by Eileen Glass
Table of Contents
From the Previous Book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Author Bio
Fox Furry Preview
© Eileen Glass
Contents
From the Previous Book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Author Bio
Fox Furry Preview
© Eileen Glass
From the Previous Book
The alpha shifts his eyes to Stephanie. “You will be impressed with me leaving of my own determination. You will recommend the board let us move in together immediately.”
“He’s not ready, he hasn’t even—”
“You will recommend it. He and I are ‘soulmates’. Wouldn’t you agree, Rourke?”
Rourke nods immediately.
“You barely know each other’s names!”
Zachri stands from the picnic table. “You will recommend it. Rourke—if you want this, make sure she follows through.”
As he leaves, Stephanie gapes after him.
“You’ve barely known each other for two minutes.”
“But he’s right, Stephanie. I feel a connection with him.”
Not as soulmates though. It was funny how Zachri said it, like he was parroting a sound and not a word. Alpha culture doesn’t seem to support the idea of soulmates, and that’s fine by Rourke.
What he has with Zachri is better called ‘a purpose’ than a feeling. Rourke is fine with that.
“That guy definitely wants to get with you.”
Rourke watches him walk away.
“Christ. You want it too, don’t you?” She sighs and shakes her head. “You and blue guys, huh?”
“Yes, please,” he says to make her smile. I don’t have a lot of time.
There’s subways to everywhere on the moon and no cars anywhere. Stephanie explained that the moon isn’t very big. You can literally go from Earthside to Starside in a couple hours on the right express train. The subways up here are sleek and untouched, unvandalized white. The ones on Earth have been converted to efficient energy, but the trains themselves haven’t been upgraded.
On the platform, there’s only alphas, all eyes on Rourke. Stephanie nudges him with her elbow.
“Don’t mind them. They’re just curious about a new face.”
But a man with cherry red hair and blue eyes lifts his nose in Rourke’s direction, his nostrils flaring wide. Rourke brought a hoodie to the meeting with Zachri, as a bit of security blanket to hide himself in. Now’s he’s glad to have it as he puts the hood up and hides inside, but not before catching the implicit grin of the individual.
“They’re a bit love starved,” Stephanie says like it isn’t anything to worry about. As she maneuvers around to his other side, stepping between him the guy like a barrier. She also picks up their pace, leaving cherry-red guy behind.
The terminal looks like the self-checkout at his grocery store.
“Got your ID?”
Stephanie guides him through it, though it’s all pretty self-explanatory. The screen gives him a map of the city, which he can zoom out to show the entire moon if he needs to. In addition to information about shops and destinations he might visit, there’s live camera surveillance of the store fronts. A bit blurry, but intrusive all the same.
“I can see anywhere!” Rourke says, tapping around for the hell of it. Selecting the park brings up a couple kissing on the bench out front. He pinches the screen to make it zoom out as quick as possible. The camera controls are limited, but anyone can see anywhere along a public street, pretty much. So anyone can see him too. There’s a red button in the corner that reads Report a Crime.
“How is this legal?”
“Uh, we’re on the Moon, dear,” Stephanie says, tapping to a new section of the city. “Alpha law rules here. And more specifically…” She lowers her voice. “This is like future Earth in beta. They test stuff here. They make new laws and repeal them. They try new public services, taxes, and ways of earning wages here. Life is… tumultuous here on the Moon.”
“Why would anyone choose to live here?” Rourke asks just as quietly.
“Besides yourself?” she says with a smirk. “Well, the wages here are really, really good. Also, not all of us hate the alphas. Things have been getting good, Rourke, despite the lack of freedom, which we’re negotiating, you know?”
“But the alphas shouldn’t be allowed to just—”
“Shhh!” She grabs his arm. Every crayon-bright head on the platform stares in their direction. A guy on a bench lowers the book he was reading.
Rourke forgot to be quiet.
Their expressions are eerily passive, yet they watch so intensely. Stephanie taps Omega Society Headquarters on the screen. The picture that comes up of a dark tower seems familiar seems familiar. She jabs the big green Go with her thumb and simultaneously, pulls a wallet from her inside pocket. It has her picture in a plastic slot and a golden emblem inside, like a police badge. She holds it open and visible for several seconds.
Most of the people go back to what they were doing. But there’s disgruntled murmur, and bench guy doesn’t go back to his book.
“Sorry,” she says with a sweet smile and a tone louder than necessary. “That’s the Earther in me. It’s weird going back and forth.”
Her expression falls as she sees one man tapping on his phone.
“Great, he’s going to cost me points,” she says under her breath.
“Why would you be in trouble?” Rourke wouldn’t mind going to that man and telling him where to shove it. Though, the notion is crazy. He’s an alpha, he can do whatever the hell he wants.
He touches his head. Where did this come from? Why do I feel this way?
He knows damn well that’s stupid. You don’t fuck with alphas. Ever. Unless you’re a fanatic protester with a wish for martyrdom, which his home city has plenty of.
Stephanie doesn’t answer him, tapping the screen to get his attention there.
It says, Two minutes. Do you need an escort?
“Now, the wait is usually like five to ten minutes,” she says in her ‘business mode'. “If it’s ever more than twelve minutes, an escort will be mandatory, and he’ll show up on the platform with you here. You’ll know who he is because he’ll be dressed like the armored guards you saw the other day.”
“Why would I need an escort?”
“The Moon is an Earth simulation, like I said. In the future, there’ll be platforms like this with lots of regular people—betas, we’re called. And understandably, there would be safety concerns for you on Earth. It’s not impossible that there could be a problem here either.”
“But it only says yes,” Rourke points out. “So I have to bring a guard with me wherever I go?”
“No. You just don’t push anything at this point. The yes stays there in case you need
it any time during your wait. By the way, if you ever do have any trouble, a lot of these guys will notice you pushing yes and swoop in to your rescue. Heh, I don’t recommend pushing it now…”
She smiles with good humor, but Rourke sees the truth in the tight corners of her eyes.
Maybe I’ve made a mistake.
The alphas are crazy, oppressive, and controlling. He might be allowed to travel by himself, but he noticed a lot of red areas on the city map he wasn’t allowed to click on. He gave up his freedom, his humanity, and even, well, his male ego for this.
But always, it’s for his mom. She’ll get better treatment soon. She can live the rest of her life. His thumb touches the pocket holding his phone as he thinks of her.
“You’re gonna get used to it, Rourke,” Stephanie says, as a faint whirr picks up down the track. These new trains are silent except for the rush of air. “This is a whole new society. And the alphas have ways of doing things that are going to seem oppressive or mean to you. But we—the betas—are working on it.” She adjusts her glasses, straightening her back. “Someday the alphas are returning to Earth. We never exiled them, Rourke, we just made them realize that they needed a different plan. They’re here to stay, so we’ve got to get along with them.”
“Some would disagree,” he says quietly. Most of the platform has gone back to their business, thankfully. Rourke hates all of them and wishes he could scream some sense into them. He could go on a tirade.
This isn’t me.
His fever is back.
“You’re not human anymore, Rourke,” Stephanie says as their train arrives. It’s a single car with two rows of plush leather seats inside. It’s smaller than the train he saw before and clearly meant for just him and maybe a little company. Private.
The luxury is enough to take his mind off his irritation for the moment as he settles in. There’s a large screen at the front with the same map he was looking at on the terminal, the shuttle’s path lit up.
“You’re part of this society exclusively now,” Stephanie says, buckling up. “It’ll take a while to make the transition mentally, but I’m a beta and you’re an omega, from now and forever. I have more freedom than you, but you’re higher up on the social scale. And you don’t ever have to work if you don’t want to. But you belong here from now on, do you understand that?”
Rourke smooths a hand down the pocket with his phone.
“Yeah.” I have no right to be angry. I’m one of their breeders now. “I get it.”
Now Rourke knows what seemed familiar when Stephanie brought up the image of Omega Society Headquarters. It was obvious, but he was distracted with their conversation. He’s seen buildings like this before in his history books, though the way they were pictured he thought they’d be much taller.
The building twists as it comes out of the ground, forming a square helix that turns once, the edges of the dark steel seeming to slide continuously. But subtly, a trick of the eye. Not focusing well enough gives the impression that the entire huge structure is turning in place all the time.
“It’s a harem tower,” Rourke says, his feet rooted in place. He knows what he signed up for, but being put in there, having the despised practice come right out of the page from one his old textbooks about slavery and rape…
“I’m not going in there.” He glares at Stephanie, hating her for the first time. “You misled me.”
“Uh, yes… sometimes people have a bad reaction to seeing this place. That’s why we photoshop the tower out of the pics on our company website. And presently there’s a long-term but temporary ban on taking pictures of the tower to share on Earth internet. Oof, we really have a lot to cover…” Stephanie takes his arm, as always, but this time Rourke isn’t budging.
“That’s a harem tower,” he growls, pulling away.
“No! No, Rourke, look at everyone.”
She directs him to lower his eyes to the plaza before them. The tower stole his attention first thing, but plaza is mildly bustling with people. Alphas, omegas, and children are amongst them. They walk in and out of several normal buildings.
“Nobody is kept prisoner here.” She tugs on him. “I promise. Come on, I’ll show you around.”
And so his tour begins.
“The omega tower is really just condominium,” she says. “Trust me, we betas fought really hard to not have it go up. First, because we wanted omegas living in separate homes, like we do on Earth. And second, because, you know, reminders of the past and all that.”
A man with a very swollen belly comes out of one building, quite close to them. Rourke tries not to stare, but it’s impossible not to, from the corner of his eyes at least.
He seems fine. Not really ecstatic or anything, but normal and healthy looking. The pregnant man calls to the doors behind him with a hint of irritation in his tone. A little boy comes bouncing out, his hair bright amber.
They hold hands and continue towards Rourke. The man pauses as their eyes meet and Rourke realizes he was staring openly.
“Hey,” the man calls and makes a little wave. But he seems cautious about approaching.
Stephanie steers right toward him. “Hi, Thomas! How are you?”
“Busy,” he huffs. “This is another new guy, right? Or a beta?”
“He’s omega and coming to live with you,” she answers.
“Yay!” exclaims the boy and he rushes at Rourke’s knees.
Rourke takes a step back and raises his arm as if to defend himself. His gut reaction says, There’s an alpha charging at me. But the little one locks arms around his knees and grins up at him.
“Uhhh…”
Rourke never considered that he’d raise a child beyond the baby phase. The family part of his plan drifts off into alphas doing whatever they do with their offspring. He did imagine his mother cooing over the baby, but that was more about forgiving Rourke than creating a long-lasting family.
“Heh, Elias is going through a hugging phase,” the man says, leaning over to pull away his son. He has to spread his feet wide and stoop. It looks so weird. And his engorged belly is, well… Rourke doesn’t want to admit, not even secretly.
But gross. That’s what it is.
“I’m Thomas.” He holds out his hand. It takes a second, but Rourke remembers his manners.
“Rourke.”
Their handshake is perfectly warm and normal at least.
“It’s alright to be freaked out at first,” Thomas says, patting his inflated stomach. “You get used to it. What apartment are you staying in?”
Stephanie gives him the number.
“That’s high up! It must be classy. Congratulations. Your alpha must be someone important.”
“All the apartments are the same,” Stephanie says.
“The view is nicer though,” Thomas counters. Then he gestures to the building behind him. “Well, we take art classes in there. Sign up for pottery or painting and we’ll get to see each other.”
Yeah, Rourke doesn’t think so. He has the artistic ability of a low-functioning squid.
But he says, “Okay.”
“Actually…” Stephanie taps her bottom lip. “Maybe you could visit? We could go to dinner or something, to help Rourke adjust!” She brings her hands together. “You see, Rourke’s had kind of a bad first impression.”
“Oh. One of those, huh?” Thomas’ bright expression clouds, but not too much. Like Stephanie, his eyes are always ready to smile. Rourke notices for the first time their unusual color. Brown, but with a thin pretty glow, like a jagged rock splitting to show molten lava.
His son’s are the same color, but solidly luminous like any alpha’s.
“Well, don’t lose sleep over it. Nothing bad happens here. The mated alphas will jump his ass if he tries anything. They’re proud of keeping a very good reputation.” He brings out his phone. “Let’s be contacts, okay? And you can text if you have questions about anything.”
“How about that dinner?” Stephanie presses, hopeful.
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Rourke wishes she’d drop it. Texting the guy is alright, but being with him in person, with his condition, is uncomfortable. He also takes out his phone and clicks through the options to sync with nearby seeking phones. Thomas’s profile pic is of him and a baby with amber hair.
Another one? Or his son a few years ago?
How often does he go through this?
Thomas has a hand rested on his stomach, patting slightly.
“How about I text and see if you’re hungry instead? I didn’t eat anything for two days when I first got here.”
“That sounds good,” Rourke says. It feels impolite to let Stephanie keep speaking and making this ‘friend’ for him. Especially since Thomas addresses Rourke directly despite her butting in.
“I’m coming too!” says the boy beneath them, sternly glancing between the adults like he’s aware he’s been forgotten.
“Yes, you can come too.” But silently, above the cover of his massive belly, Thomas mouths, Don’t worry, and winks.
After a few parting pleasantries, they continue towards different destinations, Thomas calling back, “Sign up for the art club! It’s fun!”
“See?!” Stephanie says when their acquaintance is barely out of hearing distance. “This is a friendly place. Omega men are all kind of a family, you know? And alpha men too. Earth doesn’t have the same ‘belonging’ that you’re going to find here.”
“So we all live in the same building, huh?” Rourke asks as they take the elevator. “But we’re able to travel and move around and stuff. That’s not so bad.”
“We fought hard for a more typical arrangement when they were building this place,” Stephanie says, punching in their floor number. “We insisted that a compound would give bad vibes. But the alphas wouldn’t budge. They want all their families in one place, like a hive, and they have good reason. Better access to health services. The children grow up together and the omegas support each other. You’ll spend most of your time here unless there’s somewhere specific you want to be.”
The elevator doors open up to a room. Which is weird because Rourke didn’t sense movement at all. He thought they hadn’t started yet. But the window across the room shows a view high above where they were.