I looked up to see if anyone had noticed and swore under my breath when I realized that Damiyen had seen. I tore my eyes from his with a quiet huff and focused on reloading the cartridge once more.
No one said anything, but I was positive all four of them had noticed.
The hours passed and I could feel the other omegas getting restless. They usually looked to me for approval and I was off by myself, nursing my headache and wounded pride. None of them said as much, but I could feel it. In small groups, they began to wander off on their own, fiddling with the guns and trying to shoot at the targets.
After a few more hours, I heard Ethan call it a day. The omegas filed out of the cave, back to the underground, leaving me and the men behind.
I heard them shuffle toward me.
“You don’t have to stay. I’m going to practice a while longer,” I said, not expecting them to reply with anything but an agreement. That’s not what I got.
“Nikki, we need to talk,” Damiyen began.
“No, we don’t,” I replied. My head still hurt, and I wasn’t in the mood to banter with any of them. I wasn’t used to answering to anyone else and I hated that I was being forced to now.
“This will never work if we don’t put up a unified front. The omegas need to see that you support us and that’ll never happen if you don’t take part with them,” Ethan offered, his voice calm and soothing.
“Perhaps you should have asked for my assistance, rather than just take my place. You forget how much they’ve learned from me in the past,” I retorted and Damiyen tensed in response.
“But you’re not a trained soldier, Nikki. We are,” Ethan tried once more.
“Even Damiyen has had military training in the past. Alaric and I have fought in many battles in the wilds too,” Viktor added.
“I never run from a fight. I’ve been in a great number of them,” Alaric said.
I turned my head, trying to quell the annoyance rising in my blood.
“I’m an omega and I fight like one. So do they. They don’t fight like you. They don’t have the sheer body mass that you do. I appreciate what you four have done to help us thus far, but as far as training goes, it should be me teaching them how to use a gun, not you,” I retorted.
“No. That’s not how this is going to work,” Damiyen replied, his voice calm but his hazel eyes looked stormy as ever. It was clear that he wasn’t used to being questioned either.
“There needs to be a hierarchy in place. Without it, an army can’t survive,” Ethan said softly.
“They’re my soldiers,” I replied heatedly.
“Our soldiers,” Damiyen corrected and my frustration bubbled over.
The tension between us had left me unsteady for a while. Ever since I’d met them, I felt threatened by their presence, especially Damiyen. I’d worked so hard to get the Omegaborn to where they were today, led them through terrible times and brought them back together again after our failure to escape the city with the help of the anti-suppressant.
The four of them had arrived here in the sanctuary and had just expected me to roll over and give them everything, including my role as a leader.
I reacted impulsively, grabbing the tranquilizer gun from my belt and aiming it in Damiyen’s direction. The four men moved toward me, but I was too fast for that. I squeezed the trigger and the tiny red feathered dart surged forward, sticking itself into Damiyen’s throat before any of them could stop me. The furious look in his gaze caught mine before his eyes rolled back in his head and he toppled to the ground.
The three alphas stood by my side in disbelief. Viktor boldly reached forward and snatched the dart gun from my fingers.
“Damiyen isn’t going to take kindly to this,” Viktor said after a minute had passed.
“Leave him here to sleep it off,” I replied. The tranquilizer dart was strong enough to keep him sound asleep for several hours, well into the early hours of morning. I turned around and left the cavern then, leaving the men to figure out what to do next by themselves. I went back to my apartment in the sanctuary, where I knew none of them could touch me.