Chapter Two
Nikki
The omega sanctuary was overcrowded. There were far too many of us. Once abandoned apartment buildings were now full, many just days away from being rightfully condemned, but we all knew the city never put any funding into this travesty of a place. It was just a prison for all of us and a Band-Aid for those who ran the domed city of Tharia.
Everything I had planned had gone wrong. There hadn’t been enough time to make it to the city walls after we had released the anti-suppressant, a drug we’d developed in the omega underground to counteract the effects of the airborne suppressant. All of the omegas I had planned to get out of the city had gone into heat, including me, far more quickly than any of us had planned for. The newly awakened alphas had been unable to resist us, and we’d all suffered. Some of us had lost our virginity that day, thrown to the ground and fucked through the worst of estrous, but not me.
My heat had only just begun when a group of alphas had targeted me, thinking they would best the leader of the omegas. I’d fought hard, putting a number of them down with my tranquilizer dart gun, but eventually they’d overwhelmed me, torn off my clothes, and captured me. They’d carried me off with the worst of intentions, but the beta army had been watching. Every single moment, they’d been watching.
They’d watched as the group of alphas touched me, pinched my nipples, and slid their fingers through the growing wetness between my thighs, a small hint that my heat was approaching soon. They’d watched when those alphas had pawed at the cheeks of my ass and spread me open to their view, despite my protests of shame. The alphas had growled with their dominance and the omega within me had faltered slightly, unused to that kind of power.
Just as the group of alphas that had grabbed me were about to throw me to the ground and fuck me senseless, the beta army had intervened. They’d fought off the furious alphas by sheer overwhelming force of numbers and taken me captive instead. A number of the alphas had died in that fight, and the rest involved with my capture were banished outside the walls.
I never learned any of their names. I didn’t even remember their faces.
Instead, the betas had forced me into a cell. Had injected me with suppressant and my heat had thankfully faded under the chemical intervention of the drug. All remnants of estrous had diminished within a very short time span, including the feverish heat and uncontrollable arousal.
I’d become myself once again in a matter of twenty-four hours.
Now I was back where I started. Prisoner within the omega sanctuary once again. And I blamed one person in particular for everything going to shit.
I fucking hated the city, but most of all, I hated Philip Savile. He was the leader of the domed city of Tharia, a beta who hated the existence of all alphas and omegas. He detested that omegas would never desire him, but most of all, he loathed that he was physically smaller and inferior to any natural alpha. He’d spent countless time and energy trying to expose every alpha and omega in the city. He’d even devised a way to permanently alter our kind and get rid of our natural instincts once and for all.
He’d been working for some time on something called ‘The Omega Solution.’ It was a scientific based treatment that worked by genetically modifying our DNA. Essentially, it would permanently erase our omega natures and would do the same to any alpha as well.
Since we’d been captured and imprisoned within the omega sanctuary, he’d been ramping up efforts to maximize development and approve its widespread use. Destroying our natures was something he’d always worked toward and he wouldn’t stop until he had accomplished that.
I also knew that no matter what he did, we’d never be free if we stayed within the city walls. We’d always be jailed and treated as animals unless we could make it out.
Since my last escape attempt failed, I didn’t know if we would ever have another chance. I hung my head in my hands, feeling like a failure. My mind was full of could haves, would haves, and should have knowns. It was difficult to focus on anything else.
I looked at a map, my eyes glancing over the mostly uncharted lands of the wilds.
I wondered if Ellie had made it safely outside the walls. It had been several weeks since I sent her out there. She was another omega who had lived in the omega sanctuary with me for a long time and had been a crucial part of developing the anti-suppressant here in the omega underground. During the chaos of our failed escape attempt, she’d been claimed and bonded to an alpha who went by the name Ehsan. He was a gentle merchant man and seemed to care for her. With his protection, I’d sent her out into the wild to meet up with Triss, one of the only omega women who had managed to escape with the help of her own three alphas.
I hoped Ellie had survived. It was a gamble, but we needed those outside the walls if we would ever make it out of here. Our only chance at escape was with the help of the alphas from the wilds and those banished from the city. If they were to agree to assist us, we’d have just the slightest chance at freedom.
Was it too much to hope for?
I lifted my head and stared down at the blueprints I had garnered of the city layout. Some of the blueprints were our own, underground tunnels that we’d dug and expanded over the years to travel to various corners. Right now, I was underground in the omega sanctuary, an area we’d kept painstakingly secret from any of the guards or government officials.
It was our own place, where we lived free from prying eyes and abusive guards, and where we planned our initial attempt at escape. It was where we conducted our own scientific investigations and developed our anti-suppressant, where we sold our wares and made food from what resources we had. It was the only place we called home. It was also the base of the Omegaborn, an organization I led that was devoted to ensuring the eventual freedom and escape of every mistreated omega forced to live in the sanctuary.
And now with the influx of all the awakened omegas from the city, it had gotten much more crowded than it used to be. Every apartment housed more than one woman, food was growing scarce, and clothes were hard to come by. We were suffering more than ever and as of now, I had no solution to any of our current problems.
It seemed hopeless.
A gentle knock on the door sounded and I lifted my head, trying to push away all thoughts of my defeat from my head. I sighed and shook my shoulders, putting on a strong and confident face. I had to stay strong for everyone who was suffering here. I was their leader and I had to act like it.
“Come in,” I called out and sighed in relief as Gemma entered the room. Her tender smile met my gaze and I grinned softly in return. I noticed that she looked like she’d lost some weight. I’d have to see that she received some extra portions, even if they were my own.
Gemma had been the subject of much abuse at the hands of the guards here and I took it as my personal mission to look after her. Some time ago, the guards here at the sanctuary had discovered contraband on her, a cotton t-shirt bra instead of the regulation undergarments we were supposed to wear. They’d beaten her harshly and without a care, resulting in a multitude of scars all over her body. She hid them with long-sleeved shirts and pants, but both she and I knew they were there. At the very least, the guards had left her face unmarred.
As a result of that trauma though, she stopped speaking altogether. Instead, she communicated with her hands and with a sort of sign language the two of us had designed to talk to one another.
Hurriedly, she signed to me to follow her. I cocked my head and lifted an eyebrow. The expression on her face looked worried, a little relieved, and quite a bit scared. She adamantly signed at me to follow once more. With a sigh, I pushed myself up from my chair and followed her down the hallway, toward the entrance to the underground. There was a group of people gathered there and as I drew closer, I tried to figure out who they were.
The first person I recognized was Ellie’s sweet little face. Her soft brown eyes met mine as she pushed her dirty blonde hair behind her ears. She looked happier and more content than I had ever seen her. She appeared to be stronger, had put on some much-needed weight and seemed much healthier, likely under the guidance of the alpha standing right behind her.