The Omega Rule (Omegas of the New South Book 1)

by Sharilyn Skye

  Catching the man by the shirt, he pulled him toward his chest and ripped his arms off. The man screamed high pitched and long. Blood pumped from the holes where his arms once were, and the unstoppable Alpha proceeded to rip the man apart. His screams and pleas for mercy echoed across the land and into the valleys below, but there was no mercy left in Lukas.

  By the time he got down to the base of the falls and followed the flow of the river to where Taylor stood, the medihelo was taking Eve away, and he could only watch the belly of the thing tilt away over him, flashing the now familiar flying WV. The cord quivered in his chest, loose and twitching like a live wire. He didn’t know what that meant, but as he waited for a shuttlecraft to land so he could follow, he hoped it meant she lived.

  Chapter 21

  The Alpha sat in a too-small chair, watching Eve’s chest rise and fall at the pace timed by the machine breathing for her. A month had passed since she was shot, and only the expertise of the doctors and nurses in the old, but state of the art medical center, had saved her life.

  Tubes and wires ran everywhere. Once he would not have known a single thing about any of them but now understood them all. He had left, once or twice, but not for long. Using Eve’s office, he ran the New South from Morgantown, Seventh District. He slept by her side and only left when he must.

  The 50-caliber muzzleloader she had been shot with left half of her right lung shattered as well as her ribcage and all the vessels below. A 50 cal muzzy is an old, old way to shoot big, big game like Elk and Moose. The shot had been devastating to the one-hundred-pound woman it took down.

  The fall and resultant trip through the chutes at the Great Fall on the Blackwater River had resulted in broken limbs and bleeding on the brain. All of which had healed over the weeks she had been in the intensive care unit of a hospital unlike anything he had ever seen.

  Hospitals existed, naturally, but he’d never been to one so large, complex, or advanced. When this was over, he planned on sending his marines there for field training so that they would be better prepared for future combat.

  However, this was not over. Eve lay, her bruises yellowed with age, and her small wrists restrained so that she could not pull out the tubes that had saved her life. Medicine dripped into her veins that let her sleep and killed off the bacteria she had inhaled from the river water that had given her pneumonia.

  She hadn’t woken up. Not even when the medicines were paused, did she open her eyes. Her brain scans were clean again, but still, she slept. The drugs were turned back on, and the doctors explained that she needed more time to heal. She would wake up when she was ready. Only he wondered if she ever would be. She had wanted to die rather than be chained to an Alpha for the rest of her life. Maybe she didn’t want to come back.

  Her next estrous came and went. When the first signs of it presented, and the sweet scent of Omega filled the halls, the nurse strolled in, glared at him in challenge, and pushed an illegal heat suppressant through her IV line with a smile on her face. The Alpha said nothing. How could he? She wasn’t stable, and an estrous now would kill her.

  He met with doctors daily. They recognized the bite mark on his neck as her claim on him and let him make decisions for her care in the absence of her parents. Alpha Taylor visited and helped, but the responsibility fell to Lukas, and he took it seriously.

  After diagnosing the severity of her injuries, they had recommended turning off life support and letting her die peacefully. After The Alpha tore apart the consult room in which they had placed him, they changed their minds. Her condition was dire, but over the weeks, they began to be more hopeful of a full recovery, only she never woke up.

  Every day nurses came to collect The Alpha’s ‘contribution to Eve’s wellness,’ as they called it, and added it to the bag of fluids that flowed into the tube in her belly. He never accepted the help other women offered in collecting it, and they finally quit asking. She needed it, and he would provide. She grew round, and her hair was glossy. He was proud to have, in some small way, made that happen.

  He belonged to Eve.

  For Better, for worse.

  In Sickness and in Health.

  Forsaking all others.

  Her claim made it a moot point anyway, but had it not, he wouldn’t have accepted an offer from another woman.

  The doctors came one day and pulled out the breathing tube over The Alpha’s strenuous and violent objection. They said there was no reason she could not breathe on her own, and if she failed this test, they would place a more permanent breathing tube in her neck, and she would be dependent on the machine forever.

  While the Alpha argued and demanded, a quiet, Omega respiratory therapist slipped behind him, turned the machine off, and pulled the tube out. It was well-choreographed, and he applauded their battle plan.

  Eve breathed just fine on her own, and the medicine for sedation was turned off for the last time.

  Late spring turned to early summer and still he sat. The Battle of Blackwater Falls had been five weeks ago, and he was beginning to lose hope. He thought maybe she sensed his presence and was avoiding him. He decided to go home and give her some space. He had demanded she come back, pleaded, argued, and cajoled, but she had not responded.

  The staff had gotten her into a chair by the window as they did every day. Her feet were elevated, and her eyes closed. Someone had braided her hair into a long, complicated twist; she looked beautiful. Vacant, but beautiful.

  Lukas sat next to her and held her hand, drifting in and out of sleep himself as the afternoon sun warmed him through the huge window overlooking an old football stadium that was still used for local games that were technically against the law as they discouraged unity.

  Everything these people did was against the law, but he didn’t care. He was starting to think he was the one in the wrong anyway.

  His head dropped back, and his mouth opened as he drifted away, dreaming about a future he may never have.

  “Please tell me I’m not going to have to listen to you snore for the rest of forever.” The voice was soft, hoarse, and unmistakably Eve’s.

  He jerked awake to find her staring at him from crystal blue eyes, one corner of her mouth quirked up in a smile. She squeezed his hand. It was weak, but it was the best thing he ever felt in his life.

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she said, not letting his eyes go.

  “Am I dreaming?” he asked.

  “More like a nightmare. My rear is sore, and even though I can taste you in my belly, this isn’t the way I’d prefer to go about getting you in there.” She smiled wide, looking around the room and taking in her surroundings for the first time.

  “Eve,” he started.

  “Shhhhh,” she interrupted. “Just shhhhh.” She stretched her muscles one by one and, when done, let her head fall back, exhausted.

  “What happened? I don’t remember,” she said, her voice tired from use already.

  “You were shot. We were talking, and a Seventh shot you. You fell from the falls.”

  “Damn. That’s harsh. What were we talking about?” she asked, keeping her eyes closed, but a smile curved on her lips.

  “You had just agreed to come home with me and be my mate. You agreed to build the biggest nest there is and rub yourself all over it so that I could be surrounded by you in all ways,” he said, a cocky smile on his face.

  “Did I now?” she demanded, cracking an eye at him.

  “Yes. You did. There were witnesses, but they are all spread out now. It might take a minute to find one,” he laughed, squeezing her hand.

  “I see,” she said, her smile growing larger. “The Omegas?”

  “Are safe. They’ve taken over the second floor where you used to stay and are making the lives of the Alphas in the Capital miserable but so much better. A few have already chosen mates for themselves. No one is complaining.” He reached over, brushing a stray hair from her face and noting that she was paler than she had been. “I’ll call the nurs
e. You look tired and should rest.”

  “When you say my old room, what have you done with it?” she asked, stopping him.

  “Why I moved it, naturally, back to where you belong, Eve. With me. You belong with me.” He turned to her and caught her eyes with his, daring her to disagree.

  “So, in typical Alpha fashion, you decided for me?” she asked, a sparkle in her eye.

  “Yes, but in my defense, you claimed me first.”

  “So, I did. Take me home, Lukas,” she said, reaching her arms up to him.

  Picking her up, he did just that.

  Chapter 22

  Eve watched The Alpha through narrowed eyes, bringing her staff up to his and countering his strike. He was shirtless, and sweat dripped off the planes of his chest, soaking the waistband of his pants. Her muscles were tiring, but she didn’t care; she’d fight a little longer just to watch him. Over the weeks she’d returned to the capital, her strength had come back quickly. Between her Omegas, good food, and Lukas, she was healing.

  The doctors didn’t understand her fast recovery but were pleased with it. She shuttled to Morgantown weekly for testing and follow-up. In the end, she decided her brain had needed to rewire, and that was explanation enough.

  She watched as the muscles rippled over his chest, making his dark tattoos dance, and her staff dropped just a hair. Chuckling, he flexed for her, grinning. A trickle of slick dripped from her, and his grin fell. He growled low, and she responded with more slick. Grabbing her hair, he pulled her to him. She went limp and molded to his body. His mouth covered hers, and he tasted her for only the second time.

  Growling deeper, he grabbed her staff and tossed it aside, taking her to the mat in one move. She purred her appreciation of his strength. Grabbing her sports bra in both hands, he ripped it down the center, exposing her breasts to the hot air in the gym. She arched into him, purred louder, and all control fled The Alpha.

  In one move, her yoga pants followed the bo staff, and he was buried between her thighs, feasting off the slick pouring from her. His tongue found her swollen nub, and he laved it mercilessly, causing more and more slick to run from her. He took it all in; her body quaked and shook with need until she exploded on his tongue and filled his belly with her pleasure.

  She shook, weak from her orgasm. He went to her nipples and sucked them hard, showing her no mercy. She needed this, he decided. They both did. Fighting the urge to claim her outside of estrous, he growled low at her neck, and her body went limp in response. Returning to her breasts, he cupped them roughly, rubbing his thumb over the scar from her gunshot. He nipped her nipple, and her hips rose to meet his. He purred for her, making her go limp. He gloried in her response to him.

  He wasn’t breaking his laws. Was not. She had chosen him, and he was doing his duty to help her body become stronger. He parted her thighs with his knees and poised above her.

  “Yes, or No, Eve?” he purred; Alphas will be Alphas.

  “Yes,” she hissed through bared teeth and snapped at the arm, caging her.

  He thrust into her wet heat to his balls, and when he was seated there, he stilled, growling and making her squirm beneath him.

  “Look at me,” he demanded, growling deeper when her eyes refused to open.

  “Open your eyes, Eve, and look at me.” He growled deeper and slick flowed from her, causing her to slide on the mats under him.

  She opened her eyes, meeting his ferocious green eyes with her bright blue.

  “You are mine. Say it,” he said, slamming his hips into her and making her uterus quiver with need.

  “Lukas, I…”

  “Say. It. Eve,” he growled low again at the base of her neck where he would someday stake his claim. He pressed his cock deeper into her, and she cried out at the feel of it. He moved hard and fast on her, punishing her for not answering soon enough. She came. He pulled out enough so that she could not milk his growing knot with her spasms.

  He was not done with her yet.

  “Say it, Eve,” Still, she refused, so he showed her with his body why he was the only Alpha she would ever need. He pulled, growled, fucked, and licked orgasm after orgasm from her until she could take no more, refusing to give her his knot, he twisted his hips into her over and over.

  Breathing hard, she bucked against him weakly. Never had he fucked a woman like this. It was raw, naked, and real. She came on him again, pulsing and gripping his cock like a vice. She growled in frustration when he did not give her his knot. Snapping at his neck and shoulders from where he pinned her, she growled deeper when her teeth did not find his skin.

  Her pupils blown in the Omega way, her eyes met his. “I’m yours, Lukas. Yours. Only yours.”

  He tightened his hold on the back of her neck and inhaled the sweet scent of their mating. She relaxed in his grip, and he pushed as deep into her as his cock allowed, causing her to cry out. Hitting her deepest parts over and over, she came again, and this time, when her muscles massaged his knot, he let go and filled her, his knot expanding and locking them together, keeping his cum from spilling out.

  Her breath did not slow, and her pupils stayed blown, and he inhaled again.

  Her estrous shouldn’t come for over a month, but as the last one had been artificially suppressed, he couldn’t be sure. She growled under him and slick poured from her as she tilted her hips toward him again, forcing his knot deeper with her muscles. He stilled, breathing the scent he would know anywhere. Sweet, ripe, Omega heat scented the air, and he scooped her up, wrapping her legs around his waist, and ran.

  He took the stairs to their suite two at a time with her attached to him at his base. Growling low into his neck, she nipped up the line of it to his chin as he ran.

  It wasn’t that they weren’t safe in the gym, but the smell of Omega in estrous would travel, and he didn’t want to risk it.

  He wasn’t ready for this. She was still too weak and wasn’t prepared for this either. Gripping his earlobe in her teeth, she bit down, drawing blood. He purred for her, reaching up and kneading her scalp as he dashed up the last set of stairs, locking the doors behind them. He sat Eve down, feeling the knot abate and their fluids rush between her legs.

  “Lukas, I need…” she stopped, fighting to come back to herself and losing.

  “I know. I know, Sweet Thing. I’ve got you.” His cock dripped as he prepared to enter his first ever rut with his mate. She tipped her nose up, scenting him on the air.

  Before things went too far, he called for the Beta Maid, Letracia, to bring them gallon jugs of water and nesting material. Telling her to leave them outside the door and not to disturb them unless he called. He wrapped Eve in a soft blanket and held her on his lap, waiting. Her entire body shook as she fought against her need. Slick dripped down her legs and pooled onto the floor under her, and her temperature soared.

  A knock sounded. “You may be Alpha, Alpha, but if you hurt that girl, I’ll poison your greens,” Letracia said from the door.

  The Alpha growled a response and jerked the door open, pulling in the supplies outside.

  “Bring water. Every day. Knock and mind your tongue, Beta,” he hissed at the Beta woman, sending her scrambling. Poison his greens indeed.

  Eve fell on the blankets, pillows, and sheets, rubbing them along her face and down her body. She fashioned them into her best nest, piece by piece and layer by layer, in the pattern only an Omega sees. She rubbed each piece against her skin before placing them, dripping slick on some pieces and rubbing others on Lukas to catch the scent leaking from him in steady drips. He stood and allowed her to do as she needed, marveling at the process and enjoying watching her lose herself to the biology she fought against. She was his. This strong, amazing, perfect, responsive Omega was his. She was allowing him to serve her and serve he would.

  He knew what happened to the last guy that screwed this up.

  Pupils blown and nest built, she turned to him and growled, slashing at him with her tiny Omega claws and trying to push
him into her nest. He met her eyes, purred, and handed her a gallon of water. She drank it down, and he handed her another.

  When it was gone, he allowed himself to be cornered and dropped onto her nest with a sigh. The smell of them surrounding him was magnificent, causing him to relax into it, just for a moment. She perched over him, her movements feline, no blue showing in her eyes. She rubbed both sides of her face along his neck and nipped his ears until she drew blood. Slick poured from her, and she reached down, feeding it to him before sliding down his body and taking him into her mouth. She would need the calories, so he laid still for her.

  As much as he wanted to flip her over and start rutting, he waited. She was consumed by her need, but he was not. Not yet. The fire started in his loins when her mouth pulled his cock hard, but he held out, not wanting to lose himself so soon.

  She wasn't gentle. As with everything she did, she came at him like a warrior. Sucking and licking him until she got what she wanted. She pulled him down her esophagus so that his knot was even with her lips, and when he blew his seed into her belly, she sucked and pulled at his knot with lips and hands until she got every precious drop.

  His balls filled in an instant, and he flipped the cum dazed Omega onto her knees, entering her from behind. She fought him, swiping at him with her claws and growling low at him, as she bucked against him. He gripped the back of her neck hard to subdue her fight, pushed her face into the soft furs and blankets of their nest, and pounded into her at a punishing pace, losing more and more of himself to the rut.

  He came again, knotting her deep, he pulled her to him and lay her down, spooning her from behind as the knot held them together. She lay still in his arms, sated for a moment, purring her pleasure and singing his praises as her Alpha. Then her need rose again, and she ground against him with a growl, urging him to serve her. The knot abated, and pushed his rigid cock deep inside her, reaching down between them to feed her their combined fluids.