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

by Sharilyn Skye

  “No Alpha may use persuasion in the form or growls, purrs, or enticement with bodily fluids to obtain consensual sex from an Omega,” he stopped when groans rose from his troops, including the females among them.

  “This is for the benefit of all. A compelling new study shows that happy Omegas are fertile Omegas. Birth rates are at an all-time low, and many Omegas are too broken to conceive. It ends today. The future of the New South is on the line. Yes, there are around one hundred unbonded male and female Omegas that will be involved in the battle we face. When all is said and done, they will be allowed to meet the single, unbonded Alphas available among your ranks. No Alpha can leave a bonded mate, and any attempt to free yourselves from such a mate bond by nefarious means will lead to your death. Any violation of the Omega rule will be met with swift and vicious punishment.

  “We are entering a new age. Gone are the days when an Alpha can take an Omega because they want them. No longer will we force Omegas to our wills because we can. Looking forward, we need to work together to fix a problem that will eventually lead to the extinction of Alphas and Omegas as a People, leaving only a few lonely and bored Betas behind,” he paused again, and the troops in front of him chuckled.

  “Will any of this be easy? No, it will not. You are on the front line of this war too. You lead by example. There are enough Omegas hidden in the hills of the Seventh to meet the needs of every unbonded Alpha in the land and then some. Choice is not always a bad thing, and we must embrace it. You will meet Omegas like you have never met before. They are different and not at all what you are used to, be prepared, and choose wisely. Not that you have much choice.” He did laugh then, long and hard, before snapping to attention. He strode through their ranks; no one dared contradict him or question his laughter or sanity. The claiming mark his Omega left on his neck was visible to all, as was her absence and his unease over it. Word had already spread. “Load up and move out,” he said, knowing that nothing would ever be the same again.

  Chapter 16

  Eve slipped through the woods unseen. Avoiding New South cams and sensors, she moved like smoke, there one minute and gone the next. At the rendezvous point, she picked up the other Omegas, and together they slid through the darkness of the old forest like water over river rocks.

  Stronger than she had ever been, she moved with ease through the rough terrain. No deer or mountain goat moved better than she. She marveled at her strength. It was amazing what good food and the sustenance of an Alpha could accomplish. That thought stilled her mind, if not her body. She leaped over a fallen tree and scuttled up the face of the mountain, leading her brothers and sisters as she never had before. An Alpha had helped create this strength, and she had marked him. Even now, she could feel his despair through her mark, and the cord that connected them shamed her. And she was ashamed.

  He was right. She was no better. Once he broke the contract, she had used him, giving him no choice. Not really. Yes or no was not a choice when his body was dripping with the need that she forced onto him using everything that made her Omega. She shouldn’t have marked him, but at that moment, she was mad. Furious. Angry. At the moment, she was many things. She could have just taken that last bit of sustenance from him, satisfied herself, and walked away, but no. In a fit of possessiveness and anger, she had tried to rip his throat out, and he had arched his neck and let her.

  She had wanted him to suffer, just a little. To feel the frustration and hopelessness that she felt, and now they both suffered from her actions. Her foot landed on a rock wrong, and it went tumbling down the face of the mountain she was flying over, reminding her that distraction here was deadly. She gripped the rocks above her, caught her balance, and swung up the last shelf and over the other side.

  She waited until the others caught up with her. Pulling dried meat and a bottle of water from one of her packs, she filled her belly, not worrying about saving rations. Not only would this be over soon, but they would also be on familiar hunting grounds by late morning, and they could supplement their rations with small game, fish, and water there.

  Every Omega behind her was from West Virginia. They could drink the water flowing through her streams and rivers without concern, unlike folks who traveled through and found the water was poison to them. She had hoped that this would go differently and that her fighters would be augmented by a small contingent of New South Marines, but, if she was honest with herself, she had known it would go this way. She knew that it was improbable that Lukas would honor her contract, and even if he did, he would never have allowed her to fight beside him. It was not in his nature.

  In the end, his mother was right. Eve had gotten what she wanted and, more importantly, what she needed. Her Omega friends had been amazed at her transformation, and, in the short time they had stopped to speak, they had wondered how a good, strong Alpha could transform them too. She declined to offer any insight, as this fight would fall to them soon enough.

  She had just over two months to free the Seventh from those who would tear it apart. She only hoped that The Alpha would not level the place in the meantime. To shoot all and ask questions later would not fix the problem, only deepen it. Eve knew her enemies and would have been a good resource for him had he allowed it.

  Now they would fight this battle as it should have been fought from the beginning. Brother against brother. Sister against sister. It was a civil matter anyway.

  The Omegas had been safely hidden outside the walls of Greenville and had been able to rest, recoup, and prepare for the fight ahead. None of them were as far gone as Eve had been when she stumbled from her cave, and she hoped that somehow, someway she had made The Alpha see there was a better way. If not, they could choose to go into the Capital anyway and hope for the best, go home and accept the first Alpha available to serve them through their estrous, or die in the woods alone.

  She knew her choice.

  The others settled around her, and, in this place, there was no worry that their scent would draw rogue, roaming Alphas. Here, surrounded by the Jefferson National Forest in the cradle of Appalachia, they were safe. Never touched by the fallout from the bombs, elk herds roamed, and deer ran the hollows. This place was a sanctuary few had ever seen.

  “Let’s rest, Lorelei, just for a bit,” Eve said as the others crept up the rock face and dropped in loose groups around her.

  “It’s a good place for that. There are no cams here, and I doubt any drones would come to this altitude. There are a few stragglers that need to catch up so that we can go back into West Virginia together. We need to get out of the Seventh before word reaches their lines that we are here,” Lorelei said, brushing back the strands of long, blond hair that escaped her braid. Her dark eyes met Eve’s, and her creamy, deeply tan skin soaked up what little moonlight there was. Like Eve, her coloration was rare outside of the Seventh.

  Eve and Lorelei had grown up together, ran the streets of Morgantown with impunity, and had taken the same pledge to see those engaged in treason against it put down. Lorelei was Eve’s second in the Omega army they raised. Their parents had been best friends. Lorelei still looked great as she was a few years younger and had used many an Alpha along the way to serve her through her estrous. She hadn’t minded submitting to them long enough to ease the pain her heats caused, though she had warned them that if they marked her, they would die. It only took one dead Alpha to disregard her wishes to warn those that followed. Like Eve, Lorelei had ripped him apart the second that his teeth met her flesh. She still bore a scar, but he had died before his claim could take root.

  Pissed that her relief had been taken from her, she grabbed the nearest Beta and fucked him to death until her cycle was finished. Word is he died with a smile on his face. Two dead men had humbled those who followed, and she was never bitten again.

  One must never mistake an Omega for a weak thing. An Alpha may be stronger, larger, and more aggressive than an Omega by double, but there is no comparison to the Omega’s viciousness when roused.
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br />   “We’ll make camp under the tree line and get a few hours rest. We should be across the old borders by late morning and into the heart of things not long after. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and the horses we left behind will still be there,” Eve said, smiling at the thought. She had hated leaving them behind, but traveling with them was too risky.

  “There’s a contingent coming south from Morgantown. They should be advancing southward, and, hopefully, we can pen the rebels in.” Eve stretched and rose, loping down the grassing hillside to the trees beyond, the others followed.

  Within the hour, they were settled and secure under the canopy of spring leaves. No one but rabbits would see them, and the rabbits might not notice since their camouflage was expert.

  The stragglers joined them, and together, they talked through the night and their plans. There were Betas and a few Alphas waiting ahead and combined, their army would be a thousand strong. Maybe more. The rebels outnumbered them, but their inexperience and lack of creativity made their numbers seem less. They were fighters trained in the new way, relying on modern methods and artillery.

  Lasers didn’t work well here. In the lower Seventh, they might be fine, but here in the mountains, you were as likely to be accurate with a laser as you were to be accurate with a water gun. Lasers bounced off stones and were stopped by the thick cover. To fight here, you needed projectiles, guns, knives, bows, staffs, and even slingshots were better than lasers. She felt The Alpha drawing closer and hoped he knew this since she was relying on him to be her western front.

  If he chose to trust lasers, he might die and the New South fall. A shudder went through her at the thought, and she cursed her impulsiveness again. Damn cord. Damn bond. Damn Alpha. Had he listened to her, treated her as an equal, and honored the contract he signed, he would have known what it was like to fight in these parts. Only someone who had done it before could understand, and by the time The Alpha and his Marines were old enough to lead the New South, the fighting was over. Or so they thought.

  The Omegas shared rations and body heat, not caring that their scent will combine and drift in the wind. They were moving fast enough to confuse any looking for them, and they would be engaged in battle before Dynamics could influence those around them. They skipped any precaution that would disguise them, and their sweet, enticing scent swept through the leaves on the cool mountain breeze. The world below might be burning up from the sun, but up here, mountains, tree canopy, and rolling water conspired to make the air cooler, and they huddled together to save calories and slept.

  Just before sunrise, Eve heard the drone that hovered above. The technology needed to keep it aloft at this elevation meant it had to be one of the New South’s. She rolled from the warm body next to her, waving at the thing, then she shot it from the sky with her antique Glock, hating to waste the bullet but needing to send a message. She woke her friends, and they melted into the trees around them.

  Chapter 17

  The Alpha watched in wonder as the drone hovered over the sleeping forms of more Omegas than he had ever seen in his life, and he knew that had he met them all in a room, he would still have chosen Eve. Her red hair mixed with the dark-skinned blond-haired girl that lay next to her and the effect was striking. Had he not forced the drone lower to see her better, it would not have awakened her, and perhaps he could have stared at them a little longer.

  They slept in piles. Omega arms and legs entwined. Fair skin mixed with dark, and he marveled at the diversity of the Seventh. Pale hair, red hair, brown hair, and black flowed one to the next like a carpet of rare flowers, and he kicked himself for the thousandth for fucking this up.

  Eve could be safe in her nest in his quarters had he not been so convinced that he was right and he could keep her. All of these Omegas should have been kept safe like the rare jewels they are while their Alphas went and did what Alphas were meant to do. Protect.

  Instead, they lay huddled under trees using leaves and twigs for cover. It was a good cover. Had he not known what to look for, the drone would have skipped right over them, thinking they were leaves scattered and left from the fall. They had arranged themselves so that not one coloration was dominant, and cams and sensors read them as a natural occurrence, which is why he had insisted on using one of the heat-seeking drones.

  The Omega females had encircled the three males that he could see, and he leaned forward like it would give him a better view of them. He had never seen an Omega male and knew that there were Alphas who would tear the world apart to reach them. God, he hoped he hadn’t made a huge mistake and that NS304 would fly. Otherwise, a civil war could break out just for an opportunity to claim one of these beautiful, rare creatures.

  Eve rolled over, pulled her sidearm, and shot his costly drone from the sky faster than he could make out the movement. She did, however, pause long enough to offer him a salty wave and blow him a kiss. He smiled in spite of her rebelliousness. She looked good. Healthy, pink, and nearly round, he could not count a single bone. Sighing, he deleted the dead drone’s information and switched to a different drone on standby.

  “Can I see the footage, Sir?” Jason asked, surprising The Alpha just a bit. Narrowing his eyes in warning, he handed the device to his Second.

  “Look at them. They are beautiful,” Jason sighed, zooming in on the three sleeping males and not the women surrounding them, as The Alpha would have thought. “I swear I can smell them.” The smaller Alpha, which didn’t say much for his size as he was still huge, tilted his nose up and inhaled deeply, and Lukas knew he was right but said nothing. The scent of Omega made the air heavy. One hundred Omegas could do that, and he bet they didn’t know it. An Alpha’s nose could smell them even though they were over one hundred miles away as the crow flies.

  Every Alpha in the group shifted, trying to piece together what they smelled that stirred their blood so briskly. “And you fight for them, Marine,” he whispered to his friend. The Alpha grabbed the screen, but not before Jason could run his fingers down the faces of the sleeping men. “And you better fight hard.” Shoving the device in his pocket, the Alpha slammed the door to the waiting Humvee and signaled the others to follow.

  They had made good time to Catlettsburg the day before and refueled and consolidated vehicles there. They would push on a little further into the Seventh and drop the Humvees at a secondary location before continuing on foot. They were prepped to travel light and fast, but the Omegas had a hell of a lead and an even bigger advantage.

  They knew the territory. Drones had caught snatches of them running like deer through the wilderness, and he marveled at it, sharing it with no one. He questioned the effectiveness of an army of Omegas, but now he questioned himself. They moved like fighters; they were efficient and wasted no effort. They were strong enough to move through, around, and by any obstacle, and their path was nearly straight.

  They headed to a central part of the Seventh that was South and East of Morgantown and not far from Eve’s birthplace. The way the Omega’s were running, they were less than a day from their target. Information from the Alpha in the Seventh suggests this will be ground zero for the conflict. As it was, they were traveling through enemy territory to reach the heart of the battle, and he was likely a day behind them. Omegas had to be quick. They ran like deer while Alphas trailed them like Oxen. It made the fight almost fair. Almost.

  Sighing, The Alpha watched out the windows as the scenery trundled by and thought of the many ways this had all gone wrong and the many more that it could.

  After a two hour ride, they left their transport and slipped through the woods on foot.

  “Reports of shots fired, Alpha.” His Comlink shouted, and The Alpha gripped it in his giant hand.

  “Sitrep!” he growled, increasing his pace only to be smacked in the face by a tree branch.

  “Sensors are picking a fusillade to the North and west of our location. It started about fifteen minutes ago and was initially read as fireworks, but drones show bodies on the ground. Ple
ase advise.” Derrick’s cool voice came through the Coms. Lukas knew it had already begun and that he was a day late and a dollar short.

  “Advance but do not engage unless fired upon. Take the heavy artillery. Only the Seditionists will fire on you and return fire at will. Attempt to minimize collateral damage. Avoid power plants and oil refineries; if one is your path, skirt it if you can. Keep Coms open and continue your original directive. Draw attention. Give us cover.” The Alpha stopped, bringing his arm up and making a fist. Around him, the forest grew still.

  “Any word on what the friendlies will look like, Sir?” The other man asked.

  “Varied. Some might wear Gold, Blue, the number 304 on their body somewhere,” he stopped, interrupted by the other man.

  “Three Oh Four, Sir?” his question tumbled out.

  “They are super excited about NS304 and are showing their support,” he lied. “They may also sport the letters W and V on their shirts, banners, or flags. There is a contingent of warrior Omegas; all of the above are considered friendly.” he stopped, interrupted again.

  “Warrior Omegas, Sir?” the other man said, his voice pitching impossibly high.

  “Did I forget to mention that in my briefing, Beta?” he snarled, crushing the trunk of the tree next to him with his clenched fist.