Prologue

M y life has been chaotic ever since before I first drew breath into the world. My fathers weren't good people, alphas who solely wanted an omega to abuse and worship them. An omega's natural instinct is to want to serve their alphas, and the expectation is that they'll cherish her.

Unfortunately, my fathers were selfish men, looking to get their rocks off, using her however they wanted until they used her up. Mama wasn't their scent match, but desperately wanted to belong to someone. She wanted the dream every omega is fed growing up, and it's something most omegas are programmed to crave.

I can't find it in myself now to fault her for it though, given how young she was when they kidnapped her off of the streets one night in St. Louis.

They kept her chained during her heats on a dirty mattress on the ground, and I can still see the pain in her eyes when she finally told me the truth of her time with them. The paranoia that kept her moving from town to town makes so much sense now.

But back then? I was tired of moving by the time I turned ten-years-old, desperate to stay in one place and not understanding why we couldn't.

Mama got pregnant with me after her third heat with my fathers, and was depressed and anxious when she took the pregnancy test. They wouldn't allow her to have birth control, so I was a foregone conclusion. It's not impossible to have children from a non-scent match, simply less likely.

My fathers wanted a male heir, which is one of the reasons why they kidnapped her when she was twenty-years-old. She looked pretty while she was walking home from a night class, eager to get ahead in life, and they decided she'd be the perfect slave for them.

There was never any consent to their farce of a relationship. They told her that if she failed to deliver a male heir, they'd rip me from her womb and kill me before forcing her to try again.

They told her this every time they rutted into her during her heat, never giving her an ounce of comfort until she finally became pregnant.

My mother was scared to death of how her alphas would react, and curled up on the ground to cry as she made a plan.

Mama destroyed the positive test, packed up her shit, stole money from my sperm donors, and ran that night while they were sleeping. The social services system for omegas is trash. No one cares if they're mistreated, hurt, or held against their will as long as the alphas are happy.

It's all so fucked up.

Mama took three trains in an effort to get away from her alphas, and they still managed to find her, waiting at the exit with smirks on their faces as they dragged her home to beat her as her punishment.

She almost lost me that night, but apparently the world wasn't done with me. Mama attempted to escape four more times, the last one while heavily pregnant, but managed to disappear with the help of an old woman she met at the grocery store while shopping.

The woman noticed the haunted expression in her eyes as she shopped with her alphas, and managed to have a quick conversation when they left her for a moment to speak to friends. She gave my mother a number to call when she ran, with instructions to follow so she wouldn't be caught.

The woman helped Mama change her name, disappear, and is the reason Mama and I survived to this day. Omegas get the shit end of the stick, which is why every chance I have now as an adult, I find ways to help other omegas.

Paying it forward is all I can think to do to thank a woman I've never met.

My mother is now living in a nursing home, protected and safe. She's too young for that place, but moving from place to place every few months after she gave birth to me made her see ghosts and shadows at every turn.

The stress and trauma of the past twenty years broke my mother's mind, and all I can do is keep her comfortable.

If I ever see my sperm donors though, I promise I'll slit their throats for the abuse they leveled on my poor sweet mother.