Prologue: Damon

T he Christmas festival was in full swing when I parked off the main drag of the now-infamous little town. Shifters Sanctuary had become notorious in shifter circles since the news of an alpha had begun circulating. According to rumor, he was the only one of his kind, but I knew that to be untrue.

How did I know he wasn't the only alpha in the world?

Well, the obvious swell of my belly wasn't from indulging in too much pie.

There was another alpha out there somewhere, but fuck if I knew where he had run off to. He hadn't taken his body changing mid-orgasm very well and, the second his knot had deflated, the fucker had run out of the bathroom stall in which we'd had our anonymous tryst without so much as a backwards glance.

Apparently my being a shifter hadn't bothered him, but the idea that he wasn't human had been too much to handle. I supposed I couldn't blame him for that .

I'd been too mystified by the entire encounter to consider the fact that I, an omega, had been knotted during unprotected sex until the vomiting had started six weeks following the experience. Then I had been in denial for a while after that. It wasn't until my stomach started to curve outwards in a very telling way that I accepted what had happened.

I'd unknowingly found an alpha in a random bar. We had been incredibly interested in each other. I would even go as far as to say that we were inexplicably drawn to each other. I had begged him to fuck me hard right then and there, desperate for him to fill me and claim me.

And the asshole had knocked me up and vanished.

Okay, okay; he obviously hadn't realized he was an alpha any more than I hadn't realized that he wasn't human, but I still felt as though I had the right to resent him a teeny, tiny bit. After all, I was the one left holding the baby: figuratively and literally.

Unable to hide my condition from my not exactly pro omega rights pack, I'd gotten together as many of my belongings as possible and had made a run for it. As far as I'd known, I was the only pregnant omega in a long-ass time, and I had no idea how I was going to make it through the following months, let alone the birth.

And then, while I'd been staying in a small shifter town in Nebraska, I'd heard the whispers.

There was an alpha with a pregnant mate. They'd started to build a pack in Bumfuck Nowhere, Iowa. Word was, they believed there were others out there like them. Like the alpha. Men with dubious backstories who didn't know their family histories, or those who came from shifter lines but presented human, who needed to find a compatible omega to unlock their inner alphas.

Was that what had happened to me? It sure as fuck sounded like it.

I'd sidled into the conversation as nonchalantly as I could, needing more details. Namely how the fuck could I find the town and were they looking for twenty-five-year-old college dropouts who were happy to earn minimum wage in exchange for any kind of job at all?

A couple of months and a fuckton of effort later, and there I was: Shifters Sanctuary.

I didn't know why I had thought that early December in Iowa wouldn't be cold, but I wasn't prepared for the blast of chilly air that hit me as I climbed out of my beater of a car. It had been all I could afford to buy with the meager savings I'd stashed away over my teens, and I'd only been able to convince my parents to allow me to buy it because I'd been going to college and needed it for the commute. I was glad that I'd bought it in my own name, because nobody could accuse me of stealing it when I ran away from the pack with what few possessions I owned tossed haphazardly into the trunk.

It had once been white, but was rather a mottled mass of scrapes and rust marks and had been since I'd bought it. But I had taught myself a thing or two about mechanics, so the engine ran well, and the heater worked just fine. It was better than having no car, and Ol' Betsy and I had been through a lot together since I was eighteen.

Wrapping my too-thin coat tighter around myself, I made my way towards the central source of the festivities. The street was lit up with fairy-lights and multi-colored Christmas lights both. The ten or so storefronts on either side of the main street also had their windows illuminated and decorated in Christmas cheer. Loudspeakers played Christmas carols and there were stalls set up selling anything from cookies and hot cocoa to knitted beanies and dolls.

My throat tightened involuntarily as I brushed my index finger over one of the crocheted toys. It was only a few dollars, but I couldn't even afford that for my unborn child. Not while I was homeless and jobless.

"Can I getcha anything, honey?" the lady staffing the stall asked. A delicate sniff revealed her to be a hedgehog shifter. The cat living inside my soul relaxed at that.

Well, I called it a cat. I was actually a puma shifter, but I mostly felt like an oversized house cat.

Shaking my head, I decided that if I had any chance of staying in the town as part of their pack, I might as well start trying to make nice with the locals. "No. I…I'm actually looking for the Alpha. Is, um, is he around here somewhere?"

Her nose, red from the cold, twitched. Her eyes narrowed and she looked me up and down. With my oversized coat closed, she couldn't see my bump. I preferred it that way.

"Why are you asking?" she sounded less friendly at that point and more defensive, as if a diminutive omega like me could really be a threat.

I wondered if that meant the Alpha was a good man so his pack cared about his well-being and wanted to protect him from potential threats, or if it meant that he was a bad man who ruled them all with an iron fist.

"I, um, I kind of…I…" A lump lodged in my throat and I cursed my hormones for making me cry at the drop of a hat. But it had the benefit of giving away just how pitiful I was, because Hedgehog Lady's demeanor slipped right back to empathetic and maternal .

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry. We're just real protective of our fledgling pack is all. Here, come sit," she ushered me to walk behind her table of knitted goods and sat me down on the plastic chair she'd had sitting in the corner of her stall. "I'm gonna get you a cup of cocoa, and I'll get the Alpha. Stay right here, okay?"

At the point of sniffling and fighting my stupid hormonal response, I could only nod.

She returned a few minutes later with the promised cup of hot cocoa and a tall, broad-chested man with dark hair and deep brown eyes. At his side was another man, shorter and slender, with flopsy light brown hair and green eyes.

The taller man called for my attention without even having to speak. I could scent the difference in him on the air. It buzzed and tickled my nose. Alpha .

My lower lip quivered and I ducked my head.

Having guessed that the man standing next to the Alpha was his mate, I was overwhelmed with a moment of irrational jealousy. How come that guy had been enough for the man who had mated him, but I wasn't enough for the guy who mated me?

The Alpha cleared his throat and I forced myself to look up at him with watering eyes. Both men scented like wolves but, strangely, my inner cat had no complaints about that. Perhaps it realized they weren't a threat to me.

The Alpha smiled back at me softly. "Hi," he greeted me casually. "I'm Beck. Jazz said you were asking for me?"

My eyes darted between him, his mate, and the hedgehog lady. Jazz.

Weird name, but okay.

I nodded and tried to swallow around the lump of emotion in my throat. "Yeah," I croaked out. "I, uh, I heard about this town. This pack. And I, um, I was wondering if I could join it. The pack, I mean. I…I ran away from my pack. I couldn't stay. If they found out…"

"Whoa," Beck held up his hands to stall my babbling. "Let's start with your name first, huh? And maybe we'll head inside somewhere and get out of the cold. You're shivering."

I hadn't even noticed. I nodded again, dumbly. Then, after a beat of silence, I realized they were still waiting on my name. Stupid baby brain. "Damon," I finally blurted, then blushed. "My name is Damon. Damon Richards. I'm sorry. It's…it's been a really long trip to get here and I'm…I mean, I know I shouldn't just expect that you'll let me join the pack, but I have nowhere else to go and—"

"It's okay," this time it was Beck's mate who spoke. He also smiled kindly at me. "Shifters Sanctuary is supposed to be just that: a haven for outcast shifters and people who don't have a pack or family." He extended his hand. I took it. "I'm Ollie," he said, shaking my hand and then gently tugging me upwards. Standing next to him, I realized he wasn't as short as he looked. In fact, he was at least two inches taller than me. "Come on, let's head inside. Have you eaten? The diner here makes the best burgers."

"You'd think you would be sick of them by now," Beck teased his mate as they guided me back out of the stall and towards the town's diner. "Considering how many you ate when you were pregnant."

The child in my belly rolled over, as if summoned into action by that word. It was a word I hadn't spoken out loud to anyone yet, but Beck and Ollie used it as though omega pregnancies were totally normal .

Having lived through one, I supposed for them they had become as much.

I let their banter wash over me until we were inside the warm building. It was a long, narrow space, with one wall lined with back-to-back dining booths, and the other with a kitchen and counter. Three stools lined the counter space next to the cash register. It looked as though it had been decorated in the 80s to resemble the 50s. The Formica counter tops were chipped and worn, and the bright red vinyl seats of the stools and booths had also seen better days. But it smelled so good. My stomach rumbled audibly and the baby inside me kicked up a storm.

"Come on, let me take your coat and you can take a seat. It's sweltering in here." Ollie was bright and cheerful and he had no idea what kind of anxiety he'd just set off with his request.

I swallowed and turned to face him and Beck, reminding myself that they had been through what I was going through. If I was going to be safe anywhere, it would be with them. They would understand. I needed them to understand. If they didn't, I really was out of options.

"Before I do, there's something else. The reason I ran from my pack. I…um…I…" God, why was it so hard to say aloud? With a growl of frustration at myself, I said. "How about I just show you?"

Giving them no time to respond, I removed my coat.

The threadbare sweater I wore beneath it was stretched tight over my unmistakable baby bump, and the jeans I was wearing were baggy around my legs but growing evermore snug around my waist. I'd found them in a Goodwill during my travels, and the sales lady had looked at me strangely for buying a pair so much larger than I had visibly needed at the time. Standing in that diner, I thought they wouldn't be big enough for much longer.

"Holy shit," Beck breathed, before turning to Ollie with startled eyes. "I swear, I didn't do it."

Ollie just rolled his eyes at his mate. "I know that, dumbass," he sassed, but the affection in his words was more than obvious. "But you know what this means."

Beck nodded, his expression becoming serious. "He's definitely joining the pack."

"Well, duh," Ollie sighed. "But that's not what I meant." He turned back to me, his eyes roving over my swollen, gravid form. "We were right: there's at least one other alpha out there somewhere."