The smell of the Ravagers lingered in my nose. I walked back as if I hadn't a care in the world, ignorant to the attack that was incoming. A calm had washed over me, the thrill of the fight soaring through my veins before settling back. The farm-dog Dusty ran up to me as I approached, his backside shaking as he whined and prodded me for a pet.

"Hello good boy." I knelt in front of him for a moment, rubbing a hand over his head. He lapped at my hands and my arms. I wondered if there was a Ravager watching us right now? Would they wait until I noticed them?

"Nova?" Easton appeared in the doorway, concern crinkling his brow.

I kissed the dog on the head, before weaving my fingers around his collar. He didn't fight me as I began to tug him inside. "There are Ravagers in the hills. More beasts like Adken."

His eyes flashed a bright gold. "Are you sure?"

"I am. I caught their scent."

Easton tried not to react. That burning gaze of whiskey brown, darkening by the second, tracked the horizon. "Your family have a cellar. Get them into it."

The corners of my mouth twitched. "You don't want me to hide in it too?"

Easton glanced at me over his shoulder. "First, I know you never would. Second, I cannot hold off a group of Ravagers by myself for very long. I will need all the help that I can get."

I smiled. "You trust me to watch your back?"

"Without a doubt." He said it solemnly, before sliding out his phone. I watched the tension roll across his shoulders, his voice becoming gruff and commanding. It was Blav on the other side, his voice warped by static and growing agitation. I let go of Dusty and he trotted into the kitchen merrily, tail wagging.

"Dusty!" Marianne Linden cried. "You're going to get your dusty paws all over our floors! Get out!"

I followed the dog inside. "He stays."

Mam blinked at me. "Excuse me?"

"You need to get into the cellar." I began to pull knives from the block and setting them down on the counter. Knives wouldn't do anything to a Ravi creation – at least, not when wielded by humans, but I wanted to give them some semblance of comfort.

"Why?" Nyssa slid off the stool, her question like a whip.

"Because bad people are coming to kill you. Or worse." I began to pull out food. Just in case. The three of them watched my quick, calm movements with growing confusion.

"What's worse than death?" Nyssa scoffed.

"You could turn into a monster like me?" I side-eyed her. "You could end up doing terrible things to survive and end up with your family believing the worst things about you are true."

"I would never kill someone." Nyssa shook her head.

"I never said anything about killing people."

"So," Nyssa scoffed. "You're trying to lie now and say you haven't killed people? I read your report."

"You read a report. A report crafted by doctors who didn't understand what they created." I stepped closer to her, listening to the thump of her heart as she tried to follow her fear. Her breathing shallowed as I loomed over her. I pressed a glittering claw, broken from a mangled, morphed hand. "I've done monstrous things. I have gutted people, right here. I've torn off their heads, their limbs. I would do it all again to those who threatened me or mine, or who dared to lock me away."

Nyssa's lips pressed tight.

"And I am about to do it. So get into the basement before you see just how monstrous I can be."

"Get your claws away from her." Mam's voice quivered as she levelled a knife at me.

I sighed, ignoring the hurt that flashed through me. A fight was coming. One that flooded my mouth with saliva. I grabbed the knife and the metal bent and snapped in my hand. "Think of the knives as decorative. More for your comfort, than being an actual threat."

Mam stared at me. Kale was stricken. My voice softened as I looked to him. "Get in the basement. Get Mam and Nyssa in there too."

To them, my voice firmer. "I will be back in a minute. If you're not in that basement, I'll throw you in myself."

Easton was done on the phone when I went back out to him. He reacted only when I touched his arm. "Is someone coming?"

"All available units that are close are coming. I've diverted soldiers to Lunar and to lock down the facility. You are their main target, but I cannot risk them breaking into Lunar again with our men distracted by this farm. Are your family in the basement?"

I titled my head. Rushed footsteps. Panicked breathing. The creak of an opening door. A cold gust of new wind. "They should be in it soon."

"Whose coming?" On the horizon, a dark shape rose.

The smell of the Ravagers burned in the back of my throat. Easton loosed a low, terrifying growl and stepped outside. "Four to the East. Three more to the West. Another ahead."

Then, the barn erupted into flames. The donkeys in the field bayed and ran. A beast, with sheared dark fur rose up from the top of the barn's roof, a massive claw splayed. Then, from somewhere in the house, the glass shattered and Nyssa screamed.

"Go." Easton jerked his chin to the house. "I'll deal with these."

I hurtled back into the house, following Nyssa's begging. I tore into the room to find a Ravager, seven and a half feet tall, standing amongst the shattered glass of the windows. The mouth of the basement was still open and Nyssa had scrambled away from it, sprawling onto her ass as she stared up at the Ravager. Her fear soured the air.

"Stay away from her." Kale came, brandishing a hurl.

The Ravager's mouth split into a wide, toothy smile.

"Little human."

Kale's face was a mask of defiance and fierce pride surged up inside of me. I cleared my throat and the Ravagers heavy head swung towards me. The Ravager examined me for a long moment and Kale inched towards Nyssa, a hand reaching out to help her up.

"You look different than I imagined, Omega." The Ravager spoke with a voice of mangled voice chords. I had retained my voice in their experimentations but there had been others who had been warped to carry the deep growls of the Lycans, only to have their chords shredded.

"Different."

The Ravager sighed. "Alive. Happy. A pity that we would change that now."

The Ravager surged towards me and I ducked out of the way, bones cracking and reforming until bristly fur covered my sensitive skin. The Ravager's blow cut shards of wood from the door-frame, a wide width-span of claws scraping down the wall after it. The Ravager turned, swift on his heel.

I clipped him on the side of the head.

Another Ravager appeared in the window. I focused on the one before me, feel the claws raking down, feeling his flesh give away under my claws. The Omega stirred, delighted by the spill of blood. I licked my lips, unable to stop my saliva from flooding my mouth.

Nyssa screamed again. Kale cracked the hurl across the head of the new intruder as that Ravager lowered himself down to examine them. The Ravager reeled back, blinking rapidly.

My jaws seized the throat of the Ravager in front of me, teeth slicing through his flesh. Warm blood, but tainted, flooded my tongue and the Ravager scrapped at my fur, my skin, whining as he died. The other Ravager looked to me as the body thumped to the ground

This Ravager was wiry, long limbed, but not as broad as the first.

The Ravager stared at me and I slowed, blood dripping from the fur that curled just at my chin. They lunged, ducking wide with spreading claws for the twins. So predictable. The Ravager yelped as I hooked them from the air, tossing them across the room. They crashed into an unused shelf, shattering it beneath their weight. I was on them in a second, driving my hand up under their ribcage. I closed my hand around their thundering heart.

The Ravager met my gaze.

"Not me or mine. Never me or mine." I squeezed.

I withdrew my hand and changed, my hands warm with blood. Kale was breathing harshly, his hurl splintered. He helped Nyssa stand.

"Get into the cellar." I snarled at the both of them. "Now."

"I- I..." Kale held the shattered hurl. "It came through the window."

I grabbed him by the upper arm, making sure not to bruise him. "I gave you knives and you picked up a hurl."

"It has more reach."

My lips tightened. "Stay in the cellar where it's safe and I'll come to get you."

"And if you don't?" Nyssa was shaking as she clambered to her feet. "What if something happens to you?"

"There is an escape route in the cellar." Kale let Nyssa slip down in front of him. In the darkness, Mam's petrified face peered up at us.

"Is that your blood, Nova?"

"Some." I released Kale so he could descend into the darkness. I waited until he was safely at the bottom before I grabbed the door and swung it shut. I hauled a flipped over the upturned carpet and hefted a table over it before striding from the room. In the front yard, blood soaked into the earth.

The Alpha turned as I left the house, shifted into a hulking mass of muscle and claw. His heavy body heaved as he took a deep breath, his clawed hands prying open the jaws of a Ravager. The jaws cracked and split and he tossed the body away from him.

His ears perked as I approached him. In my human form, he was far larger but no sense of danger leaked into my gut. He lowered his massive head, his wet snout nudging against the crown of my head. I looked past him. Three dead Ravagers lined the yard. A vicious mark raked across Easton's side, blood leaking into his fur but he didn't move as if it bothered him.

"Three down." I clucked my tongue. "I only killed two."

He snorted roughly, but our attention shot back to the barnyard as four more hulking figures stalked around the side. My sigh was caught up in the rapid change as I shifted into the Omega once more. She stood, I stood, tall beside the Alpha. It hadn't been too long ago when we had clashed as enemies and he had been determined to tear me apart to figure out where Nova had gone.

Letting him know what I was, was the best decision that I could have made. Especially now when I knew that he guarded my back. And that he was strong enough to do so. We met the Ravagers with equal savagery, catching them as they thundered across the yard. I couldn't remember fighting with someone guarding my back, except for the snippets of moments where Adken had been there. Easton, clearly, had spent many fights with people minding his back. I flinched unwillingly when he moved behind me, thinking for a moment there was a Ravager there to shred into my spine and break the bones.

Easton broke a Ravager off the walls of the barn, his delivery of death swift and brutal. He didn't linger to watch the blood ebb out of the wounds, to watch the light in their eyes flicker and die.

In the distance, I could hear the crunch of stone under spinning tires. As I crushed a breastbone underneath the heel of my clawed hand, I glanced to the road. I waited, waited to see the white of a van roaring towards us. A jeep. A Lycan's jeep. The jeep kept racing towards us as the door opened and Adken leapt out. He took one look at us, his attention flickering to the house.

Atop the roof, I saw a pair of Ravagers.

Lordie. Did Doc-Mai just shove a whole load of unfortunate patients into a vat of smelly, viscous liquid made from the shedding of my own torture and hope for the best? Adken's body contorted, his eyes finding mine. He dipped his chin to me, before leaping clear into the air and landing on the roof of the farmhouse. Roof shingles broke under his weight. The three Ravagers on the roof were silent. The jeep rolled to a stop and Blav leapt out. Seemingly out of nowhere, a Ravager with fur as black as the starless sky, collided with the vehicle. The metal crumpled under it like it was plastic.

Blav jerked a long, electric prongs into the Ravager's side.

I pinned another Ravager, who went deathly still. Clawed hands held my wrist, but they did not fight. Eyes, bright and slitted, stared up at me. Her bones cracked and she began to shrink under me. Fur receded to olive, scarred skin. Inky black hair, cropped short, was soaked by the blood-stained earth.

A woman. A girl. Younger than me. Older than Nyssa.

Her hands, tiny now in comparison, clutched at me. "Please don't kill me, Omega."

I hesitated.

Tears leaked from her eyes. "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore."

Her scent was soured by fear and remorse. Her clothes were the startlingly white of the Ravi's patients. She couldn't hold my gaze, settling instead for the long line of my snout. Conflict thundered inside my chest. She was a threat, that much was obvious, but I didn't want to hurt her.

I released her and the girl scrambled up, her chest heaving. She was tiny – a fragile looking thing that was dwarfed by the Omega. Lordie, it would be easier to kill her.

But, Easton had killed the remaining other Ravager. He turned to me, waiting. Waiting for my decision. Would I be a monster if I killed her? I had left Adken alive? I had freed him?

"Are you loyal to the Ravi?"

Her anger, mighty and sharp, flashed. "I would burn them to the ground if I could."

"You could."

The farm was silent. Adken and the two Ravagers from the roof had not begun to fight. Instead, Adken led them down off the roof and they began to reform into their human selves. Two strange men stared and waited, their fear obvious.

"How?" The girl choked.

I didn't want to pity them. I didn't want to pity any of them, but Doc-Mai had sent them into a fight she knew they might not win. Were they sending Ravagers out, trying to figure out which ones could defeat me? Were they all made of different parts?

I changed and the girl stared at me as I shrunk. She couldn't meet my eye, her cheeks burning a vivid red. I asked, "What is your name, girl?"

"Five, one six."

My heart clenched. "Your real name."

Her lips pinched and I recognised her unwillingness. Had I not kept my own a harsh secret? With more softness that I believed capable, I said, "My name is Nova."

"Like the stars?" She breathed.

"Like the stars."

The girl swallowed. She glanced at the two silent Ravagers beyond. There was another knocked out by the crumpled jeep. Somewhere else, I could hear the rattle of a broken chest. Five Ravagers.

"My name is Ophelia. I'm Ophelia." She croaked, like the secret had been hooked out of an old, broken chest. And when she had said her name, it fell from her lips again. Again – with a broken sob and a wash of tears. "Ophelia."

Her pain mirrored my own, but I had to face nothing but the sky and the trees when I had broken out my own from years of fear. Easton stepped in where I could not, ducking his head to catch the girl's eye. "Hello Ophelia. My name is Easton Young."

Shock widened her eyes. "You're the Alpha Supreme."

Confident that she would be cared for far better by him, I turned to the two Ravagers overlooked by Adken. Two young men, who stood straight backed and betrayed by the fear weaving through their scents. The first was a tall, slender man with proud cheekbones and a sheared head. His skin was a rich golden brown, like the light that broke through the canopies of dense forests to illuminate it. He forced himself to look me in the eye. "Omega."

"What's your name?"

"Grant."

"Who sent you here, Grant?"

"Doctor Maire."

"Bitch."

Grant's mouth quirked. "I agree."

"You tried to kill my family."

"Doctor Maire wants us to strike the Omega's weaknesses. Saying no isn't an option."

"She was always one for low-handed blows."

Grant rubbed his wrists absently. When I glanced down, I saw that the dark skin there had been shredded and healed. Lightening that had never healed properly. I looked to the second Ravager. "And who are you?"

He took a breath. "Mikey."

"Your getting red in the face."

Mikey's eyes widened. "I just - I just – you're pretty, you know."

Shocked at that, I let Blav's sudden burst of laughter slide. He would pay for that later. Adken moved to my shoulder. "What's your call, Omega?"

The three conscious Ravagers just stared. Easton strode across the farmyard, with Ophelia a step behind him. She had stopped her shaking, now that it was apparent we weren't going to kill her right now.

"We bring them to the facility?" I looked to Easton for confirmation. "No one hates the Ravi more than their own creations."

Easton nodded his assent. Blav complained about lifting the unconscious Ravager beside him. The hills behind him were darkening now as the light fell away. The scent of blood cloyed my nose. In the distance, there was a small flash of silver. Easton began to slow, catching sight of my expression.

He began to turn.

A boom shattered the air. I leapt towards Easton, a scream strangling my throat but I was too slow. Blood splattered outwards, hot against my face and he collided into me roughly.

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