Chapter 9
Gold Pack Omegas
Omegas who do not receive the Institute's omega injection within a year of presenting.
They are identifiable because their eyes turn gold.
Gold pack omegas are considered more feral and unstable than regular omegas, and tend to have a stronger scent.
Gold pack omegas are considered outcasts, not given the same rights as regular citizens, and are required to be on birth control.
SIN
“You’re… not an alpha?” Crescent asked, expression shocked.
A smile curved my lips as I peered down at her. “No.”
I’d taken no offence at her calling me an alpha earlier. Quite the opposite. How poorly I fit the image of an omega was a currency for me—it’s what helped me stand out.
Dropped into this place as a gift for a fresh dweller pack, my destiny had been as predictable as it came. But instead of being bitten into a dark bond, the pack that should have claimed me was found dead by the morning—each and every one of them.
And while I had no memory of how that happened, I used it to my advantage.
I’d branded myself on that, and it was a story that was bolstered by the ongoing feud I had with Holden’s pack. A feud I hadn’t lost.
I hadn’t planned it exactly, but it meant pretty much every pack in Anarchy with a bonded omega wanted to watch me fuck theirs—and I’d use every opportunity I could to pull my weight.
It had become something of a tradition.
Not that that would happen now that I had a mate—even if we weren’t getting out in ten days.
Crescent had wriggled around to face me fully, and her eyes were wide.
Uh.
“Is that… a problem?” I asked.
“No…” Her lip wobbled as her arms locked around my waist, drawing me closer, which caused her neck to angle further backwards so she could keep gawking at me.
“Oh… my… I have an… omega scent match?” she asked.
I watched as she mouthed the word omega again, as if she couldn’t process it, which was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
“Oh…” She glanced at Karma, then back at me, her cheeks burning red. “I didn’t…” She looked panicked, and it took me a second to work out why—until I clocked that she was naked, beneath the blankets with… well, with my alpha.
“I’m sure Karma is grateful for cuddles,” I said. “He doesn’t get them from me.”
Okay. Not totally true. Sometimes he sleepwalked, and I’d wake crushed in his arms and far too hot.
Still, I was a shit omega, though explaining that was complicated. The heat drugs we’d just pulled from the drawer—the last ones we had—were there because I skipped every heat, as unhealthy as it was for my body.
My pack meant everything to me, but I wasn’t with them romantically—and it was more than I could ask that none of them made me feel like I owed them.
Banging other omegas in cages for favours? That was easy, I didn’t care about them. But Karma, Phantom, and Vandle were different.
“I’m not…” I trailed off, not sure how to explain it.
“Sin’s not with us,” Phantom supplied, like it was no big deal.
I shot him a grateful look.
“Oh.” Crescent nodded as if that made sense, though we all knew it didn’t.
I’d been forced down here to be treated like a possession, thrown from one owner to the next—until I’d met my pack.
I hadn’t healed from that. I didn’t know if I ever would, but I knew one thing for sure: I’d never find out while we were still down here.
It was hard not to think about how very naked she was under the blankets.
“Yup,” I said, trying to straighten out my thoughts. The fever pitch her scent had hit with the waves of heat was dying down, though not fast enough.
Through the bond I felt Phantom’s struggle to keep a hold of himself—and he was the most stable of us.
He’d been tossed in here because he was feral, same as all the alphas, but his instability had an easy fix.
We were lucky, and the pack bond fixed his Echo Rut Syndrome—which wasn’t always a guarantee, but with an omega it was a good bet.
But if he was struggling, it was no surprise Karma had gone and cracked. He’d had more time in here than the rest of us, but he’d started out as mad as Vandle. None of it was her fault, though I don’t think she realized that.
I’d taken a measure of Karma’s stability before I left, I just hadn’t accounted for a fucking scent match.
Poor bastard.
But he’d be fine by the morning.
His aura would settle down as the decadent velvet rose and cocoa scent calmed, its edge of heated desperation waning.
And Crescent seemed happy to stay curled up with him until he was better—though we should probably get her into some clothes sooner rather than later, or risk this happening all over again. She was still clutching the blankets to her chest.
“I got you some clothes.” I handed her the bag.
Phantom straightened where he sat, eyes suddenly wide as he looked at me.
Ah shit.
The deal with Dominic Redgrave.
The biting deal—that had to be off the table now. There was no way in hell I was taking her into a cage. She was way too fragile.
And a literal fucking virgin.
The problem was, that meant no bites. Not until I managed to undo the deal—which was a bit of a task, since it hadn’t really felt like a deal at all. More like Dominic was putting me into a headlock and telling me what was going to happen.
Whatever.
“I’ll fix it,” I mouthed to Phantom as Crescent picked through the bag.
There was a very cute blush creeping up her cheeks.
I cleared my throat. “Not exactly uh… much selection.”
“That’s okay…” Her voice was wispy as she turned a thin lacy thong over a few times as if unsure what it was. “Thank you.”
Not glancing down while she changed beneath the covers was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But since Karma hadn’t fucked her into oblivion, I supposed I should have some standards.
Okay, so I glanced once. But like, we’d already seen her in basically nothing.
And I got an eyeful of those cute little pale thighs draped by wisps of moonlight-silver hair. Then I caught Phantom’s judgemental gaze and rolled my eyes.
She was my mate.
And she wasn’t exactly trying to hide from me as I lifted the blanket for her.
She was hiding from Phantom, though.
A smug little chuckle slipped out before I could stop it. Being an omega had its benefits every once in a while.
Once she was dressed in baggy sweats and an oversized top, she seemed comfortable sitting on top of the blankets. She folded her hands in her lap, allowing Karma to readjust how he was crushing us in a hug, then settling back in.
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
We had a stash of bars hidden in the little hole beneath Phantom’s bed. Because the doors were unlocked during the day, we had a few places other than the dresser to keep the things we didn’t want stolen.
She shook her head.
I was tempted to ask her more about everything she’d said—about why she thought she would damn us. Down here all the alphas had already been condemned; there wasn’t much more damning she could possibly do.
But Crescent was breathing softly, the air peaceful now that her scent was at a normal potency.
I didn’t want to distress her, she’d had enough of that today. So I let my fingertips play with a strand of her soft, damp hair and tried to calculate our chances of living to our appeal.
Phantom was right that revealing the gun today was a risk, but it was worth it. Plus, if I had to show the weapon, the best time was in a power play that humiliated Holden.
I just hadn’t expected it to come in the shape of an actual scent match. And the picture it painted was perfect: all of Anarchy had just seen an omega claim Holden’s gift from under his very nose.
That, though, was the stars aligning.
Claiming Crescent would have happened whether or not I could spin it. Nothing could quite describe the need I’d felt when I’d seen her that first time—the bone-deep knowledge that she was mine.
A piece of me I hadn’t even known was missing.
Even now, I felt it like a white-hot scrap of metal in my chest, pressing against my lungs with every breath.
Perhaps the alphas in my pack needed her scent to know, but I hadn’t.
And it wasn’t just about what it meant for me.
I loved my pack, but even I couldn’t deny that we were just lost souls clinging to survival in a world that would otherwise leave us for dead.
But Crescent… The gravity of the world itself had changed with her.
A mate.
A signal from the universe that we were allowed to want more. To be more. Something… meant to be instead of a game of chance.
Her scent was like a dream.
Soft velvet roses and luxurious cocoa, sweet like a Valentine’s Day treat.
But there was still something wrong.
She was afraid, which made sense—except for what it seemed she was afraid of. Not of this place, but of… of our claim, I thought.
The longer we laid there, the more on edge she got until her anxiety had everyone uneasy. Phantom kept shooting me glances, and soon he was going to ask her what was wrong, if I didn’t get to it first.
He was sweet, but none of these alphas would be my first choice at broaching a delicate topic.
So that left me to shatter the silence—and hopefully not shatter the delicate little omega laying against me.
“What are you worried about?” I asked.
“I’m going to break everything,” she whispered. “You have your alphas, and now I’m here, and he’s already—”
She cut off as I pressed my finger to her lips. “Baby girl,” I said, trying out another nickname, but… didn’t quite fit. I needed to find the perfect one. “You’re not breaking anything.”
Karma, mad as he was, was an alpha with convictions that bled right down to his instincts. If he didn’t, there was no way we wouldn’t have found him rutting her when we got back. Instead, she’d been forced to endure particularly vicious cuddles.
He could go from vicious to teddy bear in the blink of an eye, and when he did, well, I’d never met a more gentle alpha.
Crescent was lucky, just like I was. Karma, Phantom, and Vandle—they were special. There were no alphas in here like them.