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

by Sharilyn Skye

  She got up, showered, put on her black veils, and headed out. She would have breakfast and spend some more money on things she didn’t need, but it was her last chance to be free. Or at least to pretend to be.

  She had a duty and a responsibility to make things right since she was the one who reignited this age-old war. Where once the embers of that old hatred had died down, her actions had started that snowball rolling straight to hell once again. Yes, there were other issues and other sides, but they might not have come to such a head if she hadn’t done what she had done. If he hadn’t done what he had done.

  Another man without honor.

  Maybe she should forgive Lukas and resume her contract, but she couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t imprison her for real, and that would be disastrous. No. She would leave and finish this fight on her own, but before she went, she might as well take everything she could from him.

  She stopped by his office on her way out of the building. She had planned on filling herself with all that Alpha nourishment before breakfast, but when she knocked on his door, she found his office empty. When she looked out his window, she also found his shuttlecraft gone.

  Almost through her third meal of the morning, she had the wherewithal to wonder what that meant.

  She drifted through the city, looking at art and stopping at food carts. Not trying to lose her tail, she moved deftly, but not so fast he couldn’t keep up. A different man followed her today, and she knew Jason would be out of commission for a bit. That made her smile. The man was an Alpha and a good fighter, but she beat him all the same.

  In a few more days, a week at the longest, she would be able to beat a crowd of them. She was so close. Her body moved with lithe grace it had not in a long, long time. She gloried in the strength of her muscles and the sureness of her stride.

  She slipped through the Greenville crowd unnoticed. It was a skill she had been taught by those better than her to blend in any environment, and she was good at it. She had a gift. In a sporting goods store, she stocked up on anything she might need to fight a war in the wildest place left on earth.

  She bought rope, rappelling equipment, and knives. She did not have a license to buy a laser sidearm, but she used her skill and slipped a few into her pack anyway, knowing her tail watched her. Let him arrest her again and see where that led. She preferred an old-fashioned Glock to one of the laser weapons, but she would use any advantage she had, and her Omega friend, Lorelei, was a crack shot with them.

  She slid through the lunch crowd and headed back to the capitol building and her room; she would change and wait for The Alpha to return. Maybe she could engage another of his men in a training session until he came back. Feeling the warm southern sun on her skin and confidence in her blood, she led her tail back to his home.

  Chapter 11

  In a large parking lot outside of an even larger hospital, The Alpha’s shuttlecraft landed. Waiting to meet him was his oldest friend and previous second, Rand Taylor. They shook hands, and the older man folded Lukas into a quick hug.

  “Jennings, what brings you?” Despite his age, the older alpha moved with quick grace and predatory ease.

  “Taylor, right to the point as always. Can’t The Alpha of the New South just come and see an old friend?” Lukas strode abreast with the other man, his eyes missing nothing. Around him, people averted their eyes and moved aside. They did not scurry or hide; they simply parted and let the pair of Alphas through.

  High on the flagpole in front of the behemoth the locals called a hospital flew an ancient flag depicting a W and a V with elongated edges of the letters. They nestled together and formed a symbol he thought long ago destroyed, yet here it was, flying with pride in full public view.

  Those around him watched curiously as he took everything in, most wearing shirts with the outline of the old state and the numbers 304 in the middle. Taylor felt The Alpha bristle and stiffen, his gait becoming less fluid.

  “This is Treason, Rand. I thought better of you than this,” he hissed through his teeth.

  Rand sighed, “Before you talk of treason, there are things you should know. Let’s have coffee and talk in private.”

  “There will be hell to pay, and you know it.”

  Rand could feel The Alpha’s rage and hoped he made it back to his office before the other man killed him. He knew that symbols of disunity were illegal and punishable as treason. “Maybe not,” he said. “You came here for a reason. It’s your first trip here that I recall. I’ll take my chances on the rest.” Rand clapped Lukas on the back and walked with purpose to the car that waited to take them to The Seventh Headquarters. They rode in silence.

  Everywhere he looked, Lukas saw redheads. Men, women, and children with fire-colored hair and pale skin walked with the bright sun glinting off their features. None had blue eyes that he could see, but they were all stunning in their contrast. He had never seen so many diverse people. Brown-skinned, tan-skinned, pale-skinned, and pink-skinned citizens walked the sidewalks between buildings, and he knew that Eve was telling the truth about the population of the area.

  Around them, a thousand people moved, and this was just in Morgantown. If there were this many people in ten square acres he could see, what of the rest of the place? Large groups laughed and talked on corners and watched as the shiny, black car passed them. Everywhere he looked, he saw the tee shirt and the flag. Everywhere he looked, he saw traitors and criminals.

  It had been illegal since 2085 to create, possess, or display any symbol of the former States, United States, or any logo that was in direct contradiction to the New South. And here he was inundated with them. Seething, he kept silent. Taylor was right; he was here for a reason and would deal with this insurrection another time.

  The place was beautiful, though. He couldn’t deny that part. Morgantown was a quaint town nestled into a bowl surrounded by lush mountains. Just like Greenville, there was green everywhere, which is not always the case in the New South. The Bombs had stripped much of the greenery and flattened the lower elevations of topography, but the mountains had shielded the two cities and those similar, taking the brunt of the fire and fallout the bombs brought with them.

  Surrounded by mountains, Morgantown itself was only about nine hundred feet above sea level and seemed to stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than the areas around it. While Morgantown still saw snow, Greenville rarely did. All in all, it was not a bad place.

  He watched the faces of the people as they passed. They were open and friendly, mostly anyway. He was stunned at the number of true Caucasians, having never seen so many in one place before. The racial mix was about even, and that was shocking. Elsewhere in the New South, the races had blended to form a relatively uniform light to moderate brown.

  He could see how easily Eve would fit in here and how it was that she moved so casually through his people. They were all beautiful, but it was nice to see some contrast among them, something he never saw at home. He practically gaped at the number of blonde and red-headed citizens he saw.

  “Things are different here, Alpha. Not better, not worse, just different. You’ll need to keep an open mind until You’ve heard what I must say. The conclusions you want to jump to don’t exist,” Rand said, sitting like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  Holding his tongue, The Alpha said nothing as he took it all in. The car slowed to a stop outside of a magnificent building in the middle of the city. Clean glass and modern lines marked it as the Seventh’s Headquarters. Smiling people with their 304 tee shirts waved to Rand as they exited the car and entered the building. Lukas didn’t understand, not even a little bit, what was going on.

  As they walked across the lobby, The Alpha took in the huge flags representing the New South and the now familiar W-V that hung from the balcony above the gleaming black granite floor. There was more money in Morgantown than in the capital, he knew that, but seeing this building drove that knowledge home. Many cities had chosen to retrofit existing build
ings to meet their needs as new construction on a grand scale was exorbitantly expensive and materials hard to find.

  This building was new. Much of the city was too. He would have to tread carefully, for there were secrets here he must learn and resources he could not afford to lose. He walked with Rand up the massive granite staircase and across the wide balcony to open French doors, past his blond secretary that smelled richly Omega, and into his office, shutting the door behind him.

  “Eve Hatfield,” The Alpha said before Rand could make it to his desk.

  The older man froze, changed directions, and poured two glasses of whiskey. He grabbed the bottle and carried it all to his desk, sitting one glass in front of Lukas. He slumped into his seat, scrubbing his face with a sigh. He took his drink, sipping it while he eyed the younger man in front of him.

  “You have her?” he said when he could trust his voice not to break.

  “I do,” Lukas said, eyeing the other man and sipping his glass of extraordinary whiskey.

  “I think I need something stronger.” Rand rose, going back to his wet bar and grabbing a decanter of clear liquid, pouring himself several fingers before offering some to Lukas. “Moonshine?” he asked, retaking his seat.

  “Sure. I can’t say I’ve ever had it,” Lukas said, a sense of dread filling his soul.

  He’d known Rand Taylor his entire life. Rand had been his father’s best friend and second in command. When Lukas succeeded his father, Rand had stayed on, helping the transition go smoothly. He had been The Alpha’s closest adviser and most trusted friend. Something big was going on in the Seventh, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know exactly what that was.

  “What is the charge? Sedition?” The older man closed his eyes with a deep sigh.

  The Alpha’s face snapped back like he’d been slapped. “Not sedition, not yet,” Lukas said, not wanting to tell the man everything.

  “If you have EJ, for whatever reason, you need to ask yourself why. What does she want from you?” he stopped, sighing, and bringing his eyes to those of the larger man in front of him. “There is nothing and no one that can hold that girl in a place she does not want to be held. Let me show you something.” Rand poured another shot of moonshine for the both of them, even though The Alpha had yet to drink his first one. He was going to need it and more.

  He rose from the desk and walked back through the French doors. Lukas followed, and together the men walked down the wide balcony overlooking the vast lobby below. The Alpha noted the slump to his friend’s back that had not been there before, and his sense of dread grew deeper.

  They passed many closed doors, finally opening one and closing it behind them. Rand turned the lights on and took a shuddered breath as he looked around the room. The Alpha’s eye went to the empty desk that sat neat and tidy in the center of the room. On either side of it were flags, one New South flag, and one W-V flag.

  On every surface and every wall were pictures. Eve smiled and laughed in them all. Lukas could see her progression from chubby, red-haired baby to young, glowing adulthood. She stood with others and alone. On a horse, with bows or guns, she posed. In every picture, she smiled. There was no shadow in her eyes. Not like now.

  The breath caught in The Alpha’s throat, and he went to look at them, unable to turn away. He drank in her beauty, her youth, her joy, and her life. It was like being there, and he wished he had been. Never had he seen anything more beautiful or anyone more loved than she had been.

  “This was her father’s office. Her mother’s is down the hall and is more of the same. They were both Alphas, and to have an Omega child together was beyond rare. They never treated her like an Omega,” Rand laughed.

  “I noticed,” Lukas laughed too.

  “I have no doubt you did. Come,” Rand demanded and shut the door behind them.

  The next office was Eve’s mother’s and, like Rand said, was more of the same. Eve’s graduation pictures, Eve’s homecoming pictures, Eve’s life hung on the walls of the smaller space. The smiling trio standing on what appeared to be a stone platform that overlooked a river and the mountains beyond.

  Eve looked like her mother, and Lukas could see the beauty she would yet become. It made him speechless. How her father had kept those jewels safe was beyond him. Their beauty was that uncommon.

  Rand said nothing and continued down the balcony to the last door, opening it slowly. Lukas wondered what ghosts it contained to cause his friend to use such caution. This office was smaller still, and the pictures on the walls more mixed. There were some of Eve and some of her parents, but there were others of landscapes, sunsets, and other people. The style of the room was minimalist but neat. It smelled of Eve, causing The Alpha to breathe it in deeply.

  “Eve’s office,” Rand said, watching his reaction.

  “Her what?” was all he could think to say.

  “Eve is Secretary and Chief Legal Adviser for The Seventh and has been since she was barely twenty. There is no smarter legal expert in the land, although she has not sat for the bar. Have you seen one of her contracts yet?” The other man laughed, but it slid away when he saw The Alpha’s face. “You have, and you broke it. Ah, that’s a pity. Whatever she’s after, she must have been desperate.”

  “She’s dying. If she does not accept an Alpha by her next estrous, she does not expect to survive it.” Lukas said, saying more than he meant.

  “That doesn’t surprise me. Let’s go back to my office so I can tell you a story.” Rand shut the lights off in Eve’s office and walked back to his own, pulling the door behind them once again.

  Lukas sipped moonshine that felt like fire going down but landed in a pleasant pool in the center of his gut. It loosened his muscles in a way whiskey never did, and he saw the allure. Eve had asked if he had any the first time they met. He would take some home to her when he left, and maybe it would help them work through their issues.

  “Eve Justice Hatfield. God. What weight that name carries,” Rand started, and Lukas wondered about the heaviness that settled over the other man. “Her parents raised her to do great things, and she did. She still does. She’s like smoke, reaching far wider than you realize until you catch the scent of the thing. She’s a call to arms. Thousands fight under her banner and don’t actually believe she is a real person. They think she’s an urban legend or a myth designed to rally them together.” He stopped, scrubbing his face and staring at The Alpha with such intensity that it was uncomfortable.

  “I’ve said it already, and I’ll say it one more time. Things are different here. Omegas aren’t raised to be weak. No dynamic is. There is very little difference between a strong Omega, Beta, or Alpha. Not here. These folks don’t have the luxury of being weak and never have.

  “Not much changed after the war. Not much at all. Women were always Alphas, even the Omegas. They take care of their families, but they do it with brute force, bloody hands, and iron wills. And the men? Every man is an Alpha too, even the Omega men. Life was not easy here. It didn’t get easy until after the bombs fell, and all the money flowed into the Seventh instead of out of it, but by then, iron and steel were already bred into these people.

  “Eve’s parents raised her to be self-sufficient, motivated, and successful. She knew she would need an Alpha to match her, but she hadn’t found one and didn’t try all that hard.

  “Despite the general convention in the New South, Omegas in The Seventh have a choice of Alphas. The ratio of Alphas to Omegas is so close that both can choose based on their wishes. At least until recently, and now we come to the meat of many problems and likely the reason you’re here,” Rand paused, taking a sip of his moonshine and pouring another shot for The Alpha. He steepled his fingers, thinking about how to continue.

  “Old habits die hard, and old feuds die harder. There is an ancient feud between bloodlines that goes back hundreds of years. Some say it started with a pig, others a girl. Some say that it started because one family chose to side with the Old South and the other with
the Old North during the War between the States. That feud died down and had been all but reconciled until Eve,” he stopped. “That might not be quite fair, but it all ties together. The fuse in the powder keg was set, Eve just ignited it. Settle in, Son, this is a long story,” Rand leaned back in his chair and called his secretary to order lunch and have it delivered. He didn’t ask Lukas what he wanted; he simply ordered for them both, and a tray of pepperoni rolls and hot wings was brought in sometime later. By then, Lukas had lost his appetite.

  “Eve graduated law school at the age of nineteen, just shy of her twentieth birthday. She came back from Atlanta and set up her office here. Her parents hadn’t been killed yet, and she was on the way to becoming the most powerful Omega in the Seventh. Her father was The Alpha here, long before I came, and her mother was his lieutenant. Their family has political ties to the land that go back to dinosaurs and the creation story. The folks here downright love them. Most the folks anyway.

  “Alphas lined up to court EJ, but she wasn’t ready. Being Omega, she knew that she would eventually have to give in and accept one, but she hoped to find an Alpha that allowed her to keep her schedule and position.

  “You might think that would be hard,” Rand laughed as Lukas snorted moonshine all over his desk. “But here, it should not have been; only things are changing.”

  “Eve was walking home one night and was taken by a man named Joshua Davis just days before her next estrous. She should have been safe because these things don’t typically happen here, but she was not.

  “Joshua was a strong Beta but not an Alpha, not even close,” he paused, and Lukas felt his stomach flip. He knew what came next, and he would have stopped Rand from saying it if he could.

  “He raped Eve repeatedly, trying to force her estrous. Whether he thought he could claim her, no one knows, but when estrous hit, and he could not serve her as an Alpha must, as only an Alpha can, she ripped him apart limb from limb with her bare and bloody hands,” he stopped again, taking a deep breath before continuing. “Have you ever seen a really pissed off and hell-bent Omega? You don’t want to. You hear stories, you know? You hear stories about that kind of thing, but you don’t believe it. You think it’s a myth or something your mama tells you to keep you in line. You can’t until you see it. But because he could not serve her properly, she ripped him to shreds, and they still had to pull her off his dead body as she tried in vain to find relief from her pain on it. Or so the story goes. An operative got pictures, and that was bad enough.” Rand closed his eyes, placing his head in his hands.