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Alone.
“No.” Kylian reclines against white leather. A perfect golden skin specimen of a man, his steel-gray eyes at half-mast as he studies me with one elbow resting on the edge of the car window. “We’re breaking all sorts of rules today.”
I think of him in a house no omega has seen the inside of. And on his bed. In my mind, he’s stretched out on his back as a woman slowly rides him while he croons out his praise. A pang hits me down low because I’m imagining that woman is me.
Idiot. Why are you still wearing his blasted coat? You know the effect an alpha’s pheromone has on an omega. And Kylian Sutton’s lush scent is as potent as it is addictive.
But I make no move to remove it. I tell myself it’s because I’m cold.
“Lawrence could ruin you,” I remind them. My eyes sweep over the three relaxed alphas who just helped steal me away from Lawrence, the only son of one of the most powerful families in the city. “Or have the Council do it for him.”
I’m registered at the Omega Institute as Lawrence’s omega, and the Institute reports to the Council. That means the Council, led by an elected leader responsible for running the city, could legally punish them for it.
Like most businesses, the Council has an alpha as its leader. Dexter Pieter. I’ve never met him before, though Lawrence has invited him to every single party he’s ever thrown. Maybe he’s just that busy.
An alpha serving as leader isn’t surprising. No other designation produces more leaders, CEOs, and billionaires.
That’s not to say betas can’t lead or don’t sit on boards in some of the biggest companies in the country. Because they do. Betascanlead. But alphas have the instinct to give orders and take charge baked right into their DNA. Betas naturally want to serve, so that is what they do. There’s a reason all of Lawrence’s staff are betas.
When the Council was formed nearly eighty years ago, as a fairer, democratic version of the autocratic rule from before, they decided omegas could not look after themselves.
Omegas never had a voice before, and they created the Omega Institute to give us one. Not everyone agreed with it. At least, not initially. But with more and more unbonded omegas choosing to remain hidden or openly being taken advantage of, this way was supposed to protect omegas.
It’s why newly perfumed omegas are legally required to register with the Omega Institute when we first perfume. And it is why the omegas who don’t want to go on some register and don’t want their choice of mate to be taken out of their hands, will use suppressants and blockers to hide their designation so they can live their lives on their terms.
In a way, the Council was right. During an omega’s heat, we physicallycan’tlook after ourselves. We don’t care about anything else except an alpha’s knot. Food, water, or even clothing no longer matter.
Maybe the Council’s decision to start the omega register and form the Omega Institute was initially a kindness and their intentions pure. I like to think they wanted to ensure an omega had someone to protect them during such a vulnerable time.
Along the way, I think the omega register became a way to own a person.
I’m Lawrence’s omega. More often than not, I feel like I’m not even my own person anymore. I’m just an extension of him.
In a week or so, my heat will come, the way it does every three months, like clockwork, until I hit my late forties when, as my body becomes less fertile, my heat will become less all-consuming and stop altogether.
Until then, I’m at the mercy of my needs, and that means soon I will be begging an alpha—anyalpha—for their knot to quench the fire of arousal inside me.
Unless I get my hands on suppressants. Which is something I can only do on the black market. I dare not go to any omega doctor. They would immediately recognize I’m Lawrence’s omega and there’s no way they wouldn’t tell him where I was.
Or I could find a nice, quiet, back street free heat clinic. Like unbonded omegas in the city, I could spend the next four days riding out my heat in an air and temperature-controlled suite with plenty of sex toys and no alphas in sight.
The wealthy have paid clinics that are like spas and retreats where alphas can take their omegas for the weekend. Lawrence took me to one before, and it was luxurious beyond belief. And expensive. I don’t know what the free clinics are like, but I doubt they’re as nice. I guess I’m about to find out.
Cian shrugs, unconcerned. “He’ll soon learn we’re not so easy to ruin as he might think.”
Why would they risk making an enemy of Lawrence? And why would they do it for me?
It doesn’t matter. They’re still alphas, and eventually, those instincts to bite and fuck will take over. I’d rather not wait for that to happen.
“It would be easier for all of us if I just left now,” I say. “Save you from breaking any rules.”
My hand tightens on the handle as I wait for their response. I’m giving them an out. I can brave the streets on my own. Maybe I can find somewhere to hide and wait out the search Lawrence is organizing now.
Rune’s eyes linger on my right jaw, and his expression is impossible to read. “This is one rule worth breaking, cher. Relax. We’ll be home soon.”
I don’t relax.
I sit upright, shoulders back and knees pressed primly together the way Lawrence taught me to. I’ve had so many things beaten into me. Perfect poise was one of them.
