Chapter 1
Talia
The house is as nice as any of the others I’ve been to over the past few years. The property is great, too. Manicured lawn, strategically placed trees, shrubbery, and flower gardens, one shed that I can see, a covered garage. It isn't flashy or minimalist, just an average farmhouse with sunny yellow siding and a lovely wraparound porch. There’s even a wooden swing creaking on its chains at one corner.
“Yes, mother, I’m here,” I say into the phone at my ear, “No, they’re not out waiting to greet me, why would they be? No, don’t answer that, it was rhetorical.”
Oh good, I’ve triggered her disappointment track.
I give her half my attention and continue looking at the house through the bugs smeared on the windshield, noting all the important details like window size and placement in relation to the ground and the climbing vine that could cause a security issue. “Mother. Please, don’t. I appreciate you pulling some strings to get me placed here, but that’s all it is, a placement…. No, I’m not. Betas don’t get a pack welcome….I’m sorry, mother, I really, really am….I’ll try harder to be more likable….If I was going to I would have done it by now, and they already have an omega, anyway. I’m here to help him….Of course I will. I’ll try to be a better representative of our family….alright. I love you, too. I will. Bye.”
I take the longest, deepest breath I can and blow it out on a cheek-puffing sigh. I know she means well, but we have been having this argument since I hit puberty, a normal puberty, not the intense one of an omega. She is an omega, my sisters and even one of my brothers is an omega. My family is known for producing some of the most beautiful, highly sought-after alphas and omegas in the country, so it was a huge point of confusion and disappointment when I never went into a heat cycle.
Even when I was surrounded by the pheromones of several of the strongest alphas nothing happened. Not even a hint of an approaching heat. My fathers weren't embarrassed but they did have to scramble to help me find a way for myself, my siblings were confused, and my mother….well, she was actually pleased. “Only worthy alphas for you, Talia. You’ll have your heat for mates who are strong enough to take and keep you.” Her words echo in my head almost every time I think about her. Even after years of trying to find these mythical, worthy alphas and being rejected by more packs than I should be able to bounce back from, she still insists that I’m an omega. I’m twenty-four years old, if I was going to have a heat cycle I would have had it by now.
Once I failed to have a cycle, I was registered, at my mother’s complete disgust and ire, as a beta. Completing that registration form started the arduous, and mostly unpleasant, process of trying to find and be accepted into a pack that I fit in with. But I’m not a good fit. I cannot, even as a beta, bring myself to fully submit to an alpha who is incompetent or weak; which is a problem because nearly every alpha I’ve ever encountered has been inadequate in some way.
The few times I’ve tried to tolerate being subservient to one of those weak alphas it became a huge problem because I am built like an omega. I’m small and my features are delicate, so any other betas in the pack either tried to dominate me or fuck me and I refused to allow either of those things to happen. My temperament is apparently so sour and abrasive and defiant that I’ve never been accepted into a pack, and I’m well past the point that I should have been.
This is basically my last chance to find my place in a pack. My mother asked Alpha Johnson Sr., the head of the council’s military branch, for a favor and I was placed in this pack on a trial basis. This pack has the reputation of being the strongest, and most evasive, on the entire east coast; as well as the one with the least favorable disposition. Which makes sense, considering they’re the most brutally successful COT, Council Operative Team, unit the council can boast.
It is also an all-male pack. Their omega refuses female betas in his home for any number of reasons; and the alphas, of which there are four, refuse male betas in their pack because they cannot tolerate non-pack males in such close and consistent proximity to their omega.
They’re also reputed to be assholes, the whole lot of them. So this should be a completely successful placement, because I just so happen to be an asshole myself.
I’m especially looking forward to spending time in a pack lead by Devon Johnson. His daddy is none other than Alpha Johnson Sr. I have a very vague memory of going to Alpha Johnson’s office with my father when I was a little girl. I don’t remember Devon except in passing, but he’s very well known for his temper and general shitty disposition. He and I should be fast friends in a matter of decades. All of this is thought with heavy sarcasm.
The fact that Devon Johnson is the lead alpha of the best COT unit, as well as Alpha Johnson’s son, is just another reason I need this placement to work. And another reason why I think it won’t. Men like Devon Johnson expect total submission from their subordinates and that isn’t what he’s going to get from me. Devon Johnson isn’t my priority in this placement.
My mother advised me to make myself as invaluable as possible to their omega. She thinks that if I come in as neutrally as possible, and make it incredibly clear to him that I am here to aid him and not steal his alphas, that he will be more inclined to accept me.
So that’s what I’ll do, and with any luck the alphas won’t immediately kill me for disrespecting them first thing. Because I’m going to walk in there like they don’t exist and prostrate myself to that omega.
Asshole or not, I’m tired of being alone and I will never survive being forced into the unaffiliated population of betas. I might be strong and well trained. I might be a mean ass. But I am not, and never have been a loner.
I get out of my car and grab my bag from the back seat, leaving the rest of my gear in the trunk. If I get to stay I’ll eventually unpack all of it. I don't hear any movement inside when I march up the steps and onto the porch, basically stomping to make sure my approach is heard. Just because there’s no welcoming party doesn’t mean they’re not waiting on me and I don’t want anyone to think I snuck up to try to...sneak. I give four firm knocks on the door and wait there, with what I hope is a pleasantly neutral expression on my face.
Neutral is what I’m going for more than anything else. Neutral might not get me gone before I even get my feet through the door.