Captive Omega

by Riley Carver

I turn to my brother in arms. “We can take ten soldiers,” I say.

  “Fuck yeah, we can.”

  I grin at Amiran and we position ourselves so that we’re facing the door but we have some cover. All we can do is wait.

  “I love you, Kira,” I say to her, and it’s true. I do love her. And I will fight for her.

  Soon, the rebels stream in. Amiran and I pick off the first couple easily, but then it gets messier. Much messier. We take turns ducking and shooting, but the soldiers get closer and we have to fall back farther into the room. If we can’t kill them—and quick—they’ll have us pinned in a matter of minutes.

  Kira

  I don’t know why I can’t tell Drax I love him too when he tells me he loves me. Maybe it’s because I’m alone in the dark, paralyzed by fear. Maybe it’s because I want so badly to tell him in person. Maybe it’s because I feel superstitious all of a sudden, like if I tell him now, that’ll be it; he’ll get killed, and I’ll never be in his arms again.

  I can hear Peggy pacing around the room. There’s nothing to do but wait. I have no idea how far my scent carries, but it’s unlikely they’ll start their search for me in a corridor full of Beta rooms, right?

  I close my eyes. I need to think of something that has nothing to do with aliens or Omegas or interplanetary warfare. I need to remember what it was like to be the me of a few weeks ago. I was worried about the invasion, but it wasn’t all-consuming. I still focused on looking for a job and ignoring my parents’ snide remarks about my waitressing gig, and I went to fittings to make sure that my hideous bridesmaid’s dress wasn’t too tight for my sister’s wedding.

  I wonder if Sarah is married by now. If your sister gets snatched by invading aliens, do you go ahead with your big ceremony? Do you pretend everything is normal, or does everything fall apart? I hope she went ahead with it. I’ve been trying my best to pretend everything is fine, and to be honest, it’s worked out pretty well for me.

  There’s no better mate than Drax, as far as I’m concerned. Ugh, now I’m thinking about Drax again. I don’t seem capable of putting him out of my mind.

  I hear a commotion underneath me. It sounds like there’s more than one Fysian in Peggy’s room. I curl up into a tiny ball. It’s been a wild ride, and there’s nothing I can do but accept it. This is how I die.

  The room goes silent, and a stillness comes over me. I can handle this. It’ll all be over soon. The ceiling tile over the dresser slides away, and two big hands grope their way to my ankles and pull firmly. I let myself be dragged. Soon, I’m falling through the opening.

  I tumble and tumble and land into strong, outstretched arms. Drax. His scent surrounds me, and I start to choke on my relieved sobs. He cradles me and I nuzzle against his firm chest. He’s warm and real and alive.

  Looking up at his face, I see worry etched on it. He holds a finger to his lips, and I try my best to be silent. He gently sets me down, and I gesture for him to come close.

  “I love you too,” I whisper into his ear.

  Drax

  Through sheer force of will, Amiran and I managed to kill those fuckers in the control room. Well, we killed all but the two who ran away. Amiran got shot in the shoulder, and as he recoiled in pain, he leapt forward and put everything on the line to take out four men at once.

  That son of an Aveki is lucky to be alive and standing behind me. I’ll forever be grateful to him for helping me make it this far, to make it to her.

  Grabbing Kira’s wrist, I start to edge out of the room. The bay with the escape pods is only two hallways over. Making it is all down to chance.

  Before I make a run for it, I turn back over my shoulder and jerk my head toward the door. Peggy and Amiran shake their heads slowly.

  “Go,” Amiran mouths.

  I jerk my head more insistently now. There’s no reason they shouldn’t join us. There’s plenty of room in the pod. I stop dead in my tracks, which makes Amiran come close.

  He shoves me toward the door. “I’m staying here. The Beta and I don’t want the ship to fall into enemy hands. We’ll be a distraction so that you two can escape. Go,” he whispers.

  I see that Peggy looks to be having a similar conversation with Kira, and Kira is taking this news about as well as I am. Fucking Amiran is insisting on going down with the ship.

  Kira comes first. I don’t have time to talk this out, and I know that I have just about as much a chance of convincing Amiran to come along as I do of convincing the Avekis to leave Fysi alone.

  Peggy and Kira embrace, and I shake hands with Amiran. Neither one of us can handle another sappy goodbye. At the door, Amiran and Peggy split up, fanning out to make sure the route to the escape pod is clear.

  Kira and I sprint to the bay, holding hands. I shove her inside and leap in as shooting erupts behind us. “Don’t look,” I instruct her. But Kira surprises me. She grabs my spare laser gun from its holster, switches it from tase mode and peeks out of the hatch.

  Squinting one eye shut, she picks off the soldier who’s aiming at Peggy.

  “There,” she says. “Now we can go.”

  I lock the hatch, punch in the coordinates, and strap Kira in. She’s going to be trouble, I think. I can’t wait.

  Epilogue

  Kira

  I stand nervously at the altar. I’ve never gotten used to having so many eyes on me. And you’d think I’d be used to it by now, after all the stares I’m getting today. It’s so surreal to be in my parents’ backyard that I can’t stop pinching myself. The arbor behind me is covered in the most beautiful flowers. It’s a perfect day, and I’m grateful to share it with all the people I love.

  The minister finishes the ceremony. At the words, “You may now kiss the bride,” my brother-in-law leans forward and dips my sister back. We whoop and cheer. I can’t believe they waited for me to get home.

  My bridesmaid’s dress is stretched tight over my growing belly. I’m wearing a cardigan to cover up the fact that the zipper doesn’t close all the way. This isn’t how I imagined this day would go, but I can’t say that I’d change anything.

  “Can you leave now?” Drax says in my head from inside the ship where he’s hiding. I dry my eyes with the sleeve of my sweater and tell him I’m coming.

  He has to stay out of sight and has been in hiding the whole time we’ve been back. Drax did me the kindness of letting me tell my parents in person that I’m okay. He camouflaged the escape pod and landed quietly so we didn’t cause an international incident.

  I haven’t been out of the house, but my sister told me there are flyers all around the city asking for information about my whereabouts. There are flyers for other girls too, all around the world. Since the invasion, no one else has gone missing. There have been no more explosions. Still, life on Earth will never be the same. And I don’t belong among my fellow Earthborns anymore.

  I press a sealed envelope into my mom’s hands. I kiss her cheek and give my dad a hug. They never asked me any questions about what’s happened since I’ve been gone; they don’t want to know. I don’t know if they can handle the details, so my letter only talks about how I have to go and how much I’ll miss them. I feel better now that I’ve had a chance to convince them I’m all right.

  I sneak back to near where we landed in the field behind my parents’ neighborhood. I tell Drax to turn the camouflage off for a second so that I can find the door and then I slip in almost as fast as I did when we were fleeing from the rebels.

  “How was it?” he asks in my head—we don’t speak out loud much anymore. I don’t answer. Instead, I launch myself into his arms, almost knocking him back. He lifts my dress with one hand and pulls my panties down with the other. We mate for hours, until I’m too thirsty and hungry to keep going.

  Our food supply is dwindling, and I turn to Drax, wondering about his plan. He lies me down and tucks me in my nest of blankets. Lately, I’ve felt compelled to gather every scrap of soft fabric and assemble them into a cozy fortress. Drax says this i
s perfectly normal for an Omega who is expecting.

  He kisses my forehead and strokes my cheek soothingly.

  “I don’t want you to worry about anything,” he says. “I scavenged enough supplies while you were at the wedding. We’re going to stay on Earth for a while. I’ve been monitoring Fysian transmissions, and full-scale civil war has broken out. This is a good base for us to help the resistance.”

  “What about the Avekis?”

  “I can keep you safe. It won’t be hard for us to get off the planet quickly if we need to. But I want to stay and fight for as long as possible. A while back, someone told me the story of a great battle that happened nearby. Even when the Earthborns were outnumbered, they stayed. They fought.”

  I can’t believe that Drax remembers the first conversation we ever had about the Alamo. I didn’t think he was listening at all. We’ve come a long way since then: That was planets ago and back when I thought I’d end up mated to a stranger.

  Drax pops the hatch of the escape pod after the sun sets. We lie in each other’s arms, watching the stars, thinking of the vast universe and what’s at stake. Drax is already planning how to fight the Avekis and the Fysian rebels from here on Earth. I trust my planet is in good hands. I trust him with my body, heart, and soul. We have a long road ahead, but we’ll fight like hell. Together.

  Don’t forget to sign up for Riley’s newsletter to get updates about new releases in the Earthborn Omegas series!

  About the Author

  Riley Carver is a sci-fi fanatic who grew up reading the greats. When she first encountered Omegaverse stories, she knew she’d found her genre! Riley is from Maryland, where she lives with her husband and a rambunctious cat.