Page 38 of Captive Omega

I did the impossible when I escaped Nathaniel Lang. I’d known I needed to get off the street, and no one would think to look for me in a fancy mansion.

Nathaniel Lang is out there and he thinks I shoved his son to his death. Mostly because I did. I don’t remember my nightmares from last night, but I expect what I did will mean I have some terrifying ones to look forward to. Not as bad as the ones I’ve had before, but if any alpha needed to die, it was Rupert Lang. Any nightmare I have will be worth it.

Somehow, I’ve landed myself in the home of probably the best security firm in the city, if I can believe them. If I can get the internet to work, I’d like to do a bit of research of my own instead of taking a fancy-looking business card at face value. And I’m scent match to their alphas. Not the beta, Vaughn. Betas don’t have scent matches the way alphas and omegas do.

But I like him.

Do I like him because he killed two men who were after me? Yes.

Do I also like him for giving me a knife, saving me time from having to steal one? Also yes.

I have limited choices here. Take my chances on the street, go home, or track down Everleigh who, now I have the benefit of sleep, might have something to do with the reason Pack Ashe named their free heat clinics Ever Safe.

We spoke briefly in the Asylum while she was battling her drug induced heat, and I was battling my rage.

My eyes linger on the cell phone.

I could call the cops and do things the right way. The official, go down to the nearest station and give a statement to the cops, way. Maybe someone might believe me.

But that wouldn’t end things.

Nathaniel Lang will slip and slide his way out of trouble the way alphas always do. Maybe there’ll even be a crooked cop he’ll pay to deal with me so he doesn’t have to get his hands dirty.

No.

I need to take what I know to the only person in the city who can change things. Dexter Pieter. Head of the Council. The most important person in the city.

Unless he’s involved in this.

“But if he isn’t?” I whisper. “He could change everything for omegas.”

Decades ago, the Council formed the Omega Institute because people didn’t believe omegas could look after themselves.

All claimed omegas and their alphas must sign the omega register, so the Institute knows which pack is responsible for an omega. They say it’s a kindness, a way to protect omegas. I’m not convinced.

For four days, every three months, we are at the mercy of our need for an alpha’s knot. We’re also at our most fertile, and our pheromones can and will drive alphas wild. Omegas are rare, so the fact it took so long for me to get pregnant made me think I couldn’t until I did. The Omega Institute answers to the Council, and the man who leads the Council could make real, lasting change. If Dexter Pieter wants the Omega Institute gone, he can force them to change, make it fair, or just get rid of it altogether. No one has the power he has.

I have to find him, and I can’t do that sitting on my ass, staring into space.

Despite what a juggling beta with a cheeky wink said about me being beautiful, I’m not. Especially in the mornings. My cheeks are always tear stained, my eyes red, and face blotchy from dreams I mostly never remember.

I pick out a pair of blue jeans, white lace panties, sports bra, an oversized white linen shirt and I hobble over to the bathroom.

Every day I had one thought in my head: escape. I didn’t know how I would do it, just that I would. Now it’s time to work on what comes next.

I stare at my reflection in the mirror as I think.

I have a fiancé who doesn’t know if I’m dead or alive, and parents who might wonder the same thing. But I can’t go home. The people I love are my weaknesses, and Nathaniel Lang will be looking to exploit every one of them. So there’s no returning to the life stolen from me.

Not yet.

Something matters more.

Change.

I don’t know what Dexter Pieter looks like, where his office is, or if it’s even possible to set up a meeting with a man like that.

My child is not growing up in a world where omegas can go to a heat clinic, a supposedly safe place, a sanctuary, and have their life snatched away like what happened to me.

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