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

by Sharilyn Skye

  "Jason, report," he yelled through the door leading to his Alpha’s office.

  Jason stumbled in, carrying a sheaf of papers. "There are no reports of unrest from the Seventh District," he started, but then stopped when the Alpha's eyebrows knitted together in irritation. "With that being said, Sir, there aren't reports of anything coming from the Seventh. The area seems to have gone silent."

  "That can't be right, I know the Alpha in charge of the Seventh, he is more than capable. Continue. Tell me about the Omega." The big man leaned back into his chair, crossing his ankle over his knee, fingers steepling.

  "Eve Jackson Hatfield, twenty-three years old, born in Elkins of the Seventh District but grew up in the Capital of the Seventh, Morgantown. Educated at Seventh University, although she also studied for a bit in Atlanta as well."

  "Atlanta?" the Alpha interrupted.

  "Yes, Atlanta. Degrees in Dynamics and Law, although she did not sit for the bar exam." The smaller Alpha shifted from foot to foot, and The Alpha knew there was more.

  "Two degrees?"

  "Yes, two. Top of her class also, and comes from a wealthy family that is heavily involved in politics. Parents are both Alphas and government officials, which, as you know, is beyond rare, but parentage was verified as such circumstances warrant. She is confirmed and registered as an Omega but was never contracted for, not that I could find. Her file hasn't been updated in three years."

  "Three years? She got two degrees before she was twenty?" he whistled low. Intelligent. He would be careful not to forget that. "Why has her file not been updated?"

  "I'm not sure, Sir. I did some digging, and few files from the Seventh District have been updated. One or two might be nothing, but there is very little new information coming out of the area." Jason's eyes tipped to the right just a bit. "Could she be a spy? An assassin?" he asked.

  Laughter boomed from the Alpha, shaking the glasses on his wet bar. "I suppose she could be, and if she is, she is very skilled at subterfuge." And cock-sucking, he thought but did not say. "Registered matings?"

  "So, that's where it gets weird, and I called a contact to verify this. No registered Alphas. Not one. There was a Beta lover registered, but then that registration was withdrawn right after it was documented. When I searched for the man's name, nothing comes up. It's like he doesn't exist and never did." The Alpha looked the other man in the eyes, holding them as his fury rose. If this Beta existed, he would be dead by dawn. "Here is her registry picture and file." Jason slid the folder over the desk to his Alpha, who slid it to the side without looking.

  "Anything else, Second?" he snarled.

  "I have a team looking through drone footage. They found something in sector eight, area two. There are thousands of hours of footage to go through, though, but so far this is all we found," The smaller alpha picked up a remote to the screen on the wall and pressed play.

  It must have been a scouting drone. The woods were checked regularly for threats of the animal and human variety. This particular drone had caught Eve’s movements and hovered above the clearing a hundred miles from the capital. The Alpha watched as Eve, naked and skeletal, squeezed herself from a crack in the hillside. She collapsed to the ground, her skin pale and bloody. Dragging herself to a stream, she fell in, cupping her hands and drinking, and drinking, and drinking. The fine tremor in them was caught by the drone's sensitive lens. That water should be fatal to anyone who drank it, but still, she drank. Blood trickled down her arms from her wrists. Her hair was a tangled mess, and tears tracked down the dirt covering her face.

  Chest heaving, she washed before laying her arms on the side of the stream and resting. Deep gouges marred the skin of her wrists, which continued to bleed even after she stilled. Without motion to keep it there, the drone moved on. The footage was from four days ago at the end of Eve's estrous. Why would she do that to herself, he thought. Why? Then he shuddered. Had she not done exactly what she did, her entire life, she would not have landed in his lap. She would not be safely tucked away in his rooms. Half dead or not, he was glad for it. "Get me a shuttlecraft. I want to see this place. Then I'm going to speak with the leadership of the Seventh District about a war."

  Eve meandered downtown, using her bo staff as a cane and another of The Alpha’s overly large dresses as a disguise. She had wrapped a gray scarf around her hair and hunched in on herself so that she would be mistaken for an old lady. She had doubled her pine tar tincture so she could not be scented, and being unsure of the customs of the New South capital, she did not want to test them.

  She stopped in the first restaurant she came across and ordered breakfast. A heap of eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy with grits should have been enough to take the edge off, but she wanted more. Always more. She moved on to another restaurant a few blocks down and, using her coin card again, ordered French toast and bacon. At the third restaurant, she began to feel full, and at the fourth, she could only eat dessert, although it was a very fine dessert. She found a place that made cupcakes and, unable to decide what flavor she wanted, she ordered three.

  She wandered the shops, picking up necessary items she had been unable to bring with her as well as some regular clothes. Betas here wore everything from jeans to power suits. She picked up a few pairs of jeans and some long-sleeved tee shirts; it would pay to be comfortable. She wasn’t used to anything but boots or bare feet, but she bought a pair of sneakers anyway, just in case.

  She ate lunch at three different restaurants so as not to raise suspicion, but her trek into the city had not gone unnoticed. She picked up her tail after her second lunch. It was one of the guards from the doors of the capitol building. He had been the one to see her leave this morning. She would need to find another exit door.

  She finished her third lunch and placed a hand over her rounded belly. Even though she was supposed to be locked up in her room, she had never felt freer. She would ditch the guard and return to her room in time for Lukas to pick her up for dinner. Maybe tonight she could eat like a civilized human.

  She stopped by the grocery store and bought as many pints of ice cream as she could carry, skirted out the side door, and sneaked back through the afternoon shadows.

  As soon as The Alpha’s transport shuttle touched down, he could smell her. Her Omega scent was so strong in the clearing that his cock instantly hardened. Lifting his nose and inhaling deeply, he followed it to where the scent was overwhelming. The crack in the stone couldn’t have been more than six inches wide, placing his nose into it caused him to become crazed. He pounded his hands against the opening until they were bloody, the rock fell away so that he could squeeze through.

  The cave was small. Light filtered in from the wider opening, and he could see the trash she left behind. An empty gallon jug and bags that were torn open by teeth littered the ground. Chains had been attached to a rock formation, and the wrist straps were bloody. It was not a complicated closure. A person could easily undo them if they were in possession of their faculties, which an Omega in estrous is not.

  With a roar, he ripped them from the wall, bringing the bloodied leather to his nose. A pool of slick still lay wet and deep. Trailing his fingers through it, he sucked them dry before falling on it like a ravenous beast. When there was no more to be sucked off the rocks, he jerked his pants down, fisting his cock over and over until he emptied himself on her scent. There was no thought to it, just the desire to possess. To mark. Any notion that she was a broken malfunctioning Omega fled. She was the ripest Omega he had ever smelled. Her scent alone drove him mad.

  He leaned against the wall, breath coming hard. He couldn’t let his men see him like this; he knew that. The Beta guards would smell Omega slick and Alpha cum, but they wouldn’t understand. As a Beta, they simply couldn’t. He was almost jealous. Straightening his clothes, he walked back out the way he came.

  “Sir, one of the guards just reported that your mother is in town and has been out shopping all day. He is tailing her in case there is an issue.�
�

  “My mother?” the Alpha asked. “My mother is not due for a visit.”

  “The guard on the door said she left this morning and is eating her way through Greenville.”

  “That sounds like my mother.” He thought to himself; it also sounded like someone else he knew.

  His mother was an ancient Omega. She had delivered him well into her fifties. In theory, an Omega can remain much younger in appearance and healthier into old age than the other dynamics. They were also theorized to remain fertile into middle age if they were properly cared for. The theories on proper care of the Omega varied, and only a few Omegas lived up to the theory. No one knew why. His mother was the happiest person he knew. Maybe her happiness was the reason for her health.

  If she was in town, he would have some explaining to do. She would be less than pleased to find he had locked up an Omega he intended to claim, with or without her consent. She was funny like that.

  Pulling out his Comlink, he checked in on Eve. Nothing had changed. Nothing. Trash still littered the area around her nest, which was unusual. Omegas were extremely territorial and protective of their environment. It was one thing for an Omega to leave trash and take a nap, but entirely another to leave it all day. He looked closer at the nest. No rise and fall could be seen from under its covering.

  She wasn’t there. Surely it was a coincidence that an old Omega was eating half of the city but probably not.

  “The trip to the Seventh will wait; we need to get back to the city.” He growled so low that the others heard only the growl and not the words behind it.

  They scurried to the craft and lifted off. “Get that guard on the link, now.” The Alpha raged, ripping the Comlink out of the Beta’s hand when the guard picked up.

  “Where is my mother now?” he said.

  “She’s in the bathroom of the grocery store. She bought ten kinds of ice cream, then slipped inside. She’s taking forever, but I’ve got my eyes on her.” said the guard, stammering at the tone in the Alpha’s voice.

  “She’s long gone. Find her. I want her arrested.”

  “You want your mother arrested, Alpha? That seems a bit unusual,” the Beta challenged. “She’s been on her best behavior all day. Especially considering she’s your mother. She has done nothing but shop and eat, the last time she was in town, there was almost a riot.”

  “I want her arrested! I will be there as quickly as this piece of shit will go!” he shouted into the Comlink before smashing it over and over into the arm of his chair.

  Chapter 7

  “Mrs. Alpha, Ma’am. I am so sorry to have to do this, but you are under arrest.” The boy that approached her at the doors to the capital couldn’t have been more than eighteen. His deep southern accent made him sound overly sweet and wholly mortified by what he was about to do. “Don’t make me handcuff you, Ma’am.”

  “Whatever am I under arrest for, Sir?” Eve said, trying to sound old and cute.

  “Your son made me do it!” The man shouted, cowing away from her.

  “Lukas?” she asked, letting shock bleed into her voice.

  “The Alpha, Ma’am. I’m sorry. If you’ll just come with me.” He put his hand on her elbow and ushered her carefully through the building, down the elevator, and into a cell.

  It was a clean cell by any standard. She’d been in worse. “Would you be a dear and put my ice cream in Lukas’s freezer, so it doesn’t melt?” Eve asked, keeping her voice low. “All of my favorite flavors are in there.”

  “Uh. I’m supposed to watch you until he gets back; he should be here any minute.” He ducked his head and looked away.

  “Son, that is the best ice cream the New South makes, I won’t see it go to waste.” She tapped her bo staff on the floor in irritation.

  “Yes, Ma’am. I suppose you’re right. It’s not like you can get out anyway, right? You sit tight; I’ll be right back.” He left her alone.

  In less than two minutes, she was out of the cell, up the back stairs, and headed to her rooms to get ready for dinner. Mr. The Alpha had better not be late; she was getting hungry.

  She was dressed in one of his ridiculous dresses and waiting calmly on the little chair by the window when she heard his roar. It reached up from the bottom of the building, nearly shaking the foundation with its force.

  Her door slammed open, taking out the drywall behind it. His chest heaved, and every vein in his neck stood out. He relaxed a hint when he saw her, but just. He crossed the room in two strides, jerking her from the chair, turning her, and smashing her face into the wall. He smelled of her stale estrous and fresh cum. She knew that he had found her last hiding spot, and it had not set well with him. His eyes were half-mad, and no one was home behind them. His features were tense; his jaw was clenched so hard she heard his teeth grinding. His hands pushed her dress over her hips, and his cock threatened her entrance. She hadn’t seen him take it out of his pants, and the feeling startled her. Her hands were gripped by one of his, and he pulled her up tight, readying himself against the wall with his other hand.

  “Stop,” she said, her voice firm but calm. “I told you that you couldn’t hold me. I have done nothing wrong, and I am where you left me. If you rape me now, you are in breach of our contract, and I will leave.”

  “You will not leave,” he growled, the tone caused slick to pool in her cup and spillover just enough that it scented the air. “You are mine. Regardless of what you think. Regardless of what you say. You are not leaving this place. You made your choice when you came to me, and I’m making mine to take you.” He growled low, calling forth her slick. She felt her knees weaken in response, and her body sagged against him as she experienced her first, true need as an Omega. She needed him, and she hated it. Her body called to him, and he answered, despite what she wanted or what she thought.

  “That’s not true. You agreed you give me a choice. Are you not a man of honor?”

  “No, I’m not. You’ve mistaken me for someone else. Besides, you are under arrest,” he growled into her neck, nipping along the line of her ear, drawing blood. She could smell his rage and deeper than that, his desire. His growls changed to low purrs, and every muscle in her body went slack in response as he purred for her in the way that only an alpha can for his omega.

  “Under arrest for what,” she whispered, fighting to keep her brain rational and functioning. More slick leaked from her cup as his vocalization changed to a low growl when he caught the stronger scent coming off her. He was so close his breath ruffled her hair. Taking one hand from the wall, he wrapped his hand in it, pulling it tight until her neck was bowed back into him and exposed to his mouth.

  “Breaking and exiting,” his growl deepened at the speed of her pulse against his lips, and she felt a cramp that signaled disaster. The cup wasn’t made to withstand this amount of slick.

  An Omega’s worst betrayal comes from her own body, and hers screamed for him. She had heard the stories about what an alpha could do to an omega with just his growl, and they were not wrong. She had discounted them, thinking herself stronger than that. She had underestimated the power an Alpha would hold over her. She’d been a fool. Her belly cramped again, and she felt the cup slip out in a waterfall of the stuff. It came in a rush responding to his call, filling the air with its sweet, thick scent. The pine tar in her nose did nothing to mask the Alpha’s intense response, and her body reacted to the pheromones he pumped out.

  Her breathing quickened, and her core clenched against itself in the absence of what it needed. “Breaking and exiting is not a crime, Sir.” Her words came out in a strangled gasp; vocal cords so stretched that she couldn’t make the proper sounds. She ached for him to fill her and hated herself for it.

  “It is now; I just signed it into law.” He shoved into her in one thrust, making her take his mass. He felt her stretch around him. He pulled out and pushed in again, not allowing her body to adjust; he kept her pinned by her hair thrusting in and out of her roughly, filling her to the point
of discomfort.

  “I’m not sure who you think you are, coming here, demanding things, you ask for too much. You are Omega. Now you are my Omega.”

  She said nothing as he took her; there was nothing to say. She hadn’t wanted it to be this way, but she had known it was a possibility, and the feel of him moving inside her was delicious. She had hoped for better but had known that it was probable that he would rape her; this was war. Rape was an effective tactic used by many societies; he was no different. She had thought he would be honorable and accept her terms. She’d been wrong.

  Gripping her hips, he pounded into her, his grunts and purrs loud in the silence. The sound of his flesh hitting hers was accented by her sharp intake of breath each time his hips met hers. It was stunning to feel his hardness inside of her, touching her in places she had never been touched.

  If it had been her choice, she would have reveled in it, for the silken feel of his cock was the best feeling she’d ever experienced. She was split open, filled, and remade each time he pulled out of her and pushed back in. Slick poured around him, easing his thrusts and encouraging him to fuck her harder. She could feel his knot swelling at the base of his cock, and she tried to pull away. He held her easily, not registering the movement. Sweat dripped off his chest and onto her back, making trails down her waist and dropping to the floor.

  She’d never had an Alpha. Only one Beta. An Alpha’s cock is much, much larger than a Beta’s. She’d never been knotted. Ever. As his thrusts become more frantic, she knew it was coming. He pulled her up to his chest and flicked his hand over her clit, making her cry out for the first time.

  Fighting it, she bucked against him wildly, trying to keep silent. He could take her body, but he couldn’t make her like it.

  Only he could, and he did.

  His fingers found that perfect spot over and over, and she crashed against him, her orgasm came out in a yell of desperation and rage. She clenched around him over and over, forcing him to spill into her, her grip on his cock ironclad. His knot lodged deep behind her pubic bone, and she cried out at the ecstasy of it. She came again. And again, as her body shook from the violence of it.