The Arrangement (Omegas of Hunter's Point Book 1)

Prologue

Eighteen Years Ago

Siobhan Ahern sat patiently on the examination table still dressed in an open-backed hospital gown. She had been there for hours, ostensibly for her first post-estrous check-up, or so her father had told her. Glancing up at the wall-mounted clock for the dozenth time, she sighed. So much for her piano lesson. If this took much longer, she was going to miss her classical dance lesson, too.

She yawned.

The day had started early. Her mother had rousted her out of bed, scrubbed her spotless in the bath, then spent almost thirty minutes styling Siobhan's hair, and another fifteen minutes doing a simple make-up look that was appropriate to a fourteen-year-old. Siobhan hated this kind of stuff, but it was worth it just to have something to lord over eleven-year-old Aily.

Siobhan's younger sister, Ailish, a beta, watched from the bathroom doorway, envy and longing written all over her face. Aily was the prettier of the two of them. She'd inherited their father's lustrous black hair and arresting blue eyes - Siobhan her mother's mud brown hair and ordinary hazel eyes. Aily was a butterfly to Siobhan's moth. That was commonly accepted. But betas weren't special, like omegas. Betas didn't get to be registered. No one cared who, let alone if, betas mated. When Siobhan got her alpha, there would be a huge party with a new dress, and lots of food, and dancing, and her father had promised her a five-tiered chocolate cake! The announcement of her mate pairing would even appear in all the society pages. Then, she would live in her alpha's house as his mate, and he would make her fat with his children. She wasn't sure how that happened, but her father had assured her that it was something omegas had been doing since the dawn of time. If they could do it, she could, too.

She'd already decided on exactly the kind of alpha she wanted. Tall. It wouldn't do to have a mate who was the same height as she was. But neither could he be too tall. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life craning her neck to look her alpha in the eyes...his blue eyes. Maybe green. Build – lean. She liked muscles on males, but had no interest in the musclebound types, all brawn no brain. He should be smart, too. No one wanted a mate who couldn't carry on a decent conversation. That was one of the reasons Mom and Daddy were so adamant about her own schooling. He should have dark hair, too, like Daddy's depthless black. She could only hope that once her registration went live, the right alpha would find it.

The absolute first thing that happened when they'd arrived for the appointment was a photo for Siobhan's omega registration. It had turned out well, mostly owing to the effort her mother had put in that morning. She was glad. That would be the photo potential mates would see when they searched her name in the nationwide registry, and an unattractive photo could put her at the bottom of any alpha's list. She wouldn't have another opportunity to take a new photo until her change of status when she hit the age of majority. Then, she would be old enough to be claimed by her alpha. How that happened, she wasn't sure either. No one would give her a straight answer. The closest she'd gotten was a vague analogy her mother had made. She'd said that omegas were flowers; some flowers were prettier than others, some more vibrantly colored, some large and flashy, others small and delicate. The alpha's job was to choose which flower he thought would be best for his house. Her father had chimed in that her mother had been the most beautiful blossom in the garden when he'd picked her. Her mother had blushed prettily at the compliment. When Siobhan had asked why the flowers had to wait to be picked, her mother hadn't answered.

After taking vials of blood, checking her lungs, and testing her hearing and eyesight, the doctor had asked her mother about Siobhan's first estrous. How long had it been? 4 days. Had it been in any way abnormal? No, but her slick had an odd odor to it. Was there a family history of estrous beginning late? Yes, her mother's had started at fourteen as well. Hearing them talk, they made it sound like estrous was something mundane that happened all the time. That wasn't Siobhan's recollection of it. For her, it had been a confounding and somewhat frightening experience.