Violet (Omegas in Bloom #1)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER

ONE

Violet

“ V i! Vi! Did you see Queen Bee’s latest Stitch? O.M.G!”

My fourteen-year-old sister Rue runs into the living room, long dark hair streaming behind her, waving her phone.

“Mom’s going to have a cow if you run in the house.” I look around anxiously, making sure our mother isn’t in eye-shot, but I don’t see her.

“Mom won’t, Vi!” Rue slams her hands on her hips as she lies, bouncing with exuberance in the sunshine streaming through the window. Rue is light to the darkness and noise to the silence, which often drives people batty. Like Mom.

“Let me see.” I take the phone and press play . The mysterious Queen Bee, identity and voice disguised, talks about diamonds, the Luxe, rich things, and the start of the Season.

My Season.

But I don’t care about those things. Not like most Omegas in their Mating Season do. I’m just trying to survive it and hopefully end it with a mark on my neck and a respectable mate.

“The Monarch’s throwing the balls this year, so, what?” I say. “It’s life as usual.”

“She’s looking for the Season’s star, Vi. And it’s your first Mating Season!” Rue looks up at me, eyes wide. “It could be you. Maybe you could do one of your dances!”

She pirouettes.

“Rue, stop.” I pack up my book. “You know that I’m not good enough for that. Besides, I quit a long time ago.”

I had heard Mom talking about cutting costs, and dancing came up. So I dropped out.

“Do you think, when you mate, he’ll have a handsome Alpha brother?” Rue asks, flopping down on the window seat where I’d been sitting. Outside, Mom’s garden is in full bloom, a living masterpiece. “I think I’d like that. Then we could be together!”

Rue melts my heart. She’s innocence personified and sunshine brought to life. Even though she’s oblivious to the real stressors in life.

“Maybe I won’t meet anyone. Maybe I won’t be courted.”

She looks at me in disbelief. “But…you’re Violet . So pretty. And talented. My sister.”

I almost laugh.

I’m not like Dahlia, gifted brilliant musician with an affinity for math. I’m not like the artistic Marigold. Nor am I quick-witted and fiery like Iris, who’s going to be a renowned writer, I just know it.

It should be Heath, the eldest, in this Season, but Dad’s death and five Omega girls has him weighed down. He’s head of the family, and I’m the eldest girl, so this year’s Season falls to me. It’s up to me to be perfect and make it successful.

Of course I’d rather hide away. But I have to secure our place in society, and make sure the Gardener Omegas have a smooth path in and are seen as special catches.

“C’mon, we need to get chores done,” I say.

“Chores, Vi, are boring.” She sighs heavily. “Are you joining Heath in being boring ? Although his friend he was on the phone with sounded dreamy. He wouldn’t turn his phone, so I couldn’t see his face.”

“It was probably one of Dad’s friends—old, fat, and balding. Maybe that one guy who looks like he’s about to drool.”

She shrieks with laughter.

I worry about Heath. At twenty-five, he’s changed from a dashing young man, full of life and bad jokes, to someone suddenly decades older, wearing his mantle heavily.

We both carry burdens.

I’ll find a mate, ease those burdens of his, open pathways for my sisters. No matter how my stomach eats at me.

“Where is he, anyway?” I ask.

“Study,” Rue says.

Of course. It’s almost a rhetorical question at this point .

He’s up at all hours in Dad’s study, hunched over books and ledgers, instead of being out and meeting Omegas.

Rue leans forward, eyes on the Queen Bee’s Stitch post as she rewatches it, then she looks up. “Maybe a prince will come!”

I laugh. “No princes.”

“What are you going to wear to the first one, Vi? The Bee says the Monarch might be looking for a jewel or silk or perfume or?—”

“Rue.” I cut her off. “It’s ages away.”

She bites her lip and looks out the window, down onto the grounds of our country home. We have a townhouse, too, for when we have evenings in the city. “I know, it’s just…” Rue turns back to me. “Being seen as the most precious thing is dreamy, and I know it’s going to be you.”

“Puh-leeze.” Iris stomps up to us. She snatches the phone, presses play, and rolls her eyes as Rue takes back her precious phone.

“You should get the app, Iris. Or a cat.”

“I don’t want either, brat,” she says. “I don’t need the Council or a wannabe telling me how to be like everyone else and get excited by archaic chauvinist ways. Just because I’m an Omega doesn’t mean I need to sniff a man out so I can feel complete. That’s bullshit.”

“Iris!” Rue gasps and melodramatically clutches her chest. “My ears!” Then she preens. “We’re all beautiful and glorious Omegas. Five perfect Omegas under one roof! We’re practically famous, Iris. Famous!” She holds out her left hand and gazes at it. “Destined to mate well.” Rue looks at Iris. “And you try to burn my perfect Omega ears!”

“If anyone should be getting mated” —Iris makes air quotes with her fingers as she leans against the wall— “it’s Heath. But he’s finally realized no one can stand his attitude and decided to skip it.”

“He’s running the family and Dad’s business,” Rue says, crossing her arms.

“And get your boot off the wall, Iris,” I scold.

She’s stunning, big green eyes and dark hair. She’s wearing her makeup armor—thick eyeliner and dark lipstick—and a black T-shirt with some band’s name that I don’t recognize, and a short black pleated skirt with thick black stockings and big boots.

“What if we all mate with five handsome brothers?” Rue looks at us.

“Oh, God.” I face palm.

“You’re hopeless.” Iris rolls her eyes at Rue.

“She’s young,” I say with a small smile.

“And blissfully na?ve.”

I shrug.

“You should get off your phone, Rue,” Iris says. “It’ll rot your brain, turn you into an automaton.”

“And get a mate?” She sighs happily. “I can live with that.”

“Can you live with this imaginary mate going to jail?” Iris raises a brow. “You’re fourteen.”

“Depends,” Rue says cheerfully. “Is this a cushy imaginary prison?”

“I need to get some chores done,” I mutter to Iris. “Can I trust you not to kill Rue?”

She deadpans. “No.”

“Yes!” Rue cries. “No one would kill me.” She jumps up onto the window seat and spins. “I’m too cute. ”

I pull her down. “You’ll be dead if you break that window. We’re on the second floor.”

Rue suddenly sits. “I miss Daddy.”

For a moment, none of us speak, and the grief of his unexpected passing grows in the space between us. It’s been over a year now since that accident claimed Dad. The one Heath witnessed. The accident took Dad from us and changed our lives.

“Heath’s changed,” Rue adds. “I liked him before better. He was fun.”

“He’s still fun,” I say, ignoring Iris’s fake coughing fit. “He’s just busy. It’s a lot, running the house.”

It’s not lost on any of us that our staff’s been pared back. But I don’t comment on it, just like I don’t agree with Rue out loud.

“Well,” I say with as much perk in my voice as I can muster, “I’d better start preparing for the Season.”

A wave of panic hits me hard. How the hell does one prepare? Which of our handbooks do I read? I try and suck air in but my lungs don’t work, and someone is wheezing— me .

Heat floods my face and pin pricks dance along my skin.

I need to calm myself. I need—I need to lie down.

“Rue, run along,” Iris says as if from a long way away as my chest tightens. I worry my heart’s going to explode. “Violet and I are discussing the finer points of the Omega Feminist Movement.”

Someone takes my arm and makes me walk as black dots explode in front of my eyes.

I’m shoved in a room, pushed down onto something soft, and then warm arms come around me and Iris makes me lie down with her as she tells me a story.

It’s about a plucky feminist who runs off to rule the world and turn all Alphas into slaves. It’s so funny, I forget I can’t breathe, forget the steel-like band around my chest and the panic that’s slicing through my blood, and the world comes back into focus.

“…and then surrounded by many slave men—and women, our ruler’s an equal opportunity lover—she lives happily ever after.”

I smile against the soft skin of my younger sister’s arm. Now we’re in a guest room. I know because I recognize the green velvet of the chair in the corner by the window.

“Mom’s going to lose it over us messing up the bed,” I say.

“Take a chill pill, Vi. I’ll fix it.”

She’s not wearing her perfume blocker. Iris loves the heavily spiced and sophisticated ones. But right now, she smells like her namesake. A soft, powdery sweet scent redolent with green leaves, a hint of wood, musk, and soft spice.

Her look is all angles and barriers, but her natural scent is soft roundness and an invitation in.

I bite my lip. “Dad must somehow owe money. Or rather owed .” We have barely any staff, and old wealth is about social standing over bank accounts. I can’t be the only one noticing the differences since Dad’s death.

“Heath will figure it out?—”

“I know.” I turn and face her. “He’s become obsessed with it. It’s why he’s skipping this Season and it’s falling to me. ”

“Nothing’s falling to you, Vi. You have a choice, you know. You don’t have to find a mate this Season if you don’t want to.”

She doesn’t understand. I don’t have a choice—not really. Mating well will determine how the rest of my sisters mate. It could help Heath with the finances. It would make life easier for Mom, who’s still living in the shadow of Dad’s death. It’ll make things easier for everyone.

I sigh.

“Heath’s an Alpha. He gets the ability to do whatever he wants and mate when he wants. But you don’t always have to say yes, either. You can push against the norms. It’s your life. We could get jobs, live on our own.”

I laugh. “I’m twenty-one. You’re nineteen. We can’t do that, just abandon Mom and the family.”

Not just that but it’ll bring shame on our name, and all the doors to society would slam shut. Everyone here’s so…shallow.

Her mouth turns up. “You think too much.”

She’s not wrong, but I shake my head. “You may not want to slide into your role you were born into as Omega, but our sisters do. And it’s how things are done on Sabine.”

“So you’re telling me that you actually want to get mated?” Iris asks.

“Iris…”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“I want to.” The words are a lie and the truth. Am I ready to mate? Probably not. Am I happy to do something to help my family? Absolutely.

“Nah.” She sits up. “Fuck the system.”

I sit up, too. “Iris, please.” As she gets to her feet, I grab her hand. “I-I need your help with this. I have no idea what I’m doing, and there’s the pre-Season picnic tomorrow.”

“Vi…”

“I want to do this the right way. I need to make Mom proud and make things easier for Heath. If I can figure this out, it’ll be a walk in the park when it’s your turns.”

“I’m not prancing around for Alphas to pant at me. There’s no way I’m doing that shit.”

“Iris. Help me, please?”

She sighs. “If I have to.”

I take that as a yes.

Because I’m going to need all the help I can get.