by Tamsin Baker
Chapter 1.
Caden
I couldn’t feel my toes, but at least that wasn’t a permanent thing…I didn’t think. The all-encompassing cold sapped my will to move and check. The first rays of the sun stroked my cheek, but even that didn’t give me a reason to get up. This new world sucked. In every way.
Bad enough that we had to fend off attacks from the vampires and the other animal shifters in this new world. But as an Omega wolf, the weakest and smallest of my kind, how was I going to survive with my own pack killing each other for sport?
“Get up, you lazy bag of shit.”
My eyes popped open and my heart hammered against my ribs in fright. That grizzly voice haunted my nightmares and most of my day time hours. My tired legs moved so fast my head spun like a top as I jumped from my make shift bed on the dirty floor.
“Yes, Alpha,” I croaked out.
Bear wasn’t an Alpha, nowhere near it. The men that had ruled us before the fighting began, they’d helped us, protected us…they were true Alphas. Real leaders.
The cruel bastard only ruled our pack because he was older and stronger than the other Betas left standing. But Bear, the pseudo Alpha, liked to hear those words from my lips, and I wasn’t going to deny him. I didn’t deny him anything. I had the sore arse and black eyes to prove it. I didn’t fight back. Ever. It kept me alive.
“Go with the Betas and collect food. The women have nothing to cook.” Bear’s snarl was as ugly as a muddy toad, but I kept the cringe from my face as he leaned close and the scent of his dank breath wafted up my nose.
“Yes, Alpha.”
I scurried off through our disheveled camp. An old, fenced off section of what was once Seattle. Composed of not quite ten whole houses, and about a hundred people living in conditions not fit for the wild cats that roamed the streets.
I jumped over playing children and tried to ignore the crying, hungry babies the best I could. The stench of the open toilets burned my nose hairs as I ran by. No matter how long I lived in this world, that wasn’t a smell I ever got used to.
No one had enough to eat. We lived like scavengers. Eating what we could find. Not growing anything. It wasn’t a sustainable, nor healthy way to live, and our community was going to die. Soon, if we weren’t careful.
Yet, the men who were meant to keep us alive, the stupid Alphas, didn’t give a shit.
I sidled up next to the hunting party that congregated by the front gate and cleared my throat. “Uh…hi, Tommy. Bear sent me over to help.”
Tommy, one of the half decent Betas, nodded. His cheek bones were so angular they gave him a hard look that didn’t suit his sweeter personality. “All right. Let’s go.”
I tucked in behind Jerry, another Beta, and as a group of four, we walked to the front wall. Our closed in community had only one gate at the front of the tin panels that surrounded the houses. Barbed wire twirled over the walls and a shudder coursed over my body as the memories flashed inside my mind. I’d been tangled up in them more than once when I’d displeased the Alphas in some way. I was never quite sure what I’d done wrong, but I definitely had the scars to prove it.
Tommy held his hand up and flicked his wrist, giving the signal to move out. Together, we moved through the front gate that opened up and walked into the dangerous world around us.
My breath caught in my throat as my gaze darted left and right. I hadn’t stepped out of the compound in months. Not since the last attack.
Overgrown greenery flourished in front of my eyes, and even though the beauty of our new world made me want to relax, I reminded myself that it was all a façade. Evil lurked out here, in amongst the roses and ivy. The vampires were sleeping, away from the powerful rays of sunshine, but there would be other shifters about. I kept a lookout for any signs of danger, and once I was pretty sure there was nothing but the tranquil overgrowth, I moved forward.
“This way,” Tommy called out as the other Betas and he crouched low and wove around the trees growing wildly through what was once a beautiful, thriving city.
The broken, crumbling sky scrapers, highlighted against the crystal blue sky, caught my gaze and I looked up. Sadness filled me up like a rising cold tide, making my skin crawl and my gut ache. I could still remember what this city looked like before the mass genocide.
And Seattle had been beautiful.
A decade ago, a powerful, clever, obviously sadistic paranormal created a virus that targeted human cells. Some people said he was a vampire, others believed him to be a half cast beast. But no matter what he actually was or had been, he’d done something that changed the surface of the planet.
He’d released a virus into the air that, within a few years, killed off every human on the planet. Only the paranormals remained, and every different faction fought for supremacy.
The vampires fought against the werewolves, who fought against all the other animal shifters. And within each race, we fought against each other. For land and power that equated to nothing in the long run.
This new world was chaos.
Tommy stopped and pointed, whispering to us, “There. Look.”
A group of brown, large hares sat nibbling on the overgrown grass. Perfect. My stomach growled and saliva pooled in my mouth as I imagined sinking my teeth into a single piece of the delicious meat. Warm, nutritious flesh. It had been so long since I’d eaten any fresh protein. I swallowed hard, amazed to see the creatures out in the open like this.
The Betas slipped away from me in formation, silently surrounding the group of hares in a circle. Tommy held up his hand to signal we were to wait, and I held my breath in anticipation. His hand came down sharply and we all charged.
I raced forward, arms extended and teeth bared, my heart banging away in my chest.
The hares bolted.
My hand shot out and I grabbed for the fat, brown bodies that ran past me. Two slipped by my hand.
Damn!
I jumped and rolled, frantically grabbing at a little hare that had gotten confused amongst the fray. My hand found the soft fur and I managed to snare him. My fingers clenching down hard on the single ear I held, then I pulled the body into mine.
It wriggled and kicked out, bucking for its life.
And it was. Literally.
My fingers managed to grab it by the back legs and held on tight. My ass would be black and blue if I came back with nothing tonight.
Tommy broke the neck of two hares that he held. The snap of the bones made me flinch and cling tighter to my own little hare. My teeth clamped together and a strange coldness crept over my neck.
I’d heard that noise too many times in my life.
Too many battles, too many deaths.
I looked away as Tommy grabbed my own soft hare and killed it for me.
The other Betas had at least one each too. Which was good. At least some people would eat tonight. Time would tell if I was one of them.
“We’re going to go out further and see if there’s anything bigger to hunt down. Caden, take these back.” Tommy grabbed all of the hares from the Betas and walked over to me, tossing me five dead bodies.
I struggled with the weight for a moment, pulling them all up into a warm, soft pile of still floppy bodies.
“Are you sure?” I asked him. That would ensure my favor when I returned to the camp. Did Tommy realize that?
He gave me a half smile that indicated that he knew he was helping me. Would he ask for anything in return? “Yeah. Go. Let Bear know we’ll be back in a few hours, hopefully with a bigger kill.”
I nodded, intensely grateful for the reprieve. How to repay such a thing? Bear didn’t like me bonding with other pack members. He was nasty possessive like that. But I could wake Tommy up one night and say thank you with a head job, or something if he asked me to. It wouldn’t be too bad with a gentle guy.
Tommy nodded once and headed off in the opposite direction of the compound, not asking for anything in return. Warmth filtered through my core as I was sh
own the first bit of kindness I’d experienced in too long.
I watched the Betas disappear into the brush and let the warmth of the sunshine flitter across my skin. I had to go back to the place I called home, but the reluctance to return to my pack was a tangible thing, pulling at me with cold, insistent hands.
I could run away and hope someone else took me in.
I shook my head and went back to the only thought that ever gave me hope.
Better the devil you know, and it can’t get much worse. Surely.
Eventually, the fear of being found outside the boundaries of the pack’s walls tickled up my spine and got my legs moving in the direction of the compound. Despite the threat of being found by another shifter and probably killed on sight, I wandered back to my home as slowly as I could manage, enjoying the freedom of the space around me, the air.
Bear wouldn’t know that I’d been dawdling, and the naughtiness of what I was getting away with tickled me. A smile lifted my lips for the first time in ages.
Finally, the silver barriers that kept our pack safe, supposedly, came into view. An uncomfortable tightness found my belly and gripped hard. I sighed heavily, a wave of sadness flowing over me. I was sick of living like this. Hand to mouth, no food, no control over my own life.
But what choice did I have?
I glanced down at the dead hares in my arms, their heavy weight making the muscles in my thin limbs ache. The saliva in my mouth began to accumulate again. Would they notice if I ate one myself? Would Tommy say something if I did?
Probably. It isn’t worth it.
As an Omega, I would be lucky to get any of the meat off these bodies, but I was alive, and should be grateful. Unlike so many of the Omegas before me. As the weakest and smallest, we were the first to die in the pack wars.
So many people had died. Children, women, even the Alphas had been torn apart. No one was safe in this world. Not even my parents, nor my grandmother. My nana had died in my arms when I’d been thirteen years old, and with her dying breath she’d made me promise to fight, to stay alive. No matter what I had to do.
And I swore it. I hated to think of what my nana would say if she knew what I’d done to stay alive, but I’d kept my promise. Through some luck, and a whole lot of sacrifice.
I stared up at the bright blue sky, the beauty of the day annoying my soul. The world taunted us now. It still flourished, while we were panicked and starving.
The world had been so much better when the humans ruled. There was order, and industry, and food.
Who was in charge now? No-one. And it sucked.
The doors opened for me with grinding, metallic sounds, and the guards stared at my arms as I clutched the hares to my chest. The men began to crowd me, all of them as hungry as I was.
Self-preservation made me rush towards Bear’s house. The grey roof was sliding off the foundation, and most of the windows were cracked, but it was still the best building by far. At least it had four walls to keep out most of the elements. I lived in a lean to against a wall. Nothing kept out the cold on those wintery nights except a hot body.
The door opened as I approached and his hungry gaze bore into me.
“Is that all you got?”
His expression transformed into an angry scowl and I tried hard not to cringe. What else did I have to do to please this man?
“Tommy told me to bring these back for you. The other Betas are travelling out a little further to catch something bigger. Where would you like me to put these, Alpha?”
He licked his lips, his nostrils flaring like a wild horse. “Take them to the women in section three. They’re cooking tonight. And after that, come back here. I’m in the mood for your arse.”
This time my cringe was impossible to hide, and I heard the growl that rolled from his throat. I bowed my head and turned towards section three, hoping my move hadn’t angered him too much. He’d punish me further if he thought I showed any sort of disrespect. Not that he needed an excuse to be abusive towards me.
I took the hares to the skinny women in section three, who looked at the animals with the same hunger I knew was mirrored in my own eyes. The oldest woman, who was a head chef in the days before the virus, nodded and ran a finger along one of the stiffening bodies. “Tell Bear we’ll have this ready in an hour.”
“I will.”
I dawdled on my way back, walking the longest route to the main house. So many dirty men and women slumped around the streets and sat upon the porches of the ruined houses.
No occupation. No drive. What had happened to our proud pack? Our powerful shifters that once upon a time thrived?
Bear stood in his doorway, his jeans already unbuttoned, his shirt open to reveal his disgustingly big belly. My stomach turned at his gluttony. Our community may have no food, but alcohol was still abundant. Some of the older Betas made the foul stuff from food scraps and old potatoes.
“Get in here,” he yelled.
My legs trembled but I forced myself up the stairs, calming the rising panic in my gut. I’d done this a hundred times before, and this would be no different.
He grabbed me by the back of the neck and pushed me inside.
“Where do you want me, Alpha?” I asked, hoping to minimize the damage by going along with whatever he wanted.
“On your knees.”
The first book in this series- ‘The Omega shift’ is currently headlining a LGBT boxset called – All you need is love, and the link can be found on my website.
https://www.tamsinbakererotic.com/boxsets-anthologies-compilations
