Mercy & Her Devils: Pack Bonds Omegaverse

Chapter 1

Ace Hall, Haven

Mercy

“My Alpha threatenedto break our bond again this morning,” I whisper.

My eyes gleam with tears.

My heart is beating like a hummingbird in my chest. I pull up my legs to rest underneath me on the hard, antique couch.

The lounge on the second floor of Ace Hall is elegant, luxurious, but drab. It’s perfectly neat and clean.

The marble floor and fireplace gleam.

The walls are lined with gold-gilt portraits, which show generations of stern Alphas who have ruled this pack and town.

My Traditional Alpha, Fletcher, doesn’t believe in Omegas having access to books, television, or the Internet.

I’m meant to keep the house clean, while cooking, baking, and hosting other society Omegas.

My most important job is waiting for his return from work and loving him.

I’ve never loved him.

Yet I’ve been trying because I long to be happy in my bond. I’m desperate for my Alpha to hold me like I’m precious.

I follow the Alpha’s rules and orders.

I try to be content, even in this lonely life.

But I’m not.

I’m shattering inside.

Silver drapes hang at the barred, domed window that looks out over the roofs of Haven.

Haven is a small town in Virginia, which stands in the shadows of mountains and is buried in lush forests.

I haven’t been allowed to walk its streets for a year now, not since I was bonded.

Fletcher says that by keeping me inside, he’s keeping me safe.

Bullshit.

He’s controlling me.

I’m a pretty Omega in a cage.

I push my wavy red hair out of my eyes but can’t stop the tears spilling from my aquamarine eyes.

My brother, Thomas, grits his teeth to hold back his growl. He clenches his hand around his mug of cooling tea.

I wince at the crack.

He never remembers his own strength.

Once as a kid, Thomas snapped the head off his own superhero toy because he was too enthusiastically acting out the role of the villain.

I glued it back on for him, but the toy was never quite the same.

Thomas is sitting next to me but not so close that our thighs are touching.

He’s always careful about that.

The last time that Fletcher caught the other Alpha’s scent on me because Thomas had held my hand, Thomas was punished.

Fletcher is Haven’s Sheriff, while Dad is the town’s Mayor.

They both have power over my brother and me.

They always have.

Thomas is taller than me. He’s dressed in a severe moss green suit with copper hair, milk pale skin, and eyes that look even prettier against the coldness of his expression.

Only, I know that it’s a mask. He wears it to survive.

Ever since high school, we were considered the most attractive Alpha and Omega in Haven.

The beautiful Saint twins.

It was terrifying because all Thomas and I wanted was to be left alone. Yet Omegas, Betas, and Alphas hung around us, attempting to gain our attention and favor.

We became society’s idols.

It was exhausting to live up to everyone’s expectations and fantasies about us.

It was only a matter of time, before someone caught and caged one of us.

Thomas’ anguished gaze meets mine.

Staring into his aquamarine eyes has always been like looking into my own.

We’re non-identical twins.

I was born forty-two minutes before Thomas, which is something that I’ve never allowed him to forget because it makes me the eldest, even if I’m the Omega.

Yet as the Alpha twin, he’s spent his life protecting me.

In truth, growing up in the Traditional Mayor St Clair’s pack (the Saints), we’ve needed to protect each other.

As kids, we’d tell each other the fairy tale that we’d always stay in the same pack, along with our best friend and fellow Alpha, Gabriel.

Gabriel lived with us on and off for years, while his family traveled around the globe, wherever they were stationed with the army.

As a military brat, sometimes Gabriel went with his dad. He never knew from one day to the next, where he’d wake up.

It was like he grew up in the army himself.

It screwed him up.

He loved the snatches of civilian life that he experienced with Thomas and me. They were strange and unfamiliar to me but also precious.

Because our house was the only place that he felt safe.

We were his true home.

But then, Thomas grew up, Gabriel was sent away to military academy and forbidden to contact us, and finally, I was forced into an arranged matching with Dad’s friend, Sheriff Fletcher Ace.

Being separated from my twin has been hell, but Thomas is still the only Alpha who I’ve been allowed to see for a year.

And it’s wrecked me.

Hurriedly, Thomas places down the mug on the mahogany coffee table that stands in front of the couch. “I won’t break your favorite mug, Mercy. After all, you’ll never manage to smuggle anything into the house as rebellious as this again. And I live for drinking tea in the uptight Sheriff’s lounge from something with a cheeky BITE ME logo.”

I swipe at my tears. “You bought me that mug.”

“Bite me.” Thomas arches his brow.

Then he nuzzles closer to me, swiping his fingers just above mine.

Yet he’s careful not to touch me.

His familiar scent of sugar cookie martini washes over me.

I can’t help leaning closer to Thomas because he’s boosting his pheromones into the lounge now to try to soothe my tears. He always did that, when we were younger.

Fletcher has tried to use his pheromones in the same way.

But it never works.

Suddenly, I realize that I’m leaning dangerously close to Thomas.

I jolt away just in time.

I’m not going to risk him getting in trouble for me again.

“You can’t be scent and touch starved any longer.” Thomas lets out a frustrated breath. “I don’t care what happens to me. If you need to nuzzle me or if a hug would help, then—”

“No,” I say, sharply. “I’m fine.”

I’m not.

But just because I’m an Omega — and Fletcher has given me a book of over one hundred pack household rules to live by — doesn’t mean that I’m going to fail to protect my family.

Thomas clenches his hands into fists. “The Sheriff’s a possessive knothead. Plus, he doesn’t mean it about breaking your bond. He’s trying to scare you and probably, me too. He knew that we were meeting today. He knew that you’d tell me. He only allows us to see each other once a week, after I—”

“Threatened to tear out everybody’s throat in a rampage that’d take down both Dad’s pack and Fletcher’s reputation…?”

Thomas returns my smirk. “No one should try to separate the Saint twins. That’s why the packs made sure the matching happened, when I’d been safely sent to the Alpha Centre for retraining.”

My guts churn. I feel like hurling.

Thomas will never tell me what he suffered in a center that conditions Alphas who are criminals, not acting dynamically appropriately, or are simply being punished by their packs.

That Thomas was sent there on a Course for Bad Alphas simply in order to make sure that he didn’t intervene with my bonding to the Sheriff, hurts my heart.

Yet my brother still feels guilty that he didn’t save me.

My gaze settles on the neat piles of brochures and leaflets for the Omega Institute.

My heart rate speeds up, and I take a deep breath of Thomas’ scent to try and stop my sudden, desperate trembling.

All of the brochures are in luxury gold with the Institute’s symbol: the Greek symbol for Omega, encircled by gold, as if the Institute is caging or controlling the Omega even through its logo.

I can’t look away.

The options are emblazoned over the front: Weekend Refresher Course, Short Sharp Correctional Course, Summer Long Retraining, Alpha Dominance and Discipline Diploma, and Reauctioning Options…

Fletcher sees himself as a healer, saving packs from the horror of needing to permanently reject or auction their Omegas.

Worse, break their bonds.

He’s responsible for running the Institute, which is for Omegas that don’t live up to society’s standards.

He told me proudly that our neighbors sent their college aged son for last summer’s boot camp, then laughed, saying that he came back a changed Omega.

Apparently, our neighbors can’t stop recommending Fletcher’s methods to their friends.

Methods that trains Omegas, just like the Alpha Center does for Alphas.

Plus, any Omega who fully breaks society’s rules is marked as a Rej.

There are two reasons to be marked as a Rej.

Be defective

Be rebellious.

Fletcher trains the Rejects.

But that’s not the worst that he does in the Institute, and being a Reject isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you.

You can have your bond officially broken and become a Brok.

It’s rare but it does still happen.

I shudder.

Thomas’ expression clouds, when he follows the direction of my gaze.

He snatches up one of the brochures, crumpling it furiously between his hands. “Why does he have this out all the time? He doesn’t do subtle threats, huh? I’d die, rather than send my Omega to his Institute. You must know that I’ll stop him from sending you, Mercy.”

And that’s what I’m scared of.

I shrug, wrapping my arms around myself.

I’m cold.

It’s freezing inside Ace Hall.

My dress is white and lace because Fletcher chose it and that’s what he prefers but it’s not warm enough.

My skin goosebumps.

I duck my head, and my hair covers my eyes. “My Alpha keeps talking about this new male Brok, who was brought into the Institute a fortnight ago. The Brok’s been running a fever. He’s the only Brok in over a year, and Fletcher seems…obsessed.”

Thomas’ expression tightens. “Well, there’s a reason that the Sheriff’s nickname in town is Acehole.”

I give a startled laugh. “Acehole?”

“I deny all responsibility. Not really. Of course I came up with it.”

I wring my hands in my lap. “This male Omega has a name that’s some kind of bird. Fletcher thinks that it’s funny to talk about him like a bird with broken wings. What if…?”

“He won’t do the same to you.”

“But what if…?”

“Mercy, he’s playing mind games. You’re a good Omega.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “What’s the bet that this broken songbird thought that he was a good Omega, until his Alpha decided to officially break their bond?”

Thomas’ expression is unreadable.

He does his best to understand. But he can’t, not really.

My twin is an Alpha, and as much as he talks about equality and treats me with respect, only another Omega can understand about the desire to have freedom.

The type of desire that burns inside every day, until you’re choking on ash.

Blankly, I stare out of the window at the town that I can look at but never touch. The pale afternoon light streams through into the vast room but doesn’t reach me; even its warmth fades before it touches me.

“Why does being bonded have to mean being caged inside this house?” I swallow. “Why, Tom?”

“Fuck, this.” In a sudden tightly coiled swirl of motion, Thomas sweeps to his feet. He towers over me, but I feel safe in his shadow. “Come on, if acehole’s so into birds, then birds fly in gardens. He’s out now, at work. So, why don’t we play? Let’s go.”

My eyes widen. “I can’t.”

When Thomas leans down, his eyes flash. “The sister I knew dared to learn guitar from our best friend, Gabe, tell our dad that she was going to become the world’s first Omega astronaut, and kicked my ass at Fortnite.”

“Kicked it every time, you mean.”

“It’s not my fault. I read this secret article by the Omega Society that Alphas statistically have lower IQs because so much of their blood is always going to inflate their knots.”

I scrunch up my nose.

Sometimes, I can’t even tell when my twin is joking.

I squirm past him to my feet. “Will you shut up about knots around me, if I come with you?”

“I make no promises.” Thomas grins, and I love to finally see him smile.

He hasn’t for the last month.

He strides across the marble floor to the high, oak door.

Suddenly, I’m desperate to walk in the beautiful, manicured gardens with bright rose bushes, which lie behind Ace Hall. I’ve only properly seen them from my bedroom window before.

I need to feel the sun and wind on my upturned face and smell the fresh air.

Yet my mouth becomes dry, as I reach the door.

How many rules am I breaking now?

An Omega is not to leave the lounge, when she is entertaining a guest…

An Omega is not to deviate from the schedule left for the day without her Alpha’s permission…

An Omega is not to exit the house…

My breath stutters.

I can’t hear over the sudden roaring pulse in my ears.

I stare at the door but I can’t take a step toward it.

I’m shaking, terrified.

“Are you okay?” Thomas’ concerned voice, as he glances over his shoulder at me, sounds very far away.

I try to reach out for the door knob.

But I can’t.

My hand is trembling. A sob is wrenched from me.

My lungs feel like they’re being crushed.

I’m suffocating.

“Bad,” I whisper. “I’m being a bad Omega. What if my Alpha rejects me or breaks…?”

I can’t force any more words out between my gasped breaths.

It feels like I’m dying.