Omega’s Gambit by Flora Quincy

Viola

“You are mine,”Syon smiled. He anticipated victory and it made his eyes bright, nearly mirrored gold. His feral alpha manifested behind the civilised facade. I growled, knowing how close he was to a rut, and there would be no rational thought if he went there. “You will not deny me again. Go. Say your goodbyes.”

“You don’t understand!” I snapped aggressively. My gown felt too hot, and I rubbed at my mating gland which itched more than usual.

“Understand you are mine. The sooner you accept this, the better,” his smile nearly killed me, for my heart was breaking.

I shook my head. Anger thrummed in my veins. My thoughts came as an illogical jumble of sexual desire and annoyance that it was the omega who was keeping a clear, logical head, while the alpha went off into a sexual frenzy. I struggled with my hot and cold response to Syon. For the first time, I lost all sense of my argument and allowed my unruly feelings to lead me. “I am not. You are… I cannot believe this. You see me as an object to be collected as you would collect Olivia. Do you intend to marry and breed me? Or will you find some other poor woman to be your broodmare? No. No. I cannot… Let me go,” I leant forward and grabbed the handle to the drawing room. An iron grip prevented my escape. I needed to break free. I’d do anything to have him let me go for both our sakes.

“If you leave this house without me, I will run you down and never let you out of my sight again. I will physically bind you to me,” he snarled. Looking into his eyes, I could see them turning feral, the light reflecting over and over until his eyes glowed mirrored-gold like a predator stalking its prey at night. With every breath, with every inhalation of my own rising scent, the baser instincts of his dynamic began to rule him. If I did not get away, he would tip straight into a feral rut—blind to anything but mating and marking. My heart broke for him. It broke to see him so lost to the part of him that he’d despised in his father. That he hoped to prevent by never mating. I understood now. On a basic, animal level I understood what he wanted to avoid.

“You don’t want to do this, Syon. You don’t want to hurt me,” I purred. “Just wait here…”

“Hartwell,” he growled, but there was a moan of deep and confused need. My damn slick was doing this to him. My own selfish desire to have him for myself. Not as a facsimile of Iris, but as Viola Hartwell. I desired his knot, his bond. All the things I could not have. I wanted to scream but instead, I spoke softly, soothingly. The wildness in him met with my tenderness, my omega power to calm her mate. I dared to think of him as such even if only for the moment.

“You have to let me go, Syon.” I ran a hand through his hair, the golden locks as soft as slick. I cupped his cheek with my free hand and with a ghost-like touch drew him close until our lips brushed.

“You are Syon,” I whispered into our kiss. “You are not going to hurt me. You will control this. You can. You are the best of alphas. The best I’ve ever known.”

My kiss seemed to work, for he released my wrist, and I pushed into the drawing room, closing the door behind me. I could feel my heartbeat in my core which clenched around nothing. Had I kissed Syon? Had I agreed to go back to him? My Goddess, I needed to tell him what I’d done. Before he found out in some other way, I needed to tell him.

I looked up to find Olivia looking at me with concern. We’d come to an uneasy understanding. She was confused and hurt, but I didn’t think she hated me. Rather, we were both embarrassed and unable to explain the breach in our friendship without revealing the cause.

“My dear Viola... You look… Are you alright? Who was that?”

“I... I think... I need a moment,” I assured her. Just a moment and then I would be back with Syon. “He… He is Syon. The duke of Orley, I mean.”

“Oh!” she gasped. “Some tea, perhaps?”

I floated towards the sofa where Olivia sat and reached for her hand, craving my friend’s touch.

“You—“ she took a sharp breath.

My eyes went round. I reeked of slick and alpha. She dropped the teacup and pulled me down. Her lips crashed into mine, her kiss was too sweet and soft compared to Syon’s masterful kisses.

“Stop!” I wriggled away from her as she pawed at my clothes. I didn’t want to hurt her but I needed to get free. “Stop!”

“You—“ her eyes were blown black with desire.

I scrambled back and righted myself. Caroline growled, barely controlling herself. My aunt held her back. If Caroline had been a dog, her hackles would have risen. Knowing she must recognise that some alpha—that Syon!—had been groping at me. I scrambled for the door. Syon would be on the other side. But that seemed the lesser evil when compared to the chaos of Olivia’s needy howls and Caroline barking to be let free.

I ran straight into Iris’s arms. She was white as a sheet, for just behind her stood Syon.

“Iris,” I cried, throwing my arms around my twin. The masquerade was finished, I was exposed. In this time of need, my twin was here.

“I missed you, Vi,” she hugged me close.

“What is the meaning of this?” Syon snarled, crowding us back into the drawing room. The terrible anger in his face made me shudder with genuine fear.

“I came to see my sister, who I heard was visiting with the Countess of Kellingham,” my alpha twin said as if she’d not walked into the lion’s den.

Olivia moaned as Iris and I stood next to each other.

“I’ll be, but the resemblance is uncanny,” Caroline gasped. She stepped forward, her brow wrinkled in confusion. “Tis’ most perplexing. But how am I to know which is which?”

Syon’s growl grew, thankfully masking my own frustrated rumble.

“Very easy,” my aunt said. “My sister-in-law had twins, twin girls. Iris is an alpha. Viola, an omega. As you see before you, Viola’s eyes are violet—my brother was feeling particularly romantic the day they were born. The difference is as clear as day, though otherwise they look remarkably similar.”

“And which are you?” Caroline asked Iris.

“I am Iris. If you wish to know my credentials, I am sure my aunt would be most happy to supply them.”

Silence reigned.

“This is my sister,” Iris looked around the room, catching each person’s eye before shooting me a reassuring grin. “Sister. Omega. Her name is Viola.”

Syon reacted as if he had been slapped. I tried to move to him, to explain. This was not how I had planned the deception to be revealed. I needed to get him away. Explain in private because his eyes were no longer mirrored gold. They were deadly angry.

“She is not the alpha you are looking for, Your Grace,” Iris smirked. I wanted to slap her for daring to provoke the dangerous alpha duke. “Neither am I but for now, I will settle for her freedom from this farce. Come, Viola.”

I’d never seen her so alpha before, but it would not protect her from Syon, whose growl was near loud enough to shatter the windows.

“Prove it,” Caroline said through clenched teeth, causing my head to whip towards her. I wanted to scream. She was intelligent enough… Could it be that impossible to tell the difference when we stood next to each other?

“Syon,” I pleaded. “Syon, say something.”

“Very well,” Iris spoke right over me. “I shall demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt that I am an alpha.”

She shrugged out of her jacket, handing it to me along with her waistcoat and cravat, and only then did she begin to strip off her shirt.

“Iris!” I hissed, horrified by what she was about to do. Everyone watched her with eager eyes now that my sister was halfway nude, her chest bared to the cold air. Her breasts were smaller than mine but it was the port coloured mate stain between her breasts that marked her as an alpha. All the while my eyes were on Syon. Syon at his most closed off and unreadable. Syon whom I could not reach.

“Satisfied? You can check the alpha registry to confirm where my mate stain is,” Iris told the room. “Should Viola also stip down to prove she does not have a mate stain? Or shall I show you my alpha tie? ”

She reached for the fastenings of her breeches. I squeezed my eyes closed, not desiring to see the tie of muscle at the opening of her sex that would prove she was a female alpha. Olivia gasped and her too sweet scent spiked.

“Iris! Put your clothes on!” my aunt snapped. “You’ve caused enough trouble already.”

“Hartwell, follow me,” Syon barked.

“Viola, you don’t need to go with him,” Iris stood in front of me.

Over her shoulder, I saw that Syon’s face was a thundercloud, and didn’t doubt he’d burn the place to the ground if I didn’t follow him.

“I must. I must go with him.”

Our eyes met. Clashed, and everything that had happened came rushing back. Slick gathered between my thighs and a soft whine escaped my lips. He searched my face for something and whatever it was satisfied him. With a vice-like grip on my upper arm, he dragged me down the stairs. I almost tripped on my skirts, but he held me up. I would have cried out because he was leaving bruises, but I was too afraid that his temper would fracture even more.

“My cloak!” I protested as he shouted instruction at his coachman and crowded me into his coach. It smelt of him, and I moaned. In anticipation, in fear. Anticipation fled when he wrapped a hand around my throat just tight enough to remind me that the beast could crush me if it so chose.

“Let me explain,” I tried.

“Explain?” he snarled. His eyes were all mirrored gold. The civilised alpha was gone. In his place was a feral beast who acted on instinct and would resist all reason. “Confess, more like. You betrayed us, our friendship. You betrayed your principles. For what? A joke?”

“No. Not like that.”

“You played this prank. To what end? Did Olivia know? Were you laughing at me? Is the whole world laughing at me? Tell me, Viola,” he sneered my name, and tears leaked from my eyes. If he had shouted it would have been a million times more bearable than his sneering anger.

“No. Let me go. Let me explain. You will never forgive yourself if you hurt me. We will hate each other… Syon. Don’t do this.”

“Why?” he roared. “Why did you come to me?”

“The votes,” I whimpered. His hand around my throat went slack. “I needed your votes for the bill. I approached you as Iris because I knew you would never hear me out if I came as an omega, as myself. But I stayed as your secretary because I loved the work. I’ve never been happier before than when I’m arguing...”

“You lied about who you were. Every day for weeks... Or doesn’t that bother you? All to get a few measly votes? All of it was a lie. Everything we said and did together was a lie.”

“Syon, no! Other than my name and dynamic everything was true. I did not lie about who I was. I am sorry… Whatever you want, I’ll do it.” I’d never meant anything more in my life. So long as he did not look at me like that. So long as I knew he would smile again, even if I would never see him again. I wanted to do whatever I could to make things right.

“You were mine,” he shouted, then more quietly. “You were my truth. But you have shattered that beyond repair.”

“No,” I begged. “I am still your Hartwell, your secretary. Before you said it didn’t matter who I was. Has that changed? I haven’t changed…”

“It didn’t matter. When I thought you were honest with me, nothing would have mattered but having you under me and at my side,” he said with cruel calm. He released me, and I crumpled on the floor of the carriage.

“I tried to tell you,” I sobbed. “I wanted to tell you. But each time… I knew it would be like this, that you would hate me. And I couldn’t have you hating me.”

“Commiserations. I hate you.”

It was worse than if he’d thrown me out the moving carriage, worse than being hit, worse than being ordered from his sight.

“Syon,” I knelt, reaching for him, but knowing any chances I had at mending this were long gone.

“Never speak that name again,” he barked, causing me to flinch away from him. His face blanked and those deadly eyes met mine. “Never come within my sight. Never make a connection with another alpha. Because only then will you begin to understand how I feel… Never… No. I can never allow another alpha to touch you.”

“What?” I did not understand his meaning.

He dragged me into his lap, his hand once again bracketing my throat. He forced my head to the side to expose my mating gland. I began to struggle when I felt his teeth against the fragile skin. He was going to mate mark me against my will. It wouldn’t be a true mate bond because I wasn’t in heat nor was he in rut, but it might leave a scar. Marking me irrevocably as his.

“Please don’t,” I whispered. “This isn’t you.”

“Viola,” he groaned and held me tight, his bite relaxing until he was kissing the unbroken skin. He sat back, looking at me in silence, his face closed off. The carriage rocked to a halt. Then he leant forward and pressed a chaste yet punishing kiss on my lips. “You are mine. You will never be with another alpha. I cannot allow it. That does not change. But I will never mate you.”

“Syon…”

The carriage door opened and he pushed me out into the waiting arms of a footman.

“Do not repudiate me in this fashion!” I cried out, not caring who heard.

“Take her inside,” he said and closed the door.

“No!” I screamed. Inside my omega raged as her alpha left us in the arms of some beta. She was feral and feverish with anger. I felt someone pick me up and carry me inside but before the door closed, my vision clouded and my world went black.

* * *

I came to with Mrs Markham and my aunt hovering over me with a burnt feather and smelling salts.

“He’ll come around,” Mrs Markham tried to reassure me.

“Viola? Child...” My aunt took my face in her hands and kissed my forehead. It was the kindest gesture she’d ever bestowed, and a pathetic sob broke free. “Tell me... My Goddess! What happened in the carriage? We were convinced he’d taken you to Orley House.”

The story came out haltingly as I stumbled over what I could say and what was better left unsaid, but knowing the older omegas would know how to interpret the gaps in my story.

“You’ll make an admirable duchess,” Mrs Markham said with an encouraging smile. “I will give your portrait to your—“

“Please,” I begged. My skin itched hot and uncomfortable. My core empty and aching. “My dear aunt, Mrs Markham. Please do not speak of him. It is over. He thinks the worst of me. I was some golem, created by my hubris. My blind belief that I could...”

“Could be equal to any alpha? And aren’t you? If what you say is correct, you have an alpha who loves you regardless of your dynamic. Surely that is an accomplishment?”

“A farce. If he cared, would he not be here?” I wailed bitterly. “If he loved me as he says... He never even said he loved me! Just that I was his like some object. No, you weren’t there.  Didn’t see his face. His words,” I could not tell them he’d nearly forced a mate mark on me. That had not been him, but something ugly that had possessed my alpha. He’d stopped when I’d told him to. He knew it was wrong and he’d stopped. Part of me wished he had bitten me. That way I would always have something of him with me.

“If you overset his plans, damaged his pride... Surely he must be granted some chance to evaluate his feelings?”

“He... He knows his feelings. He loved the fake Iris,” I cried. “He doesn’t want me. He hates me.”

My aunt, however, did not seem to care. “Stop being so theatrical. That is Polly’s game. Your blood is still hot from being with an alpha in such, ah, heated circumstances. Child, you are feverish. Best go to bed, my dear, and rest. You cannot expect a man as proud as Orley to just stride through the door after this. Are you certain he will not return?”

“Certain,” I mumbled into the handkerchief before blowing my nose. “I’m ugly.”

“Yes. With all those tears you look quite hideous.”

These teasing words did their work, for a small smile tugged at my lips. With a little more gentle coaxing, they decided that I would stay in bed for the rest of the day. I did not have the strength to argue and accepted the arm of a housemaid to half carry me up to my bedchamber.

I stripped my clothes off, throwing them on my bed, and grateful for the cold air on my flushed skin. Then saw for the first time something I should have noticed weeks ago. I was nesting. It was not a small nest either, but one built high with a deep hollow in the middle of it to sleep in.

“Oh, Miss Viola, yes. You’ve been nesting. We have just been bringing you fresh—“ the maid smiled at me.

“For how long?” I asked.

“Oh, two weeks. Maybe three.”

“Thank you.” I was not thankful. Nesting? Impossible, for my heat was not due for months.

She bobbed a curtsy and left me staring at the intricately layered fabrics and pillows. Throughout I could see hints of colour. I shifted closer and bent to sniff the clothing I had placed. All of it held a trace of Syon, and in the middle was my lavender gown that held his scent and my slick. I climbed in, too exhausted to consider the consequences of what building a nest signified, and pulled the fragrant clothes and blankets over me. Buried in my nest, I inhaled the familiar cloves and musk that belonged to my mate. Mate… The word had slick pouring from me. Hoping that it would tempt him to return, even while I knew he was miles away.

The tears came next. Not the same grief I’d felt on my father’s death but loss so profound I could not breathe. No one was responsible for my devastated heart by my own hubris, my arrogance.

The next day, my body ached and my aunt came to tell me that my uncle wished to speak with me. She refused to let me out of my bed, and the conference was awkwardly held as he stood at the door and I huddled in my nest.

“You will end this charade,” my uncle pressed his alpha will on me.

I did not bother to reply. I, more than any, knew that everything was over.

“What? You won’t fight me?”

I bit down on my lip to stop the tears that threatened to fall.

“Leave, Richard,” my aunt pushed him aside. “Viola? My dear? Your mating gland is swollen. Are you expecting your heat? No! Well, you are about to go into heat. Don’t worry, child…”

She sent for a maid who returned with a tray of barley water and broth. Then it was a matter of bringing even more nesting materials and forcing me to eat small meals so that I could keep my strength up for the heat I had not expected.

It was the worst heat of my life. I keened and howled, unable to find the relief I needed. At one point a serving girl entered carrying a parcel of shirts that I ripped from her arms. I brought them to my face and found my body relax, soothed by the smell of my alpha mate. The one who should be my mate. They soon became lost amongst the linens of my nest as I writhed in agony at my loss.

My hands were inadequate to the task, and I used the large wooden dildo I had brought with me from home. In my past heats, it had helped with my need for a stretch but now I whimpered knowing that somewhere slept the alpha who would be able to stretch me more, better than some toy. But I knew that only Syon’s knot would soothe my omega needs.

On the third day, my heat broke. I lay in my nest weak and delirious, stinking of sweat and slick and sex. My aunt sat with me, bringing tea loaded with sugar in the mornings and bitter beer in the evening. It took some time before I was strong enough to leave my bed for a bath, and as I soaked in the steaming water, my muscles began to loosen as did my control of my emotions. I could not speak my anguish but I could cry, so I did.

“It was not a proper heat,” my aunt said with a sideways glance at Mrs Markham, who had come at her request.

“What?” I asked. “I think it was real enough.”

“You had a false heat, which is why it was so... Difficult and short. Only three days?”

“False heat? I’ve never heard of that,” I pressed a hand to my still feverish forehead.

“Lord save me from omegas who are raised only by alphas!” My aunt threw her hands in the air. “My dear niece, did you get no instruction on your heat?”

I tried to remember. “I read books and of course I have had a heat a year since I was sixteen. My father died barely a month after my first heat.”

The two older omegas looked at each other.

“But your sisters never spoke to you about a false heat? Flash heats?” Mrs Markham sat forward in her chair. She pressed her lips together and took a breath as if preparing to petition the king. “A flash heat happens on the cusp of your first heat with the alpha you mean to mate. It is to ensure the alpha will stay by you until the real heat comes. You would have had a real heat if your alpha had remained close, but now your body is in limbo waiting for him to return. You will be weak and irritable until an alpha can help you through your heat.”

“A mate heat?” I asked. “That is a fairytale. True mates are a fairytale.”

“Oh, that is true enough, but if an alpha and omega have been exposed to each other for a very long time, bonds are formed. For both of them. Especially if they have been spending months together on a daily basis. The alpha’s bite is merely the final culmination. If... if you have been exposed to an alpha… Known his seed.”

I blushed remember all that had happened between us.

“That duke!” My aunt spat. “I knew it was a mistake to let you spend so much time around that alpha. I warned your uncle. But no. Alphas must always be correct. He said you seemed to handle it just fine. Fool.”

I found a distressed laugh bubble to the surface.

“I suppose your uncle will need to approach him…”

“No! Please. We do not know if it is a false heat. Perhaps it was just... it is my first not at home. It was an unfamiliar nest. No. I cannot... He hates me!”

“Hush, child,” Mrs Markham purred. “Sleep.”

* * *

My days were a strange blur of sleeping, fucking myself to unsatisfying climaxes with a rotation of dildos. When I was lucid, there were snatches of conversation that I tried to pay attention to.

“If you do not come to terms with the duke—“ my aunt looked grim.

“How... how can I...” my voice so quiet it was a marvel she heard me.

“If you cannot come to terms with him, we must find you an alpha, a mate. As quickly as possible, otherwise your heat could be set off...”

“I am sure it is not so urgent,” Mrs Markham tried to soothe my aunt’s agitation.

“I do not want her... to be compromised as she might be... for we do not know who might have seen her... Best to find her a safe haven quick. The doctor is worried.”

“My dear...”

“We will have her take a strong dose of suppressants so that she doesn’t start a riot. Viscountess Gale has an alpha son. It would be a good marriage and mating for her. He is interested in politics, well-travelled.”

“And the duke?” Mrs Markham asked.

“He hasn’t returned…”

I muffled my tears in the shirts that no longer carried his scent.

At last, I felt like myself again. Inside my head was a jumble of thoughts. Still, I forced myself from my nest to the small desk. Someone had tidied it, but I easily found paper and pen and ink. My letter to him was incoherent, but I did my best to explain the whole story. From the moment I had arrived in London last August all the way through my false heat. I addressed it to him, hoping that when it arrived in Ayleigh he would read it and perhaps understand.