His Defiant Omega (The Royal Omegas Book 2)

by Kristen Strassel

  A defiant omega will make this alpha soldier break all his rules.

  The Badlands are in trouble. Someone has been abducting omegas, and the King Alpha has tasked one of his most trusted soldiers to bring them back.

  Dagger is my biggest enemy. An alpha that I can't--won't--trust. I insist on joining the mission to keep him in line. But even being the queen's sister doesn't make my job any easier.

  Working with my enemy proves harder than I expected. But when Dagger opens his heart and reveals a secret he always meant to keep from me, my hatred of him turns to a much more dangerous emotion. Desire.

  Now I'm not sure who the real enemy is, or whether or not the man I've hated for so long is actually the key to my future.

  His Defiant Omega

  THE ROYAL OMEGAS

  Book Two

  By

  P. Jameson

  Kristen Strassel

  PJAMESONBOOKS.COM | KRISTENSTRASSEL.COM

  His Defiant Omega

  Copyright © 2019 by P. Jameson and Kristen Strassel

  First electronic publication: September 2019

  United States of America

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, redistributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any database, without prior written permission from the author, with the exception of brief quotations contained in critical reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this work may be scanned, uploaded, or otherwise distributed via the internet or any other means, including electronic or print without the author’s written permission.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Cover Design: Sotia Lazu

  Formatting: Agent X Graphics

  P. Jameson | Kristen Strassel

  www.pjamesonbooks.com

  www.kristenstrassel.com

  Chapter One

  Dagger

  I stood in the middle of the Badlands—what was left of it—and took in the ruins before me. The bright desert sun gleamed overhead, highlighting every demolished shanty, the charred fences, destroyed goods that inhabitants had tucked away for desperate days. With or without the sun, I couldn’t avoid the people who milled about, seeming lost.

  Lost. Did I look lost to them too?

  This land that bordered Luxoria to the south was home to the omegas, the lowest class of shifters among the Weren people.

  No. Not the lowest. Not anymore.

  Not since King Adalai took an omega as queen and declared The Division null and void.

  No more segregation, no more pack divided. We were now one. Alpha, beta, and omega alike.

  I should have been happy about it, like so many others were. Like Evander and Cassian. Even Solen wasn’t pissing in the king’s mead over this. And there was a certain feel among the city these days. Lighter, even if omegas were still getting side-eyed.

  But I wasn’t happy about any of it.

  There was a place for everything and everyone. The omegas’ place was in the Badlands. Mine was… used to be… at the king’s side. Commander of the Southern Border. Overseer of The Badlands. Not anymore. With my title stripped, I was just another alpha vying for a place in this world. I had nothing and no one now.

  Except my mission.

  King Adalai was sending me on a quest to find the omegas who had been abducted from the Badlands over the past years. These missing persons complaints weren’t new to me, but I’d never taken them seriously. The Badlands was… well, bad. It made sense that desperate shifters might try to leave in search of something better. They wouldn’t find it. Anyone with any sense knew that beyond the desert there was only more desert.

  And humans. There were humans who wanted things from us. Wanted to exploit our abilities and experiment on us to their own gain. Humans who wanted our technology so they could thrive in the world as it was now, after the solar flares and the Great Dust Storm that sent humanity into chaos.

  Luxoria was an oasis everyone wanted a piece of. It made sense that the desperate omegas who called the Badlands home, might have gone in search of another place like it.

  I knew now, that wasn’t the case.

  Omegas had been taken, one at a time, for years by the humans who turned them into living weapons. Twisted versions of their former selves, half shifted beasts who drooled acid and sliced wolves in half with their claws.

  They had come to destroy the Badlands, and did a pretty fine job of it. The only good thing about that night was that none of the mutants returned to the humans alive.

  But the number of missing omegas was nearly in the triple digits. Which meant there were plenty more mutants—or soon-to-be mutants—in the humans’ arsenal. It was up to me to find them before they met that fate.

  It was part punishment for my role in the Badlands destruction, part rescue mission. The alpha in me bucked against taking any ounce of blame, but the king and others felt I’d neglected my duties. Easy for them to say, when they were in charge of betas and other alphas. I’d been tasked with policing the omegas. The lawless, the forgotten. The trash no one cared about. No one could understand the situation my assignment put me in.

  If I’d cared too much, my loyalty to the crown would have been questioned.

  If I cared too little… well, that was where I was at now.

  The balance I’d had to keep was narrow and impossible, but my true feelings laid somewhere in the middle. At times, I related more to the omegas than my own class. At times, I hated the alphas as much as they did.

  Hated myself.

  For living on the other side of the gates while people suffered, deservingly or not. For knowing children starved while the royals ate their fill. For never reporting these things to the king, whether he would have cared then or not.

  For watching an omega female and wishing she could be mine.

  I went still as I spotted her across a great distance, blinking twice to make sure it was really her. She wasn’t dirty like the first time I saw her in the castle. And though her dress was bland now, it wasn’t ratted and torn like before. Her dark hair was braided back against her head, but it wasn’t caked in mud anymore.

  Tavia was different now that her sister was queen, but she still liked to pretend she was one of the desperate. She’d made me hate myself the most, and didn’t even know it. Never would, if I had anything to say about it.

  Pulling my eyes away from her, I focused on the horizon.

  The omegas had become my people without ever meaning to. I was The Division, half dedicated to them, and half to my king. The barrier between them and the city. It had been my darkest and most tightly kept secret, and would remain as such until the day I died.

  What the fuck was I now? Where did I belong in this new unified pack that King Adalai vied for?

  None of those feelings the omegas brought out in me mattered more than my station. My place.

  Now, I had to earn it back.

  I would leave at dawn. I’d find every omega lost on my watch, and bring them home. And while I was at it, I’d find myself. Never again would I be torn between honor and duty.

  Never again.

  Chapter Two

  Tavia

  “I’m going on the rescue mission,” I announced. The words hung between my sister and me like a dusty cobweb, neither of us reaching out to snag it away.

  Becoming the first omega queen in a generation wasn’t even close to the most reckless thing my sister Zelene had ever done. Keeping her ass out of ho
t water was a part time job, and I never dared tell her that it was the reason I got fired from my position at the castle. The first one, anyway. At the time, it seemed like the end of the world. I thought it was a secret I’d take to my grave. If I wasn’t good enough to work for the Luxoria royals, no one else would hire me. And I couldn’t put her job in jeopardy. We would’ve starved to death.

  But the spark in her eyes when she cooked up trouble was sometimes the only light in the Badlands.

  Now here we were, in the private suite of the royal castle in Luxoria. No, we weren’t trespassing. We lived here. Zelene did, anyway, now that she was mated to King Adalai.

  My sister was an actual queen. It would take a long time to wrap my head around that.

  It was why, despite Zelene’s protests, I went home to the Badlands every night. There, omegas had been sentenced to a life of poverty so the former king, Adalai’s father, could settle a score. Like his son, he’d fallen in love with an omega, yet it didn’t stop him from bringing us so much misery.

  For that reason, I would never trust Adalai or anyone in his court. Bloodthirsty and ruthless, I was convinced they’d do anything to save their own asses. After twenty-five years in the Badlands, I understood survival instinct more than I ever wanted to. The difference between the alphas and me? I wouldn’t put someone else in harm’s way to save myself.

  I was going to be reckless though. For the greater good. I stared at my sister, challenging her shocked expression. It was my turn to be the reckless one.

  “As queen, I can forbid you from going. Order you to remain in the castle.” Zelene hugged a velvet pillow to her chest. Her broken leg relegated her to the suite. She had crutches, but she hated showing weakness. Everyone in the city and beyond was watching the omega queen. Her favorite seat was by the window, overlooking the garden. Beyond that, we could see the Badlands. Some might say she was hiding, but she was the first line of defense in another attack.

  “You’d forbid me from going back to the Badlands? How soon you forget where you came from.” I scoffed. She swore she never would.

  “If you were planning to stay there, maybe. But beyond that? Where the humans reside?” She shook her head. “It’s not safe. It never was, but especially not now. The mutants will be looking for you, specifically, because the humans would love nothing more than to capture the sister of the queen.” She shuddered, and the same chill went down my spine. “So yes, I can command you to stay here. Or I’ll…”

  She had nothing.

  “How will you punish me that’s worse than what we already lived through?” I looked to the door, to make sure the King hadn’t paid us a surprise visit. He did that, a lot. It was probably supposed to be romantic, sneaking up on his new bride, but I didn’t know much about that lovey dovey stuff. To me it felt like he was checking up on us.

  “If you get caught, there’s no telling what will happen to you.” Zelene shivered as a host of possibilities went through her head. They were certainly going through mine. “The humans already treat omegas like lab rats. If they can get their hands on you…”

  “I don’t trust Dagger will come back with the living omegas. He’ll cut a deal with the humans to get what he wants, not what’s best for the Badlands. He’s never done right by us. That’s why I’m going with him.”

  Until Adalai stripped Dagger of his duties and title, he’d been in charge of overseeing the Badlands. But he didn’t keep us safe. For five years, he’d ensured our lives were a living hell. Now he promised he’d turn a new leaf, and do the right thing. I’d believe it when I saw it. When all the missing omegas were safe.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Do you forbid it, Your Majesty?” I challenged.

  “You have to trust Dagger,” Zelene said, and I had no idea how she kept a straight face. That man was as much our enemy as the humans that captured omegas and turned them into mutant wolves.

  I wouldn’t let the crown change my sister. I’d do whatever it took to keep her true to her roots.

  “You don’t trust Dagger to keep me safe.”

  She pursed her lips together, and for the first time since the crown had been placed atop her head, she looked vulnerable. Not weak. No omega was weak. Especially not our queen. But every once in a while, our walls came crashing down. It was impossible to keep them up all the time.

  “No, I don’t trust him,” she said. “I think he’ll do whatever Adalai asks of him to get his title back. But that’s where it ends. He’ll see you as a challenge, Tavia. And more than that, a representation of all his failures. Dagger couldn’t impose his will on the Badlands. Especially not on us. As much as he tried, he couldn’t make us submit. He’ll expect you to fight for yourself.”

  “I’ve been fighting for my life every damn day.” Since omegas had been exiled from Luxoria. If Dagger thought I’d give up easily, that I’d stop fighting just because my sister slept in the King’s bed, he had another think coming. “I’m ready.”

  The sun began to slip behind the mountains. To my omega brain, it meant it was time to head back to the Badlands, before it was illegal to be caught in Luxoria, and the guards had carte blanche to rectify that problem as they saw fit. The new rules—or lack thereof—was hard to get used to.

  “Rielle will be here soon. Ask her what she thinks of my plan.” Our roommate worked in the private quarters of the castle. Everything had been a whirlwind since the night Zelene crashed the party and we hadn’t had much time to talk. Strategize. The alphas might have spoken of their military plans as she served them, thinking she wasn’t smart enough to understand what they planned.

  Big mistake.

  “I’m sure she’ll hate it as much as I do. I’ll let you know if she comes up with any better ideas.” Zelene grinned.

  “That’s not what I mean.” I kissed her cheek before I left her for the night. “Press for info. Dagger surely won’t tell me everything, and I refuse to be caught unaware.”

  Zelene’s blue eyes were huge and unblinking. “Please rethink this. You’re more help to the omegas alive than dead.”

  My sister’s parting words haunted me as I ventured through the streets of Luxoria. I never stopped at any of the shops on the way home before, or let myself linger in the windows. Until recently, omegas were banned from entering, unless we were there to do business for an alpha or a beta. The ban might be lifted, but I’d spend what little money I had on the businesses in the Badlands.

  Zelene worried that Luxoria wasn’t ready for unity, but she hadn’t considered the needs of her own people. That we didn’t want to be considered the same as the alphas. We wanted to be recognized for who we were, no longer blanketed in shame and misery.

  All the guards were gone from the gates. Adalai said there would be a ceremony to demolish the walls that separated the omegas from Luxoria.

  Maybe I was being foolish, insisting on going into battle. I’d been watching my own back for years, making sure my friends stayed safe, but that wasn’t the same thing as working with an army. Dagger, whether I trusted him or not, was a trained soldier. He hadn’t taken me seriously before my sister took the crown, when I followed the hollow protocol set before us, and went to him with the problems in the village. He would tell me he knew and dismiss me. Barely look at me.

  This mission could be nothing but an exercise in frustration. And he probably wouldn’t lose any sleep if I got captured. I’d been a thorn in his side for far too long.

  “Lady Tavia!” a familiar voice called to me, followed by heavy footsteps in the dust. I turned to find Maryellen, who’d been my mom’s friend, a soldier in the old war.

  “I’m still just Tavia, Maryellen.” I noticed she’d been crying. “What’s wrong?”

  “Jacoby.” Her son. “He’s missing.”

  Oh shit. He’d been on the front lines of the fight for omega justice, a secondary war after the Division. We’d worked together many times, late at night in the shadows, whispering so the guards wouldn’t hear us.

>   I couldn’t let her know how scared I was for him. “When did it happen?”

  “He never came home after the wedding celebration.” She covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a sob, and I put my hand on her shoulder. “I’ve been trying to get a message to one of you girls, but ever since the end of the Division, everything has been chaos. There’s no guards. No rules. I didn’t think things could get worse, but they did.”

  If the humans knew what we’d been up to, our dreams of revolution that had nothing to do with the King or his court, they’d make sure to stop it dead in its tracks.

  “I’ll do everything I can to get him back.” I gave her a quick hug, but I didn’t have time to stay and comfort her.

  I had to work with Dagger. As much as I hoped Rielle could tell us the royals’ secrets, I had to tell him ours.

  Without each other, there was no way we could win this fight.

  Chapter Three

  Dagger

  I hefted another container of supplies into the small cargo hold of the electric Humvee. I meant to leave at dawn and the sky was already brightening. King Adalai insisted I take a crew of men with me, and I’d given him a list of some of the stealthiest. No doubt he would send his best for this mission since it was so important to his queen, but if not… well, it wouldn’t matter. I’d figure shit out.

  Stalking back to the armory, I loaded weapons and ammo. I was already armed to the hilt, as I would be any other day, but it never hurt to have extra. Especially when I might be going up against beasts that stood two feet taller than me.

  On the way back to the vehicle the first hints of sun began to peek over the city walls, and the sounds of Luxoria waking turned the quiet early morning into a dull buzz. Men were gathering near the castle to prepare for our journey. It was a small army, mostly betas. Easy to get into places we weren’t welcome.

  I approached the group, surprised to find Cassian among the men. He was the Overseer of the Western Borders. He had an army of his own to command. Why would Adalai send him with me?