“They didn’t say what pack the alpha’s from,” said a red wolf to my right.
“They never do, unless it’s a foreigner. They’re all Sassagoula boys this year,” said another omega, someone I didn’t know.
“You’ll find out who he is soon enough,” said the driver.
There were whistles, shouts, and cheers. I observed the quality of the omegas they were sending. Until next year, I was considered a Grade 1 omega. It meant that I was likely to produce a cub in a breeding or two, that I was young, and that I wouldn’t put up much of a fight. I’d been threatened with a lowered Grade before, but I’d learned when to stop shooting my mouth off.
Almost.
Whoever this alpha was, they’d thrown a couple of Grade 1s at him. A friend of mine, Nicken, was another Grade 1. He was two years younger than me, but he volunteered every time there was a ceremony roundup. When I’d asked him about it, he’d told me it was the only way for an omega to make something of himself in this world.
He was right. I wanted to change that the second I learned it when I was a kid. My parents told me they signed me up for Talewah when I was three. It’s what you do when you produce an omega cub. With the alpha/omega ratio what it is, we’ve heard rumors that they can’t construct enough prisons like ours. There have always been too many omegas for the number of alphas out there, but we were living in extreme times.
I didn’t know what they did with omegas that couldn’t find a place like I did. I didn’t really want to. Pack alphas could cull us, parents could disappear us, and nobody asked questions. We weren’t unwanted, because we produced pups of our own. Two alphas couldn’t manage it. But we were a liability, and nobody wanted that.
The road was filled with nothing. Alphas went to college, got jobs, bought houses. Omegas got shuttled to Talewah and waited until their prince or princess showed up and bailed them out. I didn’t like to wait around for things to happen. I’d done it for the past I-didn’t-know-how-long.
“You could escape,” Nicken said, once.
“You can’t escape when there are electric fences and razor wire,” I answered.
Someone tried it when I was nineteen. They got as far as the sandstone cliffs and I never saw them again. I hoped they made it home and found someone to love, to settle down with, bear pups with.
The bus rattled along the road as I shook my head. After all these years, I started believing what they told us. We were supposed to be good house omegas, safe and warm, well cared for, good fathers to pups that loved us. What if some omega could cure cancer in the humans? Wouldn’t they want us to do that instead?
Conflicted, I was dragged from my thoughts when my alpha guard shook my arm.
“What are you so quiet about? You couldn’t stop running your mouth earlier,” he said.
“Bus trips put me to sleep, I guess,” I said.
“The rest of the bus is ready to explode with excitement and you’re taking a nap.”
“I know it’s weird that I’m not overjoyed to get raffled off to some random alpha,” I snapped. “It’s almost like I have thoughts, feelings, and emotions.”
“You have a crush on some alpha already?” He frowned.
I clenched my jaw and looked back out the windows again. The night came on as we drove, falling across the landscape like someone painted it with a velvet brush. Our old bus didn’t have headlights. We had to rely on the road lights to show us the difference between a curve and certain death.
They only put the best out for omegas like us.
The rest of the drive was uneventful. It was hours locked in a bus. The road bumped, the alphas growled, and we omegas did our best not to piss them off. Most of the omegas did. I didn’t care, and I assumed my alpha fell asleep a while after I did.
The bus stopped in front of an old hunting lodge, long disused. I wondered if my pack owned it, or if it was just an abandoned relic that Sassagoula had taken over. This was nothing like where I’d been taken before. Other ceremonies had been held in a cavern, someone’s home, even a parking lot. This felt more…official.
The alphas herded us inside. It was only when the door was locked and barred that we were released from our shackles.
“Get stripped, get clean. The dust clings in places you don’t realize, boys,” said our driver.
I had long since gotten used to getting naked in front of others. I peeled my clothes off, dropped them to the floor, and stepped beneath a hot shower head. My eyes slid closed when the water hit me. I could have taken another nap right there, if not for the watchful eye of my guardian.
“You fall asleep in there and I’m coming in after you,” said my alpha.
“Don’t think you’re allowed to ruin my beauty routine,” I smirked.
“Keep wagging your tail at me and I’ll ruin more than that.”
I frowned and placed my hands on the wall in front of me. If needed, I could rip off a tile and bash him in the head with it. With so many eyes, I wasn’t sure if he would follow through on a threat like that or not.
“I’m not wagging my tail at you. I’m just trying to get clean,” I said, hesitantly.
“Then do it less invitingly,” the alpha growled.
I trembled, not entirely from fear. My omega instincts were well aware that an alpha was looming over me, ready to throw me down, and ravish me on the ground. I guessed he was overwhelmed with so many omegas around him for so long.
I spent the rest of my shower careful to avoid anything that could be considered “wiggling” to any extent of the word. My alpha was disappointed.
3
Graham
A bus pulled away from the rinky-dink hunting hut. Inside, my soon-to-be husband was getting ready to consummate our marriage. Jenard reached across my chest and popped open my door for me. I stepped out and breathed the dusty air.
I was terrified.
During the drive, I started to come to terms with the reality of my situation. I was about to get married, settle down, have an omega of my own for whatever purpose I decided. I’d teach him what I wanted, get it, and all would be well. I didn’t know who he would be, but I’d make it work.
There was no way to say no to this. You didn’t pick your omega from your penpal list. It never worked like that, as far as I knew.
“You know how we’re going to do this?” Jenard asked.
“I draw a name, don’t I?”
Jenard opened the door for me and gave a mocking bow. I stepped through and caught the faintest whiff of a familiar scent on the wind. Following my nose, I continued into the building until an alpha nearly twice my size walked out of a room and put his hand on my chest.
“You the birthday boy?” He growled.
“I’m here to pick a mate, yes,” I answered.
“You’ll see them soon enough. Head to the assembly room. They’re still gettin’ all made up for you.”
I scowled up at him until Jenard grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me back the way I came. He pulled me into… Well.
It looked like a trashy honeymoon hotel.
A heart-shaped bed sat off in one corner, draped in reds and pinks. A pair of handcuffs laid upon the red coverlet. I didn’t know if it was for kink or for the odd, opposing omega. If my intended didn’t want anything to do with me, would I have the guts to lock him down and take him? It was expected of me. I was an alpha. I ruled over omegas with an iron fist.
But those handcuffs pushed an uncomfortable pang through my chest. What if Parker—
No, I had to forget about him. It wasn’t right. In the time that had passed since he’d sent that letter, he could have already been mated and bred. Maybe he’d been taken to another pack. Omega exchanges happened all the time. With Roll Over, I’d helped to set some up. It helped keep the genetics fresh in packs that were woefully heavy in alpha numbers.
I hadn’t seen Parker’s name come up in those exchanges.
A second door popped open across from me. Their heads down, a line of omegas came in
and stared at the floor. Each wore nothing more than a pair of briefs and a collar around his neck. They hadn’t chained them together, but I expected them to secure these omegas better than this. Were they such low quality?
Two were far older than I was interested in, their hair already greying. A third had scars on his hands—the mark of a fighter, something else I didn’t care to deal with. The others were alright, I supposed. The aroma of lily-of-the-valley shampoo hit me in the face like a freight train.
The last omega walked in and my eyes landed on him. He had a mop of curly black hair on his head, allowed to grow long to set him apart from the others. He was a lean omega. I expected he’d be the type to go on runs to keep in shape. That wasn’t such a bad thing. It was too bad I couldn’t see anything else. Who knew? He might have been cute.
“You see any you like more than the others?” Jenard whispered to me.
“The one with the curls isn’t bad,” I muttered.
“Nah, you don’t want curls. They spread like wildfire in your genetics. You’ll never have a straight-haired kid. It pops up in wolf form, too. Makes it weird, seeing some curly-haired little omega that looks like a sheep.”
I didn’t argue with him. Instead, I remembered the nights I’d spend on Parker’s porch with his head in my lap, stroking his curly head. I told him I’d rescue him from whatever omega camp they put him in. It’d been over a decade since I’d seen him last. What a liar I was.
“If you please?” said a voice to my left.
A male beta, and what a rarity they were, stood there with a little gold bowl extended toward me. Within it was several pieces of paper, each one folded and hiding in it the name of my new mate. He shook the bowl a few times and smiled at me. The light reflected off his glasses. I clenched my jaw and launched my hand into the names that would decide my future.
One folded name came out between my tightened fingers.
“Which one’d you get?” Jenard asked.
From the sound of his voice, he was ready to rip the paper out of my hand and see for himself. I carefully unfolded the name, but I looked at the ceiling while I did so.
“How the fuck did you get a chance at Scott’s little brother?”
Scott?
My brain short-circuited. Parker had an older brother named Scott. The guy worked for me.
I stared down at the name.
Parker Riggs.
No, that couldn’t be possible.
I blinked and looked again.
Parker Riggs.
“Holy fuck, Graham?”
Parker had flipped his hair up and met me eye to eye. If he had been any other wolf, I would have forced him into submission. But this was Parker. It had to be.
How had I gotten so lucky?
“What the fuck, Graham. What?” Parker stuttered.
“I don’t know,” I said, still stunned.
Parker yanked away from his keeper. Had I chosen anyone else, he’d have been in so much trouble for this. Instead, my new mate was making his way over to…to…please me?
His face split into a grin, wide and genuine. Parker sank to his knees before me and I lowered my forehead to rest against his own. It had been so long since we had been in the same room, much less touched. That letter had been intoxicating enough, but being so close to him was another world.
“I do so now pronounce you mated,” Jenard said, with a great sweeping of his hands.
He completely ruined the moment. I sighed at him.
“Can we do that part later?”
“It’s the most important part. You can’t breed him until you’re legal,” Jenard grinned.
The other omegas were led from the room. They never made a single sound, even as I watched them go. They shuffled along like shells, brittle on the outside and lacking within. I tried to ignore the part of me that said it was wrong. If omegas had to be brought to heel to stay safe, then that’s what had to happen.
“So, anyway,” Jenard interrupted. “You gonna do him or what?”
“Not while you’re in here,” I said.
“Pack alphas can exercise a right to watch,” he said with a shrug.
“Come on, Jenard. You don’t want to see that. You want to go home to your pile of omegas and leave me with my single, enthusiastic mate.”
He tapped his chin with the tip of his pointer finger, his arms wrapped around his waist. After a moment of consideration, he nodded.
“They’ll haul the others out and take the alphas with them. You two settle in for the evening and get acquainted,” Jenard said.
Then he came over and slid a hand beneath my new mate’s chin, forcing his eyes up to meet his own.
“And you behave, omega. Treat your new alpha right, or you’ll never see the light of day again. Sassagoula has no use for rebellious omegas. Do you understand?”
And all the fight went straight out of Parker. My inner wolf demanded I tear Jenard’s throat out, but that was suicide.
“Yessir, alpha, sir,” Parker intoned, his gaze shooting toward the floor.
“Good boy,” Jenard said, a hint of contempt in his voice. “I look forward to the pups.”
That done, he patted Parker on the head like a common dog and left the room. You could have heard a pin drop.
“Is that how they all treat you?” I asked.
“How what?” Parker returned, looking back at me.
He doesn’t think there’s anything weird about that, I thought to myself. This is what he’s come to expect.
And why shouldn’t he? Another part of my mind asked. This is how the world works.
My resolve quivered like a virgin on his wedding night. And speaking of which…
“You omegas… off in those safe zones,” I started. “Do you ever…?”
“Do we ever?” Parker tilted his head.
He looked so cute when he did it, so innocent, so sweet. I drew him into my lap and wrapped my arms around his waist. I locked him there as if it was where he belonged all these years. So many that we’d lost because of his having to be in a safe zone.
“You know. Fool around?”
“You think a bunch of omegas living under constant surveillance have time to have sex with each other?” Parker frowned.
“Constant protection,” I corrected.
“Surveillance. You haven’t been there. They watch us when we cook, when we read, even when we’re taking a shower. They watched me while I was in the shower here, Graham. Do you know the lengths I had to go to when I would keep them from stealing the candy bars you sent?” He asked. “Thank you, for all that chocolate. If we’d have been caught…”
I rested my chin on his shoulder. “Would they have spanked you? A little public humiliation?”
He shifted in my lap and shot me a look that could peel paint. “I’ve seen it happen.”
“You ever want to be the subject?” I asked. “Tied up, some big alpha with a paddle, scolding you, telling you how naughty you were?”
“You got kinky while I was gone,” He blinked.
But I could see the color that crept into his cheeks. The red blossomed across his pale skin like roses. I leaned in and gave one a kiss. He drew his head away and cleared his throat.
“If all the alphas I ran into were as decent as you are, Graham, the world would be a better place,” Parker said.
He left my lap and walked over to the bed. There he sat and stretched his legs out, watching the floor. I’d known this might be a little odd, but this was Parker. I’d known him since I had been a pup. This would be as natural as any alpha could manage. Then why was I so hesitant?
I followed him to the bed and crawled across it, stalking him like the prey he was. The blush grew darker, hotter, and more vibrant. Even from here, I could smell his heat kicking up.
It was another amazing reason to keep the alphas and omegas apart. How were we alphas supposed to get any work done if we were constantly breathing omegas running in and out of heat? Imagine trying to manage an office when
a floor of omegas linked their heat cycles together. We alphas would be driven wild, and so would they.
We’d never get any work done.
We had to be kept apart.
“He wants you to throw me down and ravish me. More pups for the pack? Big, strong, alpha studs that he can lead?” Parker asked.
There was something odd in his voice.
“That’s the standard, yeah,” I answered.
Parker chewed his lower lip. “What do you want, Graham?”
If that wasn’t a loaded question, I didn’t know what was. What did I want in this life? I wanted Roll Over to succeed. I wanted to keep building my ridiculously fat bank account balance. I wanted to keep my new omega safe.
But that wasn’t what Parker meant, and I knew it. I took his hand in mine and kissed the back of it.
“You,” I answered. “I want you.”
4
Parker
"Just me? Because Jenard made it sound like it's common for alphas to have a thousand omegas," I teased.
"Would I have spent so long sending you letters and birthday cards if you weren't the omega of my dreams?" Graham asked.
My heart did a somersault. Was this what it was like to be wooed? It was all over the few romance novels that we'd managed to shuffle into Talewah. A tough alpha melted the heart of some woe-begotten omega. He took the omega off to a castle in the clouds, the two fell in love and lived happily ever after.
I just never thought it could be true. Fate had decided to put Graham and I together. A marriage was something that could never be broken unless the omega initiated it. Why would I ever do that? I ran my hand down Graham's forearm and paused. The books all said that an alpha liked to have their chest stroked, their neck kissed. I should put my secret knowledge to good use.
Emboldened by the fact that it was Graham, I crawled into his lap and snuck a kiss beneath his chin. He gave a surprised growl and I paused, no longer quite as sure as I was a moment ago. His fingers found my hair, tipped my head up and our lips found each other.
Furbitten Falls Alpha's: A Wolf Shifter Mpreg Romance Bundle Page 38