Chapter 1

Chapter

One

She was the most delectable, spellbinding thing I ever scented in my entire life.

Mine.

Sweet vanilla and berries assaulted my senses. The omega rushed by, charging down the sidewalk as if hell was on her heels.

Then again, I was on her heels.

In the past, many people would've considered it the same thing. I wasn"t the most approachable person, let alone, alpha. That had always been clear.

Few women didn"t take a step back whenever I approached them since I first presented. My scrawny boyish figure that classmates used to poke fun at filled out at almost an alarming pace. My voice had deepened, and after I enlisted, I couldn"t help but get a tattoo every time someone else did on the military base. I had a lot better taste in ink than half those bastards.

The flurry of movement was enough to stun me out of my head full of the omega's sweet and tart scent. I was back into action. Luckily, she was small enough that my two steps caught back up to her, stepping in front of her path so that she couldn't get away.

Couldn't get away.Damn, I did sound like a monster now.

Taking a deep breath, I scanned her from the head down, finally getting enough sense to take stock of who I was dealing with.

Usually, it was the first thing that I did when I noticed anyone. Assess, manage threats, and move forward as directed. As needed.

But I was all messed up in the head now.

The small omega's hair was a delicate blond. Her face was flushed. Yet still, somehow, this girl was pretty, more than pretty, and not just because of that dress she was wearing– sheesh. She was more than beautiful. Though that could've been my stupid alpha brain acting up. Again.

Shit. I hadn't felt this way in years. I was in control but teetering on the edge of something much more... feral. God, she was lucky I trained this tightrope walk better than anyone else I knew.

It was stupid for her to be out like this, clearly on the edge of a heat.

Even worse? The omega, after all, was clearly, most unbonded. Her scent was too strong and from what I could tell, she had no bites anywhere I could see, which was a lot in that dress. Though that made fuck-all sense.

How old was she? She had to be twenty-three at least. Twenty-four? She was thin and scrawny like no one had been taking decent care of her.

Something in my chest ached, watching as fear coated her face. Her scent quickly evolved into something curdled– sour and unsavory.

I grasped her around the waist, locking my hands even as she struggled to get away. I couldn"t let her though.

I am in control. I must keep her safe.

"Stop."

"No." She gasped.

There was a bit of pride in my chest at how she struggled to get away. So strong. So fierce.

"I promise I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not going to do anything to you." For such a small thing, she knew how to use her elbows.

"Let me go. Please, let me go." She whined.

A growl crept up through my chest as I held on to her. Did she not know what would happen if she ran off? Did she not know how many other alphas out there she could run into that wouldn't hesitate to–

"Calm down," I snapped, unable to hold off the alpha bark in my tone.

She whined once more, sharp and pained, but this time, she stopped fighting.

"Fuck." I huffed, breathing heavily. I hated to bark. I hated myself that I just took away her will so easily under my influence. "Just calm down, little omega. You're going to be okay. Shit."

Now, I just needed to figure out what the hell I was going to do with an unbonded omega in the middle of the street after dark.

Get her somewhere safe.

I felt panic flare through the bond minutely before footsteps pounded behind me.

"Marko?"

I twisted my gaze towards the sidewalk. Cal stood a few feet away. He must've felt me out here once I got close enough to the club. Here I thought that he"d be so up his ass with whatever beta chick he"d been swooning over the past two weeks.

At least I had one thing going for me tonight.

Only, Cal froze. He didn't move any closer. His eyes were as wide as saucers as he took in the situation.

"This omega just ran into me. I didn't want anything to happen to–"

"Ella?" Cal"s voice cracked, but he didn"t blink.

I did a double-take. Ella? Ella...

Finally, it clicked.

I looked down at the omega and back to my beta. My beta was supposed to be a sap for some beta chick he's been blabbering on the phone about every other day this week. Not...

"This is your Ella?"

"I... I..." Cal was at a loss for words. A miracle considering Cal was never out of them. He could talk for hours about the brand of coffee beans we purchased at the store. "I mean, she is. I thought. She just went to the bathroom a minute ago. Only then, she didn't come back, and I thought- What are you even doing here, Marko?"

"I came to spy on you," I admitted honestly. Only, I was getting a whole lot more than I bargained for.

Whoever the girl was, she shook as I hauled her over my shoulder.

I needed to keep her contained. She wiggled and attempted to get free. Who knows where the hell she thought she was going? I was tired enough not to have to bolt after this omega down the block. It was taking everything in me already not to press her against the wall and ravage her let alone figure out a coherent thought to deal with Cal having one of his famous breakdowns.

He was already starting to pace in public.

I took a deep breath as I watched.

Damn, the omega smelled amazing.

"Marko!"

I blinked between them again.

Needed to move. Right.

I started walking. "Let"s go."

Car. We needed to get into the car.

The moment we started walking, the girl– Ella– started to pound her fists against my back. "Let me go. You can't do this."

"You seriously thought this chick was a beta?" I asked, focusing on Cal.

Cal opened his mouth. Nothing came out for a long second. That might've been a first. "Until right about five minutes ago."

"Jeez," I muttered, waving the two of them in the car. The SUV was a little too fancy for my taste, but Demetri insisted each of us had a car now that we were back home in case we needed to get somewhere all at once. Already our lead had a good idea. "Get in. We'll come back for your car later."

Cal stood on the edge of the sidewalk, mouth still hanging open.

"In." A bit of a bark remained in my voice.

Immediately, Cal followed the direction. He ducked into the back seat while I stuffed the omega into the passenger spot so that I could keep an eye on her. She curled up into a little ball, shaking, but oddly enough, she wasn't making much noise. When I had seen omegas go into heat before…

My mind took me back to then. A darker time. In my mind. In the room.

My heart had hammered in my chest. It never stopped. and People all around me were screaming. The omegas were crying out and begging. Screaming…

"Marko."

My eyes flashed back to my beta.

I swallowed.

"You okay?" His eyes were wide as he looked at me.

I reached up to wipe a bead of sweat that had formed on my brow before I made my way around the front of the car to the driver's side.

Cal was trying to get the omega's seatbelt on.

"Cal?" Finally, the omega spoke, but her voice was small.

"Hey, Ella." Cal swallowed, a little awkward as he shifted away.

What the hell was wrong with him? It wasn't like she had the plague.

Clearly, I wasn"t the only one who thought so.

The omega cupped her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Ella cried, still in a hushed whisper.

"What are you sorry about?" he asked, though he still didn't look at her.

Shutting her eyes, tears streamed down her cheeks. Finally, he got the belt to click and leaned back, still watching her. "I'm so sorry."

"She"s disoriented on the edge of a heat, I think," I said.

"You think?"

"Does she have anyone to call?" I asked Cal, starting the car. The roads were packed with other drivers and I tried to pull out to no avail.

I gritted my teeth as I looked down at the girl.

Her hands covered her face. Her nails curled into her jaw.

She looked like she was in agony.

"Come on, Cal. Family? Does she have a family she can call?"

Cal shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I don't think so. She said she didn't have any family."

I wondered how true that was. I never heard of an omega not having a family or a support system these days. When an omega presented in this area, they were usually whisked away to school with other omegas at the academy or courted.

There were only so many of them to go around after all and alphas were too greedy to let one pass them by.

The omega groaned loudly, holding onto her stomach. Her head lulled into the window. Her berries and cream scent flooded the car but was still off though, not right. She was stressed, but even if she was and this was a heat– I've seen heats before. More than a few, but this didn't have the same tells, not exactly.

For one thing, she wasn't trying to hump anything that moved or even anything that didn't.

"Is she okay?" Cal asked, concern coated his expression.

I grunted, reaching across the center console before I could stop myself. I gripped her chin, lifting her face until she stared at me straight in the eye, even behind her hands that continued to try to cover herself.

In shame.That was what it was.

Attempting to lurch back, she didn't get far. "Did you schedule a heat?"

She sniffled, looking at me like I told her the sky was purple.

I tried again. "Are you on something?"

Cal inhaled in shock at my question.

I repeated it.

She shook her head. Then, she paused.

Of course, she is. Fuck.

I let go of her chin, running the possibilities through my head. "What did you take?"

Nothing.

I ran my head through all the party drugs on the street lately. I asked her, one after another. She continued to shake her head.

What could it be? "Suppressants?"

She hesitated her constant shake of the head.

Bingo.

"Prescribed?" I asked. No. "High dose? Black market?"

Again, she looked away with the hint of fear and shame written all over her. I hated the way it smelled, acidic, and like I'd do anything to stop it.

But right now, we needed to get to the bottom of this. "Recently?"

Yes.

"Did you take it, or did someone make you take it?"

"What is going on?" Cal cried. Now I had an emotional beta as well as omega.

Because, somehow, Cal was in love with a beta.

She just wasn't a beta at all it turned out. Turned out that our beta sniffed out an omega better than any alpha. I needed to remind him to enter the lottery. Especially considering that I had a feeling whatever she was on concealed her well enough that he couldn't have known.

None of us might've. Not until someone wanted them to.

I couldn't stand the thought that someone made this happen to this omega now writhing in pain.

"I don"t know yet," I snarled. "All I can think is that someone has forced her into a chemical heat."

"What?" Cal"s eyes widened.

"No no no."

"It"s okay, omega," I said.

"It was just suppressants and blockers," she finally cried out, stopping my interrogation. "They were supposed to work. They keep me safe. They were supposed to keep me safe."

Wait. "What?"

"Please don't say anything. I'll find better ones. I promise I will." She started to beg, looking between Cal and me. At her pleas, I itched to slam her to my chest, my body already trying to pur.

I quickly shut it down and not only because I was startled I still could manage the response.

"Please."

"Ella..." Cal whispered, everything starting to piece together.

"Please. You can't tell anyone. I need to make sure I'm safe. I have to stay safe."

My brow creased as I finally was able to pull out onto the road, making quick work of the lights. "What do you need to be safe from?"

"My person… couldn't get me any more of the good pills. I had to trust… different one. They were supposed to work."

"They didn't." I scoffed. Her scent said as much. The fact that she was paling enough to look like a corpse said another. "They probably sold you sugar pills wherever the hell you picked these up. What were you even on?"

"The suppressants." Illegal ones, surely. "And blockers."

I whipped my attention at her. "Blockers? Topical? Pills?"

She nodded. "Pills. Sometimes… both."

Cal caught onto my sharp tone. "What is it, Marko?"

I shook my head, but the noises were back that I kept at bay for so long.

The begging. The pleading. The painful cries all around me including my own.

I wanted to scream.

I gripped the steering wheel tightly between my hands. "They discontinued prescribing the blockers in pill form three years ago. They were causing too many issues with the people taking them consistently," I grit out each word. "They make low profile scent blockers in shampoos and body wash products now because of how harsh they were on bodies internally."

"They were too expensive… not so often." The omega hiccuped between her words, trying to explain though it was hard to understand her. "I'll get more… better ones. Please, just let me go. I'll be ok. Just let me go... let me go."

"How long?" I asked. Like my last questions, I had to repeat myself one more time before she answered.

"Seven."

"Seven months?" That was only a heat or two which means she put off if she was as new of an omega as I was beginning to think. Her heats probably hadn't even self-regulated just yet. That wasn"t bad. That was even okay for her to heal from.

She could get better.

But she shook her head.

Immediately at the horrified look on her face, I knew exactly how long the little omega must've been on that shit. Trying to breathe, I forced myself to focus on driving and keep my heart beating.

"Years," I said, knowing.

Seven. Seven years.

I gripped the steering wheel harder. I wanted it to crunch in my grip but damn Demetri and buying high quality.

Cal seemed to be catching up a beat behind. He quickly climbed over the center console and into the passenger seat before I could stop him. He gathered the omega up in his arms, holding her. If anything, however, it only made her more upset.

"Where are you going?" Cal asked.

"Finding the nearest Omega Haven."

"NO." Ella screeched; eyes clenched shut afterward in pure anguish. "Please no no no t-they can't– I can't go there. I can"t. P-p-please, don't take me there. Just let me go home. Let me go… let me go home."

I took the next right anyway. She needed to be somewhere safe. She needed to be somewhere she could heal even though another shot of sour fear ran through me at the thought of dropping her off anywhere. Alone. Like this.

"She is not going there," Cal whispered.

"What?" I asked, making sure that I heard him and not the voice in my head demanding the same thing.

"Did you not just hear her? She doesn't want to go there," Cal said, enunciating his final words. "She can't."

"She's likely halfway into a medically fucked up heat or whatever this is. She doesn't know what the fuck she's saying right now."

"Like when you don't?" Cal shot right back.

Like when I was on the floor, a sobbing, screaming, writhing mess begging for someone to just listen to me about what I wanted when it felt like all my body and mind did was betray me. For someone just to leave me alone even when it was the worst thing anyone could've done after I got home from my last deployment... and after.

I twisted the wheel back towards uptown. "Shit."