“Don’t forget dinner,” he said as she left.
She didn’t acknowledge him.
She was showered and dressed in a light, floral sleeveless sundress, which was nothing at all like the giant mumu he preferred, and she didn’t care, not one bit. She had braided her hair over one shoulder, exposing her pale neck, and had put on makeup that showcased her features instead of playing them down. He would have his hands full tonight. She flipped decency the bird and did not use her pine tar or her cup. Let him suffer. She did drink two cups of tea, safety be damned, to mute her scent a little, and lessen her reaction to him. As her estrous was many weeks out, at least he couldn’t force a bond.
Now that she knew what kind of man the Alpha was, she would never be unprotected again. She tucked her bo staff into a holster on her thigh to be sure. Maybe she wasn't entirely fair, she thought to herself. He had just returned from the site of her last estrous, and that alone would drive any Alpha mad. Had he read her contract, he would have known to take that madness out on any number of willing Beta females instead of her.
He knocked on her door at seven, sharp, his eyes narrowing on her when she answered. He said nothing, just guided her through the building and into the street below. Hot, late spring air stole her breath, overwhelming her senses and instantly drying her mouth. Her lungs felt like they would catch fire at any moment. She wished for her mountains where the climate was not so harsh.
The Alpha offered her his arm, and she ignored it, choosing instead to clasp her hands behind her back. They walked in the other direction this time, headed down to the river and across the bridge. She stopped, lost in the peace that filtered up from the water below. Giant, brightly colored Koi broke the surface looking for a snack, and ducks paddled slowly in the humid air. She watched them for a long time.
Finally, he took her elbow, guiding her along the water and into the Italian restaurant she wanted to visit the night before. Every eye turned as they walked in. Lukas thought she looked glorious in the fading light of day, and others thought so too. He scowled at them, daring them to so much as twitch in her direction.
Despite being underweight, there was no doubt that she was Omega with her pretty features, short stature, and enticing smell. She ignored the stares of men who tipped their noses up to scent her and the glares from their women who noticed. She allowed Lukas to place his hand on her lower back and guide her to a table with an excellent view of the water.
“I’ll have water, and if you could, please leave the pitcher,” Eve said when the waiter approached. His face whipped to the Alpha’s, who gave a small nod. “No need to come back for my order, I’m ready.” She handed the menu back to the waiter.
Lukas picked up his and scanned it hurriedly while Eve ordered chicken parmesan, lasagna, beef ravioli, and chicken carbonara to go with her salad and breadsticks. The waiter’s pen stilled over his pad, and the Alpha stared, saying nothing.
“Allow me to redeem myself,” he said when the waiter vanished.
“No,” she said, looking over his shoulder at the water beyond.
“Eve.” He gripped his water glass so tightly she thought it might break.
“This was a mistake.” Eve rose to leave. The Alpha snatched her wrist, only to release it when her glare turned to where he held her.
“Please sit,” he said, his words coming out in a hiss.
Feeling every eye in the restaurant on her, she sat.
“I apologize, Eve. Let me make it up to you,” he said, watching her face with intent, gauging her reaction.
“Talk about something else, or I’m leaving,” she hissed, turning her fierce gaze on him.
His sigh was heavy, “Tell me about the hidden Omegas,” he asked, watching as emotions flew over her face. He saw the moment she decided not to lie to him.
“There is an army of them,” was all she said.
“An Army? Of Omegas?” he said, wanting to laugh but stopping it in his throat. He had seen her fight. Maybe there was an army of Omegas in the woods.
“Yes, things are different in West Virginia; if you paid attention and hadn’t broken our contract, you would be well on your way to understanding that.” She sneered at him before arranging her face back into one of indifference. “I’m sorry, I said we wouldn’t speak of it, and I meant it,” she sighed, closing her bright blue eyes. “The Omegas want a choice. They want a chance to be wooed and accept an appropriate mate, one that they have things in common with and that will make them happy for years to come instead of being forced to accept the first Alpha that slams their knot into them,” she stopped, turning the full weight of her glare on him. “They are willing to die for that right.” She closed her eyes again, but not before he saw their fire that was also edged in sadness.
“Like you,” he said, trying to understand why an Omega would want anything other than what a good Alpha offered. Only if he was honest, not all Alphas are good men. He had proven that. Wait; what? He thought to himself. He’d done nothing wrong… unless he had.
“Yes, like me. If my next estrous doesn’t kill me, the one after will. My days are numbered, and I’m okay with that. I’ve known from the beginning it was probable I wouldn’t survive to see twenty-four.” She glanced around the restaurant as the sun continued to set, looking at everything but the Alpha in front of her.
The light from the oil lamp on the table caught the freckles on her nose and made them dance. Her pale skin looked healthier, and there was a pink cast to her cheeks that had not been there before, but the memory of that cave, her restraints, and that skeletal frame were too fresh in his mind to be fooled by her fleeting, healthy looks.
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” he said, trying to catch her hand in his.
She pulled away before he could. “Yes, it does.”
“I won’t let you leave,” he said, his voice low and full of aggression.
“You can’t make me stay.” Leaning away from him, she crossed her arms, her gaze riveted to the waiter who brought her plates on two trays, setting them on the table next to her to divide them up.
The Alpha watched as she dug into her first plate with disturbing speed. He had watched Omegas eat but had never seen one eat like this. She was finished with her second plate before he could get the dressing on his salad. Only on her third plate did she begin to slow to a more reasonable pace. On her fourth plate, she eased back and remembered to use all of her utensils, and on her last plate, she left a bite, guzzled the pitcher of water, then turned her attention to the final bite and her salad bowl.
She was starved. She was still so starved that all thought fled when food was placed in front of her. She was right; her days were numbered if she refused him.
“What about another Alpha, someone you could trust,” he said, shocking himself and wondering where the hell that statement came from. There would be no other Alphas — just him.
“You were my one shot, Alpha, the other Omegas will have to carry on with their plans once I’m gone. There simply isn’t enough time for the Seventh and me. The war is more important than my survival. If I only have time to fight for one of those things, I do not choose myself.” When he tried to make her tell him more, she refused. He tried a hundred different ways to get her to talk, but she was done in more ways than one.
With dinner over, they left. She said nothing on the way back to the Capitol building, but her eyes lit up when they passed an all-night ice cream shop, and the Alpha was forced to follow her in, despite his desire to get her off the darkened streets. Yes, the capital was safe, but there were small gangs of roaming Alphas that would cause trouble, as Eve has already seen. With her scent more noticeable, that trouble could be worse.
Her pale skin and red hair attracted attention everywhere she went. She wasn’t oblivious to it. She just didn’t care, trusting herself to be able to handle anything that might come her way. She ordered the largest vanilla soft serve and covered it with semi-sweet chocolate shavings and hot fudge from the self-se
rve toppings bar. Not to be outdone, the Alpha ordered too but was full to the point of sickness after dinner and had to force it down.
As they walked the last way through the night streets of Greenville, more and more eyes were drawn to them; he kept his hand near his gun and his eyes sharp. She had distanced herself from him enough that he would have to reach for her should trouble start. He kept his eyes moving but missed the shadow tailing them along a side street.
Eve did not; she pulled her bo staff from under her sundress and had it extended and against the throat of the male that reached out for her from the darkness.
“Don’t,” she said with a low growl. “I am not in the mood.” Her stance widened as she prepared to incapacitate him if necessary.
He raised his hands in surrender and sprinted away as the Alpha drew his sidearm.
Sighing, she used her bo staff as a walking stick the rest of the way home while the Alpha seethed. He would pull security footage and have that man in his jail before the end of the night. How dare he try to take his Omega from off the street right in front of her Alpha? The irony of the situation was lost on him.
In the lobby of the Capitol, he stopped walking.
“Thank you for dinner,” Eve said, continuing on.
“Eve, I’m sorry,” he said again, watching her go and hoping she would turn around.
“So am I.” She kept going and did not.
Chapter 9
He paced in his office, trying to figure out a way to change her mind. He needed to figure out why she had come to him in the first place, and then maybe if he found her motivation, he could entice her to stay by using it. He needed to go to the Seventh and speak to the Alpha there.
“Jason!” he shouted through his Comlink.
“Whoa, yes, Sir?” the other Alpha responded.
“Get in here.” he stabbed at the disconnect button and, after his third miss, pulled the Comlink off his dress shirt and tossed it into the hallway where it skittered against the wall.
Jason poked his head around the corner. “Is it safe?”
The Alpha growled and bared his teeth.
“I want you to go to the training center and engage the Omega in whatever fighting she is doing,” he growled almost too low for the other man to hear.
“Sir?” the smaller Alpha stiffened and looked at the door.
“You heard me. Engage the Omega. See if she’ll talk to you.” The Alpha gripped the side of his desk so hard it snapped under his hands. He threw the broken pieces in the hallway after the Comlink.
“Um.”
“If you touch her, I will cut your dick off and shove it down your throat.” His eyes narrowed to green slits and pinned the other man where he stood.
“You want me to?”
“I want you to spar with her if she is there and try to get her to talk to you. I’ll be watching. Know that. Tomorrow we go to the Seventh and try to figure this red-headed mystery out.” The Alpha straightened, smoothing his shirt. “You are dismissed.”
“You want me to spar with an Omega?” Jason asked, an incredulous look sweeping over his face.
“Yes, try not to get hurt.” The larger man turned his back, firing up his computer and fine-tuning his cameras for the best view.
Eve changed into her new form-fitting workout pants, grabbed her bo staff, and went to the basement where she moved through stretches and forms before going to attack the practice dummy. The door opening made her swing the staff toward the sound.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know anyone was here.”
She watched the man with narrowed eyes. He was an Alpha, but a weaker one. Not much more than a strong Beta. She had seen him around before and knew he was one of the Alpha’s men. He was tall and lean, not as muscular as Lukas, but he moved with fluid grace. His skin was the darkest of dark, and his eyes wide and amber. The synthetic sun seemed absorbed by them both. He smelled freshly showered for someone going to work out.
“Did the Alpha send you?”
“No, ma’am,” he lied.
“You don’t have to go. I can do this somewhere else,” Eve moved to grab her towel and leave.
“You were going after that dummy pretty good; I could spar with you a little if you want. Just don’t let me be too rough.” He pulled a staff off of the wall and walked to her.
Eve barked a laugh then covered it quickly. “You want to spar? With me?”
“Sure, why not? I mean, you’re in here fighting a dummy. Surely, I’m better than that.” He stood still, waiting for her answer.
She watched the dark-skinned man through narrowed blue eyes. “Fine,” she said, her mouth quirking into a half-smile.
He moved to circle her, and she let him. When he raised his thicker bo staff against hers, she began to tear him apart systematically. She flowed like sand in the wind, her moves so quick he could not catch them, and she did not hold back. Not much. More than once, she could have killed him but did not. That was her only concession. For days after, he would wonder what exactly happened and need pain killers to get out of bed.
“Did you know that one shot of an Alpha’s cum has more calories and nutrients than an Omega uses in an entire day?” Eve said, landing a sharp blow to his solar plexus.
“Um…what?” he said, trying to step out of the reach of her staff and failing. Her next blow almost removed his wrist.
“It’s true,” she continued, not breathing hard as she fought. “Even a weak Alpha can feed an Omega. What do you think about that?” Her eyes glinted and danced at his discomfort. His pupils dilated, and nostrils flared. He had never fucked an Omega’s throat, and he wasn’t starting with this one.
In his office, The Alpha stilled. It was all he could do to keep from running to the basement and ripping his most trusted Alpha apart. Forcing his breathing to slow, he hoped she was testing him and waited.
Knowing his life depended on it, Jason fought her with everything he had, holding nothing back. On his heels the entire time, he would have landed a killing blow to her just to catch his breath, only he couldn’t land a single hit. Not one. She was a quick, vicious, and cunning fighter. Her staff moved as one with her body, and her blows landed where she wanted them. She taunted him with her scent, and he refused to give in to his desire to taste an Omega.
Covered in blood and sweat, Jason eventually backed out of their sparring circle and bowed to her, understanding that he’d been beaten. He was not the strongest Alpha, but he was an Alpha all the same. He had at least one hundred fifty pounds of pure, lean muscle on her, yet she had torn him apart and barely broken a sweat. He watched as her muscles twitched with the effort it took her to hold back from killing him and wondered what the fuck The Alpha saw in her. Yes, she was Omega, and her scent was tantalizing, but damn, she was a killer. He knew one when he saw one.
He bowed to her again. “Excellent match, you are a hell of a fighter. Where are you from?”
“Maybe there are a few honorable men left,” she said, bowing to him before turning on her heel to leave, toweling off her neck as she went.
Jason peed blood for days.
The Alpha stood, fascinated, and filled with regret. How in the world had he underestimated her so badly? She was an Omega, and he had overlooked everything about her but that one small detail. How had he not seen that she walked with the grace of a fighter? How had he not seen the glint of a warrior in her eyes? He had fucked this up and fucked it up badly. Pouring himself a whiskey, he called his private physician and sent him to the younger, bloodied Alpha. He deserved it. Jason was a better man than he was.
Could he have beaten her? He didn’t think so. Not at that game. Maybe with knives or laser pistols, but not that staff. Not those words she spoke. He had never seen anything like her. Omegas were quick because they had to be. Many an Omega had saved their life by evading the larger, lumbering hordes of Alphas. Was it fair? No. He could admit that. But it’s the way it is.
Omegas are meant to be cared for and coddled. They are n
ot meant to wield weapons like a master. Her skill, combined with her superior speed, made her more than dangerous. Much more.
He noticed something else during her fight with Jason. She was filling out. Now that she was gaining weight, it was coming on with speed. Her breasts had rounded, and he could not count her vertebrae through her skin-tight shirt.
She had said at dinner that she was running out of time. As he watched her spar with his second, he knew she wasn’t the only one.
Eve slept well, tucked into her bed; she buried her head under the covers and pretended it was her nest.
The Alpha slept not at all, and when the morning light was just barely above the horizon, he boarded his shuttlecraft and headed to the Seventh.
Chapter 10
Eve rolled over, stretching her arms over her head and letting out a soft squeal. Running her hands down her body, she felt less bone and more muscle. A few more days, that was all she needed. She was so close. If she kept up her caloric intake and her sparring matches, she would be ready to go home and face the music.
She had a little time, not much but some. She needed to be at her best to get through what was coming. Just in case she didn’t survive her next estrous, she wanted to have the issues in West Virginia settled.
The Alpha breaking her contract hadn’t done anything but speed up her timeline and deprive her of fighters. She could do without them. The problem was, there was no way to end this war without the Capital finding out it was going on. Not anymore. She didn’t think he believed her, but when things got crazy, it would be hard to hide the fallout. The one moment he had to spare, he went in search of her hideout instead of going to the Seventh and asking the right questions to the right people.
If he had been on her side, she could have explained things to him. Could have made him see reason. But Lukas Jennings saw nothing of the fine lines and gray areas; to him, it was black and white. Black and white. Only the world was made of shades of gray, and he simply chose not the see them.
The Omega Rule (Omegas of the New South Book 1) Page 6