Page 127 of Scent to the Feral Cowboys

“Actually, it said everything was proprietary. That Omegas agree to the program because finding their scent-matches is a biological imperative…” his voice trailed off, because he knew he was shoveling horse shit.

“Yeah, well, guess it’s my fault then. I should have read my employment contract better. Should have checked the medical release for fine print. Should have. Would have. Didn’t.” I shoved the gooseberry in my mouth and… the damn thing lodged in my throat. I slammed my chest with my fist twice,unable to breathe. My eyes began to water, the world swimming as I fought to expel the fruit.

The Alphas stood, ready to aid me. But Cooper rushed forward, getting to me first. His large hand smacked my back firmly. The gooseberry dislodged, shooting across the table like a small, red cannonball. This time, the fruit hit Levi’s chest, leaving a stain. He didn’t acknowledge the impact, his face worried and focused on me.

"Are you okay?" Cooper asked, his breathing fast and anxious. His hand still rested between my shoulder blades, the weight of it comforting. The bakery smell of his body swirled around me. The touch was too much. It made my entire body start humming with need. I swiped away the moisture in my eyes and stood up, making his hand drop away from my body.

“I’m okay,” I breathed out, pressing one palm over my heart, willing it to slow its rapid beating. “Death by berry. That would have been a fitting end. See,” I looked at all of them in turn, “I can’t even eat without nearly dying. Some world class, high dollar Omega I am.”

They didn’t argue. Maybe they were finally seeing the truth.

I was too flawed and incompetent for their lifestyle.

Now that the excitement of my near-death experience was over, I looked at Levi again. “Sorry about your shirt, Levi. I guess pegging one Alpha with a berry bullet wasn’t enough for me.”

As if in slow motion, Levi looked down at his shirt. He pulled the material away from his chest, examining the new blemish added to the Rorschach ink blots. “Few more mishaps, and I’ll have an interesting tie dye,” he responded. His lavender eyes crinkled at the edges when he glanced back up at me.

“So…” I started, the word trailing into nothingness. “If the contract you guys signed didn’t clearly explain Eros’s method, and technically I gave my consent, then what does that mean? Can you just let me go?” I paused, but before any of them couldfill the brief void, I continued. “When they processed me as a product, they said there were nondisclosures, legal protections, and every ‘cover their company’s ass’ option woven into the contracts. Because of the way I’d hidden my Omega status, they even threatened me with jail time.”

“Jail time?” Boone looked confused, “You can go to jail for hiding you’re an Omega?”

I offered him a tired, weak smile. “I didn’t just hide my secondary gender. I pretended to be a Beta so I could work someplace that wasn’t supposed to hire Omegas. So, when we get right down to the nitty gritty of it all,” I sighed, “Ididsign the contract. And Ididbreak federal regulations and put my employer at risk.”

“But it’s bullshit,” Wyatt growled, “Upstanding companies don’t hide in the fine print. They don’t entrap people like that. We need to make sure they don’t do it again.”

“How? The way they made it sound, before they stuck a needle in my neck and I woke up on a plane, was that they’ve got the power. The law’s on their side.”

Cooper moved over to the island and hopped up to sit on it. He looked like a kid when he started swinging his legs a little. “She’s right,” He began, “And I sort of suspected Eros wasn’t that upstanding. I had my estate guy look over the original contract before I e-signed all our signatures. A big section of it ensured we wouldn’t disclose Eros details to the public, and we waived the right to sue. There’s pretty much no recourse. I knew the paperwork was riddled with red flags, but I really thought they meant actual consent, guys, not coerced.”

“Riddled with red flags,” I repeated quietly. “And you just ignored them because you wanted an Omega so badly.”

My tone wasn’t accusing. No one could change the past. We couldn’t all un-sign our names. I think, for me, I just needed to trust that these men didn’t intentionally participate in humantrafficking. That they’d, at worst, chosen to wear blinders and embrace ignorance as bliss.

“It wasn’t justwant,” Wyatt said slowly, his voice gruff with emotion, “It wasneed. We needed an Omega. Even when we tried not to, we fucking needed an Omega.”

He was the leader here, so confident and charismatic. Yet right now he sounded and looked as if he’d been carrying the weight of the universe for an unbearable length of time.

And finally…

Now…

When relief was at his door…

He let himself fracture into pieces.

Their collective cologne turned bitter, coffee left on the burner too long. Their faces betrayed a battle raging inside each of them, buried beneath their skin and flesh and bone. To the marrow. The struggle was such a part of them that it couldn’t be exorcised without outside aid.

And I could be the answer.

I could be the cure.

I could call out their disease like a Pied Piper, master of one singular tune perfectly honed to eradicate their ferality.

But only if I stayed.

Only if I allowed myself to forget the truth of my arrival, and how this pack was poisoned from the start. Was an antidote possible? Could I give in to my Omega yearning and just let these Alphas have me?

Boone’s voice cut into my spiraling. And I was grateful, because I was shifting dangerously close to just saying, ‘fuck it, I’ll try to be yours’.