Page 27 of Their Perfect Omega

The final part of the individual assessment was smelling scent cards of ten different omegas. It was the best way they could keep data on whether an alpha was becoming feral. Feral alphas were dangerous to omegas and betas because of their heightened sensitivity to pheromones. All it took was one hit of an appealing omega’s perfume, even if lingering on a beta.

Although the agents’ faces revealed nothing, I had no reaction to the scents on the cards besides my brain recognizing it was an omega, but notmyomega. I didn’t know how I was going to explain my lack of response when six months ago, I’d moaned and growled over several of them.

I was most worried about how Avery was doing with his assessment. He’d scored the highest on the risk factors last time, and he’d been in a mood since I’d pulled him away from Kara.

Yet I could still taste her in my mouth. I was such a fucking hypocrite.

It was around lunchtime when we finished the individual portion and the agents left for lunch. We had the pack portion next, and if we had any hope of being eligible for Omega Match, we needed to ace it.

I pulled the sandwiches Anya had prepared for us out of the refrigerator and set them on the island where my three pack mates were sitting. I could feel they were all just as worried as I was, which was better than not feeling their emotions at all.

“How did you all do on the individual portion?” I slid their sandwiches to them. If we didn’t have Anya, we’d probably have starved or ordered takeout more than we already did.

Tate scrubbed a hand over his tired eyes. “It was weird.”

“How so?” I unwrapped my sandwich and hopped up on the counter.

“I wasn’t as affected by the stimuli. The agents kept giving each other looks, but I couldn’t tell if they were good looks or bad looks.” Tate popped open his soda and took a long drink.

Cal, who had been oddly quiet since coming down the stairs and seeing his agents out, had a worry line between his brows. “They asked me flat out if I’d been with an omega recently.”

I stopped moving with the sandwich halfway to my mouth. “What?”

“They asked me the same thing.” Avery started picking the pickles off his sandwich. “How many times do I have to tell her no pickles? They’re gross.”

Cal reached over and plucked them off his plate. “If Kara was our omega, she wouldn’t forget you hate them.”

They all looked to me like I had the solution to the epic shitstorm we’d found ourselves in the middle of. So, I decided to ignore it for now. “What did you tell them?”

“I told them that I hadn’t fucked an omega. It wasn’t a lie.” Cal narrowed his eyes at me. “What did you tell them?”

“They didn’t ask me that.” Maybe my responses hadn’t been extremely different after all, or just not enough.

“They didn’t ask me either. You were both rated six and seven on the scale last time. Maybe you dropped so much because of Kara that they are suspicious. I’m sure there is some shady shit that goes on with omegas that aren’t in compounds, and we do have a lot of money...” Tate shook his head in disbelief.

The thought of any pack or family doing something like that to an omega made my blood boil. “They can’t really think we’d do that.”

“Not all countries have Omega Match or compounds for their omegas. What’s to stop us from going abroad and finding an omega?” Cal looked down at his sandwich. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it.”

“It’s illegal,” I growled. “And it’s not always what’s best for the omegas. Imagine being sixteen and going into your first heat only to have your family sell you to the highest bidder.”

“That shit goes on here too. Don’t pretend it doesn’t. Even if they do end up in Omega Match, they are still sold or arranged bondings are set up.” Avery pushed his sandwich away. “Are we going to talk about Kara or not?”

I put my lunch down too, my appetite gone. “If we can’t do Omega Match, then we can’t have her.”

“Why not?” Cal looked at each of us. “If we bonded with her and she wanted the bond, then what could they do?”

Bonding with an omega outside of Omega Match wasn’t talked about at all because it didn’t happen. In high school, girls were closely monitored by the school and their parents for signs of being an omega. When the transition started, it came fast, and the omegas were taken to a boarding school to finish their high school careers.

Alphas tended to transition around eighteen, and then most of our focus was on establishing a pack. It was the way our minds and bodies worked. Of course I had wanted an omega to rut into when I was a fresh-faced alpha with an aching knot, but one alpha just wasn’t enough to meet the physical and emotional needs of an omega.

“If we bonded with her, they still might take her from us and throw us in prison.” I put my plate down and crossed my arms. “And that would kill her.”

Avery shoved away from the counter and stood. “And what about what is killing us?”

The room was eerily silent as we all came to our own conclusions of what we should do in our heads. I wanted Kara, but what would it cost us? What would it costher?

“There’s no way after what we did this morning that we’re going to be able to resist her now,” Tate said softly. “If they don’t let us do the match, I think we should go for it and deal with the consequences later.”

---