Chapter Two
Elizabeth
“It was a dare!” I moan before taking another drink of wine. “I was barely legal, for fucks’ sake, Sasha!”
My best friend calmly sips her wine. “Uh huh.”
I had been twenty-three and some of the guys in my friend group had dared me to do it. Having just broken up with my girlfriend since freshman year and imbibing in more than my usual share of illicit substances, I told them sure, as long they did it too.
“We all went together, me, Josh, Ezra, Dan, Owen. It was just for fun! Didn’t you do it? You were in college at the same time as me, when the Federation first made contact?”
Sasha shakes her head. “No, I didn’t, Libby, because I’m not self-destructive.
I can’t believe Ezra and Dan...?” She trails off, surprised that the level-headed guys she’s known the last few years would do something as monumentally stupid as sign binding contractual paperwork to be alien omegas.
Assuming that is, if their bloodwork showed the protein that had been dubbed by us humans as ‘alphabet soup,’ and a compatible alien pack was matched.
Again through the bloodwork, and the questionnaire packets.
Seemed like an astronomically small chance. Guess I was wrong.
Oh shit, what the hell did I say on that questionnaire? It asked about sexual preferences and...oh shit, shit, shit.
I drain my glass, shaking my head. “The chances were so low. So low!”
About two years before I had been asinine enough to do the testing, an alien confederation had landed in Europe.
They promised they would leave Earth more or less alone if we would join the Omega Concord.
It was the same peace treaty they had agreed to with almost twenty other planets.
A peace treaty that got them humans who had tested compatible with three planets in their star system.
A human that didn’t have the matching blood would be free to stay here.
One that did, though? They would be sent to one of those planets to be ‘resettled’ with an established ‘pack’ on one of the home planets.
That human would likely never return, though holo-calls and communications were allowed.
The aliens were obviously stronger and more advanced than us, so world leaders made a few concessions, namely for the first twenty years that blood testing would be voluntary, but our leaders signed pretty quickly to avoid the aliens forcing the issue.
“They told you you were compatible?” Sasha asks, pulling me from my memories.
“They called a few weeks later. Made me do some more personality and medical tests and told me they’d be in touch if a matching pack was ever found for me,” I recall.
We had had to sign the legal paperwork before they took our blood.
A quick blood draw and we were sent on our way.
Only one of the guys tested as a match, like me. I struggle to remember who.
Sasha brings the wine over and fills both our glasses before settling back into the couch in our apartment. “You never mentioned it.”
“Fuck, I had practically blocked it out!” I whine. “I had just broken up with Amelia–” a grumble emerges from Sasha, “And was not in a good headspace. When they dared me, I said ‘fuck it, I’m down if you’re down’.”
A smile quirks her dark lips. “So any of them could get called up and sent to be an alien fucktoy?” She stifles a giggle.
“Ugh, way to make me feel better!”
She laughs, “Sorry, sorry, Libby, I’m... it’s just... well, this is all on you, you know?” She arches a dark, sardonic eyebrow. She’s just too logical for life.
The people who normally get the omega testing done were usually down on their luck, since as a pack omega, they would never need to work again or worry about food or security. Or they were low-level criminals, as that got them out of jail. Or they were space-daddy-weirdos.
I was none of the above.
I mean, there is that near-crippling student loan debt of mine. Not to mention all the news lately of various environmental crises: the collapse of the various indicator species, the flooding and increased storm strength, the insane wild fire seasons and the unprecedented drought...
I pour the rest of my wine down my throat.
You know what? Fuck this planet. We’d have been better off if the Federation had taken over and daddy-domm’ed us into not fucking up the Earth.
The main thing I’ll miss is Sasha. And maybe eventually she might do the testing and come up to be an omega near me.
Or else we’ll just do weekly video call movie nights and that will be that.
I stand and head to the kitchen, placing my glass in the sink. “Fuck it,” I say, “Not like earth men have any value at all. Maybe some alien cock will be nice.”
Sasha laughs as I head to my room, head spinning.
Okay, I’m going to do this. I’m going to be an alien pack’s omega.