The Omega Prize (The Legion Omegas Book 1)

4. Brie

T

he night passed in a blur of noise, light, and sweating bodies. Somehow, she made it through, though she hardly remembered any of it.

The next morning, Brie woke and grabbed her glass of water and pill bottle as usual. Stopping, she stared into her cupped palm. It was so ingrained to take it every morning as soon as she woke up, that she hadn't even thought before she almost did it. She had never missed a dose; it was too important for her to ever forget.

Sitting the bottle back in its place, she set a reminder on her wristband to make sure she wouldn't forget it before her shift. Brie wished she could just crawl back in bed and sleep the day away, but she decided to do her shopping now and stock up instead.

Just in case she was trapped in her rooms for a while when the pills wore off, she wanted to have supplies ready. Leaving her room for anything would become dangerous once she could no longer hide that she was an omega.

After throwing on a simple dark blue dress and pulling her hair back into a ponytail, Brie left her rooms and headed to the Market Deck a few floors below. There were stores there, and open stalls where anyone could sell their goods. The wares in the stalls, as well as the sellers, changed regularly, while the stores stayed the same.

Brie realized her mistake in deciding to go shopping when she stepped out of the stairway and saw how crowded the market was. Usually she reserved her shopping trips for specific times, when the market was less crowded, and she could count on getting better deals because the shopkeepers just wanted to make a sale.

Heaving a sigh, she headed towards her usual stores. The market was laid out predictably, with the nicer, more expensive shops close to the main lifts in the center of the station, and the shadier, more questionable stores against the station walls where there would be less traffic.

Brie preferred to use the stairs instead of the lifts since they were less crowded, usually faster than waiting for the lift, and they came out in the middle of the deck where shops within her price range were.

As she left her final store, Brie regretted the shopping trip even more. She had never been able to save up enough for a handcart, a small motorized pallet with sides used to transport goods, so she was forced to carry all of her purchases. After buying the supplies she could afford so she wouldn't need to return for two weeks, her arms were loaded, and she could barely maneuver through the press of bodies along the walkways.

Hot and irritable, she decided that using the lifts would be better than hauling everything up the stairs she usually used, even if it meant walking farther to her rooms. Brie could barely move her legs forward with everything she carried and doubted she could lift her knee high enough to even take a single step up.

She was in sight of the lifts and ready to heave a sigh of relief, when someone slammed into her right arm. Spinning her to the left, she pitched forward into the back of the person standing outside the shop she had just passed.

Brie barely had time to register the markings on the broad back that her face had smashed against, and the wonderful spicy male scent of his skin, before the person that back belonged to let out a ferocious growl and spun around, grabbing her by her upper arm.

Brie let out an involuntary squeak at the pressure of his grip, but the bare, muscular chest distracted her. The growl trailed off as her eyes worked their way up from the defined muscles of his chest and shoulders, covered only by the straps of some kind of harness, over his strong jaw and delicious looking lips, to the violet eyes of the Alpha before her.

He was unquestionably an Alpha.

At first glance he could have passed for a human with tattoos covering his torso and arms, but as the markings changed colors, she noticed his talons and extended canines. Realizing she had landed against a Nargarian, known to be a warrior race, Brie attempted to back away.

His skin was what they would consider a deep tan on a human, though with a slight red tint and a little rough to the touch. What looked like tribal tattoos covered what she could see of his upper body along with some obvious scars.

His hair was so dark it looked black, but where the light hit it, shone purple. Hanging below his shoulders, some of it in was braided, with beads and charms woven through.

The Alpha was easily six and a half foot tall, and broad enough that Brie felt dwarfed before him as he glowered down at her. He reminded her of some dark colored, wild Viking from Earth's history.

The Alpha leaned forward and sniffed at the air just above her head, his talons and canines retracting though he still hadn't let her go. The color of his markings fluctuated again as his pupils dilated, and a barely audible growl began to rumble from his chest again.

"S-sorry," Brie stammered as she shook off the daze she had fallen into and broke eye contact with him.

She tried to pull her arm from his grasp without dropping any of her bags or falling again.

Frowning down at her, he seemed to realize he was still holding her arms. Shaking his head, his markings settled back to a solid black as he straightened and let her go.

Before he could open his mouth to say anything, Brie darted to the lift, thankful the doors were already open, and it wasn't too crowded for her to fit with her bags. As she turned around, she was caught once again in his violet gaze until the doors closed, blocking her view. For some reason, she felt disappointed even as the tension in her body fell away.