Chapter One
Azane
“Already?” I type frantically into my handheld. I untie my long blue hair as I stare at the screen, waiting.
The secretary at the Concord office replies quickly. “Yes. Your matched omega is scheduled to arrive in six rotations. Please bring your entire pack for the arrival at three spans past lunch meal, in our Citradoth office.”
Fuck.
I mean, not fuck. This is good. Incredible.
Holy stars. An omega. It’s amazing.
Another message. “I will send out the information packets. They should arrive tomorrow.”
Tugging my hair over my shoulder, I begin to braid it as anxiety curls in my gut.
“Hey baby.”
Inken. My second and best friend. Oh no. Ohhhhh no. How do I tell her? She’s gonna flip.
She kisses the top of my head and sits next to me, leaning back on the couch and tossing her leg over my lap. “What did you want for dinner? Maybe a picnic in the woods?”
She smiles beguilingly at me, and I grin back without thought. Her smokey blue skin against mine, soft and yielding, though my pack mate and lover of many revolutions is neither.
“Ink, I have some... news.”
“Mm?” she mumbles as she sits up and places a hand on my arm in concern.
My skin looks very purple next to hers as I stare at her soft touch.
“They found our omega.”
“Shit!”
Her face takes on a frantic edge. “It hasn’t even been a turn! Shit!” she cusses again, running her hands through her shaggy gray waves. “We don’t have a third!”
I cringe and she looks at me accusingly. She blurts, “I knew we shouldn’t have lied!”
“That’s on me,” I sigh, closing my eyes.
“What the fuck are we gonna do, Azane?” she demands.
Inken is organized and ordered. This probably has her on the edge of panic: I know my mate.
But luckily, I also know how to be an aleron. My job in the pack is to protect, to guard and problem-solve.
I pull up a page on my handheld. “We’re getting a beta,” I declare confidently.
“A beta?” she questions, calmer immediately, and scoots close to me. Her body leans against mine as she peers at my handheld.
“Yup,” I nod, “More likely that we can quickly find a nice, chill beta that will fit in the pack rather than another alpha.” I click a few things on the planetary matching system’s page. “Male or female?” I ask Inken.
“Male,” she responds without thought. “I want my omega pregnant on the first heat.”
Sounds lovely to me.