2. Talya
CHAPTER TWO
TALYA
O megas were very territorial concerning other omegas, but usually, that was concerning their personal space and their alphas. Over the years, I’d found that some omegas took it to a different level. Being an omega, I knew what it looked like and how it felt to actually feel my hackles rising when something of mine was encroached upon by another omega.
I also knew that many omegas played it up, faking the feeling that another omega was too close. Most of the time, it was for attention. Omegas loved attention, so we sought it out, especially when we felt secure in our environments. The truly amusing thing to me was when I was in the vicinity of another omega and witnessed them trying to pretend that I was making them uncomfortable.
Did I take pleasure in calling them out? Yes. Yes, I did. I loved to see the way they got flustered and embarrassed because I liked authenticity. Honesty. I didn’t play games. Who had time for that?
And thus I didn’t have any omega friends except online.
There was a website called Omega Forums where omegas could talk, ask advice, learn about being an omega when their lives hadn’t been conducive to the proper education, and make friendships. We were talking virtual-only friendships, of course. The world wasn’t a safe enough place to trust that all the people on Omega Forums were indeed omegas despite presenting themselves as such.
The website had a vetting process, but it wasn't perfect. Not as thorough or in depth as the Heat Hideaway, which was a bummer. It would be nice to have some omega friends who understood the particular struggles I was going through.
I’d been on the Omega Forums for a few years, looking for someone like that. Hoping for advice but secretly praying I’d find someone who’d had success in finding a pack while dealing with the same challenges I had.
I had my alpha. I’d had him since I was a teenager, and there was not a day that went by where I regretted any decision we’d made.
That being said, finding a pack had been an uphill battle. No, more than that. We were scaling a mountain that never peaked.
There were thousands of packs in the world, but thus far, not a single one that I’d been interested in had reciprocated that interest in an omega who already had a bonded alpha. They were in the market for an omega. Period. No baggage. And I wasn’t willing to give up my alpha—not that I could if I wanted to. I had a bite, which meant I was fully bonded. I felt Colby in me all the time. His strong, reassuring presence and deep love was everything an omega needed.
Everything except a pack.
I couldn’t say how many rejected a meeting outright when they learned that I came with an alpha, as it was far too many to count, and the number that had been willing to meet us but ultimately declined a courtship for the same reason was just as great.
It was like they thought I was joking. Oh, sure, we’ll meet you and your alpha. Then I got there, and it was, oh, you weren’t kidding when you said you were already bonded.
They wasted all our time, yet we kept trying. Day after day, I kept scrolling the Omega Forums for a glimmer of hope.
I needed a pack. We needed a pack. That was how our biology worked. I had an alpha that was wholly mine, someone who satisfied everything in me, but we were both hardwired to crave everything a pack offered—unit, family, and affection.
PackTease: Hey, girl. Any luck?
There was usually a message waiting for me when I logged into the Omega Forums. I had gained a few ‘friends’ through the website, but I was very careful with any kind of personal information I gave out. Two things were common knowledge: I was a female omega with a single male alpha, and we were looking for a pack.
We wouldn’t find a pack here, but that was not what I was looking for in the Omega Forums. I just… I wanted to be encouraged by a happily ever after that might have started in a similar fashion to my life.
But finding a pack to accept us both was wearing on us. I could feel his guilt more and more every day because without him, I’d have found a pack many times over by now. He didn’t understand that I’d rather not have a pack than not have my alpha.
KnotMyPack: Nope. Search is still on.
PackTease was one of my closest friends on the site. She was sweet, had a pack of four alphas, and their first little one was on the way. She spent a lot of time on the Forums as a stay-at-home omega.
I was also a stay-at-home omega because the world wasn’t friendly enough for us. I took classes online and did some freelance digital graphics to pass the time while Colby was at work. There were just too many dark corners in the outside world, so it was just safer to stay here when I didn’t have my alpha with me. My alpha’s bite should have taken me off the list of gaining attention, but I was too afraid to test the strength of that theory.
Recently, we learned that one of the omegas on the Forum who had been in the middle of courting her new pack had been stolen. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the surprise it should have been. There were those who didn’t think it should be up to the omega to choose their pack. They believed the strongest alphas should have the right to omegas over anyone else. Because of this, there was a hot market for available omegas.
Evidence said that this omega, who went by OmegaHart, had been targeted, then abducted, by these alphas. We didn’t have any real answers or information, and there was little chance of any being forthcoming. Omega abductions were such a common occurrence that they’d stopped being broadcast years ago.
The world was terrifying, but packs meant safety.
PackTease: Don’t give up hope, babe. I know your pack is out there.
KnotMyPack: I hope so. My alpha is getting discouraged.
The word wasn’t strong enough. He ran the gamut of emotions. Furious. Irritated. Discouraged. Guilty.
The front door opened, and I paused to listen with my fingers hovering over the keyboard. It was only one in the afternoon, so I didn’t think it was Colby. It was likely Fenton.
Omegas traditionally stayed home and didn’t work. It wasn’t that our job was to take care of the house or the family, though many omegas fell into that role. Alphas simply craved being able to take care of their omega, and their pack in general, so an omega often found herself at home. Since we grew up with that expectation, it wasn’t that difficult a role to accept.
However, in this economy, a single income for a young alpha wasn’t enough to live on. I added to it with my freelance graphic design work, but we still needed a little more to live comfortably.
That was where Fenton came in. Soon after Colby graduated college and we left dorm living, it became apparent that an entry-level salary wasn’t going to support us both. So we got a roommate.
Fenton poked his head in my room and grinned. “Hey, love,” he greeted. “Okay?”
I nodded. “Home early, Fen.”
He shrugged, rolling his eyes. “Boss is a piece of shit. I have an interview in an hour, and hopefully I can tell him right where to go tomorrow.”
“Good luck!”
Fenton winked. “Need some lunch before I go?”
He might be a beta, but he tried to take care of me just as much as Colby did. Grinning, I shook my head. “I already ate. I’d have made you a sandwich if I knew you were going to be home.”
“Meh,” he answered, waving me off. “Why didn’t Colby prepare your lunch?”
My computer dinged, and I glanced back, trying to hold in a smile. “You know he did, but I could probably make a sandwich.” Despite the fact that I stayed home and Colby went to work, he still prepared me breakfast and lunch every day. I managed to take care of dinner three or so nights a week, but cooking was not my strong suit. I was liable to burn anything more frequently than it would come out edible. Sometimes, if it was stupid simple, I could manage to produce food. It wasn’t often tasty, but it was sustenance.
Fenton gave me an amused look. He turned for the kitchen, leaving the door open as he called down the hall, “Any word back from Beka?”
Beka was our Guardian through Omega Registry. We’d been working with her for almost a decade now. I’d stopped requesting scent samples since the packs I was interested in rarely returned the sentiment. At this point, if a pack from Pack Listing appeared even remotely interested, we gave their information to Beka to see if they would like to arrange a meeting.
Currently, we had three pack inquiries out, though I hadn’t felt a glimmer of hope in years. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been excited or optimistic when putting out an inquiry with Beka. Usually, it was just going through the motions all while expecting that they’d all deny a meeting.
I couldn’t even remember a thing about the three we’d given her.
“Nope,” I said, swiveling my chair back to the computer. “I’m not expecting anything, either.”
“Their loss, sweetheart. You and Colby are a catch,” Fenton said.
The three of us had talked about starting our own pack, but Fenton didn’t seem interested. Despite all his terms of endearment, he truly felt no attraction toward either of us. Not that attraction was necessary to be packmates, but I thought Fenton was hoping that if he found a pack, it would be full of heat and longing and love.
Colby and I understood that. We felt the same way, which was why we kept looking.
“Yeah,” I answered as I scrolled through the Forum for a second. Sighing, I switched over to Pack Listing and logged in.
Per usual, I checked my profile, but I didn’t receive anything different today than I had in the past several years. Crickets.
I scrolled through the site, absently clicking on pack profiles and reading them. It was hard to be picky since at this rate, we’d be lucky if we found a pack at all. It wasn’t long before my mind wandered, and I switched back to the Forum instead. Focusing on looking through packs was difficult when I knew they were going to pass us up. I couldn’t count how many times I’d felt the sting of rejection from a pack I was excited about. The string of failures had made me numb and uninterested.
PackTease: So, there’s a new app where you can interact with packs more freely than you can with the Listing and Registry. You and your alpha should check it out.
KnotMyPack: What kind of app?
PackTease: I’ve seen it mentioned a few times. I think it’s called Pack Stop. Maybe you’ll have better luck there. I’ve heard some happy stories, but keep in mind, it’s not too heavily policed. So you should definitely wait until your alpha is with you.
I smiled. This was what the omega community should be like, not fake territorial disputes. We should be looking to support each other. Give advice and friendship. Look out for another omega’s safety. Not the nasty, petty way so many omegas tended to be.
KnotMyPack: Thanks. I’ll look it up when he gets home.
PackTease: Sweet. I hope it’s a good thing. Let me know when you do.
I nodded as another chat popped up.
IamOmegaDik: Hey, sweetheart. You okay? Haven’t seen you on in a while.
Grinning, I typed back a response.
KnotMyPack: Yep. I had a few graphics that I was working on. Trying to break into the cover industry. What’s new with you? How’s the courting?
I was already anticipating his answer. OmegaDik was one of the few and precious—a male omega. So incredibly rare, they were like finding a natural black diamond. He was sweet and a genuine flirt.
He also didn’t want a pack, but because he was just as terrified of the omega abductions as every other omega, he was trying to convince himself that he could settle down with one. In the years I’d known him, he’d been courted by a dozen different packs, yet he always found something wrong, some reason they weren’t compatible, then he started over.
IamOmegaDik: I’m not feeling it. They’re really sweet and I think they’d be a fantastic pack, but they’re just not doing it for me. I think I’m broken, Knotty girl.
My theory was that he was searching for something, even if he didn’t realize what that something was. Whatever it was had him convinced that he didn’t want a pack when he really did, and since he wasn’t finding the dream, no suitors had reached that pinnacle of pack perfection.
KnotMyPack: Ah, honey. You’re not broken. You just haven’t found your fairytale pack.
IamOmegaDik: Pfft. I don’t think I want a fairy tale. Maybe I need a twisted, dark romance. Maybe I don’t even want a romance at all. Maybe an erotic novel is more my style.
I laughed, shaking my head. OmegaDik was a reader of all the smutty genres.
My phone rang before I could answer, and at the same time, Fenton called that he was heading out, leaving hot chocolate brewing in the percolator for me. I smiled as I answered my phone, my heart fluttering when I saw Colby’s face on my screen.
“Hey, alpha,” I answered.
“My beautiful omega,” he said, a purr in his deep baritone. “You okay?”
I constantly fielded this question from them, like both Fenton and Colby were expecting me to fall apart any day now. It was kind of amusing.
“I’m fine, Colby. Are you okay?”
His deep chuckle made a flurry of heat sweep through me. “I’m fine, baby. What you up to?”
I sighed. “Finished a cover this morning but not sure if I like it enough to offer it as a premade. Tried to look through some more packs but lost interest. Now, I’m chatting with PackTease and OmegaDik.”
“OmegaDik single again?” he asked, amusement in his voice.
I grinned. “Yep. If not officially, it’s coming.”
I could hear the smile in his voice when he spoke next. “Well, on that note, Beka called. Packs Grange and Meadow declined a meeting.” I sighed, though there wasn’t so much as a flicker of surprise or frustration. I was beyond that point. When his pause continued, I held my breath. “Pack Dolby has agreed to a meeting.”