AllFreeNovel
Share Us
4
Lincoln
I automatically blank out my emotions. This situation just ratcheted up to worst-case scenario, and I need to be thinking like the special operative I’m training to be. I can feel Leo practically vibrating next to me, but I can’t afford to think about him right now. I can’t afford to think about this like it’s my packmate’s sister being held in that house; like it’s his sister whose body gets strapped into the numerous shackles I can see spread out across the yard. They loom like an army of horrific, spindly ghosts peering back at us from the gloom. I can just about make out the chains and what looks like a set of cuffs and a collar attached to each pole.
This place is a prison, and I need to mount a prison break—stat.
My training kicks in and I start to move. Step one is putting on all my gear, already set to go in the seat right behind me. Step two is calling in backup. I may be a young, hardheaded alpha, but I’m trained to know what I can handle and what I can’t. I grab my phone and dial in to my command unit.
“This is Masters. I’m up in southern Wyoming on scene of a possible 10-33. Requesting immediate backup. Oh, and one civilian with me, family ties to the likely compound. Be advised.”
I’m on the phone for a few minutes, providing my coordinates and an assessment of the situation. I know a team will be dispatched to our location ASAP, but in the meantime I need advice on how to proceed. As I wait for the intake operator to wake up my commander and get him on the phone, I turn to Leo.
“You with me, man?” I ask, giving him an assessing once-over. He looks like he’s holding himself together, and when he gives me a nod, I decide that’s good enough for me. “My team will be here soon, but in the meantime we’re gonna have to do this right.”
I fish a recorder out of my gear bag, setting it between us and hitting play.
“This is Lincoln Masters, on scene at the site of a presumed extremist compound of BFOS. The time is 2:04 a.m. on September 14, 2007.”
I proceed to rattle off a bunch of other details and then instruct Leo to start taking pictures of everything he can see from the car. Thank goodness I’m always prepared and had my night vision camera ready to go.
Just two minutes pass before I hear my commander’s voice coming through the phone resting in my lap. “What in the Gods-damn hell have you gotten yourself into, Masters?!”
“Commander Willis ...”
“You’re in some deep shit, son,” he growls, and even through the phone line I feel my muscles tensing from the dominance in his voice.
“I know, sir. And I need you to bail me out.”
* * *
Backup will be at leastan hour out—impressive considering the two-and-a-half-hour drive it took Leo and I to get here. I’m relieved my commander isn’t making me wait in the car for the others to arrive, as I don’t think my nerves can take it. I toy briefly with the idea of handcuffing Leo to his door to ensure he won’t do anything stupid, but in the end I decide that would be more of a liability.
I make quick work of the security fence with the help of one of the tech guys back at the base. It’s far from military-grade, but the very existence of such a security system surrounding a supposedly ordinary home is a red flag. Combined with the chains, Leo’s concerns about his sister, and the connection to BFOS, my gut tells me I’m about to enter a home connected to the omega trafficking trade.
There have always been bad people doing bad things in society, but organized omega trafficking is a fairly new brand of evil. At least according to the American military. Biology is a truly fascinating force of nature, and in the case of omegas, their designation apparently evolved to protect them from being forced into packs against their will. But the cost is high. It’s well known that omegas tend to be highly sensitive, feeling and responding to emotions more deeply than your average beta or alpha. And once omega rights took hold, allowing omegas to control their own lives and choose their own mates, their biology quickly followed.
It’s the very definition of a beautiful tragedy if you ask me.
Now, if omegas experience sexual trauma, such as being bought or kidnapped and raped by one or more alphas, their minds and bodies will be in so much distress they’ll lose the will to live and soon pass away. I still remember the anger and sorrow etched on my mom’s face when she explained all this to me as a young teen, my fathers’ faces ashen at her side. An omega herself, my mother made it a point to give me and my siblings an unabridged account of our history. Alphas, and even some betas, continued trying to overcome this biological quirk for several years, but eventually it seemed most gave up. As disgusting as it is to think about, it was a waste for them to invest the time and money into purchasing a trafficked omega if she or he was simply going to die.
Of course, evil always finds a way.
One of the units at the River Valley military base specializes in omega rights protection and enforcement. I learned from my work with them that at least one organized crime group discovered a work-around to the “distress equals death” issue. If an omega is in heat, the trauma of assault is reduced to the point the omega will survive. Of course, omegas only go into heat if they feel safe. And usually, they only go into heat once they’ve found a pack.
Again, biology at its best.
That should be enough to protect them, but some truly despicable scum of the earth apparently found a way to brainwash captive omegas to the point of bringing on their heat. Just a few months ago I was being briefed on a recent case where a raid on a branch of the Alphas First group unearthed evidence of a brainwashing operation. It’s not a widespread practice, from what the military has gathered so far, but I fear whatever I find in this house may be along the same lines.
Leo’s dad is a beta though. It’s unfortunately not unusual to find betas working with alphas on these sorts of things, but the name of the group seems to suggest the mission is beta-driven. Could it be possible that BFOS is capturing and brainwashing omegas to sell off to other betas? Are they trying to form beta-only packs? Or perhaps the group’s name is misleading, and the betas are working on behalf of alphas.
I step on a small branch, the crunching sound making me freeze in place halfway to the side of the house.
Focus, Lincoln.
Now’s not the time to be puzzling over the why of the situation. Right now, my only job is to locate Leo’s sister and secure her.Esperanza, I remind myself. Or “Espy,” as Leo apparently calls her. I know basically nothing about the girl aside from the basic physical description Leo gave me—short, dark brown hair, young—and I presume she shares Leo’s warm, sun-kissed skin tone. Hopefully, I’ll be finding out in just a few minutes.
I keep moving after ensuring I didn’t disturb anything with my misstep. I’m at the side of the house a few seconds later. A quick inspection tells me that entering through a window is the best course of action; the door looks more high-tech than the windows do, and without someone from the base guiding me through the steps to disable the lock I don’t trust myself not to set off some sort of alarm and wake Leo’s father.
