The tea itself tasted like… well, warm flavored water. Which I guess is what it was. I barely drank about half of the cup before I decided enough time had passed, and I could show up at home without awkwardness.
As I stepped outside, wind and heavy sheets of rain gushed at me. Alicia had been right about the storm coming in fast. And hard. I shivered in the entryway. I hadn’t brought a jacket or an umbrella or anything.
If I hadn’t been so self-conscious, I could have walked home with Craig and possibly avoided getting caught in the rain.
I hated getting wet. But what were my other options? Spend the night in the administration building? Lock myself in a classroom and sleep on the thinly carpeted floor? No thanks.
I just had to make a run for it. I had to—
Lightning illuminated the world in front of me with a bone-shaking crack of thunder.
Danger. My nerves twitched with the need to run, to escape.
I struggled to focus. No, I wasn’t going to shift here. I could run home. I’d be safe back at the townhouse. I wasn’t actually in danger. I was in the shelter of the building. Nothing but rain and thunder waited between me and—
The next explosion of thunder triggered my shift. Frantically, I shook off the constriction of my clothing. Run. Danger. Run.
“Hey, are you okay?”
I twisted and growled at the voice. A large man cloaked in a bright orange rain jacket approached from the side of the building. His jacket dripped with rain, and a gigantic flashlight illuminated the ground at his feet.
Alpha, my brain screamed. There was something more, but that was all I had time to register before he took another step and I launched into the rain. Into the dark. Away from the alpha. Away from danger.
4
Jordan
I circled the administrative building at the start of my shift. At the onslaught of rain, I’d seen the young man hesitate. I didn’t blame him. His plain blue t-shirt and long pants would slow him down as soon as they got wet.
He seemed to prepare himself to sprint through the rain, one leg ahead of the other, hands balled into fists, knees bent ready to spring—and then thunder crashed around us. The lightning froze his expression of pure terror into my mind.
I immediately broke into a sprint. This wasn’t the first time I’d come across a resident fighting a flashback during a thunderstorm. Thankfully, fireworks were illegal for personal usage, so we didn’t have to deal with those during the holidays. We were far enough away from any of the big shows that the loudest noise that reached the property sounded like small pops, and only if you were already standing outside and on top of a hill.
He might have recovered if the second roll of thunder hadn't followed so quickly or cracked so loudly. By the time my eyes recovered from the flash of lightning, a small wolf struggled with his blue t-shirt, finally shredding it from his head.
"Hey," I called to alert him to my presence as I neared. "Are you okay?"
He startled and whipped around to growl at me.
To show I meant him no harm, I held my free hand open and low, flashlight pointed down. I raised my eyebrows and opened my eyes wide. This guy was probably operating one hundred percent on instinct. I twisted my head, hoping the gesture of baring my neck came through even with my big jacket covering me.
His tail pressed against his belly in fear and submission, but he hadn't run away yet. If I could get close to him, I might be able to calm him down enough to get to the nurse's office.
I took half a step to test him, and he was off like a shot.
Shit.
My instinct was to run after him, which I knew would only scare him more.
That was why everyone, even security guards—maybe especially security guards—were trained in handling multiple possible scenarios regarding the residents.
I grabbed my radio. "Jordan here. I have a Code Blueberry at the south exit of the administration building. Human form, Caucasian, blond, maybe five foot six. Shifted, small wolf. Gray."
I'd always hated the code words. They were all fruit. Blueberry. Tangerine. Soursop. But at least they were distinct.
"Copy that, Jordan. Stand by."
While I waited for a full response, I picked up the runner's clothes. The trackers would need them. They worked in predator and prey pairings. Specifically, predators that tracked by scent—cats, wolves, and bears like me. It wasn’t that we had better noses than other animals, but our olfactory systems were particularly geared to hunting down blood and meat. It was a bit disturbing to think of it in those terms, and it was the very thing that made frightened omegas want to run farther and faster, which was why tracker teams also included prey. The prey-type trackers had to either be gifted in running, like deer and horses, or small and nimble enough to cling to their predator-partner’s backs. So a squirrel might make a good partner, but a rabbit probably wouldn’t.
The shirt was a goner, for sure. Anywhere else, it might look forward to a short future as a garage rag. Here, it would be tossed in the trash as soon as the omega was found. The pants seemed to have survived, though.
The wind and rain stirred up all kinds of scents that assaulted my nose, so I had to press the cloth into my face to capture the young man’s scent. Instinctive information flooded my brain. Omega, which I had assumed, given where we were. Young, but not as young as I’d thought. Fear.
And mate.
I dropped the clothing to the wet floor and turned, my sense of the young omega’s path so strong I could almost see it as a line into the dark. He wasn’t just any omega… he was my omega.
He was alone.
He was scared.
My radio squawked. “Rob and Chris are en route to your location, Jordan. Copy?”
I awkwardly shucked off the rain jacket as I shifted. I couldn’t wait for the trackers. My omega needed me. He needed me now.
“Jordan, do you copy?”
The lightning flashed again, thunder trailing by a second. The storm was moving away, hopefully. But as long as it continued, the omega wouldn’t stop running.
As I struggled to control my shift, my clothing fell in a trail behind me. Fur prickled over my back, not yet thick enough to protect my skin from the rain, itching as it strained to grow. I tumbled to the ground, attempting to kick off my boots. Finally, clad only in underwear and socks, I let my bear take over and loped into the night.
5
Wyatt
I ran blindly with no thought to a destination as long as it was away from the alpha, yet at the same time… feeling like I should run back to him? Thunder continued to rumble and roll and crack, almost as if it were following me.
Dodging tree trunks, I ducked under pine branches. I should have been scenting resin, pine needles, maple and oak leaves, rain and dirt, but the scent of the alpha lingered in my nose, confusing me. He smelled like danger, but also home. What did that mean?
I slowed down as the question took over my base instincts. Why did I feel that way?
And then I ran into a scent wall that completely scrambled my brain. The danger sense I’d felt at the first whiff of alpha back at the administration building multiplied by ten. Maybe one hundred. Alphas, multiple, of all kinds. Predators. Wolf, bear, cat, fox—and others I couldn’t recognize.