While Miles showered and changed in the main bathroom, I used the en suite attached to the guest room. As I was toweling off, I heard the sound of a motorcycle engine approaching.
Dressing quickly, I jogged downstairs. It wasn’t law enforcement coming out way. Not with a single, solitary motorcycle. I went outside to find Heath on the porch and Blaise climbing off his bike.
“You got here okay then,” he said to me, looking relieved.
“They did,” Heath answered for me. “What were you thinking sending them here?”
“I was thinking he’s our friend, he’s the head of our clan, and we owe him our help at the very least.
Heath glanced over at me. “There is no clan. Not yet.”
“But there will be,” Blaise said, looking to me. “Right?”
“That’s the plan,” I said. “But I need the one thing we’re most short of right now. Time.”
“I hope you have a plan. Because you can’t stay here.”
Heath’s words were sharp and both I and Blaise turned to stare at him.
“Look, I have sympathy for you, Jet, I do. But I don’t want a tactical team landing in on us with my wife and newborn daughter in the house.”
“No, you’re right. We shouldn’t have come here.”
Heath shook his head. “You’re here now. So what can we do to help?”
I outlined my plan. Blaise was aware of some of it but not the sum total.
“It’s not exactly a master plan,” Heath said.
“It doesn’t need to be. We just need enough time to stay the hand of the law. Anything more would see us literally on the run or having to leave the country. We can’t set up a clan in exile. And that’s the endgame. A clan. I know it doesn’t matter much to you, Heath. But there are so many Alphas and Omegas out there to which this will mean a great deal.”
Heath went to check on Sophie leaving Blaise and me alone in the living room.
“How is Miles?”
“I don’t even know where to start.”
I explained the conditions I’d found him in, hoping Blaise could provide some clarity.
“It’s by the book how to break someone down. Sensory deprivation; make it dark, cold, restrict food and water, disorientate so they don’t know if it’s day or night.”
“But why? They need their Omegas, they’re desperate for them. Why tear them down like that?”
“So they accept the Alpha teams they force-bond to them. The Alphas bring food and warmth. At first, their touch is abhorrent, but the basic drive for survival eventually overrides that. It’s a really horrible technique but they have very high success rates. By the end of processing, one Omega can ‘power’ a six-man team of Alphas.”
As he spoke, I could feel the anger bubbling up inside me. How dare they treat my Omega like that.
“You could have told me this before I left.”
“I didn’t want you going in there blinded by anger. You needed a level head if you were going to get him out. Which you’ve done. Now all you have to do is work out a way to hold on to him.”
Easier said than done.
“What do I do about the stuff they did to him? Is it permanent, will it affect our bond?”
“They only had him for four days. Processing takes a minimum of ten. I don’t know the ins and out, but there’s no way they forced him into a bond after only four days.”
I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Miles had the scents of half a dozen different Alphas all over him.”
“Yeah, they start the desensitization early. Get the scents on him, leave them as long as possible so his body curtails the negative reactions. It’s to prevent him going into bond shock when they make their first attempt.”
Shocked was a good way to describe Miles when I found him. Even now that the sedatives had worn off, he still had a haunted look in his eyes.
“What would bond shock look like?”
“Withdrawn, cold and shivering, easily startled.”
Miles ticked all those boxes and then some.
“I don’t know if I’m cut out for this.”
“For what, being Alpha Prime? You were born to do this.”
“No, not that part. What if I can’t coax him and me into what we need to be? He doesn’t want me to touch him and I’m not exactly feeling that Alpha-Omega attraction everyone talks about.”
It was meant to be immediate, to be the strongest attraction you’d ever felt to another person. While Miles’ scent told me he was mine, it didn’t sing to my soul in the way I’d anticipated. Maybe I’d been expecting too much.
“He’s traumatized, Jet. And you’re being too hard on yourself. On both of you. You’re reacting to his fear and to those scents on him. Try again once he’s scent free and tell me you don’t notice a difference.”
He sat forward, holding my gaze.
“Please, Jet. Don’t give up on this before you’ve even started. You are our last hope for a clan in this generation. There are no more Alpha Primes. If you and he don’t bond, there’s no hope for the clan and no hope for the rest of us.”
I was all too aware of the stark truth, the pressure heavy on my shoulders. But I’d be damned if I was putting that responsibility on Miles.
Chapter Ten
Miles
They gave me towels and showed me to a bathroom to shower. The Alpha who’d taken me north seemed particularly keen to get me clean. I wasn’t quite sure why but I was happy to do it. The scent of those Alphas -my Alpha team- still clung to my skin, sending my stomach roiling every time I caught a hint of them.
The Alpha who kept telling people he was mine was different. I liked how he smelled. The other Alpha here, Heath, looked at me like I was a problem. He didn’t smell like he was mine but neither did he smell wrong, like the others. Would he be on my Alpha team up here in the North? How many would there be?
I wasn’t sure I could go through all that again. My arm still burned where the other Alpha had held his dead mark to my live one. My mark didn’t look any different but the skin around it crawled.
The shower was exactly what I needed. Warm water falling in sheets across my skin, steam rising around me, so all the dirt and sweat was washed away. I found some bodywash and scrubbed hard. There was a need there, to rid myself of every last trace of those Alphas’ scents. They seemed to be on every inch of my skin, even behind my ears and under my arms. And in my hair.
It felt strange to run my hands over my head so I tried not to think about it. But once I was out of the shower and standing in front of the mirror, it was impossible to ignore my shaved head and my stark, bruised face staring back at me.
What had I done? I’d run from my duty, from my country. I was a traitor. I’d turned my back on my Alpha team. Worse than that, I’d turned my back on my family. On my father. Even miles and miles away, I could feel the heavy weight of his disappointment. How did I fix this? How did I make it right?
It was odd to find myself sitting at a table in a stranger’s kitchen with a bowl of soup in front of me. Even weirder somehow to realize that it was just an ordinary home. Sophie, the woman who made me the soup, left the room, reappearing a few minutes later with a baby in her arms. The baby fussed, and she walked back and forth, rocking her.
“So your name is Miles, right?” she asked. “We saw you on TV.”
I could feel what little blood left in my face drain away. With everything that had happened after they started processing me, I’d forgotten the events of that day.
“You seemed so happy-” she paused. “No, happy is the wrong word. You seemed accepting, content with your choice.”
“I was. At least, I thought I was.” But then they’d stripped me naked and locked me in a dark room for what seemed like an eternity. “How long has it been? Since that day?”
Frowning, she took a seat opposite me. “You don’t know?”
“Things got… muddled. It was dark and-” I shut my mouth.
“They kept you in the dark?”
I didn’t want to say more, still confused from the sedatives Jethro had given me or maybe from the days of no food or water.
“It’s been four days since you were on TV that first time.”
I caught the inference. I’d been on TV since. They were probably replaying it, over and over. The next generation of Omega recruits. But maybe they’d stopped now that I was missing. Would they be broadcasting the fact that I was gone?
The implications of what I’d done, of the choice I’d made, were finally catching up with me. I needed to talk to Jethro. To tell him I’d made a terrible mistake.
I didn’t have long to wait to speak with the Alpha. He came to find me as I sat staring at the bowl in front of me. I wanted to eat it but I couldn’t bring myself to. Every time my hand reached for the spoon, it shook. In the Center, food had been the gift of my Alpha team. It seemed wrong to just take it.
Jethro dragged a chair around the wrong way and straddled it, resting his arms across the back.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better. Still sleepy. Still cold.” So cold, the kind of coldness I wasn’t sure I’d ever be rid of.
“You’re not eating your soup.”
It was an observation but allowed me enough room to ask. “Can I?”
Jethro frowned and cocked his head to the side, watching me closely.
“Of course. It’s for you.”
Relieved, I was able to reach for the spoon and ladle some into my mouth. Jethro seemed content to watch me eat for a while before he spoke.
“I wanted to talk to you about what we’ll do next.”
I let go of my spoon to give the Alpha my full attention.
“So did I. I… I need to go back.”
Clearly, that wasn’t what he’d expected me to say. He froze.
“Back? Back to the South?”
“I’m a traitor. I’ve betrayed my country, my people, our Alpha troops. I’ve turned my back on my family.”
I heard a noise by the door and looked up. Another Alpha had arrived. He was staring at me strangely, like I’d sprouted a second head.
“Miles.”
Jethro drew my attention back to him.
“You want to go back to the South?”
“It’s my duty, my purpose.” I felt like a broken record, the words coming easily to my lips, again and again, but sounding like fragments, words chopped into pieces and tossed around.
“What if they’re wrong, about where your purpose lies?”
Jethro leaned closer as he spoke, his voice quiet but firm, drawing my eyes to his again.
“But they’re not. I’m an Omega.”
The Alpha stretched his arm out toward me, his mark glowing brightly.
“You’re not an Omega. You’re my Omega. Hold your arm out.”
I did. Side by side, it was easy to see how similar they were. Turn mine upside down and reverse the image and it was his.
“Put your mark on mine,” he urged.
I started to shake. The other Alpha, he’d done that, place his mark over mine. And the pain, the pain…
Pulling my body inward, I shrank back into my seat, but I was too afraid to pull my arm away.
“Please. Please don’t make me.”
He pulled his arm back, slowly and deliberately, looking away for a moment before glancing back at me, his expression troubled.
“What did they do to you?”
I didn’t think he was really asking me a question, but I answered it, nonetheless.
“They called it processing.”
I drew my arm back, wrapping it around my middle, safe from prying eyes and Alpha touches. For now, at least.
“Miles, I’d like you to stay in the North and be my Omega. I won’t force you to stay, but I need you to give me some time to explain the purpose you’d have here, as Omega Prime.”
Omega Prime? I’d never heard that title before. What did it mean?
“Do you think you could agree to that? Not to staying indefinitely, but for a few days. Enough time for us to get to know one another, and for you to understand what it would mean for you if you were to stay here.”
I should have said no, insisted he returned me, but his words weren’t the words I’d expected. Would it be like in the South?
“How many Alphas?”
A frown crossed his face.
“What do you mean?”
“How many on your team? How many would have to… touch me?” How many strange scents on my skin, burrowing inside me?
“None, Miles. That’s not how it works up here, in the North. There’s just me. I’m your Alpha. No others. Just me.”
I glanced toward the door, but the other Alpha was gone. Jethro saw where I was looking.
“Oh, that’s just Blaise. He’s a friend and an Alpha, and if we bond, he’ll be part of our clan. Heath, too.”
“So he… he won’t…” I looked down at my arm, at my mark, the memories of the other Alpha pushing his arm against mine flooding me.
“Damn it, you’re shaking,” Jethro said softly. I glanced up at him as he got to his feet, pulling off his jacket, and laying it around my shoulders.
Crouching next to my chair, he seemed to take pains not to touch me. But this close, his scent called to me, earthy and warm with a hint of spice underneath.
“No one here is going to hurt you, I promise. Do you really want to go back there? Nothing will have changed. They’ll put you right back in that room and start the processing all over again.”
I shuddered at that, pulling the Alpha’s jacket tighter around me. It smelled like it had been freshly washed but it also smelled like him and I took comfort in that.
“I…” What did I want? Did I even know? There was a war going on inside my head, between duty and fear. And right then, fear was winning.
“You don’t have to decide right away. But if you and I are to have a few days to set things straight, we can’t stay here. There are people looking for us even now. It won’t be long before they track us here. And I don’t want to bring trouble down on my friends.”
He reached for me and I felt shame because I wanted it. I wanted him to touch me, to feel the rightness that contrasted just how wrong the other Alphas had felt.
His fingers tipped my chin up, his eyes meeting mine.
“Will you come with me, Miles?”
I nodded, relief warring with misery. I wasn’t ready to go back, not yet. What difference were a few days going to make?
Chapter Eleven
Jethro
We got back on the road in the late afternoon. Not knowing how far the authorities had tracked us, we switched up our mode of transport.
When Miles saw the bike, he balked at first.
“Never ridden a motorcycle before?” I asked him.
“No. Father said it wasn’t appropriate for an Omega. My brother has one.”
“Let me guess, he’s an Alpha.”
Miles nodded.
“We get all the fun,” Blaise said, handing me the keys. “Cam says everything is ready for you. All you have to do is get there.”
Cam was an old friend, someone I trusted with my life. That he’d drop everything to help us didn’t surprise me.
“Great, thanks,” I said, securing my helmet.
Heath and Sophie came out to say goodbye. I was glad we were parting on good terms but I could see they were relieved we were leaving.
I climbed onto the bike and turned on the ignition while Miles fumbled with the helmet we’d borrowed from Heath. Then he climbed on behind me.
“You’ll need to hold on tight,” Blaise was telling him. “You can grip the seat if you want but you’re going to be on some rough terrain so the safest bet would be to wrap your arms around Jethro’s waist.”
I was glad it was Blaise issuing the instructions and not me. I wouldn’t want Miles to think I was trying to push physical contact between us. But his arms encircled my waist readily enough.
“Good, hold on
tight to him and don’t make any sudden moves that might knock the bike off balance.”
“I won’t,” Miles promised.
“See you on the other side,” I called to them, as I put the bike into gear and we took off.
Miles clung tighter to me as we left the driveway and turned onto the road, picking up speed. A moment later, I felt his face press against my back.
“Are you doing okay back there?” I called.
“Doing okay,” he shouted back.
We had a long road ahead of us, literally and figuratively, but at least we were on our way.
There was a warmth to the summer sun beating down on us that tried its best to counteract the chill from the air around us. I hoped I was buffering Miles from the worst of it as we rode.
We pulled off the road in the early evening onto a little-used track, but one I was intimately familiar with. Some of the tension in me eased at that. We were off-road and out of sight again. We hadn’t been stopped or come across any checkpoints or anything to suggest they were narrowing in on our position.
The cabin came into view up ahead and I slowed us down, braking to a complete stop outside. There was evidence someone had been here recently but that was Cam or one of his friends, dropping off the supplies for us. I waited for Miles to climb off before I dismounted.
“The bike stays here,” I explained, wheeling it toward the shed. “But we won’t. It’s too exposed, too close to civilization. We need to go deeper, get lost for a bit.”
“How far?” Miles asked, peering through the trees into the distance.
“The place I’m thinking of is a day and a half’s hike if you know the terrain like I do.”
“And if you don’t know the terrain?”
“Three days minimum to get to where we’re going.” Either way, we were putting some distance between us and the authorities.
The key for the cabin was buried shallowly in the earth just under the porch step. I unearthed it, opened the door, and ducked inside. There were two backpacks lined up against the wall, and a note pinned to one of them.
Love Before Dawn: An Omegaverse Story (Kindred Book 1) Page 5
