Omega’s Choice, page 2
part #1 of Alpha Security Company Series
But Logan was his brother and a police detective the ASC worked with on occasion. Which meant I had to be polite and professional about this, even though something about Logan warned me to stay well the hell away.
Schooling my expression into a polite smile, I stepped forward to slide my hand onto his arm. As soon as I touched him, a spark and a shiver rolled through me. I tried to ignore it as he looked at me suddenly, pretending nothing had happened. But it had, and that confused me even more. What the hell was that all about?
I was an alpha. Despite his size, and commanding presence, Logan was a beta—a powerful one nearly at the level of an alpha. So close that I found myself leaning in and trying to catch a hint of his scent. It was there, buried under his expensive cologne, cedarwood and cotton. I almost groaned as I caught it. It was perfectly masculine, and something within me sat up and took notice.
I shouldn’t indulge my interest in him. I knew that, but it didn’t stop me from sneaking looks at him from under my lashes when he wasn’t looking. He was movie star handsome with dark hair cut longer at the front, so the messy spikes fell forward onto his face, and piercing blue eyes.
Those piercing blue eyes that caught me looking. I snapped my gaze away, heat in my cheeks, and ignored him for the rest of the walk down the aisle.
The church bells rang out around us as the happy couple emerged from the foyer of the church to a rainbow of confetti and rose petals. Willow squeaked, giggling as she took refuge in her groom’s arms.
“I think,” a deep voice said by my ear. “That’s our cue to get out of the line of fire.”
“Absolutely,” I breathed, my breath hitching as he took my hand to lead me around the edge of the group crowding around to congratulate the bride and groom. Halfway around we were almost cut off by the movement of the crowd. Before I knew it, Logan looped an arm around my waist, protecting me with his larger body from being squashed against the stone wall of the church.
Time froze as I looked up into blue eyes I’d assumed were cold. Indeed, they had been cold every other time we’d met, to the point I didn’t think Logan actually liked me. Or, at the very least, he didn’t like female alphas.
One thing I didn’t think of, though, was the optics of Logan’s arm still around my waist. Until I spotted Thale stalking toward us, and I gripped Logan’s lapels, stopping him from moving away.
“Please,” I murmured. “Pretend like we’re an item. Okay?”
Chapter Two
LOGAN
Pretend like we’re an item.
Those were the last words I’d expected to come out of Penny Masterton’s mouth, but no way was I going to argue with her. Not when it gave me an excuse to do what I’d been wanting to do since the first time I’d met her and haul her into my arms.
For a moment the world and everyone in it disappeared as the tiny alpha settled against me. For a split second as she smoothed her hands up my chest, warm even through the fancy suit jacket and shirt I wore, all that mattered was the delicate woman in my arms. That and the sudden catch in her breath as surprise flared in her eyes.
If I didn’t know she was an alpha, if I couldn’t smell the jasmine and burnt wood of her scent, I would easily have mistaken her for an omega. She was petite and delicate with that ethereal grace omegas had in the way she held herself that drove men—alpha and beta alike—insane.
In her case, though, appearances were deceptive. As soon as she moved, talked, it was obvious she was an alpha through and through. Tough-talking and hard-edged, I’d been warned by my brother that she was a hard as nails army veteran who ate betas like me for breakfast.
Which didn’t matter a shit to me. I wasn’t anywhere close to the average beta. Everything about her challenged the primal maleness coded into my DNA and made me want to wrap my hand around the back of her neck and kiss the breath out of her.
Which was suicidal, I knew that. It didn’t make the desire any less pressing or urgent. My official papers might say I’m a beta, and I might not have the heavy scent of an alpha or a knot, but I’m no fucking doormat. In the lottery of dynamic presentation, I had definitely ended up more on the alpha side of the beta spectrum. So close to alpha that I was very often mistaken for one.
It was a blessing and a curse.
A blessing because while I didn’t have the punishing speed and strength of an alpha, I was also not victim to the same primal instincts they were—like the alpha rut. Women weren’t terrified of me and I could be around omegas without becoming a mindless beast intent only on getting my cock inside a warm pussy, regardless whether or not its owner wanted me there.
And it was a curse because I had the perfect woman in my arms, nestled against my larger, harder—currently very hard—body, but I couldn’t claim her as mine.
Or I could try, but that way led to bruises, mine, and the very real possibility that she would never talk to me again. And she’d be right not to.
I looked down into her beautiful eyes, resisting the urge to lift my hand and smooth the loose curls away from the side of her face. I had to face facts. She was an alpha, which meant she would never be interested in a beta like me.
Female alphas tended to join packs. And those packs were filled with other male alphas. If they allowed betas in the pack, they certainly wouldn’t be ones like me. Betas who got to join packs were the ones who knew how to play the game, the ones who were closer to the omega end of the spectrum and who could act all submissive when they needed to. Not ones who couldn’t help challenging every alpha he met for dominance.
Right now, though, all those thoughts washed away as I indulged in the fantasy that Penny was mine. I indulged in the temptation to pull her closer, burying my face in the fragrant curls that tumbled loosely from the top of her head down one side of her face.
I closed my eyes, holding in the groan that wanted to work its way free of my throat. She’d washed her hair in something light and floral. It didn’t clash with her natural scent but instead wrapped around it into something unique that hit me on a visceral level. Blood and heat surged through me, and I was glad the way we stood had her angled slightly turned away from me. What kind of deviant was I that just the smell of her hair gave me a fucking hard-on?
Trying to distract myself, I lifted my head slightly and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. The soft, affectionate caress was something a man would do with his partner, someone he cared about, rather than the endless one-night stands, which were all I’d allowed myself recently. It rocked me to the core.
“So who are we trying to fool?” I murmured in a soft voice, shoving my thoughts away and getting into my role. No one was close enough to hear, and I needed to know what I was dealing with.
I didn’t know much about her, other than the few comments my brother had made. And most of those were more to do with the fact she could handle herself in a fight, and that none of the alphas at ASC would spar with her anymore.
Which meant a shit load of history I didn’t know could potentially blow up in my face. What if her family were here and wouldn’t be pleased to see her with a beta? What if she’d broken from her pack and they were here? I could find myself surrounded by pissed-off alphas intent on claiming their female.
Fury bristled along my spine. If that was the case, I didn’t care how big and mean they were. If Penny didn’t want to go back to them, I would take them all on myself to stop that happening.
“No time to explain. Incoming. Two o’clock,” she murmured and then giggled softly while turning in my embrace and lifting her lips as if for a kiss.
I was almost derailed by the sight of her there, expression soft, eyes darkened, and lips slightly parted. If I hadn’t already been as hard as a fucking rock, I would be now. I’d even started to bend my head before I got it together.
My brother was ex-military, as were a lot of the guys I worked with, so I shifted my gaze in the direction she’d indicated without making it obvious what I was doing.
Just in time to see Thale Barnes barreling toward us like the god of vengeance and a bulldozer combined.
“Fuck,” I hissed. Barnes was not an alpha I wanted to tangle with. Not looking like that anyway.
“Exactly,” Penny snorted, sliding her hand up to stroke along my jaw just as Thale reached us. I almost lost it then, the temptation to lean down and claim her lips nearly overwhelming. Only the certainty that Thale would remove my spine from my body stopped me.
“Get the fuck away from my woman!” Thale snarled, his hands curled into tight fists at his sides.
I lifted my head to look at him. Thale Barnes was an absolute powerhouse of an alpha. Short for someone of his dynamic at just over six feet, he more than made up for it in width and sheer solidity. But Barnes wasn’t just muscled. His frame had a denseness as if all that power and rage had been compressed into a smaller mass. And somehow that made him much more dangerous.
Even though I had a couple of inches on him, courtesy of the Shaw genes, I was no match for him. Not playing fair anyway. Not that I ever played fair in a fight with an alpha. Growing up with Will... Bane had knocked that one right out of me before either of us had hit double digits.
Before I could do or say anything, a warning growl rumbled from the back of Penny’s throat.
“Your woman?” she snarled, and damn, I didn’t think I’d ever been so turned on in all my life.
An alpha’s growl was a control measure, just one of the weapons they used to control others and assert their dominance and standing in alpha society. Who was more powerful, who submitted to whom... that kind of thing. Of all the dynamics, the alphas were the most primal. The closest to animalistic, especially when triggered.
And Penny was definitely triggered now. I almost felt sorry for Thale. Almost.
Without leaving the circle of my arms, she challenged Thale.
“Your woman?” she snarled again because he hadn’t answered. “I don’t fucking think so. Just because you say it doesn’t make it true!”
Thale reared back, his almost black-on-black eyes glittering. I seriously thought that was it, and they were going to rage out and take each other on, right here and now.
“Enough!” I snarled, making them both jump in surprise. Yeah, I was close enough to being an alpha that I could snarl, just not purr or growl like an alpha. Or knot an omega the way they could.
“This is my brother’s wedding,” I reminded them, not breaking eye contact with Thale, even though I read my own death in the big alpha’s eyes. “So if we’re going to do this, may I suggest we take it somewhere more private?”
Offering that to an alpha wasn’t the stupidest or most foolhardy thing I’d ever done, but it certainly ranked well up there.
Fortunately for me, my words seemed to bring Thale to his senses. He looked around, his expression settling. Then he shook his shoulders, like a rottweiler shaking water from its fur. Spearing me with another, dangerous look, he snarled again and then whirled on his heel to stalk away. A second later he was gone, swallowed up by the crowds of wedding guests.
Closing my eyes for a second, I took a deep breath and then looked down at her.
Relief slackened her expression for a second, and then she smiled. The unguarded expression took my breath away.
“Thank you,” she murmured, and I’ve never wanted to kiss a woman more in my life. “You really helped me dodge a bullet there. You okay carrying on the pretense all night?”
Fuck me. I was screwed. I wanted to crowd closer and tell her I wasn’t pretending, didn’t want to pretend, but I knew if I did, I risked the chance she would run like a skittish doe. That or punch me. Actually punching me was more likely.
So I kept my mouth shut and nodded.
“Of course. Anything to help a friend of my brother’s.”
THALE
Rage simmered, making itself at home in my blood and bones. The never-ending heat licked at my mind and soul, all focused on the beta holding my woman in his arms as they danced right in front of me.
Well, not exactly right in front of me. They were on the dance floor, which was in front of the bar I was propping up as I did my best to get drunk enough not to care.
I wasn’t doing too well on that front. Alpha physiology was too fast for me to get drunk and stay that way for long. Not unless I had enough alpha-enhanced meds in my system to drop a rhino anyway. So I brooded, my hand wrapped around a tumbler of whiskey as I ignored the dance floor.
If this wasn’t Bane’s wedding, I would have left already. Because it was, I was stuck. Bane would be upset if I left early. Worse, his new wife Willow would also be upset, and the last thing I wanted was the pretty little omega upset at me. Not because I harbored any romantic feelings toward her but simply because I liked her as a person. She was my friend, and friends weren’t shits to each other like that.
So I drained my glass and motioned to the bartender for another. As I turned back around, I caught the edge of a sultry perfume and found a woman in front of me.
“Hey,” she said with a small, uncertain smile. Most of that I would put down to any woman approaching what was obviously an irritated alpha, but as I raked a hard look down her, my instincts sparked like a flare. She didn’t move, but the suppressed tremble in her frame and the perfume told me all I needed to know.
She was an alpha-obsessed beta.
It was one of the gauntlets me and my brothers had to run. Often regularly.
Omegas were rare, and most were matched with suitable alphas as soon as their dynamic presented itself. Omegas like Neve, a dormant presentation who needed to meet her true alphas, and Willow, an omega who had successfully hidden herself for years, were rare.
Which meant often alphas sought out betas who looked and acted like omegas. Nothing could replace an actual omega, of course, but some just didn’t care. Anything small and delicate, with holes they could shove their dicks into would do. Which was the opportunity women like the one in front of me looked for.
Some betas, especially nearer the omega end of the scale, were obsessed with sex with an alpha. They walked and talked like omegas, even altered their appearance and mannerisms to mimic them, all with the hopes of catching an alpha’s attention. There were even black-market cosmetic surgeries to help them look more like omegas.
Look but not become. No surgery could turn them into omegas.
I had no idea what drove them to do such a thing. Betas weren’t built to take the alpha’s knot they craved, and it could cause injury if the alpha in question wasn’t careful. Many weren’t but never faced charges. When questioned, they asserted that the beta had begged for the knot. That it was entirely consensual.
Given our ability to overwhelm both betas and omegas alike, I disagreed with the sense in that, but I didn’t write the laws. That wasn’t my issue right now. The woman in front of me, eyeing me up like a shark eyeing up its next meal, was.
Whoever said alphas were the biggest predators out there had never met this particular bunch of women. They were sure they should be something they weren’t and railed at life, nature, and everyone else because they weren’t.
“Not interested,” I growled, paying more attention to my drink. I felt sorry for her. I really did.
She’d tried, her mannerisms and the way she was dressed were all bang on for the current omega trends, but she was way too tall and that little bit too heavy to be an omega. And I don’t mean weight. I love curvy women. They’re a delight to the senses, especially for a guy... but her frame was too stocky for an omega, without that delicateness that marked the rarest dynamic. Her perfume was obviously expensive and way better than what most obsessives I’d encountered wore. It was near enough to an actual omega scent that in the dark, when drunk... yeah, maybe a younger alpha would be fooled.
Which was the point. To fool an alpha and get bitten. I had no idea what they thought would happen when the alpha realized. Fury wouldn’t be the half of it if you woke up from a bender, convinced that you’d found and claimed your omega, only to find a beta in your bed. That could get a beta dead. Killed instantly in the towering rage that was sure to follow.
“Oh, you don’t mean that, alpha,” she purred in a husky voice, startling me.
Oh, this one was dangerous. The sound she made was near enough to an omega’s purr to make even my cock twitch, and I knew what she was.
“Pull all the tricks you want,” I growled in warning. “Don’t care. Still not interested.”
I wouldn’t have been interested, no matter if she’d looked even a tiny bit like the woman who currently haunted my every thought. The alpha-struck were always bad news.
But she didn’t get the hint, pouting and sidling up to me as she reached a hand out. I grabbed her wrist before she could make contact. Not hard enough to hurt her, I was angry but I wasn’t that much of an asshole. Yet.
“Yes... alpha.” She gasped and almost melted against me. I kicked myself as the scent of her arousal filled the air around me. Trust me to get a pain-whore to boot. Just my fucking luck.
“No. no. No ‘yes, alpha,’” I pushed compulsion into my voice.
Normally I didn’t like to do it, but given a shit-load of alphas were here at the wedding, most of whom were unbonded, I needed to get her out of here and fast. Before she got hurt.
I yanked her closer and pinned her with my gaze. “You’re going to make your excuses to the bride and groom,” I ordered. “And then you are going to leave. Right now. Understand me?”
“Yes, alpha.” She nodded, her eyes unfocused and her jaw slack. I wanted to face-palm. Not only was she alpha-struck. She was extremely susceptible to compulsion—a dangerous combination.
“Tomorrow you are going to make an appointment with the Oakley Center,” I named an addiction center as I pushed the compulsion harder, to make sure it stuck. “And get help for your condition. Understand? Nod if you do.”
She nodded so hard her head almost fell off. I let her go and gave her a small push toward where the bride and groom were standing, chatting with some other guests, and then watched her as she walked toward them on unsteady feet.
