Danger of Love (Omega Sanctuary #3)
1. CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1
Birds chirped merrily as they flew from limb to limb. The sun shone brightly, illuminating them all as they stood there. A few furry friends, like squirrels, bunnies, and deer with their fawns, had been seen.
The warm breeze that blew across his body held a promise for the future. Considering the circumstances, that seemed…well, odd. Off. The exact opposite of what Leandro was experiencing at that moment. Then again, the entire scene seemed to have been to mock them. Taunting Leandro.
The tears rolling down his cheeks were a testament to that. Yet, nothing at that moment could have stopped those tears—not even the strong arms he would have loved to have wrapped around his body, comforting him.
No.
He shouldn’t think those thoughts, especially in that moment. Yet…
He body shuddered as he dragged in a breath to try to stem the emotions roiling through him. Not that it helped. He wasn’t even certain the strong arms of the Alpha he’d been doing his best to ignore would have helped.
In all, they were burying four of their own that day. Two had died during the attack before anything could have been done to save them. The other two had died of complications a couple of days later.
It should have been raining as they stared at the graves before them. Zuko, one of Leandro’s best friends, was dead. The caskets that had been painstakingly made for him and the other three by two woodworkers who called Sanctuary home had made them to give them a proper burial instead of just having their bodies tossed into the ground.
They were gone. Struck down while defending the town and its people they had all come to love. Yet, the sun shone brightly, as if mocking their demise and the tears that the townspeople, friends of the men who were being carefully lowered into the ground. They had all fought side by side for each other.
It had seemed like an insurmountable task when Leandro and his nine best friends–all Omegas–had planned this journey to find a place where they could be relatively safe from Alphas, who felt they had the right to do whatever they wanted to Omegas. That included rape, kidnapping, and selling them.
It had taken time for them to find a place where they could settle and rebuild some of the infrastructure of the town. That was especially true since they were leaving what the American Government deemed a safe zone, which was anywhere east of the Mississippi River. They’d known traveling west was a tremendous gamble since none of them had ever ventured beyond the mighty river and they had no idea what they might find there.
But they were determined it had to be safer than where they’d lived. A place the government deemed safe was nothing more than sanctioned freedom for alphas to do anything they wanted to Omegas. It all came to a head when one of their group, Halston, who had been the only son of a very wealthy family, was being threatened.
After Halston’s parents died, he’d inherited a ton of money. Money that an Alpha wanted for himself. That Alpha petitioned the courts to become Halston’s Alpha, claiming no Omega could take care of themselves. When the courts sided with the Alpha Leandro, and his friends took off for a town they’d found from another Omega they’d met, whose only stipulation of getting them there on a refurbished riverboat was to take him with them.
The task was daunting, especially since they had no clue what they were getting into. The Omega manning the riverboat, Damon, had been the only one to see the land west of the Mississippi River and only from the waterways he and his father had traveled.
What they hadn’t expected was to find others, like themselves and Alphas, who thought like Leandro and his friends had - that everyone deserved to be treated with kindness, equality, and, most importantly, respect. They had not only been on the side of the Omegas, but they’d been willing to band together and turn Sanctuary into a true town.
And what happened?
Zuko and three others died to defend their new way of life. They currently lived west of the Mississippi in a town that they’d been slowly rebuilding with a smattering of Alphas, who seemed intent on helping—although Leandro was still holding judgment on that—as well as nearly two hundred Omegas, who’d Leandro’s group of friends had somehow saved from being sold to the highest bidder.
It was…in a word, morbid. No. Not just that, but maybe…surreal, inspiring and hopeful. Between arriving in Sanctuary, freeing other Omegas, gaining the help of a small group of Alphas, and finally fighting off an attack by other Alphas who’d been intent on capturing the Omegas again to sell and Leandro honestly wasn’t certain what to believe any longer.
Unable to stay at the gravesite once they’d paid their respects, he’d made his way to the playground they’d fixed behind an old elementary school - which they’d partially rebuilt to teach all the children that had not only been brought to Sanctuary but were being born there. But instead of watching the kids playing, Leandro was side eyeing the one Alpha he was becoming fascinated with. Weston was working at the local jail a short distance away, shoring up security where they had some prisoners from the recent attack.
As far as Leandro was concerned, those alphas should be dead. But Weston and a few others—sadly including some town’s Omegas—felt they might learn where other Omegas were being held to sell to other Alphas. Leandro didn’t hold out much hope. What he knew of Alphas in general is they thought they were better than everyone else and the laws didn’t pertain to them. Even when confronted by other alphas.
And that, right there, was what held Leandro’s attention when it came to Weston. The man had saved a boatful of the town’s Omegas, as well as others whom they freed from two of the camps where Alphas held them to be transported to the east of the river to be sold. That was what he expected from an Alpha. Yet, Weston had risked his life to help the Omegas get back to Sanctuary safely.
Not only that, but he’d joined in the fight when the town had been attacked. Had nearly gotten himself killed on more than one occasion during the battle. But he honestly, more importantly, never acted as if he was better than an Omega. Hell, he’d often willingly listened to an Omega instruct him on how to do things.
Like rebuilding the jail. It had needed a lot of work and Weston had accepted direction from those Omegas who knew what they were doing to make the jail functional. Leandro didn’t even know an Alpha who would do that. They usually insisted they knew more than any Omega ever could.
The only place Weston stepped up to lead was in battle. But it had made sense considering that more Omegas weren’t allowed to fight. It was one of the reasons they’d only lost four instead of dozens more.
That said, Leandro still wasn’t positive he could trust the Alpha. Was he attracted to Weston? Definitely, but it was a long way from being drawn to the man to doing anything about it.
For that matter, he did not know if Weston had any feelings for Leandro at all. There were times he caught the Alpha watching him, but there could be a million reasons that could have happened.
No. It was best if Leandro kept his distance. The last thing he needed was to have feelings for an alpha. He just feared that it might already be too late for that.