Page 1 of Follow Your Instincts (Fairview City Omegaverse)

Maggie

I forced myself up and out of bed with a groan.

My apartment was blissfully dark thanks to the blackout curtains I’d invested in when I moved in.

They were meant to block the creeps that would peep into the window from the rooftop next door, just as much as the sun.

Kira hated that I lived in such a shithole, but if it meant no roommate I would deal with just about anything.

My morning stretches did nothing to loosen the heavy aches in my joints or dislodge the icepick ramming into my skull. I dressed without turning on the lights and was out the door before I could talk myself into foregoing my morning run.

A twinge of anxiety took me by surprise. Everything felt too big, too wide. I immediately wanted to creep back into my dark studio apartment and crawl under the covers. I backed up until I hit the side of my building. My breath was coming too fast, and I hadn’t even started running yet.

“You okay, Maggie?” Someone touched me on the shoulder, and I jolted.

“Oh god,” I gasped. “You scared me.” It was Mr. Cristiano, the owner of the bodega.

We were friendly. He liked having a cop nearby in case anything kicked off.

He was an older Alpha, late fifties, and built like an old-timey boxer.

He and his wife, a lovely Beta that insisted I call her Rita instead of Mrs. Cristiano, lived above the bodega and acted as de facto leaders of the block.

I liked him usually, but right now I wanted to scrub off my skin where he’d touched me.

I caught a whiff of his normally innocuous butter toffee scent, and my stomach turned.

“Sorry, yeah, I’m fine,” I said, after too long a pause while Mr. Cristiano just looked at me with concern. “I need to get rid of some of this pent-up energy, I guess.” I shook out my arms and hopped back and forth to warm up.

“Sounds good,” he said and laughed. “You don’t wanna be this jumpy on the job, right?”

I gave him a tense smile and shoved my headphones in before taking off in a jog.

Running was usually the best part of my day.

I could clear my head before work and daydream about the future when I’d finally be out of the damn uniform and working real cases.

But today my music was too loud, and I felt like there was a threat lurking just over my shoulder.

I kept checking behind me, but there was no one following me.

I tried to shake it off, but my head kept pounding and my legs felt like jelly.

The three miles felt like ten. I powered through on sheer power of will and returned to my building feeling like a wrung-out sponge .

Even though I always went to the station in civvies, everyone in the neighborhood somehow knew I was a cop as soon as I moved in two years ago. I’d asked Mr. Cristiano, and he just shrugged and said, “It’s a posture thing.”

I showered and dressed, packed up my uniform, and chugged straight from the jug of cold brew I kept in the fridge.

I couldn’t face the thought of riding the train feeling like this.

Just this once , I thought as I booked a car on my phone.

Maybe a quick nap in the car, and I’d wake up without this horrible hangover feeling.

The morning briefing was a nightmare.

“Good morning, everyone,” Captain Harcourt said as we gathered in the briefing room at 8:30.

It was a fluorescent lit hell. The detectives got to sit at the rickety tables while the rest of us in uniform circled at the back of the room.

The whole station had the same aging, stained white tiles and gray walls.

Usually, being in a room with this many people was no problem. But the mixture of scents was killing me. I couldn’t distinguish any specific notes, it was just a miasma of sweet, spicy, and musky that was making my migraine worse.

Fuck, am I pregnant? I thought.

Relief immediately followed. To be pregnant, you had to have sex, and god knows that hadn’t happened in a while.

I tuned back into Captain Harcourt. She was an Alpha, about six feet tall and broad-shouldered with brown hair pulled into a tight bun that showed streaks of gray at her temples.

Even as an Alpha, making it to Captain as a woman was pretty inspiring to me and the other three female officers at the station.

“Murray, Jacobs. Good work on closing that B&E,” she said, turning her attention to two detectives sitting near the front. “Less than 48 hours, right?”

“Less than 36, actually,” Jacobs replied with a smirk. Detective Jacobs was also an Alpha, and a smug asshole.

Detective Murray just nodded. “Thanks, Captain.”

He didn’t know it, but Detective Murray was kind of my idol.

He was one of only two Beta detectives in the precinct and gave me hope that I could get there one day, too.

He was older than I, and a man which probably helped, but still.

He wasn’t sprawled at the table like Jacobs, who was ostentatiously manspreading, but sitting tall with both feet firmly planted on the ground.

Maybe Mr. Cristiano was right about the cop posture thing.

“Officers, we’re switching up assignments a bit. Make sure you pick yours up before you head out,” Captain Harcourt said. “Dismissed.”

I tried to breathe as little as possible as the rest of the uniformed officers clustered around a table in the back corner of the room with our beat assignments.

I snagged a copy and started out the door.

I’d been assigned to Kellen Commons for the week, one of the wealthier parts of the city.

I sighed in relief and thought about the nice cafe I’d stop at for lunch.

Maybe today could be salvageable after all.

“Oh, of course, the bitch gets off easy,” Phillips said behind me. We’d filtered out into the bullpen, and everyone was starting to disperse, except the idiot who had self-appointed as my mortal enemy.

“Please shut the fuck up, Todd,” I said, bored, and turned to face him.

Todd Phillips was the worst kind of cop: arrogant, aggressive, and dumb as hell.

He was also an Alpha, so he’d probably be promoted before me regardless of his idiocy.

His noxious sweet orange and clove scent was somehow stronger than normal, and it set my stomach roiling.

“You’re not going to get a rise out of me. ”

He stepped into my space. “Well, you’re certainly not getting anything to rise for me either,” he said in a nasty whisper. He was a few inches taller than my 5’10,” but I’d dealt with worse intimidation tactics.

I simply stepped back, refusing to engage. “Have a wonderful day in the Glen,” I said sweetly and turned to leave. Our precinct straddled two vastly different neighborhoods, and Eastwood Glen was by far the more dangerous assignment .

Phillips didn’t respond. Alpha or not, he was a fucking coward.

“All units, be advised. 10-65 in progress, armed robbery at Heitzig Diamonds at the corner of Commonwealth and 15th. Suspect is a white male, Beta, 5’11” and roughly 170 lbs. Responding units acknowledge.”

There goes my relaxing day at work . I threw the remnants of my coffee in the nearest bin.

I was only a few blocks away. “Copy. Unit 114 responding on foot, ETA 2 mins. Over,” I said into my radio as I took off running towards the jewelry store.

This is what you get for being a dick to Todd. Karma, bitch .

As I rounded the corner onto 15th, I could hear the alarm blaring from Heitzig Diamonds and saw the usual crowd of people that always gathered after a crime. The front door was busted, and glass littered the sidewalk. The perp was obviously gone, but I could start to secure the scene.

Another uniform, Fraser, arrived panting. He nodded at me, acknowledging I was the first to arrive and could have dibs on starting the witness interviews rather than keeping the crowd at bay. At least not all my colleagues were sexist assholes.

I stepped through the broken front door into the store. The alarm was still blaring, and my headache, which had temporarily abated in the cool autumn breeze while I strolled around my cushy patrol, came roaring back.

“Oh, thank god,” the woman behind the counter yelled above the screeching. She was slumped on the ground, white and shaken.

“Are you injured, ma’am?” I yelled back.

“What?” She screamed.

“Sorry, could you turn off the alarm?”

The woman crawled over and depressed a button on the underside of the counter, and the alarm cut off abruptly.

“Thanks,” I said and moved closer to her. “Are you injured?”

“I’m fine... Well, not really, but I’m not injured at least,” she said and pulled herself up using the busted jewelry display .

“What happened?” I asked. I wanted to get her talking as soon as possible before she forgot any important details.

She was in her early twenties, blonde, and had a pleasant, floral scent.

A Beta. According to some very depressing statistics, any crime with a Beta victim was less likely to be solved than if she were an Alpha or Omega, even though Betas were the majority of the population.

Although if she were an Omega, she probably wouldn’t be allowed to run a store by herself if her Alpha’s had anything to say about it.

“You always think this only happens in the movies,” she said and crossed her arms tightly across her chest. “A guy came in with a gun and a mask, screamed at me to get down, then busted the cases open.” She looked dazed. “Did that really just happen?”

“I think you’re in shock,” I said and stepped closer to the counter. “Why don’t you come out here and sit down. EMS will be here soon, and they can help, too.”