Page 6 of Fallen Omega

Lizette

Istare at the official looking letter again.

Disbelief wars with panic.

The one O-blocker tablet I took helped, but the effects are wearing off and I don’t need this. My heat is coming. I don’t know when it’s going to hit full on, but the loss of the drugs is a punch in my gut.

Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the one. Could it make things worse?

My head buzzes, and I force myself to think.

I don’t work until tomorrow. It’s only a few hours in the afternoon, but after rent, after losing the pills, after losing my other damn job, I’m going to have to try and scrounge together enough money for more.

If I eat only noodles and rice, I should be able to afford the O-blockers. And there are off cuts of vegetables that get sold super cheap, usually for pets, but…

The pills. I need them.

I thought I might wait another day—it’s already been two since the storm and the job-loss and the cops and the mysteryman, but now…with this…Do I even dare go back to the Hollows?

No, Ihaveto.

Maybe I’ll go this afternoon. No one’s going to expect me to turn up during the day.

“But first, before I open this fucking letter, I need a drink,” I say to myself.

There’s cheap whiskey and wine. The wine’s in a box. Dad was never a big drinker, so to him, it made sense that if he wanted a glass of wine, he wasn’t about to waste the majority of a bottle.

I pour some, take a swallow and then set the glass down.

I stare once more at the envelope. My name in print. The embossed logo of the Council.

And their HQ here in Starlight City.

Sliding my finger through the unlicked part of the envelope, I rip it open. A sheet of paper and a photo falls out. A photo?

I pick it up, stare at it, and read the letter.

Numbness spreads.

“Wine is not going to do it.”

Nope, not at all. I stomp off and grab the whiskey, open it and take a swallow. The burn takes flesh, it seems, on the way down.

Finally, I sit again and set the bottle down.

And read.

Miss Roth,

It’s come to the Council’s attention that you are both undocumented and unmatched. We seek to rectify this immediately.

Please find enclosed your future alpha mate, Craig Edmonton, from Hover Valley. The pack leader is a fine and suitable matchfor you. Please present yourself at our office at 2pm next Monday for omega status registration.

Our number is included should you have any questions.

Regards.

S. Pemberton.

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