by the government and corporations like SynerGen, but we know that there are still some reporters who care about the truth and are willing to take the risk to spread the word.

  But at the end of the day, we are sending it out to anyone who will listen. Scientists, lawyers, police. We know that many of them will dismiss our message out of hand. Others will be too scared to bring it to light.

  All we can do is hope that someone will listen.

  “Are you ready?” Hannah asks.

  Somehow she managed to talk me into being the one who would record the message. I’m starting to feel a bit of stage fright. You would think my binding ceremony took care of that.

  I nod to Hannah, and she switches on the tablet’s satellite connection, allowing it to broadcast to the hives.

  This is it. I’m live.

  I take a deep breath and look at each of my Alphas in turn. Young and beautiful Kadmon smiles at me, and even now, at this most inopportune of times, his sexy lip ring stirs a pulse of arousal within me. I glance at the scars on his shoulder and his chest, thinking of all we have been through together.

  Next, I look to Hasker, my protector. His shorn skull is hatched with scars that he received long before I ever met him. God, some of those scars are probably even older than me. He is a fearsome Alpha. But his dark eyes have an alluring twinkle, and I can sense the barest hint of a smile behind his grizzled, silvered beard.

  Last, Addom. He is my steadfast rock. His gray, speckled eyes stare into my soul, soothing me, and silently telling me that somehow, whatever happens, everything will be all right in the end, as long as we are together.

  They are my mates and the fathers of my children. They are my Alphas. We are bound forever.

  Addom nods, urging me to begin.

  I take one more deep breath to still my nerves, and then I begin to speak to the world.

  “My name is Lily. I am an omega…”

  THE END

  Want more raw Alpha goodness? Primal Urges is the first in a three part series of omegaverse romances. I am Project Omega. I am the Alpha's prey. Click here to read!>>

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  Also by Lizzy Bequin

  Claimed in the Alien Arena

  Primal Alphas Series:

  Primal Urges

  Primal Impulse

  Primal Needs

  Primal Alphas Collection

  About Lizzy B.

  Hailing from the Deep South, Lizzy Bequin enjoys writing dark and steamy romance stories that explore the primal side of love and lust. When she’s not writing or reading, Lizzy is serving the whims of the two evil feline overlords who rule her home.

  For more info and news about upcoming releases, visit me online!

  Website: lizzybequin.com

  Facebook: @lizzybequinauthor

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