Page 91 of Omega's Dream (The Hartwell Sisters Saga 4)

I settled in the chair opposite him. No doubt he was thrown back to that first night. Both of us so highly strung that he’d offered to pay for me and I’d accepted. “It was never your plan to take me that night.”

“I thought to use Sarah to lure you to the table.”

A thought occurred to me. “I wonder if that was her intent. That somehow she thought to bring us together by putting herself in danger.”

“Just the kind of reckless thing she’d so.” He frowned, head jerking in the direction of the door then said in a rush. “Don’t mention such a thing to Puck.”

The door opened and my other two alphas pushed into the room. We rose to meet them, scenting each other but nothing more. More than that and we’d be stuck on knots all night which was not the plan.

“You’re a dream,” Jude murmured into my neck. I rolled my eyes at Jude’s romanticism but my heart swelled with affection. My life until recently had felt like a waking a nightmare, so I could say with confidence this was no dream. A messy life full of creatures with faults and virtues in not always equal measures. “I did not mean to offend,” he rushed to say.

I twirled away from him and took the sight of my alphas. Their postures were defensive, aggressive, prepared to fight me to the death if I denied them. “Not offended,” I assured him. “But none of this romantical nonsense out there. We must be united as a pack.”

They prowled around me like circling wolves. Legends claimed that the goddess had created two species, wolves and humans. She had intended them to create balance in the universe but instead they came together. Seeing how well they worked together she brought forth a third kind, alphas and omegas—though they were not called that in the primordial furnace of creation. In the end wolves remained, humans, known as betas remained, and alphas and omegas were meant to rule over all.

A pretty fiction.

But standing at the heart of my pack, I could perhaps understand the appeal. The melded natures of gentle betas and the animalistic qualities of wolves manifested in my mates. We were bonded, something beyond love. Something primal and new and perfect in its shifting, colliding beauty.

And now we would reveal that to the world. Show the narrow minded, reveal to the progressives how powerful mates could be when they appeared on equal terms.

We moved as one, leaving the office and entering into the wider world. Stepping into the Hell was like being reborn. Moth and Prog bent their necks immediately while Peaseblossom ducked her chin. She wore a gown tonight of midnight blue while her quiet wife wore a matching suit.

Oberon and Puck had done their job well. The Hell was packed tonight with alphas and betas and a bright scattering of omegas. My sisters and their mates were there. Viola, dressed in men’s clothing and beaming, stood by her duke. Beatrice, a haunted look still in her eyes, was supported but Paxton and Fordom. My youngest sister Iris hovered on the periphery, her eyes flashing with a new, predatory alpha light.

“Come mates,” Oberon purred as he tugged down the short sleeves of my dress so that my mating bites were visible to all. “Let us debauch these stuffed shirts and shy omegas. Put on a show for creatures who hardly know what to do with their cocks and cunts.”

“Enough of that,” gentle Jude hissed but his scent spiked. If any of us ordered him on his knees and use his mouth to bring us pleasure he would do it without thought. The Empress of China and her husbands and consorts could be present and he’d only become harder.

“Hush, do not rile her up,” Puck laughed, bending close to suck on his mark. “We’ll cause a riot if we turn tonight into another orgy. The history books will write about this night. I’d rather they remember us with a little more decorum.”

I spun around. “I’ll have the three of you caught on each other’s knots for a fortnight if you continue you like this…”

A tinkling laugh, Sarah’s, echoed through my head. But who would be in the middle?

“Bless the goddess,” I sighed. “Let’s go.”

Plucking my demi-train with one hand, I stepped into the light and the hubbub. There were pockets of silence as people watched us, too stunned to speak for we made a grand statement. I wore my oxblood, while the alphas wore black head to toe. My shadows. My guards. My alphas.

Many of the alphas and betas had been there that first night. They’d remember the bloody end of Deverill. I was as safe here as anywhere in the world. Did I carry my dagger and pistol? Naturally. I was no fool and did not believe the men at my back to could protect me completely.

“Miss Hippolyta,” an alpha I didn’t recognise walked into my path. “A pleasure.”

“Hendricks.” Oberon’s smile didn’t reach his voice.

“Drexler, just meeting the landlady.”

I barked a laugh.

“Have I offended?” the bluff alpha asked.

“No. Just… I have never been any kind of lady. If you must call me something, call me ‘your majesty’.”

Tod

Five Years Later

They were at it again.

---