OMEGA: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Mackenzie Grey Book 4)

by Karina Espinosa

  “This has to be a joke. I’m getting punk’d, right?” I said and wiggled myself further into the bean bag.

  “No joke,” the guy said. “You want to enter the Gate of Horns and Ivory, then you’re in the right place.”

  “Why wouldn’t the Red Door just take me there itself?” I questioned. “Why jump through all these hoops?”

  The stoner grinned. “Because the Gate’s isn’t a place, but a state of mind, bruh.”

  Ah shit, this guy was mental. “Are you human?” I scoffed.

  “He’s nae,” Ranulf sniffed. “Yer a Traveler.”

  “Bingo,” the Traveler snapped his fingers and pointed at Ranulf. “I’m the keeper of the realms…at least the ones that haven’t been sealed without my permission,” his glossed eyes floated to Alexander.

  “So you know who we are. Who are you?”

  “I just told you, I’m the Traveler. My birth name is inconsequential,” he grinned. “Now, are you ready for travel?” He flipped his hair out of his face and motioned me toward a beat-up recliner.

  Alexander grabbed my arm. “Ye don’ have to do this, hen. We can find another way.”

  “We cannae,” Ranulf whispered. “She must do this, yer highness.”

  Alex gritted his teeth. I patted his hand and removed it from my arm. “It’s okay, Alexander. I’ll be okay.”

  “It’s all copasetic, your Kingliness,” The Traveler said. “The only thing she has to fear is fear herself. If it’s all groovy, then she has nothing to worry about.”

  Alexander relaxed and my body tightened. The King had no idea the demons I faced and this wasn’t the time to tell him.

  “See? It’s all groovy,” I mimicked and gave him the ‘hang loose’ sign. I sat on the recliner and The Traveler extended the legs, leaning me back.

  “I hope you don’t have asthma,” The Traveler joked. He pulled out a bong from one of the shelves and began to add things into it.

  “Whoa, hold on a sec. You want me to get high?”

  “Were you expecting anything else?”

  My eyes widened. “Uh yeah...anything but a shit ton of mushrooms.”

  The Traveler snorted. “It's only a few.”

  “A few too many, dude. My body is a sacred temple that runs on caffeine and nothing else.”

  “And a little cannabis won't hurt it. Relax.” He palmed my forehead and pushed me back onto the recliner. “Your mind is about to go on a trip to another realm. I don't know for what, but listen to your wolf. She'll guide the way,” he paused and looked over his shoulder to Alexander before whispering, “It's going to get weird, Princess.”

  My insides churned.

  “A few puffs is all it takes,” he handed me the bong. “Enjoy the ride.”

  I studied the swirling blue and green colors of the glass bong before putting the pipe to my mouth. Ranulf and the King looked at me expectantly and I tried to give them a reassuring smile.

  “Here goes nothing,” I mumbled before sucking in a deep drag from the pipe. I must have inhaled too hard because I coughed. My skin tingled and my vision clouded. What the fuck.

  “Keep going,” I heard The Traveler say, but he sounded so far away. “Keep going…”

  I took another drag and this time it passed smoothly. The tingling of my skin intensified and I wanted to scratch at it, but I felt sluggish. After two hits? That sounded crazy. Then again, I was dealing with the supernatural. Who knew what kind of shit he put in it. It definitely didn't taste like coffee.

  One more hit and my eyes rolled back. I heard Alexander scream my name, the shuffling of feet, and growls in the distance, but I was so high, none of it registered. My gaze traveled to my hands on the armrest of the recliner and my skin sparkled translucent. My chest rumbled as I laughed. I thought of Amy and her Twilight marathons. She would have loved this.

  “Mackenzie!” was the last thing I heard before my body fell through the recliner into nothingness.

  “Shit!” I exclaimed. The air whooshed out of me as dust flew up around me. I coughed and waved my hand in front of my face. My vision clarified and I got a good look at where I was. “You’ve got to me kidding me…”

  My body bounced on top of a cloud of…nothing, but white puffs of smoke. I’d fallen into a cyclone of cotton as the walls spun around me, the pressure like something inside of a vacuum. My hair whipped around my face as the wind increased and I squinted.

  “Hello?” I yelled into the nothing. “Is this the Gate of Horns and Ivory?” I rolled my eyes at the stupid question. There wasn’t anything around. I was stuck in the clouds of smoke I’d just inhaled at the smoke shop. I was fuckin’ hallucinating.

  A growl penetrated the thundering of the wind and I struggled to stand above the clouds. My body wavered back and forth before I got my footing. Nothing was beneath me, I was literally in nothing. I couldn’t even explain what the hell this place was.

  The growl grew and I spun around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.

  “Uh…” my body locked up as I felt something behind me. Slowly, I turned to face an all-black wolf. It bared its teeth and snarled, taking another step toward me. My hands extended defensively, trying to calm it. “Easy there, wolfey. I’m a friendly.”

  It snarled again. It took another step before its eyes glowed silver.

  “What the hell,” I murmured as I stopped backing away. I sniffed the air, but I couldn’t catch a whiff of anything. I didn’t have any of my wolf instincts. I attempted to release my canines and claws—nothing. “You’ve got to be shitting me,” I groaned as the wolf got closer.

  I froze as the wolf cocked its head to the side—only two feet away—it sniffed my legs and feet, circling me, trying to figure out who I was.

  That’s when it hit me. “Are you…are you me?”

  The wolf came around and stood before me in all its stubborn glory.

  “Shit, you are me,” I threw my head back exasperated. “Alright, wolfey, calm down. You kill me it’s like committing suicide…damn this is becoming a theme.”

  It—I growled.

  “I said chill,” I yelled. “Where the hell are we? How the hell did you get out of me? Fuck. I’m human…and I’m talking to an animal. Great.”

  A deep voice boomed within the cloud-like cyclone and it was not the wolf. “Mackenzie Grey MacCoinnich, of Clan Mackenzie. Freedom Princess to the enslaved, heir to the Lycan, and leader of the New World.”

  “Well damn,” I muttered. “Don’t go putting my government name out there like that. And what’s with all the titles? The name’s Mackenzie Grey, that’s it!”

  “You seek the Gate of Horns and Ivory.” the voice echoed. “What you desire may not be what you expect. What is your purpose, Mackenzie Grey MacCoinnich?”

  My wolf slithered closer to me as it tried to find where the voice was coming from, but it sounded like it was coming from everywhere.

  I sighed. “I need to be unlinked from the Fae realm. They’re holding me hostage!”

  “Is that what you need?”

  “No, I really need a pony,” I deadpanned.

  “Very well. May the Horns guide you on your quest,” his voiced echoed off into silence.

  “Quest?” I screamed. “What quest? Dude!”

  My wolf nipped my side, urging me to move. She titled her head toward a set of clouds that began to morph into an opening. She whined for me to move with her.

  “Are you serious? I’m not going through there. You’re nuts.”

  She growled.

  “Don’t get snippy with me,” I said.

  She snapped her canines and they were a little too close for comfort.

  “Okay, okay,” I held up my hands. “But you better break my fall.”

  We stepped through the opening, smoke clouded our vision. I coughed a few times before my mouth went dry, and my lips chapped up. I waved a hand in front of my face and we were transported to a desert. The sun was aflame, the heat rippled in the air, and I took off
my jacket. Drenched in sweat, I gasped for some water, hell, I’d take some saliva at this point.

  “They’re trying to kill me,” I panted.

  The ground shook and I placed a hand on my wolf to hold myself steady. Her back sloped in line with my hip. She wasn’t huge, but bigger than a regular wolf. Her fur bristled as something thundered our way.

  “Steady,” I whispered as I moved a leg behind me in a fighting stance.

  The heat blurred whatever was coming, but as its footsteps got closer, a massive, gray elephant bounded toward us with its head moving up and down, its trunk whipping around.

  “Holy shit!” I yelled. “Run!”

  We spun on our heels and ran. I pumped my arms faster and faster, but without the strength of my wolf, I ran at the speed of a human. Wolfey on the other hand? She was a demon, leaving clouds of dust in her wake.

  I was thirsty, tired, and hot. I wasn’t going to make it without getting trampled over. Every time I tried to move aside, the elephant moved as well. It was chasing us—or me.

  I’d been running on my own when I saw my wolf stop, she was waiting for me.

  “What are you doing?” I gasped. “Run!”

  She howled. Before I knew it, her canines snapped onto my jacket that I had tied around my waist and she ran. I gripped the knot to keep it from coming loose, and ran with her. She was helping me.

  “Stupid wolf,” I muttered. She could have easily gotten away.

  We came to a skidding halt as a faceless man stood mere feet away from us. Bow in hand, he aimed and I sighed a breath of relief.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” I panted. “There’s an elephant,” I pointed behind us, one of my hands on my knees, I bent over to catch my breath. “Shoot it. Just don’t kill it.”

  The man who’s face I couldn’t see because of the heat, turned the arrow toward my wolf and released. I flew to her, knocking her out of the way. The arrow missed us, but it nicked me on my side.

  “What the fuck,” I wheezed as I laid on the ground, clutching my side and, placing my body between my wolf and the man.

  The elephant bounded toward us and I turned to my wolf, engulfing her in a hug and tucking my head into the crook of her neck—waiting for our imminent death. But nothing. Seconds passed and we were still holding on to one another. I peeked over my shoulder just as the elephant struck the man, its tusk digging into the man’s abdomen, lifting him up in the air. He flailed about, blood spattering across the sand and my face. I flinched.

  The elephant tossed him to the side and the man disappeared. The elephant turned to us and let out a massive huff before bellowing from its trunk. The sand flew up around us, it spun like a cyclone, and we held on to one another again before the orange sand turned to white clouds and we were transported back to where we had started.

  My wolf howled, announcing our arrival, but I was so shaken up, I couldn’t find my footing. My hands trembled and my breathing was erratic.

  “Fear,” the booming voice appeared again. “It is such a common human emotion. Others forget that it is not just a human trait. We all feel it.”

  “I didn’t need you to show me I can be scared. I know that already.”

  “Indeed,” he said. “What else did you feel, Mackenzie Grey MacCoinnich?”

  I shrugged. “Heat? Thirst? Confusion?”

  “Dig deeper, not just the surface.”

  I screamed. “Enough of your games! None of this has anything to do with my link to the Fae realm! If you can’t help me, then tell me. Stop giving me the fuckin’ run around!”

  Desperation took over and I couldn’t stop the outburst. Enough with the riddles and secrets. I needed the truth, unadulterated truth.

  “I told you what you desire may not be what you expect.”

  “What the hell does that even mean? You almost got me killed! Look!” I pointed at my ripped shirt that was wet with my blood from the arrow. “My obituary would have been death by elephant!”

  “Did the elephant really try to kill you?”

  “Huh?” I shook my head. “Of course it did. Its big-ass foot was about to flatten me like pancake back there. Or make a shish-kebob out of me like he did the other guy…” I trailed off.

  I frowned. Did it really try to kill me? It was chasing me, sure, but it didn’t kill me. Even when it had the chance, it only kebob’d the other guy.

  “Deception is everywhere, Mackenzie,” the voice said. “You can be deceived even by the most trustworthy person. The only one you should trust wholeheartedly is yourself—all of your self.”

  “As in me and the wolf….”

  “Yes.”

  I scoffed. “That’s bullshit. Yeah, I need to trust myself, I get it, but I have people in my corner who I trust with my life.”

  I looked down at my wolf and she growled at the invisible voice. Damn right, wolfey. Back me up.

  “Who?” He started. “Your best friend who secretly hates you? Or the man who loves you unconditionally and you turned your back on him? Or, your soulmate who you love so much that you’re willing to kill yourself for another—”

  “Enough,” I sneered. “You don’t know anything about them. Yeah, we’ve had our issues, but they’ll always be there for me!”

  “Will they?”

  My hands balled into fists, making crescent moons on my palms. I spun around, trying to find an exit. “Fuck it,” I muttered, and started walking toward the clouds that enclosed us. Without hesitation, my wolf followed me and we were tossed out of the cyclone and into another. But this one was filled with dark clouds. Shades of black and gray. Lightening and thunder struck and I jumped.

  My wolf whined and I clutched her fur to keep her close to me. The rolling thunder made her nervous.

  “You cannot hide from the truth, Mackenzie Grey MacCoinnich,” the voice boomed. “Sooner or later, you will have to shed the lies and take your place in the New World.”

  Faceless men came out of the clouds as thunder struck again. Their faces clouds of white—three men, no weapons.

  “You can only trust yourself…” the voice faded.

  After a split second of silence, the first man swung at me. I swerved to the left, and when he swung with his left, I ducked beneath it, coming up to his side. With a punch in his ribs, he doubled over, and I struck my elbow in the mid of his back. My wolf went in for the kill, tearing out his throat.

  It all happened so fast, two came toward us at once, making it much harder. Back-to-back with my wolf we fought as one. I might have not had my wolf’s strength and abilities, but I still knew how to fight. That was a tool Roman made sure I had.

  His fist flew, I grabbed it as I turned and it skidded by my face. I gripped his wrist and with as much force as I could muster, I flung his body around until he fell on his back. I stomped my foot on his shoulder and twisted his arm.

  My wolf whined and I looked up in time to see the faceless man kick her on her side. He dug his nails into her exposed throat and I could feel the skin peel from my own neck.

  “Ahh!” I clutched my torn skin. The faceless man I had held down, took the opportunity to get from beneath me and sweep his leg behind me.

  I crawled away to my wolf and elbowed the man in the back of his knee, bringing him down. Wrapping an arm around his neck, I slammed myself on the ground and squeezed. I didn’t have the strength to snap its neck, but wolfey dug her canines into his stomach. Blood, intestines, and gore splattered everywhere.

  The last faceless man tried to catch my wolf, but she was too fast. I pushed the dead weight off me and tackled him on his side, bringing him to the ground. I threw punch after punch, until his face was covered with blood. He stopped moving and as he took his final breath, I stayed on my knees, hands on my thighs, heaving.

  A wet muzzle made its way to my face, licking the blood and sweat. I laughed. Running my hands through her fur.

  “Good job, wolfey,” I panted.

  “Good job indeed,” the invisible voice returned. The clouds diss
ipated, and the lightning and thunder quieted.

  “Whatever,” I yelled. “You want to keep trying to kill us? Go ahead. Give it your best shot.”

  “You have passed this quest,” it said. “You may returned to your world after this last test.”

  The clouds cleared and two arches revealed themselves before us, one made of ivory and the other made of charred black horns.

  “Choose your exit, Mackenzie Grey,” it bellowed. “Choose wisely.”

  I stood before my options, weighing my choices and trying to think about what it meant. The voice told me to dig deeper, to look beyond the surface. Who we think is a foe, can sometimes be a friend…

  And that’s when I knew. We believe darkness is evil, and light is good, but that’s not always the case.

  “Ready, wolfey?” I looked down at myself—pitch black fur, with glowing silver eyes. She howled.

  “Alright. Through the horns we go.”

  33

  I sucked in a deep and loud gulp of air as I was transported back to the dim lighting of the smoke shop. The recliner tipped back and forth as I turned my head from side to side to scan my surroundings. I looked for my wolf and she was there—a part of me. With a hand on my heart, I felt her inside me. I hadn’t fully felt her in a long time.

  A burning sensation drew my attention to my left hip. “Ahh,” I groaned as I checked beneath my jeans. And there it was. On the opposite hip of the melted tattoo was a new and improved Celtic triquetra. The symbol was black with gold outlining.

  “Mackenzie?” Alexander said. He was sitting beside me, the look of a worried parent all over his face. “Lass, are ye okay?”

  I nodded—and that’s when I felt it. I was more than okay. I was alive, as if someone had given me a shot of adrenaline. I hopped out of the dusty recliner and was on my feet in a second.

  “Welcome back,” the Traveler smirked.

  “Ye look different, Princess,” Ranulf commented.

  I laughed. “Because I am different. I’m unlinked.”

  “How do ye know?”