Rue
Rue smiled, smiled like she meant it, smiled like she didn't care. Because when life fucked you up, there was only one thing you could do—pretend you had your shit together. Survive. Denial was a glorious medicine for her growing anxiety. And survival would only cause a one-track hive mind of abnegation.
The moment all hell had broken loose, sweat had beaded over her skin, like cold, clammy frost. She had known that jail could be in her future, that Alphas weren't to be messed with, and that she played a dangerous game of roaring fire. Rue was all grimy inside — darkened and soiled by the colours of hardship. She'd done so much with nothing but lies. And the risks were always great, but the rewards were so fucking high.
She was drunk on the gamble, and Rue was always all in.
Alphas were dangerous; they had too much strength and too much fucking testosterone. Back home, one Alpha in a pack was the norm. A single fat asshole on his polished throne barking at his Betas and Omegas. They'd spend their days kissing his ass and massaging his feet.
Two Alphas would be pushing it. More assholes to be pampered and babied, a lot more sucking and a fuck ton of lying. Three should be the goddamn limit. A pack dynamic of rabid animals, always fucking one another and trying to take the position of top dog. The more Alphas there were, the more penis fencing there would be. It was a fact of life.
She'd long established that Valentino, Altair and Halcyon were going to be hell to juggle with her Omega nature now clouding their mind. She knew that she'd have to kiss ass twice as hard. That she might have to get on her knees just to keep them happy and quiet. There were things she had to do.
But they were good boys, obsessed enough, sweet enough. There was sick love in the tears that dripped from their eyes when they'd fucked her. And Rue could use that, could make them dance the way she wanted them to. With marks on their bodies and adoration spilling from their eyes, she was so damn fucking sure that she could get them eating out of her hand. That they'd spend most of their time trying to garner her affection, trying to establish dominance over one another.
But the four extras were wild cards. Rue scowled. There would be no tears in their eyes, no sweetness that would have them cowering and begging. Seraphim might cry, but he was a mean little proud bitch inside. Kieran was nice, but he played by his own rules and his own needs. He could be selfish when he wanted to be. And Levi? Always transactional, always strictly business. He wouldn't do things for her, he wanted the upper hand. And Dante? He was a time-ticking bomb, he'd kill her if he could.
A pack of seven Alphas that hated Omegas and Betas?
That would be fucking satanic.
"Didn't break the vial," Rue shrugged like she had a big dick, crossed her arms and stared hard like an Alpha. But Altair was right, packs didn't keep secrets. There was no avoiding the truth. Eventually, one of them would sniff her out, taste an Omega on their tongue and discover the truth. She just had to figure things out before that happened. "Don't have sticky shit all over my damn fingers, do I? And last I remembered; you wanted it."
Dante smiled like sin, like the devil, and stalked up to her with a smirk that threatened death. But as frightened and as frozen as she was, Rue was oddly entranced by the glow of his eyes. Eyes that meandered down the length of her form, sifting over the material, studying the parts of her that made her want to burn. "You're insane, aren't you?"
"Mmhm."
"Spilling all those drugs on the ground? Darling, I covered for you." His eyes flashed; voice dripped into a velvety purr that had chills running up her spine. There was tease in his voice, an almost gleeful lilt that told her he was confident that he'd win. "Forget school. Those were years in jail—death, even."
"Bullshit—"
"Those Omega suppressant pills you bought were top-tier poison," he sneered, fingernails tapping on his arm—a measure of his patience. Fuck, of course, he knew. She'd lost it somewhere on the ground, rolling over the asphalt, and he'd picked it up and sniffed her out like the dog he was. "That's more than a favour. I saved your life."
"Some mule must have used me—"
"Don't lie to me," he silenced her with a finger, "I've got eyes in those alleyways. People undercover. They saw you." Rue shut up then, lips pursed into a thin line. Fuck.
Kieran's voice was there then, thin and oddly strangled. The helios' lights shattered at his words. "What poison?"
"It's for breeding livestock, controlling pigs and horses." Dante's lips stretched, dimples flashing—a juxtaposition of his character. "But the shit's got Omegas dying like flies, and an army of exhausted Poseidons who've spent days fucking those bitches. It's a disaster. So much manpower wasted on liabilities. And yet, so many angry Alphas begging for their girls. So the punishment for possession grows." He turned to Rue then, embers flaring in his eyes. The hatred was almost scalding hot. "Who were you going to give it to?"
Rue prayed that he couldn't tell how jellied her legs had become, how terror was latched in her throat and bubbled in her voice. "Don't know what you're talking about."
Dante chuckled, and plumes of smoke swirled in the air, darkening the room in a cloud of lightning and thunder. But he didn't push. They both knew he didn't have to. She'd seen him in his gear, decked in shining armour like some star-studded veteran. Dante was high up there and a word from him would be enough to send her down. No confession was necessary.
"It was for a friend," she admitted, twisted the lies, and pulled out the family and friends card like a bastard. "I didn't know it would be that bad."
Dante raised a brow. "Of course, the ever-mysterious Omega. I've had men look through those girls, and none of them are as potent as the concoction you have. So, what did you do to the slick?"
"Look," Rue resisted the urge to swallow, to gulp nervously like a pussy. Her cards were out, and she'd lost them all. There was only so much she could do now with a zeus on her and cold hard evidence in his hands. She had to mix lies with the truth. "It's just fresh, nothing else. I swear to God. What you've got in your investigations? Old shit—"
"It was enough to push us all into Rut." He rippled, rose like a deity of the stars, glittering like the heavens. "Four SSS-class espers with incredible control. We don't have random fucking Ruts. My pack is stable, we took the time and effort to stabilise our cycles. Do you know how fucking impossible this is? How dangerous that could be with what we have to do?" He snarled, leaned forward and infiltrated her personal space, fingers on her arms, all blazing, all fire. "What cocktail of drugs did you put in there?"