Knot Excused

1. Piper

CHAPTER 1

Piper

“W ill all Omegas please report to the Capitol square ?” the loudspeaker blared in my ear.

I rolled my eyes, taking a long drag from my cigarette.

If I could have ignored all this ridiculous pageantry I would have.

Scent Match Day

What a bunch of bullshit.

And no way to get out of it. Not with me immediately registered at birth as an Omega and tracked for my entire life until at 25 years old I was forced to come to the Capitol and record my scent for a bunch of disgusting arrogant Alphas.

Did I want to be claimed by an Alpha Pack?

Hell no.

I wanted to go back to my shitty little hometown outside the city where I worked at a gas station and went to karaoke nights with my coworkers so drunk older Betas could buy me drinks and babble that I smelled good and did I want to come be their little Omega pet?

But at least then I was free.

Alphas I avoided like the plague. I didn’t want them. I didn’t want to scent them or hear their Alpha barks.

The way the world worked was that you were either an Alpha, Beta, or Omega. Omegas were so rare that generations ago they had come up with this blind scent-match process, otherwise Alphas would literally kill each other in fights over who got to claim and mate an Omega.

Freaking psychos

Only perfuming during times of high emotion would truly reveal your fated mates, but for Scent Match Day you had to take sticky cards and rub them all over your skin, to put enough of your scent on there. Then, Alpha Packs would take turn smelling the cards, in a blind test, and when their temperatures rose, that meant they’d found their mate.

God, what a way to find the men you were basically forced to marry.

You weren’t officially forced of course. But once you were chosen your fated mates’ scents usually sent you into a wild, horny heat that meant you didn’t want anyone else anyways.

Great

I brought a bottle of body spray out of my bag and gave myself a generous spritz of Bubblegum Blossom. I had no intention of letting anyone smell my real scent before I absolutely had to. Then I reluctantly made my way to the Capitol square, a big sweeping manicured garden in the center of town surrounded by imposing stone and steel Alpha buildings, including the massive palace where the highest-ranking and most powerful Alpha packs lived.

There were about ten Omegas here, and you could tell they had all spent their whole lives as pampered, high-class Omegas.

That was not me.

I was from the wrong side of the tracks, an Omega whose designation was seen as more of a pain in the ass by her family than anything else. Because if they could have sold me to Alphas at any point, they would have.

My dad was a two-bit drug dealer who had died in prison, and my mom had left town for a weekend vacation when I was a kid and had never come back.

Being an Omega just meant they had to take me to do a lot of boring paperwork and I was never taught to believe it was anything to be excited about.

I handed my designation card over to one of the Beta attendants and was escorted into a big canvas tent to wait for the ceremony to start.

Maybe I wouldn’t even find my scent match. Except, peeking out past the attendants I could see what looked like hundreds of Alphas out there, all of them of course bigger, strong, more powerful than everyone else.

There weren’t any other Omegas from my part of the world, and I snapped my gum as I looked around.

What even was the best outcome here?

True love? Fat bloody likely with any of these pricks.

Alphas were big, powerful, and arrogant. Even though we were separated into a tent and surrounded by security, I could still see them out there, strutting around, their scents mixing with each other’s to create a confusing mix of intensely masculine smells. I tried my best not to breathe them in too deeply.

The most I could hope for today would be a quiet, respectable Pack who could provide me security. Maybe a few number crunchers or avid gamers who would leave me alone.

A Pack who would let me be myself and not force me into the stereotypical Omega role: tiny, sweet, nurturing. Good at cooking and sewing. The perfect housewife. That wasn’t me at all. I was 5’10 even without heels, 6’ with them, tall and lean and strong from my jobs as grocery stocker and line cook.

Today I had pulled my platinum blonde hair back into a ponytail and lined my blue eyes with dark eyeliner so they wouldn’t think I was some sweet little miss they could push around. Instead of dressing up, I had put on the biggest hoops I had and worn a T-shirt and sweatpants with my highest heels. If I could look these Alphas in the eyes that would be even better.

Time to get this over with.

I settled in on the outskirts of the groups, surreptitiously clicking my tongue piercing against my teeth, then lighting a cigarette to get me through the whole ordeal. It might take hours to get through all of us.

The other Omegas eyed me in confusion, like I couldn’t possibly belong there.

“Do you want your scent to be covered up?” one tiny Omega asked me as she waved a hand in front of her mouth.

“Hell yeah,” I retorted. “Don’t tell me you want to be claimed by some pack you don’t get a choice with?”

“But—your fated mates will cherish you,” a beautiful brunette protested. “Finding them is every Omega’s dream.”

“Whatever,” I said, wishing I had a snappier comeback, but not knowing how to explain that I didn’t expect shit out of this world.

I took another drag on the cigarette, letting the sick and sweet sensation go deep into my lungs.

I knew it wasn’t exactly healthy, but I was willing to do anything I thought would make me less likely to get scented.

Finally, the ceremony was about to begin.

The country was run by an Alpha Pack that everyone voted on every two years, and the Head Alpha of Rockwood Pack got up to the podium and burbled a few words about how every Alpha was anxious to find their Omega, the special man or woman to treasure for always.

I resisted rolling my eyes as Rockwood Pack announced the rules that we all knew by heart now.

Then, it was time to start.

“Skystone Pack, please come forward.”

Now of course these guys would be first. Nothing but the best for the top Alpha Pack everyone expected to win the upcoming election. I saw some of the Omegas beside me stand up a little straighter, straighten their hair and tits, lick their lips nervously.

I just took another drag of my cigarette, blowing the smoke out the back flap.

“No smoking in the tent,” one of the attendants barked at me.

I recognized the Skystone Pack Head Alpha, of course.

Rook.

The son of some bigshot politician, probably next in line to run the whole country.

He was big even for an Alpha, with a dark suit, slicked-back dark hair, stern face, and a big, broad body. You could even tell by the way he walked that he was just thick with muscle.

Looked like a real asshole to me.

Not only did he come from the wealthiest and most powerful Alpha family, but everyone was scared as fuck of him.

I didn’t envy whatever Omega would end up with him.

The next Alpha in their Pack was Erain. Leaner than Rook, with long shiny white-blonde hair, and one of those model-perfect Alpha faces, sharp cheekbones and a cut-glass jaw. He stalked like a panther, all coiled lean muscle, and he looked incredibly arrogant, with his lip curled up. Like the rest of the world was dirt under his feet.

God, another unpleasant jackass.

The last Alpha was Teddy, and I recognized him from the Capitol Lupines. Superstar quarterback, golden boy, with wavy light brown hair that curled appealingly over his face with its big blue eyes and dimples.

I supposed some Omegas would go for that kind of bouncing golden retriever energy, but it just looked exhausting to me.

Next

I took another long secret drag from my cigarette as Skystone Pack headed to the front to sample the available Omega scents.

“Please please please,” the tiny Omega next to me begged.

When she caught me looking at her, she flushed a bit.

“I mean, can you imagine being the Skystone Pack Omega? They’re all loaded . You’d be set for life. And look at them.”

“They don’t look like worst kind of assholes to you?” I hissed at her.

“Shhh,” was all she replied as they began to go through the thick, white cards, taking turns holding each one close to their noses and taking long, almost obscene-looking sniffs.

Oh, ye gods, the pageantry. This is going to take forever, isn’t it?

About halfway through the cards, they conferred among themselves, each taking turns to sniff one card again. The official doctor darted over to take their temperatures.

There were several moments of tense silence as the doctor took their temperatures a few times.

There was no room for error.

You either had a fated mate or you didn’t.

Then the doctor stepped to the microphone.

“PIPER RIDENOUR,” he intoned. “PIPER, PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE FRONT.”

Holy shit.

I felt everyone’s eyes on me. This was the exact opposite of finding a lowkey pack. This was getting scent-matched with the most famous, richest, and coveted Alpha Pack in the country!

Shit

My feet felt frozen at first, then I started to move, put one high heel in front of the other.

Maybe , I thought, trying to be optimistic, as I strode through the crowd.

Maybe I had finally been chosen for something good.